'Nimmerlichtern' is a cooperative board game for up to 4 players, throwing roleplay, area-control and fortress building mechanics into the mix. Each player takes over one kid out of a ragtag group of survivors and enters the world of a stodgy 90s suburb - where kids' dreams quite literally become reality. The goal is to fight back the monsters borne from the children's own subconsciousness, before the horde of evil dreams swallows the town completely.

To make matters worse, each kid is haunted by their very own primal fear, drafted randomly at the games' beginning out of a pool of six: The fears of loneliness, illness, pain, darkness, deceipt and decay. Starting as mere forebodings, these Grand Nightmares grow stronger and gain abilities at the end of each round, the pace heavily depends on the decisions of the players. At some point the primal fears manifest themselves and enter the game board to lead their minions against the last remaining refuge: the childrens' headquarters in the attic of an empty house. A game is lost once a Grand Nightmare and its pack reaches the headquarters and the subsequent battle is lost by the players.

To avoid that outcome, the players must use their rounds – each representing a day, from dawn to dusk - to break the curse cast upon their formerly cozy town. Gather resources, build weapons, craft fortifications and barricades and banish the monsters back to the realm of nightmares where they belong.

But foremost, they've got to learn to harness the force of dreams to their advantage: At the beginning of each round –in the morning – every player draws a card from their unique deck of dream cards, containing good dreams, bad dreams, dreams that affect the game board itself and also continuous dreams that can be collected in order to unleash unparalleled powers. Dream diaries, night time seances, REM manipulators and other bizarre objects can be used to get the decks under control – to a point, because, if Nimmerlichtern teaches you one thing, it's that the force of dreams is something to be reckoned with.

So be careful what you wish for: Your dreams just might come true.

—description from the publisher

Games