Ainmos

How to Play

One Dreamer, one night. Build the dream, walk it, meet what waits, and wake up.

Wake up: Acquire Archetypes

Daydream3 Archetypes3 Cycles
Nap6 Archetypes7 Cycles
Deep Sleepall 1215 Cycles

1The shape of a night

Night3 · 7 · 15 Cycles
Cycle3 Dreams = 9 phases
DreamReveal · Explore · Meet
A Dream card: Quiet
Dream 1 · phases 1–3
A Dream

A Dream card is drawn. Every Dream hurts: endure its effect, then play your phases.

1Reveal2Explore3Meet
The Winged Turtle, the first Dreambeast
Dream 2 · phases 4–6
A Dreambeast lands

The Cycle's Dreambeast lands on a Landscape of its suit. It chases you and bleeds you every dusk until beaten.

4Reveal5Explore6Meet
An Archetype card
Dream 3 · phases 7–9
An Archetype stirs

Choose 1 of 3 Archetypes. It appears on its home Landscape. Reach it and Meet it to Acquire it.

7Reveal8Explore9Meet
Dawn Draw 4 Psyche. A stronger Cycle begins. ↻ back to Dream 1

2Every phase: your stat is free Actions

Your Dreamer's three stats are your free Actions in their phase, every Dream. Lucidity → Reveal, Elasticity → Explore, Willpower → Meet.

Revealphases 1 · 4 · 7
Free Actions = Lucidity
  • Each Action places 1 Landscape from the Vault beside the dream.
  • ★ marks the home of an Archetype you may call.
Explorephases 2 · 5 · 8
Free Actions = Elasticity
  • First, every Dreambeast chases you 1 step.
  • Each Action is 1 step to a next-door Landscape.
Meetphases 3 · 6 · 9
Free Actions = Willpower
  • Each Action: fight a Dreambeast, Meet an Archetype, use a Landscape action, or tap an Object.
  • As Meet ends, Archetypes slip 1 Landscape away.

Want more Actions?

Spend 1 Psyche of the phase's suit: + its value. Free Actions are used first. Paid-for Actions you leave unused become Glimmer ✧, which pays in the Lost & Found.
The Rested

Example: The Rested

Lucidity 2 · Elasticity 1 · Willpower 0
Places 2 Landscapes and walks 1 step for free. To fight, spend a Willpower card: a 3 gives 3 Meet Actions. Its Power (1 Power Token, in Reveal): each Landscape placed draws 1 Psyche.

3Fight: the dice battle

1 · Play a Spread1 to 3 Psyche cards, any suit. It costs 1 Meet Action.
2 · Count your PowerCard values + your stat if a card matches the beast's suit + every Dream Form the spread makes.
3 · RollYou both roll your Power in d6. Each 5 or 6 is a hit. More hits wins; ties go to you.
4 · ResultWin: Accept it: take 2 Power Tokens, an Object of its suit, or a missing Set piece. Lose: the cards are spent; it stays.
Echo2 of one value
Ladder3 in a row
Chord3 of one suit
Trinity1 of each suit
Trifecta3 of a kind
Unitythree 1s
  • Dream Forms add dice when your Spread makes the pattern, and they stack: 1-2-3 in three suits is a Ladder and a Trinity. Level them up in the Lost & Found.
  • A Dreambeast's Power is its printed Power + the Cycle. Each one wards one Form (that Form loses 1–5 dice against it).
  • Aim for the beast's Power + 2: you win about 3 times in 4.
Winged Turtle

Example: Cycle 1, the Winged Turtle

A Willpower beast, Power 3 + Cycle 1 = 4. You play a Willpower 2 and a Lucidity 2 (an Echo) with Willpower 1: 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 for the Echo = 6 dice against its 4.

4Archetypes

The only goal. Collect enough and you wake.

  • Meeting one costs 1 Meet Action on its Landscape.
  • It opens with an Event: Bright costs Psyche you pick, one small help per point paid; Dim is free and hurts.
  • Then a Spread that makes a Dream Form against Power 12.
  • Win: Acquire it: +1 Archetype, +1 Power Token, and its power is yours.

5Psyche is life

Your hand is your health, your coin, and your dice.

  • Start with 6. Draw 3 as each round begins and 4 more at dawn.
  • At dusk, each Dreambeast still standing Represses 1 Psyche from the Waking Mind (your draw deck) to the Subconscious.
  • Return brings Psyche back. If the Waking Mind empties, you never wake.

6Objects & Sets

The Lost & Found opens after every Dream.

  • 3 Objects and 1 Insight (a Form level or upgrade). Pay with Psyche value; Glimmer ✧ pays first.
  • Finish a Set (Body 5 · Elements 4 · Jewelry 3 · Sticks 3) to Acquire an Archetype.
  • Started a Set? The shop shows a missing piece, a beaten beast can pay one, and The One Mimics one.

7Death & Power Tokens

You die… and wake back up on The Bed.

  • No Psyche left? You die: lose your Objects, redraw a hand of 6. Keep tokens, Forms and Archetypes. The 6th death ends the night.
  • Power Tokens: start with 2, hold up to 6. Each one activates a power: your Dreamer's, or an Acquired Archetype's. Each Dreamer has one Power for the phase of its best stat; no passives.