“The Silver Key” and “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” are two of my favorite stories by H.P. Lovecraft. I love the bizarre fantasy of the Dreamlands, where an army of cats clashes with hungry zoogs and divine secrets are hidden on the distant face of Mount Ngranek. However, “The Dream-Quest” is a very different sort of story from “The Dunwich Horror” or “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” When I designed Cthulhu Gloom I decided to focus on stories set in the waking world, in part for the benefit of people with less familiarity with the Mythos. It’s hard enough getting a handle on doom-shrouded Innsmouth, mi-go, and shoggoths without having to figure out what Celephais is supposed to be. But I always knew that I wanted to created an expansion devoted to the Dreamlands… and the result is Unpleasant Dreams, which hits shelves this week!
WHAT’S NEW?
Unpleasant Dreams is a 55-card expansion. It includes a new family of Dreamland natives, which includes a few familiar faces – such as your ghoul Friday, Richard Pickman – a few new characters, like Zoobee the Zoog (pictured above). It adds three new stories, which I’ll discuss in more detail later this week. New transformation modifiers give you the opportunity to Saddle a Shantak, to be Grabbed by (Night)Gaunts, and more… can you control your shantak, or will it carry you off to another family? While many of the cards relate to the Dreamlands, “Dreams in the Witch-House” also has a strong showing, and Herbert West finally has a chance to Cut Down on Classwork and Collect Corpses.
While Unpleasant Dreams doesn’t add any entirely new mechanics, there are a few twists on old cards. Typically, an Untimely Death provides you with additional negative points if you have the story icon that fits the death. In Unpleasant Dreams, many deaths provide special ongoing benefits if you can make the stories line up. Dying in bed is normally a bad thing… but if you have the Dream icon you may go on to become a king in the Dreamlands, and as a result your draw limit is increased by one. Unpleasant Dreams also brings in one of my favorite expansion rules: Guests.
GUEST STARS
The Gloom expansion Unwelcome Guests introduced a new type of card: the Guest. When Guests are used, one or two are placed in the center of the table at the start of the game. While they are alive, they move between families whenever certain conditions are met. As long as a guest is in front of you, it is considered a member of your family and you gain any benefits it may provide. Unpleasant Dreams includes two Guests: Brown Jenkin and Ephraim Waite.
Brown Jenkin appears in the story “Dreams in the Witch-House.” The one-time familiar of the eponymous witch, he is a murderous little creature that can be encountered both in dreams and reality. In Unpleasant Dreams he follows the new Dream icon; whenever someone has a dream, Brown Jenkin shows up to haunt them. He carries an additional power: while he is part of your family, you may play an Untimely Death on a character with the Magic icon as the second play of your turn. It’s dangerous to dabble in the dark arts when Brown Jenkin is around!
Ephraim Waite appears in “The Thing on the Doorstep.” A sorcerer with a talent for transferring his mind into other peoples’ bodies, he is difficult to kill. In Unpleasant Dreams he follows Deaths; meanwhile, he himself cannot be killed unless he has a Magic icon showing. Just when you think you’ve gotten away with a clean kill, you find Ephraim is still hanging around… and finishing him off will take some work!
While I’m discussing guests, I’d like to clarify one thing. The special powers of a Guest – including following deaths or dreams – are persistent effects. If a Transformation is placed on a Guest, it will override its previous persistent effects. So if Ephraim Waite Triumphs In Tenure, he’ll stop following deaths and can be killed even if he lacks Magic.
Later in the week I’ll discuss the new stories in Unpleasant Dreams. If you have additional questions about Unpleasant Dreams or Gloom in general, ask away!
Great post… I can’t wait to get my hands on this new expansion! And the clarification about Guests is incredibly helpful. Does this mean that there is a way to kill The Poor Relations after all?! >:D
I actually have a question about Gloom in general. What company do you use to print the transparent cards, and how do the costs compare to standard printing methods? I am working on developing a card game of my own, and I could take the mechanics in a few different directions, so I’d like to assess my options.
And while I’m here, do you have any general advice about game development for someone with little knowledge or experience (but much passion and ambition)?
Does this mean that there is a way to kill The Poor Relations after all?
Following the current rules, a character can only have a single persistent effect; when a new persistent effect is placed, it supersedes the previous one. Guest powers are considered to be persistent effects, so if you place a new persistent effect on the Relations they would become vulnerable.
With that said, it’s less obvious in standard Gloom than in Cthulhu Gloom. In CG we’ve made it so all cards with persistent effects have a new central image that includes a reminder about the effect, so you can always look at the card and remember what it is. If I do a second edition of Unwelcome Guests, I’d take the same approach there; for now you have to remember.
I actually have a question about Gloom in general. What company do you use to print the transparent cards, and how do the costs compare to standard printing methods?
Honestly, I don’t know. I designed the game; Atlas Games handles all of the production details. I know they tried a number of different printers before finding the current one. And I know it’s more expensive to print on transparent cards, but I can’t tell you exactly how much.
And while I’m here, do you have any general advice about game development for someone with little knowledge or experience (but much passion and ambition)?
It’s hard to give advice without knowing more about a project. But in general, playtest early and often. Accept that every idea won’t always work, and be prepared to abandon ideas you like if they don’t turn out to be fun. I’ll add that in my opinion, the point of playing games is to have a good time. If you’ve got a cool mechanic but it isn’t actually fun to play, that’s a problem.
Hello Mr. Baker, it’s me again… Thank you so much for being so quick to reply! Sorry I didn’t give the same courtesy — I thought I had ticked the “notify me” box, but for some reason I didn’t receive an email. Oh well.
I’ve come back here now after finding out that you also designed Cthulhu Fluxx… I’ve been a Fluxx fan for years, and bought CF the day it came out, but I had no idea you designed it! Great work on that; it’s our favourite variant by a long shot.
Thank you for clarifying the rules for persistent effects. I’ve been wondering actually, do you currently have any plans to reprint the original Gloom (and/or its expansions) using the new effect icons (and central reminders) introduced in CG? In my opinion, they make the cards so much cleaner and their effects quicker to identify. I know I’d certainly repurchase them just for that.
And thank you so much for your advice! We have been playtesting my card game quite a bit, and I think I’ve got a great design concept. I’m more worried about the eventual business side of things — I’m hoping to Kickstart the project and self-publish it, but I know there will be a lot of work involved and I have a lot to learn about marketing, production, distribution, etc. since this would be my first attempted business venture.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to talk with me. I really appreciate it, and I was honoured to hear back from someone I admire so much.
Happy new year!
Collin