A Midsummer Night's Dream

Designed by Icerain Lin and published by Icerain Games and EmperorS4, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a ladder-climbing card game for 2-5 players. It's played with cards numbered 0-7, some of which can be up-ended to show an alternative number. There's a concession to Shakespeare's comedy in that the cards are all named for characters from the play but that's irrelevant to the game play which is solely related to the numbers on the cards.

Each player starts off with a hand of 12 or 14 cards, depending on player count. The first player has to play a pair and the next player has to follow with either cards of similar rank but higher value (for example, following a pair of threes with a pair of fives) or cards of higher rank (for example, following a pair with a three-card sequence). The English rules specify that if playing a higher rank, players must play cards that are 'exactly one rank higher' but, confusingly, the example they give is two ranks higher! The course of true love never did run smooth. We could see that there was merit in limiting players from immediately escalating from a pair to a five-card run so in our Board's Eye View plays we compromised on requiring plays to follow with the same number of cards or one more than played previously; so you could follow a pair with either a three-card run or three-of-kind.

If you can't or don't want to follow, you can pass. Do that and you draw a 'love-in-idleness' card, which serves as a wild: on a future turn you can use a single love-in-idleness' card in any set or run, so tho' passing means you miss out on shedding cards for a turn and add to your hand, it could be a clever tactical play if it sets you up for winning play on your next turn.

As with most ladder-climbing card games, the object is to be the first player to shed your hand. Do that and other players score negative points equal to the number of hearts shown on the cards they have left in their hand. Most cards have a single heart (so worth -1 point) but Oberon (6) and Titania (7/6) have two hearts. Puck (0) has no hearts so doesn't incur any negative points but you don't want to get caught with a 'love-in-idleness' card because that carries three hearts.

With most cards having alternative values, it isn't hard to make a set or run so A Midsummer Night's Dream plays quickly: most of our plays at Board's Eye View have run to a filler-length 15-20 minutes. It makes for an easy-to-play family-friendly game.

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