A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• Designer: Icerain Lin
• Publisher: EmperorS4
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 15-30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a ladder climbing game inspired by the eponymous romantic comedy created by William Shakespeare in the 16th century. Players take turns playing cards of the same level or exactly one level higher, or they can draw a wild card, the love-in idleness. When a player plays their last card, the remaining players lose score according to their hand card. The game plays several rounds, and when a player’s score drops below zero, the player with the highest score wins.

To set up, the deck of cards is shuffled – basic cards ranging from 1 to 7 (with some cards having different values on opposite corners) – and possibly some Love-in-idleness cards (which are wild in value).  Some of the cards have penalty points (1 to 3) in the corner as well.  The deck composition changes based on player count.  Depending on the number of players, starting hands will be 12 to 14 cards in size.  Any remaining wild cards are placed aside in the display.  Each player also gets a scoreboard and scoring markers – all players start the game with 30 points.

The start player begins a round by playing a pair of their choice.  At any time, a wild card can be played to represent any value from 0 to 8.  Only one wild card can be played in any particular play.  The start player must start with this as it is the lowest possible rank.

Then next person then goes; and that player must either play a higher combination of the same rank or play any combination in the next rank above (but cannot move higher up the rank ladder than a single step).  The rank ladder:

• Pair (from 00 -> 77)
• 3 card straight (012→678)
• 3 of a kind (000-777)
• 4 card straight (0123 -> 5678)
• 4 of a kind (0000-7777)
• *5 card Straight (01234 -> 45678)
• *Five of a kind (00000 -> 77777)
• 00 – this combo can only beat a 5 card straight or 5 of a kind

If a player chooses not to play or cannot play, they Pass.  When they pass, they take a Love-in-idleness card into their hand – again this is a wild card that can be used later to represent any value from 0 to 8.

If everyone at the table passes, the player who played the surviving combination simply discards the entire stack on the table and begins anew, starting again with a single pair (or passing).

The round continues until one of the following things happens:

• A player has played all of their cards
• A player passes and cannot draw a Love-in-idleness card from the supply  (this player also loses ten extra points!)

At this point, all players show the cards in their hands and count up the penalty points on them.  These points are subtracted from their current total, and the new score is shown on their scoring card.  Don’t forget the extra ten point loss if you are the player who couldn’t draw a wild card.  If a player loses all of their points, the game ends and the player with the most points remaining is the winner.  If not, the cards are shuffled and re-dealt, and the player with the lowest current score leads the next hand.

My thoughts on the game

I tend to like shedding games, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream adds an interesting twist to the genre with its limitation on valid card combinations.  Early on, it might be beneficial to pass and simply take wild cards – thus giving yourself as much latitude to make different combinations in the future with your gained wild cards.  There will only ever be 10 to 12 wild cards in the supply though, so the stack will likely run out pretty quick, and then the game becomes one of survival; as players jockey to not be the player who has to pass and then lose an additional ten points!

Unlike many shedding games, the circular nature of the ladder makes it a bit more difficult to come up with an iron clad plan to develop a big hand with successive winner/tops combinations to simply run the table.  Here, any five card play can be snuffed out with a pair of 0s.  And with so many wild cards on the table, this usually means that someone has a pair of 0s to play…  Even without wild cards, you will likely have a fair amount of flexibility as many of the cards have two possible ranks – so you’ll be twisting these cards around in your head trying to make playable sets and then figuring out what you have left afterwards!  

Furthermore, given the restriction of having to play the same rank or raising only one step – it’s hard to predict what combination will be a valid play for you by the time it gets around the table.  It’s obviously easier to do this in a 3 player game than a five player game – simply because there are fewer intervening plays; but it’s still a risky proposition to try to foresee what plays you’ll be able to make.

After my first few games, playing down from 30 might lead to a game that is a bit longer than I normally want – but this can easily be changed by lowering the starting score or simply playing a fixed number of hands.

The art on the cards and cover is absolutely gorgeous.  The illustrations definitely bring the characters to life, and this is surely one of the best looking games of the year.  While I can’t stop raving about the art, I will say that I’m not really a huge fan of the scoring card.  You’re forced to place a bunch of markers on this little card, and the markers are larger than the spaces they want to occupy!  I’d highly recommend ditching the scoreboard, using both cards as player aids so that all players can see one, and just keep score on paper or an app on your phone.

There are many games with familiar features, but none that seems to roll them all together quite like this one.  As such, for now this one has gained a slot in the keeper stack – next to Scout, Odin, Tichu, Silver Bullet, the soon to be acquired Panda Spin and Seers Catalog.   

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor