Enter the shadow realm in search of the treasures hidden within. But beware the Nightmare creatures that make that world their home, for they are jealous of your power and will seek to corrupt you … or eat you alive. Gather enough power to escape from the shadow realm, or become a Nightmare and hunt down every other player who stands in your way.

This new dice manipulation game from Renegade Games and designer Shannon Kelly brings a bunch of new twists to the push-your-luck formula, with lots of choice, an awesome theme and the chance to be the bad guy.

Lots of Dice
First, and most obviously, Lucidity: Six-sided Nightmares comes with a lot of dice – but these aren’t your standard pipped dice. Inside the box are 80 gorgeous semi-transparent dice in four different colours, each covered in a mix of unique symbols.

On your turn, you reach into a central bag, draw out dice, put two back and then roll the rest. Collect “power” symbols to escape from the shadow realm, or gather the corrupted “shadow” symbols to become a Nightmare and hunt down the other players – either way offers a path to victory.

Because the number of dice is set at the start of every game (20 of each colour), the odds of drawing a specific colour change throughout the game, adding lots of variability to every play.

Evocative Theme
The rich theme of this game is beautifully threaded through all of its components.

Each of the four colours relates to one of four nightmare types. Red is the colour of primeval fear, the beasts that yearn for your blood. Yellow are the dreams of imprisonment, being unable to move, as the headlights get closer and closer. Green is the colour of envy, and the fear of being betrayed by those closest to you. And the blue dreams will drag you kicking and screaming into the depths and the unknown creatures that live there.

Each colour of dice has a different “personality” and, as you learn how each colour acts, you will begin to understand the risks of rolling one over the other. What’s more, because each of the colours is matched to a playstyle, you will always be able to play Lucidity your own way. (And if you become a Nightmare, you get to inflict that playstyle on other players too!) Do you go for high risk high reward and roll red dice? Maybe you’d prefer to play slow and steady with yellow. Risk your points but not your life with green. Or roll blues if you just love chucking dice on the table.

Every Nightmare in Lucidity is illustrated with a shocking piece of horror art done by master tattoo artist, William Webb. And while they start out as villains, there are ways for you to become one too. As a Nightmare, you get to prey on other players, and can even win by convincing them to roll your colour of dice. If they roll poorly, you keep those dice and edge closer to victory, unleashing unique abilities against them. If they roll well though, you can always steal their power on your turn instead.

Simple to Learn; Depth of Choice
A single round of Lucidity will teach you everything you need to know about how to play. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t deeper strategies to it. Unlike a lot of push-your-luck games, this one comes with a lot of choices: how many dice you choose to draw, what colours you want to roll, whether to spend power to reroll dice and, of course, whether to end your turn early or push your luck and draw more dice. And that’s before you add the quasi-social element that comes from Nightmares making bargains with dreamer players.

The game includes a reference card for every player, and the player boards are covered in reminders to help lead you along on your turn, making this a quick game to pick up and learn. Add about 10 minutes to the game time for your first playthrough, and you will soon find your group playing a whole game in only 10 to 15 minutes – perfect for a bit of fun between other games, or while waiting for other friends to arrive!

Overview

Lucidity: Six-sided Nightmares will have you and your friends cheering for, laughing at, cajoling and tempting each other. And when the last dreamer player pulls off a last-second win against three Nightmares ganging up on them? Or a final roll comes down to a Nightmare claiming that final point and consuming everybody else?

There’s no feeling quite like it.

Born in Canada, now living in Australia and working as an editor for an international publishing house, Shannon has been designing games since he was old enough to crawl. Lucidity is Shannon's first published game.