The madman is a dreamer awake…
In the early 1900s, the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud established a revolutionary theory called psychoanalysis, related to the study of the unconscious mind. As his work took hold, supporters met at Freud’s apartment every Wednesday to discuss psychology and dream symbolism. This group-the Wednesday Psychological Society-marked the beginning of the worldwide psychoanalytic movement… if you are yawning already then this may not be the game for you, but if any of the above sparks your interest then Unconscious Mind may be the heavy euro you are looking for! The problem with many heavy euros (by which I mean mechanism first, maths puzzles which I adore) is that the theme is usually very disconnected to what is the core mix of mechanisms that make the game. There are some that come to mind which manage to put the theme first, much like Kanban EV for example but on the whole it is a difficult thing to pull off . Usually this doesn’t matter so much to me but it does make a huge difference when teaching the game. Any game that has theme tied to its mechanisms allows the player to make sense of what they are doing past, ‘doing A will get me B’, and this is where Unconscious Mind shines.
In brief, as a member of this aforementioned society, you aim to formulate new therapeutic techniques, establish a practice, grow your clientele, and become Freud’s most distinguished contemporary. To best accomplish this, you’ll need to share insights, discuss ideas with peers, and publish theories. And to stay invigorated, you’ll likely need some coffee-lots of coffee!
The interpretation of Dreams is the royal road to knowledge…
So there is a lot going on. There is no escaping that. However, there are three main elements to the game. The first is your office. Each player will have a player area made of three sections, the office itself, your treatment room and the knowledge you have learnt. The main resource of the game is the latter. You’ll be learning about the three core insights into the psyche, passion, growth and freedom, each of which have three levels of strength. Then there is your office which you will be upgrading as you go along in order to take combo-tactic turns in a rondel fashion as you move your ink pot around and around. Here you will learn more, unlocking ‘ideas’ (which are the workers in the game) and more insights. Then finally, the main way of scoring points in the game, you have your treatment room where you will be analysing clients’ dreams. This is my favourite part. You will have two clients at any one time, each of which will have a trauma attached. These traumas are represented by transparent cards with beautiful inkblot designs on them and will offer great rewards if they are treated/removed. Above each client are dream cards. Healing in any way is done by spending your insights in order to analyse these dreams and in turn ‘cure’ the client. Most of the game is finding ways to gain insights in order to cure clients, gaining rewards and unlocking ongoing powers as you go.
The madman is a dreamer awake…
In the early 1900s, the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud established a revolutionary theory called psychoanalysis, related to the study of the unconscious mind. As his work took hold, supporters met at Freud’s apartment every Wednesday to discuss psychology and dream symbolism. This group-the Wednesday Psychological Society-marked the beginning of the worldwide psychoanalytic movement… if you are yawning already then this may not be the game for you, but if any of the above sparks your interest then Unconscious Mind may be the heavy euro you are looking for! The problem with many heavy euros (by which I mean mechanism first, maths puzzles which I adore) is that the theme is usually very disconnected to what is the core mix of mechanisms that make the game. There are some that come to mind which manage to put the theme first, much like Kanban EV for example but on the whole it is a difficult thing to pull off . Usually this doesn’t matter so much to me but it does make a huge difference when teaching the game. Any game that has theme tied to its mechanisms allows the player to make sense of what they are doing past, ‘doing A will get me B’, and this is where Unconscious Mind shines.
In brief, as a member of this aforementioned society, you aim to formulate new therapeutic techniques, establish a practice, grow your clientele, and become Freud’s most distinguished contemporary. To best accomplish this, you’ll need to share insights, discuss ideas with peers, and publish theories. And to stay invigorated, you’ll likely need some coffee-lots of coffee!
The interpretation of Dreams is the royal road to knowledge…
So there is a lot going on. There is no escaping that. However, there are three main elements to the game. The first is your office. Each player will have a player area made of three sections, the office itself, your treatment room and the knowledge you have learnt. The main resource of the game is the latter. You’ll be learning about the three core insights into the psyche, passion, growth and freedom, each of which have three levels of strength. Then there is your office which you will be upgrading as you go along in order to take combo-tactic turns in a rondel fashion as you move your ink pot around and around. Here you will learn more, unlocking ‘ideas’ (which are the workers in the game) and more insights. Then finally, the main way of scoring points in the game, you have your treatment room where you will be analysing clients’ dreams. This is my favourite part. You will have two clients at any one time, each of which will have a trauma attached. These traumas are represented by transparent cards with beautiful inkblot designs on them and will offer great rewards if they are treated/removed. Above each client are dream cards. Healing in any way is done by spending your insights in order to analyse these dreams and in turn ‘cure’ the client. Most of the game is finding ways to gain insights in order to cure clients, gaining rewards and unlocking ongoing powers as you go.
So…how do you actually take actions in this game? There is a large central board representing the table around which you sit and discuss your great ideas with Freud and your peers. You will place your idea tokens in order to take specific actions, such as gain insight, or build in your office. You may place upto two ideas per turn in order to double the action and like all good worker placement games, the slots soon start to fill up limiting what is available that turn. Some actions will cost coffee too if they need a boost so keeping up your caffeine levels is important, as in life!
Next, there is a city board that shows Vienna. Players and Freud himself will be wondering around visiting different locations that offer various bonus actions and rewards and will offer up opportunities for big end game scoring.
Finally, you can write papers which in turn offer opportunities to publish, again giving big points for those who can achieve it.
There is a lot going on but everything feels worth it. Each route through the game offers great moments of points scoring and rewards throughout and no play of mine has seen the same route to success. I love that in a game.
Where id is, there shall ego be…
Perhaps the best part of the entire project is the ingenious way that the publisher tackled the artwork. In order to represent the two different worlds in play, the real one and the dream one, two artists were commissioned, both of whom are truly at the top of their game right now and have become mammoths in the board game world. First, the real world is designed by Vincent Dutrait whose work you will know from some of the last few years’ biggest hits such as Heat Pedal to the Metal and the brand new Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth. His naturalistic and slightly gritty style adds a real grounding to the clients (all of which are unique). Then for the dream realm, you have the iconic stylings of Andrew Bosley who exploded onto the scene through his work on Everdell. Since then he has done Tapestry and more recently Skyrise. His colourful and characterful illustrations are perfect for the huge deck of gorgeous dream cards. I know we are always told to ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but when a ‘cover’ is this beautiful it really is something special!
The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature…
If you are a heavy euro gamer then you will find everything you love here, combos, interesting resource management and really fun decision space. Yes it takes up a lot of table space but the presence is truly beautiful. However, if you are a medium weight player looking to kick things up a notch then Unconscious Mind may be the game to do that. The theme really shines through and helps make sense of the many things you need to keep track of.
I was unsure about a game about Psychoanalysis but I really can’t get this one out of my head!
