Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
A challenging fifty four card cooperative real time trading game (With optional singing). You play as a group of friends inhabiting a shared nightmare.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Set Collection
Gather related items that become more valuable when scored together.
Trading
Exchange resources, assets, or promises with other players.
Cooperative Game
Players coordinate their actions toward a shared objective and win or lose together.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Read the full game description
A challenging fifty four card cooperative real time trading game (With optional singing). You play as a group of friends inhabiting a shared nightmare. Your hand consists of nightmarish aspects and you goal is to trade these with your friends. If someone can get a collection of similar aspects then they can master that part of the nightmare and contribute to your eventual escape - however each card that you receive in trade can force you to undertake certain actions, restrict who you trade with or limit how you can communicate. To make matters worse something is chasing you through the nightmare and you have to trade its card every ten seconds or be devoured. It's coming. Run. During set-up players choose a collection of nightmare types based on the number of players. This choice allows a group to include or exclude certain mechanics - so whether your nightmare will be an all singing all dancing nightmare is down to the exuberance of the players rather than luck of the draw. Escape the Nightmare is a challenging experience, with the average group losing a fair few games before their first victory. However the play time is quick and resetting for another go takes seconds. There are six difficulty levels to make the game accessible for groups of any level of skill and selecting different types of nightmare allows players to set the tone of their game to suit their preferences.