In Onirim you are a Dreamwalker who is lost and you need to find the 8 doors to open. You will need to watch out for Nighmares, they will get you. There are a lot of them.

This is my most played solo game. Since it’s just cards, it is really easy to take out and play a quick game. It’s you vs the game which is always the most interesting type of solo experience. There is a lot of shuffling so if you aren’t into that but want to try the game, there is an app you can purchase that does all the shuffling for you.

There is a lot of luck with the order you draw the cards and honestly half the time I lose the game. However, I always come back. The game draws you in, it doesn’t take long to play and you really don’t know how it’s going to go. There is a lot of suspense and many times it get down to just the last few cards. It’s kind of addictive and I find myself playing multiple games at time since it’s so quick.

There’s a few games in this universe, I’ve written about Nautillion before. I love the art for these games. It looks hand drawn and the style really speaks to me, I love the presentation. The cards on my copy are starting to show a little of wear and tear which is to be expected with all the shuffling, but they are holding up really well. The version I have comes with a few expansions, usually I stick to the base game but it’s always nice to have options and variety. Even with playing just the base game I have enough plays under my belt to know I won’t get tired of it and probably will never master it either.

There is an alternate cooperative set of rules, but I will be going through the solo base game here.

Onirim was designed by Shadi Torbey and published by Z-Man Games. It is a 1-2 player game for ages 10 and up and takes about 15 minutes to play.

Set Up

Shuffle the 76 base cards.

Draw the top 5 cards. If you draw a door or dream card put them aside and draw until you have 5 location cards in your hand.

How to Play

The turn consists of.3 phases; play or discard a card, fill your hand or Shuffle the Limbo pile. The limbo pile are cards that are put aside but not discarded. At the end of each turn the limbo cards get shuffled back into the deck. There is a difference between the limbo pile and your discard pile. Cards that are discarded are gone for the rest of the game.

Play a location card by placing it in a single row. There are 3 types of location cards. Sun, Moon and key. Each time you play a card have it slightly overlap the previous card. The only placement rule is the card cannot have the same symbol as the previous card.

Once you’ve placed 3 cards in a row of the same colour you will get a door card of that colour. Search for this card in the deck and then place it in front of you. Then reshuffle the deck. A fourth card of the same colour in the row counts as a new set.

You can choose to discard a card instead of placing it. If you discard a Key card you trigger a prophecy and get to take a look at the top 5 cards of the deck, discard one of them and put the other 4 back in any order.

Whether you play or discard a card you will need to replenish your hand. A location card gets added to your hand. A door card gets placed in the limbo pile unless you have a key of the same colour in your hand. If you have the key you can unlock that door immediately, place it in front of you and discard the key.

If you draw a dream card you have to resolve it immediately.

In the base game the only type of dream card is a nightmare. These cards really live up to that name. When you draw a nightmare card you have four options.

1. Discard a key from your hand

2. Place one of your claimed door cards into the limbo pile

3. Reveal the top 5 cards of the deck; discard the location cards, any doors or dream cards can go in the limbo pile.

4. Discard your hand and draw 5 new cards. Keep drawing until you have 5 location cards. Doors and dream cards go in the limbo pile.

Once you have done one of the four steps you can discard the nightmare card.

Shuffle the cards in the limbo pile back into the deck.

End of Game

The game is won if you have all the 8 door cards in front of you. You lose if you run out of cards to draw.

If you like solo card games or any type of solitaire games this is an amazing option. You can easily pull this one out and play in 15 minutes, I highly recommend it. Just don’t let the Nightmare card scare you before bed.

If you like Onirim try:

Nautillion

The Game

Arkham Noir

Final Girl