The Malaysian Dream

The Game

The Malaysian Dream is a simple card game for casual players. You play as all sorts of funny characters in Malaysia, and you pursue your dreams. There is a deck of face-up dream cards. The topmost card is always visible. Everyone knows the next dream that can be fulfilled. You fulfil dreams by paying for it. This game is keeping it real, my friends. When the dreams deck runs out, the game ends. Whoever has completed the most number of dreams is the winner. 

That on the left is a character card. On the right, that's one of the dream cards. Characters all have unique abilities. Dreams cost either 300K or 500K, but both types are worth 1 point. 

Other than character cards and dream cards, the rest of the cards in the game are simply player cards. Some of them are action cards. You do something with them, following the instructions on them. Some of them are money cards. Money in hand cannot be spent to buy dreams. You need to perform an action called putting money into the bank. That just means laying down your money cards. Money on the table can be spent. It can be stolen too. 

Some action cards are used to attack your opponents. Some are used to help yourself. Some cards let you steal money. Some even steal dreams. When you steal money but your victim has none, you steal a dream instead. That's painful. When you run out of player cards, you reshuffle the discard pile to form a new draw deck. You continue playing until the dreams deck runs out. 

Some cards ask you to do things beyond the game components and the game table. E.g. you need to do jumping jacks, or you do a staring contest, or you compete to see who stands up last (and that person will be penalised). There's even one card which requires you to recite the Rukun Negara (the Nation Principles of Malaysia). 

Some dream cards count as double if claimed by specific characters. In this example, the bomoh (witch doctor) gets an extra point for fulfilling the dream of protecting Malaysia from disaster. One other character in the game is an MLM agent. She scores an extra point if she fulfils the dream of buying a sports car. 

The Play

This is a silly fun type of game. It is simple. Many card powers are written on the cards themselves. You just follow instructions. You hope to draw money cards, so that you can use them to buy dream cards. There are many take-that cards in the game. You steal money and dreams from your opponents. With at least three players, you will have some politics. Winning or losing may come down to who the players decide to attack most. If you get attacked more than others, you probably won't win. There is luck. Sometimes some people will get all those powerful and nasty cards. Some people will just happen to have the protection cards at the right times. All the cards are related to Malaysia. The humour is what Malaysians will appreciate. 

4-player game in progress

The Thoughts

This is very much a non-gamer or casual gamer game. It doesn't require much brain power. It has a lot of take-that, or the more Malaysian term would be a lot of "sabo" (sabotage) cards. There is a fair bit of luck. Officially the game is for 2 to 6 players. I don't think it will work well with two. I think you need at least three. With 2 players, you can only choose one opponent to attack. It becomes an exercise of seeing who draws the better cards for attacking the opponent. With three players, at least you have some politicking to do. I'm a gamer, so The Malaysian Dream is not my type of game. I personally don't like game mechanisms which make you do stuff like singing and other physical exertions. I want to sit down and play a boardgame. I want to do something intellectually stimulating. I want to interact with people. For me, some of the jokes in this game don't last. The second time round I already start to tire. The first time someone needs to recite the Rukun Negara, I find it amusing. The second time it becomes tiresome. I do like the art style. The jokes are relevant to Malaysians. The game will work better for non-gamers. The novelty may wear out quickly for gamers.