
- BGG rank
- BGG #4
- BGG rating
- 8.5
Gloomhaven
- 1–4 players
- 60–120 min
- Complexity 3.9/5
- 2017

Expansion for Malifaux
Rules assistance for Malifaux: Bad Dreams
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Malifaux: Bad Dreams is an expansion for Malifaux for 2–10 players and ages 12 and up. Its main mechanics are Campaign / Battle Card Driven.
Boxed set of units for Malifaux. This crew includes the Dreamer (leader), Lord Chompy Bits, Coppelius, and 2 Stitched Together. From the Malifaux Tactica Wiki page: The Dreamer is a child Earth side of the Breach whose dreams take him to Malifaux where his powers manifest in the ability to warp reality to his every whim. But he is not aware that the lives he plays with are those of living humans, he thinks it is all a dream and plays "games" with them. Noticing the child's immense powers, the primordial Nightmare came to him and attempted to drain him of his powers but found he was unable to. Given the name Lord Chompy Bits, he now protects the child and follows him around in his adventures in the "dream land". The Dreamer & Lord Chompy Bits (LCB) have one of the most unique playstyles of any Master in Malifaux. Much like Viktoria you have 2 models for your Master but that is where the similarity stops. The Dreamer's main strategy is burying and unburying his Nightmares, letting him quickly move them across the field completely protected and drop them on your opponent when he least expects it. But for that power, the Dreamer trades any real kind of combat ability himself. He has a versatile but weak ranged attack but it is good for little more then harassing your opponents models. This is where Lord Chompy Bits comes into the picture; he can't move the Nightmares around like the Dreamer can, but he is one of the most dangerous melee Masters in the game. The Dreamer or Daydreams can unbury him, letting him deliver LCB to a desired location. The Dreamer's crews are almost always made up exclusively of Nightmares as those are the only models he can bury and unbury with his abilities. He is not restricted to only bringing Nightmares, but there are very few non-Nightmare models that are worth taking over another Nightmare model. So this does make the list of models for his crews a bit small, but it doesn't hurt him. The models in that list have a variety of uses for them and really none of them have only a single use, they can all be useful in a variety of ways and play styles. So with very little variety compared to other Masters, The Dreamer certainly does a whole lot. As a word of warning, The Dreamer is one of the most complex Masters in Malifaux and often requires a very firm grasp of the core rules to fully understand. The Dreamer's starter box contains The Dreamer, Lord Chompy Bits, Coppelius, and 2 Stitched Together. Regardless of the type of Nightmare force you want to run, your first purchase must be a box of 3 daydream totems. They are the linch pin to The Dreamer's burry/unbury style of play and the master functions quite badly without them. Adding the daydreams gives you a starting crew of exactly 25ss. While The Dreamer does have a cache of 0, his Master of Dreams rule means he gains 1ss to his pool per non-master nightmare in the crew up to max of 5. The starter set plus daydreams has 6 nightmares giving him the max 5ss pool
Malifaux: Bad Dreams supports 2–10 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The catalogue lists Malifaux: Bad Dreams for ages 12 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Malifaux: Bad Dreams belongs to these categories: Fantasy, Miniatures, and Expansion for Base-game. Its main mechanics are Campaign / Battle Card Driven. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The catalogue lists Malifaux: Bad Dreams as an expansion for Malifaux. Expansions add new content, rules or scenarios to the base game and usually cannot be played on their own, so you need Malifaux to use it. Check that your edition of Malifaux is compatible, as some expansions were revised between editions.