Treachery. Weakness

Madness.

Neutral

Revelation - If Dream-Gate (Wondrous Journey) is already in play, flip it over. Otherwise, search your bonded cards for Dream-Gate (Pointless Reality) and put it into play. In either case, disengage from each enemy engaged with you and move to Dream-Gate.

Ethan Patrick Harris
The Dream-Eaters #14.
Detached from Reality

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Under The Silver Rule, "the encounter card takes precedence over the player card", does this include weakness with an encounter cardtype? For example, what happens if Luke is Entombed (or the location has No Turning Back attached) and he draws Detached from Reality? Does this mean, because of The Silver Rule, Luke cannot move into Dream-Gate? A: Because Entombed states that the person it’s attached to cannot disengage or move, this effect is absolute and must be followed. If Luke were Entombed and drew Detached from Reality, Luke would not disengage from enemies or move, he would only either flip Dream-Gate or put Dream-Gate into play.

  • Q: There's a ruling that states: "I would say that while Dream-Gate is in play, it is an encounter card, since it is a location and location cards are generally encounter cards. However, while it is set aside and out of play it functions more like a player card, for deckbuilding purposes and the like. So if Gate Box moves you, that is a player card effect moving you, but when Dream-Gate moves you, that would be an encounter card effect moving you." MJ says: "While Dream-Gate is in play, it is an encounter card", does this mean that when the effect of an encounter card conflicts with the Constant Abilities of Dream-Gate, The Silver Rule will itwork? For example, during Luke's turn, Luke is in Dream-Gate (Wondrous Journey) and draws a Dance of the Yellow King. The skill test fails, the nearest Lunatic will move towards Luke. If both cards are encounter cards, may I decide which takes precedence? If so, does the enemy stay in the same place? A: If Luke is in Dream-Gate, enemies cannot enter it, nor can enemies move closer to him, so Dance of the Yellow King would not move the enemy anywhere if Luke failed the test. The Silver Rule comes into play if two cards directly contradict one another in a way that is “impossible to reconcile”, but this is not an instance where the interaction is impossible to reconcile.

  • Q: Luke draws Detached from Reality in the Upkeep phase and moves to Dream-Gate (Pointless Reality). Then in the next Mythos phase, if Luke draws an enemy that has no spawn instruction, how should enemies spawn in this case? Spawns engaged with Luke? Just discard this enemy? or something else? A: If the enemy cannot spawn anywhere, discard it.

Last updated

Reviews

I've had mild salsa spicier than this weakness.

I... suppose it costs you three actions, at most? You're chilling in the Bad Place for a turn - where enemies can't get to you, mind - and spend that turn prepping for the future with card draw and resource clicking, or you could try your hand at flipping to the good side, putting that off-class to work and avoiding the measly two horror that ending your turn in the Nihilism Cube gets you.

Speaking of that two horror: trifling. You have NINE SANITY, and even if you're in the danger zone, you made sure to bring some horror mitigation with you, right? ...right?

Anyway, on to the third part - you get yote outta Mannish Baby's Stand at the end of your turn, to ANY LOCATION YOU WANT. Remember that prep that we were doing while stuck? Yeah, go to the place where they need you the most and let loose.

To sum up: this isn't a weakness, it's a free fourth charge on your sleepy passport that you have to use immediately.

supertoasty · 38
Totally agree. They could have easily made this a proper weakness, but they didn't. — Susumu · 366
"Pass a 6+ inv or lose a turn" is rough. — MrGoldbee · 1449
I will push back and say that it's basically always 2 horror whenever you see it. It's not worth investigating a 6 shroud pretty much ever with Luke, particularly one that doesn't help you advance the scenario. 2 horror on 9 sanity on top of the 2 horror from Arcane Research does add up and makes Luke effectively a 5 sanity gator. That said, between Mystic card pool and Gate Box, you don't have to worry much about mental trauma. But it is something to keep in mind for things like Ward of Protection or Shrivelling. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
I agree with Styx, but Mystics also have some pretty decent horror-soak allies, and probably the best "healing card" with "Deny Existence" (5). I didn't have any horror-issues, when I recently played him for the first time through Innsmouth. I think, the "Dream Gate" should not unflip at the end of the round. The bad side could just as well be connected to all locations as well, but you would have to pay 2 horror each time you want to leave it. This would put incentive to investigate it. — Susumu · 366

A thematic weakness but not much of a threat. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Luke is removed from his location and moved to the reverse side of Dream-Gate, where he can sit in isolation and think about what he's done. This can curtail 0-3 of Luke's actions, depending when you draw it, since he can still do things like draw cards, take resources, and play assets or events that target himself. It even disengages Luke from his enemies! Once in a very great while, this might stop him from supporting a fellow investigator at a crucial moment, but most times this is very mild.

The discard condition: Either investigate a 6 shroud location to get to the good Dream-Gate or wait until the end of the turn and take 2 horror. In either case, Luke then moves to any revealed location. Since Luke has 9 Sanity, this is almost like a slightly-damaging extra use of the Gate Box, and, in play, this has almost always been a welcome draw.

All in all, this is a way below average signature weakness. The only way it could be less of a weakness is if it just said "add a charge to the Gate Box."

I wouldn't underestimate the horror since you're probably taking two Arcane Research as well, but yeah I do agree it's a below average weakness. — Nenananas · 251
Hmmm. Since many spell events don't have upgrades, I'm not sure I'd always take AR in Luke. I had originally included it in the deck I just posted, and ended up cutting it for insufficient targets, and I haven't missed it. Of course, AR is weird in TIC, but.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1051

I agree with this previous reviews that this weakness is not a problem most of the time, but I can think of two occasions when this can cause a real problem. The first instance is where the act deck instructs players to be at a certain location at the end of the round before it can advance. Drawing Detached from Reality during the Upkeep Phase is a major blow to your tempo, forcing the investigators to waste an entire round until Luke can get back from his trip to the Gate Box.

The second occasion is the fact that for the whole of the next turn Luke is trapped and is not able to help the other investigators without major effort. Especially in solo having a cultist spawn and being unable to defeat it before it tips the agenda over can be very frustrating.

It is a card that does some funny things. Recently , I had it work the other way. I got out of a turn twiddling my thumbs in the Dream-Gate when I drew Detached from Reality in upkeep and in mythos the agenda flipped and moved all investigators to Somewhere Spoiler-y That Had Just Appeared — bee123 · 31