Inception

About this board game

Inception is a 30-minute game for 4–8 players, based on the movie of the same name. One player becomes the mark, while everyone else takes the role of an extractor hunting through layered dreams.

The extractors begin by working together, but cooperation is only temporary. There can be just one winner, so the extractors eventually turn on one another as they compete to uncover the mark’s secret.

The game moves through four dream levels and Limbo. Each dream level contains one safe. Inside every safe is either worthless money or the mark’s secret, which is the game’s objective for the extractors.

• One player is chosen as the mark.
• The other players are extractors.
• There is one safe on each dream level.
• A safe contains either worthless money or the mark’s secret.
• The mark wins if the deck runs out before anyone finds the secret.

For the extractors, success depends on finding the secret before time runs out, while the mark’s goal is to survive the entire deck. The early alliance creates a shared pursuit, but the promise of a single winner changes the atmosphere as the game progresses.

Released in 2011, Inception turns its dream-level setting into a contest of discovery and rivalry. Search the safes, identify the objective, and decide how long cooperation can last before every extractor must pursue victory alone.