Game Daze Chandler Fashion Center Employee Recommendation, July 2010

Daniel -

Out of all of the multitudes of game genres, no other has escaped a successful adaptation more than that of time travel. A game where one could travel through time, change history, and be able to see those changes easily had been absent from the world for many years. About ten years ago though, a new game arrived that finally succeeded: Chrononauts. Chrononauts, by Looney Labs, is an engaging time-travel based card game. Each player is an eponymous “chrononaut”, whose goal it is to do one of three things:

1. Change the timeline in a way so that it matches one’s own history (provided on an ID card),
2. Collect rare artifacts from throughout history (the Ark of the Covenant, for example), or
3. Patch the increasingly broken timeline five times.

With three ways to win and a whole ensemble of characters the gameplay never gets old, and it even includes a version for one player, called Solonauts. So for all those in the world who have wanted to kill Hitler, save the Titanic, or have Al Gore win, this is the game for you.

Game Daze Park Place Mall Manager Recommendation, May 2010

Drew -

Have you ever dreamed of traveling back in time, to see ancient sights and possibly “correct” the great wrongs of history? Well, now you can, at least back to the late 1800’s, in Chrononauts, a card game from that great company that brought you Fluxx and Aquarius - Loony Labs.

In Chrononauts, you play a time traveler trying to change history, primarily so that you can reset the timeline to get back to your home parallel universe. You can also win the game by collecting various artifacts through time or getting 10 cards in your hand.

The game consists of a timeline made from cards, running from Lincoln’s assassination to the Columbine massacre. (There is an expansion which expands the timeline to the 2000’s, called “The Gore Years”) Each player is given an ID card, which shows 3 events in the timeline, one original event and two events that must be changed to create the players home timeline, and a MISSION , which usually requires the player to collect 3 specific artifacts. These cards are 2 of the three win conditions for the player and must be kept secret.

Each turn a player draws a card, then plays a card. As the player uses INVERTERS, cards that will change linchpin events in the timeline, the changes will then ripple out to other sections of the timeline, causing paradoxes. If the player has a PATCH which will fix a paradox, then he can play if on top of the paradoxed card and then draw another card, raising his hand limit (which could get him to 10 cards, the last of the winning conditions). If the player has artifacts in his hand, he can play those to the table. Possession on certain artifacts are a possible win condition, of course, but other artifacts give bonuses or can be discarded, through use of other cards, to gain more cards.

The game becomes a struggle to create the proper timeline, as players continually change events, patch paradoxes, and then see those patches go away as the timeline gets changed back. One does have to keep an eye on getting too many paradoxes on the board, as 13 paradoxes will destroy the universe and no ones wins when that happens.

There are also two smaller games that can be played with the deck as well and another set of ID cards, “Lost Identities” and a second version of the game “Early American” that can be purchased to extend the playability of the game. This is a great game for family and teachers and has been one of my favorites for years.