Description

2-4 Players
Ages 12+
30 min. per player

SUMMARY:
In the year 2475 world nations race to save the past and control the use of time travel.

STORY:
The amount of anomalies created through time travel in the 25th century has become a major world concern. The FTCN (Federation of Time-Traveling Capable Nations) has voted that all nations must give up their time travel capabilities. A single task force of “time editors” (agents that specialize in changing the timeline) will be kept on standby in the event that they are needed to save humanity from any possible future disasters. Only the nation with the most skilled time editors will retain their use of time travel. The task force of time editors will be chosen through a “time editing” trial. The first nation to prevent four disastrous past events will retain the use of time travel and will have command of the official global task force of time editors.?

PLAY:
The game is a blend of:
• resource and economy management
• a worker placement system in the present and past
• storytelling

Player mats have two halves - past and present. People and resources you take to the past can only be used in the past. People and resources you keep in the present can only be used in the present. Each player has 4 types of time editing specialists: Science, Technology, Military, and Politics. Specialists have unique abilities when they are in the present, but when they travel back in time to change the past you lose their abilities in the present.

You can send 1 to 4 specialists back in time if you have the necessary resources. Sending multiple, or all, at once will reduce the wormhole resources needed by reducing the number of time jumps (1 per turn). But keeping some specialists in the present will allow you to use their abilities to strengthen your economy, intelligence, and undermine other nations. Who and when you send where is your choice!

Each player is given unique disasters in the past that they will need to prevent. (There are 16 time lines with 80 unique events). In order to change the time line and prevent a disaster, you must change the events leading up to the disaster. Certain specialists are needed to change specific events but you can decide which event you travel to. Attempts at changing the time line involve storytelling (a game tester favorite!) and pulling tiles to create ripples through time.

In order to time travel and pay specialists to change the past, you will need an economy. There are over 130 possible economic setups with variable risk/reward factors. Players explore planets, build mining colonies, mine resources and transport them to Earth. Planets further from Earth have richer mining deposits but will take longer to reach (unless you can afford to create wormholes or pay to use other players’ wormholes).

Resources can only be used once they are returned to Earth, so you will need to plan ahead multiple turns for where/when your time ship will be and which specialists are where/when. Resources can be used to buy items for your economy, buy action cards (draw 3 & choose 1), open wormholes in space (for faster travel to planets), open wormholes in time (to change the past), pay time editing specialists to change the past, or hire A. I. to give you the probability of causing a time ripple.

—description from the publisher