Subject: (urth) A Time-travel game

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com>
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 09:03:11 +0000

As many of you probably recall, I have something of a mania about games.  A
few weeks ago I picked up a new one and I think it may be of interest
around here, seeing as how much time we've spent playing around with
time-travel and paradoxes, especially with regard to Severian's narrative.

The game is "Chrononauts," a card game by Looney Labs.  Because I am a big
fan of Looney's earlier card game, "Fluxx," I grabbed "Chrononauts" as soon
as I saw it.  "Fluxx" is a great game; "Chrononauts" is another hit, maybe
even better.

To set up the game, first you build the standard timeline (history as we
know it, from Lincoln's assassination to year 2000) as a grid of cards
(thus the gameboard is made up of "board" cards).  Then you deal out secret
time-traveler identities and a secret mission (this is shades of
European-version "Risk") to each player.

The secret IDs: see, each player is from a different timeline that is =not=
the standard timeline; each player wants to alter the standard timeline in
order to get home (i.e., win the game); but nobody knows what anybody
else's goal is, and thus how they might be inadvertantly helping another
player win.

Okay, back to the game.  You have your ID, you have your secret mission
(which is an alternate goal--win the game by collecting three artifacts
scattered through time).  You get three cards to your hand, and draw a new
one at the start of your turn.

The timeline is made up of "linchpins" and "ripple points."  Linchpins are
major turning points, where history could go one way or the other; ripple
points are the timezones most affected by turning linchpins.

Let us say you play a "Reverse history" card and turn a linchpin; further
up the timeline, the appropriate ripple points (keyed to that particular
linchpin) are turned over, and on the backside they say "Paradox."
Paradoxes can only be repaired with Patches (another type of card), and
they are dangerous--if there are 13 Paradoxes on the board then the
Universe implodes.

I've said too much already, but hardly enough.  Interested parties should
check out the website for more information http://www/LooneyLabs.com

=mantis=

Sirius Fiction
Catalog and errata sheet at http://www.sirius.com/~mantis/

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