138 – Time is Ticking – The Family Gamers Podcast

We talk about the use of time in boardgames, both in theme and in mechanisms.

What We’ve Been Playing

The Stars Align – thanks to our sponsor, Breaking Games!

Fallout: The Board Game – had a similar storytelling mechanic to Above & Below.

CABO – a hand management / memory game from Bezier Games. Aim for the lowest score, but you start with a hand of face-down cards.

Chicken Cha Cha Cha has become a favorite of Elliot (4), and is no longer requested by Asher (8).

Triplock – puzzle game from Chip Theory Games. A little hard to figure out the rules, but once we got it, we had a great time with it.

Pyramid of Pengqueen – from Brain Games. Asymmetric treasure-hunting game with a vertical board. The mummy cannot see the treasure hunters, but they can see the mummy. Mummy is trying to catch enough penguins, but the penguins are trying to collect a set of treasures without being caught.

Quacks of Quedlinburg – A bag-building game from North Star Games. Now that we’ve played it, we can see why it is so popular. Pure press-your-luck with very little player interaction.

Pantone: The Game – worth trying, but not our favorite.

Baseball Highlights 2045 – now Andrew can play it with Asher!

Dice Throne – another “bro” game for Andrew & Asher to play.

Kodama: The Tree Spirits – build a branching tree with contiguous lines of icons. Don’t bump the table, though!

Fluff – a new version of Liar’s Dice from Bananagrams, and one of Claire’s favorites. Expect a SNAP review soon.

Among the Stars – draft a hand of cards to build a space station.

Sprawlopolis – a favorite for Anitra. Played 15 times, only won once.

SNAP Review: Shikoku

A game all about taking the middle path. See the full text and more pictures in our SNAP reviews.

Game Time! Time in Games

Let’s talk about the use of time in boardgames. Time and time travel can make for an interesting theme, and some games use interesting time mechanics to push gameplay along.

Let’s talk about some of our favorites!

• Real time games: cooperative – Gnomes at Night, Spaceteam, Magic Maze
• Real time games: competitive
  • use a timer that can be stopped (Kero, In the Time of Dragons – was “Time Cross Arena” when we interviewed David Wilkinson)
  • simlutaneous puzzle-solving games (Q*bitz, Match Madness, Maze Racers, etc)
• Tempus series by Chris Anderson – a pen-and-paper game where the randomized setup and actions are determined by the day and time that you start playing. Tempus Imperium and Tempus Fumus are freely available. Tempus Quest is being released in monthly installments from Button Shy.
• Representing rounds with seasons: Keyflower, Seasons, Tzolk’in, Photosynthesis, Tea Dragon Society Card Game, Kokoro
• Time as a theme: T.I.M.E. Stories (both as theme & resource – spend “time units”),Order of Invention, Purrrlock Holmes (clocks!), The Perfect Moment (time travel theme)

Of all of these games, the one Andrew most wants to play: Kero.

The one Anitra really wants to play: The Perfect Moment.

Don’t forget, not long ago, we devoted an episode to games set in a certain time period – representing U.S. history.

What are some other games that feature time in a fun, innovative way?

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This episode of The Family Gamers Podcast is sponsored by Breaking Games. Check out their game, Order of Invention, via the link below.

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