Time Stories Plays like Batman Meets Quantum Leap

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I’m going to tell you about one of my favorite things in the entire world. A game that implements mystery solving, combat with big consequences, adventures throughout alternate histories and worlds, and an enigmatic universe filled with lore and supernatural intervention to take you and a group of friends on vastly different experiences that you’ll likely never forget.

This game is called Time Stories, and its nine and a half diverse scenarios have taken me all throughout human history – eight and a half of which arrived as expansions after the base set launched in 2015. Four years later, its latest expansion, Madame, is closing out the current iteration of the game, with the following expansions ushering it into entirely new territory. I’ll get to my impressions of Madame later on, but let’s start with what Time Stories actually is first.

At its core, Time Stories is an incredible, in-depth, and honestly kind of video game-y tabletop system that can be used to tell a seemingly endless range of stories in a mechanically interesting and dynamic way. In every scenario, you take on the role of a time agent, sometime in the future, where you are employed by an agency with… questionable intentions. Oh, and a jerk named Bob who gives you your mission briefings.

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You take on the role of a time agent, traveling to the past to assess disturbances in time and fix them before it's too late.

Your job is to travel into the past (or potentially alternate realities) and inhabit the body of a character (or receptacle) living within the world of each scenario, each with particular stats and abilities related to their role within their time period. You have an objective that requires you to assess the situation, immerse yourself in a historic conflict, and unravel the unknowns of a mystery with your friends over the course of what usually adds up to six to nine hours of compelling cooperative play.

You explore rich historic scenarios like an escape from a corrupt, 1920’s asylum, a chaotic zombie apocalypse set in the 1990’s, a mysterious and seemingly evil series of events amidst the holy crusades, an 80s cocaine-dusted party that celebrates (basically) the Manson murders, an eldritch-influenced jaunt among the horrific events of an Antarctic expedition in the early 1900s, and a bunch more incredible experiences.

While the settings and story contribute fun, fantastical elements to each playthrough, the interaction and constant communication between players is possibly the best aspect of Time Stories. You uncover flavor-rich locations by dividing your group across a mural across several cards in order to gather clues. However, information conveyed to individual players must be paraphrased when they share it with the group. Imagery has to be described or re-drawn, and on a few occasions players can encounter a directive that they may not share, which fundamentally changes the way they play the game, compelling them to take certain actions any time they play any Time Stories experience after that moment.

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Time Stories' focus on communication has inspired many memorable and animated debates amongst my friends.

The social aspect also comes into play through constant cost/benefit analysis. In most scenarios, the more time spent, the worse your ending and score will be. Higher scores often reward benefits in future adventures. The gameplay encourages exploration, trying new paths, and making different choices in order to acquire as much info as possible, but making the wrong decisions can also result in devastating costs, chasing red herrings, and suffering the penalties of running out of time. You’ll find your group constantly debating the worth of the unknown, pushing each others’ boundaries, and taking heavy risks in hopes of uncovering the key to unlocking each fascinating mystery.

There are even shock-inspiring story moments that will split your group on opposing sides of moral dilemmas. For example, the choice to kill one character because of his past contributions to horrible crimes split one group I played with for hours. It’s these awesome elements within Time Stories that have inspired many memorable and animated debates amongst my friends.

A Royal Ending

As the latest expansion in the series, Madame intends to be the catalyst that takes Time Stories in a new direction, closing the curtains on what has been referred to as “The White Cycle,” and steps into a new era officially called “Revolution” that will see mechanical and narrative changes within the series. It’s important to note that this will be a continuation of the story and wider universe of The White Cycle, rather than a reboot as previously reported by Board Game Geek.

Time Stories has taken me on some incredible story adventures already, and while I’ve enjoyed some of these more than others, this is without a doubt the most ambitious and intricate game I’ve played. There are so many mysteries, hidden details, and easter eggs woven into this series that my playgroup rabidly takes notes while we play in order to make sure we have a record of every little minutia that may come up later. I imagine the designers at Space Cowboys have red threads running all over their office to keep track of this stuff.

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While Madame is a fun addition to the greater universe, it does feel like it drops the ball in some regards.

That said, while Madame is a fun addition to the greater universe, I feel like it ultimately drops the ball on some of these mysteries while kicking the can further down the line on others. After so many creepy and awe-inspiring moments in the Arctic Expedition: Endurance expansion, or the cinematic ship battles and epic pirate adventures of Brotherhood of the Coast, or the mind-blowing puzzles and huge reveals of Lumen Fidei, Madame is left with confusing intentions, and an ending that fizzles out a bit, especially if you haven’t met some of the conditions of the larger story arc across the entire White Cycle.

It suffers from a lack of commitment to either of its two storylines – the meta-story of Time Stories, and the moment-to-moment plot of Madame itself – leaving both struggling to hold up to the level we’ve come to expect. Even as one of the weaker expansions it’s still quite fun, which says a lot for previous scenarios. It also seemed to be afraid to tackle the many mysteries within the overarching narrative, leaving far more on the table than I found permissible.

Time Stories’ previous expansions dealt with universe-altering consequences that compelled the player into action, letting them slowly chip away at what seemed to be an enormous mystery. These situations provide unforgettable “EUREKA!” moments that define one of the most unique aspects of this game. Madame just doesn’t operate on that level. In trying to avoid spoilers, I’m restricted in what I can say without veering into spoilers, other than the sense of urgency is constantly diminished, and you find yourself navigating a sea of red herrings that can become less intriguing and more of a nuisance once the pressing consequences are removed.

However, Madame was filled with the delectable flavor of 16th century Versailles. Every scene was stuffed with royal intrigue and, in its conclusion, offered some awesome sci-fi moments that left me with some gripping questions for the first chapter of its Blue Cycle.

You Say You Want a Revolution

So, let’s talk about the Revolution, shall we? Behind the scenes, the next era in Time Stories’ legacy is referred to as “The Blue Cycle”, and it feels appropriate, as the game will be changing in order to provide a more colorful experience. At its core, Revolution will also see a lot of huge changes that address previous fan requests in order to improve aspects of the game, as well as a few things that are unexpected and interesting.

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Time Stories Revolution will bring a lot of huge changes that address previous fan requests.

First, this board game is ditching the board. In fact, it won’t require anything from the base game box at all, which you traditionally have to have to let its expansions function. This was the thing that surprised me the most. Time Stories' incredible foundation is based in its board design. It provides a very defined way of organizing a complex experience into something that feels orderly, easy to understand, and makes subsequent playthroughs simpler to grasp. It provides a video game style UI, that not only reinforces the futuristic aspects, but benefits each future scenario by creating a recognizable system of play that is built upon to serve each individual setting.

After nine scenarios bound within the four corners of their board, Time Stories’ designers may be looking to free themselves up to do more outside of the lines of their pre-printed organizational system. In fact, recent expansions have been taking more and more liberties with it already, like Brotherhood of the Coast’s incredible ship combat.

Going forward, Time Stories will now run on a card/token-based system that will allow for more diverse opportunities than before. Tokens will be the new main currency rather than “time units” (the previously limited resource that ran down as you played). Token pools will be controlled (and spent) by individual players, rather than the group-wide cost of time units. There are many ways that this can impact gameplay. For example, as your pool of these tokens dwindles, you may find situations in the game change, or your connection to your receptacle affected in surprising ways. In order to avoid spoilers, I’m leaving this intentionally vague, but these choices are meant to not only change the group’s experience, but also your individual experience within the game.

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Time Stories’ designers are addressing one of the greatest concerns of its players: its length.

Second, Time Stories’ designers are addressing the greatest concern of its players: the length. Previous chapters in the series have required as many as TEN hours of play time for my group. While the expansions in White Cycle were able to be played in chunks with a box insert that can save your game state, I personally struggled to remember the immense amount of nuance and details from session to session. This forced my gaming group to commit full days (to my wife and daughter’s great dismay) in order to complete scenarios in one sitting. Within Revolution, expansions are going to be reduced to three to four hours to complete, with the intent to allow groups to complete them in a single evening. While I was initially concerned about the loss of depth, Space Cowboys is confident that the complexity and narrative quality will still remain.

Also, those looking for a deeper experience will have the opportunity to invest more time into something called the “Experience” expansion. This is something your group can run in between scenarios, which will provide connections benefiting the overarching story of the Revolution cycle. This will allow for character development and force each player to make choices between what is good for the group and personal progression. The Experience expansion will not work in the same sense as a normal expansion. Instead, it will provide what is essentially campaign rules for the cycle, but will provide you a named Time Agent, which you will use throughout the Revolution cycle. These agents will have special abilities that will change the scenario-based expansions in a way that playing such expansions alone would not allow.

Your time agent will evolve and gain new abilities based on the outcome of each scenario and you will also be afforded opportunities to modify your home base, rather than your individual agent. While the experience expansion is optional, it does provide for a wider continuity for dedicated players.

Finally, and probably most appealing to me, is the new cycle’s commitment to character and what sounds like much more rewarding role-playing elements that will have important consequences within each scenario. Receptacles will now come with their own deck of abilities, specific to different playstyles, and directly relate to each receptacle’s place within their world.

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NPCs that players run into will have different relationships with each receptacle, and they'll react accordingly.

Not only this, but the NPCs that players run into will have different relationships with each receptacle that will cause them to react accordingly, responding warmly to some while lying to, fighting, or fleeing from others. There is even a possibility that the relationships between the characters in your group will impact the outcome of certain scenes. This will now be reinforced in the box art, which previously featured an item related to the story within each scenario. Boxes will now prominently feature the receptacles you will be playing, in order to tie the player to the character and world they will be interacting with.

These fundamental changes within the game sound promising and look to offer even more flavor to a game ripe with historic appeal. I’m hoping that despite the shorter playtime, the puzzles, narrative depth, and cinematic storytelling will be preserved (if not heightened).

The Revolution cycle will also be comprised of nine entries, the first two of which were originally intended to be released in August, before being delayed with a target release for November. Revolution will be comprised of two different experiences. These are titled “A midsummer Night” and “The Hadal Project”, as well as the optional Experience expansion. Space Cowboys will also release something similar to Santo Tomás de Aquino, the mini prequel expansion to Brotherhood of the Coast, in order to allow players to test the new take on the game in an inexpensive way.

Space Cowboys also explained that they are looking to up the release frequency to offer three to four experiences per year, rather than the previous average of two per year.

It's About That Time

If my excitement for this series has caught your interest and you’d like to check out Time Stories yourself, I strongly advise playing these in the order of release. You can pick up the game and expansions at the links listed at the bottom of this article.

I can’t say enough good things about Time Stories’ ambitiousness and potential. It offers something unlike any other tabletop game I’ve played, marrying a dynamic story with thematic puzzles within immersive and rewarding gameplay. The level of excellence achieved is remarkable… most of the time, and even when it stumbles it does so in a way that remains interesting and unique.

I can’t wait to see what Revolution holds for the future (and past) of a fully-realized universe of Time Stories. In fact, having to wait this long is making me wish I could time travel.

I am a huge fan of this game, so if you have any questions or would like to talk more about it, hit me up on twitter.

If you’d like to check out The White Cycle, you can pick up the base game and all expansions below:

Also, if you wanna have some flashy looking components (which can only be used for The White Cycle), check out an optional transparent component set for Time Stories here.

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