Board Game Reviews Ep #61: T.I.M.E STORIES

This board game was sent to me by Asmodee:

T.I.M.E Stories on BoardGameGeek:

My Let's Play channel, Press Buttons n Talk:
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[liamcollier]

Finally, I love this game. My only issue is not finding good fun loyal players...

[webbc]

In terms of replaying, as long as one person is new it's great fun to replay. Just let them make the decisions. Some of the other campaigns are super good, and they do lean a bit more on the secrecy of reading cards.

[michaelwallace]

We did the first scenario several years ago and, honestly, the moment we figured out the circle puzzle was the greatest board game moment we ever had as a crew

[SebLeCaribou]

I love this game! It might actually be one of my favorite board games. The things you need to understand to recommend a purchase or not is this: do you have someone you will play the extensions with? Are you willing to pay for the extensions? My roomate bought it before we started living together but once we played the first scenario within the main box we bought all the extension together and there are all great additions.

The base game is just that: a base. You expend on it with the same rule-set adding just new decks of cards with new scenarios and sometimes new interpretation of the base rule-set. The main box is a bit expensive, but it's a great value if you plan on playing all the stories.

I would say, it's an entry point for roleplaying too. If you have some really casual player friends around, that don't want to bother with the character creation or you don't have a good GM/DM, that's a great game. You have the dicerolls, the stories, a bit of the roleplaying part, but the game and the rule-set guide you. Plus it has the appeal of the Assassin's Creed series, meaning each extension is a new location and a new point in history (or a new universe).


Oh and as for the not telling the others what's on the card thing...we didn't bother AT ALL for most of the game. In certain extensions, you'll see that you really need to follow the rule but it's super situational and you will understand looking/reading at the card that you must keep what you are seeing to yourself. And the creators know that because it's specified that you can't read/paraphrase/explain what you are looking at on the card. So don't bother honestly, let everyone enjoy the drawings, the dialogues and atmosphere.

[gull]

sungwon, the more i hear you play ACNL music as background music, the more i suspect we are all simply villagers in your very large town.

[duchi]

*I'm curious to know*
the Board Game you played when you suddenly told your friends you can recite any line from the Peter Pan animated movie

[varsoonhks]

Just bought this and seven of the eight expansion modules for it for a flat hundred dollars from a friend who played through it all. I think that's probably the best way to pass it on if you're not keen on owning it. A lot of people get up in arms about the 'no replayability' aspect when I've had a lot of fun backseating to new players taking the helm of scenarios. As you said, it's not all that expensive if your group of four all chips in.

The other major issue people seem to have with the game is the RNG and recursive nature of the game. People can miss a detail or a key and have to replay a scenario three or four times, at which point laying out the cards and doing the same challenges can feel really rote. I've houseruled that we can make a 'quick save' where a player writes down our current TU, location, items, status, and so on--then, as a group, if we fail, we can just return to that 'quick save' rather than the start of the whole thing. Such a huge aspect of the game is recursively going back through time and optimizing your run and if that's not something people are into, it makes me wonder why they purchased a game where that's the defining central mechanic.

It's a really fun time and I'm glad to see you having a jam with it. Can't recommend it enough for people who like immersive, puzzle-solving sorts of adventures. Has light roleplay elements that you can really lean into at your own leisure, too.

[therenliadon]

All I hear is ProZD when I play as fl4k and its great

[PontusWelin]

This is one of my absolute favorite boardgames. Right behind pandemic legacy 1&2 for me I think.
Totally worth the money for a very fun and immersive game.
You do however have to like, or at least be OK with, puzzles and deductive problem solving to like the game.

[MsMiniGiraffes]

My husband and I own all the expansions of this game, and I love (minus the Marcy Case, that was more combat, less puzzles, I found it disappointing) how each expansion grows and adds new mechanics that make it more interesting to play. Since there's only two of us we each play as two characters which works just fine, plus we've gone back and played some of them a second time with friends who hadn't played before. It's one of my favorite games.

[DreamySDSD]

Just wanna say you did a fantastic job with fl4k sir!

[Nionivek]

I looove board games but my lack of people to play with in real life has created my philosophy: Table Top Simulator or bust.

[UteLube]

Me and my mates just got this game, what a fantastic time to review it, thanks! :)

[jamesplatt]

HOLY SHIT I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU VOICED FL4K

[BigHomie]

Hm, you ever wonder how many people are technically playing as you?

[MrLionniol]

This is a really fun game that I played together with my friends a bunch but we always seem to get the bad ending.

[Swayto-]

Huh, for some reason, this ProZD guy looks like the character in RocketJump.
I wonder why.

[gravityman]

Your guy Fl4k is the best just saying!

[jedi]

The base TIME Stories and the Marcy Case are probably the only two strongest cases. The main issue this whole game hits as you get more and more cases is that the game gets tedious about running through the whole case over and over. I thought the 3rd case (A Prophecy of Dragons) was ok and the 4th case (Under the Mask) is where I dropped off. If you want an Escape room puzzles the Unlock or Exit series are just far better and shorter. They are also cheaper. TIME Stories is about to get a new cycle called TIME Stories Revolution which will hopefully cut down on the tediousness of the first set.

[abnerdwight]

Frankly. Id hire people to play this with me. Srsly.
Also, love that background music. Nice touch.