Miami Dice - T.I.M.E Stories: Brotherhood of the Coast

Tom, Zee, and Sam take a look at the newest module in the T.I.M.E Stories saga, Brotherhood of the Coast!!

00:00 - Introduction
01:37 - Thoughts on theming
02:15 - Gameplay discussion
04:38 - Comparing with previous modules
06:33 - Dislikes
17:24 - Final assessments before spoilers
21:44 - **SPOILERS**
30:02 - Conclusion

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[arcubal]

Yeah, I agree with all that was said in general about T.I.M.E. Stories. After Asylum already my group started researching ways to improve the game, because let's face it: if you are NOT having fun after a reset, because immersion becomes 'running through the motions' as quickly as possible, there is a serious flaw to the game.

So, our game designers, UX designers, and storytellers sat around the table and came up with the following modifications:
- Memory Cards (printouts). Each combat generates by default a Memory Card that allows you in future runs to reroll any of your dice once in the same combat. You make note of the particular combat on the card and mark how many times you've done that combat (= how many re-rolls you get). Thematic tie-in: you can predict your opponents move(s) because you've already seen them. Gameplay: lowers randomness over time.
- Time Branches (token & paper card). Teams get 5 Time Branch tokens, which act like save points. At crucial moments (as determined by the players) a Time Branch token can be placed on the timeline, with all the details of player locations, items found and a description written on the paper card. If a run fails, players can choose to 'upload' themselves to a specific Time Branch and restart from there, making different choices. Thematic tie-in: choosing a different outcome branches reality and the flow of time into a different stream. Gameplay: removes perceived action redundancy.
Not enough time? That brings us to the final modification...
- Space Stretches (token & board). With each new rerun the players may choose a specific TU to initiate the 'Stretch.' The Space Stretch token board is placed above/under the TU marker expanding that TU into 5 more TUs. The marker tracks those TUs normally but gives the players not only more time but also the ability to roll twice the number of dice on skill checks (including combat), due to their relative higher speed. Each new run generates 1 more Space Stretch for the next run. Thematic tie-in: having gone through a timeline already, time technicians can isolate specific events and temporarily stretch the difference in time between receptacle and environment. Gameplay: adds more time in general and a dice bonus at crucial story moments.

We've tested these 3 modifications to great success and heightened the enjoyment of players with 14 different player groups (ages 16-42) using 6 of 7 expansion sets.

[johna]

30 minute Miami Dice. Time to grab some popcorn.

I wish they would incorporate some ideas forward, like the jumping between people, save points, potions/spells to help, etc.

[stevemayne]

I agree with the combat problem. I enacted the house rule, that if you have to redo a combat you start with 4 successes per run.

[BaronMalovane]

The end game rewards should have been something you carried over and could be used once per run. Making them one use just turns them into something that gets stockpiled for fear of using it at the wrong moment.

[runelarsen]

Our group plays average 5-7 hours per story (typically 4-5 runs). Always go for exploring everything. Still a lot of fun. Played all so far but have not played this one yet. Usually play a new story every 6 months and finish it in one go. So far my top 3 are (best first);
Lumen Fidei
Estrella Drive
Prophesy of Dragons

[Aran.Tech.Television]

Overall Time Stories was too boring and redundant for me. The whole "you messed up, start all over and do the same thing with slight variations until you get it right" annoyed me from the first (and only) scenario I played. It's like reading a choose your own adventure book, but every time you got a bad ending you have to start from the beginning, not the last page you made a decision. I get that it's thematic, but that doesn't mean it makes for a good game.

[steveody]

We loved it really like all the modules so far. Yes the combat is sometimes rough but we use our "pills" that you earn every time. Same with the t.u. We play one rule wrong I think where when we get to a location you do one action free the first t.u. (look at the card and try the skill test or combat on the first t.u). We came by this naturally and just kept playing even after we discovered it but the game is fun and we still struggled. We did finish it in 2 runs actually (dont be mad at us Sam), it took about 3 hours and we got the best ending, kind of by accident. I really enjoy time stories and hope they continue to support it.

[eddieb]

I think Sam is looking forward to the episodes of time stories about the German postal system 😁😁

[skidawg]

Got this scenario played this evening. Finished it in 2 runs with some house ruling - and managed to get the Mission Successful scenario by making murder-death happen on the four brothers (Spoiler Alert: we did not turn evil).

I have now played all 8 official TS scenarios. Hard to rank them all, but Estrella Drive was easily the most difficult for me. Look forward to Madame and Hadal Project coming out whenever.

[VaultBoy]

We didn't finish the Asylum for T.I.M.E. Stories. I like the exploration part of the game and figuring out what items to get, what path to take, but the game really needs:
- A rewind mechanism to go back X actions.
- A save point system that makes it easy to start from a specific place in the story.

Also, the dice combat can really suck where you know that you've lost too much time and might as well start over.

[bricelory]

I had this feeling watching the playthroughs they put up...that the idea was cool, but if you had to rewind too frequently that it would be very cumbersome. That, and it seems like they had a combat system designed for a game with only a bit of combat and took it way past that original extent. If a module is combat heavy, make the system more robust and less punishing or random. I mean you are dealing with time travel...it could be cool to have a sequence where you rewind to the beginning od the fight and have to counter the enemy move-by-move, like Edge of Tomorrow (which you will note cut out a lot of the repetition once the idea was conveyed). Instead of having to start the whole thing over.

Glad I ended up missing the whole TIME stories thing, overall. Cool ideas but seems a bit all over the place

[ramonosuke]

I would've loved if the base game came with 3-4 adventures in the box. It's kind of annoying to have to wait and pay 25-30 dollars for one new adventure, and it's even worse if it's a dud. Maybe they'll release a big box with everything for a substantially good price, cause as is I will continue to avoid it. Just too expensive, for what I'm seeing, for my tastes. I think T.I.M.E Stories went the route of Assassin's Creed, where new stuff comes out just for the sake of coming out

[destrio]

I was fast forwarding runs of this game starting from the third adventure. That's when I knew the system was failing. The best part about this game was the first one so far.

[bradswrd]

Don't see where the love for prophecy comes from. We went the diversity route the first few runs (classic fighter/mage/cleric/rogue party) and had to learn the hard way, that this was the worst choice possible.
Spoiler alert:
3
2
1
For a successful run the game expects everybody to play similiar classes. Like everybody has to be a melee fighter, or a magic user, or dexterious.

[repthrd]

This was in my top 3 scenarios with Lumen Fidei and Asylum. The story was great and I liked the ending. I had none of the issues they talked about here. I also thought this one did a great job of actually making the next runs better for reasons....I think you need to give yourself some freedom to make the extra runs not monotonous but that is totally not a big deal. The experience and the overarching theme is really intriguing still. I just wish they put them out faster.

[Mandrake]

The problem with losing this is that when you replay, it's identical. It's not like other co-op games where if you lose and then play again, the game itself will play out differently. I love Time Stories but having to repeat it becomes its biggest flaw because it never changes. I like the stories and I like the art and I like the concept. It just sometimes feels like it failed the landing. It needs a way have like a metaphorical bookmark so that you can go back few pages to before you messed up. They could even make it work by letting you tailor the difficulty, like for easy you get 10 bookmarks and for a more challenging game you get five.

[pczplughead]

I'm still loving TIME Stories, don't often use any house rules or anything - the only time we definitely went "no way are we going back and doing all that again" was in Lumen Fidei at the end ... you know the big I mean if you've played it. Even in this one, we did three runs and it was still challenging enough. I hate to make this point, but I'm wondering if it is just that the choices the guys are making are impacting on how they're playing - character choices etc. We hosed a lot of rolls, but we were still able to use abilities we had etc to get through even the tough bits at the end. I know the reason they don't do live plays of it was they got sick of people criticising them for making poor choices ... but said "poor" choices might be why they are taking so many runs, which impacts the game etc.

Also, the ones they dislike the most (the Egypt one, the ones where you have to pick the 'right' path etc.) tend to be the ones I like the most! Each to their own :)

[jaretmorlan]

I feel like they have reached a point where they just don't like what the game is any more. Yes, you may not know whats ahead of you, but that's what the runs are for, so that you can make mistakes and learn from them. So you know what characters to take and what items to gather.

I'd be willing to bet that the primary issue is that they are playing the modules in a single sitting. My group does one run per week, no matter how short or long. This creates the episodic nature and requires us to remember what we did the week before and the reset becomes FUN and not tedious.

And the larger story is not important, its world building. I think they remain way too hung up on it. This is about the individual stories.

[Atariese]

How many runs did this take? We did it in 3 and it still felt like we explored 90% of it. Also we tend to do these scenereo's in two nights. It helps having a fresh perspective when you are trying to work thru puzzle after puzzle. I can see how you needed a few key items over and over, but we tend to group similar items together and take LOTS of notes. Ill also admit we cheat here and there, but its out of exploration and not trying to "win." The rules sometimes are needlessly complicated. BTW we did not get the best ending, but we are pretty satisfied with the one we got. And im afraid that if you didn't know any better you could have easily missed either of those options. In wich case, start over from scratch? Im not sure i like that idea.
I will also say that it seems that each scenereo is created in its own bubble. Good ideas and gimmicks are completely ignored for a few. This one's idea of holding onto 3 items when you restart is a fantastic idea that really needed to be implemented way back in marcy case. But the idea of a savestate, and being able to swap onto a new receptacle really need to come back. I feel like a few characters end up being completely useless where others are used constantly, and there is absolutely no way of knowing that untill you are halfway thru the scenereo.
We are starting to consider this less of a board game and more a RPG. Wich for our group is perfect. Each one of us are already involved with multiple RPG groups, the board games were a way to spice it up on fridays.

TLDR: still loving time stories. And this is a really good one.

[cbazler]

OMG, that bit about killing Bob had me rolling with laughter.