Star Trek Chrono-Trek is one of those “what if” games, what if you would go back in history and mess with it, how that would that change the timeline we are in?
I will admit that I have never played the original Chrononauts game in which this is based on. But I enjoyed this nonetheless.
The rules are pretty simple to pick up as is the set up of the game.
- Separate all the cards: Timeline, ID, and Main.
- The timeline is set up easy with you arranging the 36 Timeline cards into a 4 x 9 grid. Each Timeline card will have a letter-number combination in the bottom left corner. The top row will be A1 through A9 with A1 starting on the left. The second row will be B1 to B9 following the same process. The same is done for the C and D rows. All cards in the timeline will be placed with the blue or purple side face up.
- Shuffle the ID cards and have each player take one card randomly. For your first game, it is recommended you only use the cards with one dot under the character’s name. The number of dots determines the difficulty of the card. Players should keep their ID cards secret from the other players.
- Shuffle the main deck of cards and deal three cards to each player. The deck is placed face down where everyone can reach it. If the players have ID cards of different difficulties, players will adjust their number of main deck cards based on their character’s difficulty. Players with characters with one or two difficulty will discard cards of their choice to get down to a number of cards equal to their difficulty level. Players with characters with four difficulty will draw one more main deck card.
- If one player has an ID card more difficult than all the other players’ ID cards, that player will start the game. Otherwise, the player who has most recently watched an episode of Star Trek will go first.
The gameplay is fairly easy as well, On a player’s turn, they draw a card and then may play a card, if you choose not to play a card, you may draw 2 cards.
The goal of the game is to manipulate the timeline in order to get it to match your ID card.
There are certain points in the timeline that you can effect, these are called Linchpins.
You will affect the Linchpins by playing Inverter cards. When an Inverter is played, a chosen a linchpin card is flipped over. These are usually key points in the Star Trek timeline. For example what if Picard was never stabbed? Or what if K7 Never ran over with Tribbles? When a linchpin is flipped, it will also flip one or more ripple points down the timeline.
There are also cards that are anchor points. These are not flipped by players, but by events are drawn from the deck. These represent the Devron Anomaly from Next Generation time fame. The anomaly grows in size as it goes back in the timeline and if all five get flipped, all players lose. So you are trying not let this happen.
Also, you must be aware of Fractures. When one is played to the timeline, nothing after it can count for a win condition.
The game is played until one player wins by matching the requirements noted on their ID card. Usually at least one artifact in play and some timeline adjustments.
Star Trek Chrono-Trek features fairly quick play, ranging from 15 to 45 minutes. If you want a tougher and longer game choosing characters with more pips will have a tougher time achieving their complex goals.
I would have to say you have to be a hardcore Trekkies to keep up with most of the timeline changes and things you are affecting, I found myself not really knowing what I just did to the timeline (In terms of the lore of Star Trek), So I think Trekkies will LOVE this game very much, I enjoyed it a lot myself, but not as much as I think a Star Trek fan would, it’s a great designed fun game and easy to learn and teach, so there is no reason not to give it a shot, just keep in mind you will enjoy it a bit more if you are a Trekkie!
Star Trek Chrono-Trek can be purchased directly from Looney Labs, or from Amazon.
Looney Labs provided our copy of Star Trek Chrono-Trek for this review, this is no way had any outcome on the review and my opinions of the game.
*Note the above Amazon link is an AFFILIATE LINKS, DDO Players will get a small percent of the sale, this is another way you can help support the site*
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