Don’t forget that some of the most common questions are already answered on the rulesheet included with the game!
Also, be sure to check our dedicated BTTF:Card Game FAQ
IMPORTANT NOTE
This game is out of print. The license with Universal expired at the end of 2012, so Looney Labs will no longer be manufacturing it.
TRIVIA QUESTIONS
How can the ending work? If you un-invent time travel, won't you undo all of the changes made using time travel?
Well… yes, technically that's probably true. Another possibility is that it would create a major paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe! The point is, it just makes for a better game to imagine that everything freezes as last altered. Basically it comes down to Artistic License. It's kind of like how things worked in the original movies: did it really make sense that images of people would be gradually erased from photographs, from top to bottom, during time spent in the past? No, but it made for a better movie. So it is here: Un-inventing time travel makes for a great end-game moment, even if it doesn't quite make sense from a temporal physics standpoint.
What is Cusco?
The cardback for the ID cards is made to look like the Employee ID badge worn by middle-aged Marty in the year 2015. Therefore, Cusco is the company he works for in the future. It's never been made clear what that company actually does.
Most of the names on the character cards are unfamiliar to me. Do they all appear in the movies?
No. Most of 10 characters in the game are entirely new. The idea is, these are people from further into the future, characters we can only guess about, guys like Marty McFly III, or descendants of Biff with names like Buffy Tannen and Tiffany Tannen. The only exception is Verne Brown, the younger of the little boys seen at the end of the last movie. He's all grown up now, and getting into trouble with his daddy’s Time Train...
Can you give us more specifics on the new identities?
Here are Andy's thoughts about each character’s backstory:
- Verne Brown: Verne is the younger son of Dr. Emmett Brown. He can only exist if Doc and Clara both avoid death and then get married in 1885.
- Marty McFly III: This is Marty's grandson from the timeline where Marty was a corporate flunky not a rock star, but Marty Jr. did not go to jail as a youth.
- Buffy Tannen: Both Buffy and Tiffany Tannen depend on Buford being arrested for stagecoach robbery, not murder. But otherwise, the Tannen girls are very different, with Buffy descending from Biff & Lorraine in a rather mundane timeline in which Biff is George's boss and Marty McFly never existed.
- Tiffany Tannen: Tiffany on the other hand is the daughter of Lorraine and Biff-who-got-the-Almanac. Although her existence is difficult to imagine, she’d be Marty’s half-sister!
- Clay Strickland: Clay is from a timeline where Clara Clayton survived the ravine, and yet never met Doc Brown. Instead she ends up with Marshall Strickland (or maybe his brother or uncle) and after a few generations we find a guy named Clay Strickland who somehow gets involved in the unwritten future adventures that tie all these characters together. Clay is from a family of teachers, lawmen, and school administrators, so he's not going to tolerate any slackers!
- Clara Wilson: This character is a descendant of the Clara Clayton who survived the ravine, and someone from the family line of Mayor Goldie Wilson. Her future depends on Biff not getting the almanac because otherwise he interferes with Goldie’s campaign to become Mayor. Clara's middle name actually is Progress.
- Darlene Needles: Darlene is from a family with a troubled history. She grew up in the world where Biff was rich, her mother did twenty years in jail for attempting to jailbreak her uncle, and her grandfather is Marty's shady friend Needles. Watch out for her!
- Marlin Berry: This guy is rock-and-roll royalty. Not only is he the son of next-gen rock legend Marlene McFly (whose father was the lead singer from Marty and the Pinheads), Marlin also traces his family line back to Chuck Berry's cousin Marvin (of whom we caught just a glimpse during his performance at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in 1955). Marlin even has famous sci-fi author George McFly in his family tree! He's the coolest.
- Electra McFly: Electra is the daughter of rock star Marty in a timeline where he grew up as the stepson of Biff Tannen. Note that Electra's timeline requirements aren't really quite right, since it’s possible for her to win the game with Biff marrying Lorraine in 1973 even if George fails to kiss Lorraine at the dance. But since her name is McFly, it means that in her timeline George still finds a way to woo and marry Lorraine -- and also eventually suffer an untimely death -- before Biff swoops in to marry Lorraine and become her children’s stepfather.
- Jules McFly: Jules is a descendant of a rock star who was the son of a noted sci-fi author. His first name also suggests some sort of relation to Doc Brown's son Jules, though that’s not actually indicated in his timeline requirements.
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