Chrononauts
What would YOU do with a Time Machine? Would you stop the sinking of the Titanic? Prevent the assassination of JFK? Kill Hitler before WWII? These are just a few of the possibilities in Chrononauts, the award-winning card game of time travel. To win, you must change history at key points called Linchpins, so that history transforms into the Alternate Reality your character calls home. You can also win by collecting a specific set of Artifacts, such as a live dinosaur, the Mona Lisa, and an unpublished Shakespearean play. But be careful - if you create too many paradoxes, you could destroy the entire universe!
Game Play
In this game, you are a Time Traveler, with a Secret Mission, a Secret Identity, and a very important job to do: Paradox Repair. You can win by fixing Paradoxes, gathering up the three rare Artifacts listed on your Mission, or adjusting history in the ways necessary to allow your character to return to their alternate reality. The constant changing of history is tracked by the TimeLine, which functions rather like a gameboard. The three ways to win provide for several different plotlines and layers of action, but you can also split the game up into two less complicated games: Solonauts (The Solitaire Game of Changing History) and Artifaxx (The Fluxx-style Game of Collecting Amazing Stuff).
Expansions
The Rest of Row E Expansion: This Chrononauts expansion pack fills out the rest of Row E—the 21st century so far. In the alternate universe you come from, did Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton win the 2016 elections? Did the Capitol Hill Insurrection happen or not? Did the Supreme Court overturn Roe vs. Wade or did we pass the Equal Rights Amendment? The Rest of Row E has three new timeline cards, two patches, one Sway Voting Inverter, and four new Identities that depend upon the new events. Expand your travels through time! PLEASE NOTE: Requires BOTH Chrononauts and The Gore Years to play.
Row E Card List:
- Timeline: Donald Trump Elected, Capitol Hill Insurrection, Roe vs Wade Overturned
- Patches: Trump Jailed for Tax Fraud, Equal Rights Amendment Adopted
- Inverter: Sway Voting
- IDs: Armstrong, Orange, Brandon, and Slade
Missing Artifacts Expansion: A time traveler’s work is never done. Get ready to add six new Mission cards to either (or both!) versions of Chrononauts! These new Missions will send you through time in search of missing treasures like one of the lost Fabergé Eggs, D.B. Cooper’s suitcase full of money, a gemstone from Mars, and even the Holy Grail itself, but make sure you choose the right one! The 18-card expansion even includes a couple of powerful new gadgets: the Reality Shifter and the Temporal Stabilizer!
Missing Artifacts Card List:
- Artifacts: Live Silphium Plant; Fully Functional Antikythera Mechanism; The Holy Grail; The Schmoly Grail; Cooper's Cash; Great Pyramid Construction Papyrus; Mars Gemstone; Lost Fabergé Egg; Throk-Trak Statuette
- Missions: Founder's Day; Cash and Prizes; Pyramid Schemes; Exotic
Flora and Fauna; Back to the Bible; Lost Technologies - Gadgets: Paradox Stabilizer; Reality Shifter
- Action: Sell an Artifact
The Gore Years Expansion: The early years of the 21st century have been known as the Bush years, but to some time travelers, they were actually called the Gore years... this 11-card expansion pack brings the timeline up to 2008! Find out what might have happened if the 2000 election had gone a different way! Prevent the 9/11 attacks! The Gore Years has five new timeline cards, three patches, and three new Identities that depend upon the new events. Expand your travels through time!
Gore Years Card List:
- Linchpins: George W. Bush Wins Presidency/Al Gore Wins Presidency (2000), World Trade Center Destroyed/Hijackings Thwarted (2001)
- Ripplepoints: War Continues in Afghanistan (2002), Saddam Hussein Captured (2003), First Black President Elected (2008)
- Patches: Statue of Liberty Destroyed (2002), Osama Bin Laden Captured (2003), First Female President Elected (2008)
- IDs: Vincent, Parker, and Mick
Lost Identities Expansion: This Chrononauts expansion pack contains 13 new Identity cards, plus a new Mission, to mix into your game. Now you've got to watch out for Crazy Joe, who wins with 13 paradoxes, and remember there's someone besides the Cockroach who wants WWIII! These 55-word character sketches for the new ID cards were chosen from nearly 100 fascinating fan-written entries submitted to our Nanofiction-writing contest.
Lost ID's Card List:
- IDs: Herbert, Rufus, Crazy Joe, Johnson, Mojo, Zane Reenak, Angela, Tiberius, Walter, Isaac, Dale, Mason, and Turtle
- Mission: The Most Toys