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T.I.M.E. Stories - Time Keeps on Slippin'

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18 Feb 2016 07:31 #222732 by Josh Look

Space Ghost wrote:

Josh Look wrote: As a board game, it's mechanically dull and terrible value. As an RPG/adventure game in a box, it features writing below Dragonlance level and the puzzle solving is essentially trial and error. The system shows potential, but I'm not going to start praising something that doesn't exist.


Sweet Jesus -- do you mean the Dragonlance main story or the side books? The main story was good enough as far as these things go, definitely better than most of the other writing in the TSR D&D worlds (Ravenloft, Spelljammer, etc.) . The spin-offs --- woo-boy, some of those were terrible.


I've read the main series and the Time of the Twins series in the last couple years....And while the main series has a fun enough story, it's told very, very poorly. The Drizzt books still rank below in writing quality (though I'd argue are better stories overall). I actually thought the Twin series was pretty well done. The side stories are indeed the pits, and that's where the writing and story in TIME Stories resides. I had fun playing, for sure, but that was entirely because I play games with fun people.

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18 Feb 2016 08:48 #222737 by charlest

Columbob wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: And one such way is to have these kinds of games that aren't replayable.


Furthermore, you can't really sell those used games either, as all the little "mysteries" have been revealed already, the Risk board is customized, etc. So people who are curious must shell out for the new copy, thereby increasing sales.


TIME Stories has no legacy elements and can be resold.

The Legacy games were not developed the way they are for monetary reasons. I talked to Rob about this and the amount of time it takes him to design and develop a Legacy game is astronomical compared to a regular design.

He never thought they'd even take off and had to keep Risk Legacy a secret from Hasbro until it was later in development. They're more rooted in RPG story telling than any capitalist approach.

I get that being cynical is a requirement to be a member of FAT, but sometimes it gets a little old.



Dave - Tragedy Looper and TIME Stories are nothing alike.

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18 Feb 2016 09:56 #222742 by Columbob

charlest wrote:

Columbob wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: And one such way is to have these kinds of games that aren't replayable.


Furthermore, you can't really sell those used games either, as all the little "mysteries" have been revealed already, the Risk board is customized, etc. So people who are curious must shell out for the new copy, thereby increasing sales.

The Legacy games were not developed the way they are for monetary reasons. I talked to Rob about this and the amount of time it takes him to design and develop a Legacy game is astronomical compared to a regular design.


I get that and I'm not begrudging the author the deserved success for his long and arduous work on these titles. But as a consumer, we have to be aware that once the game is bought and played, we're never really gonna be able to get rid of it for any kind of money. Sure you can always use it for regular Risk or Pandemic games, or whatever the next title will be, but still. Nobody who knows games will want a used copy of any Legacy title, as long as it will be availble off the shelf.

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18 Feb 2016 11:11 #222751 by hotseatgames
If I ever get to the point where I don't want to buy a game because I won't be able to re-sell it, kill me.
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18 Feb 2016 11:15 #222752 by Black Barney
I'm not buying food ANYMORE

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18 Feb 2016 12:23 #222755 by Space Ghost

Josh Look wrote:

Space Ghost wrote:

Josh Look wrote: As a board game, it's mechanically dull and terrible value. As an RPG/adventure game in a box, it features writing below Dragonlance level and the puzzle solving is essentially trial and error. The system shows potential, but I'm not going to start praising something that doesn't exist.


Sweet Jesus -- do you mean the Dragonlance main story or the side books? The main story was good enough as far as these things go, definitely better than most of the other writing in the TSR D&D worlds (Ravenloft, Spelljammer, etc.) . The spin-offs --- woo-boy, some of those were terrible.


I've read the main series and the Time of the Twins series in the last couple years....And while the main series has a fun enough story, it's told very, very poorly. The Drizzt books still rank below in writing quality (though I'd argue are better stories overall). I actually thought the Twin series was pretty well done. The side stories are indeed the pits, and that's where the writing and story in TIME Stories resides. I had fun playing, for sure, but that was entirely because I play games with fun people.


I think the main series is ok -- as you said, could have a been done better. Weiss and Hickman both improved as they wrote more; the Tales of the Lance was the first fantasy book either had ever written. Further, Dragons of Autumn Twilight was hamstrung because TSR wanted it to mirror the RPG modules that were already released. Dragons of Winter Night and Spring Dawning improved because they were free to write the stories first -- which, in my opinion, also improved the latter D&D modules.

As you said, they really improved with the Twin series. And, I would argue both their Darksword Trilogy and the Deathgate Cycle that they wrote after they left TSR is better than any of the TSR books, with the Deathgate Cycle being the better of the two. Their return for the Lost Chronicles and the Dark Disciple series were better than the original work.

But, nothing is going to save the spin-offs. I challenge some to get through the Meetings Sextet series -- read them in high school. Still have them, but can't bear to reread them.

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18 Feb 2016 12:36 #222757 by SuperflyPete

Black Barney wrote: I'm not buying food ANYMORE


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18 Feb 2016 13:23 #222763 by Black Barney
lol, they cut that clip short! The best part is when it goes back and Bart is pretending to be cleaning his back with a stick and then starts chasing Lisa around trying to touch her with it,. "EWWWWW! MOM!"

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18 Feb 2016 14:20 #222767 by panzerattack

charlest wrote:

Columbob wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: And one such way is to have these kinds of games that aren't replayable.


Furthermore, you can't really sell those used games either, as all the little "mysteries" have been revealed already, the Risk board is customized, etc. So people who are curious must shell out for the new copy, thereby increasing sales.


TIME Stories has no legacy elements and can be resold.

The Legacy games were not developed the way they are for monetary reasons. I talked to Rob about this and the amount of time it takes him to design and develop a Legacy game is astronomical compared to a regular design.

He never thought they'd even take off and had to keep Risk Legacy a secret from Hasbro until it was later in development. They're more rooted in RPG story telling than any capitalist approach.

I get that being cynical is a requirement to be a member of FAT, but sometimes it gets a little old.



Dave - Tragedy Looper and TIME Stories are nothing alike.


Logically speaking the Legacy design should work against sales. I know people get their knickers in a twist about the fact that once you've finished the campaign in a legacy game you need to re-buy the game if you want to play it again but realistically speaking how many people do you think do that? Not many I'd bet. On the other hand, if you've got a gaming group and one of them owns a Legacy game what're the chances of anyone else in the group buying the same game for their own collection? Very low I'd imagine as they'd already have experienced all the surprises.

Regarding TIME stories - only played the first scenario but it was the most fun I've had with a board game in years. Yes it was a one shot but totally worth it.

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19 Feb 2016 15:23 #222868 by Egg Shen
So I was thinking...Space Cowboys is part of Asmodee. Which means that T.I.M.E. Stories technically has access to all of FFG's lineup of "worlds". Given how well this game is selling, how long before we get an "Android T.I.M.E. Stories" or "Arkham Horror: T.I.M.E. Stories"? They could easily remove the time traveling thing and just make stand alone games in these FFG settings. Big companies like to synergize brands and use other corporate buzzwords...so who else thinks this might become a thing?

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20 Feb 2016 11:46 #222895 by ubarose
I think T.IM.E. Stories feels like one of those murder mystery dinner party games/kits, with a bit more structure and a bit less fragile. If you assess those murder mystery games by the typical benchmarks used for games or mystery writing, they were totally lame and you could only use them once and then maybe pass them on or trade them off. However, that did not detract from the fact that they were totally fun. So fun that they spawned an entire business of participatory murder mystery dinner theatre.

So I agree with Egg. T.IM.E. Stories is odd, and shouldn't work, but is really fun, enjoyable, and very social. We didn't get very far into the game before we failed, but I can already tell the story is going in a completely stupid direction, and the end will probably be disappointing. However, I am looking forward to playing again. I can definitely see playing it with family. Although Egg says that the story line is not really appropriate for kids. I haven't found anything really objectionable so far.
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21 Feb 2016 12:10 - 21 Feb 2016 16:21 #222933 by Josh Look

ubarose wrote: I think T.IM.E. Stories feels like one of those murder mystery dinner party games/kits, with a bit more structure and a bit less fragile. If you assess those murder mystery games by the typical benchmarks used for games or mystery writing, they were totally lame and you could only use them once and then maybe pass them on or trade them off. However, that did not detract from the fact that they were totally fun. So fun that they spawned an entire business of participatory murder mystery dinner theatre.

So I agree with Egg. T.IM.E. Stories is odd, and shouldn't work, but is really fun, enjoyable, and very social. We didn't get very far into the game before we failed, but I can already tell the story is going in a completely stupid direction, and the end will probably be disappointing. However, I am looking forward to playing again. I can definitely see playing it with family. Although Egg says that the story line is not really appropriate for kids. I haven't found anything really objectionable so far.


Well, there's the cocaine and the nymphomaniac, for starters.

You know, we're actually on the same page. It's not that it's not fun. I had fun, sure. Most fun had in a long time kind of fun though? Not even close. But I had a good time with it.

What gets me going is the sheer HYPE over it and what that hype is claiming about the game. That stuff simply isn't there. As some one (too lazy to scroll up right now) perfectly put it, people are treating it like they had a seance with it. Please, people. Give me a break.

Above all else, my beef with it comes down to this: It's being touted as a storytelling game. Fine, that's what it does and the means with which it does that are pretty innovative and with the right story and flourishes in mechanics someone could do something really, really remarkable. But I want a storytelling game that tells better stories. Tales of the Arabian Nights already tells wacky, fun stories and packs more of a game in there was well. It's still the better _game_ by far, and those stories are pretty wacky already, so it all works. Here with TIME Stories, someone has devised a really great way to push storytelling games to the next level and tell better stories, but we're still stuck in pandering-gamer-nerd-land and doing nothing to to elevate the low-set bar on storytelling in board games. And people are like, "Yeah! I'm totally okay with this! Give me more!" It's those people who we can thank for not having nice things. Thanks for nothing, jerks.
Last edit: 21 Feb 2016 16:21 by Josh Look.

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22 Feb 2016 08:54 - 22 Feb 2016 08:55 #222967 by charlest

Josh Look wrote: It's those people who we can thank for not having nice things. Thanks for nothing, jerks.


Don't worry, the new Imperial Assault mini expansions are out.
Last edit: 22 Feb 2016 08:55 by charlest.

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22 Feb 2016 09:28 #222970 by Josh Look

charlest wrote:

Josh Look wrote: It's those people who we can thank for not having nice things. Thanks for nothing, jerks.


Don't worry, the new Imperial Assault mini expansions are out.


Hey, don't look at me. I don't buy those.

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22 Feb 2016 10:00 #222974 by charlest

Josh Look wrote:

charlest wrote:

Josh Look wrote: It's those people who we can thank for not having nice things. Thanks for nothing, jerks.


Don't worry, the new Imperial Assault mini expansions are out.


Hey, don't look at me. I don't buy those.


Buzzkill.
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