There’s a reason casual time travel isn’t possible

Chrononauts is a game where you play as meddling time travelers, each with a secret agenda to alter the course of history to your own enigmatic ends. Played as a tabletop card game, it starts out with a grid of major historical events roughly covering the 20th Century. Each event along this timeline can be altered, and the alterations can lead to both consequences and opportunities.

Players take turns playing cards that can flip these cards over, changing the events of history as we know them and replacing them with new consequences. Certain special nexus points changing can cause paradoxes, causing ripple effects that alter the states of other changes made. The goal is to navigate the constantly shifting timeways to achieve your ideal timeline before one of your opponents manages to.

For example, if you sabotage the Manhattan Project, the bomb will never be dropped on Japan. Assassinating Herr Mustache doesn’t end or prevent WWII, but it might result in the allies losing if you don’t take measures to thwart his (more competent) replacement. You may even try for a gun-control Utopia if you manage to thwart the assassinations of MLK, RFK, and John Lennon.

History is made of clay but is harder to herd than cats.

You can also collect artifacts from across the timelines, with zany fun like collecting live dinosaurs, three different versions of the Mona Lisa (of varying authenticity), and a certain Sports Almanac that most certainly wasn’t left unattended by Marty McFly in 2015.

It’s a madcap romp of a game that’ll be begging for a weirdly adapted Hollywood film once it’s old enough to stir nostalgia. It’s lightweight strategically and easy enough to learn, but if someone flexes their brain, there is enough depth to outwit your opponents and earn wins rather than let card draws dictate your fate.

All in all, it’s a fun, accessible game that fits in a pack of playing cards, making it great for road trips or vacation downtime.