Tag Archives: weekly blog

GOTW: T.I.M.E. Stories

This week, we played a narrative mystery game called T.I.M.E. Stories. In the game you play the part of a team of time travelers sent by an organization to stop a temporal fault from occurring. Our team consisted of four players, each of which took over a receptacle (a host body) in order to explore a specific moment in time and space to stop the fault from forming. The hosts you can play as all have different strengths and weaknesses as well as abilities that can come in handy throughout a run. As a team you explore several locations across a map, fighting off enemies and solving puzzles. However, time is limited, as the organization that sent you there can only hold the link for so long before you are forced back into reality. Many roles have special abilities that can be used throughout the game to gain the upper hand for a player’s given team. The goal of the game is to successfully complete the mission in as few runs as possible, by solving the many puzzles found throughout the map.

Our story started right before we were to be connected to our hosts, and we were briefed on what we needed to do. Our team is sent back to a mental health asylum in 1921. My character was Marie Bertholet. The other characters we had were Felix Bonnunfant, Edith Jolibois, and Mademoiselle Doume. So, we set out to explore the asylum, finding keys, breaking into lockers, and trying (failing) to steal the key off a doctor in the kitchen. Playing as Marie gave me some advantages, especially when it came to the speech skill. I was able to turn any speech roll I made into a minor success. Using her to speak proved very useful in many situations throughout the asylum. However, there was one scenario with a particular orderly that was not so successful. Overall, our team seemed to move quite well, cooperating with each other, and noting down anything we found important as we went. None of us lost any health during the first part of the game, more so having issues with time as we often rolled high on the time lost dice. Our team actually worked quite well together, collectively coming to decisions, and helping each other out as much as possible. We found the secret passageway after murdering Dr. Hyacinth. By the end of the session, we had gathered two pages of a book. Unfortunately, we are near the end of our time loop, and likely will lose everything next week. However, with the knowledge we gained this week, our team should be able to proceed quite easily. I am excited to see what happens.

The hardest part of the game was deciding which options were important with the time we had remaining. While our group was very good at gathering and using information and items, we often ran into issues that cost us precious time points. Our team actually did really well with working together and sharing authority. Our abilities were actually spread pretty evenly, allowing us to prioritize where each of us should go ahead of time so that we worked as efficiently in a new location as we could. I actually believe that that is a way each of us showed leadership. While each of us took on the Time Captain role at least once, we each collaborated and based our decisions on where our strengths lie. The only time other than that that I saw leadership come into effect was deciding where to travel next. Typically, one person would propose moving locations, and then we would all agree on a location.

I loved this game so far. I love games that dig deep into lore, and this one definitely dug deep. I also thought that the mechanics really complimented it well. I loved the exploration aspect as well as the collaborative play. We all had the same goal, which I have not seen much in games I have played recently. I liked the risks we all took, as we all were curious to discover every little secret in the game. This both lead us to learn a lot in our first run, while also being something that cost us a lot of time (I am looking at you moon step man). This being said, this game definitely feels like a game you can only play once. I know there are other decks out there as well, so that makes me a bit tempted to purchase it for myself and play it with my friends. I think my friends Xavier, Katie, Korben, and Roai would love this type of game. They love narrative based games just as much as I do.

fiasco week 2

This was week 2 of playing fiasco and I really felt the progress and got into it this week. It was so much fun that I decided to do the fiasco playset assignment. I’ve been on a bit of a kick for both westerns and space things so  it works out that I got to play the western and make a space fiasco. It went a bit less smoothly than I expected and the instructions on the tilt were a bit messy but it was so much fun the entire time!

It took a bit of effort to start the story-telling aspect. I think it was a bit easier for me than the rest of my group as I’ve been a dungeon master for my friends for I think about 3 years give or take. I’m used to setting the scene, building up the characters and giving motivation, it’s a requirement for DMs to be able to do that. Fiasco was even easier because I didn’t need to plant things for others to find or set up things before and after, it was just the one scene. Once we went once around the table we all got really into it and came up with some elaborate and engaging ideas. We were even talking about it during the tilt and where we thought we’d go with act 2.

The leadership aspect in this game is knowing when to take the lead but also knowing when to step back and let another person shine. I think everyone thinks that leadership inherently makes others follow, and while yes to an extent someone will be “in charge” I think leadership is really about coming together and finding each person a part to take charge of in a given project. Fiasco really highlights this idea in a way beyond words.

fiasco week 1

This week we played fiasco! At first I wasn’t too interested in it but once I watched the videos and read a bit it really got my wheels turning. It is a fast-paced diceless RPG which revolves around snap choices and improv. It seems more complex than it is at first glance but we really hit a stride and found our groove eventually.

Online connection was still a struggle but we got together in 15 minutes instead of 30 this time! Progress! The most difficult part of the game was following the dice guidelines, we really wanted to use some specifics but we were really limited by the dice we rolled which was a little disappointing. I also think we had some organizational issues and that concerns me for our next round of playing.

I think this game has an interesting view on leadership, that being co-leadership and collaboration. The entire game needs you to lean on the other players and to work with them and build the story. This has its predicted troubles and successes like having difficulty with having different motives or ideas but also the success of working together and having different viewpoints.