User:St.Just74/sandbox

Lost in Time (Card game)
Lost in Time is a card game designed by Jason St.Just and published by Chronos Productions in september 2017. The card game consists of 88 cards, one player's manual and a VIP card influence reference sheet. There are three versions included in the game: a basic version for 2 to 4 players ages 10 and up, a more difficult semi-cooperative The Time Bandits version for 2 to 4 players ages 14 and up and finally a solo version. The game follows a hand management mechanic.

The Cards
Included in the game are 52 event cards of which: and
 * 8 cards with historical events from Antiquity (yellow)
 * 8 cards with historical events from the Middle Ages (red)
 * 10 cards with historical events from the Renaissance (purple)
 * 11 cards with historical events from the Enlightenment (orange)
 * 15 cards with historical events from Modern times (blue)
 * 11 VIP cards with historical greats (grey and green text)
 * 12 Disaster cards with historical events dealing with war, disease or disasters (grey and red text)
 * 12 Item cards (First Aid kit, Laser pointer, Gas mask, Life jacket, Bulletproof vest and Winter coat)
 * 1 Chronos card (red arrow and blue arrow) which determines the direction of travel - past or future

Lost in Time (Basic version)
It's the year 2031. The players are the very first time travelers and have been sent to the past. Unfortunately their time machine does not work as it is supposed to and they are encountering problems getting back to their own time. Objective of the game is to get back to the year 2031. Each of the players will have to build their own timeline. Once an 8th card has been added to a timeline, the game round is completed and the game ends. The player that has traveled the closest to the year 2031 has won the game. The player that traveled beyond the year 2031 will create a paradox and will have lost the game.

How to play?
The challenge of the game is deciding when and if to travel to a famous great (VIP card) which will provide the player with a bonus of 10 years or to a disaster which will provide a bonus of 20 years. Of course this is a risk as players don't want to overjump the year 2031. Alternatively a VIP card can be played on a rival to blindly steal one card out of his hand, while a disaster card can be played on a rival to make him skip a turn. A second challenge for the players is that they all must follow the direction of travel. If the red arrow is visible on the Chronos card they can only travel to the past - older than the oldest card on their timeline. If the blue arrow is visible on the Chronos card, then the players can only travel to the future - younger than the youngest card on their timeline. If a player is unable to place a card on his timeline because he is not in possession of a card corresponding to the current direction of play, then he runs the risk of losing a card on his timeline - his timeline will implode. The direction of travel in which the players must build their timeline each turn is always determined by the top card on the discard pile at the end of the previous game round.

The Time Bandits (semi-cooperative)
It's 7 years after the first humans have traveled to the past...and back. By way of corruption and corporate espionage, an illegal organization has managed to steal data about time travel, has created it's own time machine and has been sending their henchman into the past to gather important historical objects. Once they have returned, these objects are then sold on the black market with much profit. Problem is that by stealing these objects and by showing themselves in the past, they are altering the future. In order to end these illegal practice the government has rigourously trained secret agents and sent them to the past to find these thieves and arrest them. In this more difficult version the players are divided into thieves and secret agents. The time bandits win the game if they each manage to steal four historical objects - represented by the payment chips - by the time the 8th card has been played. The agents must eliminate or arrest the thieves before the 8th card has been placed on a timeline after which the round is still completed before the game ends.

How to play?
For the Time Bandits version the 12 item cards are used. Two of them are blindly dealt to each player before the remainder are added to the deck. These are the items the travelers will take with them in their knapsack through the centuries. All players are dealt their own deck of 18 cards which are placed face down in front of each player. This deck of cards represents the time travelers energy, allowing him to travel through the ages. Traveling through time happens in the same way as in the basic version: all of the players have their own timeline and must build according to the direction of travel. The effect of the VIP & Disaster cards have now changed. A player can now enjoy the friendship of a famous great and can now also send a rival to a disaster in the past. By placing a famous great on their timeline, the owner and his colleague are protected against disasters and capture in the time of influence of that VIP card. If however, a rival ends up in the period of influence of that famous great, he will be hunted down, captured and forced to offer 5 cards from his stack to the owner of the famous great. Disaster cards can be played on the timeline of an opponent on condition that it matches with the direction of play. If a player ends up in a disaster, he must be in possession of the required item as shown on the disaster card. If the player does not possess the item and he is not protected by a famous great matching that period in history, then the player will lose energy from his pile: 5 cards from his pile will be added to the energy pool in the middle of the playing area. Obviously, when a player does not have enough energy left to conjure a wormhole, he will be Lost in Time.

How to arrest?
The secret agents must work together to try to 'block' the bandits in time so that they can be arrested. When a bandit must skip a turn because he is unable to travel into time (the cards in his hand do not match the direction of play), if he is captured by a famous great (he was forced to travel to a period owned by a VIP card from a secret agent) or if he needed to replenish his energy pile, then the agents are in the possibility to arrest him IF they can travel within 50 years of the thief's location. So if the direction of play is to the future and the time bandit is stuck in the year 1880, the agents can arrest him if they are able to travel to the years 1903, 1912, 1913, 1916, 1928 or 1929.

Solo version
In the solo version the player - researcher in the PROSPERO lab where time travel is being researched - has just managed to save himself from a terrorist attack by jumping into the past. The time machine has been damaged during the attack and parts of it have been strewn across the ages. By building his timeline the player must attempt to get back as close to the year 2031 in order to prevent the attack on the lab. If the lonesome chrononaut manages to find the four damaged parts of his time machine (in the form of data chips on the cards), these parts will help him achieve his goal.

How to play?
The player chooses two item cards which he will take with him in his backpack. The remaining item cards are added to the deck of cards and shuffled. The entire deck of cards represents the player's energy, allowing him to travel through time. When it is empty, the game ends, leaving the player Lost in Time... By dividing the entire stack into a number of smaller stacks the player can choose to start with one starting battery and 1, 2 or 3 reserve batteries - just in case the starting battery runs out. In a turn, the player will be required to conjure up a wormhole by turning over a predetermined number of cards from one of his battery packs, thereby revealing a potential destination in time. The player can choose to add the revealed card to his timeline or not. If he does not, he continues to count in the required sequence - thereby using more of his battery! The counting sequence is determined by the arrow on the previous card added to the players timeline. If a blue arrow was revealed, the player will have to travel to the future, thereby turning over the cards in his hand in the following sequence: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. If a red arrow was revealed, the player will have to travel to the past, thereby turning over the cards in his hand in the following sequence: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. When a VIP card is revealed, this famous great can become the player's ally or enemy depending on the direction of play. When a disaster card is revealed and the player does not possess the required item as shown on the card or has not made himself an ally in that period of history, then the player will be penalized for the rest of the game by losing a step in the counting sequence of the cards. If however, a card with a data chip is revealed AND the player is able to add it to his timeline, then he will be able to repair his time machine making a victory much more certain:
 * 1st data chip (Floyd Navigator module) allows the player to always reveal the last card of his battery pile.
 * 2nd data chip (Nanogen Gold Data chip) offers the player the ability to reload one of his used battery piles and to use it a second time.
 * 3rd data chip (Chronos VI Data chip) this allows the player to change direction of time travel.
 * 4th data chip (Tempus 2 Amplifier) this allows the player to travel to a date of his choosing in time...in other words: if the player manages to collect 4 data chips, the game is won!

Upcoming versions
Lost in Time consists out of a serie of 6 different time traveling games. After the 3 versions above, the designer has the following three expansions ready for publishing:

Flight to the Future
In this expansion, the players have the possibility to travel to the future beyond 2031 up to the year 2308. Traveling to the future has its own risks and benefits: the disadvantage is that the players cannot foresee which events will happen in the future (pandemic, World War III, a dictatorship, massive droughts or the end of the world) while the advantage is that the players will be able to upgrade their time machine in order to travel much more swiftly.

The Chrononaut
In 'The Chrononaut' expansion for 2 to 4 players ages 14 and up, the game is brought to a much higher level. Time travel is now much more complicated and although still a card game, now also components and a special die are added. Before jumping to the past or future, the players must now pay 'energy' tokens. Once there are none left, the players will be stuck in time and they will have to reload their machine. Their time machines are now much more fragile and can be broken if they end up in a disaster card. By rolling the special die, the amount and sort of damage is determined (pay an extra energy token when jumping through time or adding + 25 years to the historical event card placed on the timeline). The time travelers can now also be physically wounded and can suffer from a disease.

Master of Time
The final expansion of the time travel series is a boardgame for time travelers ages 14 and up. In this expansion, players will be able to alter the past in order to change the future.