Timeline

Congratulations! You’ve invented a time machine. You will use it one day to learn about the rich history of the planet and perhaps even contribute to the betterment of Mankind. But first, you’re gonna play the stock market and get really, stupidly rich.

Timeline starts with a row of cards depicting crisscrossing paths, which represent the values of commodities. By connecting a starting point, which never moves, to a “market” at the other end of the board, the lines connect four commodities to four values. As time changes, these values change. And they change a lot.

During the game, players will travel through time picking up miscellaneous commodities, then going to the markets at the end of the line trying to get the most value for their goods. The deck contains 48 cards in the familiar abstract Hip Pocket style, and you’ll need a Pawn for each player as well as about 30 colored stones in each of four colors.

With very little randomness, Timeline is an intense and engaging strategy game that, for what it’s worth, models aspects of time travel better than it has any right to.