The Time Traveller’s Tow Truck

by Don Kirkby

Guide your rescuers to find you in time.

Number of players: 2 or more

Equipment: 3 dice, paper and pen for keeping score

The story

Your time machine broke down, and your team is coming to rescue you in a time-travelling tow truck. In this game, you and your teammates take turns as stranded time agents guiding the rest of the team to rescue them from the past. After five rescues, whichever team spent the least time trapped in the past wins the game.

Trapped in the past

Luckily, your time machine is not completely broken - it can still drift forward toward the present. During recent history, it takes a month to drift one year forward. The farther back in the past you are, the faster you drift forward. The big table at the end of these rules shows how many months it would take to drift forward from any year to the year 2001, when your time machine was built in a secret lab. Your time machine can travel as far back as 2000 BCE, and it would take you 18 years to drift back to the present from there. Hopefully, you can guide your rescuers closer to you in time, so you won’t have to wait that long.

Hopping through time

As you know, time travel is tricky. One wrong move, and the world is ruled by mutant ants! In order to avoid such mishaps, you must communicate with your rescuers using strict protocols. All time agents bring an entangled quantum communicator with them from the present that can send one message to the rescuers. Unfortunately, just telling the rescuers what year you are in would cause a catastrophic paradox. However, you can describe current events so the rescuers can work out when you are stranded.

If the rescuers jump, but they miss you by a few years, you may be able to send them another message. It depends on whether they hopped over your position on the timeline and re-entangled the quantum communicators. Every time they hop over your position, you can send another message describing a current event to try and bring them closer to you. In fact, if they are jumping from far in your future, you can describe an event from a few years in your past just to make sure they pass over you. If they are jumping from far in your past, you can describe an event from a few years in your future. There’s no limit to the number of hops, but it takes one month to recharge the tow truck for each jump.

In the diagram above, the rescuers made three jumps, and each time they passed over the stranded agent so they could continue to communicate. In the diagram below, the rescuers’ second jump did not pass over the stranded agent, so they cannot communicate and must spend a few months trapped in the past until they drift forward to the agent’s time.

Meeting your rescuers

When the rescuers stop jumping, whichever group is earlier drifts forward through time until they reach the others. See the table to calculate how many months it takes to drift. Find the two years in the table, and subtract the two drift times to get the drift time between them. If a year you need isn’t in the table, use the next year that is in the table. For example, if the rescuers stop in 1400, the next year that appears in the table is 1407. If you’re stuck in 1452, then it takes two months for them to drift to you.

To start

With four or more players, divide into two teams with at least two players on each team. Teams can have different numbers of players. On each turn, one team will choose an agent to be rescued from the past. When both teams have performed five rescues, the team with the lowest total score wins. In case of a tie, the team with the lowest score for a single rescue wins.

With three players, each player rescues each of the other players once. Keep track of each player’s score separately and add the time for each rescue to the score for the two participating players. The player with the lowest total score after all six rescues wins.

With two players, take turns rescuing each other. After each player has been rescued five times, add up the total score for all ten rescues. 50 or less is an expert score, 100 or less is good, and more than 100 means you need to review some world history.

How to play

On each turn, choose a player to be the agent. The agent rolls the three dice and reads the three numbers from left to right, then finds those numbers in the roll column of the drift table at the end of these rules. The agent is now stranded in the year next to that roll, so they write down the year on the score sheet, show it to the other team, and then hide it. The rescuers should look away while the agent rolls the dice and finds the target year.

Now the agent describes an event from some time near the target year, the rescuers discuss when they think it happened, and then they tell the agent what year they’re jumping to. This repeats as long as they keep passing over the agent and the agent wants to keep them jumping.

Example

Alice is the time agent and rolls 4-5-6 on the dice.  She looks in the table and finds roll 456 is in the year 1811. As much as she would like to say, “The war of 1812,” she knows that saying a year would cause a paradox. She says, “The American declaration of independence is signed.” Bob and Charles are the rescuers and they say 1776 after discussing it. Since they passed over Alice, she can give another clue and says, “Jane Austen publishes Emma.” They don’t really know when it was published (1816, in case you’re curious), but they guess 1850. Now Alice says, “Napoleon is banished to Elba.” Again, they’re not really sure, but they guess 1800. At that point, Alice decides to stop the jumping. She looks in the table to see that it’s a two-month drift between 1800 and 1811. The team spent three months jumping and two months drifting, so they add five to their score.

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Drift Table

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roll year wait roll year wait roll year wait roll year wait

.

666 2000BCE 216 536 1609 162 366 1893 108 236 1947 54

.

665 1816BCE 215 535 1623 161 365 1894 107 235 1948 53

.

664 1640BCE 214 534 1636 160 364 1895 106 234 1949 52

.

663 1473BCE 213 533 1648 159 363 1896 105 233 1950 51

.

662 1314BCE 212 532 1660 158 362 1897 104 232 1951 50

.

661 1162BCE 211 531 1671 157 361 1898 103 231 1952 49

.

656 1017BCE 210 526 1682 156 356 1899 102 226 1953 48

.

655 879BCE 209 525 1692 155 355 1900 101 225 1954 47

.

654 748BCE 208 524 1702 154 354 1901 100 224 1955 46

.

653 623BCE 207 523 1711 153 353 1902 99 223 1956 45

.

652 504BCE 206 522 1720 152 352 1903 98 222 1957 44

.

651 391BCE 205 521 1729 151 351 1904 97 221 1958 43

.

646 283BCE 204 516 1737 150 346 1905 96 216 1959 42

.

645 180BCE 203 515 1745 149 345 1906 95 215 1960 41

.

644 82BCE 202 514 1752 148 344 1907 94 214 1961 40

.

643 12 201 513 1759 147 343 1908 93 213 1962 39

.

642 101 200 512 1766 146 342 1909 92 212 1963 38

.

641 186 199 511 1773 145 341 1910 91 211 1964 37

.

636 267 198 466 1779 144 336 1911 90 166 1965 36

.

635 344 197 465 1785 143 335 1912 89 165 1966 35

.

634 417 196 464 1791 142 334 1913 88 164 1967 34

.

633 487 195 463 1796 141 333 1914 87 163 1968 33

.

632 553 194 462 1801 140 332 1915 86 162 1969 32

.

631 616 193 461 1806 139 331 1916 85 161 1970 31

.

626 676 192 456 1811 138 326 1917 84 156 1971 30

.

625 733 191 455 1816 137 325 1918 83 155 1972 29

.

624 788 190 454 1820 136 324 1919 82 154 1973 28

.

623 840 189 453 1824 135 323 1920 81 153 1974 27

.

622 890 188 452 1828 134 322 1921 80 152 1975 26

.

621 937 187 451 1832 133 321 1922 79 151 1976 25

.

616 982 186 446 1836 132 316 1923 78 146 1977 24

.

615 1025 185 445 1840 131 315 1924 77 145 1978 23

.

614 1066 184 444 1843 130 314 1925 76 144 1979 22

.

613 1105 183 443 1846 129 313 1926 75 143 1980 21

.

612 1142 182 442 1849 128 312 1927 74 142 1981 20

.

611 1177 181 441 1852 127 311 1928 73 141 1982 19

.

566 1211 180 436 1855 126 266 1929 72 136 1983 18

.

565 1243 179 435 1858 125 265 1930 71 135 1984 17

.

564 1274 178 434 1861 124 264 1931 70 134 1985 16

.

563 1303 177 433 1864 123 263 1932 69 133 1986 15

.

562 1331 176 432 1866 122 262 1933 68 132 1987 14

.

561 1358 175 431 1868 121 261 1934 67 131 1988 13

.

556 1383 174 426 1870 120 256 1935 66 126 1989 12

.

555 1407 173 425 1872 119 255 1936 65 125 1990 11

.

554 1430 172 424 1874 118 254 1937 64 124 1991 10

.

553 1452 171 423 1876 117 253 1938 63 123 1992 9

.

552 1473 170 422 1878 116 252 1939 62 122 1993 8

.

551 1493 169 421 1880 115 251 1940 61 121 1994 7

.

546 1512 168 416 1882 114 246 1941 60 116 1995 6

.

545 1530 167 415 1884 113 245 1942 59 115 1996 5

.

544 1547 166 414 1886 112 244 1943 58 114 1997 4

.

543 1564 165 413 1888 111 243 1944 57 113 1998 3

.

542 1580 164 412 1890 110 242 1945 56 112 1999 2

.

541 1595 163 411 1892 109 241 1946 55 111 2000 1