Time Breaker
Time Breaker Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
- Create the gameboard by arranging the tiles, white-side up, in a 5x5 grid. The TRA tile goes in the center. The other tiles are placed in a random order so that the game is different every time. Orient all tiles in the same direction.
- The cube, i.e. the Time Breaker, begins on the tile in the upper left corner of the grid.
- Each player chooses a game piece to represent themselves and places it on the TRA tile.
- Shuffle the deck and deal 3 cards to each player.
Goal
To win, you must move your piece to the same location as the Time Breaker, declare that they are under arrest, and return with them to the TRA tile before any of your opponents.
How to Play
During your turn, you will draw one card, then take one of three possible actions: Play, Follow, or Wormhole.
Draw: Always start your turn by drawing a new card.
Take Action: Choose one of these options:
- Play a Card: Choose a card from your hand and play it.
- Follow an Arrow: The green arrow under your piece indicates which tile your piece is moved to.
- Wormhole: Draw another card and play it immediately.
Turn Sequence
- Draw 1 card and add it to your hand
- Play 1 card OR Follow an arrow OR Wormhole
Going First
The person who has most recently played Chrononauts shall go first. Alternatively, mix up the players' game pieces and have someone close their eyes and choose one. Play then proceeds in the clockwise direction.
Card Types
Move: These cards allow you to move your piece to the next tile over. Some allow lateral (left or right) movement, some allow vertical (up or down) movement, and some allow both. Diagonal moves are never allowed. You can only move from one tile to the next.
Jump: These cards move your piece directly to the specific tile shown. There's a jump card for each tile on the board. If your piece is already on that tile, jump to any tile you wish.
Action: Each of these cards has a different effect. Follow the directions on the card. There are 8 different Actions, which work as follows:
- Return to HQ: Move someone's piece to the TRA tile.
- Join Me: Move all other players' pieces to your tile.
- Quantum Leap: Play 2 more cards, one from your hand and one from the top of the deck.
- Tag Along: Move your piece to the same tile as another player.
- Desperate Grab: Discard your hand to move directly to the tile with the Time Breaker.
- Double Time: Follow a green arrow, then do it again.
- Near Yet Far: Move to a tile next to the Time Breaker.
- Back It Up: Follow the red arrow to move backwards.
Breaker: These cards represent actions taken by the Time Breaker, but otherwise they function like Action cards. Follow the directions on the card. There are 3 types of Breakers:
- Crash a Gate: Remove a gate tile other than the one under the Time Breaker (see details below).
- On the Move: Move the Time Breaker to another tile, either by following the green arrow or as determined by another card you play.
- Shut and Run: Remove the tile under the Time Breaker and move the Time Breaker to an adjacent tile.
Stop Time: These cards are played when it's not your turn to nullify another player's card play. But Stop Time only cancels a card's functionality, it cannot prevent a player from Following an arrow. Yes, a Stop Time card CAN cancel another Stop Time. If you draw a Stop Time during a Wormhole or Quantum Leap action, you simply show it to everyone and add it to your hand.
Crashing Gates
When a Breaker card says to "crash" a gate, remove the tile from the grid and place it to the side with other such tiles, closed-side up. The tile must be removed from the grid so that a gap is clearly created, since these holes can be skipped over when playing a Move card. All players' pieces on the tile when it crashes are returned to the TRA tile.
Entering a Closed Gate
Whether by Following a green arrow or playing a Jump card, if you move to a gate that has been closed, your piece ends up on the TRA tile. This can provide a convenient way of bringing in the Time Breaker! Note that a Move card cannot be used to enter a closed gate.
Wraps & Gaps
Move cards always allow you to move in one of the indicated directions. If your piece would move off of the edge of the board, your piece will instead "wrap around" and land on the other side of the grid. You can also move over any gaps that appear after the Time Breaker begins crashing gates, landing on the tile beyond the gap.
Making an Arrest
If your piece lands on the tile currently occupied by the Time Breaker, you can apprehend them. But you have to verbally declare that they are under arrest. Assuming you have done so, they will move along with you whenever your piece moves thereafter. It's considered good form to make the declaration as soon as you land on the Time Breaker, but as long as you say it before you try to move again, they will accompany you.
(Example declaration: "Stop right there, Time Breaker! I'm placing you under arrest!")
If another player lands on the same space, they must also declare the Time Breaker to be under arrest. The Time Breaker will move with whichever player leaves first, regardless of who arrested them first.
Making an arrest is a free action, it does not require a turn.
Moving vs. Being Moved
If you have the Time Breaker under arrest, they will move with you when you move your piece. However, if another player causes your piece to move, the Time Breaker will stay put.
For example, if someone else plays Return to HQ, they can choose you even if you have the Time Breaker in custody. This represents the Time Breaker making an escape just when you are distracted by being pulled through time unexpectedly.
In other words, if you have the Time Breaker in tow and YOU play the Return to HQ card, you can win. But if SOMEONE ELSE plays that card, your piece alone will be moved to the TRA tile. We like to imagine you've been summoned back to the office at just the wrong time, perhaps for a completely unimportant reason, like a co-worker interrupting you to say, "There's cake in the break room!"
Dumping Jumps
If you hold a Jump card for a year that has been crashed, you may choose to discard it during your turn and draw a replacement. This is a free action and does not count as your turn action. You can only dump Jumps once during your turn, but you can dump more than one at a time.
Note that Jumping to a closed gate provides an easy way back to the TRA, so you may want to hang on to one of these cards.
Stopping Time
If someone cancels your card play with a Stop Time, your turn ends immediately. The card you were going to use goes into the discard pile, and you don't get to do anything else.
If you play On the Move and someone cancels it with a Stop Time, and you were also using a Move or Jump card to control where the Time Breaker was going, you don't have to discard that card, only the On the Move card itself.
If someone plays Quantum Leap, you can stop the entire action if you play a Stop Time card immediately. However, if you delay until they've revealed another card, you must wait until they've revealed both of the cards they'll be playing and chosen which they will play first. You can then cancel either card, but not both (unless you have two Stop Time cards).
No Winner
If someone causes the Time Breaker to move to the TRA tile unaccompanied, it means they turned themselves in, so no one gets credit for making the arrest, and thus nobody wins. This is true even if the Time Breaker and a player's piece both return to the TRA at the same time, but not together.
For example, if the Time Breaker is on a tile adjacent to the TRA, and someone plays Shut and Run, they could choose to move the Time Breaker to the TRA. Since all players on the crashed gate are bounced back to the TRA space, a player who had the Time Breaker in custody will be moved to the TRA tile just after the Time Breaker arrives. Such a player gets back to HQ just in time to watch as the Time Breaker surrenders.
How to Win
If your piece moves to the TRA tile with the Time Breaker in tow, you win!
Questions?
Here are a few basic FAQs about Time Breaker:
- Are Tiles and Gates the same thing? Yes.
- Are Crashing and Closing a gate the same thing? Yes, both refer to removing a tile from the grid.
- Can the TRA tile be crashed? No.
- Is your hand supposed to get bigger as you play? Yes, you get an extra card every time you Follow or Wormhole.
- Is there a hand limit? No.
- If the deck runs out, do you just shuffle the discard pile and keep playing? Yes.
- Do the green arrows leading out of the TRA tile work the same way as the other green arrows? Yes.
- Can you pass on your turn? No.
- Do you get a replacement card after a Time Stop? No.
- Are you supposed to play Breaker cards as soon as you draw them, like Creepers in Fluxx? No.
- Do you need to re-arrest the Time Breaker when they escape and you recapture them? No, but it doesn't hurt to.
- Does it matter what words you say to arrest the Time Breaker? No, you can use whatever turn of phrase you like, as long as you get your point across!
There is also an extensive database of Questions and Answers at http://faq.looneylabs.com/