Card Game Review: ‘The Timeline Game’ from Looney Labs

The Timeline Game from Looney Labs combines Around the World Fluxx and Across America Fluxx into a bonus mini-game. All players need to do is use components already in the two Fluxxes, meaning there is nothing new to buy, just more fun to be had. Looney Labs has always been exceptional at getting the most gameplay out of a component, such as using the same pyramids in games like IceDice, Pink Hijinks, and Treehouse. In the Timeline Game, players take both American national sites and those from across the world to try to build timelines of their founding.

Setting up the Game

For a round of the Timeline Game, players first pull all Keepers that bear dates from the Around the World and Across America editions of Fluxx. This creates a deck of 37 cards each labeled with a rough year significant to the Keeper. These may be the completion of the Coliseum in Rome, Italy; the founding of Timbuktu in Mali; or the establishment of Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.

To begin a session of the Timeline Game, each player places a Keeper card face up in front of them. Players then take turn guessing cards drawn from the deck, using the player next to them as a reader as in most trivia games. The reader gives the name and location of the Keeper drawn, and the guesser must decide whether it goes before or after the card in front of them. In addition, as the timelines build, the guesser must decide whether it goes between already cards already added to their timelines.

Learning History

While Looney Labs’s famed time-travel game Chrononauts already has a timeline laid out, the Timeline Game is all about knowing history to build its timeline. Like all trivia games, some draws will be easier than others. Even if players do not know an exact date for the Statue of Liberty, they can reason out that it was more recent that the construction of Stonehenge and Machu Picchu. Other cards may be surprising, such as the fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany being more recent than the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Some cards are easier than others by having a range of completion, too. For example, the construction of the Great Wall of China went from the seventh century BCE to 1878, meaning players could place it just about wherever they like in their timelines.

The Timeline Game is a bonus card game for two to three players aged eight and up. It features a single-player mode as well, challenging a player to guess the dates while drawing them with a thumb over the corner of the card. In either of the ways to play, games are very quick thanks to the smaller deck, lasting about ten to fifteen minutes. Whether playing as a group or individually, the key to victory is mastery the history of some of the world’s most inspiring places.