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🎯 1. Objective
Time Snatchers is a trivia board game spanning a chosen range of years between 1900 and 2024. Players claim individual years on the board by correctly answering AI-generated trivia questions. The game ends the moment every year in the selected range has been claimed by a player. The player with the highest total score at that point wins.
⚙️ 2. Game Setup
Before starting, the group selects:
- Number of players — 2, 3, or 4
- Round length — 25, 50, or 100 years
- Starting year — any era beginning at 1900, 1925, 1950, 1975, or 2000 (the round length determines how far the range extends)
- Difficulty — Easy, Medium, or Hard (see Section 7)
- Category — each player independently chooses their own trivia focus (see Section 6)
All player tokens begin on the START square.
🎲 3. Taking a Turn
On your turn, you:
- Roll two dice and your token advances that many squares around the board.
- Resolve whatever instruction is printed on the square you land on (see Section 4).
- Once your turn's actions are fully resolved, end your turn so play passes to the next player.
🗺️ 4. Board Squares
The board has 60 outer squares. Ten distinct instruction types appear repeatedly around the track:
✅ 5. Answering Questions
Every trivia question displays the first three digits of the answer year — for example, 196_.
You're given up to four multiple-choice answer options, and every option is guaranteed to fall within
the same decade as the correct answer, so the choices are always plausible. If fewer
than four unclaimed years remain in that decade, you'll see three or two choices instead.
- Correct answer: the year is claimed in your color, you earn its point value, and the card goes to the "Just in Time" pile.
- Wrong answer or no answer: the card goes to the "Out of Time" pile, no points are earned, and the year remains unclaimed.
On a two-card turn, the two questions will never ask about the same year.
🗂️ 6. Categories
Every player selects one trivia category at the start of the game. Whatever category you choose, every question generated on your turn is written specifically from that topic area:
🎚️ 7. Difficulty Levels
Regardless of difficulty, every question shows the first three digits of the year. Difficulty changes how directly the clue is written:
🏅 8. Scoring
Points are awarded for each year claimed, and older years are worth more — they're rarer to remember and harder to pin down precisely:
| Decade (relative to round start) | Points per Year |
|---|---|
| 1st decade of the round | 10 |
| 2nd decade | 9 |
| 3rd decade | 8 |
| 4th decade | 7 |
| 5th decade | 6 |
| 6th decade | 5 |
| 7th decade | 4 |
| 8th decade | 3 |
| 9th decade | 2 |
| 10th decade (most recent) | 1 |
In a 25 or 50-year round, the same scale applies starting from your chosen first decade.
🂠 9. Held Cards
Cards collected from "Pick Up" squares are added to your hand rather than answered immediately. You may play any held card during your own turn, once you reach the point where your turn's action is complete. Held cards remain in your hand indefinitely until played.
🤝 10. Stealing & Trading
- Stealing: when you land on a "Take" square, choose any opponent's claimed year. Ownership and its point value transfer fully to you; the opponent loses both.
- Trading: when you land on a "Trade" square, choose one of your own claimed years, then one belonging to an opponent. Both years and their point values swap owners.
⏱ 11. The Answer Timer
Once a question appears, you have 20 seconds to select an answer. A countdown ring shows the time remaining and changes color as it runs low. If time expires before you answer, your turn ends immediately, the card moves to the Out of Time pile, and no points are awarded.
🏆 12. Winning the Game
The game ends the instant the last unclaimed year in the round is taken. Whoever has the highest score at that moment wins. In the event of a tie, both players are credited as co-winners — Time Snatchers does not use a tiebreaker round.
🖥️🌐 13. Local vs. Online Play
Local Play is pass-and-play on a single device — ideal for being in the same room. Up to 10 games can be saved at once and resumed later.
Online Play is asynchronous, similar to Words with Friends. A host creates a game and shares a 6-character code. Players take turns whenever convenient; the app can notify you when it becomes your turn if you've enabled notifications. All standard rules above apply identically in both modes.
🛡️ 14. Fair Play
- Questions are generated independently for every turn and are never reused within a single game.
- Multiple-choice answers are always pulled from the same decade as the correct year, so no category or era gives an unfair advantage through obviously implausible distractors.
- In Online Play, only the active player can roll dice, draw cards, or submit an answer — other players' boards update automatically once a turn resolves.
- Time Snatchers does not support real-money wagering of any kind. Points have no cash value.