Books of Time

Books of Time is an unusual specimen in the current euro VP-salad aisle, and its central idea does give it an initial spark. Next to Barcelona, though, it feels noticeably shallower. The book-page tableau is genuinely clever; a pity the design seems unsure what else it wants from it.

You build a tableau from books and their pages, arranging choices that will pay off later. That naturally suggests an engine taking shape, each new page feeding some larger construction. In practice, it is closer to delayed action selection: choose something now, resolve it later, and there is not much more hiding behind the curtain.

The cards have no meaningful build-up or eras to give them a sense of progression, so they arrive in one undifferentiated heap. Player interaction is mostly in the available choices and in whether anyone can profit from the close book effect; at our table, nobody found much reason to abuse it. Perhaps we all played it incorrectly. A design requiring its players to locate its purpose is a modest request, apparently.

A few tweaks could have given Books of Time actual development rather than the impression of it. As it stands, it is simply one of those games we have also played.