Cooperative campaign tabletop games are getting leaner and more abstract. Traditionally, campaign games have acted as stand-ins for Dungeons & Dragons, complete with big boxes that contain a multitude of parts and an equally thick rulebook. However, we’ve seen a handful of campaign games skimp on the components recently in favor of really digging into the game system and squeezing out every last variance that it can support.
Take Time, a new title designed by Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière, is a very unique cooperative campaign game that makes the most of a simplistic system. Over the course of 40 rounds (divided into 10 chapters), players will attempt to work together to solve a relatively simple puzzle using the same deck of 24 cards. Each round features a unique set of challenges to overcome, with players either succeeding or failing as a group. The result is a campaign game that’s easy to pick up, with rounds that pass by in a few minutes and chapters with unique challenges that will leave players frustrated at times but exultant when they’re finally conquered – normally a preserve of the best board games.
