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the nearest par-
ent. Once there,
he lowers the Love-
O-Meter which shows wheth-
er and how quickly the photo is fading. As a team, we can throw our action cubes at him. We can use them to try to knock down Biff and drive him away, increase the love between Marty’s parents (via the Love-O-Meter), prepare everything for the
lightning strike at the town hall clock, and get the DeLorean on its way.
Often, we would like to do all of this at the same time. But of course, we can’t because the game forces us to also run to other places on the board. Obstacles constantly come into play that we have to clear so that we don’t run into any
difficulties when moving, entering locations, or generally progressing through the game. The dice also help us here. Different color dice promise us our best chances of success for the actions that the color is linked to (pink dice for love, for example). And there are even wilds but unfortunately also the symbol
Beware of disruptions in the space- time continuum! This can have fatal consequences. In Back to the Future:
Dice Through Time” they cannot al- ways be avoided. But: the universe doesn’t implode, only a paradox marker is placed on the game board. That’s not good, but it’s not the end of the world either.
In parallel to Funko Games, Ravens- burger North America released a game based on the cult film. And in this case, the entire trilogy is included, so we are not only in 1955, but also in 1885, 1985, and 2015. However, the four time levels can only be implemented at the expense of the story. Where Back in Time, the subtitle of the Funko edition, really lovingly retells the first film, ev- erything remains very abstract in Dice Through Time.
At the beginning of a round, the start- ing player reveals up to eight event cards. Most of them have to be placed on the board in a certain place within a particular year.
From time to time, additional chal- lenges arise because there are nega- tive events but positive things happen too. Then everyone rolls their four dice
at the same time because we want to know what the others are up to.
The mission now is to travel to the event locations and resolve the situation there. This means that you must be able to fulfill the shown symbols with your dice. However, every movement whether to a different location or different time and every action in general also costs dice symbols. Once an event has been resolved, you find an item, for example a skateboard, which must be handed in at the town hall in 1955. If we manage to bring all the items back to the right place at the right time, we win.
Once all the time travelers have had their turn, you check which year has the most locations with events. The outa- time marker moves the corresponding number of steps towards the end of its track. If it reaches the end, everyone los- es. While the first round is usually quite relaxed, from round three at the latest there are fires in several times and at several places at once.
We cooperate not only through agree- ments, but also through legacies. I can leave dice on a space for future me’s. In this column of the map, everyone can use this dice symbol. If I place a dice
with a lightning symbol in Lou’s Café in 1955, anyone can use it 1955, 1985, or 2015, even in later rounds. Here, the travel theme is captured in a refreshing- ly clever way. Additionally, it takes the edge off the luck of dice factor, because you can leave stupid rolls for other tasks. Ken Franklin, Chris Leder, and Kev- in Rodgers have come up with some great ideas on how to capture the theme of time travel in a playful way. As I said earlier: mainly at the expense of storytelling. Maybe that’s why Dice Through Time doesn’t captivate, it feels very mechanical. The fact that the theme is only barely conveyed is also due to the illustrations which further distance the player from the movie by using very abstract graphics instead of painting Back-to-the-Future vibes. This playful take on the classic film does not do the original justice. (dm)
Mechanics over Storytelling
Title Designers:
Illustration: Publisher: Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Back to the Future: Dice Through Time
Ken Franklin,
Chris Leder,
Kevin Rodgers Pilot, Matt Taylor Ravensburger
2 – 4
about 10+ years about 45 – 60 minutes about 50 euros
Reviewer Playing appeal Andreas Becker 5
spielbox 35