The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Premise

You and the other players are inventors. All of you have just invented time travel, and now you're all racing to the be the first in line with your contraption on the day the United States Patent Office opens in 1790. The prize is the patent on time travel: US Patent #1.

The Components

The board for this game is divided into 9 sections (a 3 by 3 array of square sections), each of which represents a different period in history, from 1790 to 2168. 1790, your goal, is in the center, and the remaining time periods are arranged around it in increasing order. Each time period is further divided into a number of sections: Research Lab, Library, Market, and Gateways to each adjacent time period. 1790 is an exception, and instead contains the Patent Office, Time Travel Mechanic, and Junkyard.

Each player receives a random time machine card; other than the descriptive flavor text, the time machines differ only in starting time period, and starting money (generally from $8-12). Each time machine has slots for four upgrades which begin the game empty, and which must be filled in order to win the game.

These upgrades take the form of a deck of 48 cards, which are shuffled and placed face-down beside the board. Each upgrade card has a type, a time period, a Rank, and possibly additional rules that govern its use. The types are Power, Chassis, Weapon, and Shield, and there are 12 of each type. Not coincidentally, the Ranks of those upgrades range from 1 to 12. There are 6 upgrades for each of the 8 outer time periods.

All of the components are illustrated with public domain woodcut-style art, probably from the Dover Pictorial Archive. (Those who have played Witch Trial will be familiar with this style.) Upgrade names are suitably wacky Goldbergian constructions that often have little or nothing to do with the device pictured. But the humor is well-founded and executed with style.

In addition to the components packaged with the game, you'll need pawns or tokens for each player (we used the miniatures from the office copy of RoboRally), at least three six-sided dice (though I would recommend having two for each player), and some play money or poker chips for player cash ($15-20 per player should be plenty).

The Play

Each player's turn is divided into three parts: Research, Movement, and an Action.

Research consists of drawing the top card of the upgrade deck, and playing it onto the board. Every upgrade belongs to one of the 8 outer time periods (6 to each). The player may place that upgrade into either the Research Lab (face down) or the Market (face up) of its time period (the effects of this decision will come into play in a moment).

For Movement, the player rolls a six-sided die. He may then move up to that many spaces on the board, including not moving at all. Chassis upgrades will modify this; some provide a flat bonus to the die roll, while others allow the player to roll multiple dice together.

A player's Action is where the meat of the game lies. The actions available depend largely on what sort of space the player's token occupies, but three basic actions are always available: the player may Research a second time, may make another Movement, or may exploit his knowledge of history for commercial gain (in other words, gain $1 from the bank). If the player shares a space with another player, he may attack that player; some Weapon upgrades will allow special ranged attacks, as well.

The location-specific actions are:

Research Lab: the player may look at all of the (face down) upgrades in that lab, and may choose to install one of them on his time machine.

Market: the player may choose one of the upgrades available on that space, and pay its rank in money to install it on his time machine.

Library: the player may examine the contents of the Research Labs in all previous time periods.

Junkyard: the player may install any upgrade from the Junkyard at no cost, but the upgrade is always installed in a disabled state (more on what that means in a moment).

Time Travel Mechanic: for $1, the mechanic will repair all upgrades installed on the player's time machine.

Patent Office: the player may do one of three things here. First, he may patent any of his installed, working upgrades. The player then gains money from the bank equal to the rank of the upgrade, which is placed on the Market for its time period. Second, the player may take a number in line; the roll of one die determines how many turns until that player's number comes up. If the player holds a number already, he must abide by the new roll. Third, on the turn on which the player's number comes up, if he has four functional upgrades, he may use his action to win the game.

A player's time machine can only accommodate one of each type of upgrade at any one time, but any of them may be freely replaced with a new one (in the Lab, the Market, or the Junkyard). Any upgrades replaced in this way are placed on the Junkyard, face up. All upgrades except for the Power plant draw power equal to their Rank value. The Power upgrades provide their Rank in Power, and the time machine itself provides 5 (the maximum Power output, then, is 17, while the maximum Power draw is 36). There is some advantage in equipping a time machine with a matching Power and Chassis, as the output of the plant is boosted by 6 (and thus the machine will always have a net 11 power for Weapon and Shield).

Upgrades may be disabled, in which case they are placed face-down, and do not provide any benefit. This may happen as the result of an attack, when installing upgrades from the Junkyard, or when not enough power is available to power all installed upgrades. If at any time the power draw is too great, the player must disable upgrades of his choice to reduce the load to what the machine can power.

Besides disabling upgrades, attacks may destroy them (in which case they are placed on the Junkyard) or, with certain Weapons, steal them. Certain Shields hinder or prevent ranged attacks, allow the player to counterattack when attacked, or other abilities.

The mechanic for basic attacks is as follows: attacker rolls 2 dice his Weapon's Rank and compares it to the defender's roll of 1 die her Shield's Rank. If the attacker rolls higher, he may disable one of the defender's upgrades; if he rolls higher by 5 or more, he may destroy an upgrade instead. Ranged attacks are special, and Weapons that allow them will specify the rules.

The Playtest

As per usual, I tore the office crew away from Shadowfist to help me test the game (which wasn't so hard this time because Dark Future had been delayed significantly). We played a number of lunchtime games which everyone, it seemed, enjoyed.

The biggest single complaint every one of us had about the game was the board. It's printed on the same glossy cardstock as the rest of the cards for the game, and on our laminate-top conference table was a nightmare to try and make stay put. The nine sections were constantly moving around, submerging under one another, etc. Suggestions included mounting them together onto a sheet of poster board, putting masking tape on the backs for friction, and taping the segments together. I understand why the cardstock was used, and the squares are that size to fit into a standard Cheapass box, but this did nevertheless detract from our enjoyment of the game. The board is also somewhat hard to assemble the first time, because all of the segments are very busy, and look almost identical.

The rules seem complicated at first, and there is a lot to remember, but your choices are generally very limited by where on the board you are, so it's easy to concentrate on your immediate options to avoid being overwhelmed. As time went on, it was interesting to observe that we started to remember what upgrades belonged to which time period, and people started to develop routes that they would take in the early game to get themselves equipped. The consensus was that your best bet was to make your first upgrade either a Power or Chassis, which would give you the freedom of movement to pick up the other upgrades, and to power the ones you obtained.

We never really decided on when it was best to play an upgrade onto the Market versus the Research Lab when doing your research phase. In general, though, the expensive high-Ranking upgrades tended to end up in the Market to make it more difficult for rivals to obtain them. Seeding nearby Labs with upgrades you needed was popular, as were mid-game expeditions to the Library in 2168 (the last time period) to take inventory of the remaining upgrades in the earlier Labs. Almost no one did much in the way of trying to raise additional money to buy things (this is done mainly by inventing upgrades in the Lab, and selling them off at the Patent Office). Players would generally spend their starting cash, but research the rest of their equipment in the Labs.

Our group tended not to be very confrontational until the very end of the game. I'm not sure that this strategy would have prevailed much longer, however, since in the last game we played there was a time when 5 of the 6 players were all huddled on the Patent Office space, waiting for their numbers to come up, and trying to blast their rivals Power plants in the mean-time to disable as many upgrades as possible. However, combat in the early game is very difficult because of the need to catch up with the opponent you wish to attack; at 1d6 spaces per turn, that's easier said than done. Had we been more consistent about seeking out potential threats at three upgrades, or using more strategic ranged attacks, I think that the winners of our games would have had their work cut out for them.

Conclusion

Overall, I think US Patent #1 is an excellent and entertaining game whose only significant drawback is the unfortunate board construction. For that reason, I can only give it a low 3 for Style, but it rates a solid 4 for Substance.

U.S. Patent #1
U.S. Patent #1 Playtest Review by Sixten Otto on 07/05/02 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) An entertaining game of racing time machines. Another solid Cheapass game, marred only by the board. Product: U.S. Patent #1 Author: James Ernest & Falko Goettsch Category: Board/Tactical Game Company/Publisher: Cheapass Games Line: Cost: 7.50 Page count: N/A Year published: ISBN: SKU: CAG034 Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by Sixten Otto on 07/05/02 Genre tags: Science Fiction Historical Far Future Comedy	The Premise You and the other players are inventors. All of you have just invented time travel, and now you're all racing to the be the first in line with your contraption on the day the United States Patent Office opens in 1790. The prize is the patent on time travel: US Patent #1. The Components The board for this game is divided into 9 sections (a 3 by 3 array of square sections), each of which represents a different period in history, from 1790 to 2168. 1790, your goal, is in the center, and the remaining time periods are arranged around it in increasing order. Each time period is further divided into a number of sections: Research Lab, Library, Market, and Gateways to each adjacent time period. 1790 is an exception, and instead contains the Patent Office, Time Travel Mechanic, and Junkyard. Each player receives a random time machine card; other than the descriptive flavor text, the time machines differ only in starting time period, and starting money (generally from $8-12). Each time machine has slots for four upgrades which begin the game empty, and which must be filled in order to win the game. These upgrades take the form of a deck of 48 cards, which are shuffled and placed face-down beside the board. Each upgrade card has a type, a time period, a Rank, and possibly additional rules that govern its use. The types are Power, Chassis, Weapon, and Shield, and there are 12 of each type. Not coincidentally, the Ranks of those upgrades range from 1 to 12. There are 6 upgrades for each of the 8 outer time periods. All of the components are illustrated with public domain woodcut-style art, probably from the Dover Pictorial Archive. (Those who have played Witch Trial will be familiar with this style.) Upgrade names are suitably wacky Goldbergian constructions that often have little or nothing to do with the device pictured. But the humor is well-founded and executed with style. In addition to the components packaged with the game, you'll need pawns or tokens for each player (we used the miniatures from the office copy of RoboRally), at least three six-sided dice (though I would recommend having two for each player), and some play money or poker chips for player cash ($15-20 per player should be plenty). The Play Each player's turn is divided into three parts: Research, Movement, and an Action. Research consists of drawing the top card of the upgrade deck, and playing it onto the board. Every upgrade belongs to one of the 8 outer time periods (6 to each). The player may place that upgrade into either the Research Lab (face down) or the Market (face up) of its time period (the effects of this decision will come into play in a moment). For Movement, the player rolls a six-sided die. He may then move up to that many spaces on the board, including not moving at all. Chassis upgrades will modify this; some provide a flat bonus to the die roll, while others allow the player to roll multiple dice together. A player's Action is where the meat of the game lies. The actions available depend largely on what sort of space the player's token occupies, but three basic actions are always available: the player may Research a second time, may make another Movement, or may exploit his knowledge of history for commercial gain (in other words, gain $1 from the bank). If the player shares a space with another player, he may attack that player; some Weapon upgrades will allow special ranged attacks, as well. The location-specific actions are: Research Lab: the player may look at all of the (face down) upgrades in that lab, and may choose to install one of them on his time machine. Market: the player may choose one of the upgrades available on that space, and pay its rank in money to install it on his time machine. Library: the player may examine the contents of the Research Labs in all previous time periods. Junkyard: the player may install any upgrade from the Junkyard at no cost, but the upgrade is always installed in a disabled state (more on what that means in a moment). Time Travel Mechanic: for $1, the mechanic will repair all upgrades installed on the player's time machine. Patent Office: the player may do one of three things here. First, he may patent any of his installed, working upgrades. The player then gains money from the bank equal to the rank of the upgrade, which is placed on the Market for its time period. Second, the player may take a number in line; the roll of one die determines how many turns until that player's number comes up. If the player holds a number already, he must abide by the new roll. Third, on the turn on which the player's number comes up, if he has four functional upgrades, he may use his action to win the game. A player's time machine can only accommodate one of each type of upgrade at any one time, but any of them may be freely replaced with a new one (in the Lab, the Market, or the Junkyard). Any upgrades replaced in this way are placed on the Junkyard, face up. All upgrades except for the Power plant draw power equal to their Rank value. The Power upgrades provide their Rank in Power, and the time machine itself provides 5 (the maximum Power output, then, is 17, while the maximum Power draw is 36). There is some advantage in equipping a time machine with a matching Power and Chassis, as the output of the plant is boosted by 6 (and thus the machine will always have a net 11 power for Weapon and Shield). Upgrades may be disabled, in which case they are placed face-down, and do not provide any benefit. This may happen as the result of an attack, when installing upgrades from the Junkyard, or when not enough power is available to power all installed upgrades. If at any time the power draw is too great, the player must disable upgrades of his choice to reduce the load to what the machine can power. Besides disabling upgrades, attacks may destroy them (in which case they are placed on the Junkyard) or, with certain Weapons, steal them. Certain Shields hinder or prevent ranged attacks, allow the player to counterattack when attacked, or other abilities. The mechanic for basic attacks is as follows: attacker rolls 2 dice his Weapon's Rank and compares it to the defender's roll of 1 die her Shield's Rank. If the attacker rolls higher, he may disable one of the defender's upgrades; if he rolls higher by 5 or more, he may destroy an upgrade instead. Ranged attacks are special, and Weapons that allow them will specify the rules. The Playtest As per usual, I tore the office crew away from Shadowfist to help me test the game (which wasn't so hard this time because Dark Future had been delayed significantly). We played a number of lunchtime games which everyone, it seemed, enjoyed. The biggest single complaint every one of us had about the game was the board. It's printed on the same glossy cardstock as the rest of the cards for the game, and on our laminate-top conference table was a nightmare to try and make stay put. The nine sections were constantly moving around, submerging under one another, etc. Suggestions included mounting them together onto a sheet of poster board, putting masking tape on the backs for friction, and taping the segments together. I understand why the cardstock was used, and the squares are that size to fit into a standard Cheapass box, but this did nevertheless detract from our enjoyment of the game. The board is also somewhat hard to assemble the first time, because all of the segments are very busy, and look almost identical. The rules seem complicated at first, and there is a lot to remember, but your choices are generally very limited by where on the board you are, so it's easy to concentrate on your immediate options to avoid being overwhelmed. As time went on, it was interesting to observe that we started to remember what upgrades belonged to which time period, and people started to develop routes that they would take in the early game to get themselves equipped. The consensus was that your best bet was to make your first upgrade either a Power or Chassis, which would give you the freedom of movement to pick up the other upgrades, and to power the ones you obtained. We never really decided on when it was best to play an upgrade onto the Market versus the Research Lab when doing your research phase. In general, though, the expensive high-Ranking upgrades tended to end up in the Market to make it more difficult for rivals to obtain them. Seeding nearby Labs with upgrades you needed was popular, as were mid-game expeditions to the Library in 2168 (the last time period) to take inventory of the remaining upgrades in the earlier Labs. Almost no one did much in the way of trying to raise additional money to buy things (this is done mainly by inventing upgrades in the Lab, and selling them off at the Patent Office). Players would generally spend their starting cash, but research the rest of their equipment in the Labs. Our group tended not to be very confrontational until the very end of the game. I'm not sure that this strategy would have prevailed much longer, however, since in the last game we played there was a time when 5 of the 6 players were all huddled on the Patent Office space, waiting for their numbers to come up, and trying to blast their rivals Power plants in the mean-time to disable as many upgrades as possible. However, combat in the early game is very difficult because of the need to catch up with the opponent you wish to attack; at 1d6 spaces per turn, that's easier said than done. Had we been more consistent about seeking out potential threats at three upgrades, or using more strategic ranged attacks, I think that the winners of our games would have had their work cut out for them. Conclusion Overall, I think US Patent #1 is an excellent and entertaining game whose only significant drawback is the unfortunate board construction. For that reason, I can only give it a low 3 for Style, but it rates a solid 4 for Substance.

U.S. Patent #1

The Premise

The Components

The Play

The Playtest

Conclusion