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The game Resafa takes place during the 3rd century AD in the area of today's Middle East. Resafa now lies in ruins in modern-day Syria, but at this time it was a fortified desert outpost that flourished as a stop along important caravan routes.
In the game, players represent merchants who travel on business trips and buy and sell goods in the various cities in the region. Resafa had no local sources of water, so it depended heavily on large cisterns to collect the spring and winter rainwater to make the area habitable. Players build water tanks and canals to distribute that water where it is needed. In the cities, they build workshops to help their businesses grow, which will allow them to collect resources and camels. They also construct gardens between the businesses, generating more resources and also victory points.
The game is played over six rounds. In each round, a player takes only three actions, playing action cards in this tight and exciting game.
—description from the publisher
- Strong thematic integration across time travel, pandemic, and politics
- Innovative mix of pattern-building with card-driven timeline changes
- Striking, brain-inspired components and cute lab aesthetics
- Ambitious design that pushes the boundaries of genre
- Promising player interaction with meaningful choices each turn
- Clear enthusiasm from creators and early supporters
- Potentially steep learning curve for new players
- Multiple timelines and scenarios could impact game balance and pacing
- Kickstarter risk: production scaling and fulfilment timelines
- Component complexity may affect setup time and accessibility
- Time travel, saving the future, personal ambition
- Dystopian future with time travel and a pandemic
- Modular, scenario-driven timelines; layered brain metaphor
- AG of R
- Game Boy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card-driven timeline manipulation — Event cards inserted into timelines to alter future outcomes.
- Events — Event cards inserted into timelines to alter future outcomes.
- Modular board — Flip and reconfigure boards to represent different timelines and crises.
- Pattern Building — Players create patterns from cards to trigger actions and chain effects.
- personal boards with brain metaphor — Unique pieces representing conscious and subconscious processes on each player board.
- Player Board | Main Board — Unique pieces representing conscious and subconscious processes on each player board.
- political influence and governance — Players influence Senators and vote on laws to steer outcomes.
- scenario-based modular boards — Flip and reconfigure boards to represent different timelines and crises.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a time travel theme game
- Time Travelers traveling back from a dystopian future
- it's fabulous
- the combinations of like pattern building and card combos
- it's something unique
- Innovative stuff
- we like to bring something new to the table
- phenomenally ambitious
- a totally unique concept