- BGG rating
- 10.0
Trouble on the Tempus: Extreme Circumstances
- 2–5 players
- 60–120 min
- 2026
- BGG rank
- BGG #13,349
- BGG rating
- 8.4
Trouble on the Tempus
2026
Rules assistance for Trouble on the Tempus
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2–5 players
- 60–120 min
- 10+
- Complexity 2.5/5
For 2 players
Rules assistant for Trouble on the Tempus
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Trouble on the Tempus is a board game released in 2026 for 2–5 players, 60–120 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Kristian Mitchell-Dolby and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Push Your Luck, and Variable Set-up.
Expansions
- BGG rating
- 10.0
Trouble on the Tempus: The Illusion of Time
- 2–5 players
- 60–120 min
- 2026
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About the game
Trouble on the Tempus is a game about travelling through the depths of space in a lovely spaceship - as it catches fire and the electronics explode and it falls apart around you. You're pretty much doomed. Luckily you're in a time machine, part of an exploratory mission to test the latest time traversing technology, but you pushed the ship too far and things have gone horribly wrong. Your science officers have jury-rigged it to perform very localised jumps of the crew, allowing you to transport yourselves back to a time when you were not about to explode hoping that if you can gather enough information about the future you may be able to prevent the your ultimate destruction. Of course it's not a perfect system, if you cause too many paradoxes the ship may find itself trapped in a fate much worse than exploding in the depth of space, if such a thing is possible. Trouble on the Tempus is a co-operative game of disaster management where the players must prevent fires, electrical faults, and mechanical failures, as they work to fix the hyperdrive of the Tempus so they can power themselves home. Tragically this is a truly impossible task so the players will have no choice but to engage the ships time drive, resetting the board to the way it was at the start of the game so the players can try again with the added knowledge of when and where the disasters will appear. If you can repeat the timeline enough, collecting the right equipment and positioning yourselves to pre-empt the disasters as they happen, you should be able to predict enough rounds to fix the hyper-drive and win the game. However, each time you time travel you cause a paradox, and the difficulty of the game can be adjusted by how many paradoxes you can cause before reality collapses in on itself. —description from the designer
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- Minor Disaster Games
Questions and answers
Trouble on the Tempus supports 2–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Trouble on the Tempus is 60–120 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Trouble on the Tempus for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Trouble on the Tempus has a complexity rating of 2.5 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Trouble on the Tempus belongs to these categories: Science Fiction. Its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Push Your Luck, and Variable Set-up. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Trouble on the Tempus are: Kristian Mitchell-Dolby. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Trouble on the Tempus as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.