Components

• 1 Game board
• 4 Player mats
• 4 DeLorean movers
• 4 Biff standees and plastic bases
• 16 Dice
• 72 Event cards
• 20 Item cards
• 20 Paradox tokens
• 24 Einstein tokens
• 1 OUTATIME marker and plastic base
• 1 First Player marker
• Rulebook

Object of the Game

Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the table. Each year has a marked "Biff Start" location; place each of the Biff standees accordingly in their years.

2. Shuffle the Event cards into a deck and place it facedown on the game board in the location indicated. Leave room to the left for discard piles.

3. Shuffle the Einstein tokens and place them facedown beside the board next to the Paradox tokens.

4. Shuffle the Item card decks individually by year. Place a number of Item cards facedown on their spots to the left of each year, based on the difficulty of the game you wish to play:

   • Science Experiment (Beginner): 2 Item cards per year

   • This Is Heavy! (Standard): 3 Item cards per year

   • Great Scott! (Hard): 4 Item cards per year

   • Nobody Calls Me Chicken! (Insane): 5

   Return all remaining Item cards back in the box without looking at them.

5. Place the OUTATIME marker on the start space of the OUTATIME tracker on the game board.

6. Each player chooses a color and takes the matching DeLorean mover, four dice, and Player mat, then places their DeLorean on the Clock Tower location in the year matching their DeLorean's color.

   The player who has traveled the furthest through time (the oldest player) takes the First Player marker.

The game now begins!

Game Play

Back to the Future: Dice Through Time takes place over a series of rounds. A round is comprised of the following steps:

1: Draw and Place Event Cards

The player with the First Player marker draws a number of Event cards as determined by the player count:

• 2 players: 3 Events
• 3 players: 5 Events
• 4 players: 8 Events

If you run out of Event cards, reshuffle the discard deck to form a new draw deck.

Next, reveal the drawn Events one at time. If you draw a Special Event, perform the action listed on the card.

Some Special Events have an immediate effect, which you perform right away before discarding the card.

If you draw multiple Special Events, perform immediate effects in the order they were revealed.

If a drawn card is a Location Event, place it in its corresponding space on the board in the proper year and location.

If an Event card features the Biff icon , you must immediately move that year's Biff standee to the location. More than one Event may be placed in the same location.

2: Roll Dice

Before rolling, any dice that were placed on the board in a previous round may be taken back into hand by their owners (see Rippling Dice'). Players then simultaneously roll their dice.

3: Perform Actions

Beginning with the First Player and proceeding clockwise, players take one turn each, using their dice to carry out actions. Players must complete their turns entirely before play passes to the next player. Actions are performed by "spending" a die.

Once spent, a die cannot be used to complete any additional actions or Events.

Actions are performed by "spending" dice; move a die onto your Player mat to indicate it is spent. Once spent, a die cannot be used again this turn. To complete an Event, you must spend dice that match the icons on that Event card (see Completing Events and Finding Items). Depending on your roll, dice can also be spent to perform the below actions:

• 

  Flux Capacitor

  Spend to move to the same location in any other year.

  
  
• 

  Arrow

  Spend to move to any location in your current year.

  
  
• 

  Fist

  Spend to move Biff from your current location to another location in the same year.

  
  
• 

  Lightning

  Spend to reroll any unspent dice of your choice.

  
  
• 

  Doc Brown

  Spend to remove any two Paradox tokens from the board.

  
  
• 

  Wrench

  Spend to use as any one icon on an event.

  
  

Additional Dice Actions

Any single die may be spent to move one location to the left or right in your year.

Any two matching die results can be used to activate MR. FUSION! You may spend two dice with matching results to gain any one result above, which can be used to perform an action or to help complete an Event.

Completing Events and Finding Items

In order to complete an Event and clear a location, your DeLorean must be at the location, and you must spend a die or dice matching the icon(s) on the Event card. For example, to complete the "Lou's Cafe

Event, you must spend dice showing the and icons. Events may not be completed while the Biff standee is on their location. You must move Biff using either a die or by using MR. FUSION to use two matching dice to gain the .

Two or more Events may appear in the same location, making the space-time continuum more difficult to repair.

If this happens, you must complete all Events on that location at the same time. You may need to ripple dice to help other players clear the location (see Rippling Dice').

When you clear a location, discard all completed Events to the left of the board. Remove any Paradox tokens from that location.

Then draw one Item card from the Item card deck of the year you are in (even if you completed multiple Events).

Place it below your Player mat. The Item card will indicate the year and location where it must be returned. Item pictures on each location also indicate where Items should be returned.

You may only hold a maximum of two Item cards at a time. If you complete an Event while already holding two Item cards, you do not draw another one. If you complete an Event and there are no Item cards from that year to draw, you do not get an Item.

Returning Items

During your turn, if you are on a location matching one of the misplaced Items you are carrying, you may immediately return it if there are no Biff standees or incomplete Event cards at that location. If you complete an Event and/or move a Biff standee off the location, you may then return the Item.

After returning an Item, discard it faceup to a pile next to the board. You earn two rewards for returning an Item:

1. You've helped repair the space-time continuum! Move the OUTATIME marker one space to the left on the OUTATIME tracker.

2. You earn an Einstein token! Draw an Einstein token reveal on the/board.

Einstein Tokens

Each time you return an item to its proper place and time, your trusty canine assistant Einstein fetches help for you! Einstein's bonuses provide an icon, which players can spend as if it were a die.

Any player may remove an Einstein token from the game during 3: Perform Actions to gain its effect.

Rippling Dice

While the consequences of interfering with the timeline can be disastrous, sometimes it's necessary to help your future selves.

During your turn, you may choose to place an unspent die on your DeLorean's location (without changing its result).

On a subsequent turn, any player on that location or in the same location in a future year may spend a rippled die, then return it to its owner's Player mat.

For example (Figure 1), if you ripple a die on the Clock Tower space in 1955, the next player may spend it in the Clock Tower space of 1955, 1985, or 2015. It may not be used in 1885, since that is in the past.

You may not carry a rippled die with you to use on a different location.

Rippled dice may be reclaimed from the board by their owners at the start of a round during the first step of the round (Draw Event Cards) before rolling dice.

Encountering your Other Selves

Meeting your other selves weakens the space-time continuum, though sometimes it is a risk you must take.

When your DeLorean moves to the same location as another DeLorean, you must immediately advance the OUTATIME marker by two spaces as a penalty.

(The OUTATIME marker only advances when DeLoreans meet; if you end your turn with two DeLorean movers on the same location, the OUTATIME marker does not advance again in the next round).

4: Advance Outatime Marker

Once all players have completed their turns for the round, check to see which year has the most locations covered by Events. Count the locations covered by Events in this year, then advance the OUTATIME marker by that number. If more than one Event card is present at the same location, it is still just considered one location.

For example (Figure 2), if 1885 and 1955 each have one location covered with an Event card, 1985 has three locations covered with Events, and 2015 has two locations covered with Events, then you would advance the OUTATIME marker three spaces toward Game Over.

If the year with the most locations also contains any Paradox tokens, advance the OUTATIME marker one additional space to the right per Paradox token present in that year.

If two years are tied for the most locations with Event cards, count the Paradox tokens and Events in the earliest year and advance the OUTATIME marker by that number.

5: Add Paradox Tokens

Finally, add Paradox tokens to all locations covered by Events in the year that advanced the OUTATIME marker. Each location can only hold one Paradox token. Following the example above, 1985 would receive three Paradox tokens-one on each location covered by Events.

6: Pass First Player Marker

Pass the First Player marker to the player to the left . A new round now begins.

End of the Game

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