T.I.M.E. Stories: A Prophecy of Dragons

Players: 2-4

Age: 12+

Teaching Time: 20 mins

Playing Time: 90 mins per session

Setup Time: 20 mins

Value For Money: Mid

Luck: Low

Complexity: Mid

Strategy: Mid

Price: £21.99

Recommended: Yes

Website: https://www.spacecowboys.fr/

Solo Play Review

A Prophecy of Dragons is one of the better T.I.M.E. Stories scenarios in my opinion, particularly ironic since it was apparently bumped from the base set by Asylum. Extra annoying since with this scenario having no horror elements and Asylum having some quite disturbing images and concepts A Prophecy of Dragons might have been a better scenario but was definitely a more inclusive one.

The story involves searching for the parts of a prophecy in a well built but generic fantasy world. The playable characters have a genuine range of abilities making switching between runs a more viable tactic than most of the other scenarios and the game handles magic quite reasonably. There are a nice range of puzzles that are teasing rather than taxing and are not central to completing the scenario meaning that if you can't crack them you're not trapped. There are a few unusual elements which are nicely handled, particularly the modular dungeon crawling section which provides some replay value. The scenario begins to bring in the over-arching T.I.M.E. Stories plot line, so if you are concerned with keeping that developed as intended this should be you're first scenario, after Asylum in the base set.

Prophecy of Dragons involves the first of the T.I.M.E. Stories scenario "turns" where a story gets very odd at a certain point. I'll not go into details to avoid ruining the scenario, suffice to say that this ends up being a hallmark of the series whenever the main story gets advanced significantly. If you don't intend to purchase multiple expansion packs or don't care about the main story then you may find this turn unnecessary or even annoying. If you are likely to get irritated if a story which started out generic medieval fantasy doesn't end that way then this is probably not the scenario for you.

In short a solid entry in the series and a nice scenario to be part of the larger plot, this could disappoint if all you want is pure fantasy. But if you're willing to go where this sometimes odd series leads you its a very satisfying entry.