The Time We Have

Description

The Time We Have: A Conversation Between Brothers is a game about what it means to be a brother—about all the complexity, vulnerability, and joy that comes with it. This is a storytelling card game played on opposite sides of a closed door and a conversation about saying goodbye.

The Time We Have is a bittersweet, card-based duet set during a zombie apocalypse. It’s an introspective horror game in which two brothers confront mortality from opposite sides of a closed door. It is also a brilliant exercise in feeling your feelings. Oh yes, this game is sad. Sad and tragic and beautiful, this game is for anyone who wants to experience crushing heartbreak for fun. You know. Recreational… crushing heartbreak.

Your story unfolds through a classic zombie trope: two people try to survive a collapsing world, but one is bitten. Tragically, the uninfected loves the infected too much to kill them outright. Now they are both in danger. The Time We Have casts this pair as brothers. The infected brother is locked in a room but the uninfected brother remains, just outside the door. Out of a sense of duty, maybe. Or with the intent to comfort, or out of guilt, or selfishness, or, perhaps, because he’s flirting with the idea that he’s ready to die as well. Through the door, the brothers talk. The infection progresses – there are only days remaining.

Game includes 16 Rules cards, 52 Prompts, and 13 Doors, each with a commissioned, full-color illustration as well as micro-fiction to establish the flavor of apocalypse. Game also includes “Knock Three Times,” a unique two-card safety mechanic players can use to adjust, pause, or stop the game completely. Action falls into three categories: Prompts, Perception, and Infection. Prompt cards are in-character questions whose answers define your history, your feelings, the world, and other aspects of your relationship. Perception cards activate an experience that one player must respond to, while Infection cards close a day, advance the disease’s progression, and give directions for new behaviors.

As a genre, horror can be tough to experience – tough, but valuable. Panic, anger, fear. Death. These ideas connect us to our humanity, sometimes in surprising ways. Put your heart on the line right beside your character’s. Ponder family, love, and loyalty. Can you untangle history? Speak what’s unspoken? Find peace? In the end, what’s the difference between an empty promise and a heartfelt pledge?

Once the door is closed, your story begins. In the end, it is up to the surviving brother:

Do you open the door?

• Game is the Standard Edition and includes 85 full-color tarot-size cards (2.75″ x 4.75″) in a rigid, two-piece storage box
•  ~90 minutes to play
• Content note: this game – by design – is tragic and dark and one character (perhaps both) will die after experiencing tension, loneliness, regret, betrayal, and other possibly overwhelming emotions. Safety tools are included, but players are encouraged to layer up and add their own