New Game Round-up: Teaser Edition – Temporum, Rattlebones, La Isla, Tokaido: Matsuri & Max Michael's Mysterious Box of Wonders

In some of the best versions of reality, the Egyptians discover America, the industrial revolution happens early, and eventually robots take over. In others, the Renaissance produces a plutocracy, which leads to a utopia — or perhaps to anarchy; it's all in the subtle details. As a time-traveler, you've seen it all, and it all has its place. What's important is who's in control in the long run when time travel is invented. With other time-travelers mucking with things for their own reasons, your course is clear: You will tamper with history as much as is needed, stepping on however many butterflies it takes, to get a perfect world under your own benign rule.

In Temporum, the board shows the possible paths history can take and the actual path it currently takes. On your turn, you can change history, travel through time, and visit a point in history. You draw cards, play some of them for money and abilities, and score some of them to advance your power through history. Having more power in a time period gives you abilities, but your goal is to have all of your power in the last time period, the time from which you come.