Chronos
Alert
Control
Info
Invasion
Type
Power of Time Travel
Can Rewind Encounter
As a leader, after arrival, save the state of the match.
As a leader, after the encounter, you may use this power to “time travel.” Revert the match to its state at the most recent saved time. Then, your opponent places the pod they discharged in stasis until upkeep.
Legacy: Save the state of the game at the start of each orientation. When a Cosmic Zap is discharged, rewind the match to the most recent saved state, then vaporize that Cosmic Zap.
It takes a truly ancient race to remember a time before the unending bids to seize control of the Cosmos. To the Chronos, those days feel just like yesterday, and they’ve thrown their time-bending talents into the fray in the hopes of bringing us back to the good old days.
Leader: Encounter
Optional
Wild Flare
As a leader, after contact, you may discharge this flare to rewind the encounter to arrival. Both leaders claim their discharged pods and must prime again.
Leader: Contact
Super Flare
When using your power, you may discharge this flare to automatically prime the opponent’s discharged pod instead of placing it in stasis.
Leader: Encounter
Modifications
- Original Chronos simply recharges discharged encounter pods, and places the opponent’s pod in stasis. My version uses the benefit of technology to fully reset the state of the match to how it was before, allowing for reinforcements, artifacts, and powers to be reset to their previous state as well. It invokes “true” time-travel, in the same manner as Oracle’s “true” future vision.
- The original Chronos Wild flare lets you retrieve a pod from the discard pile as a nuclear flare and then shuffle the rest of the discard pile into the deck. My Cosmic doesn’t have a discard pile, so I changed it to an appropriate time-travel based power. It simply rewinds the encounter without offering either side a strict advantage, allowing an alien to “probe the waters” for what the enemy might play before committing to something.
- Original Chronos recharges the opponent’s encounter pod if they have no other pods, as original Cosmic requires a pod to engage in an encounter. Since my version does not, this clause is unnecessary. It gives Chronos a minor buff.
- Chronos’s legacy turns Cosmic Zaps into rewind buttons. While they do still zap powers, this effect is effectively meaningless since they send the match back in time. Any achievements made since the last orientation are lost, and then the Cosmic Zap is vaporized, preventing any potential infinite loops. Aliens get back any pods or aspects that were used previously, providing valuable information to everyone that remembers it. Aspects like destiny and the drafting order in the forge should also be the same, allowing aliens to use that info to their advantage. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Chronos’s ability requires its opponent to win two encounters against it instead of one. Having one strong pod is not sufficient to defeat them.
- Chronos can go back in time after any encounter, allowing it to revert either combat or negotiation if it didn’t like the result.
- If the opponent only has one encounter pod, Chronos can force them into a situation where they play no pod for an easy win. Make sure you have at least two encounter pods handy at all times with Chronos around.
- In effect, Chronos restricts an opponent from using their strongest pod. At least, they have to be able to win without using it. If a user has both the 30 and 40, it may be useful to risk playing the 40 first in hopes of time travel occurring, so the 40 pod will be retained. However, as Chronos, it may be more useful to eat the loss to prevent the opponent from keeping their 40 pod in the future.
- By performing time travel, Chronos gains the information of what effects and pods the opposing fleet may use. The opponent benefits the most from abstaining use of these effects until the second encounter, but if they don’t use them, Chronos may win and choose not to have a second encounter.
Development Notes
- Chronos is another sort of alien like Clone where modern technology can improve upon the ability to match the theme as closely as possible. By employing save states, we can actually undo an encounter’s events without having to remember everything that was done. This is important to account for weird discrepancies with the original that don’t get undone for some reason, like Fury consuming is anger or Porcupine dumping its cache. It makes other aliens have to worry about using their effects too early, which doesn’t have the same effect as worrying about someone that’s going to time travel. Of course, the ideal for this power would be to have the user actually time travel, providing them the benefit of information, as opposed to restricting the enemy’s pod. However, in addition to being unfeasible with present tech, this would just turn Chronos into better Oracle. Plus, I’m sure we could come up with better uses for actual time-travel.
- Oracle is a great point of comparison for gauging Chronos’s power level, as the two are both Control/Info powers for similar reasons. Oracle sees the future, while Chronos can change it. Oracle has to win on its first encounter, while Chronos gets two attempts. When confronting one another, Oracle sees both futures, while Chronos can restrict one of their pods. Oracle still needs to win twice, but they have a good idea who will win both times before playing their pod. Neither side really has an advantage over the other; it mostly comes down to who has the pods/sponsors to win.
- In terms of theming, I wanted to make sure Chronos and Tick-Tock feel distinct from one another. While both can be considered master of time, Chronos is more like a “Time Lord” from Doctor Who, while Tick-Tock is more like “Father Time”, counting down the seconds until the end. I invoked this by giving Chronos a “wibbly-wobbly” sort of design, while Tick-Tock resembles a grandfather clock.
- I considered having Chronos reset the entire invasion back to launch, but it gives too much agency for potential sponsors to side against Chronos after seeing the results of the match. It puts too much out of Chronos’s hands, potentially turning it into an anti-power.
- My original idea for Chronos’s legacy was to do a full reset of the match, except for Chronos’s system. I think it’s a well-balanced legacy since there are almost guaranteed to be bases in Chronos’s system if it’s eliminated, resulting in a pseudo-reset that favors some over others. However, this idea makes Chronos’s legacy a nothing effect if activated as a starting effect, which makes it invalid.
- Chronos’s power technically gives it a second encounter, making it an invasion type by definition.