As the name of the mechanic suggests, real time games are about doing stuff in real time. That can be moving pieces, rolling dice, solving puzzles, really anything, but you have a time limit that you are working against. Now, it can be that one person needs to do something, then the next, then, the next and you are trying to get it done as quickly as possible while still taking turns. Other times it might be that everyone is doing stuff at once.

Let’s give an example of a game like this, I actually talked about one in my Board Game Mechanics for Variable Player Powers, which you can find here, Magic Maze. In this game you have a group of fantasy heroes who are going shopping at the mall. A silly premise, but each player has a direction that the character can move, north, south, east, west, up some stairs, into new rooms, etc. The game has a timer that is running and you can move to spots which allow you to flip the sand timer, plus you need to move to spots where you can get the items, plus you need to get out as well. This is all done in real time with players moving the pawns, and it’s done cooperatively. The trick is that no one can speak, the only form of communication that you can do is put a pawn in front of someone to let them know you need them to move one of the characters. So it’s very tricky to coordinate because everyone is having to keep track of 4 heroes and where they are moving.

Probably the biggest thing that real time adds to games is tension. There is a clock, a timer, something that is counting down. And it isn’t like in something like Scattergories where you have a limited amount of time to come up with as many answers as possible and then compare the answers, in that, the comparing the answers is really part of the game. In most real time games, when you hit the end, the game is over and you either in or lose. There is no tallying up points, there is no checking to see if you did well enough, and while that can show up in some games that offer some real time, for the most part, it’s pretty obvious how well you did in the game. So it’s a constant pressure to make sure you are getting the right thing.

For that reason, I think that these games are going to generally be fairly polarizing. Even for myself, real time games are not something I want to pull out all that often because they can be stressful. And it requires people to make split second decisions, and for a lot of people, that can be too much pressure to work on. There are some games that help with that a little bit, but even those, because there is a real time element are going to be more stressful than your average game. These types of games are definitely not ideal games for people with analysis paralysis.

So, if these games sound interesting to you, what are some that work well?

Gateway Game

Fuse – In this game it’s a race against time as you try and defuse as many bombs as possible. The trick to this is that you are trying to roll dice to do that. Each player will take a turn as fast as possible to roll some dice, and then each player takes one and adds it to a bomb they need to defuse. But, there are rules as to what dice are needed to defuse a bomb. One might need to dice that add up to the value of a third die. So you need to pick numbers that work for that, or it might be that the numbers need to increase. If you can’t take a die to help defuse a bomb, you have to take one off of your current bombs and put it back into the bag of dice. So you need the luck to work out in your favor. All of this while an app counts down time and everyone is trying to make sure everyone can get a die but also not take too much time discussing.

Medium Weight

Captain Sonar – This one is interesting because it’s actually one that has less tension, which is odd considering you are on two teams of subs who are trying to figure out where the other is and sink them. Each player has a different role on the submarine. One person is the Captain who is giving orders, telling players what direction to move, conferring with the First Officer who is readying systems like mines and torpedoes, the Radar Technician who is listening to the other teams Captain and trying to figure out by mapping their path where the other team is, and working with the Engineer to keep systems up that the Officer will want to use. Now, that seems like there is a lot going on, and there is, it’s a fairly lengthy game to teach, but what each role does is quite simple. The reason that this game is less stressful is that while it is real time, there is no complete this before time runs out. It’s just tracking down the other ship, that means as the Captain I can announce which direction we’re moving as quickly or slowly as I’d want. This is definitely a different feel than a lot of other real time games.

Heavy Weight

Galaxy Trucker – Now this almost falls into the Scattergories category of “real time” games. The reason I say that is because about half the game isn’t in real time. Instead you are dealing with complications that are coming your way. This can be pirates or asteroids, or picking up supplies for your ship. But where it is real time is the building of the ship. You are fighting with your opponents over tiles that are all face down to start. So you are frantically trying to get the ship put together with enough engines, cannons, crew, cargo room, and power so that can make the best run possible and have as little of your ship blow up as possible. The issue is you need to connect the pieces right. If there’s a two prong connector keeping it together, it better connect to a two prong and more things like that. And some parts just deadend, so it might be a nice cargo area, but do you want it if you can’t protect it with space cannons or shields? I’m not sure how much more complex this is than Captain Sonar, but there are more decisions that need to be made in this game about building your ship and more things to keep track of when doing that.

I will say that out of all of the games I’ve mentioned, Magic Maze, Fuse, Captain Sonar, and Galaxy Trucker, I’m fans of two of them, the other two I’d play but they’re just okay. Magic Maze and Fuse have a much higher stress level and I like playing board games to relax so stressful board games won’t cause me to freeze up, but they aren’t high on my list. With Captain Sonar, it is real time but it’s not as rushed feeling. And with Galaxy Trucker, the game is goofy, you poorly put together space truck will fall apart some and that’s fine, because it’s supposed to, you’re just hoping it’s better than everyone else’s. One final real time type of game I want to mention are Unlock and Exit, both of those score you against how long it took you to solve them. These are good gateway style real time games, I just didn’t mention them because I just talked about them with Escape Room games.

Do you like the tension of real time games or are they too stressful? What are some of your favorites?

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Captain Sonar as an interesting game because it’s an eight player game, ideally, though you could play with six, I think any amount less than that would be too little. Each team has four different roles to play in the game. You have the Captain who is giving orders, such as what direction to move in or where to fire torpedoes. Then you have the First Mate who is getting systems ready that can allow you to fire those torpedoes, drop mines, or even run silently so you can make a few moves without announcing them. The Engineer is keeping the systems in working order, but as you move, systems will break down and they have to work them in the right order to keep from damaging your sub and communicating with the Captain about that. Finally, you have the Radio Operator who is listening in on what the other team is saying and is trying to plot their directions to figure out where they are on the map so that their team can hunt them down and shoot them. You can combine the First Mate and Engineer, but I personally think it works best at eight, so it’s a fun, more involved game you can pull out for a big party.

Now, all of that happening at one time can be a bit much for some people, so Captain Sonar does give you the option to be turn based. The downside with the turn based is that it takes out a lot of the stress. That might be what those people need, but having played it both ways several times, in the turn based, you could really plan your move and which ever team figured out where the other was first really had an advantage in winning the game because you weren’t trying to figure it out in a rush. But if you need to play it turn based for a teaching game, I think it works well that way.

Captain Sonar also comes with several maps that you can play on. These maps have different number of islands, and if you aren’t just playing it simply as an attacking game, there are specific rules for different maps, however, it’s just fun to try and blow each other up and keep it simple that way. The maps all have islands on them, and that’s what really starts to give you clues as to where someone might be because when they have to navigate around, they can’t go through and island, and they can’t double back on their route, so you start to get a bigger picture, assuming your Radio Operator didn’t mishear a direction or misdraw it down on their overlay, which is always possible in the rush.

Another thing that I do really enjoy with Captain Sonar is the speed of the game. On Board Game Geek, it says 45-60 minutes, but if you’re just skirmishing, I think that we got two games done in that time frame, and also went over the rules for the players. The game goes fast, though, some of that might just be the pressure of real time. Also, when I’ve played it, we generally haven’t wanted to stop at one game, which makes me think that those times are a bit long, but if you are playing a slow turn by turn game, it might be possible that it’s that long. For that reason, I think that it does work well for a big board game night where you don’t just want to play party games and you don’t want to split into two groups. There are rules to teach with this game, so if your group is a very casual group in terms of the people not being all that familiar with complex board games, Captain Sonar might be the ideal game. But I’ve played with more casual board gamers, and as long as you have a mix of people, it’s been a success, though probably stressed some people out.

I really do enjoy this game. I think that it feels right with the tension in the game, and I enjoy games that make me feel the tension a little bit. I don’t want a game that completely stresses me out, but Captain Sonar certainly doesn’t do that. I do think that Captain Sonar, while being a really good game, isn’t going to work for a lot of groups, if you have too many people who are getting stressed out or if you have too many casual gamers in the group, you might have more issues. And I really do think that the turn based version of Captain Sonar is worse. My rating for Captain Sonar is an 8, but if I were to rate it turn based, I’d put it as a 5.

Overall Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B-
Casual Grade: C+

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