Take Time Turns Planning Into A Mind-Reading Challenge

Your group makes a solid plan, everyone nods, and then the table goes completely silent. A minute later you flip the cards and realize somebody quietly dropped a “2” where it could never belong. That’s the joy and pain of Take Time, the cooperative board game we can’t stop thinking about, and it might be the co-op reset your game night needs.

Jared is out on assignment, so we hold down the fort and dig into why Take Time works so well as a communication-limited puzzle game. We compare it to two modern co-op staples: The Crew, a trick-taking co-op that shines with the right crowd, and The Mind, a universal crowd-pleaser that can run out of steam. Take Time sits right in the middle: easy to teach, fast to set up, and surprisingly deep once the clocks start asking for color restrictions, “play order” constraints, and tight ascending-number logic around the dial.

We break down how a round flows: strategize before you look at your cards, place cards face down into clock segments, and decide when it’s worth using your limited face-up plays to signal the team. Then comes the best part, the reveal, where the puzzle either clicks perfectly or collapses in an instant. We also talk session structure with sleeves of clocks, replaying tough ones via the “sleeve of regrets,” and how repeated plays create a shared group meta.

Along the way we shout out other co-op favorites like Bomb Busters and the classic Hanabi, and we wrap with credits and production notes: Take Time is designed by Alexi Piovison and published by Libellud, and the over-the-top gold foil presentation really makes it feel special on the table. If you like cooperative board games, puzzle games, and silent teamwork mechanics, hit play, then subscribe, share the show, and leave a review with your biggest co-op heartbreak moment.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Jared Update

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. We are back and better than ever. Our friend Jared is out on assignment this week and for the next couple of weeks, as he has been for the past couple of months. And we will miss him dearly. Jared, good luck to you on your assignment. You are doing great work. We're so proud of you. We are here for you if you need us. Reach out if you need anything at all from your OG and family. Be safe and uh have a good assignment because it won't be long before you are back with us. Time is ticking through the hourglass, like days of our lives. Joining me, as always, is Clayton Gable. How are you doing, Clay?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

You can't get me out on assignment, man. I'm gonna be around. This is the only operation in my uh resume, Operation Game Night.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So yeah, we'll we'll see about uh maybe next week um when you're out on assignment.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

That will yeah, almost as important as Jared's assignment.

Why Take Time Hits The Sweet Spot

SPEAKER_00 1:12

That's right. Almost. Anyways, uh yeah, Jared's out, Clay's here. We are talking about take time. Clayton, tell me about it.

How The Clock Puzzles Work

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Let me tell you about it. Let me let me start by telling you a story. Okay. About uh a game group that likes to play these cooperative games where you're all trying to get in each other's heads. You know, we've got games like The Crew. The Crew is a game that I love. Trick-taking game. Everybody's trying to get on the same wavelength and complete these challenges and these puzzles. The thing about the crew is it really works best if you have people that understand trick-taking games to start. You know, you certainly could get somebody there if you just like brought them off the street and were like, okay, let's play this game. I'm sure you could get there with enough time. Um, but it certainly works better with a crowd that understands the core mechanisms of trick taking and you can work together through these challenges. And that there's a whole slew of them you can go through. And then on the other end of the spectrum, we've got games like The Mind. Oh, yeah. Where you can play that with just about anybody, right? You know, you've got your deck of a hundred cards, and you're just trying to play them in order without talking. It's almost like a cool magic trick, and you can't believe it when you just perfectly play the 26 and then 27 right in order, and it seemed improbable, but you guys were all melding your minds, and you're working through the levels, trying to get get up as high as you can. Both great games that our game group has enjoyed a lot with different people. The thing about it is, you know, the the mind runs out of steam pretty quick, in my opinion. Like it's great to introduce to a group and be like, hey, this is a cool thing. We all had fun, that was interesting, but we're not gonna play it for very long. Like, we'll play a couple, we'll try it a couple times, see how far we get. And then that experience, in my opinion, is kind of done with that group. But the other group, you know, with the trick takers, you can get a lot of hours out of the crew because there's just so many different puzzles to it. But incomes take time, where we've got this almost perfect medley of the two scenarios, right? It's just got a little bit more going on than the mind, but you don't need to have that prerequisite trick-taking knowledge to saddle up to this. Love it. So, what you're doing in take time, there's this box full of like, I don't, I think it may have like 40 different clocks in there. And each clock is a puzzle, and you deal out these cards that there's white and black cards, and the white cards go one to 12, the black cards go one to 12, and based on the player count, you each get a certain amount of cards. And you are all going to strategize before you look at your cards on how you're going to complete this puzzle. So the puzzle consists of playing your cards out to the different segments of the clock and trying to complete the requirements of the clock. The general requirements are that wherever the hand starts has to be the lowest segment value. Okay. So if that's two, the next segment has to be two or higher, and so on and so forth around the clock, kind of like a regular clock. Uh they just keep getting higher. Uh, there are other requirements that can be on a clock. For example, on the first clock, there the last segment of the clock has to have exactly three cards played to that segment, which works out nicely because that also needs to be the highest value segment. Um, there are other requirements like you can only play a black card here, or you can only play a white card here, or you have to play the first card of the round to this segment, or the second card of the round to this segment. So you're doing this, you kind of see your clock, you talk amongst your teammates, and you can you can plan things like, hey, listen, we're gonna try and put all of our like ones and twos up here. Um, if you have if you have a 12, make sure you put it in this segment. You know, you you come up with these plans, you're like, this is how we're gonna beat this puzzle. And then when you pick up your cards, no more talking. One person has to play the first card, and you're playing these cards face down, so you don't know you where people are putting these, and you're hoping that you're all figuring this out together and jiving with the same stuff. So the first person places their card down, and then you just take turns in clockwise order to everybody keeps playing a card. So each clock, depending on the player count, you can play so many cards face up. So if you're playing 12 cards in the round, you can play maybe four cards face up. So if somebody's like, Yeah, this card, I want people to know that I placed this one here because this could throw people off. You can play that face up, but that's one of your four cards that you can play face up. Cool. So deciding when you play a face up card is kind of important as well. And then, you know, you go through, everybody plays their cards, and then you reveal starting in the first segment, you're like, ooh, okay, that was one, that's good. Next segment, ooh, all right, we got four of them all. That's perfect. Next one, oh my god, how'd we why'd we play a two in the third segment? Who did that? And you know, the the pointing begins, you get to try again, and then you just keep going through these different clocks. There's some rules about it where you know, if you try it a couple times and can't get it, you can put it in this like sleeve of regrets or something. And next time you play with that group, you can start with the ones in your sleeve of regrets and try them again. Uh, but yeah, I found this to be. I mean, we've only played it a few times now, but and I've certainly have not seen a majority of the clocks in this game. But at first impression, this is a game that I'm going to is that it's one of those things you just want to keep playing with the same group and you know, keep trying to get further and keep you know figuring out your like little group meta about how you tackle these clocks. I mean, we were on the first clock, and I'm like, well, this one will probably be easy. Like, they just want us to you know figure out the game, get a quick win. Failed. We're like, okay, we'll try that again.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, okay.

Session Structure And Table Strategy

SPEAKER_01 8:07

This time we're gonna do this. All right, this shouldn't be hard. We just need to go in ascending value, and there needs to be three cards in the last segment. Okay, here we go. Failed. Okay, wow, this is the first clock. All right, one more time now. Uh, and we eventually got past it. But I mean, it I mean, it starts off with a challenge. I mean, maybe we're just dumb, but I imagine it just gets more interesting as it goes on, and I'm excited to see what's left in there. But you know how I kind of the way I started it off with the the crew and the mind are the two type of games that this has kind of been compared to in a lot of things I've seen. Yeah. And and like I said, I think this is a really nice middle ground where if the mind is just a little bit too like gimmicky and not like enough substance there for you, and the crew is a little too specific to the trick-taking enthusiast, I would give this some serious consideration because I think it's it's easy enough to get into, you know, it's just a deck of cards and a clock you pull out, but the depth of puzzles you can create between the different colored cards and where you have to play them in the segments, you can yeah, really get some interesting thinking. This is like a mensa puzzle, I yeah, which is not my forte, but I still enjoy it, and I like that cooperative struggle of trying to overcome it, and you know, the excitement of the reveal when you're like, Oh my god, I thought for sure we went over in that section, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Um, is that yeah, is this a game like um I guess what is the end objective? Like just complete a clock, or is it like a set of three clocks and you're scored on each of them, or is it like a part more of a party game where it's like, hey, let's try this clock, and then you do it once, and then it's like we can either put the game away or go for another one.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Yeah, so the way it's set up in the box is there's like 12 sleeves that have, you know, I think there maybe they're like three or four clocks within each sleeve. Okay, so ideally, I think like a single session you're playing through an entire sleeve. So I'm we're playing through sleeve one, it's got these four clocks. We're gonna go through, maybe get through all of them. If we do, good, let's move on to sleeve two. Boom. And there's four clocks in there, and then you work through that. So that's kind of how it's set up. There's no real score mechanism that I cared to learn about if it was in the rule book. Uh, I was just more interested in the vibes and the feel of the game and play trying to trying to get through as many clocks as we could.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, you that this one's gonna stick around with you for a while, though.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, I am uh I just played it last night and I'm already excited. I'm like, oh, who can I play this with next? Because it is a fun little tricky little thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

And how big is that stack that you're drawing from to distro the cards? Like, is it a standard deck of cards, like 52, or is it like much, much larger? What are the odds you needed?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

It's much smaller, it's uh it's uh 24 cards, okay, 12, 12 white and 12 black. Okay. Yep, and there's no and you and you just shuffle the white and black cards together and deal them all out randomly. Like I said, it doesn't really matter, except some of the clocks will be like there needs to be a white one played in this segment, or there needs to be two black ones played in this segment. And so just figuring out what's the best way to tackle that. It it you I mean, you can really like freely plan all you want. I there's some exceptions, like you can't say, like, oh, if I have if I have the one white, I'm gonna turn it sideways on my, you know, you can't do stuff like that, but you can say, like, hey, if you have the 12 in the first round, play it here, and then you know, if nobody does, you can be like, okay, shoot, now what do we do? Like, uh, I guess that one wasn't one of the cards that got dealt.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

What uh play count did or like what player count did you play this at?

SPEAKER_01 12:18

We played it at four, it goes two to four, two to four. So it is kind of restrictive on the player count.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Um, and I heard that that margin of error is very small if you're distrowing cards to four people and it's a deck of 24. Like yeah, there's not a lot of wiggle room there if things go poorly.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah, we I mean you each get three cards. It's like, okay, I've got these three cards. Where am I gonna play them? Dang, and there's some and it's just it it's more interesting than it sounds because you know, the original thing is that first segment, uh, that first clock, that final segment, you know, it can be as high as you need it to be, right? It can be 40, and that's great. So everybody starts, you know, the everybody's like, well, yeah, I'm just gonna put my highest card there. I'm gonna put my highest card there. But then eventually you're like, oh shoot, we all only have low cards left. And now it's hard to navigate what the difference might be between these other segments, and now you get stuck in this like middle ground where it's like, oh, we all have sixes and sevens. Who's gonna put what where? And do I add another card to this segment? Because you know, there's 12 cards dealt out, so and six segments, so there will be multiple segments that have multiple cards. Okay, uh, yeah, there's just there's so much more to it than you would think.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yeah, I I've never played what does the mind play up to? Does I play up to four? Oh, I think it plays up to five or six. I feel like I've only ever played the mind at two players, and it's always like me and Rachel staring at each other when we go on trips and stuff. Yeah, this sounds interesting, man. I I like this.

Other Co-op Favorites And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yeah, yeah. And I another one like this that I played today, I'm on a co-op vibe right now. Um, Bomb Busters. Oh, yeah. I played that. I like that. We I played with my kids and my mom, and we played through like the first four like training scenarios. Okay, and that's a fun one too. It's it's different, it's a little more fiddly than take time. Take time's pretty elegant and just like the cards and the clock. Um, take time's got like equipment cards you can use to do stuff, and maybe take time gets there. I don't know. Um, and in bomb busters, you have to like divvy out all these like little fuse tokens that can be kind of annoying to deal with every every time you go through a new round. But it's fun. I like these, I like these type of games. I think you know, the if I have the trick-taking people, the crew reigns supreme for me. I I love that game so much. Uh, but yeah, this probably is sitting in spot number two, and it's made me want to go back to another one like this that I have not played since early, early on. It's Hanabi. Oh, yeah. The firework game where you can't see your card, but you can see everybody else's. What a weird concept. I can't I completely forget how to play it, but I'm like, I want to try that again.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Heck yeah, you have to report back if you do have it.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, I have it.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Oh man, yeah, you have to report back once you play that. Oh, I will. Don't you worry. Co-op. What a what a great way to break a slump. Getting some co-op games to the table.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Just collaborating. You teach the rules and then like let the other teammates carry the carry the load a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Yeah, you have a good time.

Designer Publisher And Production Notes

SPEAKER_00 15:55

That's great. Did we do it? I think we know we didn't do it because we didn't even say who this is published by or created by oh my god, sloppy journalism. Wow, it's like you're not even a member of the board's game media. Board no boards game board game media. Oh my goodness. Uh, it's designed by Alexi Piovison. Good job, Alexei. The publisher is Libelude, who also did Dixit and Dice Forge.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Uh speaking of the production, sorry, I it's beautiful. This thing has, I mean, everything's gold foiled, it's like way over the top. Like every card is gold foiled. It makes you just want to be with it, and I enjoy it very much. So good job. Good job, lib libelude.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Libalude, is that how you say that?

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Lillibul.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Oh, it's Libalude. Libalude. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Okay. All right. We're probably mispronouncing that. If we are, let us know in the comments. Send your hate search the comments.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

For Operation Game Night, I have been Travis. He has been Clay. We are out.