But like all good time travelers, I’m getting ahead of myself. To understand the future of card-based time travel, you must first know what has gone before. In the game, up to six players take on the role of dimensionally-displaced Chrononauts, each bound to alter history to suit their own specific needs. Maybe you came from a world where the Titanic missed that iceberg or where Ronald Reagan was assassinated. And maybe I didn’t, so we would be working against each other to set up history they way we prefer it. The first player to change the Timeline to their own secret cause wins. Without the Gore Years expansion, the Chrononauts Timeline covers a series of world events from 1865 to 1999.

The Timeline of True History is set up in a grid of Linchpin cards and Ripplepoint cards, displayed almost like headlines on a newspaper. You’ll need some decent table space to lay it all out! Linchpins are singularly important historical events. In creator Andrew Looney’s view, they are also events that could be changed by the simple actions of one person. If a time traveler goes back to 1943 and makes off with some necessary equipment, the Manhattan Project is sabotaged. As a Linchpin event, a delay of atomic research means the US just might not drop the bomb on Japan… so August 1945, the end of World War II, is a Ripplepoint moment that depends upon the Manhattan Project’s existence. Change 1943, and 1946 as we know it suddenly vanishes!

Managing these Linchpins and Ripplepoints is the key component in how Chrononauts works. Creator Looney even received a patent for this particular gaming mechanic!

The Gore Years provides two new Linchpin events: 2000 and 2001. In 2000, time travelers now have the option to defeat George W. Bush with the infamous Florida Recount. The connected Ripplepoints are 2003 (”Saddam Hussein Captured”) and 2008 (”First Black President Elected”). Of course 2001 centers around the World Trade Center attacks, which can be undone by an “anonymous tip.” 2001 ripples to 2002 (”War Continues in Afghanistan”) and is also connected to 2003’s Hussein card. But note that even if you save the WTC, that doesn’t mean America gets away without enduring a major catastrophic event at the dawn of the new century…

Because although Linchpins represent an instant either/or situation (either John Lennon is murdered or he isn’t), Ripplepoints are not immediately set to an alternate event. When a Linchpin knocks out its associated ripple years, the Ripplepoints become Paradoxes. As giant nasty black holes in the space/time continuum, Paradoxes are very dangerous (in fact, if the players create too many of them, everyone loses!) and must be repaired with Patch cards. Patches provide some new alternate piece of history that heals the Timeline and magically everything make sense again. Even if it isn’t the sense you thought you knew.

In Gore Years, the Patch card for 2008 is “First Female President Elected”… Sarah Palin. It seems America was destined for an historic election no matter which way the timestream fell! Part of the fun is uncovering the connections between true history and Looney’s fictionalized events. Unlike many games where the cards are just cards, in Chrononauts you’ll find dozens of clever, entertaining stories scattered throughout. Andrew Looney is a lifelong science-fiction / alternate history fan, and it shows!

Visually, Gore Years matches up perfectly to the look and feel of the original 2000 design. Veterans will have no trouble shuffling these cards into the deck. In fact, the new edition of Chrononauts is identical to previous printings in most respects. It would be nice to see Looney Labs issue a full-blown Masterpiece Edition with painted artwork and modern card layouts (the entire game looks like it was designed in ten-year-old home desktop publishing software, and it probably was!) but the garage band aesthetic has been part and parcel of Looney Labs to no ill effect. Their biggest seller, Fluxx, has a similar no-frills tone.

If you are new to Chrononauts, the latest edition (version 1.4) will sell for $20 when it is released December 4. Gore Years is only $3, so it’s a complete no-brainer to add that in. For those of you who have purchased previous editions of the core game, v1.4 offers some minor text tweaks and a few new cards. v1.4 stands at 140 cards, has a new rulebook, and a much nicer tray-based box. Visit looneylabs.com to order, or visit your local gaming or comic store.

If you are interested in more time travelling, there is another optional expansion called Lost Identities that was initially released in 2001, adding a few new cards to the mix (but no Timeline events). In 2004, Looney Labs released a “sequel” to Chrononauts in the form of Early American Chrononauts. This game can be played by itself or in combination with the regular game, and provides a historical timeline of 1770 to 1916. All of the Chrononauts sets can be combined into a massive game known as UberChrononauts that makes for one incredibly fun evening. (Full disclosure: I participated in the EAC betatest and received credit in the rulebook.)

What is it?

The Powermat is an electronic appliance that you set on a surface and plug into the wall, then use to charge your small electronic devices. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to compare it to, and I think I’ve got it: it’s a power strip. Imagine a power strip that doesn’t have any holes in it, but is capable of charging up to four of your devices simultaneously without using their charging cables.

That’s right, it doesn’t use the charging cables. This sucker is wireless. Well, sort of. There’s the wire that plugs it into the wall, of course. And if you don’t pick up a custom receiver for each of your devices, you’re still going to need to connect the universal receiver (called a Powercube) that comes with the Mat to your non Powermat-enabled device, using one of the many adapter tips, to the device using a wire. The reasons you’d do it this way are pretty compelling, and I’ll get to that.

Powermat sent along two of their Powermat devices and three of their dedicated receivers for me to try out, so I’m going to take you through exactly what these are and why you might consider picking them up.

Powermat Home and Office Mat

This is the flagship Powermat device. It looks like a surfboard, really. Smaller than a surfboard, though, so maybe a Smurfboard. There’s a port on the back for the power cable and a USB port that you could use to charge devices that charge using a USB cable. I guess that’s another wire. There are three connection zones on top of the Powermat, each marked with a small circle in the center.

The Powermat comes with a universal receiver called a Powercube, which is a little white square with a wire on it with a mini USB port on the end. Also provided is a selection of adapter tips, which plug into that mini USB port and allow you to connect just about anything. The only things in my home I could find that wouldn’t connect was my DualShock 3 (despite its having a connection that fit) and my Game Boy Advance SP. I don’t know why the DualShock 3 won’t charge, but it’s hard to give them a hard time for not charging my GBA SP. I mean, my Sega Game Gear won’t connect either. No, I don’t have a Game Gear.

To charge a PSP, you find the adapter tip marked “Sony” and connect it to the wire on the Powercube, then connect it to the PSP’s power connection, then place the receiver on one of the three connection zones. You need to put this together in that order, or it won’t activate, because the system “handshakes” with the receiver when the physical connection is made between the receiver and mat. When you bring the receiver near the mat, you can feel a magnetic tug which guides it into the right position. If you don’t feel the tug, you’re not in the right area. If you have your eyes open and the lights are on, it’s pretty easy to get it in the right place. It might take a few seconds if it’s 2am and you can’t see because you’ve been playing PSP for three hours straight. Why did I feel so strange saying those last few sentences?

In addition to this magnetic pull, you can get audio and visual feedback from the Powermat, or you can turn those off by pressing buttons on the back. A high-tech sounding chirp, ascending when it starts to charge and descending when it’s finished, can be set to low or high volume or off. A white light, which comes from under the mat’s forward edge, can also be enabled or disabled. When I first charged my phone using the Powermat, it kept chirping and flashing at me every couple of minutes. I found that the issue was caused by my phone, which has given me trouble with power management for months. By turning off the phone before charging, I was able to fix the problem, but if I didn’t want to do that I could have turned off the sound and lights.

The Powercube is what I use to charge my PSP and cell phone. The Samsung adapter in the kit fits my Samsung Gravity, and the Sony one fits my PSP 2000. There’s an Apple adapter for iPods and iPhones (but don’t set these directly on your magnetic Powermat, folks) as well as several other tips to cover DSi, DS Lite, LG, and Micro USB. Just about anything else should be covered by the USB port on the back, or even the MiniUSB port that’s on the Powercube when you don’t put a tip on. It’s not a bad range of compatibility. The kit even includes a little case to hold some of your tips in (though they won’t all fit, so I put the ones I didn’t need back in the original box), which looks like the Powercube, and it even clings magnetically to the surface of the Powermat, which is cute.

Now, the real advantages of the Powermat, considering that without a dedicated receiver, you are using a wire to connect everything anyway, may not be immediately clear, so let me cover a few of those. First of all, I went from a power strip with six plugs in it to a single plug going straight into the wall. I have a pile of chargers that are no longer sucking power from the wall 24 hours a day regardless of whether something’s plugged in. When the Powermat finishes charging a device, it turns off and the device stops drawing power. This makes it far more efficient than any of the cheap power adapters that came with your device. The documentation claims that there are devices that will charge faster with the Powermat because of its more efficient power management, and I believe that. Using the Samsung charger that came with my phone, I tend to find my battery nearly dead by the end of the day. The first time I charged it with the Powermat, it charged in less time and then stayed almost fully charged all day, which caught me completely by surprise. It did the same thing every day thereafter.

The rest of the advantages are completely cosmetic. There’s no arguing that a Powermat looks a hell of a lot cooler than a power strip, which makes you happy to move that task from the floor to the night stand. The Powermat for Home and Office retails for $99, and comes with the Mat, AC adapter, the Powercube with eight adapter tips and tip storage box. You can find it here.

Powermat Portable Mat

The portable model of the Powermat functions the same way the home and office model does, including all the same components, such as the Powercube universal receiver. They key difference is the form factor. Rather than being a Smurfboard, it’s built more like a chain. Broken into three segments with 180º hinges between, the portable Mat folds into a small space, and can even be used while folded up if you’re only charging one device. It comes with a carrying case, complete with magnetic clasp, which holds both the Mat and its AC adapter, which is really very cool. It’s clear these people are very fond of magnets, and who isn’t? This model doesn’t look as nice as the other, but its portability, and the fact that it comes with a case, is nothing to dismiss.

The Powermat Portable Mat comes with everything the Home and Office model does, plus the carrying case as shown, for $99. You can find it here.

I give both Powermats, the Home and Office and Portable models, a four out of five. These are really fun, cool, fascinating technology. They work very well and it’s remarkable how much attention to detail went into not only their design, but even their packaging. The manuals go into great detail, quantifying the advantages of the efficient tech, particularly to the environment. Despite all this, The Powermat by itself, without any of the receivers that are sold separately, lacks the hook that the Powermat promises on in its ads. You can’t charge devices simply by setting them on the Mat, and you won’t be able to unless the manufacturers start including the receiver tech in their devices.

Grade: A-

Powermat Receiver Back for Nintendo DSi and DS Lite

Now, you’re probably thinking the same thing I was thinking when I saw the first Powermat commercial on TV. It’s something along the lines of, “how the heck is this thing even possible?” Well, the way it works is with magnetism. I don’t understand the nuts and bolts of the technology, but the pad and the receiver communicate, determining the proper way to charge the attached device, and then do so.

Powermat will only work with Powermat enabled devices. That means they either need to be connected to the Powercube (which would be a Powermat enabled device) or you need to buy an additional receiver that is custom made for your device. Powermat makes these receivers for four flavors of Blackberry (with more on the way), two kinds of Nintendo DS, and three options for Apple iPod and iPhone, with a 3GS on the way. The Blackberry receivers are battery doors, while the DS receivers slide unobtrusively onto the back of your DS. Your Apple choices vary as well, as there’s a dock as well as cases that fit over an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Having a dedicated receiver on your device lets the Powermat reach its full potential. Leave it on your device all the time, and all you need to do is set it down on the Powermat to charge. Your device doesn’t need to be turned on, but if you want it to be, you can do that, which is great for those of us who tend to suspend our games by closing our DS. Of course, I expect if you did this, the battery would eventually fail, because once it reaches full charge, it won’t start charging again unless you lift it up and set it back down again.

The Receiver Back for DSi is great. It’s large enough to get a solid grip on the DSi without dramatically increasing the weight. If you have a soft case with some give to it, as I do, the system will still fit inside with the receiver on it. The receiver back doesn’t get in your way while you’re playing, either. Unfortunately, the wrap-around design on both the DS Lite and DSi receivers tends to obstruct some things. On the DS Lite, it makes it hard to get at the power switch for turning on and off. The DSi’s power button in on the face, but the volume control buttons become a little bit of a challenge to get at. It’s not really a problem as much as something to get used to, but the receiver is right up against the power switch on the DS Lite, which makes operating the switch a pain.

Powermat’s Receiver Backs for DSi and DS Lite are $29 each. I’ll give the DSi and DS Lite Receiver Backs a 4.5 out of 5. Combined with a Powermat, this is really neat technology that it genuinely convenient and, perhaps as important, it looks great doing it. Unfortunately, that obstruction to the power switch on the Lite model is really bothersome. You can find the Lite model here, and the DSi model here.

Grade: A-

Powermat Receiver Dock for iPod and iPhone

Powermat’s Dock for iPod and iPhone is a small white square with the familiar iPod connector on top and an adjustable support to keep the device standing upright. This support is necessary because iPods have come in all shapes and sizes over the years, so one size certainly wouldn’t fit all. Be aware that this won’t work with iPod Shuffle. This effectively futureproofs the dock as well, unless of course Apple suddenly decides to discard their connector style as they did years ago when they abandoned the firewire port on iPods. It’s a very simple, lightweight design. As with other receivers, you connect your device to the dock and then set the dock onto the Powermat.

Powermat’s Receiver Dock for iPod and iPhone is $39. I rate the Receiver Dock a 4 out of 5. It works well and the sliding support is a very smart idea, but the price point of $39 seems a bit high when compared to the value of the DS Receivers, which seem physically like much more solid peripherals. You can find it here.

Grade: B-