This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions re: Time Control.

Q1: Missing Problem types?
Q2: Re-using duel tokens?
Q3: Why not always duel low?
Q4: Limit on re-duels when tying?
Q5: Tie for lowest value?
Q6: What does a Pre-historian know?
Q7: What happens when a player is eliminated?
Q8: Time Agent with no Duel Value?
Q9: How to distribute Fate cards?
Q10: What if no one launches/no one takes any action?
Q11: Last-page reference incomplete?
Q12: Take Time Control and force someone to make a Time Wave in their own
Timeline?
Q13: On-line demo wrong?
Q14: If only one player has Time Control, what happens if there is a conflict
between other players?
Q15: Do Agents have to be in the same Time Zone/Timeline to Aid/Sabotage?
Q16: What do "surreptitiously" and "rochambeau" mean?

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Q1: On page 15, it is written:

"Each Problem has a name, an icon, flavor text, and rules changes and are
organized into one or more categories."

And also:

"Problems belong to one or more categories: 
·   Cultural (C)
·   Societal (S) 
·   Technological (T)"

But there are some Problems that do not have _any_ Problem category. What's the
deal?"

A1: The rules are overstating the case a little. There following four (4)
Problems have no Problem category by design:

·   Materialistic
·   Paranoid
·   Anti-individual
·   Politicized Science

Q2: When I re-duel, can I use the token from the duel just previous?

A2: No, you cannot. While dueling and re-dueling, the tokens you are using may be
used only once each. When the duel series is over, any tokens you kept from the
duel series may be used in any subsequent duels.

Q3: Why not always duel with your 1 or 2 first? You can reduel no matter what and
if you cheese a win somehow, you'll get re-dueled anyway.

A3: That's one strategy. It's a trade-off between how badly you want to win a
duel and how badly you want to deplete your opponent of Time Control tokens. By
playing a 1 or 2 first you are in effect forfeiting your re-duel by almost
guaranteeing that you will have to re-duel. If you're just trying to run your
opponent out of "good" tokens, well then ok. But if you are actually trying to
win a duel, then bad for you. Players who find that opponents are trying to run
them out of tokens can just duel with the Fate deck and save their tokens for
Cashing-out and Time Wave duels.

Q4: When dueling for Time Control, if two players tie every time, is there a
limit on the number of re-duels?

A4: Nope. But bear in mind that even in the freakiest of circumstances where two
players both using Time Control tokens tie in a duel and then tie in 20 re-duels,
the 21st re-duel will be with Fate cards, and cannot be a tie. Let me know
(email timecontrol@thompsonindustry.com) if this ever happens to you.

Q5: Page 6 refers to players tying for low value. When and how does this happen?
How is a tie for low different than a tie for high, since there's just two
people dueling?

A5: In a 3 or 4 player game, more than 2 players may duel for Time Control at the
same time (as opposed to Agent Duels, when only 2 players may ever duel). The
first paragraph on page 6 under "Taking Time Control" ("...if any player
disagrees, all contentious players may duel for Time Control. There can be only
one winner, no matter how many players duel...") alludes to this, but does not
spell it out. So, in a 2-player game, there is no such thing as "tying for high"
or "tying for low", but "tying for low" has some small importance in Time Control
duels in a 3 or 4 player game.

Q6: What does an expert in Pre-historical history really know?

A6: They know what _didn't_ happen then.

Q7: What happens when a player is eliminated?

A7: In a 2 player game, of course, the game is over. But in a 3 or 4 player game;
all of that players Agents are discarded, and all of her Problems are shuffled
back into the Problem deck. Her Timeline board stays in the game, and may be used
by the remaining players as normal (Agents may invade and move, &c.). Any Time
Waves created on that board are advanced and grown as normal, and attack Agents
as normal, but are simply discarded when they reach TODAY.

Q8: Rules state that an Agent with no Duel Values automatically loses. How can
this happen?

A8: In an Agent vs. Agent duel, never. But in a Time Wave attack, it is possible.
If, in a 3 or 4 player game, there are more than 31 agents being attacked by Time
Waves and all players are out of Time Control tokens, there will not be enough
Fate cards to go around. Some Agents will have no duel values, and the Time Waves
themselves will have no Duel Values. Those Agents with no duel values, even when
attacked by Time Waves with no duel values, still lose.

BTW, Agents with no Duel Values is a very rare event, I'd be excited to receive
a detailed email (timecontrol@thompsonindustry.com) from anyone this happens to...

Q9: Ok, so during a Time Wave attack, how do you decide which agents get Fate
cards if there are not enough to go around?

A9: All Agents must get their tokens and Fate cards first, then a card is drawn
for each Time Wave. If there are no Fate cards left for the Wave, that Wave has
no Duel Value and the Agents in that time zone are safe UNLESS the Agents
themselves have no Duel Values, in which case they lose.

Ok, but no one wants to have an agent with no value, right? In general, if
players want to use a common resource such as the Fate deck and cannot simply
agree on who goes first, they can rock-paper-scissors for it.

Q10: What if the game never begins because everyone sits around waiting for
someone else to commit during launch, or everyone has Launched to Yesterday and
no one wants to be the first to break formation?

A10: There are, at least, two answers to this question. One is: if people really
want to play that timidly, then I guess there is no game.

The other answer is this: Super-cautious or extremely defensive players can be
beaten by aggressive players. If you find that you and your opponent have both
launched everything to YESTERDAY, send a Brawler down to your PRE-HISTORY (moving
zone-by-zone, of course). Then send down your Pre-Historian. Then 1 or 2 generic
agents. Follow that up with your other Brawler. Now invade your opponents Timeline,
sending the Agents in the same order. At some point, your opponents _must_
interrupt what you are doing or face a Time Wave machine in Pre-History. The
Pre-historian, and the 1 or 2 generic agents, can create 3 or 4 token Time Waves
(that grow to 4 or 5 tokens in his Ancient Times). It will take either a
historian and 2 or 3 other agents to diffuse that Time Wave, or his two
scientists and a tightly-managed bunch of other Agents to shepherd that
Time Wave up to TODAY and flip it. In any case, he will leave a trail of busy
agents, that will have to fight against the _next_ 4 or 5-token Time Wave you
send up. Sooner or later, his Agents will lose to the Time Wave, and Snap, or be
discarded, or get moved down into his PRE-HISTORY, where your Brawlers are
waiting. So, what does he do? Go right after your little cadre of problem-makers?
Try and stop you early-on when you are moving a single Brawler down your Timeline?
Just make mirror-moves and do the same to you? Invade your YESTERDAY and try and
wipe out your Agents?

Q11: Is the "Fast Play Reference" on the back of the rules missing information?

A11: Not "missing", but the information is drastically condensed. In all cases,
the new revised rules are superior, including the expanded "Quick Reference" on
it's back page.

Q12: Taking Time Control: Is it really the intent of this rule to allow you to
completely control and dictate the complete action of an opponent?

A12: No, but the original rules are worded that way. On page 6, please replace
the existing last paragraph with the following:

"A player with Time Control may either announce and complete a single Agent
action without interruption, or force an opponent to announce and complete a
single legal Time Agent action without interruption. When forcing an opponent to
announce an action, the player forced to announce makes all decisions regarding
that action; which of her Agents will perform the action, what the action will be,
which of her Agents will may provide commit aid or sabotage, &c."

It is with profound embarrassment that I recognize that this error in the rules
has slipped through so many levels of checking.

Q13: Page 5 states when a player announces an action, no other action involving
those tokens can be announced until the action is resolved. But the on-line Flash
demo shows a player trying to escape from a duel by moving away. Which is
correct?

A13: They both are. Your interpretation of the rule is correct, and the demo
attempts to show:

Orange player announces an action (the brawler attack)
Green player interrupts (scientist snaps)
Orange player interrupts (attack)
Green interrupts (snap)
Orange gets fed up and duels for Time Control

Remember that interrupting an announced action cancels that action. Announcing
and interrupting actions, and taking Time Control to prevent this, is at the
heart of the game. 

Q14: If anyone can interrupt during the action phase, it seems like there is a
potential for a stalemate. For example, let's say it's a 3 player game, and
player 1 won the duel for time control. Player 2 announces an attack on player 3,
but player 3 interrupts announcing he is snapping back to TODAY. Player 2 then
interrupts by re-announcing the attack on player 3, but player 3 interrupts again
announcing he is snapping back to the Present. Only player 1 has time control, so
there seems to be a stalemate between players 2 and 3. Am I missing something?

A14: You are missing the fact that Player 1 has Time Control. No other player may
attempt any action of any kind until that player has announced and completed an
action.

Q15: When rendering aid or committing sabotage, the rules say you have to be in
the same Time Zone, but don't say anything about having to be in the same
Timeline. Can Agents sabotage from any other Timeline?

A15: No, Agents wishing to Aid/Sabotage must be in the same Time Zone of the same
Timeline as the Agents who are dueling.

Q16: On page 17, what do "surreptitiously" and "rochambeau" mean?

A16: "Surreptitiously" means "secretly." "Rochambeau" means "rock, paper,
scissors."