Benjamin Franklin said it best in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789, “…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except for death and taxes.” It’s over 200 years later and both are still true. While taxes are something that humanity could ideally and eventually overcome in a positive Roddenberry-type future, death unfortunately is and likely always remain a constant.
Now for something more uplifting… hopefully. Today’s review is Deadlines from FoxMind where players try to classify famous people according to their date of birth, date of death, and length of life. The player that makes the fewest mistakes wins. Deadlines is for 1-10 players and plays in about 20 minutes.
Game Overview:
Deadlines set-up is quick and straight-forward. You place out the three Tombstone cards: Date of Birth, Life Span, and Date of Death. You then shuffle the 204 Character cards and divide them equally into 3 piles with the character name side up above the 3 Tombstone cards. Flip over the top character card in each pile to its date side and place under each of the Tombstone cards in the play area.
The oldest player goes first. That player selects 1 of the 3 Character cards and, without looking at the date side, chooses which Tombstone column to place above or below the Character cards in the play area. Placing cards in Date of Birth & Date of Death cards must be in chronological order and cards placed in the Life Span are from shortest to longest from top to bottom.
The player flips the card to the date side to see if they are placed correctly in that Tombstone column. If the card was placed correctly, then the card stays in the play area, that player’s turn is over. If the card was placed incorrectly, that player suffers a penalty and places the Character card in front of them. Either way, play then passes to the right.
Once 12 Character cards are correctly placed under a Tombstone column, it’s completed, and all cards are removed. No more cards can be placed under that Tombstone card. The game ends when all 3 Tombstone card columns are filled; the player with the fewest penalties wins the game.
Note: some Character cards will have a black background. These special cards include highlighted words in the cause of death. When a player selects these cards and successfully places the Character card, they hand the card to the player to their right, who acts as the judge while the active player makes a guess as to the cause of death. If the guess is correct, the active player either removes one of penalty card, or if they have none, gives a penalty to another player. If the Character card with the special highlighting is not placed correctly, the player collects a penalty as normal and cannot guess the cause of death for a reward.
Game Experience:
Deadlines is easy to learn and is fast to the table. It’s also easy to teach and only takes a few minutes for most to pick it up. The only thing most players had some trouble with was remembering to guess the cause of death on the Special cards. But after a round or two there’s no issue in recognizing those cards and what to do.
Since this is a family game that means you’re going to have players of all ages. Deadlines is targeted for players 12+ but unless those younger players know history (which most do not), they’re at a disadvantage from older players. To remedy this, each Character card gives some details like Freddie Mercury: Singer-songwriter of the rock band Queen. Now these details do not give players answers but rather context of who the person was and what made them famous which could possibly help jar any player’s memory. This was a nice touch and helpful mechanic for all players.
I hate to say it, but you’ll probably learn something playing Deadlines. I know games are supposed to be fun and learning is not always fun but to learn that Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash wasn’t a very painful addition to the game. If you’re a seasoned (older) individual like me then you will be familiar with most of the 206 famous people on the Character cards, but I bet you will learn something new about them.
Now what really hurts Deadlines — like most trivia games — is replay value. The more you play the game, the more you’ll learn and mostly remember for future games which makes it, like all trivia games, less fun over time. The 206 Character cards is a deep deck but as you repeat plays you will likely repeat Character cards, especially at higher player counts. So, like most trivia games, Deadlines is enjoyable the first, second, maybe third time but not as much the fourth or fifth (and so on) times.
History, of course, consists of learning about the past, and most people will have passed. The details, life spans, dates of birth, and death are all interesting but learning about how all these famous people died is a bit morose. Most are simple facts like Coolio: died of a heart-attack. While some others like Nikola Tesla go into horrible & gloomy detail: died of a heart attack, alone and in debt, on the 33rd floor of the New York hotel. There’s a lot to unpack in that last detail and if you feel the need to watch puppy videos to be happy again, you’re not alone.
Final Thoughts:
Deadlines is an easy game to learn and teach which will get it to the table quickly. Each Character includes details as to why the person was famous which could help give context to players if they are unfamiliar with that person. You will also walk away from Deadlines learning something new about some of the people drawn during your game.
What keeps Deadlines from scoring higher is that the replay value is lower for trivia games and overall it can be gloomy learning about how famous people died.
Final Score: 3.0 Stars – A good trivia game with details to help players and where players will walk away having learned something but also possibly a little sad.
Hits:
• Fast & easy to learn
• Helpful details
• Educational
Misses:
• Replay value
• Morose
