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Time Travel Game: Guess When?

By August 19, 2022November 19th, 2022No Comments
An icon of a hand holding a megaphone with twigs around them and the text "guess when..."

Time Travel Game: GUESS WHEN?

This game is similar to “Guess Who?” (or “Who Am I?”) and is designed to build your cogeneration skills and empathy. Here’s how you can play:

1. First, each player (aka “time traveler”) is assigned a decade to live in. You can distribute physical “time travel cards” (see printables below) or use this generator:


2. After each time traveler is assigned a decade, spanning from the 1850s to 2100s, everyone will be given four historical facts related to climate and social justice events from that period. Click on the button with your decade to receive the facts.

If you are playing in a physical environment you can also print the cards. Find below two versions: color and black and white:

Color cardsBlack and White Cards

3. Take a minute to learn more about your decade’s facts and whether you can personally relate to them. Use your real name, age, and/or place you live as your background story, or, create a whole new character to roleplay throughout the game.

4. A volunteer will introduce themselves first and share at least one fact or personal story about the time they live in. Afterward, the person to their left will go next. Share brief statements.

5. After introductions, each time traveler will have to answer ONE question from the rest of the players. Follow the same order established in the first round. In less than one minute, everyone can brainstorm questions and choose their favorite one to ask of the person being questioned that round.

6. When it’s your turn to answer, be creative and personalize the facts you’ve been provided through  your own historic narrative. Go beyond a “yes” or “no” answer and share more about your personal climate story.

7. After a time traveler answers a question, any player can try to guess what time they ‘live in’ or ‘come from’. To do so, raise your hand and provide at least one oral argument explaining your choice.

8. If another player guesses your time period correctly, keep playing and asking others questions to figure out what decade they’re in. After 4 rounds, if anyone’s decade hasn’t yet been unveiled, they can go ahead and reveal it aloud.

Technically, this game technically has no winners or losers, however, the player who correctly guessed the most decades now has bragging rights. The goal of this game is to improve your intergenerational conversational and empathy skills through curiosity, discovery and fun roleplaying 🙂