After narrowly defeating George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore went on to establish policies that ultimately thwarted terrorist attacks planned against the White House, the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, the terrorists returned and destroyed the Statue of Liberty in 2002.

Is this history somewhat different than what you remember? It’s the kind of alternate history that is possible in the most recent expansion to Loony Lab’s time travel card game Chrononauts.

The expansion, facetiously titled "The Gore Years," covers the years 2000 through 2008.

In Chrononauts, players take on the role of time travelers, each with their own agenda. Each player has an agenda to change some parts of history and to preserve other parts. While the game play is straightforward, there is one simple little rule that makes Chrononauts unpredictable and fun: players must explain how they changed history.

It’s not enough to say that you saved JFK from getting shot. You must make up an explanation. It can be simple or it can be something fun like, "I replaced that stupid convertible with the bullet-proof Popemobile from the future."

Now rival players must face the challenge of not only undoing your changes, but in figuring out a fun explanation as to how they’ll do it. The Popemobile may be bulletproof, but it’s no match for Lee Harvey Oswald’s rocket launcher.

Not only is Chrononauts fun, but players may find themselves accidentally brushing up on their knowledge of history. After all, it’s more fun for players to come up with wacky ways to alter the timeline if they familiarize themselves with the correct chain of events first.

Suddenly, everyone who plays knows how Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed, how the Lusitania was sunk and who shot Ronald Reagan.
There are currently three expansions for Chrononauts including Early American Chrononauts. The expansion packs can be played either as a stand-alone game or as an addition to the original.

With players coming up with new and wild ways to change history – and change it back – each adventure into the timestream is unpredictable and unique.