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Session Design Diary - 08A
Posted 6th March 2009 at 07:07 AM by fba827
I had been putting off the posting of this design diary because it had too many inherent spoilers for my players by the topic alone.
There is still a minor spoiler here, but it is subtle enough that it won't make sense in the game until the players learn other information. so I'm considering it safe to finally post this.
Guideline 1: No meeting themselves
Ex: they can't go some where that they could potentially run in to themselves in the past.
Guideline 2: No meeting already known NPCs
Ex: They can't meet NPCs that they have already met in the 'current timeline' since that would raise the question of why didn't that npc already know them when they met in current time. This also allows flexibility for the PCs to do whatever (they can kill the NPCs and such) and it won't cause a problem that they existed in the present. Once they met them in the past, then later in the present they can meet them for the second time if need be...
Guideline 3: No meeting NPCs whose deaths would alter the game
Ex: No killing their great grandfather which in turn would undo their own birth or alter some plot point that has already developed in the present
Guideline 4: Visits to the past should be short
The longer in the past, the more likley the PCs (or I, the DM) would break one of the rules. I initially thought 15 minutes but finally settled on 1 hour for the trips before the artifact pulled them back to the present.
Guideline 5: The artifact has to do this in a burst effect so that there is a chance everyone stays together
Ex: I finally settled on burst 5 from the artifact. Splitting the party would cause other issues
Guideline 6: There is some cost
Ex: In this case, I decided on healing surges being absorbed from the activator to fuel the magic
Guideline 7: All time trips should have an individual story
Ex: I didn't want it to be random. So the artifact pulls from the past/ancestry of the user. This let me explore the parts of the PC background that the players wrote up. It also gave little side quests for further character development. And, yeah, it gave me (the DM) a cheesy excuse to assume the PC would care about the NPCs involved.
Guideline 8: No planar travel
This is a bit self serving, but I always suck at describing other planes, so I just set the fact that the artifact would only pull from history on the same plane. It kept variables down somewhat.
Guideline 9: There has to be some randomness
Another selfserving guideline. But I wanted to be as surprised as the players for where they ended up while time traveling. So there is a random roll involved that determines where they go from a preset list of possibilities. This also keeps it from seeming like I am playing favorites (for a PC or even for a scenario).
Guideline 10: Whenever possible, plant a tiny seed that sheds a little light on the present timeline.
Guideline 11: Advancing time
For spending an hour in the past, when they return to the present they have lost 5 days. This is kind of the 'cost' aspect of it. It allows for 5 days where the villains are able to advance their own plots without interference from the PCs. Big things could happen while they are away...
So basically, allowing them to travel back but isolated enough that they can't cause time paradoxes and a couple other campaign-specific guidelines.
I generated these rules specifically for this campaign and for this group of players.
Different rules might apply to other campaigns or to other players. if I didn't know my players at all, I wouldn't even attempt any sort of time travel unless it was to the far far distant past or something.
How about any of you, what have your experiences been with time travel in campaigns?
There is still a minor spoiler here, but it is subtle enough that it won't make sense in the game until the players learn other information. so I'm considering it safe to finally post this.
An artifact is in the campaign that allowed for some time travel. Because time travel can cause lots of problems and paradoxes, I had to plan ahead and give myself some guidelines about what could/would and what couldn't/wouldn't happen with this artifact.
Time Travel in a session - how I plan to do it
Guideline 1: No meeting themselves
Ex: they can't go some where that they could potentially run in to themselves in the past.
Guideline 2: No meeting already known NPCs
Ex: They can't meet NPCs that they have already met in the 'current timeline' since that would raise the question of why didn't that npc already know them when they met in current time. This also allows flexibility for the PCs to do whatever (they can kill the NPCs and such) and it won't cause a problem that they existed in the present. Once they met them in the past, then later in the present they can meet them for the second time if need be...
Guideline 3: No meeting NPCs whose deaths would alter the game
Ex: No killing their great grandfather which in turn would undo their own birth or alter some plot point that has already developed in the present
Guideline 4: Visits to the past should be short
The longer in the past, the more likley the PCs (or I, the DM) would break one of the rules. I initially thought 15 minutes but finally settled on 1 hour for the trips before the artifact pulled them back to the present.
Guideline 5: The artifact has to do this in a burst effect so that there is a chance everyone stays together
Ex: I finally settled on burst 5 from the artifact. Splitting the party would cause other issues
Guideline 6: There is some cost
Ex: In this case, I decided on healing surges being absorbed from the activator to fuel the magic
Guideline 7: All time trips should have an individual story
Ex: I didn't want it to be random. So the artifact pulls from the past/ancestry of the user. This let me explore the parts of the PC background that the players wrote up. It also gave little side quests for further character development. And, yeah, it gave me (the DM) a cheesy excuse to assume the PC would care about the NPCs involved.
Guideline 8: No planar travel
This is a bit self serving, but I always suck at describing other planes, so I just set the fact that the artifact would only pull from history on the same plane. It kept variables down somewhat.
Guideline 9: There has to be some randomness
Another selfserving guideline. But I wanted to be as surprised as the players for where they ended up while time traveling. So there is a random roll involved that determines where they go from a preset list of possibilities. This also keeps it from seeming like I am playing favorites (for a PC or even for a scenario).
Guideline 10: Whenever possible, plant a tiny seed that sheds a little light on the present timeline.
Guideline 11: Advancing time
For spending an hour in the past, when they return to the present they have lost 5 days. This is kind of the 'cost' aspect of it. It allows for 5 days where the villains are able to advance their own plots without interference from the PCs. Big things could happen while they are away...
So basically, allowing them to travel back but isolated enough that they can't cause time paradoxes and a couple other campaign-specific guidelines.
I generated these rules specifically for this campaign and for this group of players.
Different rules might apply to other campaigns or to other players. if I didn't know my players at all, I wouldn't even attempt any sort of time travel unless it was to the far far distant past or something.
How about any of you, what have your experiences been with time travel in campaigns?
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