Portal Fantasy Idea

[Reynard]

Thinking about the time difference between the future and the now.

Same: If the same amount of time passes simultaneously on each world, the time the PCs are in the future they are missing from now. This would certainly disrupt their lives, and if I went this way it would mean spending more time in the now dealing with the consequences of the travel.

Slow Now: If the now moves more slowly than the future, the PCs can spend more time in the future and suffer less disruption in their lives. it is a dial that can be turned, so finding the right amount might take some experimentation.

Slow Future: This one means the PCs would be essentially time traveling forward every time they went home. interesting, but doesn't fir what I am going for.

No Passage Now: What if no time at all passed in the now during the PCs' travels, other because it was truly instantaneous or they only traveled when they were sleeping etc? It would be less disruptive in their lives, but the characters (and players) might wonder if anything real is happening at all. Is that desirable?

 

[DeviousQuail]

Thinking about the time difference between the future and the now.

Same: If the same amount of time passes simultaneously on each world, the time the PCs are in the future they are missing from now. This would certainly disrupt their lives, and if I went this way it would mean spending more time in the now dealing with the consequences of the travel.

The constant missing persons issue, scientific inquiry, interviews about the future, etc will be a big part of this one over the long-term. I can also see that being a neat hook.
"We'll pay you $20 million if you can steal the future tech from Lord BBEG's keep and help us reverse engineer it."
"Does X religion still exist?"
"Are there records in the future of what happens to us now?"
"If knowledge is transferred from the future, what about injuries, aging, or tattoos?" (This is a question all the scenarios need an answer to)

Slow Now: If the now moves more slowly than the future, the PCs can spend more time in the future and suffer less disruption in their lives. it is a dial that can be turned, so finding the right amount might take some experimentation.

More time will be spent in the future, which is probably more exciting from a gameplay aspect. Making the modern time a bigger part of gameplay sounds great from a story perspective. But this is for your table, not an audience. Incorporating antagonist NPCs also experiencing this same phenomenon could spice up the modern aspect. That applies to most of these I think.

Slow Future: This one means the PCs would be essentially time traveling forward every time they went home. interesting, but doesn't fir what I am going for.

Think of all the NPCs and background changes you'd have to come up with every time. No thanks.

No Passage Now: What if no time at all passed in the now during the PCs' travels, other because it was truly instantaneous or they only traveled when they were sleeping etc? It would be less disruptive in their lives, but the characters (and players) might wonder if anything real is happening at all. Is that desirable?

I like the dual-existence approach, but I think there needs to be some other element involved to spice it up. The main consciousness of the person being in the future and only returning when they sleep (or whatever cut-off you use) means there is some kind of auto-pilot situation happening in the modern world. What if that auto-pilot can be hijacked by antagonists from the future? They could be messing up your modern life in an attempt to thwart you in the future. Maybe the auto-pilot is a spirit that is slowly taking over your body and every time you return you lose more and more control of yourself. Heck, it could just be you've split into two people and modern you is fighting for control of their body because they see future you as some kind of invader or mental breakdown.

ETA: The show Travelers kind of does your idea in reverse. If nothing else it is an excellent source of inspiration.

 

[Autumnal]

No time passing reminds me of the Almost No Time Passing option. Stephen Donaldson used it well in the Thomas Covenant books, and Ken Grimwood even better in his amazing time loop novel Replay.

 

[Reynard]

I am preparing to make the official pitch for this game to my play group. I have two that are already in, and what I am hoping for ais a couple others who are regularly in and than some unspecified number of folks that want to play on occassion West Marches style.

The last thing I am hemming and hawing over is system. Most of me wants to go Worlds Without Number for a lot of reasons, but another part of me kind of wants to use a more generic system. Savage Worlds is a possibility but that game is very pulp action based and I am not sure if that is what I want to do. What other generic, light, adaptable systems are out there? I MIGHT be inclined to use fate, but I am not sure if it fits this game.

 

[Reynard]

Based on all the above, here is the final pitch I came up with:
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The Pitch

There is a world that is not your world. There is a world with no gruelling jobs, no long commutes, no social media, and no interminable long for something MORE. It is a world just on the other side of the mirror and just through the wardrobe. It is a world where you might just be what you truly are. You caught a glimpse of it once, long ago, as a child. But now it wants you back. But beware -- it has changed, and so have you.

This is a portal fantasy adventure campaign, where player characters from our “real world” slip into a fantastic Earth far, far into the future. Using the lauded Worlds Without Number system, you will create real people that explore a strange new world but are occasionally shunted back to modernity, where all they have learned of magic and battle is useless against their deadlines and mundane responsibilities. The only way to be whole is to fine a way back.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I am leaning toward Worlds Without Number as a system. It is already a far future fantasy, as well as being a relatively light OSR game. It is also free! Anyway, these are the beginnings of my thoughts. What do you think? Would you play such a game? What elements of portal fantasy would you like to see brought to the fore?

• I think it sounds great
• Yes I would play - would we play ourselves? Or at least "modern" 2020's Earth human?
• Elements: time passing at different rates; character advancement is... uneven? I do like the idea of the character is revealed as play progresses. A system where folks can make characters fast - I might even skip WWN as too heavy. Unfortunately I don't have a good suggestion to put in instead...

 

[Reynard]

• Yes I would play - would we play ourselves? Or at least "modern" 2020's Earth human?

I suppose people could play as themselves if they really wanted to, but that isn't the requirement. Just modern 21st century Earth humans.

 

[Reynard]

A buddy and I sat down and brainstormed over beers and pizza and we came up with the following broad strokes explanation for what is happening:

In the fantastical far future,an alien force has descended on the world and, being alien, doesn't realize its actions have the potential to destroy the world. A benevolent Gandalf like figure takes up the banner to fight them and in his explorations and study discovers that human genetically from our era can connect with the super-science of the future and can thus serve as a bulwark against the aliens. With the help of a network of supporters, he discovers an operational Creche that will grow modern aka now human babies. His plan is to raise them to be super soldiers against the aliens. Unfortunately it turns out the aliens get wind and Gandalf has to hide his baby weapons. He discovers a time machine and sends the babies back to our now, with the intent that he will recall them once the coast is clear. Because time travel has a lot of potential unintended consequences, Gandalf does not tell his followers about this aspect of the Plan.

Unfortunately Gandalf dies (or is defeated and captured, not sure yet) and the potential super babies are stuck in our past for decades. These. Are, of course, the PCs.

In the meantime, Gandalf's followers (now cult) decides to create one more super baby and raise it to be the weapon against the enemy. They succeed in creating the baby but as it grows to adulthood it is corrupted by power and becomes a Sauron like force in the world,turning Gandalf's cult into a vile religion.

In the meantime, because time moves differently, the PCs grow to adulthood. Before they are brought forward, tho, another group is. These first generation heroes get close to defeating both the Alien and Sauron, but ultimately refuse to go back to their mundane lives and figure out a way to remain.

The PCs represent the time machine breaking down even further, randomly drawing and returning the now grown potentially super babies to the future.(This is a conceit for uncertain attendance.) The PCs will be brought to the future and sometime shunted back, with some as yet undetermined time relationship.

If the PCs seek each other out they can discover they were all adopted under strange circumstances and start to piece their origins together. In the future, both the Alien and Sauron seek them out while uncorrected followers of Gandalf help them and the first generation heroes just want to be left alone and never go back to their lives as accountants and waitresses.

 

[Aldarc]

This is a neat idea, and the nice thing is that there are so many ways to approach this.

I would check out Index Card RPG. There is a setting supplement called Hard Suit that has mechs and things, but the point is that the characters kind of "discover" who they are. There is a mix of fantasy and sci-fi element as well. You can ignore the mechs easily. Character creation is super quick and easy.

Another option would be something like Into the Odd or Maze Rats.

You could even do something using Fate or Cortex. A character's Aspects or Distinctions could be switched out whenever they travel between the real world and the fantasy one, but maybe their general approaches to situations or values stay the same regardless of being in a fantasy world or not.

 

[Reynard]

One thing I didn't mention: the PCs are the only "pure strain humans" but the population is extremely varied so they only "stick out" to those that know wat a PSH is.