Time Travel..

[Mordane76]

I have used time travel once, in my homebrew. The way I worked it was like so --

The characters went back in time to attempt to stop a powerful arcanist from reaching the height of his power. The spell went awry, and flung them into a time period where he was already powerful, but not unstoppable (as he was in their time).

They searched him out, and killed him.


At that point, they were given a choice by Time itself. Either they could continue on their present course of action (he would die), or they could return to their time and attempt to fight him in their time. They chose to continue on their present course of action.

They unwrote history, and a ripple through time whipped back through the remaining time stream. Everyone made a save -- those who "succeeded" on the save remain "unaffected."

In a way, they beat their opponent, but the cost was enormous. In the end, everything they were fighting for was lost anyway. because now, it may never occur.


Unbeknownst to them, those who saved were not unaffected -- something has happened to them. Only one person did not save successfully, and he already knows what happened to him. When we start back up in September (our group plays during the college school year), we'll pick up where we left off, and the others will slowly realize what they've done, and what has occurred.

 

[Wraith Form]

Aye - time travel is the proverbial can of worms. *snip* B) Time travel -- but always to the future to change future events written in fate

Hmm, time travel to ONLY the future, never the past...the players can never alter the past, only the future...no paradoxes to get tripped up with...I LIKE!

David Drake's book Lord of the Isles started with a similar idea: a powerful wizardess avoids a cataclysm--just in the nick of time, as the "sky falls in" on her-- by jumping AHEAD in time (I forgot how many years, but not so many that it turned into a "modern" era). What a spin on the cliched idea of travelling into the past! It'd be a cool idea to have a group of PCs go with her and discover what their lands and people will eventually become! Imagine the culture shock the characters would experience--!

Using Forgotten Realms as an example, imagine PCs from just before the fall of Netheril who jump ahead to the current FR timeline. From the DM's perspective, this whole timeline has been written already. Same with DragonLance--reverse the events of the Twins saga (when Raist and company go back to pre-Cataclysm days). Nifty. I'm trying to create an adventure for just such a thing...

 

[CrazyMage]

From Sam and Max: Fair Wind to Java (where they travel back to ancient Egypt).

Sam: That was a great trip, Max, but I can't help but feel we've perverted history, somehow.

Max: Who cares?

Sam: Hey, good point! You bust me up, little pal.

 

[Vlos]

I once ran a campaign where that is how I actually introduced the players.

They awoke in a field stripped of any magic items (magic items interrupted the time field) with only a note with some names and such.

After a bit of remebering they were sent back in time by a powerful wizard to locate an object. The object was lost in time, and the time period was its last recorded history.

They travelled about looking for the item. They were low level so they couldn't influence too much, but they did learn a lot which was basically the history of the world. They located the item which was being shipped over an ocean when the ship was attacked by mermen (who wanted the artifact).

The time travel spell was such that it had a contingency when a player died he returned to the present. So if a player died he was basically out of the sessions. They all died in the ship attack. But they knew alot about the world history which and the reason and approximate location of the lost artifact.

When they returned to the present they went to cities where they had previously been but they were named different, usually after the ruler of the timer period that they had gone back to. So again adding further depth to the history for them.

Worked out well being they were low level enough that they couldn't change the world.

 

[MaxKaladin]

Using Forgotten Realms as an example, imagine PCs from just before the fall of Netheril who jump ahead to the current FR timeline. From the DM's perspective, this whole timeline has been written already.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

In college I had my players live through the fall of Netheril in a "barbarian" kingdom on the outskirts of Netheril proper. They went out to loot one of the crashed flying cities and ended up getting caught in a stasis trap the wizard had set up to catch thieves. It was set up to keep intruders in stasis until the wizard came to get them out. Problem was that the wizard wasn't there to do that anymore. They didn't get out until magic went haywire during the Time of Troubles and it made the stasis magic go screwy.

They went back to their old homeland (Llorkh in "the North") and found it under the domination of some really evil folks (The Zhentarim). They also found that there were legends about them where their first adventures had been blown vastly out of proportion into deeds worthy of great heros. Taking out some orc raiders got turned into singlehandedly slaughtering a whole horde and that sort of thing. There was also a prophecy that they had disappeared and would return when the kingdom needed them the most. When they showed up, they found all these people expecting great things of them, but the problem was they couldn't live up to their reputations. Much fun ensued and then we graduated.

 

[Wraith Form]

Whoooops. Didn't realize this was an old thread that I'd already contributed to.

I just repeated (in slightly clearer but mostly redundant language) the substance of my earlier post, so I deleted the contents of this post.

My bad.

 

[Wraith Form]

Ensure that the adventure happens in such a way that certain key events DO happen.

Yeah, but barring railroading the PCs, how do you do this and retain a metagame suspension of disbelief and/or "realism"?

 

[Wraith Form]

In college I had my players live through the fall of Netheril in a "barbarian" kingdom on the outskirts of Netheril proper. *SNIP* Much fun ensued and then we graduated.

Wow, what an incredibly cool (and fun) idea! [/idea thievery]

 

[Golem2176]

One great sourcebook for Time Travel, whether you use the sysytem or not, is GURPS Time Travel! I have used material in it for my Alternity, D20 Modern, Palladium and White Wolf games!

 

[Elder James]

The only time travel event I have experienced in an RPG was a quite interesting one. The GM had already run three set adventures in the campaign, and we had settled in with our characters, and their place in the world.

When the GM started the 4th adventure, he gave us a little preamble, and then described us and the world around us, and we were a little confused because he was describing something else completely. We were suddenly in an occupied territory and we were rebels fighting against a tyrannical oppresser, and the GM explained to us that this (as far as our characters were concerned) is what had been happening all along. Our previous adventures had suddenly never happened!

It was explained to us by a wise old sage that the BBEG had actually already travelled back in time and changed a specfic number of events that completely changed the power balance in our gameworld.

Our party was then sent back in time in order to prevent the BBEG from completing his tasks, after which point we would be automatically returned to our own time (and the world would go back to how it was supposed to be).

We were also presented with special talismans that would, when we rectified the changes, allow our original memories to return upon returning to the present day.

While we did succeed in putting things right in the past, my character ended up losing his talisman in a fight, so when we returned to the present day his memories where of a world that had suddenly never existed.

Lots of fun, I can tell you. But it involved a lot of preparation on the part of the GM to ensure that things ran smoothly.