Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
TimeWatch RPG Playtest Story Hour (Updated 9-2-14)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 6244673" data-attributes="member: 10689"><p><strong>Episode 1, Chapter 2. The Guns of the South</strong></p><p></p><p>"There has been a serious breach of chronal integrity," Dr. Gonzalez says soberly. "You are authorized to go back in time and take any necessary measures to repair the timeline.</p><p></p><p>The team decides that the best date to start is the site of the first bomb, a month before the explosion: Philadelphia, July 15, 1938.</p><p></p><p>They pull out their Autochrons - personal time-travel devices, each keyed to its owner through the best biometric security system that has ever been developed anywhere in time. To the untrained eye, an inactive Autochron looks like a silvery metal bar about a foot long. One by one, each agent activates their Autochron. A holographic screen shimmers up from each device, full of complicated controls. Each agent sets their Autochron to the same time and place. The Autochron will do the rest - it chooses an unobtrusive place to protect the travelers from being seen or heard when they arrive.</p><p></p><p>Each date and time gets set; each Autochron springs into action, sending a sphere of purple light around the agent that controls it.</p><p></p><p>One by one, the agents leave TimeWatch HQ and reappear in Philadelphia.</p><p></p><p><strong>Philadelphia, 1938</strong></p><p></p><p>The purple spheres of the Autochrons whir, waver, and retreat, leaving the team in an alley between two sets of rowhouses in a quiet neighborhood in Philadelphia. </p><p></p><p>At first, the city looks exactly as they'd expected: the buildings look roughly the same as they did in the books the team consulted before leaving; there aren't any huge skyscrapers or wide-open fields or other major differences. </p><p></p><p>But as the disorientation of time-travel wears off, they start to notice a few differences. There are more cars on the roads than they expected, and many more olive-green military trucks. From time to time, a low unsettling boom can be heard in the distance, and closer by, the team hears the rhythmic pounding of hundreds of boots marching in unison. American flags hang from almost every building - but those, too, look slightly different. </p><p></p><p>Michel is the one who spots it first: the flag has only 25 stars. </p><p></p><p>Yves hurries down the street to a newsstand, and picks up a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer. </p><p></p><p>Yes, he's still dressed in a silver TimeWatch uniform; yes, he's a native of 18th century France. But the standard-issue TimeWatch equipment takes care of that: not only do all agents have an automatic simultaneous translation device for spoken language, they wear clothing over their jumpsuits that can easily be adapted to numerous times and places. Agents who need more elaborate cover or are especially interested in fashion sometimes pick up new outfits while they're in the field. </p><p></p><p>Yves, in fact, is making mental notes about the quality of the suits he sees on his brief walk to the newsstand, and planning his new wardrobe in case of an extended stay in 1938. But not many people are looking at him, thanks to the Impersonator Mesh that's on his skin. It's not that Impersonator Mesh makes him invisible, it just makes him unobtrusive - people either glance past him or just assume that he's the sort of person who would fit into whatever surroundings he's in.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the team stays in the alley until Yves gets back with his newspaper, and they all gather around to start reading.</p><p></p><p>The whole front page is full of news of the war. And second. And third.</p><p></p><p>"ATTACKS ON CAPITAL PERSIST. Philadelphia. Southern forces continue to approach the capital in the third week of heavy fighting…"</p><p></p><p>"Does that mean that Philadelphia is the capital, not Washington?" Mace asks.</p><p></p><p>FIGHTING WORSENS IN NORTH SEQUOIA.</p><p></p><p>"Where on earth is North Sequoia?" Yves asks.</p><p></p><p>"Since sequoias are evergreens native to California," Hypatia explains, "it is presumably somewhere on the Pacific coast."</p><p></p><p>All of the articles add up to a very unsettling picture of the United States in 1938: there is a massive war going on, with fronts in Europe, the Pacific, and North America. </p><p></p><p>"World War II and the Civil War at the same time," Michel says, glancing over at Edward with an uneasy, unhappy look. "It appears that we were both right."</p><p></p><p>Kat rubs her temples. "Can we just find a sixth-grade history textbook? Something that will tell us what happened to make everything go wrong, in very simple sentences?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, of course!" Hypatia says confidently. "This is Philadelphia! We will definitely be able to find a good library." And if there is anything that Hypatia knows about, it is libraries. </p><p></p><p>It's not too hard to locate a branch of the Philadelphia public library; and once there, it's not too hard to locate the history textbook that Kat has been longing for. We page back to the middle of the 19th century to see what happened in the first Civil War, and discover that the moment that the North lost was August 1863, when Britain and France recognized the clearly-ascendant Confederacy. </p><p></p><p>"Wait!" says Edward. "What? What happened at Gettysburg? That was July 1863. How did the South win? Did something happen with Pickett's Charge? Or was one of the generals killed? Or - " Edward trails off, realizing that everyone is staring at him as he recites detailed information about a battle that took place almost 400 years after he died (or, at least, left history). "Look, military history is interesting!"</p><p></p><p>Rules Sidebar:</p><p>[sblock](Edward has one point in Military Science. That much is enough to let him know exactly what happened at the Battle of Gettysburg, or any other important battle in history. Military Science, and other Investigative Skills, are very powerful. If you have a point in one of those skills and want to take an action related to that skill, you don't have to make a check: you just say 'I have a point in X skill' and automatically succeed. If you want to do something really huge related to that skill, then you can spend a point. So, for having a point in Military Science, Edward knows about the Battle of Gettysburg. If he were to spend that point, he could have actually been at the Battle of Gettysburg at the side of one of the generals. For a small challenge like this, it's not worth spending a point, but when the stakes are higher, spending a point can gain you effective and exciting results.)[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Hypatia flips back to the textbook's discussion of the Battle of Gettysburg. "It says here," she reads, "that Gettysburg was won by the South's decisive advantages of superior manpower and technology."</p><p></p><p>Everyone blinks. "That's…the opposite of what was supposed to happen," Edward finally says.</p><p></p><p>"Then let us find out what this superior technology was," suggests Michel.</p><p></p><p>Hypatia, the expert at research, starts pulling down books that will tell us more than the basic history textbook. She discovers that the South had two key pieces of military technology: the repeating firearm called the Whitney Gun which was invented by Eli Whitney; and a kind of smokeless gunpowder invented by Whitney's son, Eli Whitney, Jr. </p><p></p><p>We quickly consult our tethers to see how that measures up against the master timeline.</p><p></p><p>The tether is one of our most powerful tools: it acts as a link to TimeWatch HQ's immense store of information, letting us check the world we're in against the master timeline. It also allows us to communicate with each other silently and securely so that we can coordinate our actions in the field.</p><p></p><p>According to the history that we access through our tethers, Eli Whitney spent a brief time in Georgia where he invented the cotton gin, then returned to his home state of Connecticut in 1797 to set up his firearms manufacturing business. In the biography of Eli Whitney that Hypatia finds, Eli Whitney stayed in Georgia and set up his gun manufactory there. Repeating rifles were lethal, but not very effective on the battlefield in the early 19th century - firing them created so much smoke that it was difficult for anyone else to see. According to our tethers, the invention of smokeless gunpowder in 1884 solved that problem. According to the history book that Hypatia found, smokeless gunpowder was invented in 1860, by Eli Whitney, Jr. The combination of smokeless gunpowder and Whitney guns won the war for the South.</p><p></p><p>It appears that history has been changed at least twice to bring about the version of 1938 where Philadelphia is threatened by nuclear war: once when Eli Whitney stayed in Georgia, and once when his son received future tech. Both of those changes made the South win the Civil War.</p><p></p><p>When should we intervene? And who might be responsible for this?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ladybird, post: 6244673, member: 10689"] [b]Episode 1, Chapter 2. The Guns of the South[/b] "There has been a serious breach of chronal integrity," Dr. Gonzalez says soberly. "You are authorized to go back in time and take any necessary measures to repair the timeline. The team decides that the best date to start is the site of the first bomb, a month before the explosion: Philadelphia, July 15, 1938. They pull out their Autochrons - personal time-travel devices, each keyed to its owner through the best biometric security system that has ever been developed anywhere in time. To the untrained eye, an inactive Autochron looks like a silvery metal bar about a foot long. One by one, each agent activates their Autochron. A holographic screen shimmers up from each device, full of complicated controls. Each agent sets their Autochron to the same time and place. The Autochron will do the rest - it chooses an unobtrusive place to protect the travelers from being seen or heard when they arrive. Each date and time gets set; each Autochron springs into action, sending a sphere of purple light around the agent that controls it. One by one, the agents leave TimeWatch HQ and reappear in Philadelphia. [B]Philadelphia, 1938[/B] The purple spheres of the Autochrons whir, waver, and retreat, leaving the team in an alley between two sets of rowhouses in a quiet neighborhood in Philadelphia. At first, the city looks exactly as they'd expected: the buildings look roughly the same as they did in the books the team consulted before leaving; there aren't any huge skyscrapers or wide-open fields or other major differences. But as the disorientation of time-travel wears off, they start to notice a few differences. There are more cars on the roads than they expected, and many more olive-green military trucks. From time to time, a low unsettling boom can be heard in the distance, and closer by, the team hears the rhythmic pounding of hundreds of boots marching in unison. American flags hang from almost every building - but those, too, look slightly different. Michel is the one who spots it first: the flag has only 25 stars. Yves hurries down the street to a newsstand, and picks up a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Yes, he's still dressed in a silver TimeWatch uniform; yes, he's a native of 18th century France. But the standard-issue TimeWatch equipment takes care of that: not only do all agents have an automatic simultaneous translation device for spoken language, they wear clothing over their jumpsuits that can easily be adapted to numerous times and places. Agents who need more elaborate cover or are especially interested in fashion sometimes pick up new outfits while they're in the field. Yves, in fact, is making mental notes about the quality of the suits he sees on his brief walk to the newsstand, and planning his new wardrobe in case of an extended stay in 1938. But not many people are looking at him, thanks to the Impersonator Mesh that's on his skin. It's not that Impersonator Mesh makes him invisible, it just makes him unobtrusive - people either glance past him or just assume that he's the sort of person who would fit into whatever surroundings he's in. The rest of the team stays in the alley until Yves gets back with his newspaper, and they all gather around to start reading. The whole front page is full of news of the war. And second. And third. "ATTACKS ON CAPITAL PERSIST. Philadelphia. Southern forces continue to approach the capital in the third week of heavy fighting…" "Does that mean that Philadelphia is the capital, not Washington?" Mace asks. FIGHTING WORSENS IN NORTH SEQUOIA. "Where on earth is North Sequoia?" Yves asks. "Since sequoias are evergreens native to California," Hypatia explains, "it is presumably somewhere on the Pacific coast." All of the articles add up to a very unsettling picture of the United States in 1938: there is a massive war going on, with fronts in Europe, the Pacific, and North America. "World War II and the Civil War at the same time," Michel says, glancing over at Edward with an uneasy, unhappy look. "It appears that we were both right." Kat rubs her temples. "Can we just find a sixth-grade history textbook? Something that will tell us what happened to make everything go wrong, in very simple sentences?" "Oh, of course!" Hypatia says confidently. "This is Philadelphia! We will definitely be able to find a good library." And if there is anything that Hypatia knows about, it is libraries. It's not too hard to locate a branch of the Philadelphia public library; and once there, it's not too hard to locate the history textbook that Kat has been longing for. We page back to the middle of the 19th century to see what happened in the first Civil War, and discover that the moment that the North lost was August 1863, when Britain and France recognized the clearly-ascendant Confederacy. "Wait!" says Edward. "What? What happened at Gettysburg? That was July 1863. How did the South win? Did something happen with Pickett's Charge? Or was one of the generals killed? Or - " Edward trails off, realizing that everyone is staring at him as he recites detailed information about a battle that took place almost 400 years after he died (or, at least, left history). "Look, military history is interesting!" Rules Sidebar: [sblock](Edward has one point in Military Science. That much is enough to let him know exactly what happened at the Battle of Gettysburg, or any other important battle in history. Military Science, and other Investigative Skills, are very powerful. If you have a point in one of those skills and want to take an action related to that skill, you don't have to make a check: you just say 'I have a point in X skill' and automatically succeed. If you want to do something really huge related to that skill, then you can spend a point. So, for having a point in Military Science, Edward knows about the Battle of Gettysburg. If he were to spend that point, he could have actually been at the Battle of Gettysburg at the side of one of the generals. For a small challenge like this, it's not worth spending a point, but when the stakes are higher, spending a point can gain you effective and exciting results.)[/sblock] Hypatia flips back to the textbook's discussion of the Battle of Gettysburg. "It says here," she reads, "that Gettysburg was won by the South's decisive advantages of superior manpower and technology." Everyone blinks. "That's…the opposite of what was supposed to happen," Edward finally says. "Then let us find out what this superior technology was," suggests Michel. Hypatia, the expert at research, starts pulling down books that will tell us more than the basic history textbook. She discovers that the South had two key pieces of military technology: the repeating firearm called the Whitney Gun which was invented by Eli Whitney; and a kind of smokeless gunpowder invented by Whitney's son, Eli Whitney, Jr. We quickly consult our tethers to see how that measures up against the master timeline. The tether is one of our most powerful tools: it acts as a link to TimeWatch HQ's immense store of information, letting us check the world we're in against the master timeline. It also allows us to communicate with each other silently and securely so that we can coordinate our actions in the field. According to the history that we access through our tethers, Eli Whitney spent a brief time in Georgia where he invented the cotton gin, then returned to his home state of Connecticut in 1797 to set up his firearms manufacturing business. In the biography of Eli Whitney that Hypatia finds, Eli Whitney stayed in Georgia and set up his gun manufactory there. Repeating rifles were lethal, but not very effective on the battlefield in the early 19th century - firing them created so much smoke that it was difficult for anyone else to see. According to our tethers, the invention of smokeless gunpowder in 1884 solved that problem. According to the history book that Hypatia found, smokeless gunpowder was invented in 1860, by Eli Whitney, Jr. The combination of smokeless gunpowder and Whitney guns won the war for the South. It appears that history has been changed at least twice to bring about the version of 1938 where Philadelphia is threatened by nuclear war: once when Eli Whitney stayed in Georgia, and once when his son received future tech. Both of those changes made the South win the Civil War. When should we intervene? And who might be responsible for this? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
TimeWatch RPG Playtest Story Hour (Updated 9-2-14)
Top