D&D 5E Advice on ways to continue my adventure

[TrefoloGM]

I have been running a 5e game in a homebrewed world. The main idea for the campaign is that the players will have to travel through time in order to change events so that the high elves cannot assume total control of the world. I gave my players a special talisman that allows them to teleport to an area that exists outside of the normal flow of space and time. Everything has been going just fine so far except that one of my characters has made the mistake of abusing the teleporting stone and would teleport the this area in the middle of a battle to take a long rest and teleport back at the exact same time.

I decided that she overshot the time period she was aiming for by about 30 seconds, arriving earlier than when she left. Upon her arrival she saw herself getting knocked unconscious by her opponent in an arena battle. She then dragged her unconscious body away from the arena to safety.

Now heres my dilemma; I cannot think of how to continue with this circumstance. Obviously she has already made contact with her past self and nothing (seemingly) happened, so the idea that physically touching the other version of you could cause something to happen may be out the window. I introduced a being who exists outside of the flow of space and time and lives in the area that the players may teleport to. I could perhaps have that being intervene.

What are some of your thoughts?

 

[aco175]

Its like a drug. Every time they use the thing a slightly worse thing happens. It could be they do not recover HP as fast and slowly not gain them at all from natural means.

You can also have the character that interacts with himself become poisoned. The negative effects of being poisoned for 24 hours makes him not want to do that again.

Alternatively, you can talk to the player about how that breaks the game and to not do that again.

 

[robus]

Has she teleported back to the safe place yet? If not then when she does there could be guards waiting to arrest her for corruption, i.e, going back to your own timeline to save yourself. The worst crime if the time traveler- because where would it end?

But yeah, you’ve got a pretty conundrum for yourself!

 

[toucanbuzz]

Yeah, time travel campaigns can get messy without ground rules, which you may need as inspired by your favorite setting (e.g. Dragonlance) or movie (e.g. Back to the Future).

I'd go with Aco's suggestion and build on it, ground rule that both can't exist in the same timeline, and the two merge. A suggestion that the merger gives the Poisoned condition (nausea, vertigo, whatever you want to term it for existing in two places at once) for 24 hours and a level of Exhaustion might deter abuse.

Finally, as to the Talisman, I'd go one of two ways. (1) Admit a goof and require it to have an hour activation to avoid this type of abuse. (2) Leave it be but make it only accurate as to the date, not the time, so a player could theoretically jump out of time and return to find they're dead, at which point you can't be alive and dead at the same time and well...you'll have to come up with another rule for that one.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Definitely talk to the player first. If that doesn't fix the problem, here are some of the ideas that I'd consider:

[1] Rule that since that area is outside of time, anything that resets on a timer (recovering HP from Short/Long rest, spells, etc) do not function. The only way to heal there is medical treatment and spells/potions. This also means buffs/debuffs with a duration continue to function indifferently until they leave the area, where the countdown resumes. Spells that allow additional saves each round/new condition meet, function only when it is detrimental to player. IE, the NPC they used Charm on gets a new save as per the rules, but if one of them is under the effects of Blinding Smite they can't make additional saves until they leave the area.

[2] The talisman doesn't actually allow time travel, your party is actually hopping from one parallel dimension to another, ones that happen to run at different speeds. The talisman picks the dimension that most strongly resembles the ideal outcome for the "changes" they have made from the user's subconscious. [Before implementing this next bit, talk to the rest of your players and see if they'll play along.] The next time she abuses her trick, have her return to the "same" location; however, [if player agree to help] all her companions are the villains in this dimension, though this detail isn't so obvious when she first arrives; [if your players don't agree or you don't ask] she can't find any sign of her companions, the enemy or any indication that someone has been here for several months. Either way, she now needs to find her way back to her companions, or ones close enough to not try and murder her in her sleep. That or roll up a new character.

[3] The area the talisman brings the players to is draining XP from them while they are there. Since it sounds like she spends a considerable more time there than any other partly member, next time the partly levels, tell her she doesn't currently have enough XP yet. Does not have as big an impact if you hand out XP individually.

[4] Since you already had her miss her mark once, you could rule that excessive use causes the talisman to become more and more unstable; throwing their jumps farther and farther from the desired destination. Personally I'd make them roll to see if it dumps them in the past or the future.

[5] To deal with them meeting/touching future/past selves, steal from the Futurama movie "Bender's Big Score", where any paradoxes that might ensue are corrected with fatal results.

[6] This is a really bad idea... but give one (or more) of the BBEG's lieutenants the same or similar trinket. Now they're going to pull the same shenanigans as her... or worse, be there waiting for her in that area to try and kill her.

[7a] Have future versions of themselves come back in time highly deformed and insane with the intent to murder the party. Give these future selves access to a level or three higher class features, but none of the HP, proficients increase, etc. During combat, leave "subtle" hints in their mad ravings about the danger of excessive time-travel. Constantly blame the party, and especially her, of doing this to them.

[7b] Have an ancient looking and clearly dying future versions of herself comes back with a warning about the overuse of the trinket. Either one of the ideas mentioned, or that she discovered that constant use puts all of time at risk. Future her accidentally did so, shattering time which bringing about unspeakable chaos and death to all the planes of existence. It took her several millennia of grueling, excruciating and harrowing effort, to fix a tiny fraction of time... just enough to come back and warn herself. With future her's dying breath, sob out, "Please don't become me."

 

[Draegn]

[video=youtube;Syt3twu3SlI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt3twu3SlI[/video]

 

[Imaculata]

I would definitely put a recharge time on the talisman. Like in the tv-show Sliders, it should take some time before they can make a new jump to another time. And if they teleport to a reality outside space-time, then obviously things that take time (such as resting and recharging) do not work. I would definitely also play around with alternative dimensions. Maybe the timelines they jump to are just alternate dimensions with minor differences, but the more often they jump, the further they stray away from their own time line. The differences in reality may gradually start to increase, until truly catastrophic differences start to appear. You could also have the players face the consequences of running into themselves, and merging with their time-twin, to create a new beings with shared memories and personality.

 

[Gilladian]

The Pc touched amd moved herself. Have bruises appear in those spots. Make them slowly turn black, and she begins losing HP. Everyday, her illness gets worse. When she tries to get healing, it only delays the progress. She has time-sickness, and must go on a quest to get healing from the god of time, or somesuch.

 

[TrefoloGM]

These ideas are great! Thank you all so much i will definately put in a recharge time and some sort of "time-sickness" as [MENTION=2093]Gilladian[/MENTION] so eloquently put it.

 

[TrefoloGM]

im definately going to adde a recharge time. im thinking 1d4 hours/days. im leaning more towards days so that the characters may think more carefully about when/where they travel to, and also so that i can add bits of mini adventures while they are stuck somewhere for the duration.