D&D General An Experimental Dual Timeline Campaign?

[Kobold Avenger]

As a narrative experiment how would one handle a dual timeline campaign where it's the "same" characters in both timelines, that are roughly 20 years apart. In the earlier timeline they start as 1st level characters, and in the later timeline they're 10th level or higher. It's the same characters and there's a bunch of ambiguous details of events over 20 years that get filled out as things happen, some things from the past timeline can certainly effect things in the later timeline.

I feel the later timeline for example needs to be more narrowly focused, as something that happened in the past one will become "Remember that time we did this?" in the future timeline, and things mentioned in the later timeline might steer the direction of things in the past timeline. And then there's the question of what happens if or should a PC die in the past timeline, which might need some narrative work to explain why someone like them is still around in the future.

 

[Oofta]

You're thinking bouncing back and forth between times? One session in the "past" and the next session in the "current" timeline?

It's an interesting idea and certainly one that can work in fiction. But why would the "current" group not remember something that hasn't happened yet in real life? Also, how do you maintain a sense of player agency in the "past" campaign?

I mean, PC death can be reversed with a spell but there are other decisions the group may make or want to make in the "past" that they may feel they cannot based on the "current".

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I guess for the "current" timeline at the start the players need to fill out a few details about where they're at in their lives. Like maybe one is a king with a family of his own, another is running trading company with his husband, the third just came out of jail and is looking for her estranged daughter, and another just recently came out of hiding. But the details how they got to those points over 20 years will be filled out by the "past" timeline.

 

[jgsugden]

With the lack of control we have over PCs (as DMs), there are a lot of pitfalls here. They may feel constrained so as not to change the future, or they may feel an urge to mess with the timeline.

To avoid this, consider the Journeyman concept of time travel to have a similar experience. The PCs start off at first level. Then encounter a temporal mechanic of some sort (Artifact, Portal, Monster, etc...) and get pushed 20 years into the future. They find themselves in a difficult situation, right off the bat, and are have to deal with it, but can pick up a few clues about their past while they do it. Then they get ripped back through time to the moment they left. Then the time shift repeats later, and the adjustments they made impact the future and when they jump to the future, they find themselves in a changed future. If they die in the future, they die in the past due to the magic.

 

[tetrasodium]

As a narrative experiment how would one handle a dual timeline campaign where it's the "same" characters in both timelines, that are roughly 20 years apart. In the earlier timeline they start as 1st level characters, and in the later timeline they're 10th level or higher. It's the same characters and there's a bunch of ambiguous details of events over 20 years that get filled out as things happen, some things from the past timeline can certainly effect things in the later timeline.

I feel the later timeline for example needs to be more narrowly focused, as something that happened in the past one will become "Remember that time we did this?" in the future timeline, and things mentioned in the later timeline might steer the direction of things in the past timeline. And then there's the question of what happens if or should a PC die in the past timeline, which might need some narrative work to explain why someone like them is still around in the future.

I wouldn't use 5e pf or any other similar system for such a campaign as the characters are very much fully defined. You could do it in a game like fate without too much trouble though & in a way timeworks even has some structure to support it but more from a time travel perspective & tbh I think the only way to do it successfully without too many snags like @jgsugden mentioned is to use time travel where you have the now & the past where you play the now PCs & have the past NPCs running around rather than now & future both in pc hands.

 

[Shiroiken]

This would be a very hard concept to pull off, but it has potential. I'd suggest you and your players watch Arrival (2016) before you approach them with the campaign. It has concepts in it that are relevant, and this would give them an idea of what it would be like, so they know what they're buying into. Short version is:

Spoiler: Movie Spoiler

Time is circular, allowing someone to experience events that haven't happened yet, but at the cost of being unable to change it (since it already happened). For a campaign, I'd have the players put in this situation by an unknown element, and the goal is to figure it out before the two timelines meet.

 

[Morrus]

I know somebody who did that — running Temple of Elemental Evil and Return to the ToEE
— and the kicker was they ran one in 3E (the current system at the time) and the flashbacks in 1E rules. Such an awesome idea!

 

[el-remmen]

I think it could work with some assumptions, one being (permanent) death being off the table. Or, if a player chooses, maybe their character did die and no one talks about the tragic circumstances b/c "it hurts too much." In the future, he plays a different character or a reincarnated version of himself. The point being the players can not know what the PCs know but won't address.

I think knowing how it will end up is not an obstacle to fun and engagement, since how something happens is infinitely more interesting. It is like watching Avengers: Infinity War knowing that half the world and its heroes are not gonna stay dead. Knowing they'll come back is not a spoiler (nor would knowing the Death Star is destroyed in the original Star Wars), but how could be.

I forgot to add that whenever I discuss spoilers, I like to bring up how the audience for Oedipus trilogy by Sophocles in Ancient Greece already knew how it ended, but it was the most popular play anyway.

 

[Lanefan]

One possible answer if you don't want to death-proof the low-level group: clones. Another is that at about the 18-year point some effect happened (a Wish, maybe) that revived or reset the original group as 1st-levels, and they've spent the last two years gaining the levels that make them the higher-level crew they are now.

I applaud your courage - this sure ain't something I'd want to try!

 

[aco175]

I was trying to think of events in the 1st level game that need to come to light in the higher level game. Say the low level game finds a map or symbol or even a location that they cannot gain entry because they need a key. The higher level party can encounter the answer the next week in gaming. I did something like this several years ago, but the party was high enough level 6 months later and I had to remind them of the past clue.