Great villain idea (need some advice)

[Pyske]

Alternative

Another possibility: the future PCs don't come back, they can only send messages back. Also, to prevent paradox, they aren't allowed to say that they are in the future. Unfortunately, memory being unreliable, they send back several messages, but the messages "miss" the PCs by a few moments to a few hours.

People at the locations PCs have just left find the notes, and assume the PCs read and rejected the pleading that the must not perpetrate this great evil. These people hire "heroes" (or become them) to stop the PCs "nefarious deeds".

How do the enemy know the PCs secrets / weaknesses? Well, the notes each contain information about the PCs to help convince them that they were sent by a friendly party. Perhaps, not only are the enemy questing to stop the PCs, they want to gather all the notes, so that they are better able to overcome the (possibly more powerful) PCs. This means sticking close to the PCs and/or retracing their steps. The enemy don't tend to keep the notes on them (travel is hard on documents, and they want the others of their group to have access to the information if they are destroyed by the PCs), so the PCs can only rely on 2nd hand knowledge as filtered through the people who attacked them.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Nevermore]

Oooh, I hope you don't mind I borrow yer idea, Xar, it is just too good to resist...

 

[Larry Fitz]

Your scenario is predicated on the idea that the PC's future selves remain unchanged by the events, what if they are simply doing what they are fated to do? They have become evil and very important evil characters at that, they put the PC's through horrific scenarion after horrific scenario to ensure that they are thoroughly demoralized and choose "the dark side" that is why they do not kill them, they need them to become the evil that they are destined to become, that serves Occam's Razor much better I think than a scenario in which the only way they can think of to defeat some evil they have unleashed is to try and stop their former selves. In this case, if the PC's dso not begin turning to evil as their future selves did, they step up the program, not understanding how what they believe to be the past is not imitating what they experienced. In fact it is not their own past selves they are manipulating, it is an Alternate Prime Plane, just as they were manipulated by still another Prime Material Plane, and unlike the current PC's they succumbed...

Bwah-hahahahahahaha....

"Yes, when you cast the spell, 'Detect Evil' on me you get a 'yes' answer, but who named the spell, certainly not I. I would have called it, 'Detect Healthy Self-interest', and your so called 'Detect Good'? I would have called that 'Detect Simpering Milksop', now if you'll excuse me, after I kill you and your friends I have a game of cards with the Lich Khan-far, and he gets upset if I'm late." -Belthiz, Necromancer and poker enthusiast.

 

[Lothaire]

Hrm, I'm too busy to toss in more ideas, right now. But this thread shall be bumped and I will later edit this post to give my input.

Sort of ironic. My future self will return to alter what I am currently doing.

 

[Arthur Tealeaf]

ENboards need more threads like these, instead of just endless rants and rules-related arguments.

Now, I need to think more about this to figure out a good plot suggestion, but the whole concept is indeed great!

You should try and instill the players with a sense of fear and confusion as they figure out the plot, which can be accomplished through situations like the friendly old lady in the market who suddenly starts ranting and raving about impending doom (mentioned earlier in the thread). But be careful, the aforementioned situation with the lady might get too stereotypical and "seen it before". Try to create new and innovative situations which the players can't really recognize or identify with.
What if their conciousness kick in BEFORE their actions, although working in the subconcious? While talking to an important person, the person changes and gives them the shaft. Although what that person says might be very incomprihensible, as they are really talking to themselves.
Afterwards they discover that this never took place to anyone else, just to themselves.

 

[Xar]

Your scenario is predicated on the idea that the PC's future selves remain unchanged by the events, what if they are simply doing what they are fated to do?

Just the thing I want to do, somehow it is the players fate to destroy the whole multiverse. Even thought the future selves of the PC's try to do everything to change the past their own surroundings somewhere in the future won't change as results to their actions. Naturally, they will keep going to meddle with their own past, and that's just the thing that will lead the PC's to their own destruction...

Currently I am planning to do some interesting scenarios in which the players seems to wake up in weird places and receive strange, almost incomprehensible prohecies (from their future selves of course)...
(first it seems that everybody has just disappeared, streets and buidings all standing empty. Then they see the lonely figure standing in the middle of the road, staring at them. He beckons them to come over, but then there is a flash and the PC's wake up for real)
Turns out that it was just a dream, but when they go to the market that day they spot the same figure from their dreams. To bad he gets trampled by a giant before they can reach him...

Anyway, the body has a message carved or tatooed on it, or better yet, there is a hidden compartiment in his body (you can only see a keyhole in his chest, they can open it with a key they got in their dream). The prophecy is to cryptic or deformed because of the time-travel, and further investigation will only lead them to more mysteries (and to their final act of course).

If you have some nasty or disturbing encounter (or adventure) ideas left post them plz, right now I can use everything... thx

 

[Morrus]

Plots & Places or Rogues Gallery?

Hmm.. I'll go for Plots & Places, I think.

 

[wolfpunk]

Ok, wow this is a great thread, I have a few ideas, that perhaps can be added to the already great suggestions that people have posted.

I borrow some thoughts from some movies. The movie "Sphere" with Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L Jackson. The situation is similiar in that the characters gain a power that they have to basically will themselves to forget because they realize that to weild that power is to cause the worst things they could imagine to happen. So here is how I would apply. The characters find out that a diety is dying. There may try to prevent the death or any other quest ideas you come up with, but to no avail, in the end the God dies, the characters each receive a bit of the God's powers, basically they can can perform wishes on a whim, the problem is, their subconcious does the wishing. Have a stray bad thought, and whoops.

So the characters the ones in the future realize they have to stop themselves from gaining this power. They try to wish it away, but one cannot wish away being a God, so they decide to go back in time to stop themselves.

Here could be an example for the lackies. It seems to be a common thread in sci-fi movies that the same person from two different times cannot occupy the same space. Perhaps that could be extended to be that the same person from two different times cannot come within 1 mile of their former self, it wouldn't need to be actually defined. So the future characters are forced to come back in time, but to use lackies to do the direct contact.

Definitely use what the players say and do against them, it will work out so much better that way, and the players will become paranoid about what actions they take.

Hope any of this helps.

 

[BlackJaw]

There was a 2nd ed product on chronomancey I really liked. They refrenced it and some other time travel adventures and product in Manual of the Planes 3ed. There is a section in there on the Energy Plane of Time. Using the PrC related to plane traveling in that book, you can essentilay make a Chronomancer. A magical character the focuses on using the plane of time to travel in time. But traveling isn't very exact. especialy under 3ed with the extreamly nasty sand and wind. You'd have to use some high level spells to travel it safely (or a very large flying construct)

Anyway, you could fly forward and (with extream skill) backwards in time in the plane.

Time Travel is actualy used in one of the great Planescape modules... Faction War. The players don't travel time, but an NPC does. Its part of the story. In that module, the PCs actualy have a change to use Sigil to re-structure all of creation... or they can fail and some one else does...

Also: one of the reason the group may not want to attack themselves is one: that's a pardox. actually just travelign time is a paradox, but if you attacked yourself in the past, you would remeber it...and you'd gain those memories as you attacked yourself.... it's just not plesent, so best avoided (IE: Back to teh Future. You can watch your past self, but your past self seeing you causes problems.) If they meet themselves, they might make things worse, so they are trying to manipulate themselves without revealing themselves.

 

[HalfElfSorcerer]

Oooooh, pretty...

In "The Dark Is Rising" saga by Susan Cooper, the Light is in eternal conflict against the Dark-purest Lawful Good against purest Chaotic Evil. The Old Ones, immortals with the power to make whatever they wish to happen, are the ones who represent the Light. They travel back and forth through time to assure that events play out the way they should. The plot of these books could help.

This is sooooo awesome.