D&D 5E Help me design a Plane of Time

[jimmytheccomic]

Hey there!

Working on the Epic Tier adventures for my currently running campaign.

Long story short- during an encounter with the Maze Engine, the party was sent back in time. They fixed a mistake they had made in the past, saving two lives, and were then sent back to present day.

A slowly building plot hook is, the idea that this change to the time stream is causing some negative effects. Walls of reality weakening due to paradoxes, some NPCs are driven mad by having memories of both timelines, etc.

To fix this, our heroes will have to sail the Astral Sea, and travel to the Plane of Time. There, they will find the loom with the threads of history- they'll have to remove the severed thread, and resew the frayed thread to restore the timeline they like best. (Or, I might make it a web, and bring in some sort of Spider creature to fight, but a loom seems more interesting.)

I've got a few vague ideas for encounters (There's a few Tome of Beast creatures that will fit in nicely), and I like the idea of some sort of Entropy Lord, but otherwise I thought I'd drop a line in case you all have any inspiration during this initial planning phase. Thanks!

 

[Oofta]

It may not fit your campaign, but when I think time I think clocks. I had something similar in a campaign of mine so I had an encounter on a really, really big clockwork mechanism. The people were miniscule compared to the gears and pendulums.

Because of the magic of the area teleportation or flying was dangerous (space/time was warped by the mechanism) so they had to get from one point to another, all while the gears are "ticking" along.

We use minis, so I created some "gears" by blowing up clip art gear to 4 pages, printing and cutting out. Minis went on the gears and I moved the gears every round. Part of the danger was the possibility of being crushed by intersecting gears while fighting. Gravity was also doing weird things, the flat of the gear was always "down".

Part of it was a chase scene, some of it was fighting while being careful not to be crushed.

It was fun, and one of our more memorable encounters.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

To fix this, our heroes will have to sail the Astral Sea, and travel to the Plane of Time. There, they will find the loom with the threads of history- they'll have to remove the severed thread, and resew the frayed thread to restore the timeline they like best. (Or, I might make it a web, and bring in some sort of Spider creature to fight, but a loom seems more interesting.)

 

[Quickleaf]

Hey there!

Working on the Epic Tier adventures for my currently running campaign.

Long story short- during an encounter with the Maze Engine, the party was sent back in time. They fixed a mistake they had made in the past, saving two lives, and were then sent back to present day.

A slowly building plot hook is, the idea that this change to the time stream is causing some negative effects. Walls of reality weakening due to paradoxes, some NPCs are driven mad by having memories of both timelines, etc.

To fix this, our heroes will have to sail the Astral Sea, and travel to the Plane of Time. There, they will find the loom with the threads of history- they'll have to remove the severed thread, and resew the frayed thread to restore the timeline they like best. (Or, I might make it a web, and bring in some sort of Spider creature to fight, but a loom seems more interesting.)

I've got a few vague ideas for encounters (There's a few Tome of Beast creatures that will fit in nicely), and I like the idea of some sort of Entropy Lord, but otherwise I thought I'd drop a line in case you all have any inspiration during this initial planning phase. Thanks!

There are 3 AD&D books that flesh out the Plane of Time in official D&D lore, which may be useful:
Manual of the Planes 1987
Chronomancer 1995
Guide to the Ethereal Plane 1998

Most of the time travel I've run in D&D was more like the Assassin's Creed "animus" ancestral memories style (way back before Assassin's Creed existed). I like the subtlety of that approach, and it removes the "what if I meet myself."

In your case, with PCs actually traveling into the Plane of Time...you've got to consider what that environment looks like. How do mortals perceive such a "place" (if it's truly even a place)? My instinct would be to go with a dream-like environment, possibly taking the PCs back to past events during past adventures to experience them in new ways (or gain insights about things that happened), or even to historical or future events. So the Plane of Time is perceived by the players as a series of vignettes at different events throughout time that are linked in some way. There's a mystery there for them to solve: How are these events linked?

Also, this approach lets you introduce some kind of "time angel" or "chronomancy guardians" who disguise themselves as various historical individuals, and can break out of their role to offer cryptic advice or to test some virtue/understanding of the PCs.

I've used slaad before – not in a time travel sense, per se, but in a githzerai's individualized afterlife in Limbo – where the slaad were infiltrators disguised as past friends/family of the deceased githzerai, attempting to siphon off his life force by covertly subverting his mind/values from within the "dreamscape" afterlife. You could adapt that idea by making slaad temporal saboteurs/raiders of a sort.

I do think, when dealing with a time travel story, that giving more forethought helps the game immensely. You want to foreshadow things subtly right from the beginning. And you REALLY want to avoid inconsistencies; for example, "some NPCs are driven mad by having memories of both timelines" begs the questions WHICH NPCS are driven mad and WHY them and not others?

 

[Lanliss]

If you make it a web, I would make the Spider the Good NPC, who is attempting to repair the threads. An Entropy lord, hell bent on destroying time, is terrorizing History, thanks to the opening provided by your Heroes. They have to defeat, or at least fend off, the Entropy lord while the spider works to repair the webs. Set a certain number of rounds they have to survive, and watch the chaos.

As for mechanics, you can start each turn by rolling a couple of dice. 1d6, where 1-3 means they lose time, and 4-6 means they gain time. Then a second d6, where 1-2 is a reaction, 3-4 is a Bonus action, and 5-6 is an action. So, they could gain a full action for free, or lose their action, and have to work with only their reaction and bonus.

 

[OB1]

You could go Live.Die.Repeat style and put them into a series of insanely challenging encounters during a single day that they are guaranteed to fail at their current level. Every time they die, they start the day over, but keep their knowledge and XP, trying the challenges again until they get through the day. They may even need to purposefully go the wrong way/ do the wrong thing to get info towards the correct path. That is, perhaps down one path they fight a Pit Fiend that is way to powerful for them, but by making it to at least round 3 they get a clue that helps them down another path. That sort of thing.

 

[Lanliss]

You could go Live.Die.Repeat style and put them into a series of insanely challenging encounters during a single day that they are guaranteed to fail at their current level. Every time they die, they start the day over, but keep their knowledge and XP, trying the challenges again until they get through the day. They may even need to purposefully go the wrong way/ do the wrong thing to get info towards the correct path. That is, perhaps down one path they fight a Pit Fiend that is way to powerful for them, but by making it to at least round 3 they get a clue that helps them down another path. That sort of thing.

That sounds like fun, though you would need some way to stop it from being an actual grind for the players. I would probably include a lot of contingencies on the battle field. When they die the first time, they didn't make it far enough to trigger any. The second time, they make better choices, but their enemy expected the flank, and there is a pit trap there. Round three, they find out that there are also reserves on alert for if the primary defense needs back-up.

 

[OB1]

That sounds like fun, though you would need some way to stop it from being an actual grind for the players.

One thing that will help for a few iterations will be the pure fun, once they realize they get to reset after every TPK, of the amazing and horrible new ways to die. Agree you don't want it going on forever as the novelty will wear off, but I love the idea of the PCs cheering when the Pit Fiend splits them in half just as they notice some clue written on its sword or on the spiked ceiling that's falling down and about to crush them all.

And just like in a movie, once they have a section "solved" you can allow them to pass it each subsequent time (if they choose to do so) by just saying they do the same series of events. Though in this case I would say you should copy down character sheet status (HP, Spell Slots and abilities used) and have them return to that state if handwaving. If they want to try and do better, they have to play it out.

Okay, dang it, now I'm going to have to fit this into the current campaign I'm running.

 

[dragonfriend7738]

So, I know a lot of these responses are about encounters and plot hooks for a Temporal Plane, but I have an idea for planar hazards.

Just like the other planes of existence are made of varying and shifting pieces of their expressed matter/energy, I think a 'Plane of Time' should have areas of time shifts and temporal splits. Maybe pools of reverse flowing time, where non-natives to the plane might get caught and de-age until they no longer exist. Pockets where a character walks in and meets themselves from another possible timeline (the paladin meets their fallen selves, ect.)

Time is a river, and if the actions of the party have disrupted it, the plane should reflect that turmoil and be a hazardous place for them.

Sent from my 404SC using EN World mobile app

 

[Geoarrge]

I don't know how this would fit, but I think it's a cool concept for a template to put on some monsters/NPCs.

Time-lost

Also known as the Forgotten, the time-lost are characters who have somehow become separated from the normal flow of time. Displaced time travelers or the survivors of orphaned timelines, the time-lost struggle to find a place in a universe that seems to insist that they should not exist.

Fateless. A time-lost creature is not recognized to exist by any divination magic attempting to read the future, nor can any luck-based powers affect any interactions with a time-lost creature. An augury asking a question directly about the creature will give no answer, while indirect questions may actually give false information, ignoring whatever influence the creature would have on the answer. Foresight grants no advantage in combat against a time-lost creature, nor does it suffer disadvantage against an opponent under the effects of foresight. Other divination effects, including scry, work normally upon the creature.

Temporal Invulnerability. A time-lost creature is not affected by any spells affecting the flow of time. Haste and slow have no effect on the creature, and it can even act normally during a time stop. Time-lost creatures also do not age naturally, but cannot reproduce.

Forgettable. Tracks, marks, or even documents left by a time-lost creature have a 50% chance of mysteriously vanishing if left unobserved for more than 12 hours. Likewise, characters who do not have ongoing direct business with the time-lost creature must pass a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw to retain any memory of that creature 12 hours after an encounter.

How to cure. Generally, only a wish can restore a time-lost creature to normal. A more elaborate method, described as ‘weaving oneself back into the fabric of Time’ is to travel to the Temporal Energy Plane and back using naturally-occurring portals— different portals must be used for the entry and exit.