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

[Eltab]

OP:
The 4e Draconomicon had a 'Dream Dragon' (or 'Nightmare Dragon', I forget) whose fluff might serve your purpose.
This high-end nasty tries to put you to sleep rather than kill you outright.

You could have something similar that haunts the PCs' dreams, turning thoughts into nightmares - and messing up their Long Rest. The longer the PCs stay on the Plane of Time - and don't defeat the dragon - the less effective rest / recovery becomes. The PCs are now effectively on a time limit, eventually exhaustion will be a permanent condition for them.

 

[Guest 6801718]

This kind of thing reminds me of The Flash, both the tv show and the comics. For those not familiar, The Flash gets his powers form a dimension know as The Speed Force. It's a plane of time that the Flash can tap into to occasionally time travel (if he can move fast enough to access it). The problem with Flash time traveling is that he can change things which has unknown consequences. The show also added time wraiths that hunt down people trying to mess with the time stream, as tampering with time can cause instability in time itself and the universe. So these wraiths pursue time travelers to eliminate them before any damage can be done. The other interesting aspect of time travel for the Flash is that changing things can create alternate timelines and dimensions. So whenever he changes something, it causes a branch in time where both the original scenario and the changes he made play out. One of the Flash's big villains doesn't actually move at super speed like he does, but rather manipulates time. So rather than speeding up, he slows time down and just appears to be moving fast. Could make for an interesting antagonist or lieutenant for Entropy.

So you can take some inspiration there. Throw in some hunters stalking the party to keep them from altering the timeline. They could even be agents of Entropy. You could have the party cross paths with alternate versions of themselves, some of whom may be evil and trying to alter time for their own purposes. Or you could have a side villain who comes from the future and wants to take out the party for something they haven't done yet that altered the villains life to some tragic result.

The loom idea is pretty cool too. You can take some inspiration from The Fates in Greek mythology, who wove time on their looms and created your destiny.

 

[jgsugden]

For a Plane of Time, I'd go counter to the obvious and have it be a plane where time is effectively stopped (or slows incredibly) for anything that is not sentient. If you drop a pebble, it hangs there. There is no wind. Fires are frozen in place. Then, every once in a while, time leaps forward at an amazing pace and then freezes again. That opens up a lot of possibilities - especially if you treat the PCs like they're moving at superspeed when time is effectively stopped. They jump - and they fly incredibly high in the sky. They push too hard against a surface and it is like they punched it incredibly hard (bad for the hand!).

 

[Geoarrge]

For a Plane of Time, I'd go counter to the obvious and have it be a plane where time is effectively stopped (or slows incredibly) for anything that is not sentient...

That sounds similar to the "Timeless Space" portrayed in Sluggy Freelance, which might be some interesting reference. http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/050131

 

[QuantumWizard]

That's a very cool storyline! There should be more time travel in D&D

Here's an idea: have a fight, perhaps inside something like a "time vortex", which goes backwards in time. Start with everyone dead or unconscious at 0 HP. Doing damage heals, and healing does damage. So they each wake up when an enemy hits them (that would have been the death blow, if time moved in the correct direction). The fight ends, basically, when everyone is at max HP.

Should be extremely confusing, but fun... Now that I had that idea, I'm definitely going to incorporate it in my own campaign sometime.

 

[jimmytheccomic]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, it's triggered some nice inspiration!