D&D 5E Need DM Advice: Time Travel/Dr. Who

[Klaudius Rex]

I am DM-ing Out of the Abyss and my characters just reached the part of the adventure where they fool around with the Maze Engine.

They rolled that it would teleport to them to the beginning of the session back in Velkenvelve when they first started the adventure, but with thier current levels, abilities, and memories.

Only one of my players actually made it with his original character all 12 levels since the beginning of the game. As such, i want to mess with his character from the past, or do something interesting with time travel for him....

So i really want your thoughts on how I should present this. I was thinking about giving a set time (rounds) where he has to find the Maze Engine somewhere in Velvekvelve to go back to the future before "fading out of existence."

I'm thinking of this as very Dr. Who, but with Tardis appearing in a spot unknown to the player characters.

Too cliche?

What other consequences or results could come from traveling back in time and meeting your past-self?

Should they even meet? I think so, especially if since it teleports him to the same jail cell that his original level 1 character would be.

Should I nerf that player only to his level 1 self only, until he finds the Maze Engine to get back to the future?

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rabbitbait]

In a previous game long ago, I had the characters travel back in time where one of them accidentally directly caused the death of the entire younger version of the party.

That messed with their heads.

 

[MarkB]

Have them go back, but find themselves in the bodies of their Drow captors. From a smattering of their hosts' surface thoughts they gather that there is a secret here which could help them back in the present - but they soon realise that any out-of-character actions they take put a strain on this past reality, and if they don't keep up the pretense, they'll be snapped back to the present without learning anything new.

If they want to have enough time to track down the secret, they're going to have to play along as their younger selves' captors and tormentors.

Would work a lot better if there were more of the original party left.