While having time reverse and intermingle seems very cool and fun, it's a very difficult thing to deal with. Often aggressive scripting and limitations on free will are required to prevent huge causality problems developing in the campaign. So, I'd stick to slow time, fast time and other things that don't create ugly ugly paradoxes for which the GM is unprepared.
The Temple of Time
- Thread starter thol
- Start date
RangerWickett
Legend
Do the player characters have developed backstories? Here's where you can use them really easily. Pick a moment or two from each character's background and have the party go through it.
Napftor
Explorer
fusangite said:
I would normally agree with this, but if this Temple of Time is going to have mish-mashing time things going on, then why worry about continuity and paradox? Just say everything is in flux and affecting the past or future doesn't have any long-term affects--besides being FUN!!!
Saeviomagy
Adventurer
You could have a tunnel where things age as they pass along it, and regress as they come back.
Make the far end of the tunnel some 3000 years older than "now". Such a big number so that elves can't just walk along and still outlive it...
Put something at the far end that the PC's need or want.
Make sure you tell them when they're just about to die of old age as they walk along the tunnel.
The trick is, they have to find something that won't decay over 3000 years to get the item at the end of the tunnel for them. Most stuff will be out - spells will expire before 3000 years, wooden stuff will rot, creatures will die.
One solution I've thought of is to send a golem or other stone construct down to the end of the tunnel. Or find someone or something who will naturally live forever.
You can also do the reverse of this: where age regresses as you pass down a tunnel until stuff just... disappears when it's so far back that it doesn't exist yet. Then the challenge is to find things that are old enough to pass.
Make the far end of the tunnel some 3000 years older than "now". Such a big number so that elves can't just walk along and still outlive it...
Put something at the far end that the PC's need or want.
Make sure you tell them when they're just about to die of old age as they walk along the tunnel.
The trick is, they have to find something that won't decay over 3000 years to get the item at the end of the tunnel for them. Most stuff will be out - spells will expire before 3000 years, wooden stuff will rot, creatures will die.
One solution I've thought of is to send a golem or other stone construct down to the end of the tunnel. Or find someone or something who will naturally live forever.
You can also do the reverse of this: where age regresses as you pass down a tunnel until stuff just... disappears when it's so far back that it doesn't exist yet. Then the challenge is to find things that are old enough to pass.
Patman21967
First Post
I like the idea of the main room being a nexus, where they can make a 1 time choice, to stay here, or travel forward or back in time without the knowledge where it would take them. make the decision stressfull, like having something they would have a tough time against chase them in the room, or have them hiding from something that they think could kick their rear ends, before they realize what the room is...
spider_minion
First Post
The PCs break a strange magical seal to enter a room with some plot-important magical relic. However, breaking the seal causes a rift in time where the next 24 hours (from the point the seal broke) repeat themselves. The artifact gets increasingly unstable as the hours past, until it eventually erupts and blows up a sizable piece of the campaign world . . . and then the day repeats. The catch is that the PCs remember their experiences from past loops. They need to figure out what's up with the item, how to stabilize it, and then hunt down a rare magic component or two and perform some ritual.
Throw a few strange encouters in the day. Maybe they're ambushed on the way out by some weak monster. If they decide to talk to it, it may have some important clue for them. Or an ally is dying of poison, but if they take the time to help him they won't be able to repair the artifact.
You should have something bad happen the longer they wait, just so they don't decide to read every book in the royal library or something.
Throw a few strange encouters in the day. Maybe they're ambushed on the way out by some weak monster. If they decide to talk to it, it may have some important clue for them. Or an ally is dying of poison, but if they take the time to help him they won't be able to repair the artifact.
You should have something bad happen the longer they wait, just so they don't decide to read every book in the royal library or something.
There's a cool power in the Expanded Psionics Handbook called time hop, which basically projects a target forward in time for a couple of rounds. To have a room where that randomly seems to happen to people and objects might be a cool environment.
Also, other creatures interacted with could have some kind of weird, visual stuttering effect, like when you're trying to watch a movie but the device you're playing it on is old or messed up and can't keep up with the data stream. Perhaps auditory effects could cut out for a brief moment (or a round or two), as time streams try to sync back together.
What if things seem to fall really slowly? Or time flows in different rates for different objects. The plants in the corner might germinate, bloom and wither before the players very eyes.
Time measurement devices no longer work. They just get stuck at one particular time. Spell durations are all extended. Instantaneous spells hiccup and go off a round after they are cast.
Certain events keep repeating themselves, disasterously, until the players finally get it right.
Just some thoughts. Cheers,
Vurt
Also, other creatures interacted with could have some kind of weird, visual stuttering effect, like when you're trying to watch a movie but the device you're playing it on is old or messed up and can't keep up with the data stream. Perhaps auditory effects could cut out for a brief moment (or a round or two), as time streams try to sync back together.
What if things seem to fall really slowly? Or time flows in different rates for different objects. The plants in the corner might germinate, bloom and wither before the players very eyes.
Time measurement devices no longer work. They just get stuck at one particular time. Spell durations are all extended. Instantaneous spells hiccup and go off a round after they are cast.
Certain events keep repeating themselves, disasterously, until the players finally get it right.
Just some thoughts. Cheers,
Vurt
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