airwalkrr
Adventurer
The tables are at the end of the thread for those who do not want to read too much.
Time travel: it is a topic that captivates the imagination of many. It is also something that really gets messy. If you have ever tangled with the idea in a game, watched a show or read a book that uses time travel as a device, you know this well. And it is all because of our friend paradox. Well I aim to make all of that a simple matter.
I was spurred to this idea by a great article written in the last year by Mike Mearls. The gist of it is to make simple random tables to handle various things that come up a lot. Well I am going to be running a time traveling campaign starting in a couple months, and I have come up with a few tables to help me make paradox a simpler thing. I also wrote up a short explanation for how time travel and paradox works in the campaign.
For some context, the campaign is based loosely on the classic JPRG Chrono Trigger and influenced by ideas from the AD&D Chronomancer supplement. A villain is trying to rewrite time for villainous purposes and ends up destroying the world in the process. The PCs have to correct the villain's revisions to history (and the future) in order to protect not just the world, but all of time! Fortunately, the gods of time (Lendor, Cyndor, and Tsolorandril) recognized the potential problems of time travelers and limited time travel in a variety of ways. There are gates on each plane that connect certain points and places in time to a plane called the Chronoscape (some may call it the Temporal Plane), and time travel can only occur through these gates. The gates only open during specific periods (every summer solstice for example). So some of the questions (such as "where did the villain go? And to what time?") are easily answered to make the campaign's story easier to manage. But as with any time traveling campaign, paradox shall rear its ugly head when PCs go making changes to history. The tables of course are designed so as to tantalize, yet ultimately dissuade players from messing around with history too much, and will be available for players to see ahead of time.
Paradox
Paradox affects all time travelers in some form or fashion. The very act of traveling to a different time creates turbulence in the Chronoscape for as long as the traveler remains in that time. The changes to the time stream as a result of this turbulence, whether big or small, are known as paradox. While it is rumored some chronomancers have found ways to avoid the consequences of paradox for themselves, they cannot prevent the effects upon others.
The time stream is resistant to change, and it attempts to correct for paradox by altering other events so that the overall effect upon the time stream is minor and temporary. Some actions, however, can have devastating effects. The bigger the change to the time stream, the more drastic and long-lasting the effects of paradox; some drastic changes might even become permanent. Giving an individual in the past the name of a winner of a gladiatorial battle might cause that individual to bet on the gladiator, granting financial benefits to that individual that last for months. Murdering the founder of a powerful empire on the other hand might result in the annihilation of an entire race of people for the rest of time. For this reason, chronomancers are very careful and take a great deal of time to consider each change they make. Also, there are chronomancers who act to preserve the time stream and attempt to counter any change. So the outcome of paradox can never be certain.
Whenever a time traveler causes paradox, it is classified as minor, major, or cataclysmic. Minor paradox may include the act of time traveling itself, stealing a small amount of money, or killing an unimportant monster; it is generally not harmful to the time traveler, but causes turbulence in the time stream that is generally short-term. Major paradox includes preventing a natural disaster with magic or diverting the course of a major trade-river. Major paradox can be very harmful to the time traveler and the effects are likely to ripple to the time traveler’s own time. Cataclysmic paradox causes permanent damage to the time stream. Examples include murdering a god before ascension, salting the earth over the future site of the city of Greyhawk, or killing your own grandfather.
The DM makes the judgment of when minor, major and cataclysmic paradox occurs. When the DM determines that paradox occurs, roll on the appropriate following table to determine the effect upon the time traveler and time stream. Certain other obvious effects may also occur, depending on the nature of the effect that caused the paradox. The canny chronomancer will note that deleterious effects are more likely than those that simply alter or create. It is hypothesized that any given time stream has a “paradox threshold,” or the amount of paradox a time stream can contain before it completely unravels from the turbulence. However, that hypothesis has not been tested, as the consequences are unknown and generally feared by chronomancers.
Minor Paradox
d100 Result
1-10 Someone the character knows ceases to exist.
11-30 The character’s hair or eye color change.
31-50 An individual the character knows loses a great deal of wealth or power.
51-70 A minor monument appears.
71-90 A new guild or local organization comes to prominence.
91-100 An associate of the character gains a small amount of wealth or power.
Major Paradox
d100 Result
1-10 A random ability of the character is reduced by 2 points (minimum 3)
11-20 An organization the character is associated with ceases to exist.
21-35 The character’s race changes randomly to a different player race (as per reincarnate).
36-50 The character loses half of all personal wealth and one random permanent magic item (if any) or a random consumable magic item (if no permanent magic items).
51-65 A city or town the character has been to ceases to exist.
66-80 A kingdom or nation comes to great power.
81-90 A random minor magic item appears in the character’s possession.
91-100 A random ability of the character is increased by 2 points (maximum 20).
Cataclysmic Paradox
d100 Result
1-5 Roll once on the Major Paradox table and then roll again, ignoring rolls of 1-5.
6-10 The character ceases to exist.
11-20 A quasi-deity ceases to exist. Its portfolio is absorbed by another deity or a new deity.
21-35 A kingdom or nation ceases to exist. Its territory is absorbed by neighboring countries.
36-50 A dramatic natural or magical disaster occurs.
51-65 An ethnic or religious group is greatly diminished in size and influence.
66-80 A deity rises in divine rank and prominence.
81-90 A new cult attains power.
91-95 A random major magic item appears in the character’s possession.
96-100 The character gains enough experience to reach the next level.
Time travel: it is a topic that captivates the imagination of many. It is also something that really gets messy. If you have ever tangled with the idea in a game, watched a show or read a book that uses time travel as a device, you know this well. And it is all because of our friend paradox. Well I aim to make all of that a simple matter.
I was spurred to this idea by a great article written in the last year by Mike Mearls. The gist of it is to make simple random tables to handle various things that come up a lot. Well I am going to be running a time traveling campaign starting in a couple months, and I have come up with a few tables to help me make paradox a simpler thing. I also wrote up a short explanation for how time travel and paradox works in the campaign.
For some context, the campaign is based loosely on the classic JPRG Chrono Trigger and influenced by ideas from the AD&D Chronomancer supplement. A villain is trying to rewrite time for villainous purposes and ends up destroying the world in the process. The PCs have to correct the villain's revisions to history (and the future) in order to protect not just the world, but all of time! Fortunately, the gods of time (Lendor, Cyndor, and Tsolorandril) recognized the potential problems of time travelers and limited time travel in a variety of ways. There are gates on each plane that connect certain points and places in time to a plane called the Chronoscape (some may call it the Temporal Plane), and time travel can only occur through these gates. The gates only open during specific periods (every summer solstice for example). So some of the questions (such as "where did the villain go? And to what time?") are easily answered to make the campaign's story easier to manage. But as with any time traveling campaign, paradox shall rear its ugly head when PCs go making changes to history. The tables of course are designed so as to tantalize, yet ultimately dissuade players from messing around with history too much, and will be available for players to see ahead of time.
Paradox
Paradox affects all time travelers in some form or fashion. The very act of traveling to a different time creates turbulence in the Chronoscape for as long as the traveler remains in that time. The changes to the time stream as a result of this turbulence, whether big or small, are known as paradox. While it is rumored some chronomancers have found ways to avoid the consequences of paradox for themselves, they cannot prevent the effects upon others.
The time stream is resistant to change, and it attempts to correct for paradox by altering other events so that the overall effect upon the time stream is minor and temporary. Some actions, however, can have devastating effects. The bigger the change to the time stream, the more drastic and long-lasting the effects of paradox; some drastic changes might even become permanent. Giving an individual in the past the name of a winner of a gladiatorial battle might cause that individual to bet on the gladiator, granting financial benefits to that individual that last for months. Murdering the founder of a powerful empire on the other hand might result in the annihilation of an entire race of people for the rest of time. For this reason, chronomancers are very careful and take a great deal of time to consider each change they make. Also, there are chronomancers who act to preserve the time stream and attempt to counter any change. So the outcome of paradox can never be certain.
Whenever a time traveler causes paradox, it is classified as minor, major, or cataclysmic. Minor paradox may include the act of time traveling itself, stealing a small amount of money, or killing an unimportant monster; it is generally not harmful to the time traveler, but causes turbulence in the time stream that is generally short-term. Major paradox includes preventing a natural disaster with magic or diverting the course of a major trade-river. Major paradox can be very harmful to the time traveler and the effects are likely to ripple to the time traveler’s own time. Cataclysmic paradox causes permanent damage to the time stream. Examples include murdering a god before ascension, salting the earth over the future site of the city of Greyhawk, or killing your own grandfather.
The DM makes the judgment of when minor, major and cataclysmic paradox occurs. When the DM determines that paradox occurs, roll on the appropriate following table to determine the effect upon the time traveler and time stream. Certain other obvious effects may also occur, depending on the nature of the effect that caused the paradox. The canny chronomancer will note that deleterious effects are more likely than those that simply alter or create. It is hypothesized that any given time stream has a “paradox threshold,” or the amount of paradox a time stream can contain before it completely unravels from the turbulence. However, that hypothesis has not been tested, as the consequences are unknown and generally feared by chronomancers.
Minor Paradox
d100 Result
1-10 Someone the character knows ceases to exist.
11-30 The character’s hair or eye color change.
31-50 An individual the character knows loses a great deal of wealth or power.
51-70 A minor monument appears.
71-90 A new guild or local organization comes to prominence.
91-100 An associate of the character gains a small amount of wealth or power.
Major Paradox
d100 Result
1-10 A random ability of the character is reduced by 2 points (minimum 3)
11-20 An organization the character is associated with ceases to exist.
21-35 The character’s race changes randomly to a different player race (as per reincarnate).
36-50 The character loses half of all personal wealth and one random permanent magic item (if any) or a random consumable magic item (if no permanent magic items).
51-65 A city or town the character has been to ceases to exist.
66-80 A kingdom or nation comes to great power.
81-90 A random minor magic item appears in the character’s possession.
91-100 A random ability of the character is increased by 2 points (maximum 20).
Cataclysmic Paradox
d100 Result
1-5 Roll once on the Major Paradox table and then roll again, ignoring rolls of 1-5.
6-10 The character ceases to exist.
11-20 A quasi-deity ceases to exist. Its portfolio is absorbed by another deity or a new deity.
21-35 A kingdom or nation ceases to exist. Its territory is absorbed by neighboring countries.
36-50 A dramatic natural or magical disaster occurs.
51-65 An ethnic or religious group is greatly diminished in size and influence.
66-80 A deity rises in divine rank and prominence.
81-90 A new cult attains power.
91-95 A random major magic item appears in the character’s possession.
96-100 The character gains enough experience to reach the next level.
