SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME TRAVEL

Stuart advises you on handling time travel at the gaming table

Whether it’s through high magic, high technology or some arcane combi-

nation of the two, Time Travel is something that can be encoun-tered in many game settings. This article will consider some of the possible risks - and benefits - that can occur when featuring Time Travel in a role-playing campaign.

If you are a GM considering the inclusion of Time Travel in your campaign, I recommend you make some basic decisions first, such as:

Why are you including Time Travel in your campaign?• Is it to allow the party to

achieve a particular goal or fulfill a plot point?

• Is it to give the players an expanded understanding of the setting/back-story?

• Is it to deepen or add drama to character motivations and interactions?

• Is it because a player tells you the rulebook says they can?

• Is it just for fun?

What is the Time Travel model operating in your setting?• An immutable timeline -

any attempt to alter history,

instead fulfils it?• A single, mutable timeline,

history and the future can be changed?

• A fixed, singular past, but multiple futures, branching out?

• Time Travel actually involves moving into parallel universes?

• Forward Time Travel only, the PCs skipping through time?

What is the means by which Time Travel is possible in your campaign?• Is it a power usable by one or

more PCs?• Is it a limited use spell or

device, such as a scroll or portal?

• Is it a natural or magical phenomenon, such a rift in time?

• Are the party sent or brought by another, who can Time Travel?

• Is it a freak, once off incident?

How does Time Travel work in play?• What limitations, drawbacks

or hazards, if any, are there to the use of Time Travel?

• How often/freely can the PCs access the ability?

• Who has access to Time

Travel (the PCs only, certain NPCs, everyone?)

How will Time Travel Paradoxes be dealt with?• Does the past change, and

only the party remembers the original timeline?

Stuart KeaneyStuart has been role-playing since the mid 1980s, when he still had some hair. In that time he has been Games Master and Player, across a wide variety of systems and genres, both published and home-made. He will always have more campaigns planned than he will have the chance to run…

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• Does the past change, and the party’s memories alter accord-ingly?

• Does the party create a new, parallel universe?

• Does paradox result in total catastrophe?

Clearly this list is not exhaustive, but hopefully it will stimulate thought on the kinds of matters to be considered.

I make this recommendation because once Time Travel has become a feature of a setting, it is hard to undo, and the players can now consider time travel as a solution to numerous problems…as can NPCs. Suddenly a GM may have to justify why Time Travel hasn’t been used to cleverly solve problems; such as why hasn’t the Big Bad just gone back in time and killed the party before they were born? Or why don’t the PCs save themselves some trouble and just travel forward until their problems go away? Both are efficient solutions but may leave the campaign falling flat.

“ Include the type

of Time Travel that suits you.”

Essentially, a world allows Time Travel, or it does not. Even if it’s ‘just been invented’ it has always been there, by its very nature. As a result, it’s risky to casually tack on Time Travel as Just Another Thing people can do given its implications for the setting, and the potential for immense change it puts in the hands of characters. A little forethought may save headaches later on. It’s natural for players to put these kinds of questions to

their GM, so it’s better if you have the answers ready. It’s also natural for players to be devious and think around problems so it’s best if you have already done that yourself, rather than get stumped mid-session.

It is also recommended to follow up these decisions with a bit of thought as to how they will shape the campaign. Have you picked a model that suits you and your style of play?  Does it add to the story you wish to tell? Does it fit the type of game you wish to run?  If the answer is ‘no’ then you’re making unnecessary trouble for yourself. Include the type of Time Travel that suits you.

“ …the inclusion

of Time Travel can be well worth it.”

Despite the risks, the inclusion of Time Travel can be well worth it. Ways in which Time Travel can enhance your campaign include participation in legendary scenes from the past, or interesting possible futures; new insight into the game’s setting and/or NPCs; and ways to solve problems not otherwise available. It also provides some great opportunities for dramatic irony.

If these benefits seem rather abstract, perhaps I can illustrate with some examples, from within my own experience, of occasions where Time Travel added to a campaign:

EXAMPLE 1 - Targyn and Jadrasi need to defeat an immortal enemy and only the Mourning

Spear can do it. Unfortunately the spear’s power was depleted centuries ago and now it lies as a relic in a fortified tower. Through the services of a strange, time-travelling middle-man they visit the tower when the spear still had its power. They return and defeat their enemy.  To preserve history, they have to travel into the past to put the spear back, at which point they realise that they are the ones who depleted the weapon in the first place.

EXAMPLE 2 - Fionn and his companions have found themselves stranded thousands of years in the past. On their travels they have the misfortune to encounter the malevolent god Urrukush, the Big Bad of the campaign in the party’s own time. In an attempt to deflect attention away from the party, Fionn tells Urrukush that he and his companions are just average, ordinary humans. Urrukush, who can sense how formidable the party are, concludes that these ‘humans’ must be a race of mighty warriors, if these are just average specimens, and resolves to enslave the race to fight in his wars. Fionn has inadvertently become responsible for millennia of tyranny.

EXAMPLE 3 - Kweev barely survives battle with the powerful undead champion, Kadavrus. Later, he is sent centuries into the past, where he is forced to fight in a deadly gladiatorial tournament. He befriends a young man in the ludus, whose fighting name turns out to be Kadavrus. Eventually, Kweev is forced to kill his friend in the arena, and soon after is returned to his own time. The next time Kweev encounters Kadavrus, the scene is more dramatic, and the player finds himself more invested in the action.

EXAMPLE 4 - Jones and his friends

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are forced to flee a nightclub by the arrival of a powerful entity from another realm. As the campaign progresses, the characters learn that the entity is a powerful Magus moving backward through time. As the characters grow stronger over the course of the campaign, the enemy Magus weakens, as they are encountering earlier versions of him, until eventually they are well matched. The whole matter then of who started the enmity is quite paradoxical, as each side feels they were the victim of an unprovoked attack on their (as they see it) first encounter.

Another Time Travel option which, strictly speaking, doesn’t involve Time Travel can be employed alternatively for those who feel Time Travel proper is too problematic. This involves moving the character’s perspective, rather than the characters themselves. The party might encounter an old book or tape, and then they read or play it. The players are handed character sheets for the people acting within the record. The story plays out and afterwards the players return to playing their

own characters. The character perspective has gone back in time, but not the characters. This can serve some of the functions of Time Travelling in gaming, especially where the intended purpose is exposition. Similarly, employing methods like accessing past life memories or precognitive visions allow characters, and the players, to experience events in other times and places without there being Time Travel in the setting as such. A Games Master who has considered questions such as those listed above may decide this ‘safe option’ serves the campaign sufficiently that there is then no need to go the whole way and include actual Time Travel in their campaign.

It is hoped that even by touching briefly on these various aspects of Time Travel in gaming I have given food for thought that will aid you in your inclusion of Time Travel in your game.

CREDITS

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Anita Murray & Noirin CurranDESIGN & LAYOUT

Wayne O ConnorPROOF-READERS

Brian Nisbet & Noirin Curran

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