Stranded in the Past

[Michael Hopcroft]

One superhero concept I am rather fond of (inrodinately, in fact) is the accidental time traveler from the future. He's stranded in what to him is the past, and can't go home, so he's making the best of it here.

 

The technology he knows about and has access to is, in our time, the equivlane tof superpowers. In his time it's nothing special, and in his future it's obsolete. One could build quite a career as a super with just a phaser, a tricorder, and access to Star Trek-era medical technology.

 

Another variation on that is something I had been thinking about turning into a fanfic series. The Ras Saga would be the adventures of a college student named Ras Tyler who, even though he attends an American unviersity, already knows everything all the professors could teach him and then some. He's handsome, blonde, and popular desptie the myserty that surrounds him. He is also a magnet for weird happenings and seemingly "supernatural' events that are really alien in origin.

 

The fact is, so is he. In fact, he is the half-human son of Doctor Who and former companion Rose Tyler! he has been raised on Earth to keep him away from his father's enemies, and is working on building a time machine of his own if he can just find the materials. He is also fond of saying things like "My little sister is twice as cleevr as I am.", referring to his twin sister Romey. if Ras can survive, he might even be able to found the new race of Time Lords.

[Superskrull]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Hmm. Y'know, that whole thing about time-travellers and their knowledge of technology always bugged me. How much does your average guy from today know about distilling alchohol, carding wool and blacksmithing? Heck, could they build a steam engine? Why would someone from, oh, say, the 30th century know how to slap together early 21st century tech when he's used to programming the nano-vats to fabricate everything or relies heavily on energy field manipulation. To swipe a comic example, pre-pre-Reboot Legion character RJ Brande made his fortune building stars while the version just one prior to current built a series of stargates for galactic travel. We're still banging rocks together, comparativelyHow many of programmers are still well-versed in the older programming languages today, let alone whatever they'll change to in several more generations of development. Set someone who's exposure to computers is all post Win95 in front of a dos prompt and they're gonna stare blankly at it.

Sure, I know it's a staple of the genre, but it's one that always gets to me.

[Badger]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

I never completely understand the fascination with hand phasers in Star Trek. I never seen them much more effective than current hand guns. I dont care if they do disintegrate the person they hit. It only takes one person at a time. I'd rather take a machine gun.

 

Anyhow, I agree just because someone knows a bunch of 30th century stuff, doesnt make him automatic with 20th. I dont know squat about blacksmithing, and if I was sent back to the 19th century, when it comes to riding horses....let us just say I'll be better off walking across the West.

[Badger]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Though having said that. Dr. McCoy in the 20th century would be a "super-healer". (provided he got his futuristic medical tech with him)

[Trebuchet]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

I never completely understand the fascination with hand phasers in Star Trek. I never seen them much more effective than current hand guns. I dont care if they do disintegrate the person they hit. It only takes one person at a time. I'd rather take a machine gun.

Phasers do far more than just kill opponents. They can stun, they can heat, they can vaporize, they can blow holes in walls, they can cut through tough armor like a cutting torch. They offer far more versatility, and are far more portable, than a modern machine gun or even a handgun. That's what better technology offers: More versatility, reliability, and portability. A modern semiautomatic pistol isn't significantly better at killing a single man than an 18th century muzzleloading pistol, but it shoots more rounds, is vastly more reliable, is 50X faster to reload, has much better range and accuracy, and can be used even if it's been submerged in water.

 

A phaser would be a tremendous weapon in modern times; it could probably take out a main battle tank. Try that with a Glock or machine gun.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Phasers do far more than just kill opponents. They can stun, they can heat, they can vaporize, they can blow holes in walls, they can cut through tough armor like a cutting torch. They offer far more versatility, and are far more portable, than a modern machine gun or even a handgun. That's what better technology offers: More versatility, reliability, and portability. A modern semiautomatic pistol isn't significantly better at killing a single man than an 18th century muzzleloading pistol, but it shoots more rounds, is vastly more reliable, is 50X faster to reload, has much better range and accuracy, and can be used even if it's been submerged in water.

 

A phaser would be a tremendous weapon in modern times; it could probably take out a main battle tank. Try that with a Glock or machine gun.

 

OMG. I MUST play Star Trek Guy! 10d6 RKA! Oh yeah! COOL! /annoying

 

Actually, this is really looking like a nifty concept. Hrm. Who would be the best Stark Trek character to strand in the 21st?

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

One superhero concept I am rather fond of (inrodinately' date=' in fact) is the accidental time traveler from the future. He's stranded in what to him is the past, and can't go home, so he's making the best of it here.[/quote']

 

I like that concept, too. Funny story (it amuses me, anyway)...

 

I had an idea for a character along these lines, named Xerxes Chuan. In his timeframe he's very smart, but in our time he's friggin' brilliant. He also has a palmtop with a fairly comprehensive encyclopedia, which gives him an unreliable but extremely detailed version of Precognition (if there's an entry, it'll be detailed, but of course not everything that happens would be listed... and sometimes the details are wrong).

 

I played this guy for a while when I realized that he makes a much better NPC than PC. So I started thinking: what if the future that Xerxes came back in time to prevent (the Y3K event) had been prevented? So I came up with another futuristic character, and thought of an entirely different reason for him to come back in time. That character is The Heretic, an extremely disciplined anti-authoritarian who has been a great deal of fun to play. I particularly like it when he gets into philosophical discussions with the other members of his team: he looks and acts pretty much like a hard-core Marine, but he talks like an anarchist. It's a hoot.

 

More detailed history of Xerxes, Super-Scientist From The Year 3000:

http://www.westguard.org/index.php?title=Xerxes

 

More detailed history of The Heretic, Cyber-Soldier From A Completely Different Year 3000:

http://www.westguard.org/index.php?title=Heretic

[lemming]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Phasers do far more than just kill opponents.

And you can spread with them IIRC.

[Narthon]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Who would be the best Stark Trek character to strand in the 21st?

 

Data, no question.

[sinanju]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

I never completely understand the fascination with hand phasers in Star Trek. I never seen them much more effective than current hand guns. I dont care if they do disintegrate the person they hit. It only takes one person at a time. I'd rather take a machine gun.

 

A friend and I created a "fanfic" (more like anti-fan fic) character named Ensign Sugarbaker who we liked to insert (via commentary and adding our own dialogue on the fly) into Trek episodes we were watching as our mouthpiece. Ensign Sugarbaker also had a habit of carrying a 20th century handgun under her tunic. Why? Because anyone with two braincells to rub together knows how often the Trek cahracters run into beings who can neutralize their technology. But any effect that would cause a chemically propelled slugthrower to not function would probably also kill the characters, so....

 

Anyhow, I agree just because someone knows a bunch of 30th century stuff, doesnt make him automatic with 20th. I dont know squat about blacksmithing, and if I was sent back to the 19th century, when it comes to riding horses....let us just say I'll be better off walking across the West.

 

It's no stupider than Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. That's like taking a guy from 1400s and transporting him to the 20th century. By virtue of his superior physical ability, he is--naturally--a better soldier and fighter pilot than anyone living today.

 

...not.

[Blue]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Funny you should mention data.

 

When I set up my campaign I said: "No time travelers and no aliens". I didn't want the extra overhead of deciding what alien races were around and I didn't want someone with time-powers messing with the very intricate time-based plotlines.

 

So I'll gloss over the alien Illithid creature and go straight to the others:

• Rift: A traveler from the future, come back to our time to stop his own desturction by other time travelers who will kill his ancestors.
  
• Geoff Gardner: Steampunk Scientist from the past whose time machine worked a little too well, but not well enough to move him back.
  
• B4: A blatant ripoff of Data, an automaton sent back in time for reasons unknown to him (memory failure occurred in the trip).

Funny thing about this group... Everyone of them wants to be the "exception" to any rule layed out

 

It's worked out OK. Geoff Gardner's plans left behind in his laboratory have been used by someone to build evil versions of his steam inventions; B4 was sent back to the dark ages to record information but his memory and power failures caused him to shut down and be uncovered in our time period, which really messes with scientist's attempts to carbon-date him ; and Rift is receiving missives from the future, from a system he apparently created years later, because he doesn't remember it--so is it friend or foe?

 

It's fun to mess with the player's heads.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Data' date=' no question.[/quote']

 

Funnily enough, that's who I thought of after I posted it too.

 

Heh. Excellent.

 

Now to find a good writeup....

[death tribble]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Astro City's version of Superman is such a character, The Samaritan.

He came back in time to stop some bad event happening and found that he had gaining superpowers at the same time. When he returned to the future he found that it was now altered and he no longer existed so he remained in the present.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Actually' date=' this is really looking like a nifty concept. Hrm. Who would be the best Stark Trek character to strand in the 21st?[/quote']

 

As noted, Data would be good. Spock too.

 

But for a supers world, I immediately pictured Sulu. I can see him picking up a sword and a fancy costume to go along with his phaser (with an extra casing to make it look like a flintlock) and starting on a superhero career.

[Red Knight]

Re: Stranded in the Past

 

Astro City's version of Superman is such a character, The Samaritan.

He came back in time to stop some bad event happening and found that he had gaining superpowers at the same time. When he returned to the future he found that it was now altered and he no longer existed so he remained in the present.

 

I was going to mention the Samaritan. Time travel can become a headache in a heartbeat. Just look at the Bill & Ted movies. In combat a time traveling character could say, as long as I survive this combat, I will go back in time, put a landmine under that doormat and put a timer so that it explodes about .... now. (BOOM) Villian dies and the hero is now definitely going to survive.

 

The comment about a person from the future comig here and being able to make advanced tech.... One thing that also hampers this ability, beyond the assumption that they know how to make the tech.. is that the parts they need aren't around. Using Star Trek as an example... If you have a mega-watt deathray that is powered by a Delithium Crystal... That's wonderful.. only probelm is that the abilty to get the crystals won't be invented for another 500 yrs.

We know that certain drugs can cure illnesses that once ravages our world.. but I know I don't have the knowledge to manufactor it.