Time Travel and Potential Plots.

[Weldun]

Now, before I start, I don't just mean potential adventure plots, I mean actual plotting by actual groups. This came out of a rambling conversation during the car ride to today's game.

 

In the CU, time-travel is a rare but very real phenomenon. With this in mind, I suddenly started visualising a secret society of Rabbis who were plotting to somehow procure this capability so as to rescue a Cohen, as I had been (incorrectly) informed that the last Cohen had been killed back in Roman times. Thankfully, I like to actually research these ideas beforehand, and discovered the fallacy of this myth.

 

However, the idea of some Hawaiian nationalist/seperatists trying to save the last Kahunas so as to kickstart a new dynasty has some merit.

 

So, anyone else have some thoughts on potential time-travel plots (adventure or otherwise)?

[Metaphysician]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Plot Idea 1: At some place, at some time, an Object of Power will become known, and shortly thereafter, disappear from history. This means anyone who is interested in the artifact, who can time travel, is going to show up in the same place and same time. . . even if they originate from all the far corners of time. This could be all the more interesting if the object desired is something that a PC creates, and thus has no clue why a dozen time gates have just openned around him and all hell broken loose.

 

Plot Idea 2: Is there any big Fate of the Universe battle somewhere in your timeline? Well, if its that big and notable, participants on either side may show up from any time period, looking to help ( or hinder ). Your PCs can thusly be roped in through a variety of means.

 

( both ideas come from my current campaign, natch, albeit divested of campaign specific elements )

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

From my Broken Mirror Campaign:

 

Time Traveller 'Gene Daniels' (Just so I can call him something) has discovered a way to travel throught time. He goes back to his teen years, and tries to make himself a better and more successful person.

This creates the universe's Kang.

Gene 2 has evolved in a completely seperate timeline, and is a complete villain.

Success went to his head. He now goes back a couple decades and starts creating multiple timelines, advancing each one as much as he can.

He then creates a reality where he is the prophecized one. Becoming like a god in a world with 1920's tech, he converts and slaughters until only around a million on this world exist. That becomes his prime operations base. He attacks both the past, and goes sideways in time to invade the presents.

 

Favorite thing to do: go sideways and try to win over doubles of himself, as well as copies of his most loyal and effective generals.

 

He develops time travelling WMD's like the Peacock: an NBC timeline splitter that goes to set time, releases a biological weapon, goes back to the same time and releases VX nerve gas, then one final trip for a nuclear attack.

 

His ultimate goal, to acquire enough power (darn time modifiers!) to go back far enough to utter those four little words...

Let There Be Light.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Perhaps it will save him some trouble if he just concentrates on two words?

I am.

[csyphrett]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I don't know if this is what you are talking about but when in the last face to face I ran, one of the characters was a shapeshifter. He was contacted by someone from the future who wanted to take his genes and help humanity. Chris was cool with it until he visited that future and realized vampires were behind the offer and were going to destroy his timeline to make theirs by mixing his genes into a faster contaminant for them.

CES

[Steve]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

From my Broken Mirror Campaign:

 

Time Traveller 'Gene Daniels' (Just so I can call him something) has discovered a way to travel throught time. He goes back to his teen years, and tries to make himself a better and more successful person.

This creates the universe's Kang.

 

What happened to Gene 1? Didn't he notice that his attempt to make himself better went horribly wrong?

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

What happened to Gene 1? Didn't he notice that his attempt to make himself better went horribly wrong?

Yep.

 

Gene 1 would be the one leading the fight, as best he can. Of course, being a 150 pt geek, who only has 1 'power' (the accidental discovery of time travel, OAF), doesn't make it easy.

 

The big problem with Gene 1 is that he's wallowing in his own misery even more, due to realizing that his own incompetence has caused so much suffering.

 

That campaign plays out as the PCs trying to stop the creation of new timelines, and so on... while trying to not get killed. Oh, and confronting the darker aspects of their own personas.

 

Its a campaign about personality as much as it is about adventure.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Perhaps it will save him some trouble if he just concentrates on two words?

Quote:

I am.

 

He wants to remake the universe in his own image.

And in his arrogance, he figures that if there really was an I Am, then He would have stopped him already.

 

Although thhat kind of cosmic pimpslap would be fun for me, it would make the PCs redundant.

[OddHat]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I always liked some aspects of the Feng Shui game's setting, and used those aspects in the New Hope Academy campaign.

 

The setting also made use of ideas from Chronicles of Amber, Paratime and other sources.

 

Relevant to this thread, there were several means of time travel available, but the most common was the Underland, a cave network of unknown size that existed outside of time. The Underland had been constructed at some point by a race or races unknown, and contained fixed gates that opened onto specific times and places throughout history. If (when) history was altered, all of the cave exits following that point would close, and new cave exits would open. Some cave exits seemed to lead to worlds other than our Earth. Within the Underland could be found individuals and groups trapped when the exits to their home times and places had vanished. These factions constantly tried to push the timeline back towards what they considered "reality" in order to re-open the exits to their homes. Others tried to alter the timeline in order to create a better world. Whether worlds were actually being created or erased by the actions of the time travelers was left as an open and much debated question in the campaign.

[Narratio]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Go with the old tried and true plots.

 

Religious fanatics (say "Islamics" for arguments sake) steal the technology and go back in time to some fateful turning point (the point of the Sunni/Sh'ite split over the lost son perhaps?) hoping to create a totally different world more in tune with their beliefs.

 

This pits your team either against a brand new agent type organization (Knights Templar live!) or a set of wholly new powered types based upon the belief structure of the fanatics you've selected.

[Shaft]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I ran an adventure where Mechanon from the 31st century travelled back in the past to the present day (using his futuristic CPU to do the complex calculations needed to do time travel and his built-in power supply to power the time travel device that he had incorporated into him) to change the outcome of a fight that the players had with him.

 

The way I played it out is that in the first session, the players fought Mechanon, who timed his appearance to get away with the President's "football" (the briefcase with the launch codes to the nuclear arsenal for those of you who don't know the term). Within ten minutes though, the launch codes were changed and the stolen football was useless.

 

However, Mechanon used the time travel device to keep jumping back to the various launch sites within that 10 minute window and manually overode the codes so that they couldn't be changed.

 

500+ jumps later, Mechanon was fully in control of the US nuclear arsenal. And he eroded that section of the time-space continuum too...

 

Next session, one of my players (a speedster whose power comes from an altered time rate) had a "flashback" to the same fight (whihc never actually happenedin game) in which they defeated Mechanon and prevented him from getting away. That was when he realised that they were in the "wrong" timeline.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I ran an adventure where Mechanon from the 31st century travelled back in the past to the present day (using his futuristic CPU to do the complex calculations needed to do time travel and his built-in power supply to power the time travel device that he had incorporated into him) to change the outcome of a fight that the players had with him.

 

The way I played it out is that in the first session, the players fought Mechanon, who timed his appearance to get away with the President's "football" (the briefcase with the launch codes to the nuclear arsenal for those of you who don't know the term). Within ten minutes though, the launch codes were changed and the stolen football was useless.

 

However, Mechanon used the time travel device to keep jumping back to the various launch sites within that 10 minute window and manually overode the codes so that they couldn't be changed.

 

500+ jumps later, Mechanon was fully in control of the US nuclear arsenal. And he eroded that section of the time-space continuum too...

 

Next session, one of my players (a speedster whose power comes from an altered time rate) had a "flashback" to the same fight (whihc never actually happenedin game) in which they defeated Mechanon and prevented him from getting away. That was when he realised that they were in the "wrong" timeline.

 

Small critique: the football doesn't actually work that way. Its just a set of confirmation codes that basically say, yes, I am the President. Its not hardwired into the launch mechanism in any way.

 

OTOH, if you can make that many jumps into each individual silo, you could kill the crew and hijack them anyway, so. . .

[Steve]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I must have missed something. If Mechanon could do that many time jumps, why not simply put together an army of himself by replicating in a quiet point in time, and then doing a mass attack?

[Shaft]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I must have missed something. If Mechanon could do that many time jumps' date=' why not simply put together an army of himself by replicating in a quiet point in time, and then doing a mass attack? [/quote']

 

*Dr Evil voice* You jusht don't get it, do you, son?

 

Uh, for the same reason that Mechanon doesn't activate all the hidden copies he has of his bodies simulataneously? *stretch-stretch*

 

The real reasons are:

 

1) Because my plot called for fighting 1x Mechanon in control of the nuclear arsenal.

2) Mechanon's psych lims (Megalomania- "I can defeat you by myself!")

3) some admitedly arbitrary & speculative time travel mechanics about having a copies of yourself co-exisitng simultaneously that I don't quite understand myself since they actually don't make sense, and fear going cross-eyed as I explain it and send the thread off tangent.

 

Time travel is messed up. As long as you keep the messiness consistent, the players will accept it.

 

Small critique: the football doesn't actually work that way. Its just a set of confirmation codes that basically say, yes, I am the President. Its not hardwired into the launch mechanism in any way.

 

OTOH, if you can make that many jumps into each individual silo, you could kill the crew and hijack them anyway, so. . .

 

Mechanon was able to use the football to get the criteria needed to pass himself off as the president. He then visited each silo locally and used his fake authentication codes to take control of the systems before the authentication schemes could be changed.

 

Yes, there are holes in the plot you could toss a cat through, but it's comics, right? In the end the players had a good time fighting Mechanon. If villain plots made sense, Dr. Destroyer would be ruling the Champions Universe.

[Cancer]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I like the time travel phenomenon and the opportunity for in-your-face paradox that it supplies.

 

I recommend Keith Laumer's Dinosaur Beach as a handy source of ideas for terminology and general feel.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

In all seriousness...

 

Have one of the PCs become his or her own ancestor.

 

 

HEHEHE.

[Alverant]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

How would time travel work in this campaign. We start off with the assumption that you can alter your universe's past. But what if you can't? What if you can only alter the past of another universe. So that would mean another universe can alter our past. So we have a cold war between universe A and B by messing with each other's history.

 

Or you can have the PCs be the ones living in an altered present. All of a sudden some Time Police show up and say, "Well we just saved the world by convincing Hitler to betray the USSR earlier instead of later."

The PC historian would say, "But he always intended to betray the USSR as soon as he as he could."

"Yep, thanks to us. Now where is the Time Police HQ, we'd like to report in."

"There's no such thing as the Time Police."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Oh BLEEP!!"

 

How about alien time travelers seeking safe harbor on Earth. Astronomers detect a certain star cluster changing constantly and find out two races are altering each other's history. Aliens travel outside the "sphere of temporal influence" where they are safe from the fluxuating past and ask for help in ending this problem once and for all time.

[Mike W]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Time Travel is the ONE thing I absolutely forbid in my CU. It creates logical conundrums and alternate worlds at a staggering rate.

 

On the other hand, as a theoretical exercise, if I WAS going to allow it:

 

Have someone already wealthy buy up every old dollar bill he could get his hands on then go back in time and open an account with a bank that survives into present day(Chase Manhattan). With proper investing at the right times(easy enough to do since you have history on your side) said wealthy individual becomes so filthy rich going forward that he can buy and sell countries - and attempts to do so.

 

The Library of Alexandria has a wealth of lost knowledge..all sorts of plots(mystic or otherwise) are possible.

 

Something specific to the HERO CU: Have someone go back in time with the intention of changing who wins the Martial Arts tournament Green Dragon fought in. Maybe someone like VIPER decides to go back in time a few hundred years, set up a base on some dinky island, call it a country, then send their champion through time to win the tournament several times in a row. Thus, VIPER's country becomes a superpower far greater than the modern US in present time.

[Pariah]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

I ran a time-travel story arc a few years back where the characters ended up going into the future, seeing what the world was like and learning that they were the cause of it, and then having to come back to the present and try to keep it from happening.

 

Some of the details: One character survives an assassination attempt. The best the team can come up with for the shooter's identity is that it looks sort of like an older version—father, grandfather, whatever—of a gadget-wielding hero in another city. As they're trying to figure out what to do, the shooter shows up again and tries to kill the team martial artist (Black Cat). Bad idea. She cleans his clock and takes him to team HQ, where he reveals that he actually IS the aforementioned gadget-wielding hero...from 20 years in the future.

 

He explains that these two heroes were (or will be; the biggest problem with time travel adventures is knowing which verb tense to use) involved in a superfight where an innocent bystander gets killed. This bystander is actually the daughter of a mid-level Genocide leader, who uses the event as an excuse to start a holy war that ultimately kills the heroes.

 

This has an Archduke Ferdinand effect: a Genocide-hating former hero group comes out of hiding and declares war on Genocide. Superheores start choosing sides (destroy Genocide on one side, try to maintain the status quo on the other). Pretty soon the whole metahuman community is involved. Genocide, on the brink of losing the war, forms an alliance with VIPER for increased manpower and supplies.

 

With VIPER's resources and Genocide's technology, the balance shifts and the VIPER-Genocide alliance starts removing superpowered opposition at an accelerated rate. Within ten years VIPER has betrayed both Genocide and Doctor Destroyer and removed practically all opposition. End result: in the shooter's time (20 years in the future), VIPER runs everything, and only a handful of supers, a band of former heroes and villains now united in their struggle for survival, remains to oppose them. (And he explains all of this in exquisite detail in just a few seconds, thanks to the magic of the zero-phase soliloquy).

 

The shooter is recalled to his time by a built-in temporal homing beacon, and the heroes tag along. Once there, they see the conditions of the world, meet the Resistance (which includes a couple of notable enemies from their own time), and have to help fight off a VIPER death squad, in which fight one of the team's longtime nemeses is killed. Debating what to do, the decision is ultimately made to send the heroes back to their own time and encourage them not to let the innocent bystander get killed. And if she does, they'll have to find some other way to keep the incident from escalating into a war.

 

So, using various clues the shooter and his cohorts had given them, the heroes started trying to figure out how they were going to keep future history from repeating itself. Imagine the players' dread when the critical fight was over and they realized that they hadn't managed to save the bystander after all...

[Manic Typist]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Wait, so did you railroad them, or did they drop the ball?

[Pariah]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Wait' date=' so did you railroad them, or did they drop the ball?[/quote']

 

No, no railroading involved here. I gave them the opportunity to stop it from happening. I even gave one character a vision of how it was going to happen. But I also knew there was a good chance they wouldn't see it until it was too late, so had a contingency plan for that too.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Well played.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

Well played.

 

It was. One of the best adventures I ever played in. And yes the Blackcat mentioned is the one in my avatar.

No railroading, just great GMing, because he knew us well enough to guess which way we'd jump.

 

 

And glad to see you on the boards Pariah.

[Weldun]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

The Library of Alexandria has a wealth of lost knowledge..all sorts of plots(mystic or otherwise) are possible.

:eg:Mwahahahahaha!

[freakboy6117]

Re: Time Travel and Potential Plots.

 

how about just stealing things that where destroyed in fires etc just think of all the lost masterpieces you could appropriate not even illegal really they where destroyed after all or substituting fakes for paintings you know are going to be stolen then claiming a reward when you return them.