I'm a first time DM, I have much of my campaign mapped out, but I'm trying to get my climax nailed down in my head. My PCs are questing to stop a catastrophe that would bring endless night to their realm, and allow the drow to come to the surface and take over. A key part is an artifact that has a soul trapped inside, but the only way to create it is for someone to go back in time and trap the soul of a specific person. If the artifact is created and combined with the other 4 artifacts to initial the curse the world will descend into darkness.
Now my question is anyone have experience with having time travel in their campaign, and how did you handle that? Or can I just make it up as I go? lol
I've not encountered time travel in D&D before, but the principles I'd follow for it would be:
1: Ensure that the players can't interfere with time too much. Either put it in a specific, inescapable location which hasn't influenced anything yet (EG "Magic McTimewizard is holed up in his fortress outside of time, so you need to go and get his soul"), or you can wing it and hope that they don't kill anyone important. Have some filler paste available to mend the cracks in time that they might make, and don't give them an opportunity to crack it completely (EG, if you think it's a cool idea for them to glimpse the BBEG in the past, DON'T! they will try and kill them and if they succeed, the campaign falls apart!). Try to keep it isolated, though perhaps have them witness events which have shaped the "present" time whilst they are in the past. It's also a chance to find plots to mess with their heads!
For example (feel free to liberate any of these ideas for your own use): The party has to go back in time and get a splinter of Magic McTimewizard's soul. This is because Timey is going to perform a ritual which will cause him to disappear forever, destroying his keep in the process, and he's the only one who could have saved the day in the future - his soul will be put into a warforged to help, but sadly the time machine can't bring him or it will mess with time - he has to disappear. So secret mission to steal some of his soul from the past goes ahead.
Whilst they're in the past, the murderhobo party decides they're going to kill Jeff the Elf, who's present in the future. This won't be an issue - if anything, it will be a plothook. Keep reading for details!
The party manages to make their way into Timey's keep and steal a piece of his soul, which they manage without him noticing. They escape as he performs his greatest ritual, and they hear a demonic voice from behind them shout "What is this! How dare you offer me your soul when it is not complete?" before the upper floors of the keep are destroyed. The party now realise that their actions are the only reason Timey disappeared, which is the reason they had to do their actions - a lovely little loop which can mess with their heads!
They return to present time, and they find that Jeff the Elf is still alive and well. They haven't got time to do much with this, but Jeff becomes very cold and calculating if questioned. They now do the stuff which they needed the soul for, and presumably save the day.
Some time later, they might be working on an intrigue plot, and the clues start to lead them back to the city where Jeff the Elf lives. They soon uncover that the city is run by a covert league of doppelgangers who assumed the identities of the ruling caste of the city, which explains why the people they killed in the past are all still alive (and why they were alive before they left if they had already killed them in their future in the past). This is what I meant by having filler ready - why, if they killed someone in the past, are they still alive? Because it's not really them!
1: Parallel universe creation. This type of time travel happens when something is changed in the past that branches into another universe. This leaves zero effects on the original timeline, but can be terrible on others. Using mirror zones (from tasha's) will help convey that the party has broken the world, and the choices they made could come back to haunt them in a similar time travelish way. Will they encounter an ancestor? Will their alignment change? Take note of every choice they make and how it will change this particular parallel universe. Any act to save their universe may lead to the downfall of another. This is the most complicated, but most fun. I personally think that it also makes the most sense, and really feels like the climax has huge implications beyond their own world. Perhaps the BBEG may relate to keeping the order of the universes. (Avengers Endgame and the time stone use parallel universes)
2: Single universe completion. This type of time travel acts as an infinite loop. When the party travels back in time, the changes they have made will already have affected the world. No new universe is made. Instead, the party NEEDS to do a certain number of tasks in order to keep the universe functionally intact. If they fail, time crumbles (because the universe hasn't been sustained in history.) Include hints that the PC's deeds have already taken place. A prophecy featuring the heros. Records that the item they seek mysteriously vanished at the time they will arrive at. It will create a sudden realization and responsibility that the PCs will need to carry. (Harry Potter and the time turner use single universe completion)
3: Altered universe creation & erasure. This type of time travel leaves no parallel universes, simply altering the world the PCs return to and erasing the one they exited from (leaving the PC's themselves unaffected.) Much like the parallel universe creation, you need to keep track of every choice the PCs make. The effects will have less cosmic implications, but much more personal ones. What happened to the universe that was erased? These thoughts will haunt your PCs for the rest of their lives. (Back to the Future uses Altered universe creation & erasure.)
Do you have a God of TIme (such as Chronos, the Three Fates or possibly the Raven Queen) in your setting? If so the God could see the coming darkness on a greater level, maybe Lolth or some other elder evil, will rise to overthrow the other gods leaving all mortals as their pawns/slaves. As such the god of time appears to the party and says it can send them to (insert time/place in hstory) and bring them back to the present but they will only be able to move around this small area and they will only be able to stay there for a short time. The god of time sends them back and effectiely freezes time around the area the party appear in to do what they have to do. If the party try to move out of the area then they take 1d10 force damage every 5 feet for trying to move through the frozen time and if they try to throw any creatures into the frozen time then they freeze 1ft into it so they cannot actually kill anyone. You could have the actual encounter as series of ability checks against the clock, you could use an hourglass or similar or just have a countdown of turns, give them 10 turns/1 minute of time in the past before the god of time whisks them back to the present.
Using something like that should limit the chances of the party screwing with the past.
1: Parallel universe creation. This type of time travel happens when something is changed in the past that branches into another universe.
I haven't done time travel in D&D, but this is what I always used in Champions (which allows Time Travel if the GM permits that Power Advantage for Extra-Dimensional Movement). I allowed EDM to travel in time, but all time travel sent you to an alternate reality. Andy you always came back to your own time/reality exactly 11 minutes after you left (I borrowed that from Dean Koontz's book Lightning).
To me this is the only "clean" way to do it -- almost all other forms of time travel lead to paradoxes my pea brain just cannot resolve, such as how if you went back in time and changed an event, would you have known in the future to go back in time to change it if it is now changed. Nope, my brain can't resolve that, so I just don't let it happen.
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You all have had amazing advice! Thankfully, my first game day with my PCs is this weekend and they are no where near the end but this give me great places to jump from, and build the rest of the climax and story for them!
I would say if this is a long arc then have the idea in mind but realise your players may well just decide to go off and do something very different lol.
I have run a time travel element to a game before, mine came about because the players had the intended early face off with the big bad, managed to escape (they where never going to kill him) and promptly went off on a tangent and didn’t go back again. As a result he got McMuffin and became more and more powerful off camera. Whispers of him came to the players but they where busy having fun elsewhere getting to level 15 but finally he spread out into the part of the world they where on, killing NPCs and they where close to, destroying and enslaving and making them take notice. What followed was a series of adventures and then a final realisation that said mcguffin made him unstoppable, then party had to time travel back to the moment they faced him, party arrived just as themselves where escaping and realised they where the distraction that stopped him killing them. They fought him, defeated him, then had to fight him again reformed and get the mcguffin and hide it before returning to the present to deal with the changes that defeating him had caused.
I realize this isn’t what you want to hear, but I’m a little contrarian, maybe consider not doing time travel. For one it’s either paradoxical or you hand wave the confusing parts. For two, It’s rarely as satisfying as it seems like it’s going to be. Whenever I see it in a movie or tv show, it always feels like the writers backed themselves into a corner and looked for an easy way out — rather than dealing with the hero’s failure, they get a do-over. About the only good example I can think of is Flashpoint, the comic version, where the actions in the past had huge, unanticipated and wide ranging impacts. But in that case, the story wasn’t really about time travel solving the problem, it was more about the problem time travel created.
In your case, I’m guessing when you say they need to trap a specific person, that person is long dead. Maybe instead they’re not. They’re just a super old elf, or have been wandering the astral plane for a long time (or both) so they’re still alive now, but just really hard to find.
Personally, I stay away from time travel. Because it exists only as a plot device for science fiction writers, people often want to do these lovely twisty spun-sugar sculptures of timey-wimey stuff. Players go through those setups like a bull in a china shop. So my advice is to keep that bit simple, nobody doing it with their own grandparents or inventing the yo-yo or anything. Get in, trap the soul, get out.
ETA: Under no circumstances should you allow anyone to travel into the past and open a bank account.
I'm a first time DM, I have much of my campaign mapped out, but I'm trying to get my climax nailed down in my head. My PCs are questing to stop a catastrophe that would bring endless night to their realm, and allow the drow to come to the surface and take over. A key part is an artifact that has a soul trapped inside, but the only way to create it is for someone to go back in time and trap the soul of a specific person. If the artifact is created and combined with the other 4 artifacts to initial the curse the world will descend into darkness.
Now my question is anyone have experience with having time travel in their campaign, and how did you handle that? Or can I just make it up as I go? lol
I've not encountered time travel in D&D before, but the principles I'd follow for it would be:
1: Ensure that the players can't interfere with time too much. Either put it in a specific, inescapable location which hasn't influenced anything yet (EG "Magic McTimewizard is holed up in his fortress outside of time, so you need to go and get his soul"), or you can wing it and hope that they don't kill anyone important. Have some filler paste available to mend the cracks in time that they might make, and don't give them an opportunity to crack it completely (EG, if you think it's a cool idea for them to glimpse the BBEG in the past, DON'T! they will try and kill them and if they succeed, the campaign falls apart!). Try to keep it isolated, though perhaps have them witness events which have shaped the "present" time whilst they are in the past. It's also a chance to find plots to mess with their heads!
For example (feel free to liberate any of these ideas for your own use): The party has to go back in time and get a splinter of Magic McTimewizard's soul. This is because Timey is going to perform a ritual which will cause him to disappear forever, destroying his keep in the process, and he's the only one who could have saved the day in the future - his soul will be put into a warforged to help, but sadly the time machine can't bring him or it will mess with time - he has to disappear. So secret mission to steal some of his soul from the past goes ahead.
Whilst they're in the past, the murderhobo party decides they're going to kill Jeff the Elf, who's present in the future. This won't be an issue - if anything, it will be a plothook. Keep reading for details!
The party manages to make their way into Timey's keep and steal a piece of his soul, which they manage without him noticing. They escape as he performs his greatest ritual, and they hear a demonic voice from behind them shout "What is this! How dare you offer me your soul when it is not complete?" before the upper floors of the keep are destroyed. The party now realise that their actions are the only reason Timey disappeared, which is the reason they had to do their actions - a lovely little loop which can mess with their heads!
They return to present time, and they find that Jeff the Elf is still alive and well. They haven't got time to do much with this, but Jeff becomes very cold and calculating if questioned. They now do the stuff which they needed the soul for, and presumably save the day.
Some time later, they might be working on an intrigue plot, and the clues start to lead them back to the city where Jeff the Elf lives. They soon uncover that the city is run by a covert league of doppelgangers who assumed the identities of the ruling caste of the city, which explains why the people they killed in the past are all still alive (and why they were alive before they left if they had already killed them in their future in the past). This is what I meant by having filler ready - why, if they killed someone in the past, are they still alive? Because it's not really them!
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I think you should choose how time travel works:
1: Parallel universe creation. This type of time travel happens when something is changed in the past that branches into another universe. This leaves zero effects on the original timeline, but can be terrible on others. Using mirror zones (from tasha's) will help convey that the party has broken the world, and the choices they made could come back to haunt them in a similar time travelish way. Will they encounter an ancestor? Will their alignment change? Take note of every choice they make and how it will change this particular parallel universe. Any act to save their universe may lead to the downfall of another. This is the most complicated, but most fun. I personally think that it also makes the most sense, and really feels like the climax has huge implications beyond their own world. Perhaps the BBEG may relate to keeping the order of the universes. (Avengers Endgame and the time stone use parallel universes)
2: Single universe completion. This type of time travel acts as an infinite loop. When the party travels back in time, the changes they have made will already have affected the world. No new universe is made. Instead, the party NEEDS to do a certain number of tasks in order to keep the universe functionally intact. If they fail, time crumbles (because the universe hasn't been sustained in history.) Include hints that the PC's deeds have already taken place. A prophecy featuring the heros. Records that the item they seek mysteriously vanished at the time they will arrive at. It will create a sudden realization and responsibility that the PCs will need to carry. (Harry Potter and the time turner use single universe completion)
3: Altered universe creation & erasure. This type of time travel leaves no parallel universes, simply altering the world the PCs return to and erasing the one they exited from (leaving the PC's themselves unaffected.) Much like the parallel universe creation, you need to keep track of every choice the PCs make. The effects will have less cosmic implications, but much more personal ones. What happened to the universe that was erased? These thoughts will haunt your PCs for the rest of their lives. (Back to the Future uses Altered universe creation & erasure.)
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Do you have a God of TIme (such as Chronos, the Three Fates or possibly the Raven Queen) in your setting? If so the God could see the coming darkness on a greater level, maybe Lolth or some other elder evil, will rise to overthrow the other gods leaving all mortals as their pawns/slaves. As such the god of time appears to the party and says it can send them to (insert time/place in hstory) and bring them back to the present but they will only be able to move around this small area and they will only be able to stay there for a short time. The god of time sends them back and effectiely freezes time around the area the party appear in to do what they have to do. If the party try to move out of the area then they take 1d10 force damage every 5 feet for trying to move through the frozen time and if they try to throw any creatures into the frozen time then they freeze 1ft into it so they cannot actually kill anyone. You could have the actual encounter as series of ability checks against the clock, you could use an hourglass or similar or just have a countdown of turns, give them 10 turns/1 minute of time in the past before the god of time whisks them back to the present.
Using something like that should limit the chances of the party screwing with the past.
Thank you! That is great. I will be adding this for sure.
I haven't done time travel in D&D, but this is what I always used in Champions (which allows Time Travel if the GM permits that Power Advantage for Extra-Dimensional Movement). I allowed EDM to travel in time, but all time travel sent you to an alternate reality. Andy you always came back to your own time/reality exactly 11 minutes after you left (I borrowed that from Dean Koontz's book Lightning).
To me this is the only "clean" way to do it -- almost all other forms of time travel lead to paradoxes my pea brain just cannot resolve, such as how if you went back in time and changed an event, would you have known in the future to go back in time to change it if it is now changed. Nope, my brain can't resolve that, so I just don't let it happen.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
You all have had amazing advice! Thankfully, my first game day with my PCs is this weekend and they are no where near the end but this give me great places to jump from, and build the rest of the climax and story for them!
I'm running time travel in an upcoming game, and found a map maker to make the maps look to be from 1st edition books for when they go into the past.
I would say if this is a long arc then have the idea in mind but realise your players may well just decide to go off and do something very different lol.
I have run a time travel element to a game before, mine came about because the players had the intended early face off with the big bad, managed to escape (they where never going to kill him) and promptly went off on a tangent and didn’t go back again. As a result he got McMuffin and became more and more powerful off camera. Whispers of him came to the players but they where busy having fun elsewhere getting to level 15 but finally he spread out into the part of the world they where on, killing NPCs and they where close to, destroying and enslaving and making them take notice. What followed was a series of adventures and then a final realisation that said mcguffin made him unstoppable, then party had to time travel back to the moment they faced him, party arrived just as themselves where escaping and realised they where the distraction that stopped him killing them. They fought him, defeated him, then had to fight him again reformed and get the mcguffin and hide it before returning to the present to deal with the changes that defeating him had caused.
I realize this isn’t what you want to hear, but I’m a little contrarian, maybe consider not doing time travel. For one it’s either paradoxical or you hand wave the confusing parts. For two, It’s rarely as satisfying as it seems like it’s going to be. Whenever I see it in a movie or tv show, it always feels like the writers backed themselves into a corner and looked for an easy way out — rather than dealing with the hero’s failure, they get a do-over. About the only good example I can think of is Flashpoint, the comic version, where the actions in the past had huge, unanticipated and wide ranging impacts. But in that case, the story wasn’t really about time travel solving the problem, it was more about the problem time travel created.
In your case, I’m guessing when you say they need to trap a specific person, that person is long dead. Maybe instead they’re not. They’re just a super old elf, or have been wandering the astral plane for a long time (or both) so they’re still alive now, but just really hard to find.
Personally, I stay away from time travel. Because it exists only as a plot device for science fiction writers, people often want to do these lovely twisty spun-sugar sculptures of timey-wimey stuff. Players go through those setups like a bull in a china shop. So my advice is to keep that bit simple, nobody doing it with their own grandparents or inventing the yo-yo or anything. Get in, trap the soul, get out.
ETA: Under no circumstances should you allow anyone to travel into the past and open a bank account.