Hey everyone - I'm homebrewing a campaign that will have some big time travel plot points, and I'm wondering how I can add some flavor with cool twists/reveals. Basically there will be someone from the "present" that goes back in time and changes the course of history to some disastrous (but intended) consequences. There will also be eventual travel to the future.
I want to have an NPC eventually end up being one of the PCs from the future. The reveal will be some event that causes the PC to get a distinct scar/burn/something that the NPC has. Something along those lines. I realize this could potentially give the PC some plot armor, but the way I'll set up the timeline and how potential changes work will mean they can still die.
Any other ideas? How can I shuffle around characters from 3+ different times in an interesting way that is both surprising but functional and interesting? Thanks!
If I might offer you some research material, find the movie Predestination, it will really twist your noodle when it comes to time travel. It starts slow, but it's well worth the watch.
The biggest thing I've found when it comes to time travel is that it's too easy to create holes that don't make sense. You'll have to be hyper vigilant when it comes the the timeline and how the NPC/PC move about. Copious notes will be necessary so that the NPC version of the PC has the right information and adjustments. In the end, just make sure you have a solid idea on how to make the plot move forward without needing too many railroad bits.
Yeah, I'll definitely have to be careful - although that's kind of my DM style (lots and lots of notes, details, etc), which is why I think this will be an interesting task to take on.
From a technical standpoint, the "how" of getting the characters back and forth through time can be done in two ways: fixed points (special teleportation circles found in the world, special portals, whatever), or flexible (time-travel anywhere via a special device/spell/choose your macguffin, a la Zelda Oracle of Time's Harp of Time, though in that example it's only Past and Future, not 3 times).
The second can pose some very interesting options, as once unlocked it would allow players to discover all sorts of things. That might be a little tricky as your players might get the idea of doing that all the time in all sorts of places, but could lead to some fascinating options for puzzle-solving, dungeons, etc. Going the first way, however, would allow you to hold onto the structure a bit more, only allowing them to travel at certain geographical points - but you can control WHEN they find these, and even if they're "active" or not meaning that your players could stumble onto them early on, before they're active, and could allow for some fabulous foreshadowing - they stumble upon another "familiar, strange circle, it looks oddly familiar" in later on in the campaign, and when they learn what it does, they'll hopefully go "OH SNAP, WAS THE OTHER ONE ONE OF THESE, TOO?!?!?!?!!?" and if you're lucky a "WE GOTTA GO BACK AND FIND OUT."
I'm actually running my own homebrew campaign which features time travel. I accidentally introduced it earlier than I should have, but to control it I've made it so that the characters can't control when it happens - yet, anyway. (My method is actually a combination of fixed and flexible wherein I utilize both.) So if you want to talk time-travel campaign ideas my inbox is totally open!
Yeah I'm leaning more toward the fixed point way of travel, potentially even in the Fey wild since we don't understand quite how time works there. Powerful magic could be used to control how it moves, or how we move within it. Something like that.
I've always liked the concept of a structure that connected worlds. Sybil is the D&D version, but I've seen it as a infinite hallway too. I think the concept might work for time.
If the characters find, say, an abandoned but functional house in the middle of nowhere (or in a city, it probably doesn't matter), the first person through the door becomes attuned. Doors in the house open to various points in there past. Open the door on the right, BOOM! 15 years in the past and the house is new. Go to the cellar, WAM! they arrive to the last day of their lives and the house is about to collapse.
To be more controllable, you might need to emphasize the danger of traveling through time. I would utilize the butterfly effect. The degree is up to you.
So this is a huge coincidence, but this is almost exactly the plot of the campaign I've been running for the last two years. My campaign features a Prime Timeline where the main villain was actually a hero in a party with the Prime versions of the player characters. He goes back in time following a catastrophic event in their timeline, creating the player's timeline. When determining in what ways the player's timeline differentiated from the Prime, I looked for potential "turning points" on their backstories, even suggested a few to my players. One player is an adventurer who was forced to marry her lover's wicked brother following his assassination, and ran away. So, in the Prime timeline, I made it so the lover was still alive and part of the party. Another is a soldier who was disgraced when a city he was protecting got burned to the ground during a war. In the Prime timeline, he successfully protected the city and was hailed as a hero. Etc. Not all the changes are positive in the Prime though, they vary. The really important thing though, is I made it so the main villain had a hand in all those changes, since he's using his foreknowledge to change the past in ways to punish his former friends for failing to save their home and stuff. Like, he worked with the evil brother to assassinate the one character's fiancee, or he ordered the garrison in the city to move even though the soldier character warned them of the enemy approaching.
That way, when they find out the truth about what the bad got has done, and what he's cost some of them, the party will be MAD, and feel a personal stake in taking him down.
Also, another coincidence, the bad guy in my game is also heavily scarred from falling through a time rift.
don't take away to much player agency by presetting their fate! also, you could do it like the flash season three, and have it so they're actually from an alternate timeline!
I am running a homebrew campaign where pc's may get thrown back in time, but only a few days at the most. So do all the pc's have to go back at the same time, or do they sit around waiting for the one to catch up to them again?
I've been running a time travel campaign set in Eberron for about 8 months now. Here are my biggest takeaways so far:
I went with the alternate timelines method of time travel because I thought it would get really difficult to keep everything in a single predestined timestream without railroading. However, since the players have caught on, some of them have become less worried about the fate of these alternate timelines and more focused on just the overall mission. ("That's not actually my wife, that's this reality's wife")
Keep the time travel focused on their lifetimes. We jumped back to thousands of years ago for 7-8 sessions and they weren't as engaged with it. Staying within the last 50 years or so allows you to bring familiar NPCs back in new and unexpected ways and focus the conflicts around the significant events of your PCs lives.
Bring back NPCs. On that note, they loved when the drunk at the bar is now a gleaming knight 20 years in the past. I also did the classic Hot Tub Time Machine where I introduced an NPC missing a limb and then went back to right around when he lost it so they always had their eye on him.
Putting in some restrictions on how they can time travel is good. I went with a classic artificer made time machine but I had it run on rare dragonshards that they are running very low on. The fixed point method could work well too. Also if they time travel to somewhere they've already time-traveled it attracts notice from Daanvi, the plane of order to prevent them just re-doing a fight or something.
One way to do this is to just have it be someone from the future and though there is seemingly a predestination, the character has the ability to change the future this go around. Essentially the same as what other people said where it is another timeline, but not an alternate universe. So for example a character's future self comes back and tells him you need to kill this person later on for us to succeed, but when they get to that point maybe things change and the player decides to change his fate. This way you have the time travel without needing to worry as heavily about having an NPC know things to tell your player without you yourself knowing their future actions. And as always, keep it vague and you can change it as needed to fit the vague statements.
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Hey everyone - I'm homebrewing a campaign that will have some big time travel plot points, and I'm wondering how I can add some flavor with cool twists/reveals. Basically there will be someone from the "present" that goes back in time and changes the course of history to some disastrous (but intended) consequences. There will also be eventual travel to the future.
I want to have an NPC eventually end up being one of the PCs from the future. The reveal will be some event that causes the PC to get a distinct scar/burn/something that the NPC has. Something along those lines. I realize this could potentially give the PC some plot armor, but the way I'll set up the timeline and how potential changes work will mean they can still die.
Any other ideas? How can I shuffle around characters from 3+ different times in an interesting way that is both surprising but functional and interesting? Thanks!
DM - Above & Below
If I might offer you some research material, find the movie Predestination, it will really twist your noodle when it comes to time travel. It starts slow, but it's well worth the watch.
The biggest thing I've found when it comes to time travel is that it's too easy to create holes that don't make sense. You'll have to be hyper vigilant when it comes the the timeline and how the NPC/PC move about. Copious notes will be necessary so that the NPC version of the PC has the right information and adjustments. In the end, just make sure you have a solid idea on how to make the plot move forward without needing too many railroad bits.
Yeah, I'll definitely have to be careful - although that's kind of my DM style (lots and lots of notes, details, etc), which is why I think this will be an interesting task to take on.
Thanks!
DM - Above & Below
From a technical standpoint, the "how" of getting the characters back and forth through time can be done in two ways: fixed points (special teleportation circles found in the world, special portals, whatever), or flexible (time-travel anywhere via a special device/spell/choose your macguffin, a la Zelda Oracle of Time's Harp of Time, though in that example it's only Past and Future, not 3 times).
The second can pose some very interesting options, as once unlocked it would allow players to discover all sorts of things. That might be a little tricky as your players might get the idea of doing that all the time in all sorts of places, but could lead to some fascinating options for puzzle-solving, dungeons, etc. Going the first way, however, would allow you to hold onto the structure a bit more, only allowing them to travel at certain geographical points - but you can control WHEN they find these, and even if they're "active" or not meaning that your players could stumble onto them early on, before they're active, and could allow for some fabulous foreshadowing - they stumble upon another "familiar, strange circle, it looks oddly familiar" in later on in the campaign, and when they learn what it does, they'll hopefully go "OH SNAP, WAS THE OTHER ONE ONE OF THESE, TOO?!?!?!?!!?" and if you're lucky a "WE GOTTA GO BACK AND FIND OUT."
I'm actually running my own homebrew campaign which features time travel. I accidentally introduced it earlier than I should have, but to control it I've made it so that the characters can't control when it happens - yet, anyway. (My method is actually a combination of fixed and flexible wherein I utilize both.) So if you want to talk time-travel campaign ideas my inbox is totally open!
Awesome! I will definitely PM you.
Yeah I'm leaning more toward the fixed point way of travel, potentially even in the Fey wild since we don't understand quite how time works there. Powerful magic could be used to control how it moves, or how we move within it. Something like that.
DM - Above & Below
I've always liked the concept of a structure that connected worlds. Sybil is the D&D version, but I've seen it as a infinite hallway too. I think the concept might work for time.
If the characters find, say, an abandoned but functional house in the middle of nowhere (or in a city, it probably doesn't matter), the first person through the door becomes attuned. Doors in the house open to various points in there past. Open the door on the right, BOOM! 15 years in the past and the house is new. Go to the cellar, WAM! they arrive to the last day of their lives and the house is about to collapse.
To be more controllable, you might need to emphasize the danger of traveling through time. I would utilize the butterfly effect. The degree is up to you.
So this is a huge coincidence, but this is almost exactly the plot of the campaign I've been running for the last two years. My campaign features a Prime Timeline where the main villain was actually a hero in a party with the Prime versions of the player characters. He goes back in time following a catastrophic event in their timeline, creating the player's timeline. When determining in what ways the player's timeline differentiated from the Prime, I looked for potential "turning points" on their backstories, even suggested a few to my players. One player is an adventurer who was forced to marry her lover's wicked brother following his assassination, and ran away. So, in the Prime timeline, I made it so the lover was still alive and part of the party. Another is a soldier who was disgraced when a city he was protecting got burned to the ground during a war. In the Prime timeline, he successfully protected the city and was hailed as a hero. Etc. Not all the changes are positive in the Prime though, they vary. The really important thing though, is I made it so the main villain had a hand in all those changes, since he's using his foreknowledge to change the past in ways to punish his former friends for failing to save their home and stuff. Like, he worked with the evil brother to assassinate the one character's fiancee, or he ordered the garrison in the city to move even though the soldier character warned them of the enemy approaching.
That way, when they find out the truth about what the bad got has done, and what he's cost some of them, the party will be MAD, and feel a personal stake in taking him down.
Also, another coincidence, the bad guy in my game is also heavily scarred from falling through a time rift.
don't take away to much player agency by presetting their fate! also, you could do it like the flash season three, and have it so they're actually from an alternate timeline!
I did NOT eat those hikers.
I am running a homebrew campaign where pc's may get thrown back in time, but only a few days at the most. So do all the pc's have to go back at the same time, or do they sit around waiting for the one to catch up to them again?
I've been running a time travel campaign set in Eberron for about 8 months now. Here are my biggest takeaways so far:
Hope this helps!
One way to do this is to just have it be someone from the future and though there is seemingly a predestination, the character has the ability to change the future this go around. Essentially the same as what other people said where it is another timeline, but not an alternate universe. So for example a character's future self comes back and tells him you need to kill this person later on for us to succeed, but when they get to that point maybe things change and the player decides to change his fate. This way you have the time travel without needing to worry as heavily about having an NPC know things to tell your player without you yourself knowing their future actions. And as always, keep it vague and you can change it as needed to fit the vague statements.