"Fixing" paradoxes - mechanisms in-world for dealing with time-travel shenanigans!

Hey all,

Recently I've been rewatching Hilda on Netflix - there's minor spoilers for one episode ahead, which you can avoid by backing quietly out of the thread without making eye-contact!

So, in one of the episodes there is a creature called a Time Worm, which tunnels through from one timeline to another, eating anything which is paradoxical. In the episode, Hilda helps a couple find each other in the past, and this creates a new version of them in the future with a full past. The people who were not involved in this timeline are still there - duplicates thereof, in many cases - and are being attacked and eaten by the Time Worm. The worm was, in essence, tidying up the paradox. If a person went back in time and cut down a tree, on return they would see the tree still there, then the time worm would appear and eat it, realigning the times. This makes the change dynamic and helps hammer home the impact of the change.

I had considered something sort-of similar (but blunter) in a time-themed oneshot which I was writing, where there are interdimensional creatures who are attracted to meddlings in time, so if the party creates a paradox, these creatures become attracted to them and will emerge from portals to try and kill them. I was thinking something along the lines that they have been selectively bred by Modrons in Mechanus to stop people from meddling too much - some paradoxes can be tidied up later, as long as the people making them are dealt with.

I am interested in what other people have put in place in their games to work with time travel!

One word: quarut

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Quarut

Time travel kills everything it touches in entertainment.

Dr Who is the only exception.

Once there is time travel someone can always go back and fix any mistakes. Unless there are real strict limits to its use. Very strict.

Quote from TheGnome5786 >>

Time travel kills everything it touches in entertainment.

Dr Who is the only exception.

 

Once there is time travel someone can always go back and fix any mistakes. Unless there are real strict limits to its use. Very strict.

 There are many stories where Time Travel creates more problems than it solves.  Going back and fixing things is lazy, going back and showing the consequences is interesting.

The big problem is each paradox is its own set of logic, each demanding a different type of correction or uncorrection….. if thats even an option. 

So the first rule of time travel is to set the rules, how they get violated then the consequences. The more narrow you can make it, the easier it is to manage. Then model a tool that restricts options to what rules you are using.  

and if tht doesn’t work, implode the universe.