PLAN AHEAD TO GO BACK IN TIME Paddy dismantles time travel for our reading pleasure
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n Issue #3 of The Gazebo, I outlined why it’s not the end of the line if your player characters travel back in time and kill a seemingly important inventor, politician, scientist etc. but let’s face it, time travel is tricky for lots of other reasons. So, if you are planning to run a LARP or RPG that centres around, or even features, time travel then it is worth pausing to consider the method involved. I’m not going to get into the mechanics and pitfalls of time travel here, however the way the player characters travel through time (and let’s face it, probably space too) will add a whole new dimension to your game all by itself. There are lots of ways to time travel in your games but let’s examine five broad options that can be used by themselves or blended together.
The Device
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First, the classic mode of temporal transport, for the refined gentleman (or Doctor)! The device can be mystical in provenance or it can be the culmination of the prevailing society’s technological brilliance. '
The device may be relatively portable (if not handheld, then something can be lifted) or it may be something that houses the Time Traveller. There are numerous attributes to the device that can increase the drama for your game. If your device is small and portable then perhaps it’s fragile or the technol-
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Paddy Delaney Paddy now lives in Dublin, however he started his gaming life in Galway where he started playing RPGs and other assorted madness in the now infamous No. 57. Since then he has moved on to writing and running RPG games. He was written and run for several cons across Ireland but Itzacon is his home con. ogy is so cutting edge that it is somewhat unreliable. It can break down at dramatic moments and give your engineer or gadgeteer a pivotal role in the game. If it is a larger item then Time Travellers can face the challenge of trying to make it back to the
device when danger threatens; “Holy crap, we were wrong, TRexes travelled in packs! Quickly back to Dr. Husenhaugen’s fabulous Time Travelling gazebo!” Time travel may also be the result of a high tech and complex device (such as a teleporter) that malfunctions and the unintended result is temporal displacement, though the device can usually be calibrated to travel a particular time. Examples of ‘The Device’: The TARDIS in Dr. Who, the DeLorean in Back to the Future and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. For temporal displacement accidents, Star Trek DS9 or Voyager are rich pickings (usually poor old Chief O’Brien is the victim).
If the portal is initially out of reach of the player characters, then the storyteller need not immediately decide on the origins of the portal. Perhaps it is a result of sorcery, technology or indeed an alien invasion fleet. The portal could be discovered accidentally whereby the player characters use it to their advantage, financially or politically. Portals are particularly powerful because large amounts of people and material can be transported through time and space in one jaunt. Examples: Goodnight Sweetheart (starring Nicholas Lyndhurst), Terra Nova and much of the lore about faeries.
Inherent Abilities This is a catchall term for any ability where the Time Traveller does not have to rely on an external source to travel. It may be that the Traveller has a psychic power, genetic ability or innate spell or just uses sheer willpower to rip open warp gates. Whatever the source, the power is part of the fibre of the player character. Depending on the power level of the LARP or RPG and indeed, the style of the GM, the Time Traveller may or may not be able to bring other characters and equipment. This type of power is often more useful for individuals or small groups and is ideal for a campaign where time and space hopping is the norm. Examples: Harry Keogh in the Necroscope series of novels, Henry in The Time Traveller’s Wife and the movie Jumper.
The Stationary Portal Portals may open randomly or may remain static but the stationary time portal offers many excellent opportunities for your game. The first is that, once discovered, it is a valuable resource for any who can control it (in much the same way that time travelling devices would be for those who held the secret). It may be built into a top secret or highly secure facility which the player characters need to break into. A whole campaign could easily be planned around this one feature.
Sorcery Sorcery is often the trickiest of the methods. Sorcery might include rituals that can only be performed at certain times or under certain conditions and require special ingredients e.g. ‘Only when the Moon aligns with Saturn and under the shadow of Big Ben’. Sorcery often comes with a caveat or a price and the time travel effect may have a limited duration. On the other hand, the Fae and certain arch mages are reputed to be master
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manipulators of time and they often ensnare mortals in a time freeze or similar effect. On other occasions they can be bargained with for a return trip but beware striking deals with the wee folk (or wizards for that matter. We here at the gazebo have it on good authority that they are subtle and quick to anger!). Wishes, spells, rituals, enchanted substances and items are the keys to travel here and sorcery can allow several people, just one or even just one person’s senses to be projected forwards or backwards in time. Acquiring such items in your campaign might be a means to an end (to rescue someone) or the end itself (for profit).
Example: Nearly every sword and sorcery RPG, book or game ever and Hermione’s Time Turner
in The Prisoner of Azkaban (she wins the prize for most responsible misuse of time travel ever). The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier is an interesting look at a character’s senses only, being projected back in time.
Divine Intervention
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The Divine Intervention is often used in film and literature to show a character something from their past or future so that they might understand the grand design of which they are an important part or it may be used to alter their moral outlook or behaviour. '
The character is escorted - more often than not without a choice into the past or future by an angel, spirit, demon, alien or deity and cannot control this process. Often they are left stranded out of time till they learn some lesson.
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Example: The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future in A Christmas Carol or Supernatural. Don’t limit yourself to what has been mentioned here. Anything could cause your players to travel back in time, from something as obvious as a portal to something as innocuous as pills in a medicine cabinet (Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski). Why not throw in one of everything? The Dragonlance series sees the characters using sorcery and devices to open portals or travel at the behest of gods. Whatever you do, plan ahead to go back in time and you’re bound to have fun. Bon Voyage!
CREDITS EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
Anita Murray & Noirin Curran DESIGN & LAYOUT
Cian O'Sullivan PROOF-READERS
Brian Nisbet & Noirin Curran