Time Loop Adventure


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


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Ok, third time's the charm

I'm thinking of throwing my players in a time loop and I'm having the opposite of writer's block, I have writer's flood and would love some input from other GMs.

Right now I have the bones of what I need but I'm having a hard time settling on how to best utilize it. I'm thinking of the cause being a meteorite that was placed in a cave under the guardianship of a juvenile underworld dragon. The meteorite causes a time loop for the village every 24 hours, much like the movie "Groundhog Day." I plan on killing them every day. The effect starts as soon as they check into the inn, and every night the village is attacked by a Hobgoblin Warband headed by a Ja Noi Oni. They will be killed and wake up in their beds the next day.

I have more and will reveal it later, but I would love to get some input from you guys.

Thanks in advance!


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Make sure that each iteration they get some clue either as to what is happening or how to defeat the loop, or you will have frustrated and bored players. The characters may loop, but the players need to have a sense of progress.


Yeah, sometimes it's fun to throw players into a mess and let them figure out to solve it... but in something like this make sure you have at least one way to end it already worked out in your mind.


Currently I'm leaning towards a meteorite that's infused with temporal energy, it's currently in a chest that is among an underworld dragon's guardianship. The chest and the dragon are in a cave just off of the path to the village's shrine. I intend to give my players clues and by removing it the village becomes ruins with an overgrown path leading to it. The characters are aware and keep the knowledge of the events from the previous day, but the villagers don't. Every night a storm drives everyone inside and the hobgoblins come through and raze the village to the ground. i guess I have everything I need except the map of the cave, which if I'm honest won't take long to bang out, maybe include kobolds to make the dungeon crawl interesting. The dragon is too strong for them to fight but might be able to be persuaded to give it up for the right price, though I don't know what that would be. Also they won't be able to win against the hobgoblins, and there is no chance to negotiate them out of attacking. If through the dice they do manage it the village doesn't get destroyed and the loop simply resets. If you guys want I can provide the materials I have for this upcoming session. I fear this might take more than one session to figure out, but I'll give them something along the lines of double skill points for leveling up.


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The dragon also wakes up every morning to the same day, but has not figured out why.

Don't decide the hobgoblins can't be negotiated with. Let the players figure out enough about them to prevent the attack, it still doesn't change much.

The goal here is actually twofold. First is breaking the loop, of course, but the heroes must also decide what they want to leave for tomorrow when it comes. If the attack happens, the village is a smoking ruin when the loop ends. Let them get to understand the villagers and the hobgoblins and build an end result.


I'm not sure I'd go with the dragon being dumber than the PCs... If it's in the same mystery as the others and have been studying it longer... It may feel cheap to have it be clueless.

My take would be that the dragon was asleep on that magical day. The only time it actually wakes up is if the PCs wake it... or disturbs it's lair, then they have to try to convince it to part with it's treasure.


What level of information can be passed between cycles? If very little, it would take forever to make much progress. A lot of info, and you get a private arms race between the factions, as well as your PCs leveling enough to just beat the dragon.


The Sideromancer wrote:
What level of information can be passed between cycles? If very little, it would take forever to make much progress. A lot of info, and you get a private arms race between the factions, as well as your PCs leveling enough to just beat the dragon.

Might be tough for the players to pretend they don't know the day - if they encounter it the third time or so. Given the PCs are supposed to get out (sooner or later), it likely doesn't hurt they can keep their memories. NPCs better don't, unless it's a rather passive one.

draugr_hrafn wrote:
I plan on killing them every day.

That I find tough to ensure. After being killed twice or so, they will probably hide or try to flee the area. And if you bend the story so they get killed no matter what they do, they will probably end up frustrated fast.

The Exchange

First make sure you have them wait 1 day at the hotel before this all starts, wouldn't make sense to have them check in at the hotel, then die that same day, then have them wake up in their hotel room like they are starting the same day all over again!

I would say definitely go the total awareness route, if they are supposed to act as though they only remember certain things each time it's going to feel like you are being forced into doing many things the exact same as you did the last time even though you know what's going to happen. They should feel completely free to do trial and error.

I might even avoid the death on day 1, allow them to be cautious and possibly survive, but say at the stroke of midnight they wake up and it's that morning again. Part of the fun of groundhog day was him eventually going a little crazy and TRYING to die just to end it.

Make sure you have Plans on how you are going to leak them clues on what might finally break the effect. Don't just be like If they find the meteor and destroy it everything stops because the players may get frustrated if they don't get a true sense like they are able to figure out the problem and it's just going to be a matter of luck that they guess the right combination of rain dance, war dance, war paint, and kill the orc shaman to finally get it right!

Oh and make sure their actions have the appropriate repercussions. If they try murder hobo'ing the entire town, change all their alignments to evil. The whole town might reset, but the actions of that day turned THEM evil and THEY do NOT reset.

===========================
Edited:
Now that I think about it, I would have a falling star (your meteor) fall and land either the night before the PC's arrive or 2 nights before they arrive. 1 night would mean the PC's arrive on Day 0, at the time the meteor impacted that night, time will reset for everyone that was in town (In range) at the time of the meteor strike. Two nights before would have them arrive on Day 1 of the repeat. They may encounter someone that mentions it's Wednesday when to them it's Thursday, or mention a date that's 1 day off. Even if the PC's notice the discrepancy and thing something is strange and try to leave they get sucked back in when time resets.

This could symbolize both them coming into range of the magic effect, and also why they keep their memories (because they were not subject to the stronger magical blast that might have come from the meteor impact)

Maybe you could mention a beautiful meteor shower a night or two out of town. Then after a few clues start coming together give them a knowledge check and maybe they think they saw one that was bigger than the others that could have landed nearby, rather than being burned up upon entry.


Information wise, the PCs will control that with how efficiently they gather knowledge from their surroundings, I don't want it to take more than 3 sessions so I'm not going to put too much there for them to interact with.

As for the killing them everyday thing, I could just see how they react to the first time that happens. I tend towards an open world adventure so I won't remove their ability to nope the hell out, but there will be consequences since they're low ranking members of the emperor's secret service and have been tasked with finding the cause and see if it will lead to immortality to the emperor. I might even have the village drunk be the only one in the village aware of the effect and has gone mad.

Another thought, I'm thinking about doing away with the dragon, I think I might have the meteor in the village shrine and making the local priest and his initiates refer to it as a holy relic that protects the village from harm and misfortune.

Finally I think I might cycle with the bell tower of the village center at midnight and at sunrise. For example at the tolling of the bell at midnight causes the PCs to fall asleep and they wake up at the dawn bell in their beds.


Good idea for a short run setting. I agree with removing the dragon. That seems like an unnecessary complication.

I am curious, does everything repeat? Or just the people? Perhaps it is just the people and the harvest keeps growing mysteriously each day. If it is everything, what happens at the interface of the village with the rest of the world?


I haven't decided yet, I'm torn between the village becoming ruins or the effect is broken and the people continue on as if there was never a loop. While they're under the effect of the meteor everything resets, buildings and all, anything the PCs take returns back to where it was originally(not that they have anything worth taking).

I'm going to have fun sending them on wild goose chases, lol.

The Exchange

draugr_hrafn wrote:

Information wise, the PCs will control that with how efficiently they gather knowledge from their surroundings, I don't want it to take more than 3 sessions so I'm not going to put too much there for them to interact with.

As for the killing them everyday thing, I could just see how they react to the first time that happens. I tend towards an open world adventure so I won't remove their ability to nope the hell out, but there will be consequences since they're low ranking members of the emperor's secret service and have been tasked with finding the cause and see if it will lead to immortality to the emperor. I might even have the village drunk be the only one in the village aware of the effect and has gone mad.

Another thought, I'm thinking about doing away with the dragon, I think I might have the meteor in the village shrine and making the local priest and his initiates refer to it as a holy relic that protects the village from harm and misfortune.

Finally I think I might cycle with the bell tower of the village center at midnight and at sunrise. For example at the tolling of the bell at midnight causes the PCs to fall asleep and they wake up at the dawn bell in their beds.

So here's some information that clearly negates some of my thoughts ;-( I kinda liked some of them...

I would stick with having them sleep once and start a "normal" day before things reset the following night, because again they wouldn't wake in bed if they didn't wake in bed originally. Maybe even build in that people that pass through during the day aren't effected, and since it's publicly known about this place repeating time people have stopped coming anywhere near it during the night, and no one ever stays the night anymore.

However before people outside realized what was going on multiple people/groups would have stayed the night and gotten stuck in the town too. You could have just a few and have them be experiencing it from the same view point as the players, where they remember what's happened and can answer pc questions. Or you can have it be a lot and maybe all the good room options in the town are taken and the PC's have to find some old abandoned house with a leaky roof to camp out in.

Also... how long as the town been like this? Weeks, Months, Years?

You could have a woman who wakes up shocked every morning because she went from pregnant, to baby in the crib. Or on the other extreme there could be a 5 year old who's still mentally a baby because it never remembers anything it's learned for the past 4 years. And groups of young teenagers still playing around like small children.


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Well I was thinking of something in line with the anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni(When They Cry). If you haven't seen it, get ready for some twisted things. Thinking of that the time loop would be that the village is completely unaware that over 250 years have passed, I reference this with NPCs talking about the an emperor attempting to unite the city-states into a unified country, a feat unimaginable in their time. In the "current" time the country is unified.

The information I'm going to give my players is essentially this'
"An informant has reported that a village in a remote valley was razed to the ground by an unknown army, upon receiving this information we dispatched a scout to investigate and came back that the village showed no sign of attack but the surrounding area showed signs of activity by a large force. Both sources are reliable and we suspect that there might be a secret to immortality located there. Go there and either find the source of this phenomenon and bring it to me."

Upon arriving at the village from the west they find nothing out of place. Knowledge nobility(DC18) gives insight to what time the villagers(who are human) existed in. The village has an inn and a tavern to the west, a small blacksmith in the southwest(only capable of making farming tools), a town center that acts as a community meeting hall, court house, and jail to the east, rice patties to the north, 12 houses to the northeast, and shrine up a small trail to the south. The party can seek refuge in the inn, a house, the shrine, or the jail. As soon as the PCs enter the village it is the eve of a festival and everyone is busy either tending the crops or setting up the festival in the square. Any information gathered at this time is effectively useless. That night the village is attacked by a force wearing the same uniform as the imperial army, but something is different, like it's from another time. They die in battle, but they wake up in their respective beds and the day starts like normal. Only that they remember vividly the events of the previous night, yet the villagers give them strange looks when they bring it up. They can choose to change where they sleep and it will affect where they wake up in the morning.

If you guys want more information I'll happily provide it.


Sounds really cool.


There's an old Dungeon mag adventure that deals with time. Only thing I remember about it is there being a Time Elemental in it, and a trap that turns the PC(s) into children. Can't remember the name/issue, need to dig it up.


If you want to add to the party's sense of urgency, and paranoia, have a countdown device. I recommend a jar of candy or whatever. You take a piece out and eat it at each reset. If the candy runs out...

Of course, you might have a player who spreads hate and discontent by taking and eating a piece. Maybe he should not appear in the next iteration or so.

If you play mood music, create yourself a playset long enough to go through an iteration without repeating a song. Make the first song distinctive. Restart the playset at each reset. You can change playsets depending on the success level of the previous iteration if you have the time and energy for that bit of extra work.

Liberty's Edge

Temporal Dragon could have died in the area and the PC's are the only ones not in the loop when they arrive. A Cure can be found in the town that gets attacked each loop/night in the home of a Retired Wizard that studied time, because he was home at the time of the Dragons death, he repeats his new retired life every day. If you want humor to be involved. It can be his 'first day' of being retired making for some amusing and difficult convincing before the Hobgoblins that knew of him come to attack and destroy the village all over again along with the possible cure to the time loop from the dragons death. This way there is some progress based on the characters learning to speak with and deal with the wizard instead of an angry dragon.


Bump, maybe if the two are together they can be merged.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I feel like I've seen this thread before...


I did post it in two other boards by mistake, but I'm under way with the adventure, they're taking a while to get there, but they did come across some villagers that were taken hostage by some hobgoblins, which resulted in some confusing dialogue.

The Exchange

I'm not exactly sure I get how a group of PC's that arrive during the day wake up in the beds they have never used when time resets the next morning. But then I tend to be a little over analytical too.


You could make it like that movie about invading aliens. The queen (the orb in this case) moves back time right before defeat. Allowing them to always eventually know the perfect strategy. Maybe it could play out like that with the PCs ending up protecting the village with maximum efficiency.


You can only use this idea if you work in repeated violent deaths of Tom Cruise. It is really the only reason for watching that movie.


Dot.


I might make the PCs start out back in their camp, that'll mess with them. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on how my PCs handle it this weekend.


Ok, so here's how it went down, but first the players.

Fetchling Fighter(stock)
Tengu Monk(Master of Many Styles)
Catfolk Ninja(stock)
Drow Rogue(stock)
Aasimar Paladin(Abadar)

All characters are 5th level.

FF and CN left from their keep while leaving TM behind(player wasn't there so I said that he was disciplining his apprentice for attempting to give him pinkeye) and along the way they encountered AP and his merchant guards. They happened across some orcs and hobgoblins along the way as well as a couple other merchants. Eventually they came across some bad guys that had 6 prisoners. FF, CN, and AP make camp about a half day's ride from the town. The morning that they woke up they witnessed a shooting star land not far from them. They continued to onto the village in question and we left the first session there.

Next session TM was there and DR rolled up her character. TM took off down the road and came across some orcs and hobgoblins with a slave wagon, containing DR and my reoccuring NPCs(Halfling Paladin, Bard, and Ranger, or PBR). TM freed them and the setup camp at roughly the same location as FF, CN, and AP. FF, CN, and AP tried to get some information from the local populace, with little success. Eventually FF saw several columns of smoke in the forest to the north of the village. FF decided to take a deputy and go investigate, which resulted in him finding the army which he decided to spook with a string of fire crackers. Obviously the army didn't think that was too cute, so they devastated the village killing FF, CN, and AP as well as the village. TM, DR, and PBR, were camping when they saw the meteor land nearby and then after they heard a sonic boom, they were aware of FF, CN, AP, and AP's guards, screaming at the top of their lungs. They decided to investigate the meteor and did some tests on it. After it cooled TM put it into his bag and then they decided to try and infiltrate the army which yielded little success. They ran away from the guys when reinforcements showed up and they had a hard time dropping one of four.

AP decided to ride in in the morning and see if that changed anything, and decided the best course of action would be to convince the village to swallow the pill and join the imperial army camped outside their village. This resulted in every able bodied male being conscripted into the army, which they were initially, mostly because they didn't want to leave their wives and children. AP succeeded but the party didn't stop the meteor from sonic booming so the area reset. So they tried again and succeeded, meanwhile TM flew up and attempted to catch the meteor with his Handy Haversack half filled with water and sand. Against all odds he managed to catch it, however I had to have my fun, so in order to keep the inertia from removing his arms from his body I decided to have the energy transfered into rotational energy. So TM is spinning like a top in midair, and failed his STR check to keep a hold of the bag, sending it sailing through the air. They found it and the area didn't reset.

They returned to their keep and after giving a debriefing to their employer, they immediately set to forging a sword, a bastard sword to be specific, and included the crystals from the meteor in the smithing process. The result was a +2 Bastard Sword of Temporal Distortion, which the effect is the player rolls twice on an attack and takes the better of the two.

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