So in my wacky game, a player has gained a power to travel forward or backwards in time up to ten minutes once per week...
He smashed a chest containing potions and the potions mixed.
And using the "Potions Mixing " random table rolled a 100
00 Discovery. The mixing of the potions creates a special effect--one of the potions chosen at random fails to work, but the other has its effects made permanent on the drinker. If mixed externally, then the permanent effect is not discovered until the mix is consumed. The potion's effect becomes a spell-like ability that is always on for the drinker.
Another random roll to find what power came up with this time travel one...
The player thought up the idea to go back in time to before he broke the potions and not open the chest so violently...
So I said ... but then you would have never have drunk the potions that gave you the power to go back ...
At this point we became confused and decided that we should go outside for a walk and really think about what we are actually doing with our spare time, and if playing Dungeons and Dragons is actually as good as breaking bottles in an alley or rolling a hoop about the town...
.......
What happens now... Have I ruined my game? How does this time travel thing work...
Let him do what he said he would. Rewind time and if he doesn't do exactly as he did before, reality simply moves from that point onwards. He discovers that at the end of the week that he is unable to use that power again since events have unfolded differently and he didn't drink the potion in the precise measure as before. If he attempts to mix those potions, results end up differently.
First is to define the time travel parameters.
- Is he sending his whole body or only his consciousness/memories?
- In the first case, when he travels to the past, the party would be quite surprised to see another Dave appearing out of thin air (possibly naked: does his equipment travel with him?).
- In the second case (mind travel only), his body wouldn't be affected by the new time-travelling power. And you could rule that only his consciousness moves, not his memories of the past. There is a problem when travelling to the future, though, because the body would be helpless in the mean time. - When sending his body to the past, does he rewind time, or does he create another dimension?
- In game terms, it's simpler to choose the first case, because otherwise you'd have a dimension containing a party without Dave, and another with two Daves.
That's all for now, but I might time-travel and edit this later ;-)
Man those are good answears !
Im back on the wagon ! Or is it off the wagon?
If he goes back and mixes the potions again of course something differnt would happen - Chaos theory ...
So in my wacky game, a player has gained a power to travel forward or backwards in time up to ten minutes once per week...
The player thought up the idea to go back in time to before he broke the potions and not open the chest so violently...
So I said ... but then you would have never have drunk the potions that gave you the power to go back ...
At this point we became confused and decided that we should go outside for a walk and really think about what we are actually doing with our spare time, and if playing Dungeons and Dragons is actually as good as breaking bottles in an alley or rolling a hoop about the town...
Depends. Does *he* go back in time - or does he go back into his own body a la Quantum Leap?
I assume based on the 10 minute thing it's #2 and not #1 (Otherwise, he'd start being able to have 2 of him in every combat by encountering a foe, hiding, waiting 10 minutes, going back in time and attacking....)
So, if it's #2, it's simple. He goes back, stops the potion mess, and time continues normally. Noone mixed potions, noone learned to time travel, taa-daa.
Edit: Or I could have just +1'ed Louis' post. Sorry, Louis.
Beware of the dreaded time loop!
If this character goes back in time and occupies the same body and performs the same actions as he did the "first time" he encountered the chest - he runs the risk of trapping himself in a time loop.
1. Encounters chest.
2. Breaks open chest.
3. Drinks crazy mixture.
4. Goes back to 1.
If he returns to the past in a separate body, there would be 2 of him until the "younger" one went back in time to witness the chest again.
If he doesn't return to the past in a separate body and he doesn't change the past, then you'll have a time loop. Which, in my opinion, would be an AMAZING way to retire a character.
ok , those are all good answers,
Im assuming he goes back and re occupies his body .
Heres the rub, If he goes back to before he broke the potions and DOSENT drink the potions,
then how could he have got the ability to go back and drink the potions to get the power that allows him to go back to drink the potions...
and # 2 - If he goes back and breaks the chest and the potions mix again, according to Chaos theory there is no chance that the time travel potion will be created again. ( In game terms he would have to roll a 100 on a % then a 9 on a d 10 then a 62 on a % then a 6 on a d 10 , chance is 1 in Ten Million.)
so what happens now....?
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Well, there are some very interesting ways to handle it-
You can just have it rewind everything but his memory, and if he takes a different action then this reality branches off from the one he came from, and thereby things go on as normal. No paradox because he's not in the same reality as he was- he's created his own by growing a new branch. Think of it like a fork in the road- he goes down one path, doesn't like what happened, so he back-tracks and goes down the other path. Only there's a billion paths that he could take.
Option 2, ala The Time Machine- He can never change what he did. No matter what, the potion always ends up getting made, and it always makes it's way into his system. He doesn't have to get stuck in a time loop, he can just never change what gave him the ability to time-travel.
Yeah. Chris and The Roy are right ! As well as Hunter of the Dusk...
New Time line/Billion paths solves the quandary.
Thanks !
Twist! They never really time-traveled. They just got transported to an alternate universe that got started 10 minutes later.
Heres the rub, If he goes back to before he broke the potions and DOSENT drink the potions,
then how could he have got the ability to go back and drink the potions to get the power that allows him to go back to drink the potions...
Simply put, he created an *alternate* <insert animated underlining on a chalk board here> 1985! Whoa, this is heavy, Doc.
The big problem with time-travel is causality: that with time-travel, cause can come after the effect. To avoid paradox, there are some get-out clauses.
1) Changing the past creates a branching, parallel universe. You have not actually travelled into the past, the parallel universe is created as soon as you travel back in time - it isn't your past at all. You cannot return to the present, because it isn't your present any more, and as Terry Pratchet puts it, you are now trapped in the wrong leg of the Trousers of Time.
2) No matter what you do, something happens to correct any changes that you make. You stop yourself breaking the chest? Another person decides to. You stop them, the roof collapses on it. They refuse to drink the potions, someone else does.
3) The paradox ceases to exist. Time re-edits itself so the original effect never took place.
The Guardians of Time appear to ensure that the time line remains unaltered. Perhaps recruiting him to fight in their Endless War against the Time Bandits and Epoch Necromancers. Adventures ensue.
So in my wacky game, a player has gained a power to travel forward or backwards in time up to ten minutes once per week...
He smashed a chest containing potions and the potions mixed.
And using the "Potions Mixing " random table rolled a 10000 Discovery. The mixing of the potions creates a special effect--one of the potions chosen at random fails to work, but the other has its effects made permanent on the drinker. If mixed externally, then the permanent effect is not discovered until the mix is consumed. The potion's effect becomes a spell-like ability that is always on for the drinker.
Another random roll to find what power came up with this time travel one...
The player thought up the idea to go back in time to before he broke the potions and not open the chest so violently...
So I said ... but then you would have never have drunk the potions that gave you the power to go back ...
At this point we became confused and decided that we should go outside for a walk and really think about what we are actually doing with our spare time, and if playing Dungeons and Dragons is actually as good as breaking bottles in an alley or rolling a hoop about the town...
.......
What happens now... Have I ruined my game? How does this time travel thing work...
Search the archives.
I answer this question last year, a week before you posted it.
according to Chaos theory there is no chance that the time travel potion will be created again. ( In game terms he would have to roll a 100 on a % then a 9 on a d 10 then a 62 on a % then a 6 on a d 10 , chance is 1 in Ten Million.)
Not quite. It's 1 in a Million Chance, and according to Terry Pratchett, these work out in 9 out of 10 cases...
Great stuff !
Alternate 1985 Marty !
GREAT SCOTT!!
And Pratchett is awesome !