Disentangling the time travel

[DavidW]

I wanted to share some thoughts about the time-travel aspects of the plot in Return.

The basic idea of the AP is terrific. Alaznist seizes the Scepter of Time and uses it to change history to overcome the other Runelords and the Sihedron Heroes. The PCs learn about Alaznist's temporal interventions but because they're in the new timeline, they don't know what she's changed and can't change it back. So they break into Xin-Edasseril, the City outside Time, whose records record the old timeline. They travel through time themselves, reverse Alaznist's changes, and finally confront her. Epic.

But I don't think the implementation as written is quite consistent. The earlier books imply the heroes are in the new (post-Alaznist's intervention) timeline, but there's very little actually-presented clues as to how that timeline has changed; in particular it has Sorshen and the Sihedron in it, even though both are erased from later history by Alaznist. And in book 6 (page 6) we're told that the destruction of Varisia was foreshadowed by events in the new timeline that the PCs didn't experience (and which don't occur in books 1-5), which seems to contradict the basic mechanism by which the heroes learn of the time changes in the first place. And there are smaller issues: the Oliphaunt is very strongly foreshadowed in earlier books but plays a comparatively brief and minor part in the finale; at least one of Alaznist's interventions occurs during Earthfall, too late to be recorded in the Library of Xin-Edasseril; two of Alaznist's interventions (preventing the Sihedron forming and destroying it) contradict each other, so that there can't be a consistent alternative timeline.

You could still play the AP as written, and I'm sure it would be a lot of fun. But it would be more a story of temporal damage and inconsistency than a story of time travel and changing history, and as written there is a danger that players go from adventure to adventure in a somewhat confused state, having fun but not really understanding what's going on.

I've had a go at disentangling this into something more consistent (without changing the basic structure of the AP).

- I've tweaked Alaznist's timeline interventions a bit so that they generate a consistent new timeline, which deviates only slightly from the original timeline until late in the AP (before leading to ruin).
- I've laid out three consistent timelines: the first is the one before Alaznist intervenes; the second is the one Alaznist creates; the third is the one where the PCs fix Alaznist's changes.
- I've fleshed out the AP's cool idea that traveling through time grants you some awareness of, and resistance to, history being changed, and that this happens even if you haven't yet done the time travelling; I call this 'retroactive resilience'.

Here's the outline.

I should say that this is advance campaign planning: I haven't tried to do it yet, and it would need some fleshing out in places. (I've run Rise and Shattered Star, but I'm taking a break before more Runelord shenanigans.)

[Askar Avari]

Hey there David,

I just wanted to drop in and say that I read your whole outline and I think it's fantastic. I sincerely wish I'd had it a year ago, back when I'd just wrapped up Book 3 and really started to hammer home the changing timeline. While it's too late for me to include some of your earlier suggestions, I'll gladly steal many of the tweaks you've made to Book 5 and Book 6, especially the temporal wounds.

I've been slowly publishing a guide to this AP and trying to flesh out many chunks of it as I go. I'll direct people who are interested in tweaking the story a little for clarity to this thread and your outline; I'll be back if/when you publish an update or I've completed the adventure with those changes.

[The Shifty Mongoose]

I like the outline, and always appreciate anyone's attempts to smooth out inconsistencies.
Ever heard of Continuum? It's an RPG about time travel that tries to make it make sense to the players, but few people ever play it. I used its ideas to work out what goes on here: time isn't deterministic, but altering the past gives people involved conflicting memories of both timelines, as you wrote. A similar thing happened in the Therassic Library, where the whole area was Temporally Fragmented ("fragged" as the Steward would say it). Due to altering the historical past multiple times, Alaznist ends up fragging all of Varisia and outlying environs for millenia; the Steward notices the New Heroes and their attempts to fix things, so she goes Down on the timeframe to give just enough aid to preserve the Heroes' free will while trying to fix things on "her end".

My idea for the Temporal Wounds went similarly: Alaznist destroys Xin's Clockwork Reliquary before going further back to prevent him from building the Sihedron.