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Wag
 
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Last Login: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:17 PM
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As regards character advancement for Core Timers (obviously Target Timers won't advance at all), I've been thinking of a system whereby characters undergo training/virally-induced genetic modification/cybernetic enhancement/etc paid for by the Time Machine's operators. Essentially the controlling factions' "Company directors" (to use Marianne's term) have a certain amount of resources available to them, which they can expend as they wish. If they wish to expend it enhancing their underlings' abilities, they can do so.
The main danger with this is that we're effectively legislating cronyism. If a director only wants to "upgrade" his own OOC mates, he can. Obviously we can put in overseers and other such bureaucratic apparatus to help ameliorate this...
Marianne - I'm not so sure about not being able to carry much kit. One of the major attractions of the genre is the ability to have all that ubertech available in a more primitive world - the key is balance. Even a laser pistol doesn't help you if you get stabbed in the back, so there's not *too* much unbalancing.
The other reason is because I reckon "field equipment" creation could be a very big thing for non-time travelling Core Timers to do. Perhaps at the beginning of the campaign the Time Machine's sponsors have been demanding results and thus preventing the technicians and scientists from developing much equipment capable of a) surviving the trip (remember, our travellers need some kind of implant or other alteration to travel, so maybe equipment does too) and b) working reliably in a non high-tech environment (no power sockets, no communications networks, no spares available, often damp and muddy...).
Then as the campaign progresses, the equipment available to Time Travellers improves due to the efforts of their fellow PCs. I'm seeing camouflaged solar-powered notebook computers, guns hidden in knapsacks, armour vests that are completely impossible to notice even when patting someone down, and all sorts of high-tech James Bond-ery in my mind's eye. After all, surely the ideal mission leaves no-one in Target Time suspecting anything at all?
PD - Brother Farael of the Ordo Dictum Dominus
EOS - Lord Nasir Suran
6P - System creator (now retired), Andrei Treune of Clan Suner
RL - Will Robinson
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Prodigal
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ChessyPig (7/5/2006)
I thought the core time technicians did have quite a bit of influence over where the gateway went (just not necessarily perfect aim) and so there would be huge politics about where to aim next (academic politics!) and also heroic attempts to fix stuff which otherwise will lead to the damn thing having even worse aim / losing one or more of the time travellers / expensive maintainance that funds need to be found for, presumably taken out of the budget for better aim / better communications through the gate / more prior information before sending people through / more training of time travellers.
I seem to have formed an incorrect impression, then- apologies.
This still leaves the question of why the core time people want to visit the past, though- what is it that they're trying to achieve? When they're trying to decide where to go next, what sort of thing are they likely to base the decision on?
In terms of avoiding too many problems with paradoxes, etc, have you considered using the IC explanation that the core time people aren't actually travelling back to their own past, but to the past of a parallel dimension? It might help explain why things aren't always perfectly accurate, and why no one ever has to worry about stuff like killing their own ancestors or changing the outcome of a major war.
chalicier (7/7/2006)
The main danger with this is that we're effectively legislating cronyism. If a director only wants to "upgrade" his own OOC mates, he can. Obviously we can put in overseers and other such bureaucratic apparatus to help ameliorate this...
Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much- I think that if you have a player who wants to give snackies to their OOC mates, they'll always be able to find an IC way of justifying doing so. If the PCs think that the resource distribution is unfair, then let them try to sort it out themselves IC.
chalicier (7/7/2006)
Marianne - I'm not so sure about not being able to carry much kit. One of the major attractions of the genre is the ability to have all that ubertech available in a more primitive world - the key is balance. Even a laser pistol doesn't help you if you get stabbed in the back, so there's not *too* much unbalancing.
IMO, it probably makes a massive difference what sort of ratio of travellers to target time people you have- if the time travellers are massively outnumbered, a laser pistol won't do them much good, whereas if numbers are roughly equal then it's potentially a big advantage.
chalicier (7/7/2006)
Then as the campaign progresses, the equipment available to Time Travellers improves due to the efforts of their fellow PCs. I'm seeing camouflaged solar-powered notebook computers, guns hidden in knapsacks, armour vests that are completely impossible to notice even when patting someone down, and all sorts of high-tech James Bond-ery in my mind's eye. After all, surely the ideal mission leaves no-one in Target Time suspecting anything at all?
From an IC point of view, that's entirely true- however, from an OOC plot point of view, it might not be. Again, it depends on what sort of thing the time travellers are attempting to achieve, but I think a game where the time travellers look obviously out of place IC would have a very different feel to it than a game where the time travellers can blend in fairly well IC.
Just to add- I hope I'm not being overly critical here. I'd like to see a game like this succed, because it's an idea which is different to stuff I've seen tried before.
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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Wag
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Last Login: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:17 PM
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Well, as I've said, this is effectively a thought exercise for me. I don't have time to organise something like this, unfortunately. I'm hoping someone else will be sufficiently inspired by this thread to go off and do something, which I could then play  Or at most crew.
As for the paradox issue, I've been thinking of one possibility.
Every action undertaken by every entity in the universe causes the universe to split in to a multitude of alternatives. Therefore, while the time gate opens in our past (the past of "our" timeline universe) it immediately causes the target time to split in a different direction, since it changes events simply by existing. It requires a certain amount of power to maintain the connection between timeline universes (which are connected by the original point in time where the gateway was made) and this power requirement becomes more pronounced the more the target time universe diverges from our own.
For example, you could open a gateway into Nazi Germany, but killing Hitler would not change Core Time's history. Instead, the timeline to which the gateway would diverge away from the "core timeline", and the power requirement to maintain the connection would increase. Enough divergence, and the project is no longer able to maintain the connection and the travellers are lost unless that timeline universe can somehow be re-entered.
Now, it could potentially be possible to transfer objects and people from the Target universe forward into Core Time. This makes the two main objectives of the project:
a) Information. A lot of very rich and influential people would pay a lot to know certain things about the past, and that's without even considering the academic possibilities.
b) Historical plundering. Many things of great value have been destroyed over the years. It could be quite possible to recover them using the time machine.
But really we should leave this sort of thing to the players. In short, the players have to impress their bosses, and to do this they need to produce results. I have a certain degree of faith in my fellow LRPers ability to spot the possibilities for gain, even if they can't actually change their own history.
PD - Brother Farael of the Ordo Dictum Dominus
EOS - Lord Nasir Suran
6P - System creator (now retired), Andrei Treune of Clan Suner
RL - Will Robinson
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