[pnpgm] Game Update #293 - File # 487 Doom is Gloom just spelled wrong

[Wout Broere]

At 04:36 AM 8/3/2004, you wrote:
>            He wants to:
>            Teleport OUTSIDE.            HEAL FOR A WEEK.
>            TIME TRAVEL BACK TO NOW.     Teleport INSIDE.
>            DONE. FINITO. NO MAS.
>            Alex, Wout how do you guys handle time travel in these
>            situations are 2 beings created?

I don't see that big issues with paradoxes and time travel. Time is just 
another direction, so let's say it is a narrow path on which the character 
travels at a constant speed (always forward). Time travel would take the 
same character off the path and put him back somewhere else on the path. 
Same character, same being, same path.

So travel back in time as you like. I would just rule that anything you do 
in the past (travelled back), does not influence anything that you know 
happened there and then (the first time round). So I would limit the 
character that went back in time in his actions. You go back to prevent a 
king's murder, bad luck happens and the murderer still (not once again, but 
still) succeeds. You trip over the carpet, get stopped by the king's 
guards, whatever. Maybe, for cruelty's sake, see the murder happen in front 
of your eyes.

Another situation I would allow: You learn of the upcoming murder of a 
king, but are unable to reach him in time. You travel back in time, get to 
the king before he is murdered, and prevent his murder.

What the heck, you could even meet yourself this way. The problem is that 
you have to state well in advance (as a player) that you will later travel 
back in time and go to the same place. That makes it possible to play the 
following: Player (1) enters the dungeon and meets himself (2) there. The 
exiting player warns himself to stay away from the gully dwarfs. Spends a 
week in the dungeon and moves back in time. Now he exits the dungeon and 
meets himself just coming in. He warns himself on entering to stay away 
from the gully dwarfs.

In my opinion this is doable gamewise, but it takes the fun out of a lot of 
situations. If you get out after a week, you know you are not killed in the 
meantime. Any foolish action therefore is allowed, as you will not die. 
Nothing said about the week-long torture by horrible gully dwarfs who did 
steal everything but your trousers.


As aside note: travelling forward is just plain hard in P&P. You need at 
least EL12 to travel forward a week. Travelling backwards is relatively easy.


As a GM I would take Chion apart at this instance, have him exit the 
dungeon, teleport away, see if he survives for a week and can travel back 
in time. If all that succeeds, he then joins the game again right now as 
far as all other players are concerned, and there is no double timeline to 
be kept for all other players. This can be done in private email at high 
speed.

Heck, Chion has been hiding around the corner just a few minutes ago, 
before the hallway fight. Would have had him leave then, out of sight, 
travel back and just pop back in the same spot he left 30 seconds earlier 
in the timeline (or a week ago in his own reckoning). No one the wiser, no 
problems with player interaction to be solved. And of course, he could have 
been killed by a stray pack of gargoyles in that week, so he was hiding 
behind the corner and just disappeared forever.

Given the problems of encounters, the terrain and the need for food, I 
would rate the survival chance of a lone character low on hit points close 
to zero. It definitely is not the safest way to regain hit points. Even a 
single encounter early in the week could be lethal and/or leave you 
completely without mana.

The problems I see are not with the time travel, but first with the risk of 
teleporting to an unknown location and second with surviving alone in Clima 
for the upcoming week, when every guard and priestess is looking for the 
traitors that ruined their perfect plan. And there are gargoyles on the 
loose. What the heck, you could end up with a random encounter: Dragon, and 
he is enraged.


As a GM, I would advise against it, but allow it, and play it out as it 
goes. As a Player I would advise against it, as I rate Chion's survival 
chance very low. As a Character, Unali would not voice an opinion.


Ft

Wout Broere		broere at powersandperils.org
P&P Website:		http://www.powersandperils.org/