Time Travel Campaign

[ReD_Exorcist]

So pretty much my players went through a portal that led them into the past, except the past in my campaign is our present time. They seemed to really like the idea of it and I was thinking of making a whole quest line based of travelling in time. Although I don't know how I should run a time based campaign, it seems rather difficult.

I looked up a few stuff on time travel and the idea I liked the most was this forum http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?302414-Time-Travel-in-D-amp-D-3-5-some-rules-PEACH

I don't know if this forum would be a good choice to base how time traveling works in my campaign, so I wanted to get the opinion of some people. Also know that is is my 2nd Campaign I've run, the first still running as well.

[NevinPL]

Time travel is a can of worms. Just consider the "iconic" Grandfather paradox:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox

That ENT episode also nicely shows it.

[Fiery Diamond]

That forum thread has one of the most consistent and comprehensive ways to have "single timeline overwrite" time travel with multiple unrelated time travelers that I've ever seen, so if you find it difficult to come up with your own rule set for time travel, I'd highly recommend using that one, yes.

[Vogie]

It really depends on what type of time travel you're talking about. The OP of the thread you linked to was concerning a story that involved multiple time jumps, all over the place, to the point it's basically Teleportation, but in time rather than space, and the ability to cascade changes in waves.

I would suggest, as a DM, to keep using portals or other physical things to facilitate the time travel, rather than learned spells. That gives you the potential to use the device or craft as a McGuffin, getting stolen, not working when they want it too, taking them someplace they didn't intend. It also keeps some of the PCs from splitting the party between times.
Some ideas:

A "Legends of Tomorrow"-style time hop, from what I've seen of the show, where you're going further and further in the past, which avoids the paradoxes.
A "Time Tunnel", based on the campy movie by the same name, where there are two distinct time periods with some sort of portal, wormhole or other thing that moves the PCs back and forth between the same two timelines. That helps you as a storyteller, as you can lock in your design to only two time periods, and then the butterfly effect only happens in one of the two timelines.
A "Reforged Fate" story, based off the Tarkir block of Magic the Gathering game, where the entire point of going into the past is to change the present by completing a specific task (or series of tasks), then returning and living going forward in the new changed reality.
A "Sliders"-style story, where time travel is achieved by jumping through a multiverse of possible realities. The main benefits of this is that there's more variance than just moving linearly through time, and that massive changes won't impact the other 'times'.

[ChaosStar]

Time Warp Trio, the cartoon series, is a good place to get ideas from. Classic Doctor Who is fairly good as well. But mostly Time Warp Trio, have the artifact that causes the Time Jumps go missing each Jump and the party can't get back to their own time if they can't get the artifact. Have them meet famous people who'll help, and sometimes famous people who want to take the artifact for themselves. I liked the episode where they met a 9 year old Genghis Khan.

[King539]

Obligatory gif:

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwilqJCtwYHRAhUOHGMKHcocA70QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fweheartit.com%2Fentry%2Fgroup%2F4 4881803&psig=AFQjCNEQl16F8p4oc1IMNpDxFI7TP9ku-w&ust=1482279965342820

[KillianHawkeye]

Did you ever play Chrono Trigger? :smallwink:

[Necroticplague]

The idea of 'time waves' kinda reminds me of Achron, an RTS based around abusing the heck out of time to get the upper hand, which handled it's time shenanigans in a similar fashion. Basically, every few seconds, the beginning of the time line would create a wave, which 'updates' events to take into account time travel as it passes. This, of course, means there's shenanigans to be had by either time-traveling past time waves, or abusing the gaps in between them, when time hasn't updated yet.

[Dragonexx]

Time Travel is one of those things that is very difficult to work into a campaign. Remember that things that work in single author fiction should not be assumed to work the same in a shared narrative.


Breaking the Narrative

Under no circumstances should magic, or phlebtonium of any kind, ever be allowed to break the narrative. That's not to say that magic shouldn't be allowed to derail the plot; that's the whole point of having it. If it can't, there's no reason to play a magic PC. However, around the table, causality generally runs in one direction. Events occurring around the table are reflected in the game world, and events occuring in the game world have to be talked about around the table. So causality in the game world has to have a definite flow to it; you can't affect the past since it's already been played through. The game quickly becomes impossible to play if the ability to travel back in time is thrown in casually; if you have to consider the possibility of a time traveller to show up and try to change things whenver you do anything, you have an adjucation nightmare. A few forms of time travel are acceptable; into the future (with no return) is fine, as is actually rewinding (like the Wish spell does); there's no risk of a time traveller showing up, and narrative time still flows in one direction, it just skips over things.

Everything that has to do with time in the game world should take into account the narrative time; causality only flows in one direction at the table, and the game world should reflect the way the table works. Trying to mess with the direction of causality in-world is fine in a single-author novel where you know how the (from an outside perspective) future is going to go, but doing so breaks down a cooperative game, not only through breaking your ability to understand how your actions will be reflected, but also through breaking people's understanding of how the world works and taking them out of the story.

Likewise, the fourth wall should remain intact. Magic should not "only target characters played by people wearing blue shirts", for instance. That just turns your game nonsensical.

From this book. (http://https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Book_of_Elements_(3.5e_Sourcebook)/What_is_Magic%3F#Where_are_the_Limits_to_Magic.3F)