How to save Hitler

[braveheart]

So I had an interesting campaign idea, but I don't know what system it would work best in.

In the distant future there is a police force who's job it is to maintain the timeline, the players are in this police force and for some reason (their choice) they all end up on probation.
All probationary time cops are given the same job. Save Hitler from every idiot who's first goal with a time machine is to kill hurler before WWII. So the players job is to save Hitler to keep the time stream intact.

I don't know what system would best support this idea, and I'd like input in that regard.

[Dhuraal]

So I had an interesting campaign idea, but I don't know what system it would work best in.

In the distant future there is a police force who's job it is to maintain the timeline, the players are in this police force and for some reason (their choice) they all end up on probation.
All probationary time cops are given the same job. Save Hitler from every idiot who's first goal with a time machine is to kill hurler before WWII. So the players job is to save Hitler to keep the time stream intact.

I don't know what system would best support this idea, and I'd like input in that regard.

This is amazing. I am not sure if I can help with the idea for the system though. I think it would kind of depend on how serious/in depth you wanna get. It seems it would need to require a lot of stealth. Would they be authorized to kill the would-be-heroes? Or would violence at all basically be no go? Would the players be required to fix any other missteps the would-be-heroes have caused? Something like; they managed to some how cause someone important to miss a rally or intercepted documents? I don't mean that ate the last doughnut at the local bakery, causing Wilhelm to not get it, thus ruining that pick me up he would have originally gotten, and with that boost of energy had the confidence to finally ask fräulein Agatha out for that drink, etc etc etc. Though you could go that way and it would be a very Benny Hill game with the players assigned to a specific person fixing every single thing they did.

[Spojaz]

Each session would be uncovering another time-stream ripple, then following it back to the potential time ruiner, discovering their plan and stopping them without anyone noticing you are using future tech, and especially without encountering yourselves from a previous mission or similar paradoxes.

You could use the Leverage system, with just a few tweaks. I think that system is rather underrated in its flexibility and ease of GMing for running heist or similar mission-based action games. Maybe I'm just still smitten with it's mechanic for flashbacks.

History is more robust than we give it credit for, especially in regards to Hitler. Germany was such a powder-keg of economic depression, political unrest and nationalism at that point in history, you could kill potential Hitler after potential Hitler, only to find a new one springs up every time. You soon decide that tactic isn't efficient enough, so you organize the potential dictators into camps to provide useful labor instead of just killing them. A quick check of the time stream reveals nothing has changed. A "Hitler-free" Germany was not enough, as another, similar nation will soon take it's place as instigator for WWII, so now you have to invade Poland...

[The Glyphstone]

See if you can track down a copy of Continuum.

[LibraryOgre]

Of course, this needs mention of Wikihistory and Subnormality. (some of Subnormality is NSFW, but this one is clear)

[Âmesang]

A "Hitler-free" Germany was not enough, as another, similar nation will soon take it's place as instigator for WWII, so now you have to invade Poland…

"When I finally get to invade Poland who'll be the first to know; the Poles? No!, Rosa Goldenstein!"

[Blackhawk748]

Savage Worlds should work. Then again it works for just about anything.

[Frozen_Feet]

You soon decide that tactic isn't efficient enough, so you organize the potential dictators into camps to provide useful labor instead of just killing them.

... and then you realize the holocaust was already an attempt by well-intentioned time-traveller to save the future from a Jewish conspiracy, Gone Horribly Right.

[FabulousFizban]

Use call of cthulhu. Mwahahaha

[The Grue]

... and then you realize the holocaust was already an attempt by well-intentioned time-traveller to save the future from a Jewish conspiracy, Gone Horribly Right.

Be very very careful about who you pitch that campaign hook to.

[Kriton]

Racial Holy War sounds fitting, though I haven't played it.

[Gastronomie]

... and then you realize the holocaust was already an attempt by well-intentioned time-traveller to save the future from a Jewish conspiracy, Gone Horribly Right.

Or worse, what if the holocaust was an attempt by rich Jewish executives who wanted the world after the war to treat them as innocent victims and...

But that's what one of my mates was really saying.

[braveheart]

My intention for the campaign is that Hitler himself is so important to the timeline that the universe will unravel if he is killed to soon. So no conspiracies about Jews planing the holocaust. But thank you for the thoughts and system recommendations

[nyjastul69]

You might be able to adapt Godlike to suit your needs.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

In early 1945 a Glogulan scout fleet passed by our system. Gloculans are one of the most violent and destructive races in the universe, but when they saw the mess we had made of the place they decided to move on to the next target on their list. We still don't have the kind of weapons that could have fended off the invasion, our continued existence depends on at least one more generation not killing Hitler.

[GrayDeath]

In early 1945 a Glogulan scout fleet passed by our system. Gloculans are one of the most violent and destructive races in the universe, but when they saw the mess we had made of the place they decided to move on to the next target on their list. We still don't have the kind of weapons that could have fended off the invasion, our continued existence depends on at least one more generation not killing Hitler.

THat .... just made my Day.
Really, fantastic. :)

[Anxe]

I'd use Paranoia. Multiple "clones" which are actually time copies. Future tech and such.

[braveheart]

I'd use Paranoia. Multiple "clones" which are actually time copies. Future tech and such.

Actually given the tone I'm going for paranoia might be really good.

[LokiRagnarok]

In Paranoia, at least one of the PCs would be secretly a communist and another would have a secret task to kill Hitler ;)

[Logosloki]

In Paranoia, at least one of the PCs would be secretly a communist and another would have a secret task to kill Hitler ;)

The person who has the secret task to kill hitler should also be hitler, but they don't know it. One other person in the group knows they are hitler but of course doesn't know that that person has to kill hitler. Then it is definitely a game of paranoia.

[Anderlith]

Doesn't Savage Worlds have a Weird World War II setting?

[Anxe]

Actually given the tone I'm going for paranoia might be really good.

Awesome! Glad I could help whether you choose it or not.

[Rakoa]

Better yet: Hitler was a member of this police force before it's job was to keep the timeline intact, and his job was to go back in time to kill Hitler (but not Hitler, some other guy with a different name who did the same deeds). Upon completing this task and returning to the future, he finds that an even worse tragedy has been going on for decades and shows no sign of stopping. So, he goes back again, and becomes Hitler (much against his will) to save the future. He sends word to his superiors back in the present, and they create a task force to keep him safe.

However, he is not safe. The present has yet to be determined by the past, and so two timelines coexist in a parallel manner: the timeline in which Hitler succeeds and the future is safe, and one in which he is assassinated and the future regime comes to power. Through their own technology, the future regime is aware of this disturbance, and is dispatching their own elite time travel force to take out Hitler. It is up to the PCs to team up with and save Hitler, knowing that if they fail the future is doomed...or that one of them will have to take up the mantle.

[Icewraith]

Better yet: Hitler was a member of this police force before it's job was to keep the timeline intact, and his job was to go back in time to kill Hitler (but not Hitler, some other guy with a different name who did the same deeds). Upon completing this task and returning to the future, he finds that an even worse tragedy has been going on for decades and shows no sign of stopping. So, he goes back again, and becomes Hitler (much against his will) to save the future. He sends word to his superiors back in the present, and they create a task force to keep him safe.

However, he is not safe. The present has yet to be determined by the past, and so two timelines coexist in a parallel manner: the timeline in which Hitler succeeds and the future is safe, and one in which he is assassinated and the future regime comes to power. Through their own technology, the future regime is aware of this disturbance, and is dispatching their own elite time travel force to take out Hitler. It is up to the PCs to team up with and save Hitler, knowing that if they fail the future is doomed...or that one of them will have to take up the mantle.

If you go this route, you'll need to decide how many Hitlers there have actually been, and what happened to the original. MAybe the agency has resorted to pulling in Hitlers from alternate realities and collapsing them to keep the "correct" timeline intact. The current Hitler is actually from a peaceful Utopia and is rapidly losing his mind because of the atrocities he's inciting. Not only do the players have to keep joe scientist #246b from kiilling Hitler, they need to keep Hitler from killing Hitler prematurely.

[Yuki Akuma]

I'd like to second Continuum, just because... Continuum has the best time travel rules in any RPG ever.

Slipshanking is seriously cool.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: A reminder to avoid historical discussions as much as possible.

[halfeye]

Better yet: Hitler was a member of this police force before it's job was to keep the timeline intact, and his job was to go back in time to kill Hitler (but not Hitler, some other guy with a different name who did the same deeds). Upon completing this task and returning to the future, he finds that an even worse tragedy has been going on for decades and shows no sign of stopping. So, he goes back again, and becomes Hitler (much against his will) to save the future. He sends word to his superiors back in the present, and they create a task force to keep him safe.

However, he is not safe. The present has yet to be determined by the past, and so two timelines coexist in a parallel manner: the timeline in which Hitler succeeds and the future is safe, and one in which he is assassinated and the future regime comes to power. Through their own technology, the future regime is aware of this disturbance, and is dispatching their own elite time travel force to take out Hitler. It is up to the PCs to team up with and save Hitler, knowing that if they fail the future is doomed...or that one of them will have to take up the mantle.

Does explain how he was such a complete idiot:

Urg, was this for real? He was definitely an almost complete idiot.

[The Glyphstone]

Another off-the-wall suggestion:

Everyone Is JohnJohan.

Add to the 'time-cop' premise that you can't send physical objects back in time, only information, but 'information' includes people's minds. So the plan is to send the PC's minds back to 1940's Germany where they possess/take over existing German bodies, but the Agency botches the transfer and all the PCs end up sharing the same body.

[comk59]

This thread is giving me a headache...

[halfeye]

This thread is giving me a headache...

That's the power of Godwin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_Law