Interest Check: Time Travel Agency (Ares/FS3)

[Raeras]

Hello All!

Inspirations: Steins;Gate, Umbrella Academy, Travellers, Doctor Who

A friend and I had an idea for a thing and we're fleshing out more information but also figured an interest check was important. We would be using the FS3 System + Ares.

We're envisioning something similar to the Time Agency from Umbrella Academy where all PCs would be agents for this Time Agency. There's going to be different varieties of agent and three different types of 'time travel': Sending information back, projecting yourself into the body of someone in the past (including yourself) (ala Travellers), and then physically traveling back in time.

The broad sketch is that though the Agency is in a place similar to Earth but outside of time and space,it is far, far into the future by our terms. Like thousands of years. Over these year the Agency has used time travel to stop a multitude of calamities that brought their world into a utopia but, as a result has also created Paradoxes (blips in the time streams that can be just about anything) that need to be cleaned up. Which is where the PCs come in!

There will be an element of crafting/developing new gadgets/items. There might be some low-level psychic powers but it is primarily going to be more tech focused with the sci-fi element of multiple parallel universes and things of that nature. Player actions will heavily influence the timelines as the effects of their actions cause ripples and possibly even divergences from the original timeline they travelled to.

While there will be ST Run plots, players will also be more than welcome to submit ideas for plots they would like to run for other players within the guidelines that we will be laying out.

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Glossary:

Divergence - Possible outcomes seen by The Committee as a result of a Paradox. They ultimately decide which Divergence they want the Agents to try for and roll out missions based on that.

Paradox - A blip in the timeline, major or minor, that needs to be resolved in one manner or another before the timeline spirals into chaos.

Mission(s) - A set of orders given by The Committee to be followed as pertains to taking care of the Paradox (I.E: Killing 10 soldiers, rescuing a rare species of lizard, or burning down a corn field). The missions might not make sense to the agents but The Committee sees the big picture and knows how it all fits together.

[MidnightCarnival]

I'd be down for this.

[faraday]

I love time travel stories, but how would you plan to manage the ripples and parallel universes from PC shenanigans on any scale? Everyone off in time doing their own things? Seems like it would rapidly devolve into an 'infinite worlds' type of setting where there are no real stakes because anything goes. (Which is not necessarily bad if that's the goal - but it's more comic book feel than scifi.)

[Raeras]

@faraday said in Interest Check: Time Travel Agency (Ares/FS3):

I love time travel stories, but how would you plan to manage the ripples and parallel universes from PC shenanigans on any scale? Everyone off in time doing their own things? Seems like it would rapidly devolve into an 'infinite worlds' type of setting where there are no real stakes because anything goes. (Which is not necessarily bad if that's the goal - but it's more comic book feel than scifi.)

Great Question!

First off, there are rules that are to be followed by the Time Agency and all the PCs are members of this agency so they're expected to follow the rules unless something comes up where they need to make an exception. We're going to have several Infographs and things to help with visualization and explanations but our current thinking is this: (At least for Alpha when we get to that point)

• Each universe has 1 timeline. A primary timeline. When a paradox pops up, because the Time Agency is outside of time, they can view different possible outcomes from taking care of the paradox or letting it go on for a bit longer. These possibilities are called Divergences. Once the paradox is handled, the timeline would adjust/merge with the corresponding divergence and normal people in the timeline would be none the wiser.

• There are Major Paradoxes and Minor Paradoxes. Major Paradoxes would have Divergences that heavily affect the timeline and there would be an element of OOC voting on 'Response Time' which would directly correlate to the number of primary events for the Paradox and how long they would be spread out over. The Minor Paradoxes would have smaller effects on the timeline and would be more akin to side plots/plot-in-a-box style events

We may need to completely overhaul it after we see it in action but that's our working idea right now.

[Vixanic]

Sounds somewhat 'Time Stories' themed, for anyone who has played those board games.

A question along that line then - how will you approach the 'if we get it wrong this time we can just try again' trope?

For example if we arrive in the affected timeline on day 1, stay until day 13 trying to resolve the paradox and then return having failed, can we return to day 1?

Hopefully that makes sense.

[Raeras]

@Vixanic said in Interest Check: Time Travel Agency (Ares/FS3):

Sounds somewhat 'Time Stories' themed, for anyone who has played those board games.

A question along that line then - how will you approach the 'if we get it wrong this time we can just try again' trope?

For example if we arrive in the affected timeline on day 1, stay until day 13 trying to resolve the paradox and then return having failed, can we return to day 1?

Hopefully that makes sense.

Another good question!

So, in the eyes of the Committee - one a Paradox is fixed (even if the agents consider it a failure), it's resolved. The case is closed and actions can't be undone as the Timeline merges with the Divergence caused by fixing the Paradox. However, humanity is adaptive and desperate times can call for desperate measures.

There will be a couple different ways Agents could attempt to get around this but it would be unsanctioned by the Committee (unless special circumstances arose) and very dangerous/risky to attempt.

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Also posting this here but going to update the main post too for clarity

Divergence - Possible outcomes seen by The Committee as a result of a Paradox. They ultimately decide which Divergence they want the Agents to try for and roll out missions based on that.

Paradox - A blip in the timeline, major or minor, that needs to be resolved in one manner or another before the timeline spirals into chaos.

Mission(s) - A set of orders given by The Committee to be followed as pertains to taking care of the Paradox (I.E: Killing 10 soldiers, rescuing a rare species of lizard, or burning down a corn field). The missions might not make sense to the agents but The Committee sees the big picture and knows how it all fits together.

[Cupcake]

[Arkandel]

Ugh that poster. It hurts. Make it stop hurting.

[krmbm]

@Cupcake I thought for sure that was a really good photoshop of a fake movie poster.

[GreenFlashlight]

Fun fact, at the time that poster was shot, Damon was 41 and Blunt was 28.

Okay, it's not really fun, but it's a fact.

[bear_necessities]

@Raeras I have thought a time travel game a la HorrorMU or The Network would be interesting. You go to one point in time every "season" and focus on that time and deal with the consequences of those actions rather than have 100 different people doing 50 different things. It might be something to at least consider?

To be 100% honest, you kinda lost me in the details so I don't think this game will be for me so take my comments with a grain of salt. However, I will say that I think a game like this can quickly become confusing and overtly complicated and I would caution against that. The more complicated the game is, the less likely you will have buy-in, and the harder it is for newbies to integrate.

[Raeras]

Re Movie Poster: Adds to list of movies to watch Looks like it could be an interesting watch because I too thought it looked like it could be a mock poster before I googled it xD

@bear_necessities said in Interest Check: Time Travel Agency (Ares/FS3):

@Raeras I have thought a time travel game a la HorrorMU or The Network would be interesting. You go to one point in time every "season" and focus on that time and deal with the consequences of those actions rather than have 100 different people doing 50 different things. It might be something to at least consider?

To be 100% honest, you kinda lost me in the details so I don't think this game will be for me so take my comments with a grain of salt. However, I will say that I think a game like this can quickly become confusing and overtly complicated and I would caution against that. The more complicated the game is, the less likely you will have buy-in, and the harder it is for newbies to integrate.

That's essentially what Major Paradoxes would be. There'd only be one Major thing going on at a time that needs taken care of. Then there'd be some side stuff going on that might correlate to it or it might not.

Time Travel is always going to add an element of complicated, no matter what you do but that's why we're taking the time to make sure we have the big questions that might arise ironed out and 'rules' and stuff brainstormed up. To try and lessen some of that

[Arkandel]

@GreenFlashlight said in Interest Check: Time Travel Agency (Ares/FS3):

Fun fact, at the time that poster was shot, Damon was 41 and Blunt was 28.

Okay, it's not really fun, but it's a fact.

Ehh. It's not as big (or gross!) a time difference between romantic leads sometimes are in Hollywood.

I looked it up! https://www.insider.com/age-gaps-movie-couples-2018-9 . Sean Connery + Catherine Zeta Jones, 68 to 29 if you please.