Jade
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 27
|
Post by Jade on May 21, 2012 18:42:19 GMT
Hello,
I am running a campaign where PCs will travel in time without real protection against the Vortex, and I am wondering what are the effects of this on the body & psychics of the characters .
I was thinking about making a table-based rule to determine the secondary effects of time travel as following, but I don't know what is said in DW backgrounds (of Series, books, or anything else) about this. So i am not sure if my idea would be logically applicable. It could had a certain humour, and add some randomness to the adventures.
Here is my idea :
Everytime a character travel in time, he has to do a roll (2D6 + Resolve + Awareness + Trait) [if you have some ideas for the 2nd attributes and the possible traits to add...]. The more the PC has travelled through the Vortex without protection, the less the difficulty of the roll is. (for example, the first time the roll will have a difficulty of 16 (for example), the next time 15, the 3rd time 14, etc. etc. )
If the roll fails, the player will roll again, and the GM will refer to a table, depending on the result of the failure. (there will be 3 tables with 6 (roll 1D6) or 12 (roll 2D6 or 1D12, it depends if you want equal chances or not) secondary effects, one for each degree of failure). Another dice can determine the duration of this effect (it would be hard and tiresome if the effects is everytime applied during all the scenario)
The secondary effects may be some serious ones, or more humoristic ones, impacting or not on the capacity of the character, etc.
For example : Alexis, a student who never travelled in time, will travel for the first time. The time machine she uses provides almost no protection against the effects of the Vortex. The player will roll 2D6 and add attributes and traits modifiers, against a difficulty of 16, and rolls a 15. This correspond to a Failure, and I (as a GM) refer to the "Time Travel secondary effects : Failure" table that I created, and ask the player to roll one more to determine what will be the secondary effect. (for the example, I choose to have a 12-effects table, and determine the duration by 1D12 hours, so the player has to roll 2 dice D12) She rolls a 5, the effect is to see Unicorns for a time, and a 8. Alexis will, after this trip in the Vortex, see Unicorns during 8 hours
I have some ideas of different effects of the Time Travel : maybe the duration rules may change on each effect
Low (on Failure) :
- the character sees Unicorns - ... is terribly hungry, and could eat an elephant (or two, or three) - ... buzzes each time he approaches an electric device - ... - any other idea ?
Medium (on Bad) : - the character is like hypnotized, and his mind returns in childhood (this could be interesting for characters who are disguised aliens, or with Amnesia as major bad trait) - ... sees his partners as aliens (or other aliens if they already are aliens) - ... loses totally his sens of direction, and really don't know where to go - ... finds anything funny, and make funny jokes - ... - any other idea ?
High (on Disastrous) : - the character is blinded, and acquire temporarily the Major bad trait 'impaired senses - Blind' - ... have same effects as if one of his attributes reach 0 - ... loses the order of his words - ... - any other idea ?
How about this ? Any comment on the idea, or suggestions for the different effects ?
|
|
misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
|
Post by misterharry on May 21, 2012 19:18:00 GMT
It's an interesting idea and I don't want to stamp on your enthusiasm, but... in Doctor Who, unprotected exposure to the Vortex is almost always fatal, so far as I recall, for humans at least (the GM's Guide actually states this to be true for most species). Captain Jack managed to survive it in Utopia because of his immortality. Even the Doctor, a Time Lord, was damaged by the Time Winds in Warriors' Gate. I think there may be examples in the novels of him entering the Vortex and emerging alive, but I can't think of any specific ones off-hand.
However, if you want to apply more interesting and less destructive effects for your campaign, and your players are happy to go along with this, then what's to stop you?
|
|
Jade
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 27
|
Post by Jade on May 21, 2012 19:40:57 GMT
Yes, I knew something goes wrong with that, but I didn't manage to put the finger on. However, I can change my idea without change the DW Universe rule : I have just to give a good protection against the Vortex to my time machine, but not enough to protect against all the effects (like interesting and non-destructive effects).
|
|
misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
|
Post by misterharry on May 21, 2012 20:08:00 GMT
Time-related effects could include ageing or rejuvenating, devolving or evolving, rapid hair/beard/nail growth and the like.
|
|
|
Post by da professor on May 23, 2012 13:03:07 GMT
Other effects? Terror, 'Enlightenment', Insanity...like when an 8 year old Timelord-to-be looks into the Untempered Schism.
|
|
|
Post by chris110465 on May 23, 2012 14:59:33 GMT
|
|
misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
|
Post by misterharry on May 23, 2012 15:44:05 GMT
Visions - of the past and future...
|
|
Jade
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 27
|
Post by Jade on May 23, 2012 16:52:02 GMT
Thanks for these Ideas, I am making my tables and fill it with some of your ideas, and mine too !
I like the ideas of time-related effects, and visions :-) It can be interesting for the development of the characters and the story arcs
I will also add lighters effects, as humor/personnality change (as other effects described by da professor).
I am sorry chris110465, but I did not understand what is the point with Time Winds and these effects ? Maybe I did not understand all the things (I am french and sometimes I miss the meanings of certain ideas)
|
|
|
Post by garethl on May 23, 2012 18:38:48 GMT
The smell of burnt hair. Act in slowmotion for x minutes. Act really fast for x minutes. Hears a clock ticking. A mosquito or other small bug that hitched a ride with them gains sentience. Gets a vision of the reapers home dimension. Sees the vortex where the others only see the sky or the sun. Knows the exact moment someone will die. Has one personal background detail changed. Time sickness. Little children and dogs will stare at you. Item they are carrying looks a lot older and more worn than it used to. They are translucent. Bump into a miniaturised timeship. Gets goosebumps every time, someone mentions [plot relevant word]. Jet lag!!! Doesn't feel tired/ very tired.
|
|
|
Post by Marnal on May 24, 2012 7:06:31 GMT
In my game, exposure to time energies (especially Vortex Manipulators which the Doctor says unhealthy to use) I have temporary -2 to all Presence rolls - Their presence in history is being eroded away by the time winds. If they do to many hops with the Manipulator in a short period of time their presence in space time will fade till they are more forgettable then the Silence.
|
|
|
Post by garethl on May 24, 2012 10:53:25 GMT
In my game, exposure to time energies (especially Vortex Manipulators which the Doctor says unhealthy to use) I have temporary -2 to all Presence rolls - Their presence in history is being eroded away by the time winds. If they do to many hops with the Manipulator in a short period of time their presence in space time will fade till they are more forgettable then the Silence. I don't think Captain Jack ever suffered from a -2 to his Presence rolls after using his Vortex Manipulator
|
|
korith
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 131
|
Post by korith on May 30, 2012 14:00:50 GMT
In my game, exposure to time energies (especially Vortex Manipulators which the Doctor says unhealthy to use) I have temporary -2 to all Presence rolls - Their presence in history is being eroded away by the time winds. If they do to many hops with the Manipulator in a short period of time their presence in space time will fade till they are more forgettable then the Silence. I don't think Captain Jack ever suffered from a -2 to his Presence rolls after using his Vortex Manipulator Sure he did...it's just that his presence score is high enough, nobody would notice. (Just like if a Grandmaster of Chess is a little off his game, an amateur still wouldn't stand a chance in a match) A few "cosmetic" (minor) effects -Softly glowing wispy tendrils float around the character -Character's eyes glow with temporal energy -The character's reflection/shadow is from the future (works best for an NPC, or a player who can play along - if the character's shadow is seen running towards them, even if the player stands and fights when the bad guys are revealed, he might start running when he realizes that he forgot to turn off a light, for example) -The character's reflection/shadow is from the past A few more significant effects: -Character ages 2d6 years (more of an issue for some creatures than others) -Character becomes 2d6 years younger (again, more of an issue for some creatures than others) -Character is miniaturized -Character grows to twice normal size -Character can't remember anything that happened in the last 2d6 days (in their relative experience) -Character can't remember anything that happened before 2d6 days ago (in their relative experience) -Mysterious insight (Spending story points on this can clarify the insight) -Arrives off course (in space - eg, Cardiff instead of London, Moon Base instead of Earth's surface, on a hidden Dalek Saucer instead of a friend's house) -Arrives off course (in time - eg, 1 day early, 5 minutes or 1 year late, etc) And some really big effects -Ruptures spacetime near destination point (a quasi-stable hole in time and space that other things...bad things...can come through) -Ruptures spacetime near destination point (a quasi-stable hole in time and space that surrounding things can get pulled and disappear through) -Ruptures spacetime near destination point (and rupture will explode, possibly destroying favorite club/city/entire planet/solar system/the universe by the end of the episode if not fixed) -Paradox split (the character is temporally split in 2, and dropped off in 2 places. The other copy, naturally, is insane having just been popped into existence by mysterious quantum effects, and might want to kill the character, or just steal their hat) -Wrong universe (character pops out in the wrong universe...things are strangely wrong, but might not be obvious at first.) -Time travel device burns out (self explanatory)
|
|
Jade
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 27
|
Post by Jade on Jun 4, 2012 10:19:26 GMT
Hello,
Thanks to some of your ideas, I managed to complete my secondary effects tables.
So, as said, there is 3 levels of gravity to these effects, depending on the failure level of the roll : LOW (for a failure), MEDIUM (for a bad) and HIGH (for a disastrous). HIGH effects are very impacting on the timelines of the characters, so I decided to set the basis difficulty to 16, which means that only a 'critical' failure (roll double 1s -> 3% of chance) will provoke this kind of effects. However, that means also that, when players will be immunized against these effects (due to many travels in time without protection), there will always be 3% of chance to get this disastrous roll, even if the difficulty does not allow a bad or failure result. These are the risks of time travel without enough protection, even if the characters are used to.
So, here are my differents effects, they are 12 for each level, chosen by a D12 roll.
LOW : - Asynchronous Shadow/Reflection : the shadow and reflection of the character are from the future (1D6 seconds) - The character's beard/hair have grown as if the trip have lasted 1D12 months - Finds anything funny, and make funny jokes - Kids and animals will stare at the character - Sees Unicorns (1D12 x 4 hours) - Asynchronous Shadow/Reflection : the shadow and reflection of the character are from the past (1D6 seconds) - Hears clock ticking, as the four-time rythm in the head of the Master - Sees the Vortex instead of the Sky & Sun - Is terribly hungry, and could eat an elephant (or two, or three) - Character's eyes glow with temporal energy - Time sickness - Item they are carrying looks a lot older and more worn than it used to.
MEDIUM : - Sees his partners as aliens (1D12 x 2 hours) - Is fast-forwarded during 1D12 x 5 minutes - Asynchronous Sight/Hearing : Sight and Hearing are not synchronous. Can be treated by looking and hearing at a clock. - Visions of past, of sites, NPC, etc. Intensity and details of the vision are chosen on 1D12 - Terrorised during 1D12 x 4h - Translucent during 1D12 x 4h - Is slowmotionned during 1D12 x 5 minutes - Visions of the home dimension of the Reapers (how does it look ?) - Loses totally his sens of direction, and really don't know where to go, even if there is only one way - Visions of future, of sites, NPC, etc. Intensity and details of the vision are chosen on 1D12 - Mind and Body inversion with another traveler - Gets goosebumps every time, someone mentions a plot's keyword
HIGH : - Loses the order of his words during 1D12 x 10 minutes (I set it as a high effect because it is quite hard to roleplay) - Becomes (age/2 * 1D12/12) younger (complex calcul, to set the new age between original age and age/2) - Is blinded, and acquire temporarily the Major bad trait 'impaired senses - Blind' - 1D12 x 2 hours - Timeline changed, a recent event lived by the group is not the same for the PC. - Understand the Time, gains special trait "Feel the Turn of Universe" - the Donna syndrom : the PC is teleported to the TARDIS, where he encounters the Doctor and/or companions. After discussions etc. the Doctor gets him to his destination. - Becomes (age/2 * 1D12/12) older (complex calcul, to set the new age between original age and age+age/2) - Sex change, if he were a man, becomes a woman, and if she were a woman, becomes a man. This effect is permanent, as the PC's timeline has been changed at his conception. - a PC's background element is changed (important chosen with 1D12) - is "Silenced" during 1D12 x 4 hours (same psychic effects as it where the Silence : everyone forget him when not looking at him, but remember orders) - Insanity during 1D12 x 4 hours - Doppleganger : a mad double of the PC's is created, and sent at the same time & place as the PC. Possibly becomes a recurring villain for the Character story arc.
as you see, expect for a few effects, LOW effects are not very impacting for the adventure, but much for the roleplay, MEDIUM effects will have more impact the adventure, and HIGH effects are very impacting, on the adventure and the whole life of the characters.
I set the durations to allow players not to be playing this the whole adventure for some effects, supposing they are temporary effects, sometimes last 1 or 2 days but not more.
What do you think about this ?
|
|
|
Post by Marnal on Jun 6, 2012 2:33:59 GMT
Thanks for compiling this.
I'll definitely be using the more surreal options in my RPG!
|
|
Jade
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 27
|
Post by Jade on Jun 6, 2012 12:15:00 GMT
I am glad to know that my idea will he reused by other GMs :-)
|
|