Would you like the time travellers discount with that?

[senko]

I've been reading the 3rd Doctor sourcebook and I'm really quite fascinted by the idea of him working with UNIT. So many interesting possibilities there like the question of how a time traveller gets paid I assume a large amount of money per hour and complete freedom to dissapear for a few decades without losing job/security clearance afterall when they next show up it may be tommorow for them but 30 years for you.

Then you have the fact a time traveller can show up in say 2003 as their TTC is diverted due to events in a sleep English seaside village, run into some unit soldiers investigating it and have them be recognized as one of the special scientific advisors (time travellers essentially) who's been on the UNIT payroll since XXXX although they normally work with the Sydney/Hong Kong/New York/X branch and ask for help. After the situation is resolved they then need to go back and in time, join and work for UNIT in order to generate the paper trail that ensures when they cross paths with UNIT for the first time the soldiers recognize them as a UNIT advisor and enlist their help to stop the threat "My Dear Mr Warner its a pleasure to meet you again for the first time."

The conflict between if I don't help them alien X could take over the world but if I help them too much I throw history off its proper path.

Its really quite intriguing.

[Catsmate]

Jul 14, 2016 4:31:45 GMT senko said:

I've been reading the 3rd Doctor sourcebook and I'm really quite fascinted by the idea of him working with UNIT. So many interesting possibilities there like the question of how a time traveller gets paid I assume a large amount of money per hour and complete freedom to dissapear for a few decades without losing job/security clearance afterall when they next show up it may be tommorow for them but 30 years for you.

Then you have the fact a time traveller can show up in say 2003 as their TTC is diverted due to events in a sleep English seaside village, run into some unit soldiers investigating it and have them be recognized as one of the special scientific advisors (time travellers essentially) who's been on the UNIT payroll since XXXX although they normally work with the Sydney/Hong Kong/New York/X branch and ask for help. After the situation is resolved they then need to go back and in time, join and work for UNIT in order to generate the paper trail that ensures when they cross paths with UNIT for the first time the soldiers recognize them as a UNIT advisor and enlist their help to stop the threat "My Dear Mr Warner its a pleasure to meet you again for the first time."

The conflict between if I don't help them alien X could take over the world but if I help them too much I throw history off its proper path.

Its really quite intriguing.

It's a fascinating idea. Most UNIT-type organisations have security passes and similar complications (Ace didn't succeed in using Liz Shaw's UNIT pass in Battlefield) so time travellers might have problems unless they've set up suitable authentication mechanisms. especially if they periodically change face, fingerprints, voice, retinas and so on.

With access to a time machine (or advanced technology) money isn't a major issue; there's the classic options of gambling (sporting events, stock market et cetera) with foreknowledge.

• Though what if they find out about some criminality because of such actions; a lottery ticket with numbers that they 'know' will win actually loses. Why? Is someone fixing the lottery? Leading to who, how and why. Or have their tamperings with time caused a reaction that interferes with whatever ranomiser determines the lottery results. I believe Early Edition used this idea.
  

Of course there are more or less criminal methods for acquiring money; blackmail using future knowledge, robbery assisted by advanced technology, similarly counterfeiting (try producing a few 'White Fivers' with modern equipment). If they've access to a spacecraft then satellite deployment could be lucrative (though a tricky market to enter).
Or persuade De Beers to "voluntarily" pay a larger quarterly retainer (synthesising gem diamonds is pretty easy with the right equipment).


I'm always fond of inserting a Predestination Paradox to annoy players. Perhaps they meet the Brigadier when he's retired and later use a reference letter from him to convince his earlier self to give them a job?

[senko]

Its not so much I need money (just visit a planet like Midnight, grab a few saphires or diamonds and sell them, assuming you don't have some unlimited credit card or other source) but how a governmnent/military oraganization would deal with an employee who may not be on the same planet much less in the same time zone two day's running. When dealing with shapeshifting aliens and telepathy even discounting a time lords regeneration how do you ensure the person swiping in a Mary Cochran is in fact Mary Cochran and not a Zygon impersonator when Mary Cochran is currently in 1776 and has been since last tuesday (or worse next tuesday)?