|
Post by kabukiman on Mar 11, 2010 4:11:58 GMT
Hi all, I'm wondering if I could get some opinions on what do with this timey whimey problem.
Adventure number 2 is a direct continuation of adventure number 1. The group meets The Doctor in adventure number 1 as a direct result of witnessing a violent death.
Adventure number 2 takes place earlier in the same day as adventure number 1 (by way of TARDIS).
I want to present a moral dilemma to the group as they encounter the man who was (or in this case, will be) killed: Do they try to save him by suggesting he stay home for the day or what have you; or do they not divulge any information and let the man die.
If they let him die, nothing changes but they will have to live with the knowledge that they could have saved him.
If they try to save him, their personal timeline will change. At that point, would they blink out of existence because they would then not have met The Doctor, and therefore, couldn't exist? Would it summon some Reapers? What if I could manage it where what they do alters adventure 1 a bit, but they still meet The Doctor somehow? What would happen to the character's knowledge at that point? Would it remain the same where they remember the death, or would it change to reflect what "really" happened after they changed events?
If your head didn't explode after reading all that, I'd really appreciate your thoughts on how you would handle this situation.
Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by Curufea on Mar 11, 2010 5:43:49 GMT
Another solution is the Donna approach in Turn Left - that version of them ceases to be and the go back to being whoever they were before meeting the Doctor but may have a subconcious memory or dream of what happened.
|
|
|
Post by renegadetimelord on Mar 11, 2010 7:12:03 GMT
This whole scenario doesn't vary too far from the Grandfather Paradox, so you should run it how you want to - but then probably try to stick with that for future instances of said Paradox.
So, maybe you go for the fixed event principle, where no matter what they do the guy dies. He might die in a slightly different way or a different location, but whatever the characters do they can't help. If they need to get somewhere to save him, they get delayed, or they get diverted, or their transport breaks down, or they end up at the wrong location after following someone who looked like the person they're after.
Or, maybe they create a divergent timeline by saving the guy, so they retain memories of the original timeline. However, the divergence means they now exist within a different quantum sliver of time and they can't get back to the old timeline without an adventure to set things straight.
Or, by all means, have the Reapers arrive - and let the chrono-carnage commence...
|
|
|
Post by Craig Oxbrow on Mar 11, 2010 7:23:19 GMT
Another solution is the Donna approach in Turn Left - that version of them ceases to be and the go back to being whoever they were before meeting the Doctor but may have a subconcious memory or dream of what happened. And if you're worried that this would end the series in episode two - the Doctor remembers (as does anyone else with Turn Of The Universe) so he seeks them out and introduces himself, since they did the right thing regardless of its effect on time and on them. And then some Sontarans burst in with a gun.
|
|
rev503
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 66
|
Post by rev503 on Mar 11, 2010 8:31:37 GMT
The funny thing is that the paradox gets resolved by meeting the Doctor. So..Imagine this as an event chain Party tell victim not to go to work today.... Time Spur generates due to the paradox The Doctor (if he's in the vicinity at that moment) is caught in the time spur - TARDIS becomes police box etc. Afer a whole bunch of running around, seeing those bitey things whose names I forget chewing up the scenery and occasional passers by..players meet the Doctor Paradox resolved! reality returns to normal!! Only the Players and the Doctor remember becasue they were the crux of the paradox
|
|
|
Post by da professor on Mar 11, 2010 9:48:25 GMT
If the circumstances are such that the past versions of the PCs still think the guy died, even if the present versions now know otherwise, their timeline won't actually change. Maybe after witnessing his death for the second time, they learn that it wasn't actually him, it was a clone or shapeshifter or some other kind of duplicate and the real him is still ok.
|
|
|
Post by kabukiman on Mar 11, 2010 15:41:47 GMT
Thanks for the replies, there are some really great ideas in here! I think I know what I'm going to do. I'll post here after we play the adventure with the outcome.
Thanks again!
|
|
|
Post by knasser on Mar 14, 2010 14:02:03 GMT
If you really want some heads to explode, including yours, let them create the paradox and then run a third adventure in which they find that some minor details of what they did which they have paid no mind to, resulted in the person dying when he shouldn't have done, so the second adventure where they choose to save his life is actually them undoing a paradox that they hadn't caused yet. The third adventure involves them making sure that he does die in the first adventure so they can undo his death in the second adventure. Hope that helps. K.
|
|
|
Post by kabukiman on Mar 25, 2010 18:47:31 GMT
Here's how it went down:
They ended up inadvertently saving the guy (they weren't trying to, but it happened). This created alternate versions of themselves who never meet The Doctor. Since the time is currently before they were to witness the guy die, the paradox hasn't yet reached the point where the reapers would swoop in. The Doctor takes the players in the TARDIS in the hopes that removing the PC's from present day Earth would avoid any crazy paradox / reaper madness.
So, basically, while these alternate versions happily live out their lives on Earth, the PC's must leave their lives behind forever or risk screwing with time.
|
|
smoot
1st Incarnation
Posts: 2
|
Post by smoot on Mar 25, 2010 20:28:19 GMT
Here's a notion I had.
If you specifically go somewhere to change history, then you get a paradox. (If (X) never happened, why did you go back? So you didn't, and (X) happened the way it was supposed to, so... etc.)
What if it wasn't your MAIN reason for going back? That is, I went back to 1885, to see the sights. While I was there, I changed history. The changing history wasn't why I went there, so the 'paradox' simply fails to happen.
This applies to Doctor Who, especially, with the 'TARDIS landed somewhere random' trope or the number of times the Doctor just wanted to give himself and his friends a 'vacation'?
|
|
|
Post by whichdoctor on Mar 26, 2010 21:34:09 GMT
Sadly (or interestingly) having alternate versions of yourself is still a paradox no matter where you go. The possibility opens up of a recurring theme where the players are being hunted down by the reapers...or the foreboding sense that something very bad is going to happen at the end of this "season". "Time is catching up with you!" might be a cool repeated phrase.
|
|