How do you deal with time travel ?

[ninive]

First of all, please excuse my poor english.
I hope I'll be understood.

Yesterday night, we played DWAITAS with my group, and my plot was nearly destroyed by the use of time travel.

Here’s a quick summary :

The PCs discovered an alien ship, containing people and stuff converted into a digital form (settlers, going to another planet for colonization).

As a part of the settlers has been stolen, the ship computer has made new digital passengers from the human race, by converting all the inhabitants of the earth.

After they discovered the “empty earth” and the alien ship, the PCs were supposed to give the thieves a chase, to recover the digital settlers and bring it back to the ship, in exchange of the humans. I’ve planned an encounter with the Judoon who have just arrested the thieves, and a part of the adventure in a Judoon prison.

But it didn’t happen, because the PCs travelled back in time.

They went back to the moment of the theft, preventing it.
So, no theft of the settlers, no kidnapping of the humans, no crime, no Judoons… and no adventure left !

It seems such a good idea, that I thought I couldn’t say “No” to the players.

It was hard to put the party back on tracks, but I’ve used a cliffhanger from a past session, so It went fine in the end, if totally different from my plans.

But I realize that the PCs could use this tactic to solve every issue they face.
From my point of view, saying “the Doctor never does such a thing in the series” is not the good answer (even if, as a matter of fact, he never does).

Time travel is a mere excuse for travel in the series, but in the hands of clever players, it can be the ultimate plot killer.

How do you deal with it ?

[Craig Oxbrow]

Saying "the Doctor never does such a thing in the series" is a reasonable answer, to me, because the players sat down to play Doctor Who. They agreed to play in the spirit of the show at least to some extent, and if they're playing counter to it then that's a discussion for the players, not something to stop in-character. Talk this over with them directly. Be honest that you don't feel like running a game where they can solve every problem by going back in time and stopping it ever happening.

If you want in-character reasons, the series has provided various reasons why he doesn't (often) do this, like:

Paradoxes. They've stopped the crime ever happening - therefore, the crime never happened, so what did they go back to stop? And if a paradox gets big enough, Reapers eat everyone involved.

Observer effect. "We're part of events now." Changing history, or even simply observing it, can cause unexpected changes and ripples.

The reliability of the TARDIS. Hitting a specific date and time is something the Doctor can manage only when the story wants him to, otherwise he'll overshoot by a day or twelve years or ten thousand light years.

Turn Of The Universe. While the modern credo is "time can be rewritten", some things have more resistance than others, some things are seemingly immutable fixed points and everything else can be altered in a variety of ways, unpredictably and unreliably.

Other obstacles. Like, say, other time travellers. If everyone goes back and changes what they like, where does it stop? If I go back and stop a theft, and you go back and steal the item before I arrive, and I go back and stop you, and you go back and stop me...

[Gas Mask Zombie]

If I understand correctly, when your PCs went back in time they caused a paradox. If the incident never occurred, seeing as the PCs prevented it, than how could they see the incident and go back in time and stop it in the first place.

Changing the time line doesn't always result in a paradox, only when some thing has to be true and, at the same time, can't be true

If I were you I would stick them in a time loop with a few baddies until they put things back to normal, a la Fathers Day. If you want more info on how to do that reread chapter 4 in the GM's guide and maybe watch Fathers Day again

[ninive]

Thanks guy for yours answers.
You're right : I should use it à la Fathers Day to show thel the danger of changing history.

Am I the only GM who encountered this kind of ideas from the players ?

[Craig Oxbrow]

I made sure the players in my Doctor Who games were all happy with "time travel isn't used for that, generally" before starting, since I have seen other players in other games try similar tricks.

[snowman]

I think the general rule for my group will be "There's nothing better at preventing time travel than a time traveller." That is to say, the presence of a time traveller almost always locks an event into place - especially a Time Lord, since Time Lord history is as close to a single timeline as the universe has.

Actually, after the Last Great Time War and the destruction of the Web of Time, the Doctor's timeline might be one of the only concrete timeline left. It's already proven that the Daleks can cross their own timeline, at least kind of (see: Dalek Caan).

[elbarre]

Break down there Tardis or bring in reapers, I did that once when they had to assassinate JFK (yea I know Red Dwarf) but they have to learn its not as easy as they think. Or bring in some other force that demands reprocutions. that could lead to other adventures!

[Siskoid]

If someone comes upon the idea (they usually don't because they are emulating the show), I encourage it. But of course, history has a way of righting itself, so while you may prevent something from happening, it happens anyway in a more complicated way. I view it as a "yes but" puzzle solving problem for both myself and my players.

[da professor]

In the example in the original post, I would either have had the ship's log damaged so they couldn't find out when the theft had occurred or let them foil the first attempt at the theft and not find out about the second until they returned to where they started and find the problem not fixed. They now cannot go back to prevent the second, successful, attempt at theft because that would involve crossing their own timeline and thus potentially summonning the reapers.

[Rel Fexive]

To me the simplest answers are "because it would create a paradox and they are VERY VERY BAD" and (if there is a Time Lord in the group) "that would be a paradox and against the Laws Of Time, so doing it would be VERY VERY BAD".

It's a part of the setting. If they don't like it, they can play a different time travel RPG.

[Eryx]

Personally I'd stop the TARDIS moving. She knows that you can't go back along now established events and so shouldn't let them. Make sure the Time Lord character knows this when the suggestion comes up.

Secondly if you do allow it... repercussions of actions. Force them to fix that issue. If the theft never occurred then the people of Earth weren't kidnapped. If they weren't kidnapped, perhaps the Earth is invaded (Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans... whoever). Something that wouldn't have happened had they not tried to meddle beyond their ability. Then they have the choice of either trying to save the Earth or going back and stopping themselves from stopping the thief before the theft. If they ignore perhaps the future has been changed. After all, an ordinary man is the most important thing in the universe. If the colonists never arrived then the colony was never built. The crops it produced never happen and a sector space enters a famine that never happened before. Thousands or millions may die of starvation, thus altering future (and previously established) events.

It might take a bit more work but it's an idea.

[Marnal]

The episode "Father's Day" show's very clearly what happens when someone breaks the 1st Law of Time by interferaning with the natural history of the universe. Without a Paradox Machine the Reapers show up and eat that newly created timeline [unless the players 'correct' history back the way it was].

Also, TARDISes are programed to do their best to prevent violations in the Laws of Time. And they are telepathic [so they can see the PCs intentions] and are 4 dimensional [so they can see what the PCs will actually do in the future]

The Laws of Time give the Time Lords the divine purpose of serving Time itself by maintaining the continuity/history of the fabric of the space-time continuum and the causality of the Universe. They claim that this service is their right because they were first humanoid culture to naturally evolve and see this as providing justice to all species.

I. No being shall distort History as he knows it. You can't alter the Past. This is the most important Law of the Time Lords. This is a moral as well as legal law.
A. No being shall interact with his own personal history or causal nexus by traversing their time streams.
1. No being shall murder their past self. This is the ultimate violation of the Laws of Time.
2. No being may come into contact with his past self. The Temporal Disturbances caused when this occurs require tremendous amounts of temporal energy to repair.
3. No Gallifreyan shall meet another Time Lord whose incarnations is out of sync with there own timestream. This prevents damage to space time.
4. Investing vast sums money in the past and collecting the profit in the future is a minor violation of the first law of time.
5. Sending notes to your past self to give them advice (even if you remember receiving the note) is forbidden.
*Note: Interacting with a person who knows your future isn’t technically breaking the law as long as you don’t take advantage of the person’s knowledge. Limited communications with another Time Lord out of sequence is also not specifically prohibited.
B. (Also known as the Doctrine of Non-Intervention or the "Golden Rule") No being on Gallifrey or on any other planet shall interfere with the Web of Time (intergalactic history), as it is currently known, no violations of established and predicted quantal events. Observation from within the micro-universe of a TT Capsule or Gallifrey is all that is permited.
1. The History of any person or planet, as it recorded or predicted in the Matrix, can not be chronoformed (the deliberate rewriting/distorting of history) to alter its destiny. This is defined as changing any part of the Web of Time by not less then fifty-three millistates. (this is also covered under Timeline Interferance Resolution 861)
2. All Time Lords shall follow a Doctrine of Non-Interference with Time Unaware races.
3. All Time Lords shall work to prevent Time Aware Races from aquiring Gallifreyan Technology. No alien shall be allowed to spy on Time Lord activities (this is also known as the Golden Rule:).
4. All Time Lords shall work to prevent Time Active Races from damaging the Web of Time. Disturbances of .4 or higher on the Bocca Scale must be prevented.
5. It is forbidden for Gallifreyans and Lesser Species to interbreed.
6. All Time Lords are pledged to prevent alien aggression by Time Active Races, but only when such agression is deemed to threaten the indigenous population of a particular time zone. This includes preventing the Reapers from destorying an entire world because of a temporal paradox.
7. A Time Lord who destroys an entire species forfeits his remaining lives - and thus his title of Time Lord.
*Note: Article 7 was created not to preserve life but to prevent the massive damage to History that genocide would cause.

II. No being shall participate in the creation of a Temporal Paradox
A. No Time Lord shall use the Power of Creation
1. No Time Lords shall use the Power on a scale that would corrupt Time.
B. No being shall create us a TARDIS to create a Vortex Crisis
C. No being shall create a Grandfather Paradox
D. No being shall cause a Dimensional Paradox by transporting sentient beings from one version of History to another.
E. Timelooping planets is forbidden.

III. The Protocols of Linearity: No Time Lord shall travel into Gallifrey's past.
*Note: This prevents anyone from traveling into Gallifrey’s past, and ensures that a Time Lord's personal time is always synchronized with Gallifrey’s time. It also ensures that the Time Lords who encounter each other outside of Gallifrey always meed meet each other in a linear progression along their relative time-streams. Though impossible to travel into the past, it is possible to collect and transport objects from the past to the present. These protocols are not physical laws per say, but rather engineered by powerful Temporal Baffels, Backtime Field Buffers, Temporal Locks and Governing Circuits built into all their time travel technology. A side effect of this law is that other time zones observed by a traveling Time Lord becomes linked with Gallifrey’s time. It should be noted that in Lungbarrow the Doctor took a 3 day side trip from events and returned minutes later. This might be a power all Lord Presidents have. Robert Scarrit will also do this during the war but he has to keep it a secret to avoid punishment.

IV. No Time Lord shall travel into Gallifrey’s future. To do so would be a theoretical absurdity.

V. Whilst there are any number of Futures beyond the Time Lord Time Parameters (defined by their noosphere) none maybe deliberatly shaped by a Time Lord. Travel beyond the Time Parameters is forbidden - due to psychological affect of watching the heat death of the universe and to avoid the temptation of studying the next universe. The Time Parameters reach from around 3500 years after Event 0 (the Big Bang) to 10,000,000 AD and cover most of Space.

VI. Unauthorized use of a TARDIS carries a mandatory Death Penalty (This might mean they only take one life).
A. It is forbidden to allow non-Time Lords into a TARDIS.

VII. Protocols of Observation: No Time Lord shall interact with his own future.
A. No being may come into contact with his future self.
*Note: It is impossible for a being to see his own future in his own biodata. An attempt to do so will cause the observation to collapse, making the knowledge useless. Losing one's virginity makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) for Gallifreyan technology to read ancestral memories from the subjects biodata.

VIII. No Time Lord shall use time travel for their personal convenience.
*Note: This law of time isn't really enforced and most renegades view it as a trivial.
A. No use of Short-Hops to shorten his personal perception of time. (the Blinovitch Limitation Effect helps prevent violations of this law)
B. No use of Temporal Orbits or “Vortex Drifting” to elongating his personal perception of time.
C. It is forbidden to use time travel to live the same day twice.
D. No using time travel to win at the lottery.
1-6. various etiquettes.


-Marnal Gate