The time travel game was a successful campaign run in 1995/1996. My last four campaigns have been Time Travel, Space Adventures, Classic Tales, and Atlantis - The Golden Age. The time travel game will adapt well to the online environment, I believe. The story line is already well developed and I have records of existing NPCs and the adventures the group has been involved in so far. Pete, Joe and Paul should have existing characters. Tami and Ellen can create new characters and will be given some additional points to make them equal with existing characters. This is also a campaign in which I have encouraged players to have more than one character available so they can choose the character most appropriate for a given time exploration event. Please feel free to brush off your old character or create one or two new characters for the time travel game. Characters should be20th Century people, born between 1945 and 1985. They should be stable and capable individuals since Prof. Tempore will not send anyone he considers too risky. They should also have some connection to Prof. Tempore - most are former students.
Recap
The group is based in the near future in the Rochester, NY area. Professor Tempore's property west of the city is the location of the time machine and is the center for the group's activities in the present. The preceding adventures have revealed a number of forces that are actively engaged in time travel and attempts to alter Earth's history, or the prevention of such attempts.
The group knows that at some point in the 22nd century, an alien species discovers a rapidly expanding human race colonizing neighboring regions of the galaxy. It is now understood that the aliens have planted a team of time agents on the planet Earth, whose purpose is to alter human history in order to prevent the expansion of the human species throughout the galaxy. Most of the preceding sessions have dealt with the alien time agents tampering with human history. Notably, the early attempts dealt religious figures, particularly Judeo-Christian figures such as Moses and Jesus. The aliens tried to prevent social influences attributed to Christianity. In one case they were successful in removing these influences, allowing the Roman Empire to become a global Empire and slowing technological advancement severely. The team was able to reverse the effect by countering with their own tampering expedition (Christmas, 1995, as I remember it).
The alien time agents seem to have now turned their attention to technology, with attempts to prevent certain inventions and discoveries that are keys to technical and scientific progress. The one hopeful discovery is that there appears to be a renegade among the alien time agents. This alien has been dubbed "the Saboteur". The aliens match the description most commonly given by people that claim to have been abducted or had close encounters. They are smooth, hairless, grey skinned humanoids with large black eyes and narrow slits for nose and ears. They are able to disguise themselves quite effectively as humans, however. The aliens wear high tech belts that enable time travel and disguise - and one of these has been captured.
The group also discovered that by the 22nd Century the planetary government has strictly regulated time travel. An agency of the planetary government has been established to enforce laws prohibiting time travel. This agency, the Temporal Intervention Agency (TIA), is headed by Jason Steele, a beguiling but ruthless human from the 22nd Century. Members of this agency have been nicknamed "Timelords". The agency is well aware of Professor Tempore and his 20th Century invention of time travel technology. They well not interfere directly with the primitive time machine or the remote countryside location of Professor Tempore's base.
They realize that this is how humans acquired time travel technology and that the humans must have this technology to counter the alien threat. Because of this, the base will be left alone by the Timelords. They may, however, be encountered at any other time or place, and can be expected to interfere with the team. In past sessions they have attempted to capture members of Professor Tempore's team.
The forces involved:
Human History
Alien Time Agents
Human Timelords
Tempore's Time Explorers
As with the previous sessions, I may gather input from the players regarding times and places they would like to explore. Unlike our table based sessions, a time trip or adventure will probably involve two or three sessions instead of the one or two sessions we used previously. I will prepare briefs and post them to Jim's RPG Website before sessions. I believe also that players can use their own resources to conduct research before embarking on their assigned missions and I'll work that into the game. For instance, if it is found that the Divine comedy has not been written, I will provide some info about Italy in the 16th century, a map of old Florence, and a timeline of events. However, I will ask the players to do some research on Dante and the influences on his writing.
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