Julian Spooner
Member
This is a campy, SciFi/fantasy roleplay, the plot of which has been in my head for a long time, but which I have never tried to play before. I have a few people interested in this roleplay and I'm trying out a longterm one-on-one to see how it goes. I would be keen to branch out into multiplayer eventually.
There are some plotlines around this world/these characters which I haven't set out here, because I want to shake things up creatively and see what my roleplaying partners come up with in terms of plots and characters. I am interested in long-term roleplays but also shorter, more episodic ones.
The Mechanics
In an old stately home in England, there is a stationary time machine. People who enter this machine can travel at least 200 years, forward and back from 1860, the ostensible time of the machines construction. However, they can travel only in 10 year increments.
More recently constructed (ostensibly in 2000) are three portable (wearable) time machines. They can travel at least 200 years forward and at least 400 years back from 2000. But they too can only move in 10 year increments.
This means that if you leave 2016 at 2pm and spend half an hour in 2046, you will only be able to return to 2016, 2:30pm. Unless of course you wait for precisely a decade to pass before returning.
There may be other time machines, similarly constrained, in existence.
The actual building of the original time machine is an event shrouded in confusion and mystery, partly because of secrecy, partly because of the bewildering nature of time travel and the limits of the human mind.
The portable timetravel units were constructed by Edward Sprint, a venerable scientist of the travellers guild.
The logistics of timetravel are going to get confusing quickly. We intend to treat this subject lightly and with a sense of humour. Paradoxes can be either studiously avoided, smoothed over with vaguenesses (wibbly wobbly timey wimey) or confronted head-on by characters if they provide interesting plot-material.
World
The manor in England and its machine are guarded (owned, controlled) by the guild of time travellers. A small number of these live at the manor full time and operate across time periods, these act as a council and restrict access to the machine. They also control a police force that respond to breaches of conduct and repair timelines (given the small number of travellers, the nature of time, and these goons, it is actually very difficult to corrupt the course of history or mangle other travellers personal timelines). The guild operates ostensibly for Enlightenment values and knowledge, mainly for personal financial and petty political gain.
Along with the guild council, there are scattered guild members (scientists, explorers, bored peers) who live mainly in their own timelines* and visit the manor for timetravel business.
The guild also employ a handful of Journeymen. These rare individuals live neither at the manor nor in their own timeline*, but travel freely from timeline to timeline. Some are rumoured to have access to illicit time travel devices. The guild sometimes employs these people to act as guides for different time periods and to assist less experienced travellers.
* I speak of timelines belonging to people (or vice versa) because it is generally accepted in this world that it is healthiest, mentally and physically, to live in the timeline in which you were born. So someone born in 1991 would be expected to return to this timeline regularly and to age at a normal rate for this timeline- be a 25 year old in 2016, a 35 year old in 2026. This is among the reasons Journeymen are viewed with suspicion, they take the unnatural step of living in no timeline in particular.
There are some plotlines around this world/these characters which I haven't set out here, because I want to shake things up creatively and see what my roleplaying partners come up with in terms of plots and characters. I am interested in long-term roleplays but also shorter, more episodic ones.
The Mechanics
In an old stately home in England, there is a stationary time machine. People who enter this machine can travel at least 200 years, forward and back from 1860, the ostensible time of the machines construction. However, they can travel only in 10 year increments.
More recently constructed (ostensibly in 2000) are three portable (wearable) time machines. They can travel at least 200 years forward and at least 400 years back from 2000. But they too can only move in 10 year increments.
This means that if you leave 2016 at 2pm and spend half an hour in 2046, you will only be able to return to 2016, 2:30pm. Unless of course you wait for precisely a decade to pass before returning.
There may be other time machines, similarly constrained, in existence.
The actual building of the original time machine is an event shrouded in confusion and mystery, partly because of secrecy, partly because of the bewildering nature of time travel and the limits of the human mind.
The portable timetravel units were constructed by Edward Sprint, a venerable scientist of the travellers guild.
The logistics of timetravel are going to get confusing quickly. We intend to treat this subject lightly and with a sense of humour. Paradoxes can be either studiously avoided, smoothed over with vaguenesses (wibbly wobbly timey wimey) or confronted head-on by characters if they provide interesting plot-material.
World
The manor in England and its machine are guarded (owned, controlled) by the guild of time travellers. A small number of these live at the manor full time and operate across time periods, these act as a council and restrict access to the machine. They also control a police force that respond to breaches of conduct and repair timelines (given the small number of travellers, the nature of time, and these goons, it is actually very difficult to corrupt the course of history or mangle other travellers personal timelines). The guild operates ostensibly for Enlightenment values and knowledge, mainly for personal financial and petty political gain.
Along with the guild council, there are scattered guild members (scientists, explorers, bored peers) who live mainly in their own timelines* and visit the manor for timetravel business.
The guild also employ a handful of Journeymen. These rare individuals live neither at the manor nor in their own timeline*, but travel freely from timeline to timeline. Some are rumoured to have access to illicit time travel devices. The guild sometimes employs these people to act as guides for different time periods and to assist less experienced travellers.
* I speak of timelines belonging to people (or vice versa) because it is generally accepted in this world that it is healthiest, mentally and physically, to live in the timeline in which you were born. So someone born in 1991 would be expected to return to this timeline regularly and to age at a normal rate for this timeline- be a 25 year old in 2016, a 35 year old in 2026. This is among the reasons Journeymen are viewed with suspicion, they take the unnatural step of living in no timeline in particular.
