Time Travel?

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I know what EVERYONE thinks with a title like that (which is why I chose it....to lure you in. 8) ), and I'm going to state right now that I'm not suggesting that Magi be able to hop back and forth in time.

As a follower of Bonisagus, I'm a firm believer in "The Limit of Time."

What I'm talking about is this theory:

Hypothetically, what if, every cycle of a number of years, the Earth sheds itself a "Regio" of sorts, creating a "Layer" of a different time?

Imagine an onion, with all of its layers, as layers of an undiscovered regio, each a different time period of the Earth?

Reason being is that is a twist I introduced to my players in our game.

A ritual spell was discovered by the players that supposedly is able to allow the magus to travel into the past. Of COURSE most of the magi scoffed at it (who wouldn't?), but one curious player looked further into it.

The ritual indeed allowed him to travel in time to ancient Greece circa 300 B.C.

After the expected (and wonderful) fit my players pitched, I merely asked them to "trust me." Of course, when they tried to exploit the spell, and attempt to change history, they returned to find that time has passed, and nothing changed.

NOW they were REALLY intrigued. After a few game sessions, they discovered that:

A) Each time period is a seperate magical regio. Whatever happens there only effects the regio itself, and not Earth itself.

B) As the players are not native to the "Tempus Regio," they are subject to Warping.

C) People brought from the "Regio of Time" are magical creatures, not human, and therefore are subject to the same rules as normal for the Magical realm and its denizens.

D) There are several "Regiones Temporum," each with its own "version of history"

E) Each "change" made in History within each regio will change time within that regio, but you can travel back to before the change was made.

F) It's a bad idea to try and have discourse with yourself in "another time." You may find that the "Bizzarro You" isn't very nice, and might seek to destroy you.

My players found it to be one of the best story hooks I've made in a couple of years. So, as such, I wanted to get opinions on it.

What do you think?

2

I think that all sounds really fantastic! Are any of your players criamon? Too bad of they're not!

3

Sounds like a neat way to introduce epic settings and keeping things in control.

-Marios

4

"Sliders" with a difference? This is a good idea as long as the SG (you) has control over where they actually go to. It would be pretty bad if a player decided that they wanted to travel to a regio which contained the future.

5

But it would be an alternate future probably unrelated to the one in which the players normally live. Or maybe future isn't an option since those regios have not yet been formed.

6

There cannot be Future Regios, for the same reason as why there cannot be true augury: the Divine's gift of free will. Incidentally, these regios are more likely to be Faerie than Magic, since they are reflection of man's activity.

But still, a cool idea. :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Yes, but what if they were themselves living in an alternate regio, they were born in a place different from "true" reality. Instead of being on the outer edge of the onion and moving only inwards, they could be in the middle and able to move both directions.

They wouldn't arrive at "The Future", just a place with more history than theirs, which had progressed more towards God's plan. Maybe they would even come out into Medieval Europe, instead of Mythic Europe :wink:

Oooh, scary idea, they arrive in a place where magic doesn't work... They can get back home when the spell ends, but they are "mundane" (magical creatures with no might points)

8

I like it. Its kind of like the 'Time of the Dark' series by Barbra Hambly (sp?)
Des: Powerful Arch-Mage comes to earth from an alternate/another world. Magic doesn't work here. The only thing he can do is go back. When his enemies come after him, he is forced back with two people from earth.
You could use this make the Mages work really hard...No magic to solve their problems, few skills to solve their problems...

9

Nice twist, but I'm not sure what the characters/players expect to get out of it, except perhaps an infinite source of potential magical familiars.

A little like Amber, too, in that it's "real" (of sorts), and yet not. There are repercussions, but it doesn't affect anything locally. Yet...

Wonder what happens when the "Temporal Regio" magi find the same spell?

Also reminds me of an old bit (from 3rd ed?), where a bunch of ghosts of magi had been trapped in a magical construct that made them believe they were still alive in "the real world". Of course, once they discover the "truth" (which could be infinitely subjective???), they try to get out into the "real world" again - but once the premise works at one level, who's to say when it ends? Hilarity ensues.

10

Are you planning on using this to be a way to reveal Ancient Magical Secrets (tm)?

11

this also a good way to introduce dinosours into your champain!

12

Don't think dinosaurs would exist in the medieval paradigm.. they're just the bones of dragons or other mythological creatures.. .. there certainly wasn't life on earth that long ago, didn't you know god made everything? ^^

13

Of course, they could find a land filled with all manner of strange dragons and infernal creatures. It would be full of lush jungles and strange reptiles. Though I wonder if these creatures would be classed as "Magical", and if so, what their MR would be?

14

I'll toast to that.

Opens the door to almost anything- that could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending. Don't want the Saga to be about milking a gravytrain just because it's there- unless the plot is twisted, and the magi realize that their counterparts are coming to their reality and doing likewise!

15

We've already addressed "dinosours"

16

We've already addressed "dinosours"
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You already addressed dinosours, but you did not address the effects they have in your champain. I don't think that would taste good at all.

17

Very astute. That was indeed one of my intentions to introduce a little bit of "Ancient Magic" into my games.

Abe, for once, caught on to something I already did. One of the spells referred to "The days of exile from Eden, when dragons roamed with man," and indeed, there was a magical accident, where our magi accidentally brought with them a Tyrannosaur when returning home. It was messy. Of course, we had to protect our covenfolk from dragons.

18

(Everyone here does know that, aside from Raquel Welch and a few others, no "human" ever wandered around with dinosaurs, right?)

19

Of course, God quite intelligently designed it that way. Just ask the local parish priest. :laughing:
Actually, considering the flood story and Adam's naming of everything, in this paradigm (that word!) if it was alive, at one point, men fed it doggy treats.

20

Yes, quite so- what our characters know is not the same as what we know (at times, they're much smarter!) 8)