a Time Crime

[khyber]

I'm tired of doing standard time travel stories so I am thinking about doing an idea for an adventure where the PCs arrive on a planet only to be arrested for committing a crime at sometime in the planet's past of which they have no memory of doing.

Only after they are interrogated by the planet's security officers will they realize that at some point in the future they will travel into the planet's past.

When the time comes for that time travel event to occur, they can either decide to travel back into the past and alter their actions or avoid going back into the past thus erasing the event entirely from the timeline.

Has anyone ever GM'd a story like this before?
I would appreciate knowing how your story played out.

Any any comments or suggestions about this idea or any different approaches for time travel adventures are greatly appreciated.

[Erik Filean]

It's an interesting idea, and a variation on the time travel theme that I hadn't yet considered.

My concern would be that players might take issue with the actions that their characters' future selves are supposed to have taken. Since the free will of the characters is both a key element of the Star Trek setting and of the gaming experience, that's something you may wish to consider. Perhaps, if you could establish that those future actions were the wrong choice made for all the right reasons, players would be more likely to overlook any railroading of their characters.

[Paul]

Interesting idea. I may have to steal it...

[First of Two]

Just go back in time and steal the idea before he has it!

[Imagus]

Originally posted by Erik Filean
My concern would be that players might take issue with the actions that their characters' future selves are supposed to have taken. Since the free will of the characters is both a key element of the Star Trek setting and of the gaming experience, that's something you may wish to consider. Perhaps, if you could establish that those future actions were the wrong choice made for all the right reasons, players would be more likely to overlook any railroading of their characters.

Make sure it's the only practical solution to a future event? I.e. the final result is much more important than crime itself - and the future P.C's know the're going to get out of it!

[khyber]

The main goal is that the PCs will need to make a major decision concerning the time travel event.

Whatever path they choose (going back in time or avoiding it) one of their friends (NPCs) will die. They will know this before the time event occurs. They will have to decide who lives or who dies.

Unless of course they come up with a clever way of saving them both that I haven't thought of.

[Imagus]

Originally posted by khyber
Unless of course they come up with a clever way of saving them both that I haven't thought of.

Thereby rewriting history and creating an alernate timeline

(which in itself maybe a way of forcing them to take the ordained path...)

Sounds like you've got some fun ahead of you, Khyber - enjoy!

[starkllr]

I've never run anything like this, but I did have a similar story idea (actually, it was for a Doctor Who story originally, but it would adapt just as well for a Trek game).

It begins as your idea does, with a little twist. Instead of being accused as criminals when they arrive at this planet, the players are hailed as heroes, the saviors of the planet.

A little investigation reveals that the players did in fact visit the planet sometime in the planet's past (but in the players' future), and it also reveals some of the details of what happened in that earlier/future visit and what the players did.

Later (could be the next episode, could be a few episodes later), the players go back in time (details left to the narrator), and, shockingly enough, find themselves at the same planet, facing the crisis they were praised for having solved.

The twist here is that at every step, the actions they were supposed to have taken to save the planet according to the history they discovered...seem wrong, and counterproductive at every step.

Do they continue to do what "history" says they did, trusting that it must work out properly, or do they act according to the situation in front of them and what they think should be done?

[C5]

That's funny you created this adventure for Doctor Who, starkllr, since there is a Doctor Who novel (Festival of Death) with almost exactly this storyline : the Doctor arrive on some starbase, and is greeted by everyone as a hero for saving the station to the price of his life... and arrested by the station's authorities for sabotage as well. Later on, the Doctor travels back in time and has to do what he heard people say he did (short of being killed, of course - hope this is not spoiler to anyone ), but he has to do many hops in time (each time further backward) before the circle is completed.
A rather interesting novel and a good inspiration for such a story idea...

[LizardQueen]

Originally posted by C5
...but he has to do many hops in time (each time further backward) before the circle is completed....

Sounds like the movie Memento!

[Modem]

'Sliders' had a good episode about crime and time (can't find it's name):
The characters slid on to a world where time was runnning backwards (sort of; every once and awhile, time would mive 'forward' again). Here they appeared guity of a crime (murder I think). As time moved backwards, we saw the characters (in the 'reverse' order of the show):
Get Killed (then string 'back to life')
Escape the police (then go to prison)
Go to Court (then leave 'before' the trial)
Get arrested (then stop the murder, thus wiping out the entire story...neat eh )