Re: [HoE] Time Line Pardox

[ROWAN_DODDS@au.yr.com]

>> I have my own way of handling paradox that I
>> usually use, to keep things consistent and a tiny bit sane, and just
>> becuase it seems, well, right.

>Out of curiosity, how do you handle it?  The only timetravel I've ever
delt
>with in a game was Feng Shui, which has a very good way of dealing with
them
>that wouldn't work in HoE, at least not with quite a bit of revision.
Thoug I
>guess you could say that instead of needing to control Feng Shui sites to
>adjust history, you need to control certain key people... the heroes that
stone
>killed, the villians that opposed them, people who are somehow specil in
teh
>cosmic sceme of things.  And even then it doesn't work very well.

I usually run it that anything that is changed in the past affects the
future, with every little action potentially changing the course of
"history", if they ever return to the future it could be changed
completely. (for instance, a character with a knowledge of physics, helped
a mad scientint with an impossible formula to show off - but later
regretted it, fearing it could change the future all together). With this
method. it is possible that the characters change their own childhoods, or
even stop themselves from being born, but I usually figure they come
through about the same, besides, they normaly avoid their past
selves/ancestors for fear of what could happen.
     - when using this method in such a plot-driven game as Deadlands
though, I'd probably make HOE pretty much the same, with cosmetic changes
like replacing Throckmorton with someone else, and subtly changing
attitudes and power balances (have templars more powerfull and feared - but
also more self-righeous and stubborn: maybe they refuse to aid the weak,
"culling the heard" so to speak.) - either that, or I'd play all my future
campaigns in the current HOE setting, before changes, which is but one
possible future.

There is one other method I have used - if the characters don't mess up too
much. Every action of theirs does not change the future as they planned,
but re-inforces it. For instance, a character goes back in time to stop the
bombs and, as above, solves a small, seemingly insignificant formula
written on a bar wall. Unfortunately, it is this very formula which
Hellstrome developes to create, yes you guessed it, Citybusters. The trick
with this method is to hide the fact from the characters as long as
possible, but leave subtle little hints, so when they finally find it out
they go "Oh! That *** makes sence now!" This method has the aded benefit of
leaving the future untouched, so you don't have to re-create a game world.
The disadvantage of this method is it has to be used very carefully, to
stop the characters from feeling insignificant and helpless (perhaps they
learn something in the past that they can use to change things in the
future.)

I hope this makes as much sense outside my head as it does inside.

Rowan Dodds
Diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
Dead Man's Creek - http://www.redrival.com/dmc/