12 Monkeys and the Temporal Investigation Game

I after the first episode, I though SyFy's 12 Monkeys series was going to be an episodic "hunt down the lead of the week" sort of thing. I was not totally wrong, but I didn't anticipate the interesting background mythology the writers would weave into the show or the clever twists they had in store. With season one over, I think its a great example of how an investigation/mystery game could be done with points in time taking the place of physical locations.

This sort of setup requires time travel to be limited in its utility. No Dr. Who-esque traveling to anywhere in space and time. Limited the number of times a person can time travel helps. Also, having the timeframe of the mystery roughly delineated so that it covers a period of a few years or decades at most.

Like when developing a hexcrawl or a pointcrawl the events (and clues) available at every time point should be planned out before hand, so that PC's can investigate them in any order they want to, Obviously, time travel institutes the possibility that PCs might do something to change the past (or the present). The easiest way to handle this is to have changes sprout alternate timelines, so the original clues remain untampered with. The problem with that is, it removes an easy reason PCs would have to be doing this travel to begin with--to change the future.

Another way to do it would be to add new points and new clues to accomodate PC changes. The antagonists have to react to the PCs actions, perhaps though, they're helped by a tendency of the time-stream to resist change.

Finally, if you're going to go to the trouble of time traveling to solve a mystery, the stakes need to be high and the clues evocative and strange. Besides shows like 12 Monkeys, Lost, Helix, and to an extent True Detective, are good at doing this sort of thing. Getting players to wonder about the location and nature of the Night Room or who the Magic Man or Jacob is will help keep PCs interested even with setbacks or leads that don't pan out.

Another Savage Friday

In what's becoming a regular feature, let's again turn to channel Wrathofzombie as Mike has been hard at work again this week adapting Strange Stars for Savage Worlds:

Neshekk: privacy obsessed bankers.
Gnomes: eusocial asteroid miners.
Deva: mysterious, angelic, post-humans.
Blesh: alien bioroids with the minds of long-dead humans.

In the Vicinity of Vega

The setting for DC Comics Omega Men. The links here will take you to detail about some of the locations, but of course, it might be much more game-useful to make up your own details.

Wednesday Comics: Multiversal Spotlight: Earth-19

Earth-19
Concept: Earth Victoriana/Steampunk
Pictured: (left to right) Bat Man (Bruce Wayne), Accelerated Man, the Shrinking Man, the Wonder Woman (Diana).
Sources/Inspirations: Gotham by Gaslight (1989) and Batman: Master of the Future (1991) collected in Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Wonder Woman: Amazonia (1997), Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Gotham by Gaslight #1 (January 2008).
Analogs: Pre-Crisis Earth-1889 was the home of Victorian Batman as established in Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths (2006); post-52 Earth-19 features Batman plus several more Victorian analogs as shown in Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Gotham by Gaslight (January 2008) #1; Post-52 Earth-34 was the setting for Wonder Woman: Amazonia as revealed in Countdown to Adventure #1 (October 2007).
Comments: Gotham by Gaslight, with its story of an 1889 Batman facing off with Jack the Ripper, started the whole Elseworlds franchise (though its first printing predated the label). It's sequel has Batman fighting a Robur the Conqueror stand-in in 1892.

The Elseworlds Wonder Woman: Amazonia is set in an alternate 1928, which presents a different identity and history for Jack the Ripper (he becomes King after killing Victoria and her family). How these two distinct worlds are melded in Earth-19 has yet to be revealed.

Hyehoon, Ksaa and Kosmoniks

Mike continues his Strange Stars adaptations for Savage Worlds.

Check out the avian Hyehoon, the scheming "Cold egg" ksaa, and the star-roving Kosmoniks.

Azurthite Bestiary: Super-Wizard

Before there ever was a Land of Azurth, an ancient race known as Super-Wizards strode the various worlds as demi-gods, bending the forces of matter, energy, and time to their inscrutable and sometimes nonsensical will. They built strange cities and monuments and worked weird wonders, and they among themselves and with primordial monsters. It was hubris that led to their end. Either by their own hand they unleashed forces that even they could not master, or their arrogance troubled the sleep of the Slumbering God enough that his dreams conceived their doom. In any case, their very planet that once occupied the sphere between Mars and Jupiter was lost in a cataclysm.

The Super-Wizards' power being what it was, there is always a chance, however, that some escaped the fate of their world and are plotting with immortal patience their re-ascendance. It is the official position of the most learned arcane scholars of Azurth that the Super-Wizards are no more. However, the Wizard of Azurth and the Mysteriarchs of Zed are known to pay handsomely for an information about the Super-Wizards, particularly as might hint to their continued existence.

The following stats represent an "average" member of the Super-Wizard race. Exceptional individuals will be far more formidable.

SUPER-WIZARD
medium humanoid, any alignment
AC 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 139 (13d10+74)
Speed: 30 ft.; fly 90 ft.
STR 18(+4) DEX 18(+4) CON 18(+4) INT 17(+3) WIS 17(+3) CHA 18(+4)
Saving Throws  Con +8 Cha +8
Skills Arcana +7, Insight +7, Perception +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons, cold, necrotic
Senses passive Perception 17

Spellcasting. Most Super-Wizard's are 10th-level spellcasters, with a number of spell slots equivalent to a Sorcerer of the same level. Their spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with attack spells). Their spells never requirement material components. They The following spells are common:

Cantrips (at will): Friends, Light, Mage Hand, Message1st level: Comprehend Languages, Disguise Self, Thunderwave2nd level: Alter Self, Detect Thoughts, Scorching Ray3rd level: Blink, Haste, Protection from Energy4th level: Dimension Door5th level: Teleportation Circle

Magic Resistance. A Super-Wizard has an advantage against spells and other magical effect.

Actions:
Multiattack. A Super-Wizard can make two melee attacks.
Melee Weapon. Super-Wizards employ a variety of over-sized or exotic appearing simple or martial weapons which function like standard ones of their type.

The Ethereal Prison

The Ethereal Plane as written in D&D is a transitive plane. It's a place you travel through or the medium stuff floats in. What if it were a bit less accessible--on purpose? What if, like the Phantom Zone is DC Comics, it was a prison? Maybe the gods or super-wizards of ages past had imprisoned renegades, criminals and monsters there?

If you aren't familiar with the Phantom Zone, read about here, The concepts a pretty simple one, though, even if you've never heard of it. Imprisoned creatures float around like ghosts.

This would have the advantage of differentiating the ethereal more from the other transitive planes and establish some interesting mysteries for PCs to look into.