Neverwonagame3
Self-Styled Intellectual
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2006
- Messages
- 3,549
Backstory:
The Great Ideology War just finished. Tens of billions died and hundreds of trillions erased (if you count the people who only existed on one iteration of the timeline) in a war of time travel and spacecraft far too convoluted to be comprehensible. Passions had run high for the entire war, as thousands of ideologies clashed each claiming theirs to be the best way for the galaxy as a whole.
Whatever actually happened (which nobody fully understands), everybody knows the ultimate result. In a conclusion unsatisfactory to almost all, the victorious faction were the Way of Tolerance, who... somehow... (it's time travel. Complicated...) managed to gather the force across time to enforce each culture remaining at its own borders. In the name of peace, no culture would be allowed to impose its will on another. People could still time travel, but the existence of the secret weapon "Virals" across time ensured that resistance was futile. Naturally, many defeated warriors were infuriated at te new truce.
An obscure planet known to some as Earth happens to be near a time vortex. A small number of ships time travelling, infinitesmal in galactic terms, get drawn to Earth in the year 2013. Once there, they realise that the place is a natural trap, impossible to travel into or out of. All their time and space travel devices work fine, but only within Earth's Solar System.
Many travellers decide to live out their lives in exile. They close themselves off using their Storage Units (which are connected only to Earth, but undetectable to those without the Codes and hence to Earthlings). But many are frustrated by their cultural failure, desire power, or wish to interfere for another reason.
Hence, many go to war...
Time Rules:
For a single character to travel back in time costs 1 E.P per 100 years. A character may travel to any particular point you desire, but assuming it isn't an even hundred years then the cost is rounded up to the nearest time travel of one century.
All organisations start off with some means of Temporal Storage, sealed off from the timeline. Temporal Storage can only be breached if an alien character manages to 1) sucessfully betray your organisation without the knowledge of your forces, 2) fast-talk whatever agents you have inside into letting them in, and finally 3) suceed in taking your Temporal Storage unit by force. A single traitor, however, can reveal the location of your Temporal Storage Unit, meaning it can be hacked or kept under observation.
Alien Characters begin in Temporal Storage, and thus initially immune to the impact of Earth's timeline. Once they have appeared even once on Earth's timeline, they are vulnerable to being killed by changes in the timeline. Of course, such deaths can be undone by future changes.
Aliens do NOT have Ripple Effect Proof Memory. When the timeline changes, the memories of Aliens change with it. The only reason this does not completely undermine them is because the Temporal Storage Unit always maintains a record of the true timeline. It is recommended at least one character remain at base
Each Update represents one unit of Meta-Time on a constantly changing timeline. It is therefore highly recommended that agent's orders have contingency plans in play in case some other player's actions undermine the timeline. There is no rule, however, saying you have to do this.
If a Paradox occurs, Circularity will occur. This means that until the actions of players resolve the paradox, each update I will alternate between each of the two alternate versions of the paradoxical state. Agents or resources that don't exist on one version are, of course, unusable on that version.
Only aliens can enter Temporal Storage. The beaming out process takes one hour, and will easily give away that something is going on to any humans that see it.
Meta-Time and Time Waves
Meta-Time is an artificial construct created by Temporal Storage Units, designed so its users can understand time. Normally every Temporal Storage Unit has its own Meta-Time (making things VERY complicated), but the side-effects of Earth ensure only one Meta-Time exists.
The unit of Meta-Time is the Update. Every Update, wherever Agents are making changes to the past a "Time Wave" propagates 100 years. Said Time Waves were meant to the Agent's masters time to adjust orders or bail out Agents more easily, but in the new environment also give the Agent's enemies time to adjust to their actions.
Other Rules:
Travel: Teleportation TO the Temporal Storage Unit takes an hour, but travel FROM said unit is intantaneous, and can be to any location in the Solar System (or, in practice, on Earth). Hence, the Unit serves as a teleportation hub in practice.
Recruiting new agents: There are many aliens who have decided to stick to the relative safety of their Temporal Storage Units. However, not all of them necessarily wish to stay that way. It costs 1 E.P (or Economy Point) to recruit a single new agent. You as a player get to generate this agent's stats and backstory, and it is assumed to be from another crashed ship.
Human recruiting: You can recruit humans if you want to. If it makes sense that they serve you given the events of the update, they serve you. Said agents get stats based on what makes sense, not random generation. A human can't go into Temporal Storage, but like an alien they can be transited in time for 1 C.P. However, a human is a vulnerable agent indeed. They can easily be butterflied out of existence if the timeline changes.
Human disguises: Every alien has one human disguise as part of their recruitment cost. Said disguise is unique to the alien. However, a new human disguise can be generated for 1 E.P and attached permanently to an agent. Said agent can then change forms at will.
Languages: Every alien automatically knows all human languages. This isn't their own power, but a side effect of the powers of their Temporal Storage Unit.
Growing E.P/C.P: 5 E.P can be used to add 1 to your E.P or C.P growth rate.
Spending E.P in-Timeline: 1 E.P can also be converted to ten tons of gold.
Organisation Template:
Name:
Species: This you get to make up. If it's more than one, describe what culture dominates. If there are more than one species, also describe every new species that doesn't have a description already.
Ideology: This you make up. Every Organisation must have a different Ideology- if they were on the same side, they wouldn't be seperate.
E.P: 1/1
C.P(currently avaliable/generation per turn): 10/10
Other items in Temporal Storage: This starts off blank, but can change in-play.
Backstory:
Agents: (five agents below)
Character Template: (20 points to distribute)
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:
Loyalty(out of 10): How trustworthy your alien is. 0 means they hate your guts. 5 means that they are neutral about you and have the basic "don't stab my boss in the back" sense of loyalty having agreed to sign up. 10 means that they will withstand even torture for a few days. Better requires a specialty.
Historical Knowledge(out of 10): How well your alien knows their history. Remember that these aliens are in an obscure planet in the middle of nowhere- hence, whilst specialisation exists it is rare. 0 represents no knowledge whatsoever. 5 represents what you'd expect of a real-world human. A 10 means that, though not perfect, your alien understands the broad "gist" of
each era. Better requires a specialty.
Technical Knowledge(out of 10): How well your alien is able to use their historical knowledge and knowledge of alien technology to advance human technology. 0 means they don't even know how to use human technology. 5 means they are reasonably proficient with human devices across the eras. 10 means they understand the course of human technical development and are a brilliant innovator.
Quick-Thinking(out of 10): If your alien is put under pressure by something unexpected, how fast can they think on their feet? 0 represents an agent who will panic if even the slightest thing is out of order. 5 represents an ordinary agent- ready for changes but not suited to deal with massive timeline changes. 10 represents a master of quick thinking who can be trusted to stay alive in any situation bar enemy action, and very difficult to destroy even then.
Speciality: The equivalent of UUs in other NESes, this can be custom-made. It includes such things as . This can be traded in for five points to distribute amongst stats, and should be considered about as powerful.
Backstory:
The Great Ideology War just finished. Tens of billions died and hundreds of trillions erased (if you count the people who only existed on one iteration of the timeline) in a war of time travel and spacecraft far too convoluted to be comprehensible. Passions had run high for the entire war, as thousands of ideologies clashed each claiming theirs to be the best way for the galaxy as a whole.
Whatever actually happened (which nobody fully understands), everybody knows the ultimate result. In a conclusion unsatisfactory to almost all, the victorious faction were the Way of Tolerance, who... somehow... (it's time travel. Complicated...) managed to gather the force across time to enforce each culture remaining at its own borders. In the name of peace, no culture would be allowed to impose its will on another. People could still time travel, but the existence of the secret weapon "Virals" across time ensured that resistance was futile. Naturally, many defeated warriors were infuriated at te new truce.
An obscure planet known to some as Earth happens to be near a time vortex. A small number of ships time travelling, infinitesmal in galactic terms, get drawn to Earth in the year 2013. Once there, they realise that the place is a natural trap, impossible to travel into or out of. All their time and space travel devices work fine, but only within Earth's Solar System.
Many travellers decide to live out their lives in exile. They close themselves off using their Storage Units (which are connected only to Earth, but undetectable to those without the Codes and hence to Earthlings). But many are frustrated by their cultural failure, desire power, or wish to interfere for another reason.
Hence, many go to war...
Time Rules:
For a single character to travel back in time costs 1 E.P per 100 years. A character may travel to any particular point you desire, but assuming it isn't an even hundred years then the cost is rounded up to the nearest time travel of one century.
All organisations start off with some means of Temporal Storage, sealed off from the timeline. Temporal Storage can only be breached if an alien character manages to 1) sucessfully betray your organisation without the knowledge of your forces, 2) fast-talk whatever agents you have inside into letting them in, and finally 3) suceed in taking your Temporal Storage unit by force. A single traitor, however, can reveal the location of your Temporal Storage Unit, meaning it can be hacked or kept under observation.
Alien Characters begin in Temporal Storage, and thus initially immune to the impact of Earth's timeline. Once they have appeared even once on Earth's timeline, they are vulnerable to being killed by changes in the timeline. Of course, such deaths can be undone by future changes.
Aliens do NOT have Ripple Effect Proof Memory. When the timeline changes, the memories of Aliens change with it. The only reason this does not completely undermine them is because the Temporal Storage Unit always maintains a record of the true timeline. It is recommended at least one character remain at base
Each Update represents one unit of Meta-Time on a constantly changing timeline. It is therefore highly recommended that agent's orders have contingency plans in play in case some other player's actions undermine the timeline. There is no rule, however, saying you have to do this.
If a Paradox occurs, Circularity will occur. This means that until the actions of players resolve the paradox, each update I will alternate between each of the two alternate versions of the paradoxical state. Agents or resources that don't exist on one version are, of course, unusable on that version.
Only aliens can enter Temporal Storage. The beaming out process takes one hour, and will easily give away that something is going on to any humans that see it.
Meta-Time and Time Waves
Meta-Time is an artificial construct created by Temporal Storage Units, designed so its users can understand time. Normally every Temporal Storage Unit has its own Meta-Time (making things VERY complicated), but the side-effects of Earth ensure only one Meta-Time exists.
The unit of Meta-Time is the Update. Every Update, wherever Agents are making changes to the past a "Time Wave" propagates 100 years. Said Time Waves were meant to the Agent's masters time to adjust orders or bail out Agents more easily, but in the new environment also give the Agent's enemies time to adjust to their actions.
Other Rules:
Travel: Teleportation TO the Temporal Storage Unit takes an hour, but travel FROM said unit is intantaneous, and can be to any location in the Solar System (or, in practice, on Earth). Hence, the Unit serves as a teleportation hub in practice.
Recruiting new agents: There are many aliens who have decided to stick to the relative safety of their Temporal Storage Units. However, not all of them necessarily wish to stay that way. It costs 1 E.P (or Economy Point) to recruit a single new agent. You as a player get to generate this agent's stats and backstory, and it is assumed to be from another crashed ship.
Human recruiting: You can recruit humans if you want to. If it makes sense that they serve you given the events of the update, they serve you. Said agents get stats based on what makes sense, not random generation. A human can't go into Temporal Storage, but like an alien they can be transited in time for 1 C.P. However, a human is a vulnerable agent indeed. They can easily be butterflied out of existence if the timeline changes.
Human disguises: Every alien has one human disguise as part of their recruitment cost. Said disguise is unique to the alien. However, a new human disguise can be generated for 1 E.P and attached permanently to an agent. Said agent can then change forms at will.
Languages: Every alien automatically knows all human languages. This isn't their own power, but a side effect of the powers of their Temporal Storage Unit.
Growing E.P/C.P: 5 E.P can be used to add 1 to your E.P or C.P growth rate.
Spending E.P in-Timeline: 1 E.P can also be converted to ten tons of gold.
Organisation Template:
Name:
Species: This you get to make up. If it's more than one, describe what culture dominates. If there are more than one species, also describe every new species that doesn't have a description already.
Ideology: This you make up. Every Organisation must have a different Ideology- if they were on the same side, they wouldn't be seperate.
E.P: 1/1
C.P(currently avaliable/generation per turn): 10/10
Other items in Temporal Storage: This starts off blank, but can change in-play.
Backstory:
Agents: (five agents below)
Character Template: (20 points to distribute)
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:
Loyalty(out of 10): How trustworthy your alien is. 0 means they hate your guts. 5 means that they are neutral about you and have the basic "don't stab my boss in the back" sense of loyalty having agreed to sign up. 10 means that they will withstand even torture for a few days. Better requires a specialty.
Historical Knowledge(out of 10): How well your alien knows their history. Remember that these aliens are in an obscure planet in the middle of nowhere- hence, whilst specialisation exists it is rare. 0 represents no knowledge whatsoever. 5 represents what you'd expect of a real-world human. A 10 means that, though not perfect, your alien understands the broad "gist" of
each era. Better requires a specialty.
Technical Knowledge(out of 10): How well your alien is able to use their historical knowledge and knowledge of alien technology to advance human technology. 0 means they don't even know how to use human technology. 5 means they are reasonably proficient with human devices across the eras. 10 means they understand the course of human technical development and are a brilliant innovator.
Quick-Thinking(out of 10): If your alien is put under pressure by something unexpected, how fast can they think on their feet? 0 represents an agent who will panic if even the slightest thing is out of order. 5 represents an ordinary agent- ready for changes but not suited to deal with massive timeline changes. 10 represents a master of quick thinking who can be trusted to stay alive in any situation bar enemy action, and very difficult to destroy even then.
Speciality: The equivalent of UUs in other NESes, this can be custom-made. It includes such things as . This can be traded in for five points to distribute amongst stats, and should be considered about as powerful.
Backstory:
