Now with the new edition I can control the battlefield a bit better, making customized battles to fit the party instead of just testing out enemies against them.  I also changed the location, before it was on the main planet Midkemia before any between world travel was known about.  Now I am sending my adventuring party through to the Hall of Worlds.  A more flexible place that I can include more races than I could have on the main planet without making them ‘monster’ characters.  It should make an interesting game, I am still working out the details so I won’t release that.  But they will be first up on my Obsidian Portal before the blog.

About the world:

Time travel in this world is done by manipulating whats called a “Temporal Anchor”. Everything has a temporal anchor, which drags with the flow of time, keeping you anchored into the timeline. If this anchor is disrupted, you could be sent either forwards for backwards in time(and space), depending on how the subject is bombarded with Tachyeons.

The Tech used:

Professor Medlow invinted a machine that disrupts the Anchor, by bombarding the target with tachyeons at specific angles and intervals, and can send the target forwards or backwards in time and can even chose the position the target will appear at.

The future company Continuum uses a smaller variation of Medlows machine, and has formed into a wrist cuff that can be worn by the traveler. This device is also a small computer, and also contains a record of the whole of history as the company knows it, so any changes can be tracked and dealt with if the future is not as the traveler left it.

Continuum has also created 2 types of Temporal Moor’s. One device is small and be worn by someone who has become unstuck in time, meaning their temporal anchor is disrupted to the point of not functioning correctly, huring the person(or thing) through time randomly. They also have a larger version of the Moor, which restricts anyone from traveling into the future from a certain point(the year being 5237) and only certain individual from the future(and soem from the preset) are allowed travel into the future, with the use of a pass key.

James Cole also employed a weapon of sorts, which fires an energy bolt at the target, rendering them unconsious and also erases several minutes of their memory.

The History:

In 2009, Professor Medlow invited a device in his basement with sends items through time. In a freak accident, the device explodes shortly after a test, and 3 people have their anchors disrupted and become unstuck in time. To the world, they died in the explosion and Medlow is tried and convicted of killing them and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2029 the asteroid Apophis makes swings by the earth and passes through a keyhole, and in the year 2036 it impacts the earth, killing off 75% of humanity.

Humanity eventually recovers, and learning from the mistakes of the past, a near utopian society is created in the process, with a single world government(this process takes a loooooong time).

Sometime around the year 4000(something) a group of a scientists rediscover info about Medlow and his machine and work to recreate it. After several years, they manage to make the device and eventually test it. After the device is prefected, they decide that possibly Humanity would fair even better had the asteriod not struck the earth. Armed with the knowledge, they travel into the past, giving advance knowledge to the people about the coming apocalypse. The asteroid is diverted. They then travel into the future to find humanity has been totally destroyed. Traying to discover the cause, they travel back to the past and discover there was a world war in 2036, due to some countries feeling that the countries involved in diverting the asteroid were wrong. Nuclear weapons are eventually deployed, wiping out 99% humanity in the process, and its not long before the remaining 1% die off. The scientists had questioned several individuals about it, one of them being James Cole, who was a Soldier for the American forces. They offer him the chance to come with them, and James agress. They “fix” the mistake and correct the timeline. James Cole is now from a timeline that no longer exists.

The scientists eventually form the company Continuum, which is funded by and becomes part of the world government. They work to better themselves and the world by studying the past and collecting artifacts that were “lost to time”. They run several museums, and eventually time travel is used to change nearly every facet of society, from restraunts(where some fast food restraunts have a “classic” version) to televison, where you can watch tv from every decade that it existed.

In the year 5237, James Cole is sent on a mission to recover the 3 individuals who were “killed” in Medlow’s expirement, as they know most likely, the people were not killed, but became unstuck….

There also exists a condition known as Time slip, in which an individuals(or objects) Anchor is temporarily disrupted, and they are sent through time. Their anchor then catches, and they remain in whatever time and place they landed. This explanation is used for several people and things which have disappeared throughout history, such as Ameila Eirhart.

-Mr. Gone

Day 1 -
Group wakes up in what looks to be a huge presentation hall.  The place is usually rented out for meetings or small conventions.  It was currently setup with a few tv’s and a big projector.  On them was the image of a man with a big grin.  He would introduce himself as ‘Mad Merlin’ the DJ/Mage.  He showed them images of the malls current state of being filled with zombies.  He had saved the group by locking them down in that room.  He had also locked down the mall to the outside world so nothing could escape.  If they wanted to survive and leave, they would have to work for him in clearing the mall of its problems.

The party then consisted of one Mage, one Human, three Werewolves and one Balehound.  They had access to a Supermarket (like wal-mart or k-mart style) with some limitations on items.  This would give them food and simple supplies for while they were there.  A group went off through the mall to a security office (the human was the head security officer there) for items there.  They made it inside and fought a more powerful undead to get it.  While they were returning, the others left at the market were attacked by a Pure scouting party.  Battle ended with the group that left coming in to save the others.  End: Mage and two werewolves badly injured (but all healed up by end of session), only the Pure dead.

Before the end, Mad Merlin brought up a menu board.  Giving them choices on their next ‘quest’ like a video game.  They chose to get further suplies and weapons as the mart only had basics.

As we were new to the system, the only character with the climb skill was me.  But that didn’t really matter if you had insta-rope as you could just repel down.  But for kicks I went down with bare hands and feet, going slow but I actually succeeded a few times.  As the rolls went around the table for the skill checks, we could only laugh.  One person after another came up with a 1 on the d20 except me.  So my character got to see all his teammates go flying past as they fell down the cliff to their deaths.  Which I guess was so distracting my next roll was bad enough to make me fall to my death as well.

And that brings the end to our one try of Star Wars D20!

I have to admit that this game concept came out of Dead Rising and Risk.  The idea of locking your players in a mall full of zombies and baddies was interesting.  It allows me a decent amount of control over the scenes and story line so the players don’t get too distracted.  I used the West Edmonton Mall (Alberta, Canada) for my story.  It is large enough to house 500+ stores, an amusement park, a water park, ice skating rink, deep sea park, a mini-golf course and a hotel.  These give a multitude of options for story locations and plots.  Though Mall of America was an alternate location.

I locked my players in with an NPC Archmage who houses himself in the Radio Station that is inside the mall.  He gives options and directions to the players through electronics through the mall.  Which lets my players have side quests and supplies gathering missions.  As the story progresses, things will get harder on the players as  resources dwindle or are claimed by another group.  As they choose their path, I adapt the strength of enemy factions as impacted by their actions.

There was some fluff rules that I were using to adapt the game but they didn’t make a big enough impact on the game.  So for further use of the system I would skip that part.  I created a page with my rough game notes for reference.  Post a comment or contact me if you want further details on the game.  I will be posting more about our specific game and the story so far with our group later.  Also I have an easy to use map of the mall and store list (pdf).

Update: White Wolf Forums Topic

Currently we are switching off every other week for two games.  So updates on a specific story line will happen every other week.  Though any related character ideas, story planning/plotting or other related posts will happen through out the week.