Time Travel (was [Torg] Re: Axioms and PE)

[Jasyn Jones]

On Jul 10, 2007, at 7:10 PM, Chad Dickhaut wrote:

> --- Jasyn Jones <jasynj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Time travel is a genre, nor a "33" tool.
>>
>> It can happen at nearly any axiom level, if the GM/writer/publisher
>> wishes to introduce it.
>
> I disagree that time travel is a genre;

Depends on what you mean by "genre."

It is an established literary genre, or sub-genre if one prefers (a  
sub-genre of Science Fiction, originally).

However, even as a genre, it seems unsuited for use as a Torg cosm (a  
"Cosm of Time Travel Reality" just wouldn't work, IMHO). Another such  
unsuitable subgenre/genre is Alternate History (or allohistory). All  
cosms are allohistorical in one way or another (See: Magna V, Terra,  
Geos, Gaea, etc.), and a "Cosm of Allohistorical Reality" would be  
very silly.

So, "Time Travel" isn't a genre, in the "genres-as-realities"  
framework of Torg, though it is a literary genre.

This leads to a further musing:

Some genres are unsuited for use as Torg cosms (two cited above).  
Those that are suited seem to share a fundamental characteristic:  
they are Milieu Genres. By this, I mean that, for example, the genres  
of Fantasy and Cyberpunk both impute a specific milieu, or setting,  
one that shares common tropes across many different instances of the  
genre (books, short stories, films, games). These types of genres are  
easiest to translate into Torg realities, and are easiest for players  
and DM's to grasp.

Some genres that do not translate well: Cop Stories, War Stories,  
Buddy Cop Movies, Mysteries, Romances. None of these have an implied  
milieu: all can take place in any milieu. For Mysteries, see the R.  
Daneel Olivaw novels, CSI, Sherlock Holmes, and Lord Darcy  
Investigates. Many milieus, same "genre." Because of this, it is hard  
to build a cosm around them.

This suggests that, when looking for genres to implement as cosms,  
one ought focus on Milieu genres over non-Milieu genres.

> I think that it is more akin to
> a plot device used within the genres of science fiction and fantasy.
> While there are entire novels, movies, and even series that revolve
> around time travel, very often it is used as a one-shot episode  
> plot or
> as a DEM to get the Heroes out of a seemingly hopeless jam.

On-topic, then Time Travel (in fiction) is:

1.) Something that occurs at many Tech levels (and in many axioms).
2.) Is usually unique to a few people in the setting, is usually not  
a common tool.

Both of these points-an accurate restatement of your accurate  
observations above-indicate that Time Travel isn't something that  
belongs on the Axiom charts.

An axiomatic tool is appropriate for the level that it becomes  
possible at, and no lower (Tech 3 Cavemen ought not be inventing or  
using jet turbines). This clearly doesn't describe Time Travel, which  
occurs at many axiom levels.

A DEM or one-person Plot Device isn't a universal tool, in-game, it's  
GM Fiat (or an Escape card). Axiomatic tools, once invented, ought to  
be tools that can be in general use, even if they're not in general  
use (this is my general guideline, reasonable people can disagree  
with me). A Plot Device isn't such a tool, and Time Travel shouldn't  
be, because it would fundamentally change the nature of the Torg RPG.

In other words, my suggestion for dealing with Time Travel in Torg  
exactly matches your description of what Time Travel is in the  
fiction: something the GM Fiats into existence when it's desired/ 
needed, but which is unavailable the rest of the time.

Since this is what Time Travel is in the fiction, for good reasons,  
this is what it should be in the game. It works best like this (Plot  
Device) in the game, not like a universal tool.

> While it's true that GM’s or author’s fiat can introduce time  
> travel at
> nearly any axiom level, this doesn't mean that it isn’t useful to  
> place
> time travel on the spectrum of axioms.  Indeed, the axioms provide a
> metric to explain why it is that time travel is not more common in the
> settings in which it is used.

Except that Author's Fiat explains this perfectly, and Author's Fiat  
translates perfectly to GM's Fiat.

>   In many cases time travel may be
> explained by an anomalous (that is, contradictory) tool (e.g. Wells’s
> time machine, Doc Brown’s flux capacitor, Evan Treborn’s psychic
> time-hopping ability),

In fact, in the vast majority of stories, these tools are very  
anomalous: Well's occurs at Tech 18, 15 Tech levels prior to 33!  
That's just too big a gap to believe that the Protagonist  
successfully bridged, just by accident.

If we build an exception into the general concepts of Axioms to allow  
Time Travel to (nearly always) appear far earlier than the presumed  
axiom, we would have to explain why other such anamolies aren't  
common: why not Nukes in Tech 6 (15 point gap)? Why not computers in  
Tech 7?

The axioms are what they are for a reason: they limit what tools can  
be used/created in a reality. Overturning or impairing this core  
function of Axioms, all in the name of handwaving the presence of a  
tool that ought not exist when it does, seems counterproductive.

It's far more sensible to allow Time Travel to be in-game what it is  
in Time Travel fiction: a Fiat event or Plot Device. This preserves  
the nature of Time Travel and the nature of the Axioms. (Reasonable  
people can differ, obviously.)

> Either way it seems to me
> that the paradigm of “time travel is possible at high axiom, possibly
> available in other cases through world laws”

It, like you said, it's usually a one-time Plot Device, rare or  
unique even in those stories where it occurs, then World Laws aren't  
well suited to its nature either. World Laws affect everyone in the  
cosm, not just one guy, once.

> is a more satisfying
> approach than merely invoking GM’s/author’s fiat every time it is  
> used,

Why? As you showed, it is Author's/GM's Fiat. It's an exceptional  
case that happens because the GM wishes it to happen, it's not a  
commonplace tool.

And, even if there were a setting where it were a commonplace tool,  
then Fiat explains that better than "Tech 15 for everything but Tech  
33 for this one device."

> and more in line with Torg’s metaphysics (that is, unless you want  
> time
> travel to be a transcendent effect akin to PE and the Everlaws).

Don't understand this point, really.

Time Travel, as a generic phenomenon, shouldn't appear on any axiom  
chart: the functions of the Axioms are ill-matched to Time Travel as  
a generic phenomenon.

When the GM desires it to exist, the specific tool that can travel  
through time works according to the Axiom level it operates at: Tech  
18, Magic 15, etc. Disconnection and other such mechanics operate as  
normal for this one instance of the general concept.

This preserves both the nature of Time Travel, and the nature of the  
Torg metaphysics.

Time Travel isn't dealt well within Torg, because Torg's milieu isn't  
designed for Time Travel (Time Travel RPG's require a setting that's  
designed around this concept). So within the game, it is a thorny issue.

Of all the solutions, GM's Fiat describes the nature of Time Travel  
in fiction perfectly (something that appears at many different axioms  
levels as Author's Fiat or a Plot Device), while also preserving the  
playability of Time Travel: it happens when, where, and how GM's  
wish, and doesn't happen at any other time.

Just my opinion.
---
Jasyn Jones
jasynj (at) gmail (dot) com

Check out Storm Knights, my Torg website:
http://darleyconsulting.com/games/stormknights/

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson