Time travel....sort of?

[Overlord Rikonius]

I am GMing a game where I was going to introduce a particular new NPC. The NPC is supposedly from the future...kindve. My rationale is that he is from another dimension that is exactly like Rifts earth...except it is slightly in the future (5-30 years) and is being plagued by the minion war.

The particular NPC would have Rifted into what we know as Rifts Earth and is arrested by CS Rifts Control Study Group Scientists and locked away where he is constantly interrogated about his so called "future". The CS keeps him alive simply becuase he can successfully predict certain occurances although he is not psychic or a magic user.

Does this seem plausible?

I suppose so. Time can flow at different rates within a universe (ie, going slower aboard a fast rocketship than on your home planet).
If there are alternate universes, then maybe a similar effect slowed or speeded up one of them after the point of divergence.
It'd all depend on how the multiverse is structured, but it could happen (btw, Sliders did an episode where they found such a "past world")

edit: come to think of it, this would likely take a huge effect to make a universe "run fast" or "run slow". You could maybe have it be a hint to some huge cosmic campaign.

[Overlord Rikonius]

I am GMing a game where I was going to introduce a particular new NPC. The NPC is supposedly from the future...kindve. My rationale is that he is from another dimension that is exactly like Rifts earth...except it is slightly in the future (5-30 years) and is being plagued by the minion war.

The particular NPC would have Rifted into what we know as Rifts Earth and is arrested by CS Rifts Control Study Group Scientists and locked away where he is constantly interrogated about his so called "future". The CS keeps him alive simply becuase he can successfully predict certain occurances although he is not psychic or a magic user.

Does this seem plausible?

Depends on how you think of time. If you think that time is a one-way road and nothing done in the past changes the future...or that everything that happened in the past is what causes the future no matter if someone goes back with intent to change it...then this guy would fit right in. If you think of the future as malleable then this guy wouldn't, so you've got to firmly establish how time works in your game world.

Well, even if there is malleable time travel and you can go back and change your past, that's not to say that there can't also be an alternate universe that, due to whatever cosmic hiccup, is running a few years slow thus mimicking your past.

[Glistam]

I am GMing a game where I was going to introduce a particular new NPC. The NPC is supposedly from the future...kindve. My rationale is that he is from another dimension that is exactly like Rifts earth...except it is slightly in the future (5-30 years) and is being plagued by the minion war.

The particular NPC would have Rifted into what we know as Rifts Earth and is arrested by CS Rifts Control Study Group Scientists and locked away where he is constantly interrogated about his so called "future". The CS keeps him alive simply becuase he can successfully predict certain occurances although he is not psychic or a magic user.

Does this seem plausible?

That's the new standard for Palladium and time travel - you don't go to the past or the future, just another dimension which seems like your past or future. So yes, that's plausable. As far as the Coalition hanging on to this guy, I think that's plausable too.

[Oberoth]

You could explain it with Relativity. The guy from the future dimension could have been from a parallel galaxy that was traveling faster(Much faster) than the Rifts galaxy was. This is similar to the 'Twins' paradox Einstein devised. This is also similar to the Sliders episode mentioned earlier. Also the original Planet Of The Apes movie had a similar way of getting the main characters to the future.

Just my 2 cents.

Oberoth.

[Oberoth]

I have to correct myself on this. Assuming that the two dimensions are separated by a time difference; your character would have been from the galaxy/universe that was NOT traveling faster than the Rifts dimension/Galaxy (And therefore from an older universe). The greater the velocity of the traveler the more time slows down relative to the the other observer(Rifts Galaxy/universe). This of course would make your characters origin universe smaller because the expansion of his universe would be less than the Rifts universe. Our universe has no measurable center because each galaxy is moving away from every other galaxy at a fixed rate(no acceleration). Or alternately, every point of space is moving away from every other point in space at a fixed rate. This is why our universe is seemingly stable and time moves at a seemingly steady pace. (relative to us).

Quantum physic/mechanics could explain the changes your character would cause if he went to the past. Schrodinger's Cat. Basically the theory is that any event that takes place under observation(Simply being there), is affected by the observation/presence of the observer. Your character would change things simply by being there. The changes could be endless; but the most obvious one would be the effect he had on his interrogators. What would they have been doing if he wasn't there? Probably interrogating some other D-Bee menace.

Yet more pointless information to fill your brain.

Oberoth.

[Iczer]

In my regular HU2 game, one of the central precipts is that the team was brought together by a mutant called 'Vague' alternatively 'Mr Vague'.

Vague was...unidentafiable. Lacked facial features, left no prints, and his DNA broke down to slush after seperating from his body. Vague couldn't be captured by cameras, nor electronic equipment. To exert power in this world, he sought out others to form a superteam.

Now, as a time traveller, vague was from a future ravaged by a Larmac Invasion of fairly epic proportions, and was part of the resistance movement. due to story circumstances, vague had been sent back in time to gather information useful to the resistance, and perhaps perform a little pre-invasion sabotage. Vague formed his team in our time, and kept a parralell portal so he could send updates and make sure that his timeline kept safe.

The PC's fouled it by contacting his younger, pre mutant self. The resulting alteration was too much and Vagues future timeline shut down. (it is no longer a viable future, so his portal no longer goes anywhere)

The game now more or less involved elements from the future. Now he's trapped here, his only option is to try and prevent the disasters he knows about in the future, using his superteam.

The problem is, his 'facts' are all a little bogus. The Larmac do not invade. Earth is hit by a meteor and the Larmac claim the planet as part of a salvage operation. they round up the people to stop the F.A.R. from finding out. All humans see is their cities destroyed, and the aliens looting and pillaging what's left, and they presumed it was an invasion. Vague is assembling superteams so that he can better stave off an alien invasion...that isn't coming

Batts

[Overlord Rikonius]

See my current plot line is that I have 4 PCs. A Cyber Knight, Saddle Tramp, Grackle Tooth Bandit, and a Psi Stalker. They have been sent off on a near suicide mission (to clear a massive amount of debt) to capture a rogue Coalition General who is totally off his rocker.(The General tested nerve gas on religious settlement near El Paso) The CS General is unearthing pre-rifts weapons of mass destruction (nerve gases and satellite weapons etc). Seeing that the rogue General is very devout in his hate for D-bees and magic users Prosek turns a blind eye to his whole rogue operation going on. He feels that in the slight chance that the guy actually does succeed in unearthing these deadly weapon - the the General would use them on enemies of the Coalition anyway. However Desmond Bradford sends out Special Forces squads undercover to monitor the Rogue General regardless. After a scuffle goes down between the General and Bradford's Special Forces tail; Coalition brass comes raining down into Desmond's personal affairs. Bradford decides to pull his Forces away from the General. Bradford then decides to hire/force my PCs (who were already haphazardly following the General anyway) into working for him. It is then that it is revealed to my PCs that Bradford's interest in the Rogue General was sparked by a group of RCSG who captured a human D-Bee-who claims to supposedly be from the future. The D-Bee was only 50% in his predictions of what was to come. It wasn't enough for the Coalition to heed is knowledge, but was enough to spark their curiosity and not execute him. The partiular D-bee has been on Rifts Earth for 3 years-Locked away deeply in the Lonestar complex where he and his belongings have been meticulously studied. The CS has found a few weird things.

-They found that there was great traces of ash and sulfur on his power armor (a CS old style SAMAS)
-He is knowledgable on general locations and events of Rifts NA
-Psychics sense he is telling the truth
-His younger "self" on Rifts earth (a meer child) was killed solely due to his interference on being being in this Rifts dimension
- Certain local events have changed due to him being around

What sparked Bradfords interest however is that in his future dimension, NA is in the midst of a horrible and lasting Minion war. A war which was intensified by a Rogue CS General unwittingly using a WMD on a Calgary, hence killing hundreds of thousands on high PPE creatures and opening up a very large Rift for the minions to utilize and sustain. A downward spiral occurs and the Coalition is heavily besieged, Rifts NA is in chaos and humanities greatest hope is lead by the Black Market and their HQ in the New West. Bradford is attempting to avoid this.

How does it sound? Any ideas to add to it?

Sounds awesome. Now the question is, among the top CS officers who know his story, how many of them just don't believe him, and how many of them believe him but think (most likely wrongly) they can somehow use this to their advantage to turn those minions against their foes?

[Glistam]

I am GMing a game where I was going to introduce a particular new NPC. The NPC is supposedly from the future...kindve. My rationale is that he is from another dimension that is exactly like Rifts earth...except it is slightly in the future (5-30 years) and is being plagued by the minion war.

The particular NPC would have Rifted into what we know as Rifts Earth and is arrested by CS Rifts Control Study Group Scientists and locked away where he is constantly interrogated about his so called "future". The CS keeps him alive simply becuase he can successfully predict certain occurances although he is not psychic or a magic user.

Does this seem plausible?

That's the new standard for Palladium and time travel - you don't go to the past or the future, just another dimension which seems like your past or future. So yes, that's plausable. As far as the Coalition hanging on to this guy, I think that's plausable too.

Really? are there any books the delve into this?

I know Nightbane Book 4 talked about it. I thought that R:UE mentions this in its rifts section, and that the Dimension Book with Galactus on the cover also talks about it. But I dont' have access right now to verify that.

[Nightmaster]

Sorry to kick in like that (I am absent from the boards for almost 2 years thanks to the big C) but although your game is interessing and looks fun there is one single problem with the reasoning of it. There is only one Rifts Earth.

Several of the books depicts what happened on Rifts Earth as a unique event that send shockwaves through the entire megaverse. That is why Rifts Earth is so valuable to several entities like the Gods and the Spplugorth. Because there is just one such place.

Otherwise if there were more than one Rifts Earth Lord Splynn would never be able to turn his beautifull city in the huge dimensional market it is since another guy could be doing the same in other parallel Rifts Earth (which makes things a lot confuse if you stop to think about it).

The possibility of a True Time traveler on the other hand is better acceptable because in several books there are tables that depicts possible time travel effects when tranversing dimensions or other fenomena (Vampire Kingdoms is one such book, Yucatan section). Of course that means that the poor fellow have very little possibilities to return to his time period (they do exist but are very difficult to have access to).

Just my 2 cents