"You disappeared without a trace, you brought me here, but can you take me back?"

--Twilight by ELO

Background

The story is well known. The RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage strikes an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sinks with the loss of over 1500 lives. For over eighty years she rests quietly on the bottom of the Atlantic until her remains are discovered by Dr. Robert Ballard in the late 1980's . Subsequent expeditions to the site bring up artifacts, and renew the public's interest in the tragic ship and the fate that befell her.

In 1997, on the 85th anniversary of the disaster, an event occurs that astounds the world. At the exact hour that she slipped beneath the waves so many years ago, the Titanic appears out of a fog bank on Lake Michigan two miles from Chicago. The tabloid press has a field day with the story, and a team of experts, as well as several of the merely curious, go aboard the ship which is quarantined at Navy pier. They discover the liner carries the full complement of crew and passengers she had when she left Southhampton, none of whom have any knowledge of icebergs, nor of the fate that was supposed to have befallen them. Then, just as mysteriously as she appeared, the Titanic once more vanishes at dockside taking several unwilling people from our era with her...

So begins Timeship: TITANIC!, a multi genre gaming concept in which players assume the roles of either one of the famous liners complement of crew or passengers, or one of the many persons picked up in her travels through time and space. The concept allows for players to utilize characters from any gaming genre as the great ship visits their worlds, and allows them to visit others as the ship continues on her random voyage. The basic premise is simple. In an alternate timeline the Titanic does not strike an iceberg, but rather stumbles across a dimensional portal which whisks the ship off to other realities.

The souls aboard her have no control over where they will end up next, nor how long they will stay in any one reality, as the ship continues to dimension shift at random. They must survive as best they can; trading with those they encounter for the food, fuel, and supplies that will keep them going until the shift that will finally return them home.

In Timeship: TITANIC!, the ship is identical to the one in our historical timeline, but with some significant changes and additions. In the course of her travels, she has undergone modifications, either to repair damage, or to take advantage of the advanced technologies of a particular world she finds herself. Hence, she has been fitted with sophisticated navigation gear ranging from readily recognizable radar scanners mounted on her masts, to alien devices that defy understanding. In the radio shack just aft of the bridge, the old wireless set now shares space with a space age communications unit. The Titanic's engineering spaces resemble something out of Jules Verne, with jury rigged plumbing bypassing damaged equipment, ladders and gantries running everywhere, a futuristic systems monitoring console, and a breeder reactor in a space once filled by four of the boilers. For the most part, the areas frequented by the passengers and the crew quarters have remained unchanged, except for minor decoration changes effected by some of those the ship has picked up in her travels. In addition to her lifeboats, the Titanic now supports several auxiliary craft including the Princess Alice III, a modern 45 foot motor yacht, and two air cars that seat six persons each.

When she first passed through the dimension portal back in 1912, the Titanic became charged with highly ionized particles that created an energy field that envelopes the ship. This field is what precipitates the ship's random shifts through time and space. Normally invisible, the field is sometimes seen as a pale blue aura if atmospheric conditions are right. The field is harmless to those aboard, and allows people and things to pass through unhindered. (Save for making hair stand on end!). This field extends out about five feet from the hull and anything within that radius will be taken along when the ship shifts.(When the ship vanished from Navy Pier several of those caught on the boarding ramps at the field perimeter were ripped in half when they tried to prevent themselves from getting sucked into the dimensional vortex.) The field protects the ship from the effects of the dimension shifts, and anyone inside the hull or cabins. Anyone caught out on deck is driven insane by what they see or experience during the shift. This sad fate befell many of the Titanic's passengers and crew during the initial dimension shift and now they either wander the ship intermittently breaking out in hysterical laughter, or are locked up for the good of themselves and their fellow passengers in the aft cargo hold which has been made into a makeshift asylum and dubbed "Wonderland" by the inmates.

The Titanic

The central focus of the game is, of course, the Titanic herself, the great "unsinkable" liner that departed Southhampton, England on a voyage into legend. The largest man-made object at the time, she was designed to be a veritable floating palace for her passengers, offering such amenities as Turkish baths, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, an open air French cafe, a five star restaurant, and parlor suites with their own private promenades.

Of course, the majority of these were for the exclusive use of the first class passengers, whose staterooms rivaled many land-bound hotels; those in second and third class had to content themselves with less luxurious accommodations, and were strictly prohibited from entering the first class areas. (This class distinction was carried to its ludicrous extreme when several lower class passengers -- attempting to reach the safety of the lifeboats as the Titanic was sinking -- were barred at gunpoint by members of the ship's crew from passing through the first class dining saloon.)

The Titanic weighed 26,000 tons and was nearly 900 feet long with a draft of 35 feet. 24 huge boilers produced the steam needed to drive her two story tall reciprocating engines. Three screws propelled her to a top speed of 24 knots. The central screw was turned by the main engines whose waste steam then turned the two outboard screws. The ship's claim of "unsinkability" arose from the fifteen watertight compartments that sectioned off the lower part of her hull. Her builders believed that the ship could stay afloat with up to three of these open to the sea (unfortunately, the iceberg opened five, thus sealing her fate).

In Timeship: TITANIC!, the ship is identical to the one from our history -- except for the changes wrought by her numerous dimension jumps. Damage, of course, has been extensive. The exterior surfaces have been pitted and scorched from high energy strikes incurred during dimensional transport, areas of the ship have sustained light to severe fire damage where electrical circuits overloaded, windows and skylights have shattered and cracked, etc. The ship's crew of engineers and volunteers work almost around the clock to repair this damage, sometimes improvising with whatever is at hand. But the best they can do is to stay one step ahead of the tide as each new jump brings more damage in its wake.

The Titanic sports several auxiliary vehicles in addition to her lifeboats, that aid her crew in exploration of the worlds they visit.

Princess Alice III

The charter yacht owned by Captain O'Donahue was tied alongside the Titanic when she jumped from a Navy pier in the year 1997. 65 feet in length, sleek, ultramodern, and powered by twin diesel engines, she is the primary watercraft used to ferry exploration parties ashore. Her speed has saved the crew numerous times when the locals proved inhospitable. Her dinghy, the Joanna, is equipped with a 25 horsepower outboard, and is used when waters prove too shallow for the mother-craft. When not in use, the yacht is stowed crosswise on the aft cargo deck.

Anti-grav scout cars

Acquired during a visit to a futuristic world, these two vehicles each seat six people. Primarily used for air reconnaissance, they are utilized sparingly to conserve the charge in their energy cells, which Dr. Barton has yet to understand. They are stowed on the poop, just forward of the docking bridge.

1912 Renault limousine

This car was in the forward cargo hold, being shipped to America when the dimensional portal opened. The crew has since modified it to be a scout car, cutting the roof off the rear section and mounting a machine gun on a tripod.

Jet Hydrofoil

Acquired on an alien planet covered completely by water, this craft is used to defend the sluggish moving Titanic. Its weapons include missiles and twin particle lasers. When not in use the craft is stowed on a gantry slung over the port side.

Timeshifting

The process by which the Titanic randomly jumps between realities is as puzzling as it is spectacular. A jump is usually preceded by the electrical equipment on board going haywire or dead without explanation. The assorted pets brought along by the passengers also seem to sense an impending shift and will become increasingly agitated as the event draws near. Dr. Thomas Barton (a professor at the University of Chicago who was caught in a timeshift), has theorized that there may be thousands of dimensional "gateways" connecting all manner of worlds. The energy field enveloping the Titanic acts as a sort of key when it comes in contact with one. Just prior to the portal opening, the entire ship will begin vibrating to a high harmonic pitch as the field begins crackling with energy.

Other phenomena have been reported during the build-up, such as areas of the hull becoming highly magnetized, and severe electrical arcs stretching from bow to stern. The next phase occurs when a rift in the fabric of time and space opens up. In a fireworks display of unimaginable colors the ship is drawn into the dimensional tunnel. To an observer outside the field, the ship will appear to elongate before vanishing in a loud thunderclap as the portal closes behind it. What the trip looks like from aboard the Titanic is unknown; anyone above deck is driven insane by the experience. Those who survive have been placed in a makeshift asylum in third class, where their rantings will not endanger anyone else. The ship's survivors have learned to get below deck when another jump is upon them.

At the other end, depending on local conditions, the ship's arrival will be heralded by such atmospheric phenomena as dense fog, hurricane winds, and heavy electrical discharges. The portal opens as before, and the ship is more or less spat out before it closes. Some trips are smoother than others, but there seems to be one constant: the ship almost always reappears on water or some other large body of liquid. Only once has it appeared on dry land. Dr. Barton has theorized that the portals need the natural magnetic field of a planetary body as an anchoring point, which means the Titanic will never reappear in space or in mid air high above the ground.

There is no discernable pattern to the frequency of the jumps. They can occur at anytime and vary in frequency from a few hours to months at a time. See "Running a Campaign," below, for more thoughts on how this will affect your campaign.

Adventure Aboard A Ship Lost in Time

Background
People of the Titanic
Running a Timeship Titanic Campaign