Awe factor: Variable depending on Historical period.
Tech Advantage: On par to high
Inspiration: Too many to list

In this realm, history proceeded as we knew it to a point, then took a divergent path. The South trounced the North in the Civil War; Lincoln and Kennedy were not assassinated; Nazi Germany took over the world; The Czar and his family escaped the Russian Revolution and now live in the United States; the Titanic really was unsinkable and later gained renown as a troopship in both World Wars. In all of these scenarios, someone or something is responsible for altering the path of History, sending it off in a new direction.

In a Timeship: TITANIC! adventure, the players and the ship take on the role that caused the change, either by intent, or accident. A good example would be the classic Star Trek Episode - "A Piece of the Action". In that episode an early Starfleet vessel leaves several books as a goodwill gesture with the inhabitants of a planet. One hundred years later, the Enterprise visits and finds a recreation of 1930's mobland Chicago, with assorted gangsters serving as the planetary government!

The same thing can happen to the players, with one of them leaving a gun behind in ancient Greece, thus upsetting the balance of things as the Greeks, after figuring out how to make more guns, promptly start kicking butt up and down the Aegean. Then there's the option that one of the players is supposed to be in the past, and is the catalyst for some crucial event.

ALTERNATE HISTORY ADVENTURE SEEDS

There but for the grace...

The legend of the Titanic tells of a mystery ship that was clearly visible to those aboard, yet did not come to their aid. Guess what ship it was? That's right, the Titanic has dimension jumped into our timeline on that fateful April night in 1912, and sits motionless as the crew makes repairs. Will the players decide to race to the rescue of themselves on the other ship? And, are they prepared to come face to face with their dopplegangers? What will happen to the crew if their intervene?

The land our Grandchildren knew

The Titanic jumps onto a world much like Earth and stops to resupply at a large tropical island. In the lagoon is the rusted and cannibalized remains of a large ship. The people of the island are fair skinned and speak perfect English. What's all the more amazing is that they say they've been expecting the Titanic and her crew for the past one hundred and fifty years!

As the players question how they could be expected when their dimension jumps are random and unpredictable, an elder explains that they are all the descendents of the Titanic's crew and passengers who were shipwrecked on the island after a trip through a portal damaged the ship beyond repair.

The players will find themselves in a quandary. Do they proceed on their way, knowing their next jump will be the last for the ship? Do they attempt to cheat their fate, condemning 8,000 souls to non-existence? Or can the crew find a way to splice the two realities together without losing their hold on the tenuous time thread? This one was inspired by an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Hopefully this article has provided some guidance and ideas for gamemasters and setting up a Timeship: TITANIC! campaign or just running a oneshot adventure in your favorite gaming genre. I've purposely left some of the specifics somewhat vague. I've always been a firm believer that the best gaming environment is one in which the gamemaster and players are granted some leeway on how to run their world and characters. The Timeship: Titanic! is a passage to strange and wondrous worlds.

Charting Your Course: Gamemaster Guide

Introduction
Fantasy
Cyberpunk
Horror
Superheroes
Steampunk
Alternate History