Whenever PCs travel in time, there is the possibility of a temporal encounter. Check for each trip, the chance should vary from 1-10%. When the party is forced to make very hasty time journeys without proper preparation the chance should be doubled or tripled. Note that this list can be used for time travel encounters for characters who remain in their own time.

The encounter can be selected by the GM or rolled randomly on 1d20.

ENCOUNTERS

1. Sentinel/Watchman: A operative who works from static location in time and space, usually a small, carefully camouflaged station. He monitors the surroundinq area for temporal activity. Some sentinels work undercover, posing as ordinary citizens. (CT level 1-4)

2. Guardian/Ranger/Warden: A mobile operative, patrolling a plane of time and intervening when trouble occurs or assistance is needed. (CT level 3-4)

3. Agent: A specially trained expert in intervention. The agent has sophisticated equipment or mental powers that prevent detection by less powerful rival agencies. He is indistinguishable from a native. Agents do not operate in a specific penod of time for long, but are dispatched on missions as needed. (CT level 24)

4. Strike Team: A heavily armed group of military trained operatives. They do not attempt to remain undercover, but attack quickly and with great force. (CT level 2-3)

5. Robot: Certain time agencies make use of robots because of their resistance to subjective temporal influences and their neutral equilibria in affecting the timestream. Some robots will resemble humans or animals closely to avoid attracting attention, but they can spotted by experts. Others are obvious mechanical devices. They are not very smart, but their durability and efficiency at killing, make them ideal for termination missions. (CT level 2-3)

6. Malfunction: The party's chronogear has broken down. Effects are up to the GM. Malfunction may lead to accidents (see below).

7. Accident: The party has had a time accident. They may have encountered another time vehicle, some temporal obstruction (possibly deliberate), or a physical object. Damage to the PCs and their time vehicle will occur. Note that aging can be a form of time damage; or a PC might be affected such that he rapidly evolves or devolves. An accident might cause a paradox (below).

8. Paradox/Anomaly/Discontinuity: The most common paradox is entering a period of time where the PC's already exist, thus creating a very big problem. Aside from the chance of instant annihilation, there are interesting possibilities about the PCs future and past selves interactinq in various ways . . . but the GM better have this figured out beforehand.

Another is the creation of unintended timelines or alternate probabilities very different than what the characters wanted, and having an effect on their own lives. They may return to find their own world completely changed or even nonexistent.

Characters might be affected by a temporal fugue. They become unstuck in time, and start skipping back and forth from one period to another. Or they might start living at a highly accelerated (or slowed) rate. Fast-moving PC's will see the world as being frozen in time, while slow- living ones will appear to be comatose to others.

Also possible is the creation of a Timeloop--a closed period of repeating time, where the characters are forced to reenact their actions again and again. Breaking the loop requires outside intervention or the discovery of the key action in the loop which must then be performed differently than before. Almost inevitably, the changing the key action is something that leads to undesirable results for the PC's. Timeloops can be generated by advanced chronotechnologies, or occur by chance.

9. Explorer: A time-traveler who is interested in research and possible exploitation of a particular penod. Many explorers are responsible scientists, but some are selfseeking entrepreneurs who are insensitive to any harm they may inflict on the timestream and are out to steal valuable items. (CT level 14)

10. Time Tourists/Safari: Visitors from another time, led by an entrepreneur or time-travel agency guide, who wish to witness some historic event or participate in an activity not possible in their own time (like hunting dinosaurs). Although they are prohibited from interfering in the past, tourists are notorious for causing trouble. (CT level 1-4)

11. Lost Traveler(s): Time travelers, possibly tourists, agents or explorers who have been stranded due to hostile forces, accidents, or malfunctions. They will be grateful for help, but some may also be dangerous, as they will attempt to conquer the less advanced beings of the time they've been thrown into.

Occasionally there will be embittered exiles from other periods who have marooned for their crimes. (CT 1-4)

12. Time Sensitives: Beings who are attuned to the temporal state, and can naturally detect the use of time affecting devices. Under certain conditions, they can travel time themselves. They may be aliens or humans with psionic powers.

13. Time Marauders: These are aliens or warlike barbarians who have somehow gotten hold of a time machine and are intent on invading the timelines for plunder, slaves, technology, or a better place to live. Usually they are poorly equipped, organized, trained, and led, but appear in large numbers. However, there is a chance they might be superior forces of a dictatorship bent on conquest. (CT level 1-4)

14. Inadvertent Time Travelers: People who have accidently traveled time due to misuse of technology, magic, mental powers, unfortunate encounters with powerful entities or natural anomalies, malfunctioning hyperdrives in their spacecraft, etc. They are in even worse shape than lost travelers as they don't understand what happened and don't have any idea how to get back home.

Those who are flexible and enterprising will get along quite well in their new times, and may even become quite powerful. The rest will be lucky to survive. This category can also include items or creatures from distant eras that have been misplaced in time, often with far-reaching effects.

15. Chronos: Smart creatures or particles who invade chronogear and temporal travel machines, causing them to function erratically. The malfunctions will be barely noticeable as first, but progressively get worse. They will eventually disable or destroy the equipment.

16. Immortals: Strictly speaking, not time travelers, but persons who have an immense lifespan and other special abilities and who remain hidden from the bulk of humanity (e.g., vampires). Thus the same individual could be encountered in period after period. Their acute senses make it likely that they would identify travelers as something out of the ordinary before they were recognized themselves.

An alternative is persons (or creatures) who have "traveled" from the distant past by some kind of suspended animation- cryogenics, magical stasis, relativistic time dilation or just falling asleep for a few centuries. Then there is the odd individual who is living his life backwards in time.

17. Time Ghosts: Unusual manifestations of time, these ephemeral visions could be the anything from the spirits of lost travelers or dead people to character's psyches from alternate realiffes to random noise to bizarre creatures. Generally harmless, the GM can use them to inform, distract, warn mislead, scare, or harass the party as he sees fit.

18.Time Elementals/Beasts/Creatures: Entities which exist in the realm of time. They are naturally capable of time travel and potent temporal manipulations and tend not to like interlopers. They can be anything from mindless monsters to benevolent (or merciless) near- omnipotent beings.

19. Time Winds: A natural phenomenon of time that can force travelers offcourse, to a different location, period of time, and maybe even an alternative probability.

20. Renegades: Some of the worst possible adversaries. These include the time terrorists described by Jolly, plus various would-be conquerors and warped geniuses who may try to impersonate historical figures, kidnap people from different eras for cruel experiments or their menagerie of "primitives", or just mangle time for their own twisted ends. They are typically involved in diabolical schemes to gain mighty artifacts, power, or revenge, and have no compunction about using all the resources at their command to get their way. (CT 1-4)

More Time Travelers

Introduction
Encounters
Characters