C°ntinuum
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| C°ntinuum: roleplaying in The Yet |
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 C°ntinuum cover; illustrated by Mike Kaluta. |
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| Designer(s) | Chris Adams, Dave Fooden, Barbara Manui |
| Publisher(s) | Aetherco, Dreamcatcher |
| Publication date | 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Time travel |
| System | Custom |
C°ntinuum: roleplaying in The Yet is a science fiction role-playing game about time travel created by Chris Adams, Dave Fooden and Barbara Manui and published by Aetherco/Dreamcatcher. The Continuum also refers to a collective group of time travelers as a whole and the society they inhabit in the game.
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[edit] Setting
Unlike other time travel games (and fiction), which usually depict time travelers as either lone explorers or as an all-powerful "time police", C°ntinuum assumes that time travelers (spanners) would eventually evolve their own society, with its own laws, rules, slang, groups, art movements, and the like. Time travel would color such a civilization in the same way that any other major technology (such as television or the automobile) has changed the human race. C°ntinuum states that the core question of the game is "If you could learn to span time at will . . . what form of civilization would you be entering?"
The Continuum, the main spanner civilization, extends through the whole of human history (and beyond, although the post-Human society of the engimatic "Inheritors" borders on both sides). A primary focus of this civilization is to increase the knowledge and acceptance of time travel by the human race, so that when time travel is discovered and announced (approx. 2250 AD), humans will be ready for it, and moving into the next step in their evolution (becoming Inheritors). Another focus of the Continuum is the complete documentation of history.
The Continuum civilization also has "time criminals", called "Narcissists", so called because they seek to remake history in their own image. (In the late 1990s the publisher announced they would be releasing a version of the C°ntinuum book with the background material retold from the Narcissist standpoint. As of 2006, it has not been released.) The Continuum has members trained to "repair" damage caused to the course of history by the Narcissists.
The game's solution to the issue of time travel paradox is the concept of frag. The universe does not tolerate paradox caused by time travelers, nor are parallel worlds created by paradox. Instead the universe begins to "erase" those for whom the paradox exists. (The frag concept appears to be based partly on the ideas in Alfred Bester's "The Men who Murdered Mohammed".) Too much trying to change history (too much frag) and time travelers become something not quite real anymore. Frag can also be generated on purpose, a tactic in "time combat". The Continuum society is partially built upon the repair of paradoxes that affect its members.
To explain frag by example, using the Grandfather paradox, a Narcissist might decide to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. If he "succeeded", he would return to his own time to find his grandfather alive. (The Continuum would step in to "repair" the murder.) The Narcissist would then begin to fade out of existence due to the conflict between his own memories and actual history. He has been "fragged".
The game also has immersion techniques to bring players "into the game". Most of the book claims to be, and is written as, an anachronistic artifact of spanner culture, aimed at increasing public awareness of time travel to further the Continuum's ends, and to prepare for the public announcement of time-travel. For example, players are required to quote the Maxims of the Continuum before advancing to the next level, and track their time travel, in exactly the manner their characters in the game do. Artwork in the books is also credited to spanners and often depicts the particular aspects of spanner culture.
[edit] Terms
Spanner - Anyone who travels in time. C°ntinuum's time-travel technology requires no external device and only the exercise of one's will to function.
Continuum - The society of time-travellers who believe that the timeline cannot (and thus should not) be changed.
Narcissists - The members of the society that opposes the Continuum, believing that the timeline can and should be changed.
Up/down - Up and down refer to the absolute future and past, as distinct from a time traveler's subjective experience of time. The year 2000 is "up" from the year 1990.
Age - A spanner's subjective past, in contrast with the world's (which is down). For example, a spanner who ate a cookie on Tuesday, immediately time-traveled to Sunday, then might say on Monday, "I ate our last cookie a day up and a day ago of age. Make sure you don't take it before I eat it, okay?" The "day up" indicates that today is Monday and the cookie will be eaten on Tuesday. The "day of age" indicates that the spanner remembers eating the cookie one day ago in his personal timeline.
Gemini - Encountering yourself. This is risky, because if the event happens differently the "second" time, there is potential for paradox and frag.
Slipshank - Time-travel technique where your future self gives your current self something. Accrues a small amount of Frag until you actually perform the action. For example, a spanner sitting in front of the television may be thirsty, but not want to get up. She may then reach under the chair, find a beer, and drink it. It is now necessary for her to, at some point in her yet (see below), get a beer, travel back in time, and place it under the sofa, and she will have a small amount of frag until she does.
Yet - What history knows you've done, but isn't in your 'age'. You have 'yet' to do it. "When I slipshanked myself that beer, the putting of that beer under my chair went into my yet."
[edit] Fundamental Concepts
- History is. If you know something "happened" (up or down, in your age or in your yet - see Terms), it's your best interests to make sure that event 'happens' as you know it 'happened' (unless you're a Narcissist). Perhaps the best example of this is the war between the Narcissists and the Continuum. The Continuum wins, but the war must still be fought.
- "What's the first thing you'd do if you invented time-travel?". C°ntinuum holds that you would travel into the future to obtain the best possible time-machine - which, in the game, is a device completely contained within the body, that can work at will.
[edit] Basic Timeline
Continuum Space-time: From prior to human evolution to approximately 2250 AD (the moment of Inheritance when time-travel becomes public knowledge), with the exception of the Ante-Desertium.
Ante-Desertium: The period of space-time ruled by the Narcissists, ending several thousand years ago. The collapse of the Ante-Desertium is responsible for the formation of the Sahara Desert, from which is gets its name.
Inheritor Space-time: Eventually, humans evolve into 'Inheritors', who are, notably, spanners from birth. Inheritor space time borders that of the Continuums on either side. Inheritor space-time is off-limits, except by invite, to non-inheritors.
[edit] Sourcebooks
- C°ntinuum: Roleplaying in the Yet (ISBN 1929312008)- the main rulebook required for play
- Further Information : A Gamemaster's Treasury of Time (ISBN 1929312016)- resource book detailing various civilizations lost to "mainstream" history, but well-known to spanners
- A third book, titled Nªrcissist: Crash Free, was announced in the late 1990s, but has not yet been released.
