Continuum (Int Check)

[Nigawatts]

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually — from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint — it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff."
— The Doctor

The Continuum
A time travel RPG that isn't really based on anything (although I took the name from a current Canadian show). It's more or less about an Organization of Time Travelers that has dedicated itself into preserving a stable, productive, and progressive timeline against those who would seek to alter it. This timeline and organization is called "The Continuum". Think of the first thing people say they would do if they had a time machine. Most people would use knowledge of the future to make themselves rich in the past (like Biff in Back to the Future). Continuum is there to stop this from happening, since a person with knowledge of the future, could ruin said future if they interfered too much. There are also those that would try to kill Hitler. We have to stop those people too.


The Timeline
I want to leave it a bit open ended, for people who have ideas about how certain events unfold in the future. Just know that history in the real world, goes according to "The Continuum". It is uncertain when time travel was invented, but before it was, the Original Timeline was much different from our own. This is because, hundreds of time travelers began altering time for their benefit. This "Time War" ended with multiple factions fighting over whose "timeline" would be the primary one. This lead to certain events that should have been part of our history, never actually happening. Because of this War there are also a few Paradoxes in "The Continuum" that cannot be explained, and do not make sense when investigated (JFK Assassination is one of these).

The Future has many possibilities, and I would like to work with you guys to create a cohesive timeline for our character to explore.


The Sentinels
Our characters will be known as Sentinels, and we are tasked with actually going out into the field and fixing the timestream so as to preserve "The Continuum". We are technically humans, although we were all born in a laboratory. Tailor-made for accelerated growth and adjusted for confidence, self-reliance, and adaptability, we are the Continuum's first line of defense. Born at the End of Time (see pic at start of post), we were trained on how to survive in multiple time periods. The ones who created us are known as Watchers, and the appear non-human in most respects. They are actually an evolved form of humanity that has gone beyond both genetic engineering and technological dependence. They monitor disturbances in the Timeline, and are the ones who assign Sentinels to deal with them.

• Sentinels are born on the Terminus Station, it floats around a dying Star during the End of the Universe.
• Sentinels are taught how to blend in multiple periods in time, and not appear anachronism.
• Sentinels use different technologies to blend in with their time periods.
• Sentinels are allowed to live in whatever time period they wish, outside of their duties to the Continuum.
• There has only been one Sentinel in the history of the organization to go rogue.
• Should Sentinels ever fail in their task, Erasures will deal with the situation with extreme prejudice.
• Sentinels have Operative names (Greek Alphabet) and Cover names (relative to the times).

The Watchers
The controllers of our organization. They look close to human, but are different in very noticeable and sometimes eerie ways: taller, lack of hair, slightly larger craniums, wider eyes, smaller noses, smaller teeth, and elongated digits. It is unknown how many of them populate Terminus Station, but those that interact with the Sentinels first hand are usually very similar to one another. They go by short single names (Rho, Ahn, Lim), and come in male and female varieties. The Watchers never leave the station, or so the Sentinels are lead to believe. They act like teachers, parents, counselors, and bosses to the Sentinels.

The Erasures
Should the Sentinels ever fail in their job to protect the Continuum, the Watchers use a more heavy handed method. Erasures are not human, and do not appear to exist in normal or relative terms. Any Sentinel who has had the unfortunate opportunity to see one, claims them to be cracks in the fabric of reality. They are hard to look at directly, your eyes will always want to avert from their form. In situations where they are needed, they do not use conventional means to accomplish there tasks. In one scenario they may delete a few moments from the timeline in order to prevent something from happening. Other times they will create timeloops that will continue for infinity, trapping whoever was inside forever. These methods hurt the quality of the Continuum, and is a last result for any situation.

Example: In order to stop a time traveler, who used his knowledge to open a portal to a race of alien hive creatures in Ancient Egypt. The Erasures created a time bubble to entrap the invaders before they could cause any harm. This time bubble exists even today, if you walk a few miles out of Cairo, you will pass by an unremarkable sewer grate. If you enter, and travel down the corridors for a few miles, you will come upon a stone door. Opening wouldn't be easy, but it could be done. Inside you would find a man in futuristic clothes, bowing before an insectoid like creature and an army of other creatures behind it. They will not notice you, and after the shock wore off, you would realize they are not moving. They are trapped in a single moment of time that will never pass.

Inventors
In a perfect world, most of the people we deal with will be these. They are those that have discovered Time Travel. Think of Dr. Emmett Brown (Back to the Future), coming up with the Flux Capacitor. The Sentinels would probably come in during the scene where him an Marty first used the Time Machine. Dr. Brown and Marty would be getting mind wipes, and we would confiscate the time machine after it's first use. Clean simple, and easy.

Travelers
Here is where problems begin. Travelers are people who are outside of their timeline. They are either people trying to cause trouble, or just see the sights. Think of the Terminator in the movie of the same name. It traveled back to kill Sarah Conner. We would come in on the night of it's first arrival and begin searching for it. We would find it, probably have a huge fight, and hopefully destroy it. We would also find Kyle Reese, mind wipe him, and send him back to his own time period. We would then have to go through the trouble of preventing Skynet's ability to travel back in time, either by deleting it from it's memory, or destroying it's capability.

Runners
The biggest problem to our organization. A runner could be either an Inventor or a Traveler, who realized what the Sentinels were up to before they stopped them. They either ran for it literally, or though time. These guys are dangerous, since they know they are being hunted, so they will usually jump to different time periods randomly to escape pursuit. Some Runners begin to search for the reason they are being chased, and even though Continuum's origin and nature is secret to even those who work for them, it doesn't mean it isn't a known entity, especially in the unknown future.

Sigma
He calls himself the Night Machine now. He says that Continuum is only creating a timeline that benefits it's own existence. A timeline created to rely on Continuum to preserve itself. His desire is to break free of it, and create a stable timeline that cannot be altered. He has modified his body greatly, using technology from multiple time periods. His body holds a quantum power source, and he is able to move between time without detection most of the time. The Watchers have given a direct order to Sentinels to not engage him. This was declared after the Battle of Laurasia in the year -183,987,389,542 BC. A battle that ended in the deaths of several Sentinels, hundreds of Dinosaurs, and a single Traveler (someone the Night Machine had convinced to join his cause).

Notes
So what do you guys think? It's pretty out there, and I don't want to pull any punches with this kind of material. Time Travel rarely ever makes sense in the end, so I don't want to dwell on the how or why, just the possibilities in a game like this.

This will be a lot more structured in the OOC. I first need to see what you guys think or want to include in this game. I can only say for certain that the first storyline we will do in the IC will be "Lets Save Hitler".

[MalTheAwesome]

This sounds interesting, actually.

[icmasticc]

Yes, this sounds very interesting indeed. Depending on how this is executed, it could turn out to be something different to most things I've seen on the boards as of late. You have my tentative interest sir.

[Whelp]

Interested for the moment.

[rocketfox]

Welp, we'll see how this goes - colour me interested.

[MysT3CH]

It's about time someone tossed up a Time Cop- esque RP. You most definitely have my interest mate.

[Naril]

I'll throw in my hat to this one. I dig the idea.

[EvilScottishGuy]

Sounds amazing.

[Taerinn]

Also showing some tentative interest, I'll keep my eye on this.

[Nigawatts]

Holy crap. Was not expecting this much support in one day.

Will have an OOC up by tomorrow.