TIMESTREAM

A Role-Playing Game

BY NATHAN PAOLETTA
Timestream Introduction

CREDITS
Original Concept, Game Design, Writing and Layout: Nathan Paoletta
Concept, Self Pause Technique: Greg Porter
Concepts, Item-Powered Characters & Out Of Time: Bradley Mitchell
Editing: Jen Goldberg & Daniel Treibel
Cover Art: Brandon Atencio
Interior Art: See Index of Illustrations, page 46
Playtesting: Nathan Paoletta, Daniel Treibel, Ryan Sergent,
Bradley Mitchell, Can Kanterelli, Jon Benjamin, Dmitry
Gimzelberg, Kyle Paoletta, Vlado Ovtcharov, John Perea
Useful Feedback: Greg Porter, Sydney Freedberg, Ben O’Neal
Pure Enthusiasm Award: Bradley “Hermits Rule” Mitchell
Special Thank You: Gabrielle, for your unwavering support, and your
suggestion so long ago.
Thank You: The Forge, anyway., This Is My Blog and the entire Indie
Game Design Blogosphere.

INSPIRATIONS
RPGs: Continuum (Aetherco, 1999), Chronomancer (TSR, 1995), GURPS Time Travel
(Steve Jackson Games, 2001), Time Lords (BTRC, 1990)
Movies & TV: Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure (MGM/UA, 1989), Back To The Future
(Universal Studios, 1985), Dr. Who: The Movie (BBC, 1996), Run Lola Run (Sony, 1999),
Sliders (Fox/Sci-Fi Channel, premiered 1995)
Books & Stories: The Time Machine (H.G. Wells, 1895), The Legends of Merlin, Rip Van
Winkle (Washington Irving, 1907), Breaking The Time Barrier: The Race To Build The First
Time Machine (Jenny Randles, 2005)

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ or send a
letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

You are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and to make derivative works under
the following conditions: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licen-
sor. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this
work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. For any reuse
or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions
can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Your fair use and other rights are in
no way affected by the above.

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Timestream Introduction

CONTENTS & GLOSSARY

FOUNDATION: PREMISE & SETTING 1

This chapter introduces the game of Timestream.
What Play Looks Like (a look at actual play without worrying about rules) 2
Notation and Jargon (definition of terms) 5

CONSTRUCTION: CHARACTER CREATION 7

This chapter contains all the rules needed to create a Timestream character.
Personal Information (basic information about a character) 7
Capacity (a characters broad capabilities) 7
Arenas (a characters more specific capabilities) 8
Style (the kind of command a character has over the flow of time) 8
Aspects (the different parts of time travel) 9
Ranges (how far a character can time travel or see through time) 10
Techniques (the different ways to temporally manipulate) 10
Goals and Obstacles (the things that give your character purpose) 10
Counter Pools (currency used in the game) 11
Example Of Character Creation 11
Character Creation, Phase 2 13
Anchors (the people that bind the characters together across time) 13
Final Goals 13
Draw the R-Map (a visual representation of character relationships) 13
Example of Phase 2 14

INTERACTION: MECHANICS 15
This chapter contains all of the rules needed to play the game.
Dynamic Change (how the characters stats change over the course of play) 15
Conflict Resolution (how to resolve the conflicts that drive play) 16
Benefits of Success, Penalties of Failure (the fallout from conflicts) 17
Goals and Obstacles (how these work in play) 18
Anchors (how these work in play) 18
Examples of Conflict Resolution 18
Non-Conflict Improvement (how to improve your stats without being in conflicts) 19
Aging (the effects of aging on a character) 19
Time (the currency that represents the ability to affect time) 20
Strain (the currency that counters the ability to affect time) 20
Consequences (the consequences if a character gets too much Strain) 21
Traveling (the rules concerning time travel) 23
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Timestream Introduction

Examples of Travel & Breaking Strain 23

Example of Prolonging Strain 24
Aspects (details on the different parts of time travel) 24
Temporal Manipulation (the rules concerning temporal manipulation) 26
Time Shifting & Example (the technique that speeds up or slows down time) 26
Pausing (the technique that pauses time) 26
Examples of Pausing 27
Looping (the technique that loops a period of time) 27
Examples of Looping 28
Previewing (the technique that sees the future) 28
Example of Previewing 29
Skipping & Example (the technique that skips moments in time) 29
Technique Interactions (rules concerning the use of multiple techniques) 30
Thralldom (rules concerning those who channel other’s power) 31

EXPANSION: SETTING, NOTES & ADDENDA 33

This chapter contains information on how to play Timestream, as well as additional rules.
General Principles (an explanation of the basic principles behind the game) 33
Story and Narrative (the authors view on the subject) 33
How to GM Timestream (rules concerning the game master) 34
Perceptions (how the characters perceive the use of their abilities) 35
TM Technique Perceptions 36
The 5 Laws Of Time Travel (additional rules concerning time travel) 37
Out of Time (rules concerning this consequence) 38
Items (rules concerning items of power) 39
Examples of Items 40
Item-Powered Characters (rules concerning items powering characters) 41
Settings and Genres (rules concerning different settings for the game) 41

POSTSCRIPT 43
A word from the author.

INDEX 45
Alphabetical index of terms and rules.
Index of Illustrations 46

CHARACTER SHEET (also available for download) 47

QUICK REFERENCE SHEET (also available for download) 48
http://www.hamsterprophetproductions.com

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Timestream Chapter 1

FOUNDATION: PREMISE & INTRODUCTION

Time. Whether the 5th dimension or the simple ticking of a clock, this element has fascinated us for
ages. Philosophers and scientists since the ancient Greeks have pondered its elusive nature. What is
time? How does it work? Does it truly move, as it seems to? And, most importantly, can we move
within it? Myth, speculation and scientific debate have centered around this last question for hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of years. The legendary wizard Merlin had power over time. The fairy tale
Rip van Winkle was about moving forwards through time. H.G. Wells’ classic The Time Machine is
still considered to be the father of time travel science fiction. Since its publication in 1895, there have
been a slew of stories about time travel told in every medium from print to screen to radio. Since
Einstein published his theories of relativity, the scientific community has paid much more attention to
time and time travel.

Timestream is a role-playing game with a deceptively simple premise: what if time travel is possible?
What if it has always been possible to travel backwards and forwards through history? What if you
have this power? In this world, on the surface the same as our own, time is an element to be manipu-
lated by a select few. Some, known as Travelers, can travel through it; they jump from time to time,
exploring, discovering or preserving. Others, called Temporal Manipulators (abbreviate to TMers),
can control time as it flows around them. TMers can slow time to a standstill, live through an event
multiple times, or reverse the causal chain between events. There are even those, known as Thralls,
who channel the powers of another but are unable to control their own destiny. In this game, you
and your friends take on the roles of some of these people. All of history and all of the future is open
to your exploration. On a personal level, what are the consequences of wielding such a tremendous
power? What do you do with it? Is it worth the inevitable costs? Do you actually get what you want?

Timestream is not founded on any one scientific or theoretical principle that could actually allow
time travel, so it is not bound by any of the restrictions inherent to such methods. One of the high-
lights of Timestream is that everything about your character is left open for you to decide. It is up to
you whether your character has to step within a baroque steam-powered automaton, or recite a com-
plicated spell, or merely latch onto the sub-quantum foam with his mind, in order to travel through
time. Anything you can imagine is possible.

While the majority of the players in Timestream play a Traveller, TMer or Thrall, one player assumes
the role of the Game Master (GM). The GM provides direction and creative bounds for the other
characeters and the developing story through his managment of the characters that the protagonists
interact with. The GM’s primary responsability is to enable the group to have a good time playing the
game.

Timestream is built upon a very simple dice mechanic that takes moments to learn, but is flexible
enough to enable adventure from ancient Rome to revolutionary Russia, from modern Japan to fu-
ture Ibiza, from any era of the past to anything the future might hold. Intuitive and self-consistent
mechanics enable you to travel through, or manipulate, time. All you need to play are a handful of
6-sided dice, pools of counters in two different colors (coins, poker chips, glass beads or paper clips
all work well), character sheets, scratch paper and a pencil. Don’t worry about dealing with every
niggling paradox. Just tell a good story.

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Timestream Chapter 1

What Play Looks Like: A typical session of Timestream could look something like the follow-
ing. Don’t worry about specific terms or mechanics. This example is meant to show how people actu-
ally play the game. Damien is the GM; Can plays Edward Catuna, a TMing Vietnam soldier; Dmitry
plays Soren Zahid Bremer, a 90’s investment banker Thrall; and Jon plays Duane Meyers, a Traveling
salesman from the early 60’s. The session takes place shortly after all three men have awakened to
their powers, and are starting to consciously or unconsciously experiment with them. Text in brackets
indicates things going on around the table, in real life. Text in quotes indicates words spoken by the
characters in the game. Other text indicates words spoken by the players of those characters. This is
to give you an idea of how the game is played, not an example of mechanics or rules in action - those
come later.

[Everyone sits down around a table. Damien passes out the character sheets and dice, and counts out
everyone’s counter pool. Everyone chats for a couple minutes, catching up on what’s been going on
since the last session. Can goes to get an iced tea, and while he’s gone Damien selects some mood
music for the session – Radiohead, in this case. Once Can returns, Damien asks everyone to focus,
and recaps the last session.]

Damien: When we ended, Duane had just gone into the house in bumsville Indiana, and the woman
gave you that strange letter. Catuna was on point, leading the squad directed to join B company. Dmi-
try, your guy had just fallen asleep in the hospital after the TV finished its conversation with you.

Dmitry: Yah, that was weird.

Damien: Yes it was. We all ready? [General agreement] Great. Duane. You read the letter, right?

Jon: Yeh. I take it from the lady, kind of rudely, rip it open and read it.

Damien: Great. Its unsigned, but the gist of it is that your presence is requested at the bedside of one
Karen, who, if you will remember, is the little girl that you hit with your car about a year ago, and
you’ve been exchanging letters with from time to time.

Jon: Right, right. Is there a way for me to get in touch with her?

Damien: Well, the letters. You know her mailing address, it’s in a city three or four days away.

Jon: Huh. Well, I’m just going to up and leave. I have yet to really get in contact with Karen, and I
feel like that’s way more important than selling this insurance. I causally drop a card in a pamphlet,
leave it on the table and walk out the door. I then speed off, into the Iowa midafternoon. Or Missouri.
Wherever I am.

Dmitry: Off in your Jag? [laughs]

Jon: Right, my Datsun model Jag.

Damien: Heh, great. Scene change – back in ‘Nam.

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Timestream Chapter 1
Can: Yeh. Back in ‘Nam.
Damien: You’re hooking up with B company. It’s smaller than your previous company – well, I don’t
know how big a company is.

Can: Around 100 people.

Damien: Ok. Well, then, B company is at about 60 people. You’re in a “pacified region” which means
you get less fresh soldiers than those at the front. Though its not any less dangerous. So, you arrive
without further incident.

Can: Okay. I take the day to acclimate, meet some people, check out the area, etc.

Damien: The local commandant assigns you and your buddy White to a squad in the company. You
have that day, and then that night – well, basically you’ve been attached to a vanguard squad.

Dmitry: You’re the vanguard of the revolution.

Can: Great!

Damien: Anyway…your squad is being sent out that night on patrol.

Can: Okay. When do I learn of this?

Damien: As soon as you’re assigned. One of the guys in your squad tells you “Hey, fresh meat.
You’re lucky – you get to go out in the bushes with us handsome devils. Better bring your tooth-
brush.”

Can: [deadpan] “I’m so excited.” I kibbitz with my new squad for a little while, show ‘em my picture
of Karen – actually, here’s an idea. Can I use my scientific knowledge to go all Rambo and make some
fun tricks? Like, exploding cans full of nails and stuff?

Damien: I don’t see why not. If you succeed, you’ll get a bonus to your next Conflict that involves
combat. If you fail…

Can: I don’t make anything that works, but I get some cred for being “that smart guy”?

Damien: Roll it. [they both roll, and Can wins.] You win the conflict. What do you come up with?

[Can describes some different fun exploding things and booby traps that he rigs up, using his chem-
istry knowledge from his life before the war. They play out some more of the scene before they go out
on patrol, then Damien switches to Soren.]

Damien: So. You fell into a dreamless sleep, but then you start dreaming. You dream that you’re fall-
ing, for a very long time. You’d think it gets monotonous, just falling all the time, but – you know
how you can get freaked out in a dream, and then you wake up and go “wow, that was a really freaky
dream”? It’s like that – as you fall more and more, you get increasingly freaked out.

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Timestream Chapter 1
Dmitry: Yah, I know how that is. Great – I’m falling in my dream, and freaking out.

Damien: Back to ‘Nam. The squad heads out into the Vietnamese night. Jon, wanna play White again?
Give us some insight into how you guys head out.

Jon: Of course. Pretty standard – White hums some downwoods Mississippi tunes, stepping through
the jungle. He’s kind of listening to everything, but crunching through the woods, not too key on the
stealth thing. He cocks his rifle every so often, really making too much noise for Catuna’s comfort. At
the same time, he’s on the lookout for anything.

Can: Yeh. I step along with White, but I’m totally obsessed with how much noise he’s making, and
getting increasingly annoyed, but I don’t want to voice it in case we’re about to die.

Damien: The other 14 guys in the squad range from big and loud to quiet and quick. The night is
silent thus far, but this isn’t particularly comforting – you’re still being stung by insects, stepping in
puddles and all those other comforts. Catuna – all of a sudden, you’re on the ground. Which you
realize you did because you heard, but didn’t consciously register, the whoosh of a rocket being
launched. As you realize this, there’s an explosion behind you! Bullets fill the air.

Can: I roll behind a tree and start shooting.

Damien: Everyone in the squad had the same basic reaction as you. Bullets are whizzing everywhere,
tracers flashing, explosions – it’s a total mess. White’s right next to you, with the M60 blazing away
like a jackhammer.

Can: I’m going to activate a Future Loop, with the endpoint at fifteen minutes from now. [He takes
two counters from his pool and puts them in the pile in the center of the table, and takes two of a dif-
ferent kind. Damien makes a note.]

Damien: Got it. Well, it’s Conflict time.

Can: I’m going to roll on my Survival. If I succeed, I get through this firefight fine.

Damien: Great. I’ll be rolling for the Vietnamese. Jon, you roll for White, and Dmitry, you roll for the
rest of the squad. White has a +3, the squad has a +2, the VietCong has a +2 as well.

[They all roll and calculate their scores – the Vietnamese have the highest, followed by Can’s charac-
ter, followed by the squad, followed by Albert.]

Damien: I get to go first. The firefight gets more and more intense – they got quite a drop on you, and
now have you pinned down. It’s obvious that they have control of the situation. You guys go ahead,
and then I’ll finish.

Can: I use some of my surprises to keep those nearest me busy, and crawl off under the brush. I feel
terrible leaving White behind – but really, when the going gets tough – well, I’m not exactly the most
willing soldier.

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Timestream Chapter 1
Dmitry: The squad starts taking casualties, and the cries of the wounded fill the night. A couple stal-
warts keep firing, but one by one the rifles go silent.

Jon: Big White keeps on firing his machine gun, screaming like crazy, until a round smacks him right
in the shoulder, spinning him around. He gets back up and back to his gun, but he can barely use his
arm.

Damien: As the last of the squad drops, Big White is the only one left still firing. The VietCong start to
close in…and its been 15 minutes. Can?

Can: I definitely loop it. [he pays another counter, and takes another of the other kind]

[Damien narrates the beginning of the combat again, and the scene continues]

As you can see, a session of Timestream contains many components. Some groups prefer to keep
conversation more “in-character,” while others talk a lot between themselves about what’s happening
in the game space. Some games involve the characters all working together, while others jump from
timeframe to timeframe, the characters connected by theme and tone rather than proximity. Some
see more actual use of the characters powers, while others treat them as a last resort. Ultimately, each
group will find its own stride and style of play.

Notation and Jargon: Timestream has its own set of terms used to efficiently refer to rules
and concepts. Below is a list of these terms for your convenience.

Players are the actual people playing - you and your friends. Most players have a character, the in-
game person that they are playing. One player takes on the role of the Game Master (GM). He sets
the stage, works with the other players to create storylines, and controls all of the people who the
characters will be interacting with throughout the game. The words “you” and “your” can mean you,
the player, or you, the character, depending on the context. This should be clear in each case (“You
roll 2d6” means you the player, while “you jump through a portal in time” means you the character. I
hope.) The GM is always specified when things refer to him.

Of course, both men and women can play, but the male pronoun (him, he) is used instead of
him/her, he/she or they for the sake of brevity.

Characters with the Thrall Style can use utilize both Travel and TM. Only the terms Traveler and
TMer are used wherever appropriate, with the understanding that this also applies to “Thrall with
Aspects” or “Thrall with Techniques”, respectively.

The only die used in Timestream are normal six-sided dice, or d6. You usually roll two of them (2d6).
The term “roll” always refers to rolling and summing 2d6, then adding modifiers, unless otherwise
specified.

Things on your character sheet are capitalized (Arenas, Capacities, Time). These same words
that are not capitalized in this rulebook have their standard meanings.

Examples that include dice rolls note them in the format [Dice Total + Dice Total] +/- Modi
fier = Final Total, like this: a player rolls 2d6+3, with a result of [3 + 4] + 3 = 10.

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Timestream Chapter 2

CONSTRUCTION: CHARACTER CREATION

Timestream creates stories, and stories need characters. Every player other than the GM creates and
takes on the role of one of the protagonists of the story to come. Your character is your alter-ego in
the world of the game. This chapter contains the rules about how to create a character. A number of
game-play rules referenced here are fully explained in the next chapter (page 15), but everything you
need to know to create an effective character is at least touched on here.

The following statistics and attributes define every character in Timestream.

Personal Information: Name, Age, Date of Birth (very important!), and Native Timeframe.

Capacity: Each character has 3 Capacities, Physical, Mental and Social. They are rated on a scale of -6 to 6.

Arenas: Each Capacity has a set of related Arenas, which are more specific areas of application of that
Capacity. Each Arena has a score between -6 and 6.

Style: Each character chooses one of three Styles: Travel, Temporal Manipulation or Thrall. Travel-
ers can move through time, jumping from era to era as they choose. TMers can manipulate time as it
moves around them, making it stop, speed up and repeat over and over, among other effects. Thralls
use the same powers as the other two, but are under the aegis of an external force.

Goals and Obstacles: Each character has a set of Goals that they strive to achieve and Obstacles block-
ing that achievement. Goals are rated from +1 to +6, and Obstacles from -1 to -6. The total of all of
your Goals and Obstacles must equal 0 at the end of character creation.

Counters: Each character starts with two pools of counters, one of Time and one of Strain.

Anchors: Those who your character has connections with, and who you want to see factor into the
game.

Character creation occurs in two phases. The first is to create and describe your personal character.
The second is to work with your play group to link all the characters together with a supporting cast.
Phase 1 is detailed below, while Phase 2 begins on Page 13, following the example of Phase 1 charac-
ter creation.

Personal Information: Given the guidelines and restrictions inherent to the story your group
wants to tell, choose any name, age and date of birth you wish. Your character may come from any
time period, nation, or culture. Age and DoB will both be very important throughout the game, so be
sure to keep track of them (yes, your DoB can change). In general, age should be recorded down to
the month, if not the week. Add your Age to your DoB to determine your Native Timeframe.

Capacity: Capacities represent your characters general capability, comfort level and potential in
each of the specified areas. Set each Capacity (Physical, Mental, and Social) to a number between -6
and +6. The total of the three numbers must equal +3 or less. Physical Capacity represents how gen-
erally physically fit, strong and fast you are. Mental Capacity represents your broad mental compe-
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Timestream Chapter 2
tence, intelligence, and stability. Social Capacity represents your comfort level in social situations, as
well as how well-adjusted and socially adept you are. Positive ratings indicate better capability and
competence in each area than average, while negative ratings indicate a sickly, slow-witted, or social-
ly awkward character.

Arenas: Arenas are narrower areas within each Capacity in which you may be especially strong (a
positive value) or weak (a negative one). Set each Arena to a number between -6 and 6. The total of
all the Arenas under each Capacity can add up to no more than the rating for that Capacity, and can
add up to less if you wish. In play, Arenas are modifiers that apply to rolls that concern that particu-
lar area of capability. Arena values change during play, and after character creation ends can add to
greater than the governing Capacity.

Physical Arenas: Mental Arenas: Arenas: Arenas are not “skill lists” or anything
Appearance Creativity of the kind. Rather, they simulate broad areas of
Fighting Education capability that hold universally true. An athlete
Fitness Invention from any era would have a good score in Fitness,
Gymnastics Memory whether a Greek marathon runner or a modern-
Might Profession day soccer player. A World War I German soldier
Perception Puzzles and a far-future space commando would both be
Profession Science proficient in Shooting, regardless of the fact that
Speed Shooting one uses a bolt-action rifle and the other a com-
Stealth Wits plicated plasma blaster, and so on.

Social Arenas: The Profession Arena: The Profession Arena is what you
Adaptability can take to indicate a group of skills and abilities commonly found in
Charm the pursuit of a given profession. Profession: Detective would apply
Cool whenever gathering evidence, interrogating a witness or attempting to
Intimidation deduct a sequence of events from scattered clues, for example. When
Leadership taking a Profession, determine which Capacity it most appropriately
Loyalty falls under for your character. A [Physical] Profession: Detective and a
Misdirection [Mental] Profession: Detective indicate very different things. You can
Persuasiveness have multiple Professions, under the same or different Capacities, if
Profession you wish.

Style: You have a choice in how you influence time. The difference between being a Time Trav-
eler (Traveler) and a Temporal Manipulator (TMer) is the difference between global and local scales.
Travelers can jump around within time, moving from era to era. Manipulators can bend, distort and
otherwise play with time on an individual basis. Travelers do not have the fine control of TMers, and
TMers do not have the raw power of Travelers. Thralls can pull from both sets of powers, but are at
the beck and call of some greater authority. Chapter Three has the rules for Traveling (page 23) and
TMing (page 26) . Thralldom is detailed both at on the next page, after the guidelines for creating
Travelers and TMers, and on page 31.

Once you choose a Style, record your Aspects and Ranges (Travelers) or Techniques (TMers). Aspects
are qualities of Time Travel that differentiate one Traveler from another. Some can Travel over a very
long span of time, some can bring others with them, and some just find it easier to Travel. Ranges

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Timestream Chapter 2
keep track of the span of time in which you can Travel or View (see View Aspect (below and page 25).
TMers use the six known Techniques of manipulating local time. The lists below summarize each set
of powers. Travelers pick three Aspects, while TMers start with three Techniques. Aspects can stack,
so Travelers can choose them multiple times. Techniques are unique, so TMers must choose 3 differ-
ent ones. Next, choose one Arena which best describes how you influence time as your Linked Arena.
It does not need to be a perfect fit, but it should help describe and define your Style. Finally, fill in a
description of your Style.

Thralldom: Some do not have the ability to influence time themselves, but gain the power from an-
other. Known as Thralls, these characters are the only ones who can command both Travel and TM
powers. This unique ability comes with drawbacks, however. The source of their power always has
the ability to use the character as a mere instrument of their will, basically as a conduit for their own
agenda. At this stage, a Thrall makes three choices between Aspects and Techniques. A Thralls Linked
Arena must always be Loyalty. A Thrall with no Aspects cannot Travel, and one with no Techniques
cannot TM. The restrictions on Thralls use of power are detailed in Chapter 3 (Page 31).

The Masters Control Arena: Thralls have an additional entry on the character sheet: the Masters Con-
trol Arena. This Arena governs how much control the Master has over you. If your Loyalty Arena is
positive, subtract it from 6 to establish the Masters Control value. If it is zero or negative, set it to +4.

Aspects
For full descriptions, see pages 24 - 25.

Ease: This Aspect makes Travel easier for you than for others. Pay 1 less Time whenever you
Travel for every Ease Aspect you have. You must always spend at least 1 Time to Travel.

Gate: You can maintain as many open Gates as you have Gate Aspects between two time
frames. Anyone who happens upon a Gate can pass through it.

Passenger: You find it much easier to bring people with you when you Travel. For every Pas
senger Aspect, you can bring one person along with you for free.

Range: You can Travel farther than other Travelers. For every Range Aspect you have, extend
your Travel Range by 100 years.

Send: You can send other people to another Time without going with them yourself. You can
send a number of people at once equal to your Send Aspects.

View: You can view another timeframe without Traveling there. Every View Aspect you have
extends your View Range by 100 years.

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Timestream Chapter 2

Ranges
Travel Range: This Range is the number of years that you can Travel, forward or back, from
your Native Timeframe. All Travelers start with a Travel Range of 100 years unless extended
by the Range Aspect. You can set the Range to any period that your Native Timeframe
falls within, including the first or last year of the Range. For example, a character with Native
Timeframe 1900 and no Range Aspects could have a Range of 1800-1900 (Native Timeframe the
last year of the Range), 1900-2000 (the first year), 1850-1950 (the middle year) or 1875-1975 (the
25th year).

View Range: You only have a number in this Range if you have one or more View Aspects. Set
this Range exactly as you would your Travel Range. It does not have to match your Travel
Range. A character with a Travel Range of 1900-2000 could have a View Range of 1850-1950, or
vice versa.

Techniques
For full descriptions, see pages 26-29

Time Shifting: You can make everything speed up or slow down around you, giving you
more time to act or speeding you through the boring parts of life.

Pausing: You can freeze the world around you, making you the only one able to take action, or
freeze yourself in the world, letting time pass you by. The more you act in a Pause, it harder it
becomes to maintain.

Future Looping: You can create a loop in time in order to experience something that is about
to happen multiple times, until it comes out the way you want it.

Past Looping: You can create a loop between two things that have already happened. Those
two events are fixed, but you can change anything in the middle.

Previewing: Very rarely are you taken by surprise. At any time, you can get an idea of what is
about to happen, and act accordingly.

Skipping: You can jump from moment to moment, skipping boring events and checking out
what just happened with a new perspective. You continue to be physically present, but your
perceptions and experiences match up with your skips.

Goals and Obstacles: Goals and Obstacles drive your character. Everyone has goals that
they want (or need) to achieve, and obstacles that they must overcome to achieve those goals. Goals
and Obstacles come in pairs, the Goal to the Obstacle that prevents it from being easily realized. Goals
are measured from 0 to 6, and Obstacles from 0 to -6. The higher the score of a Goal, the harder it is to
achieve. “Kiss a pretty girl” would be a 1, while “Marry the President’s daughter” would probably be
a 5 or 6. The lower the score of an Obstacle, the harder it is to overcome; “Works long hours” would
be -1, while “Being monitored by the FBI at all times” would be much lower. Choose a descriptor for
each Goal and Obstacle that describes what it is for your character, like “Dream” or “Aspiration” for
Goals, and “Phobia” or “Hindrance” for Obstacles. A list of appropriate terms is below, but feel free
to come up with your own. The GM will designate the number of Goal/Obstacle pairs appropriate
for the length and intensity of the game the group wishes to play. A one-shot game probably only
requires one pair per character, while a long-term campaign may need five or six.
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Timestream Chapter 2
Choose any Goals and their Obstacles that fit your character.
Set each Goal to a value between 1 and 6, and each Obstacle Goals and Obstacles are one place to
between -1 and -6. The total of all Goals and Obstacles must be come up with your characters sub-
0. Note that each pair does not need to add to 0, as long as all of plot. It is most effective to discuss
them together do. Also, you will be gaining one last Goal/ Goals and Obstacles with the group
Obstacle pair during Phase 2, so if they do not equal out now itself while creating them in order
you can do so during that Phase. to ensure that each character has a
set of compatible desires that can be
Goal Descriptors: Ambition, Aspiration, Belief, Desire, easily and compellingly woven into
Dream, Drive, Fantasy, Hope, Ideal, Need, Objective, the main story.
Principle, Purpose, Wish.

Obstacle Descriptors: Barrier, Burden, Danger, Deterrent, Fear, Hindrance, Hurdle,

Inconvenience, Impediment, Impossibility, Nightmare, Phobia, Secret, Trouble.

Counter Pools: You need two pools of counters. Time (see Page 20) counters represent the
energy you use to influence time, and Strain (see Page 20) counters represent the strain placed on
you by your displacement in or manipulation of the temporal stream. Each pool should be a different
color or otherwise easily differentiable. You start the game with 10 Time and 0 Strain. Both pools will
constantly fluctuate, so it is a good idea to have some extra counters on hand.

Example Of Character Creation: I want to make an aloof Elizabethan spiritualist.

My basic concept is that she harvests the energy of the dead to influence time. I decide that she was
born in 1560, two years after Elizabeth ascended to the throne, and is now 25 years old. Her native
timeframe is her DOB plus her age, or 1585. I want her to be a noblewoman, and I name her Lady
Catherine of Sellers, daughter of the Count of Longwood

First, Capacities. Catherine, a child of privilege, has little need to be physically proficient, and gets
little exercise, so I set her Physical to -2. Her main strength is her mind, and she is also of the nobility
and well bred. I set Mental to +3 and Social to +2. These add to +3, the maximum allowed. Catherine
can’t take much physical punishment, but her mind is sharp and resilient, and she’s fairly good at
keeping her emotions in check and avoiding embarrassment.

Next, I decide what Arena modifiers I want for her; the areas in which I think she is particularly
strong or weak. For Physical, I think that she is pretty and healthy, but not particularly strong or
fast. I set Appearance at +3 and Fitness at +1, with Fighting, Might and Speed at -2 each. Catherine is
also a very perceptive person, so I set her Perception to +3. My total right now is +1, but she has a -2
Physical Capacity, so I need to add some more negative modifiers. I reduce her Fighting and Might by
another -1 each, and put -1 in Stealth. I go through the same process for Mental and Social, deciding
what particular areas she is good and bad at. For Mental, I end up with +3 in Creativity and Educa-
tion (classically trained and mentally adept), +2 in Puzzles (good grasp of abstract concepts and
thinking), +1 in Memory, -2 in Science and Invention (she’s never had to learn about these things),
and -4 in Shooting (due to her social station). Total: +1. For Social, I decide on +4 Cool (great poker
face), +2 Intimidation (can be quite imposing) and Profession: Noblewoman (obviously), +1 Misdirec-
tion and Persuasiveness (can get what she wants), -2 in Adaptability (she is used to routine) and -3 in
both Loyalty and Leadership (an independent person). Total: +2.
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Timestream Chapter 2
Before deciding on a Style, I sketch out how she influences time a little bit more. I like the idea that
she has to bind spirits into items, such as stones or wands, and that these items are used up as she
uses more energy (Time). This is not a mutual agreement. Catherine does rituals to forcibly rip ghosts
out of the spirit world and into her objects. I look over the three options, and decide that I would
rather play a TMer than a Traveler or a Thrall. I can choose three Techniques, and decide that she can
Pause, Preview and Past Loop. For her Linked Arena, I choose Intimidation, because she threatens
and coerces the spirits.

Now I decide on Goals and Obstacles. My group is planning a fairly long-term game, and the GM
decides that we should each have at least 3 Goal/Obstacle pairs, plus the last one we’ll generate in
Phase 2. After giving some more thought to her background and status, I come up with these:

(Ambition) Gain mystical power [+5]/(Danger) Angry spirits [-4]

(Desire) Have a child [+2]/(Inconvenience) Contemptuous of her peers [-3]
(Dream) Establish a lasting legacy [+4]/(Hurdle) Excluded from power [-3]

The Goals add to 11, and the Obstacles to -10, which I’ll keep in mind during Phase 2.

I make some notes about how Catherine’s mother died giving birth to her, and all she’s known has
been her autocratic, though not mean-spirited, father. She desperately wants to be her own woman,
but is both mentally and physically restricted by social norms and what’s “expected” of her. She fell
into the mystic arts as one way of asserting her independence, and it triggered a burning thirst for
the power that it can bring her; the power to break her fathers hold. While she’s not interested in ro-
mance, or the vast majority of the fops that she’s surrounded with, she does wish to have a child that
she can “raise right” and share her life with. She wants to be remembered, but is finding it difficult to
maneuver into the circles of those who are written about by historians. I take 10 black glass counters
to represent her Time pool, and, once everyone else is ready, move on to Phase 2.

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Timestream Chapter 2

Character Creation: Phase 2

Once the group has created each character for the game, it’s time for phase 2. In this phase, you create
a relationship map (R-map) that connects all of the characters across time. While individual charac-
ters can be created in isolation, due to the communal nature of this phase everyone needs to be pres-
ent when going through it. At the beginning of the first session is usually a good time, if it hasn’t been
done before that.

Anchors

First, each player creates a number of Anchors for their character. Two Anchors per character is a
good baseline. More than that is certainly possible, but each Anchor you add makes the R-map more
and more complicated. This is not bad, but is more appropriate for longer or more intense games.
Keep in mind that you will be gaining one Anchor on top of those you create (so if you make two
Anchors, your character will have three by the end of this phase).

An Anchor is a person in your character’s life that he has an emotional attachment to or investment
in. This link could be positive or negative, distant or close, rewarding or draining, or anything else
you feel is appropriate. The most important thing about creating an Anchor is that he or she should
be someone that you as a player want to see in play. Don’t shy away from creating adversarial An-
chors, as they often create fantastic scenes.

As the group creates Anchors, keep in mind that you will be choosing at least one other player’s
Anchor as one of your own. Once everyone is satisfied with their creations, go around and describe
them. Then, each player selects one of another player’s Anchors to be their final Anchor, and defines
that Anchor’s relationship to their character. If you wish, you can choose more than one Anchor at
this stage. If you don’t think that any of the existing Anchors are particularly interesting, just pick one
and give them a really gripping relationship to your character – like “assassin out for my blood” or
“love interest/illegitimate daughter.”

The GM’s role during this process is to keep everyone on the same page and make lots of notes. The
GM is going to be playing many of these Anchors, and should start thinking about them now.

Final Goals

Once all Anchors have been decided, each player generates one more Goal/Obstacle pair, which must
relate to or involve one of their Anchors. Keep in mind that all Goals and Obstacles must add to 0.
Feel free to adjust the values of other Goal/Obstacle pairs if you need to.

Draw the R-Map

It’s often useful to draw out the R-map. Write each character’s name on a sheet of paper. Fill in the
empty spaces with the names of Anchors, and then draw lines from each character to their Anchors,
writing the nature of the relationship on the line. Feel free to make secondary connections, between
Anchors or between characters.

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Timestream Chapter 2

Example of Phase 2

(For the sake of this examples length, we’ll consider a small group: two players and the GM. As you
can see, each character and Anchor added extends this process.)

Now, I need to work out Catherine’s Anchors. I sit down with the GM and Tomas, the other player.
Tomas created a character named Timothy Düten, a steam-powered Traveler from the 20th century.
The GM advises that we should create 2 Anchors, plus the third we’ll pick up from each other.

The obvious place to start is Catherine’s father. The Duke of Sellers, he is a strict man, though not
completely unloving. He tends to show affection through gifts and presents, without displaying
much emotion. He feels extremely possessive of Catherine, while she resents his attitude and seeks to
escape his control.

For her second Anchor, I want someone that’s not exactly a friend, but also isn’t an antagonist to
Catherine. After some conversation with the GM, I decide on one of the fops that is constantly trying
to win Catherine’s hand. The name Lionel comes to mind, and I decide that he has been attempting to
woo Catherine for quite some time, despite her constant rejection. She has come to tolerate him, and
sometimes spends time with him when she needs to get away from the strictures of her normal life.

Now, I look over the Anchors that Tomas came up with. He has David, the best friend and confidant
to Timothy, and Marganna, a former lover of Timothy that knows of his ability to Travel and covets it
for herself. As both of these characters are based in the 20th century, it seems difficult at first glance
to choose one as an Anchor for Catherine – but I have an idea. The three of us discuss, and agree that
spirits and ghosts aren’t bound by time. So, I take Marganna as my third Anchor, with the explana-
tion that she’s one of the ghosts that I bind to use my powers. Though she dies sometime in the 20th
century, the strength of her spirit allows contact with her in the 16th. Her spirit is more powerful than
most, and Catherine can communicate with her in addition to using her to fuel her own powers.

Tomas takes Lionel as his third Anchor, saying that the courtier is his many-times removed great-
grandfather, and Timothy has an heirloom sword that belonged to him. While he’s doing this, I de-
cide on Catherine’s final Goal/Obstacle pair: (Need)Become independent of her father [+5]/(Barrier)
Social norms [-6]

The R-map that the

GM creates after
Phase 2 looks like this:

Characters are completed,

and the three of us are ready
to play!

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Timestream Chapter 3

INTERACTION: MECHANICS
Timestream, like all games, requires collaborative interaction between the players. Like many RPGs,
most players control one character, while one player takes on the role of the Game Master (GM). In
general, the GM is in charge of playing the world in which the characters exist, while the players are
in charge of their individual characters and the decisions they make. The GM, informed by the char-
acters Goals, Obstacles and Anchors, orchestrates the supporting cast and creates an environment in
which the characters act. He also should know the rules and serve as the arbitrator of any mechanics
questions that come up in play. The other players are responsible, not only for creating and portray-
ing their own character, but working with the other players and their characters to form a harmoni-
ous story. Unlike many RPGs, the GM does not speak with the sole narrative voice. When another
player succeeds at a conflict, he narrates how his character deals with the conflict, and how the out-
come involves his character.

In Timestream play moves from situation to situation, resolving conflicts (such as a physical fight,
race or argument) rather than tasks (each sword blow, each lap, each exchange of insults). Each of
these situations can be viewed as a scene, like a scene from a book or movie. Scenes are variable in
length, from a couple minutes to a day or more. Scenes tend to begin or end with the entrance or exit
of a major character, a shift in temporal or spatial location, an important revelation about a character,
or an important victory or defeat. Determining scene length and transition is one responsibility of the
GM. A scene can help constitute or contain one or more conflicts, though not every scene involves
one. Resolving conflicts is the basic engine that keeps the game moving along.

Dynamic Change: Characters in Timestream constantly change. Below is a list of the stats on
your character sheet that can change, and a brief overview of how they do so.

Capacities: You lose Capacity when you Break Strain, and can only gain it back by achieving Goals.

Arenas: Your can raise your Arenas when you win a conflict, and lower them when you lose conflicts.
Breaking Strain can also cause your Arenas to drop.

Goals: Your Goals can come closer to being completed when you succeed at conflicts, and pushed
farther away when you lose.

Obstacles: Your Obstacles can get harder when you fail at conflicts, and easier when you succeed.

Aspects/Techniques: When you achieve your Goals, you can gain more Aspects or Techniques.

Time: Each character starts the game with 10 Time. You may choose to gain 1 Time when you win a
conflict, you can Focus in order to recharge your reserves, and some items hold Time that you can
harvest. Any Travel or use of TM costs some amount of Time, you may choose to lose 1 Time if you
fail a conflict, you may spend 1 Time to extend a conflict, and some items have paranormal effects
that require Time to activate (see Page 39).

Strain: You gain 1 token of Strain for every Time you spend, you may gain 1 Strain when you lose a
conflict, and some strange items may induce Strain when they are used. When you reach 10 Strain
you trade it in for a Strain Dice; whenever you Break Strain (see Page 21), reset your Strain pool to 0;
you can bleed Strain off one at a time, and you may choose to lose 1 Strain when you win a conflict
(see Page 17).
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Timestream Chapter 3

Conflict Resolution: A conflict is any situation that poses danger for the characters involved,
will result in significant benefits to the characters, or both. Scaling a cliff, defending yourself from a
bandit and trying to talk your girlfriends father into letting you spend the night are all examples of
conflicts. A conflict could be an entire scene, be contained within a scene, or span multiple scenes.
Conflicts are resolved by rolling 2d6, adding appropriate modifiers, and interpreting the results as per
the rules below. Any player, including the GM, can call for a conflict. When this happens, follow this
procedure:
What is at stake? Conflicts are always about something important. Whoever calls for a conflict
also identifies the central issue of the conflict, as well as what they are trying to achieve.
Who is involved? Determine all of the characters involved in the conflict – not all conflicts
involve all those present. The surrounding environment can count as a character. The player of
each character rolls for that character. The GM usually rolls for the environment, if applicable.
If multiple GM-run characters are involved, the GM may make a separate roll for each of them,
or combine their participation into one roll, depending on the circumstances. Two characters
trying to chat up two separate women in a bar would calls for two rolls on the GMs part, while
a single roll would be fine for a brawl with a group of mooks. The GM is encouraged to
assign players who’s characters are not present to roll for GM-run characters. Also at this stage,
determine whether the conflict is in pursuit of any characters Goals, and if it involves any of
their Anchors. Apply the appropriate modifiers (see next page) to your roll when you make it.

What Arena does the conflict fall under for each participant? Each player determines which
Arena they will use in the conflict. The Arena you choose shapes how you address the conflict
– when defending yourself from baseless accusation, the use of Cool results in a different
approach then the use of Intimidation or Persuasiveness. The chosen Arena shapes both
success and failure. Add the score of the chosen Arena to your roll when you make it.

How important is the conflict? More important conflicts require more rolls. In general, a
standard conflict requires only one roll, an important one takes two, a very important one
takes three, and a critical one takes four. Keep track of the total for each roll, and then add
them all together in order to determine the winner of the conflict. Modifiers apply to the final
total, not each individual roll.

Roll the dice: This simply involves rolling two six-sided die, adding them, and then adding
the scores of the involved Arena and other modifiers. If the conflict requires multiple rolls, roll
them all and add the totals for each roll, then all modifiers, for each character.

Determine the outcome: Place the rolls in order, from lowest to highest. The character with the
highest total has won, or come out the best in the situation. The character with the lowest total
has lost, or come out of the conflict in the most negative light. Other characters’ degree of
success corresponds to their position between those two. Ties are settled by highest modifier,
and then highest single number rolled. If anyone wishes to extend the conflict (see below) they
do so now.

Narrate the outcome: The winner of the conflict narrates the outcome in broad strokes,
including what specifically happened with and to their character. Other players can and
should fill in the details involving their own characters. If the conflict involved multiple rolls,
work that into your narration. More important conflicts tend to involve more back-and-forth
between the opposing sides, after all.
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Timestream Chapter 3
Extending Conflict: After the final conflict resolution roll, any character that did not win may spend
1 Time to extend the conflict. Simply roll again, with the totals added to the previous final total to
determine new winners or losers. Losers can continue to extend conflicts as long as they are able.
Keep in mind that the number of rolls in a conflict indicates how important the conflict is to the story
– by extending it, you are making that conflict more important. Reflect this by your characters actions
and your narration. In some cases, making a conflict more important may mean making it pertain to
one of your Goals, thus making you eligible to get closer to achieving that Goal. The GM determines
whether this is the case.

Apply Benefits and Penalties: After the conflict has been resolved, the winner chooses a Benefit of
Success and the loser chooses a Penalty of Failure. See below for full details. These only apply to
player’s characters. It is not necessary to track changes in Anchors and GM characters.

Conflict Modifiers: The following mechanics provide positive or negative modifiers to conflict rolls.

The Arena under which you put the conflict provides its value (positive or negative) to the roll.
Any Obstacle that applies to the situation provides its value (negative) to the roll.
Each Anchor involved in the conflict provides a +1 to the roll.

Benefits of Success, Penalties of Failure: If you lose a conflict, you must do one of
the following, in addition to any story effects. These are termed the Penalties of Failure.

Lower the Arena you used in the conflict by 1 OR

Lose 1 Time OR
Gain 1 Strain OR
If the conflict related to one of your Goals (i.e. you faced an Obstacle penalty) you can
Raise the Goal by 1 OR
Lower the Obstacle by 1.

If you win a conflict, choose only one of the following, in addition to any story effects. These are the
Benefits of Success.

Raise the Arena you used in the conflict by 1 OR

Gain 1 Time OR
Lose 1 Strain OR
If the conflict related to one of your Goals (i.e. you faced an Obstacle penalty) you can
Lower the Goal by 1 AND lose 1 Strain OR
Raise the Obstacle by 1 AND lose 1 Strain.

Summary of Conflict Resolution:

A player calls for a conflict and answers these questions:
Give a –1 modifier toWhat the Arena you used in the conflict.
is at stake?
Lose
Who is 1 Time.
involved?
Gain 1 Strain.
How important is this conflict?
Raise a Goal
Each participant by 1. (Only
determines if the conflict
what Arenas, relates to
Goal/Obstacles andthe Goal)apply.
Anchors
Each then rolls
Lower 2d6an
(once for eachby
Obstacle level of importance)
1. (Only and, once
if the conflict finished,
relates addsGoal)
to the their modifiers.
The player with the highest total narrates the conflict. Other players fill in details as appropriate.
Apply Benefits of Success and Penalties of Failure.
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Timestream Chapter 3

Goals and Obstacles: Goals and Obstacles represent what your character wants to achieve,
and the things that stand in his way. Any conflict that would be a step towards achievement of one or
more of your Goals gets a negative modifier equal to the Obstacle that relates to that Goal.

Characters cannot achieve their Goals until the Goal rating itself is brought down to 0 via Benefits of
Success. Something always happens to keep it out of their grasp just a little longer, prompting more
conflict in order to gain the Goal. One task of the GM is to create this dynamic. Note that when an
Obstacle rises to 0, it means that the Obstacle has been neutralized and overcome, but the Goal has
not yet been realized. Once you achieve a Goal, the following things happen:

Choose whether to replace another Obstacle with the Obstacle to the Goal you just achieved.
You may do this if the GM agrees that it is an appropriate Obstacle to that Goal. If you choose
not to do this, just erase the Obstacle along with the Goal, AND

Choose whether to create a new Goal. If you do so, you may assign it any number, and choose
its Obstacle (or move the Obstacle to the Goal you just achieved to this new Goal). When
assigning ratings to new Goals and Obstacles, you must again make sure that all of your Goals
and Obstacles total to 0, AND

Choose EITHER to gain one Aspect/Technique OR

Distribute +2 between your three Capacities.

Anchors: Involving those that matter to your character makes it easier to overcome challenges,
whether it be because he wants to prove himself to a lover or best a rival. For each Anchor that a
player can involve in their character’s approach to the conflict, the player receives a +1 modifier to
their roll.

Examples of Conflict Resolution: At this point in the game, Catherine has met and be-
friended Timothy Düten, who’s Traveled back to her timeframe. The two of them suspect that Cathe-
rine’s father is involved in shady dealings, possibly not by choice, and Catherine hopes that if she can
discover the truth it will be something that she can use against his influence. Timothy, pretending to
be a friend of a friend, is helping Catherine. They are both attempting to listen in on a conversation
between her father and a mysterious messenger through a stout wooden door, and Catherine’s player
calls for a conflict.

What’s at stake is whether the two of them discover something that she can use, at the risk of being
discovered and perhaps accused of spying. Catherine and Timothy are the characters involved, and
the GM determines that the door is their opposition. Catherine’s player declares that its a standard
conflict (only one roll). Both players decide to use their Perception Arena. Timothy has a +1 in that
Arena, and Catherine has a +3, but the conflict involves her Goal of freeing herself from her father, so
she faces a –6 Obstacle penalty. Because the conflict involves an Anchor, she has a total of –2. The GM
gives the door a +1, and they all roll.

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Timestream Chapter 3
Timothy gets [6 + 4] + 1 = 11. Catherine gets [6 + 2] – 2 = 6. The GM gets [5 + 2] +1 = 8 and [4 + 3] + 1
= 8, respectively. The results are ordered Catherine [5], door vs. Catherine and door vs. Timothy [8],
Timothy [11]. Catherine loses the conflict and Timothy wins. Timothy’s player narrates “I press my
ear to the crack by the hinges, straining to hear. Luckily, they seem to be close to my side, and I can
just barely hear their conversation. They are saying something about “fresh catches.” The GM adds
“You also hear him mention a name: Jonas.” Catherine’s player than narrates “I was worried that
someone would come by and see us, and I also didn’t want to get dirty and have to explain it later,
so I didn’t press my ear as close as I should have.” Being the loser of the conflict, Catherine’s player
elects to gain 1 Strain (“I’m getting tense.”). Timothy, being a winner, chooses to gain 1 Time (“I’m go-
ing to need it if I want to stay here much longer.”)
Later that night, Timothy and Catherine corner the messenger with the intent to discover why he
came. It’s a difficult (two roll) conflict. Catherine decides to use her Intimidation (+2), Timothy his
Persuasiveness (+2), and the GM decides that the messenger has a Loyalty of +3. Catherine is again
pursuing her Goal and gets a –6, for a total of -4. For the first roll Catherine gets ([6 + 5] – 4 = 7),
while Timothy ([5 + 2] + 2 = 9) and the Messenger ([3 + 3] + 3 = 9) tie. They note the messenger as the
“winner” of the first round, due to his higher Arena score, then make the second roll. Catherine gets
a 4, the messenger a 6, and Timothy a 5, creating final scores of 11, 14 and 15, respectively. Catherine
declares that she wants to extend the conflict – this could be very important. She pays 1 Time and
they all roll again. Catherine gets a 12 over Timothys 6 and the Messengers 4, winning her the con-
flict. Catherine’s player narrates the Messenger staying strong at first, but Catherine intimidates him
into spilling the beans about his purpose. Catherine’s player also decides to raise her Obstacle from
–6 to –5. She’s been an assertive woman once, and gotten away with it – she’s not going to shrink
from doing it again. The messenger lost, so Timothy’s player doesn’t receive Penalties of Failure.

Non-Conflict Improvement: In addition to winning conflicts,

From - To - Time Of Study
most areas of capability can be improved by periods of study or training,
and the ability to Travel means you don’t have to take time out of your -6 to -5 4 Years
busy schedule to do so. The chart to the right shows the continuous -5 to -4 3 Years
study or training it takes to bring any Capacity or Arena to the indicated -4 to -3 2 Years
value. All improvement is cumulative: if you have an Athletics +1, and -3 to -2 1 Year
you want a +3, you must attain a +2 first (i.e. it takes 6 months to go -2 to -1 6 Months
from +1 to +2, and then one year to go from +2 to +3, for a total of 18
-1 to 0 1 Month
months study). Record the characters new Age and Native Timeframe.
0 to +1 1 Month
Also, keep in mind that Native Timeframe changes as you age (DoB +
Age). If you Travel to 1998 from of 1996, study for 3 years, and +1 to +2 6 Months
then Travel back, you will actually be 3 years behind your Native +2 to +3 1 Year
Timeframe. It can get pretty stressful trying to maintain yourself in +3 to +4 2 Years
the time you “should” be – unless you undergo voluntary Native Shift +4 to +5 3 Years
(see page 21). +5 to +6 4 Years

Ageing: Over the course of the game, keep track of how much subjective time passes for your char-
acter, from in-game time to downtime to time spent engaging in non-conflict improvement. As you
age, and your features change to reflect this, you may start to have difficulty interacting with friends
and family in your Native Timeframe. In addition, as your body gets physically older it starts to break
down. For every decade past 40 years of age, distribute –2 between your three Capacities.

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Timestream Chapter 3

Time: All characters draw on the same reserves in order to affect time. These reserves are represent-
ed by the Time pool. Each Time counter represents one unit of energy that can be spent to power your
abilities.

Price of Power: Every time you spend Time, you gain an amount of Strain equal to the Time spent, re-
gardless of the reason for the expenditure. If you lose or lend Time, you do not gain Strain. For details
on Strain, see below.

Focusing: A Focus attempt represents your character recharging their reserves, be it by meditation,
calling upon the favor of a deity or charging up the batteries. To Focus, initiate a standard conflict.
The GM rolls without modifiers. Use your Linked Arena. If you win the conflict, you gain Time equal
to the difference between the two scores. If you tie, nothing happens. If you lose, you lose one Time.
No Benefits of Success or Penalties of Failure are associated with this conflict. You may only attempt
to focus once per scene.

Lending/Borrowing Time: You may lend some of your Time to another. Merely declare you are doing
so, and you can transfer an amount of Time up to or equal to your Linked Arena rating to a willing
recipient (minimum of 1 Time). If they do not wish your Time, you must initiate a conflict with them
and win in order to lend them your Time. Lending Time does not incur Strain.

Time Sharing: If need be, you can share your powers with others. Travelers can cause other people
to Travel with them, and TMers can extend their effects to include others. Travelers spend 2 Time for
each person they wish to include, while TMers spend 1.

Running Out of Time: Time is the fuel for your powers. If you lose all of it, you lose access to them. In
addition, you are in danger of Native Shift or Permanent Vu (see next page). If you have 0 Time, you
cannot make a focus attempt to regain Time.

Strain: Strain measures both displacement from your natural location in time, and the tension you
put on yourself by moving out of synch with the universe. The first can be visualized as an elastic
band attaching you to the moment you started affecting time (know as the moment of departure or
moment of influence). As you move further from that point and go around corners in time, that elastic
band stretches further and further. The second can be thought of as normal stress and strain from any
kind of exertion, but much, much more fundamental. Both measures have a point beyond which you
cannot go without consequences. All characters start the game with 0 Strain.

Price of Power: For every Time you spend, you gain one token of Strain.

Strain Dice: When your Strain pool contains 10 tokens, empty the pool and gain 1 Strain Dice. When
you have Strain Dice, you must roll them with every roll you make. These dice do not add to your
pool – if you have 1 Strain Dice, roll it and a normal dice during conflicts. If you have 2, roll both. If
you would get a third, you automatically go Out (see Page 22).

Bleeding Strain: You always feel how much Strain you put yourself under, and have a general incli-
nation of how close you are to Breaking Strain (see below). One way to relieve Strain other than by
Breaking is to bleed it off. At any time you may remove 1 token from your Strain pool. This gives you
a –1 to any Capacity or Arena that the GM agrees you have been using in play.

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Consequences: Those who over-use or abuse their powers face a variety of consequences.
Native Shift: If you run out of Time, the universe stops tugging at you to return to your Native
Timeframe, and you start to assimilate into the local timeframe. This irreversible process takes some
time. For every conflict you participate in after you hit 0 Time, you lose one Strain in addition to
Benefits of Success or Penalties of Failure. Once you drop to 0 Strain, your Native Timeframe shifts
to match the local timeframe. If you lose your Time and have no Strain, Native Shift happens im-
mediately. Your DoB changes to match the current year minus your age. Native Shift only happens
to Travelers and Thralls with Aspects. If you later regain Time, you can again Travel. You can volun-
tarily Native Shift, of course – just spend all your Time and then get rid of your Strain, either through
conflicts or bleeding it off.

Permanent Vu: This is the TMer equivalent of Native Shift, and Thralls with Techniques are also
subject to it. If a TMer loses all their Time, they risk becoming stuck in moments not of their choos-
ing. Once you are at 0 Time and Strain, choose one Technique. As you go about your daily life, this
Technique strikes at random and without warning or control. Time randomly pauses, you go through
the same conversation over and over again, or you keep on blacking out and “waking up” in strange
places. This is strongest right after Permanent Vu starts, and as time goes on it occurs less and less
frequently – but it never completely stops, even if you later gain more Time.

Breaking Strain: If Strain is an elastic cord, Breaking Strain happens when the cord snaps after too
much punishment. If Strain is increasing tension and stress, Breaking Strain is your body finally
giving way. The tension between where and when you are and when and where you should be has
grown too great, and something has to give. That something is you. Any time you roll a 1 on a Strain
dice, the conflict is nullified (no winners or losers) and you Break Strain.
Effects of Breaking Strain:
1. Travelers snap back to their moment of departure. TMers may snap to their moment of initia-
tion, depending on the Technique in question. If you are not under the influence of either, you do
not move in space or time.
2. Choose one Capacity, and roll, adding its value. The GM rolls, adding your current Strain.
Check to see if the sum of all the Arenas (the Arena total) under that Capacity is higher than that
Capacity.
- If you have a higher Arena total and roll higher: Add the difference from the roll to the differ-
ence between your Arena total and your Capacity, and distribute –1’s among that Capacity and
those Arenas in any combination.
- If you have a higher Arena total and roll lower: Subtract the difference from the roll from that
Capacity, and distribute –1’s equal to the difference between your Capacity and your Arena total
between those scores.
- If you have a lower or equal Arena total and roll higher: Distribute –1’s equal to the difference
of the roll between that Capacity and those Arenas.
- If you have a lower or equal Arena total and roll lower: Subtract 2 from that Capacity.
- If you tie, roll again and take the results of that roll (continue rolling until there is no tie, if nec-
essary).
3. Lose all Strain Dice and empty your pool of Strain.

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Prolonging Strain: Sometimes, a task is so important that you refuse to give in to Strain when
it Breaks. In such situations, you may prolong snapping back. When you Break Strain, spend
1 Time immediately, and continue as normal until the end of the current conflict. For every roll
you need to make to finish the conflict, you must spend 1 additional Time. At the end of the
conflict, or if you run out of Time, you Break Strain with the following changes: all of the Strain
accumulated from when you prolonged the Break to when you actually Break remains in your
Strain pool; distribute an additional –2 between your Capacity and Arenas on top of your
standard Break result.

Going Out Of Time: Some Travelers tell stories of being sucked out of the timestream, into a nebulous
other-world where nothing is as it seems and everything changes without notice. Some TMers spin
tales of an old white-haired man that pulls them out of their machinations and makes them watch…
something. There seems to be some force, or space, outside the bounds of normal space and time
that will suck you in if you overstep your bounds. Mechanically, you are flung Out when you have
2 Strain Dice and gain your 10th Strain. Essentially, the universe puts you in time out for a while.
You pop out of where- and whenever you were, and go Out of Time. Coming back In requires you to
Break Strain while Out of Time. For full details on going Out, see Page 38.

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Timestream Chapter 3

Traveling: Traveling simply requires spending Time. To Travel, declare where and when you want
to go and spend the requisite amount of Time. It also requires Time to stay in non-Native timeframes
for any effective amount of time. The chart below summarizes these costs.

Temporal Distance Time Cost Time/Conflict

1 - 50 years 1 1
51 - 150 years 2 1
151 - 250 years 3 2
251 - 350 years 4 2
351 - 450 years 5 3
451+ years 6 3

“Temporal Distance” is the number of years Traveled from your moment of departure in your Na-
tive Timeframe. All Travel is measured from your Native Timeframe, not the local timeframe, and the
maximum number of years you can Travel is limited by your Travel Range (see page 10). Note that
you cannot Travel less than 1 year in either direction, as TM only governs local-scale manipulation of
time. “Time Cost” shows how much Time you must spend in order to Travel that temporal distance.
“Time/Conflict” shows how much Time you must spend at the end of each conflict you participate in
while staying in that timeframe.

There are two ways of returning to your moment of departure. The first, and safest, is that you can
spend 2 Time any time you wish. You immediately return to your moment of departure. The second
is by Breaking Strain, detailed above. When you Break Strain while in a different timeframe, you are
snapped back to your moment of departure, in addition to the other Breaking Strain effects.

Examples of ...
Travel: Jake wants to Travel 100 years backwards, and has the requisite Range. His moment of de-
parture is 10.27 AM, August 9, 2000. Glancing at the chart, we see that he has to pay 2 Time in order
to Travel to 1900. His player takes two Time tokens from his Time pool, receives two Strain tokens
from the GM, and shows up at the turn of the 20th century. If, from there, Jake wanted to Travel to
1825 and then 1975, he would have to spend 3 and 1 Time, respectively, as each episode of Travel is
measured from 2000.

Breaking Strain: Jake has gone through the above Travel and is now in 1975. He started with 10
Time and 0 Strain. He spent 6 Time to Travel, 6 for conflicts in local timeframes and 2 to extend some
conflicts. He gained 2 Time from benefits of success, and successfully focused in 1975, gaining 5 Time.
He gained a Strain for each of the 14 Time he spent, trading in the first 10 for a Strain dice. He now
sits at 3 Time, 4 Strain, 1 Strain Dice.

While in 1975, he attempts to talk his way past a suspicious Brooklyn cop. He uses his Persuasiveness
of + 2, against the cops Wits of -1. He replaces one of his normal white die with a shiny blue die (to
represent the Strain die) and rolls. He gets [4 +1] + 2, for 7 – but the 1 is on his Strain dice. He Breaks
Strain, and immediately snaps back to his moment of departure in 2000 (much to the chagrin of the

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Timestream Chapter 3
puzzled cop). He has 1 Strain Dice and 4 Strain in his pool. He chooses to roll on his Physical Capaci-
ty [+3]. The GM rolls on his current Strain [+4]. Jake rolls [5 + 5] + 3 = 13, the GM rolls [4 + 2] + 4 = 10.
Jake won by 3. His Arena total is lower than his Capacity score, so he has three -1’s (the difference he
won by) to put among his Physical Capacity or Arenas. He chooses to lower his Appearance, Speed,
and Stealth by 1 each.

Prolonging Strain: Say that Jake did not Break Strain with the cop and continued to gallivant
around 1975 New York for another week or so, in the process accruing another 7 Strain. He is now
sitting at Time 3, Strain 1, Strain Dice 2. He is also about to reach his Goal, an artifact that he has been
pursuing through time. Unfortunately, a rival Traveler has also been chasing the object, and the two
are now brawling on the edge of a dock. The GM decides that the conflict is a very important one,
requiring three rolls to resolve. Jake wins the first roll and narrates how he pushes his rival to the very
edge of the dock. He blows the next roll, however, rolling a 1 (and thus Breaking Strain) and a 2. He’s
not going to allow himself to be thwarted this close to his goal, so he spends 1 Time to prolong the
Break. His opponent gains the upper hand, and trips Jake, almost sending him into the water. They
make their final rolls for the conflict (Jake spending 1 Time because of prolonging a Break), and Jake
barely manages to win. He grabs the other Traveler’s ankle, pulls him into the sea, snags the artifact,
and allows his Strain to Break.

He currently has Time 1, Strain 3 (2 for prolonging), Strain Dice 2. He again rolls on his Physical
Capacity, against his 3 Strain. He rolls a 10 against the GMs 12. He lost the roll and has a lower Arena
total. He subtracts 2 from his Physical Capacity, and because the Break was prolonged he distributes
–2 between the Capacity and its Arenas, lowering his Appearance and Stealth by 1 each. He loses his
Strain dice, but retains 2 Strain in his pool for the 2 gained after he decided to Prolong the Break.
Aspects: Aspects represent different twists that each Traveler puts on their power. No two Travel-
ers do it exactly alike, and each is more proficient in one area of Travel than in another. You choose
three Aspects when you create your character, and can gain another one when you attain a Goal. The
effects of each Aspect are cumulative, and you can have as many instances of an Aspect as you wish.

Ease: Some Travelers find it just…easy to Travel. You find moving through time akin to moving
through air or water. Whenever a Traveler with Ease Travels, calculate the total cost as per normal,
and then reduce it by 1 Time for every Ease Aspect. You must always pay at least 1 Time to Travel.
Also, for every 3 Ease Aspects, the Time/Conflict you must pay is reduced by 1 – note that this can
result in not paying any Time during conflicts when outside your Native Timeframe. Ease affects only
your personal Travel, not the costs to include others.

Gate: Most Travelers find Travel to be an extremely individual process, but you can expand it farther
than yourself. Whenever you Travel, you may choose to create a Gate instead of doing it normally.
Instead of its normal effects, a portal, of any kind that fits your Style, is created. Anyone who wishes
to can step through it. You spend Time as normal to create the Gate, and can step through it with no
further payment. You spend Time/Conflict as per normal. For every other person that steps through
the Gate, you must pay 1 Time. If they are a Traveler, TMer or Thrall they must pay the Time/Conflict
costs for being in another timeframe. If they are not, you must do so. You can keep the Gate open as
long as you still have Time. You may maintain as many open Gates as you have Gate Aspects. If you
have multiple Gates open, they can be to different timeframes, or you can even open a Gate from one
non-Native timeframe to another. Anyone who Breaks Strain after passing through a Gate gets flung
to the Native Timeframe side of the Gate. If you Break Strain, all Gates you have open close immedi-
ately. Others who have passed through the Gate are left in that timeframe.

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Timestream Chapter 3
Passenger: It takes extra effort for most Travelers
to bring people along when they Travel, but you
find it easy to do so. Usually, it costs 2 extra Time
for each passenger you wish to bring with you.
For every Passenger Aspect, you can bring one
person for free.

Range: All Travelers start with a Travel Range of

100 years (see Page 10). Most Travelers manage
to increase their Range over the course of their
experiences. For every Range Aspect, extend your
Travel Range by 100 years. The “default” is to add
50 years to each end of your Range, but you can
split it up any way you wish. You could add 25
years to your lower limit and 75 to your upper, or
10 and 90, or 77 and 23, etc.

Send: Not only can you jump from timeframe to

timeframe, you can push others. Pay Time as if
Traveling yourself, but one other person of your
choice Travels instead. If they are a Traveler, TMer
or Thrall they must pay the appropriate Time/
Conflict while in another timeframe. If not, you
must do so. If you have multiple Send Aspects,
you can send a group of people at once, with the
number of people no greater than your number of
Send Aspects. Calculate the Time cost for each one
individually and add them all together. Your Ease
aspect applies when using Send.

View: You can send just your sight to different

timeframes in order to get a glimpse of events. All
Travelers start with a View Range (see page 10) of
0, and every View Aspect increases it by 100 years
in the same manner as the Range Aspect. To look
into another timeframe, pay Time equal to the ap-
propriate Time/Conflict entry on the Travel Chart
(see Page 23). Choose one place within that time to
view – you can see everything, as per your normal
sight, in a full sphere. When you want to move
your sight to a different location in that timeframe,
pay 1 Time. You can end the effect at any time for
no cost. This sight replaces your “normal” sight
for the duration of the effect.

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Timestream Chapter 3

Temporal Manipulation: Whereas Travel represents the influence one has on the large scale of
time, Temporal Manipulation, or TM, represents influence on a smaller, local scale. TMers can create
a number of different effects through the use of different Techniques. Only the most powerful and
skilled TMers know all of them, but all TMers know at least three. The techniques are:

Time Shifting (speeding things up (actually slowing subjective time) or slowing things down
(actually speeding up subjective time)),
Pausing (pausing time around you),
Future Looping (oscillating between an experienced and a non-experienced point),
Past Looping (oscillating between two experienced points),
Previewing (seeing things before they happen),
Skipping (skipping from one temporal point to another).

Breaking Strain works exactly as described on Page 21, with any minor variations explained under
each Technique. Most Techniques contain a number of related effects, and knowledge of the Tech-
nique gives knowledge of all of its capabilities. Each Technique is fully described below, and followed
by an example of that Techniques use.

Time Shifting: This technique either slows subjective time, resulting in the appearance of ev-
erything around you speeding up, or speeds subjective time, making everything else seem to slow
down. Hereinafter, “speed” refers to everything else speeding up, and “slow” refers to everything
else slowing down. To initiate a Time Shift, pay 2 Time and declare whether you are speeding things
up or slowing things down. You get a +1 to your next conflict roll. If you wish, you may spend more
Time to get more bonuses, at the rate of 1 Time per +1. More Time spent represents the world get-
ting progressively slower or faster. The effect ends at the conclusion of either the conflict or the scene
(whichever is more appropriate), unless you wish to end it early. If you Break Strain while speeding
or slowing, you snap back to standard speed, but you do not move in time.

Example of Time Shifting: Maria, a TMer, badly wants to beat Pedro at a foot race. She cur-
rently has Time 9, Strain 6, and Strain Dice 0. As the gun goes off she decides to slow things down.
She spends 2 Time (Time 7, Strain 8). Pedro seems to run off in slow motion. Maria already has a +1
to her conflict roll, but she knows that Pedro is much faster than her, so she spends two more Time
(Time 5, Strain 0, Strain Dice 1) to bring her total bonus to +3. Pedro seems to be almost crawling. The
two players roll, and Maria wins by 2. With a smile, her player narrates how she lazily jogs past the
slowpoke Pedro and drops the effect as she crosses the finish line.

Pausing: When you Pause, choose one of two effects. The first is to freeze everything around you
while you act normally (a World Pause). The second is to freeze yourself outside of time for a short
period (a Self Pause). Either costs 2 Time to activate. If you Break Strain while Pausing, you snap
back to standard time, but you do not move in time

Every significant action you take during a World Pause costs another 1 Time. The GM has final say
over what counts as a significant action. You cannot change anything about other people or objects
when a scene is Paused, but you are free to move and anything on your person can be placed or
moved. An item on your person is defined as any object that you can hold without the support of
something else (a pen, a sword, or bench-pressing a table would all count, a car you are in or a heavy

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Timestream Chapter 3
file cabinet you push across the floor would not). A combination of these factors makes it virtually im-
possible to cause injury to others while time is paused. A bullet from a gun freezes as soon as it passes
beyond the barrel; swords stop just as they touch the skin, etc. This Pause generally allows you to set
yourself to win a conflict, if applicable, and if you have enough Time to pay for all the significant ac-
tions you take. The GM determines whether you gain a bonus to, or even automatically win, a conflict
via your actions in a World Pause. When you choose to end the effect normal time resumes, though
you and any objects you moved will seem to have “teleported” if in a different location.

During a Self Pause, the world moves around you without touching you. This takes you out of the
timestream for a period of time, physically removing you from the world. You experience this as a
blackout, and it enables you to survive dangerous situations, from being thrown out of a plane to be-
ing present at ground zero of an explosion. When you enact a Self Pause, declare the amount of time
that you want to pass before you come out of the Pause. For every minute past the first, pay an addi-
tional 1 Time.

Examples of Pausing: The next day, Maria is crossing the street at an intersection. She hears
screeching brakes and turns to see an out-of-control truck careening towards her. She immediately
enacts a World Pause, paying the 2 Time (Time 3, Strain 2, Strain Dice 1). Everything around her
freezes, and she takes stock of the situation. She could just move out of the way, but she sees that the
truck is on course to hit a little old lady on the sidewalk behind her. She moves over next to the lady
and prepares to body check her out of the way (one significant action, costing 1 Time). She drops the
effect, shoves the lady and gets both of them out of the way of the truck, which goes on to smash into
a condemned building. She’s down to Time 2, Strain 3, Strain Dice 1. She fobs off the ladies questions
about how she “came out of nowhere” and goes about her day.

Inside the condemned building, Leo, an itinerate TMer who is just awakening to his powers, screams
as the truck crashes through the wall. He drops and instinctively activates a Self Pause, paying the
2 Time. A minute later he comes back, curled up inside the wrecked vehicle, with a crowd of people
staring right at him.

Looping: The Looping Techniques allow you to experience an event, or a series of events, multiple
times. Loops can be made between two temporal points that you have already experienced, or be-
tween one that you have and one that you have not. Though the differences between the two means
that knowledge of one technique does not automatically give knowledge of the other, each shares the
following mechanics. Pay 2 Time to initiate a Loop. At the end of a Loop, you may pay 1 Time to un-
dergo another loop, and so on. If you decide that you want to keep the result of a loop, merely drop
the effect, and the events of the most recent are what “really” occur. If you want to keep a result of a
Loop completed before the most recent one, pay 1 Time for each completed Loop since the one you
wish to keep, and drop the effect.

A Future Loop is a Loop between a point in time that has already occurred for you and one that has
not yet, but that you can relate to the first - “I want to loop from just now when the door opened to
5 minutes from now,” for example. Play through the first Loop exactly as normal, until the pre-de-
termined end point. Then choose whether you want to Loop to the beginning and play through the
scene over again. This can result in a different ending to the scene. If you Break Strain while Looping
the future, you snap back to the beginning point of the Loop, and play out the scene normally.

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Timestream Chapter 3
A Past Loop requires you to designate two temporal points that you have experienced within the
current scene. Play through the Loops in the same manner as Future Loops, except that the two end-
points chosen cannot change. If the starting point is a door opening, and the end point is Fred getting
shot, than both of those must still happen, though everything in between can change. The GM and
players should work together to mold events towards the original ending point. When you Break
Strain while Past Looping, you snap to the end point of the Loop.

Examples of Looping: A TMer burglar named Sarah and two comrades are planning a major
job - stealing some very valuable paintings from the mansion of an eccentric millionaire. They are
prepared to go over the walls onto the grounds, and Sarah decides to activate a Future Loop, just in
case. The GM tells her player that the next scene is about the three thieves entering the actual house,
so Sarah sets the endpoints at the present moment, and when they get into the house itself. She is sit-
ting at Time 7, Strain 5, Strain Dice 0. She pays 2 Time (Time 5, Strain 7, Strain Dice 0). The group then
plays out the entrance. During this scene, a pair of security guards detects the characters, and one of
her friends is injured in the ensuing struggle. They subdue the guards and enter the house, at which
point Sarah decides to spend 1 Time to play through the Loop again. This time, on Sarah’s advice,
they take a different route, and get into the building without alerting anyone. However, during this
Loop Sarah noticed something on the other side of the grounds that attracted her interest. She pays
another Time (Time 4, Strain 8) to Loop again, and this time enters from the opposite side to check
out the structure, which turns out to be a mere gardening shed. Again, they attract the attention of
guards, and once they scramble into the house, Sarah pays 1 Time for the one completed Loop since
the Loop she wishes to take, and the events of the second Loop enter history.

During a heist of a jewelry store, Sarah inadvertently sets off an alarm while leaving with her prizes.
Thinking quickly, she exits the store, runs to her getaway vehicle, and then activates a Past Loop. She
has Time 4, Strain 8, Strain Dice 0. She pays 2 Time (Time 2, Strain 0, Strain Dice 1) and designates
the endpoints of the loop (1 minute before activating the alarm, and the moment she got in the car).
She finds herself back in the jewelry store, a minute before she tripped the alarm. This time she takes
a couple minutes to find and disable the alarm before going out the window, and strolling to the car.
Once she’s back in, she lets the Loop go, and time resumes as normal. The alarm was never set off,
and she gets away clean.

Previewing: The Previewing Technique allows you to get a sense of what is about to happen.
To initiate a Preview, pay 2 Time and instigate a standard conflict. You roll on your Linked Arena. If
you win, you get to narrate what is about to happen. If the GM wins, he narrates. The narrator nar-
rates facts or significant actions equal to the difference between the two rolls. A tie indicates that the
immediate future is too murky for you to make out. Conflicts may be narrated, but the results of
conflicts may not be – there are too many factors going into even the simplest conflicts for a TMer to
predict outcomes with perfect accuracy. Regardless, the character gets a +2 to each conflict that they
participate in that falls under the Previewed time period. This whole process takes a split second of
the characters time. The winner of the conflict can pass partial narration to the loser if they wish. The
loser starts narrating, but the winner can break in to change a fact or action, or to insert a new one
into the flow of events. Keep in mind that the total number of facts or significant actions narrated is
still limited to the difference between the two rolls. If you Break Strain on the roll to preview, the at-
tempt fails utterly, in addition to its other effects.

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Timestream Chapter 3

Example of Previewing: Maria is climbing the stairs to her apartment when she hears a
sound. It seems to be coming from her floor, and she’s wound up from an exciting night, so she
doesn’t want to take any chances. She closes her eyes and Previews. After paying 2 Time, she rolls on
her Awareness Arena (her Linked Arena) of +4 against the GM. She rolls a total of 11 against the GM’s
6. However, she has no idea what the GM has in mind, so she passes partial narration to him. The GM
narrates that she knows she’s going to ascend to the top of the stairs (first action), see her door hang-
ing ajar (fact), enter carefully (second action), and hear a sound behind her as she’s attacked by some-
one laying in wait (third action, and the start of a conflict). Maria changes that she enters carefully to
she runs through the door, and adds that she’ll manage to get the first blow in the fight (fourth ac-
tion). She continues walking up the stairs with this knowledge, and she gets a +2 to the conflict be-
tween her and her attacker.

Skipping: The Skipping Technique allows you to jump directly to a different point in time. First,
announce the destination of your Skip. Skipping backwards can be to any moment already experi-
enced within the current scene (“I want to skip to when the door opened”). Skipping forwards must
be related to the current moment (“I want to skip to 5 minutes from now”). If you Skip back, you
can designate a new point to Skip forwards to as part of the same effect, as long as it’s not after the
moment that you just Skipped back from (If you Skip from the current moment back 5 minutes, you
could Skip from the start-minus-4 minute mark forwards to the start-minus-2 minute mark at no ad-
ditional cost, but a Skip to the start-plus-1 minute mark would be a separate Skip forwards.). Declare
your destination and spend 1 Time. You can only Skip within a scene or two of your current scene,
subject to GM discretion. This may actually cover a good bit of time, depending on the scene (if the
character wants to Skip to the end of a boring 8-hour plane trip, for instance), and the GM should
exercise some common sense. Skipping a day or so in either direction is the outer limit of the power.

Once you’ve Skipped backwards, you re-enter history. Nothing that happened can change – you’re
trapped doing the actions you already did, saying the words you’ve already said, and so forth. How-
ever, what you can do is notice different things (just how many Ninjas came in that window?) or
analyze something with the benefit of future knowledge (well, he told us that his contact was Latino,
I’ll Skip back and see if any Latino men were outside the shop).

Skipping forward means that the GM has to decide what happened between the moment of Skipping
and the moment Skipped to, and narrate the new scene accordingly. The only way to find out how
things got from then to now is to go back and live through the history as it has now been set down.
Note that Looping the Skipped scene will enable you to see what happened and who did what, but
not to change the eventual outcome, as it counts as a Past Loop.

Example of Skipping: Maria dozes off in the middle of her upper-level economics class. She
wakes near the end of class to hear the professor say “…and that’s what’s going to be on the final.”
It’s a big lecture class, and the teacher is notoriously unapproachable, so she decides to Skip back in
order to hear what he had to say. She pays 1 Time, skipping back to when she dozed off. Her eyes still
close and she slumps as if sleeping, but her mind remains active, and she pays attention to the lecture
this time around. Later that day, she gets on the bus to go home. At the next stop, a creepy-looking
guy gets on the bus and sits across from her. He stares at her intensely, making her feel very uncom-
fortable. She decides to skip forwards to when her stop is, so as to not have to deal with the guy star-
ing. She pays the 1 Time, and suddenly finds herself by the side of the road in a strange part of town,
with the bus nowhere in sight! She sighs, and prepares to Loop back and see what happened…

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Timestream Chapter 3

Technique Interactions: Different Techniques can be activated inside and around each
other. Below are some common interactions, though by no means an exhaustive list.

Nesting: If you have the Time and the will, you can nest Techniques inside of each other. These re-
solve in an inside-out manner. The most recently enacted Technique resolves first, then the next most
recent, and so on. If you Break Strain you follow the guidelines for the outermost, or first-enacted,
manipulation.

Unresolved Future Loops: While you may designate an event (like the moment you get into a car) as
the end point of a Future Loop, this may be risky. What if the event you choose as the endpoint of the
Loop fails to occur? It’s the GM’s call as to whether it seems that the predetermined end point of a
Future Loop is not going to happen within the current scene. In this case he can declare that the loop
resets itself. You find yourself back at the beginning of the Loop, and continue playing normally. You
also gain an additional Strain, to represent the paradox near miss. If the end point continues to fail to
occur, the GM can also determine that the Loop terminates itself, which also gives you an additional
Strain. You cannot choose an unresolved Loop as the one to keep, when you choose which Loop you
wish to enter history.

Other Interactions: You can’t Time Shift to slow things down while Pausing, as you effectively already
have things slowed down to the max. Any attempt to do so automatically fails. You can speed things
up, but it breaks the Pause entirely, replacing it with the Time Shifting effect.

If you activate a Past Loop inside a Future Loop, the Past Loop resolves normally before the Future
Loop, which means you can choose to do the Past Loop again or not as part of the Future Loop. If you
activate a Future Loop inside a Past Loop, by definition you must choose an end point after the termi-
nation of the Past Loop. When your Future Loop brings you back to the inside of the Past Loop, you
will still have to resolve that Loop before getting to the termination point of the Future Loop.

As mentioned above, Skipping forwards does not keep you from moving in time, so Looping back to
see what happened in the time you Skipped always counts as a Past Loop.

Previewing can tell you that you will enact another Technique, but not the end result – there are just
too many possibilities to sort out. If you Preview within a Loop, it can only inform you up to the end
of the Loop, but not after.

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Timestream Chapter 3

Thralldom: Thralls have the coveted ability to both Travel and use TM Techniques. This does
come with a price. Thralls can be seen as a conduit through which another being channels their pow-
er; in many ways, a Thrall is the instrument, not the source, of the ability to command the timestream.
A Thralls Master could be a god, a shadowy government organization, a mad scientist, an alien being
of pure energy, or anything else you can imagine. In all cases, whether the relationship be amiable
or contentious, the Master can always compel the Thrall against the Thrall’s wishes. The GM always
plays the role of the Master. Note that if you want a character whose powers come from an external
source, but not one that is controlled by that source, it may be more appropriate to use the optional
rules for Item-Powered Characters (page 41).

Affecting Time: A Thrall with at least one Aspect can Travel, using all of the Travel rules exactly as
a Traveler does. A Thrall with at least one Technique can use that Technique exactly as a TMer does.
Thralls also follow all conflict and advancement rules exactly as written, with the only exceptions
being those detailed below. A Thrall does not have to take both Aspects and Techniques. If you feel it
is appropriate or fun for your character, you can certainly be a Thrall that only Travels, or that only
TMs.

A Masters Will: The Master always has the ability to keep tabs on the Thrall, and know where and
when you are at any time, including your surroundings and those you interact with. The Master can
always force the Thrall to initiate or extend a conflict. In addition, whenever a Thrall attains a Goal,
it is the Masters choice whether they gain a new Aspect or Technique. The GM makes this decision.
If the Thrall’s player wants a different Aspect or Technique, or he wants to gain the +2 to Capacities
instead, he must fight the Master (see below). You may also fight the Master whenever he attempts to
force you to initiate or extend a conflict.

Remote Activation: Because your powers come from your Master, he has the option to activate them.
Whenever the Master wants, he can make you Travel or use a Technique, as per normal. You still pay
all the costs and accrue the Strain. If you want to keep him from doing this, you must fight him. By
the same token, he can try to keep you from using your powers when you want to – again, you must
fight him in order to overcome his objection.

Fighting the Master: Whenever you want to disobey your Master, you must initiate a conflict with
him. Play through this like any other conflict, including Benefits of Success and Penalties of Failure.
The Master rolls on your Masters Control Arena. If you win the conflict, you are able to disobey the
Master and do what you want. If you fail, you are compelled by your Masters power to do his bid-
ding. The Master can extend the conflict at will. The Masters Control Arena goes up by 1 if you fail,
and down by 1 if you succeed at the conflict, in addition to Benefits and Penalties.

Consequences: Native Shift and Permanent Vu can both happen to Thralls, and sometimes a particu-
larly unfortunate Thrall will suffer both at once. However, with the severance of the source of your
power comes regained control over your own destiny. While your Master can still contact you, he can
no longer force you to do anything. If you go Out, contact is completely severed, until you come back
In again.

Powers In Conjunction: Because of their unique abilities, Thralls run into unique combinations of
circumstances. Any time a Thrall Travels while still inside a Loop, they gain 1 Strain and the Loop
is negated. A Thrall cannot Travel while enacting a World Pause. Other interactions have no specific
restrictions or effects other than those that come up in play.
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Timestream Chapter 4

EXPANSION: SETTING, NOTES & ADDENDA

This chapter has two purposes. The first is to provide you, player or GM, some insight into the prin-
ciples behind this game, and my thoughts on how it ought to be played. Everyone enjoys different
things, of course, but these notes are intended to orient you towards the spirit of the game. The sec-
ond purpose is to flesh some areas of the game that are not required for play, but will add an extra di-
mension to a given game, including guidelines for creating items important to a story and for playing
characters Out of Time. Enjoy!

General Principles: Timestream is a game about time travel, not about philosophy, scientific
principles, or explaining away every little paradox. Time travel inherently creates contradictions, and
dealing with them is part of the fun! While there are some guidelines (as presented by the Laws of
Travel, page 37), you should feel in no way obligated to try to make sense of everything, especially
that which contradicts itself. In general, though, paradox will increase Strain on the one who created
it. The GM should feel free to assign extra Strain to characters that create mini-paradoxes.

As may be imagined, there is no default time period that the characters are assumed to be from. Any
group of characters could be together for any number of reasons, especially given Travel. The future
can be anything you imagine it to be. A more fantastic game could be “set” in the far past or future,
while a grittier, more down-to-earth one could concern modern day TMers. The exploration of both
suddenly-empowered “ordinary” people and experienced time veterans make fantastic games. There
are no secret organizations or conspiracies, no time cops, nothing that you don’t wish to include in
your version of the Timestream world.

To this end, players have a lot of leeway in how to detail their characters. Everything, from the way
that they Travel to what they believe in to how they look, is decided by the player, and can be as
detailed or as abstract as fits your game. Fundamentally, this game is about normal people with extra-
ordinary resources. Have fun with it.

Story and Narrative: There are many places in this text that I talk about creating a story. This
term, while common, can be misleading, so I want to take a few words to explain what I mean. The
first thing to understand is that a RPG is a fundamentally different medium than the novels, movies
and TV shows to which it is commonly compared. In all of those mediums, a narrative is created by
a person, or group of people, which is then presented to audience members that receive the narrative
in a context-specific manner, transforming it into a story. The narrative contained in a particular novel
or movie resonates with different audience members in different fashions, and much of this resonance
depends on the context in which those recipients receive the narrative. It is my view that RPG’s work
in a different fashion, and in some ways reverse this process. Because the group is composed of both
authors and audience, a story is created in the process of play, which can then later be rendered into
a narrative. Role-playing itself creates the story. A transcript of play is one narrative that could be cre-
ated afterwards.

Thus, it is important to see that all of the players, including the GM, work together in order to create
the story. The GM and the other players are not opposed. While the responsibility for portraying the
world around the characters, non-player characters, and external events rests on the GMs shoulders,
this does not mean that the GM “runs the world” while the players guide their characters through it.
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Timestream Chapter 4
Rather, all of the players work together in order to create the world of play. Now, this does not mean
that there need be no tension or conflict in the story - in fact, Timestream is all about tension and
conflict. But there needs to be the understanding on the part of all players that they are supporting
each other in whatever goals they have for themselves as players. Everyone who role-plays does so
because they get something fun out of it. It seems to me that the easiest way to facilitate this is to have
a conversation about what each player enjoys in a game, and then work together as a group to create
that kind of story.

How to GM Timestream: After reading through the rules, the prospective GM may be feeling
a little apprehensive. After all, Timestream gives the players a good amount of what the GM may be
used to as his responsibilities, like coming up with compelling non-player characters, narrating suc-
cess, and advancing the plot from time to time. So what is the GM supposed to do? In a nutshell, the
GM’s job in Timestream is to pull everything together through the use of aggressive scene framing
and plot threading.

Aggressive scene framing means that the GM should be setting scenes that directly address the cool
stuff that the players have come up with, and that their characters are up to. The characters will all
have various agendas (due to Goals and Obstacles) and relationships, including interaction with their
Anchors and the other characters, oftentimes across years and years of time. It’s easy to fall into “so...
what do you wanna do? What do you wanna do?” and get bogged down with trying to link every-
thing together up front. The point of aggressive scene framing is to avoid this question – there should
be something to do in every scene. Sometimes the players will have their own ideas, which is great
and should be encouraged. Sometimes, the GM will have a good idea for something that he would
like to see, and he should frame to that conflict. Play should go directely from scene to scene. Don’t
worry about playing out “downtime,” unless something interesting happens! Encourage the group to
tell you when they are getting overwhelmed and need to slow it down a bit, or when they are bored
with a scene and want to get on with it.

Part of aggressive scene framing is creating events that the characters must have some response to.
You should have some kind of fallout in mind for any response, including not doing anything. These
are called Bangs by some games. One appropriate place to look for Bangs is a characters Goals and
Anchors, and tensions inherent between them. Look at the example characters from Chapter 2 (pages
11 & 14). Catherine has the Goal of gaining mystical power, and her father is one of her Anchors. A
simple Bang for this would be that her father orders her to destroy all of her mystical trappings, in
case another noble finds out and accuses her of being a witch. Of course, any situation can be a Bang,
as long as it demands action from the characters.

Plot threading means that you should throw anything you think would make the scene more fun into
it, without worrying about causality or underlying logic. Time travel happens. This means that al-
most any combination of circumstances that you can imagine can happen. Go ahead and create those
circumstances, and worry about explaining it later. If the players are interested in a given event and
want to pursue it, then you can go ahead and figure out how or why it happened. If not, then just let
it go. As play continues, various threads will emerge, and you will begin to see how different threads,
that you had no intention of joining at the time you threw them into a scene, can combine.

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Timestream Chapter 4
These techniques all flow together. For an example, lets look at the Anchors of the characters from
Chapter 2. Some possible plot threads that arise could be that Morganna demands that Catherine take
Lionels sword, causing it to dissapear from Timothy’s possession (because Lionel doesn’t have it to
pass on to the next generation any more), and Timothy Travels back to get it. Or, Morganna stops be-
ing in contact with Catherine, and Catherine tries to seek her out. Or Lionel’s sword has some power
of its own, and brings Lionel and Catherine forward in time for an undetermined reason. As you can
see, given time travel, these are all fun and interesting possibilities that could be used to start off a
game of Timestream.

Perceptions: Below are how Travel and TM tend to be experienced, both by those who have the
power and those who are effected by them.

Subjective Time Progression: It can be hard to wrap your mind around moving through time in a non-
linear fashion. It is easiest to think of each characters life as their own subjective, continuous timeline.
Whatever point they are at in terms of experiences and knowledge is what they know about, and the
context that they put their experiences into, regardless of the objective order of events. Say you are
in 1990 and Travel to 1992. Your experience will only be of ‘90 and ‘92, not ‘91 (unless and until you
return to ‘90 and then live through ‘91). If you then Travel to 1989, you will still have the experiences
you did living through 1990 and 1992. If you then Travel to 1991, to a different location than the first
time, you will have a different set of experiences. Your subjective history will be a continuous stream
of your experiences, even though the years involved jump around. If you learn to pilot a boat in 1992,
you will retain that knowledge no matter when you go, because it is in your subjective past. Essential-
ly, each characters experience forms a subjective linear narrative. In this fashion, you can (and prob-
ably will) experience the same event from multiple perspectives, by Traveling to it multiple times and
acting in different ways each time.

Objective Time Progression: One of the effects of subjective linearity is “holes” in your characters life
as perceived by other people. If you are in 1990, and then Travel to 1992, its as if you disappeared
during the intervening year, until and unless you Travel to live through them. As far as others in your
characters life are concerned, you disappeared. You can avoid this problem by declaring that you
will take the subjective time to live through those years. At some point in your characters life, he will
make sure to live through that time regularly. Simply add the years to your age, and update your Na-
tive Timeframe. You can only do this for a span of time after you were born, as no one will miss you
before you exist.

Perceptions of Travel: There are as many ways to experience Travel as there are methods for doing
so. Some black out, some experience a whirling vortex, some blink and are in the new timeframe.
Describe what your character sees, feels, and otherwise senses while Traveling however you wish.
Similarly, what others see when you Travel can differ wildly. Perhaps you simply disappear, or fade
out, or step through a hole in the air. Again, you are free to describe these perceptions and sensations
however you wish.

Perceptions of TM: To the TMer, everything they do is simply a continuation of their subjective time-
line. If you loop a scene three or four times, your character will have three or four different sets of
memories, one for each loop – though they will be aware of which of these entered history, of course.
As for others perception of what happens when you TM, this differs depending on which technique
you use. See next page for details.
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Timestream Chapter 4

TM Technique Perceptions

Time Shifting: If you move faster than the world around you, others may see you as simply
quick, or maybe a blur if you speed up fast enough. If you slow down enough, it may seem to
others as if you are moving in slow motion. This is reversed from your perspective. When
speeding up, everything around you seems to be moving slowly, and when slowing down,
everything around you starts to move quickly and jerkily, as if watching a movie and skipping
frames.

Pausing: For a World Pause, everything around you freezes in place. Others notice nothing,
unless you move, or move something, to a different place than it was at the beginning of the
Pause. In this case, it will seem as if it moved instantly and without passing through the
intervening space. For a Self Pause, you simply black out until the point you designated in the
exterior timestream arrives. To others, you vanish and reappear in the same physical space
when the Pause ends.

Future Looping and Past Looping: You retain your memories of each Loop, though physical
consequences only affect you if they happened during the kept Loop. Others experience the
kept Loop as if nothing ever happened.

Previewing: There are as many flavors of Previewing as there are of TMer, from visions to
ghostly figures to simple knowledge popping into your mind. Others notice nothing, except
maybe a small pause in speech or movement on your part.

Skipping: Blink. You are at the new point. Others notice nothing - indeed, there’s nothing to
notice. This power is simply controlling your own perceptions and moving them through time.

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Timestream Chapter 4

The 5 Laws Of Time Travel: Every Traveler quickly learns that Travel has its own set of
rules. It seems that time is a self-correcting entity, and works to prevent the paradoxes that can easily
arise from rampant Travel. Travelers have empirically developed the following laws. They are pre-
sented roughly in the order in which discovered by one who just discovered his powers.

Law 1: Travelers are anchored in their Native Timeframes: Travelers cannot Travel within a
period of about a year centered on their moment of departure. This rough span has come to be
called ones “Native Timeframe,” as it seems to be the default temporal location of a Traveler. It
is more difficult to Travel far from your native timeframe than close to it, and when a Traveler
dies or Breaks Strain his body returns to his moment of departure.

Law 2: History self-corrects: Every Traveler eventually learns that certain things that happen
throughout history occur no matter how much interference there is from Travelers. History
tends to correct itself to keep in line with what would happen, absent changes made by those
who can do so. This correction can take the form of anything from a coincidence keeping a
Traveler from changing an event (i.e. your gun jams as you attempt to assassinate Hitler at an
early age) to another event occurring that takes the place of the first in history (i.e. you kill
Hitler as a child, but another man follows his same path). This law has two effects that are
important enough to be considered laws of their own:

Law 3: The difficulty of any action is directly proportional to how large a ripple in the
timestream it makes: To those that subscribe to the river metaphor of time, every action taken,
from a breath of air to building a car to assassinating a President, acts as a stone dropped into
the timestream. Some events are mere grains of sand, causing barely any disturbance, while
others are like giant boulders, splashing down and influencing events all about them, some
times for years to come. The difficulty inherent in trying to change the magnitude of those
ripples, or what causes them, is proportional to how important the event in question is. In
concrete terms, this means that the weight of history resists hugely significant changes being
made by Travelers. Talking an average tavern-keeper into giving you a free beer is no big deal,
but killing King Richard the Lionhearted before he goes on the Crusades is awfully difficult.
This is not to say it is impossible - major events can, and indeed are, influenced by Travelers.
However, they do take much more deliberate planning and careful execution than an
equivalent action taken in one’s Native Timeframe. Most conflicts undergone outside of a
Travelers native timeframe that would substantially alter history impose large situational
penalties on the Traveler.

Law 4: Attempting to change the same event multiple times results in diminishing returns:
The first attempt to change an event is always the most effective. The more you try to
subsequently change that event, the more difficult it is, and the less total change you can effect.
Remember that an original event causes a ripple. The first attempt to change it tries to make it
hit the water harder or softer, change its location in the stream, or something else that resists its
happening how it would without interference. The next attempt is struggling against both its
natural impulse and the first attempt, two sets of countering forces instead of one. The next
attempt fights against three sets of countering forces, and so on. Going back in time again and

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Timestream Chapter 4
again to (say) prevent a certain event from occurring is usually ineffective if the initial attempt
fails. Most actions that attempt to duplicate an earlier failed action impose situational
penalties, which rise with each subsequent attempt.

Law 5: You cannot cause your future self to die or cease existing: Travel theorists are familiar
with the “grandfather paradox”. What happens if you go back in time and kill your grand
father before your mother was born? Do you stop existing? Do you become detached from
time? Does nothing happen? In practice, it seems that history does not allow this kind of thing
to happen. Thus far, no Traveler has been able to cause themselves to cease to exist in their
Native Timeframe via action taken in any other timeframe. It seems that you cannot leave
yourself a trap, kill your own parents (or grandparents, etc. – though there is a certain
generation beyond which you would still be born, no matter what. The difficulties inherent in
trying to establish this point have proved insurmountable to Travelers thus far), or hire an
other Traveler to go back to before you began to Travel and kill you. Any such attempt,
intentional or accidental, is thwarted in some coincidental way. You can still commit suicide in
any timeframe, as this does not target the separate version of you in your Native Timeframe
differently than any other death. Essentially, if you want to kill yourself, you can, but if you
want to kill a different you, you cannot.

Addendum: Meeting yourself usually isn’t worth it: Not as much of a law as a suggestion
made by most Travelers who have done it, it’s often mentioned as an aside to the “real” laws.
You can indeed go back or forwards in time to meet yourself. However, the amount of stress
this puts on the you that chooses to do so can be immense, often enough to cause you to Break
Strain. Anytime a Traveler meets himself, he accrues 2 Strain for every Time spent and any roll
of a 1 or a 2 on a Strain Dice causes Strain to Break. This is in addition to the sheer weirdness
of trying to talk to a different version of yourself. As it turns out, the “Bill & Ted” scenario is
actually fairly accurate.

The Law Dial: The GM is encouraged to enforce the Laws of Travel to a degree that fits the game as
a whole. At the low end of the dial is no additional penalties, with difficulty due to the Laws mainly
providing color. This is appropriate for a freewheeling, high-octane style of game. At the high end
of the dial is each law imposing at least a -2 penalty to relevent conflicts, with an additional -1 pen-
alty for every Law past the first that applies and for every attempt past the first (i.e attempting to
keep Lincoln from being assassinated would be at -2 due to Law 3. If it fails, and the attempt is made
again, it would at -2 for Law 3, -2 for Law 4, -1 for two laws and -1 for second attempt, for a total -6).
A good medium setting is imposing a -1 or -2 for actions with far-ranging consequences, scaling up
with the number of attempts made.

Out of Time: Being Out of Time (often referred to as just Out) is a contradictory experience.
On the one hand, you are experiencing a simultaneous blend of – well, everything. Everything and
anything is possible while Out. On the other hand, the only way to get back In is to concentrate on
yourself and use your powers. You have to really focus in order to get back In, and most people want
to get In. In addition to being seperated from everything you’ve ever known, including family and
friends, you can’t accomplish any Goals while Out.

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Timestream Chapter 4
Going Out triggers a fairly free-form mini-game within the context of the larger game. The character
Out becomes the sole protagonist of the story. All the other players, GM included, become the source
of everything that happens to the protagonist. The protagonist has the same stats as when they went
Out, except that their Time is reset to 10 and their Strain and Strain Dice to 0. Each other player re-
ceives 10 story tokens to use to change things around the protagonist.

When the protagonist first goes Out, each other player states one fact about what surrounds the
character, from location (you’re on a desert island) to circumstance (you’re flying) to other people
present (you see a small Chinese woman staring at you). Play than proceeds with the player guiding
their character through the set of circumstances facing them. The other players narrate responses and
reactions in an order determined by any mutually agreeable manner (roll a dice, clockwise around
the table, whatever). Anyone can initiate a conflict for any appropriate reason. The only penalties of
failure or benefits of success associated with these conflicts are those that gain or lose you Time and
Strain. Travelers do not have to spend Time to participate in conflicts. Characters have full access to
their powers, and spend Time and gain Strain as normal.

At any time, any player can spend a story token to subtract, change or add any fact to the environ-
ment. There doesn’t have to be any kind of connection or continuity to these facts, but they don’t
need to be entirely random, either. Any time the character spends Time, each other player gains a
story token.

The protagonist does not gain Strain Dice. When he gains 30 Strain, he gets shunted back In. He ap-
pears in his Native Timeframe with 10 Time and no Strain. If the character runs out of Time, he gets
absorbed into the Out forever.

Items: Given the presence of everything from wondrous magic to far future technology, certain
items and artifacts exist in the world that have effects that aren’t strictly standard for their age. Most
of these are prizes in and of themselves, and may create effects that, while incredible, do not mechani-
cally effect play. Others, however, have been designed by or for Travelers or TMers, or just turn out
to be useful. Below is a list of effects for GMs to build into items that they wish to be present in their
stories. Feel free to combine multiple effects into one. Like characters themselves, these rules are a
framework that serve to wrap a living, breathing skin of dramatic content around.

Independent: The Item can activate its powers on its own, whenever the GM wishes.

Intelligent: This item is sentient and can participate in conflicts like any other character,
including gaining the benefits of success and the penalties of failure. This may also mean that
it can communicate with its user or others.

Life Drain: This item requires part of the users life force to sustain itself. Any time the item is
used, one of the users Arenas or Capacities lowers by 1. Some items always effect the same
stat, while others are equal opportunity.

Rechargeable: This item may be recharged by its user once it’s Time falls to 0. There are many
different ways in which an item may be recharged, and discovering the method for a particular
one may be a Goal all on its own.

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Timestream Chapter 4
Stats: This item possesses Arena ratings of its own. In conflicts, the user may substitute one
of these ratings for their own rating in that Arena. In such cases, Arena modifications resulting
from benefits of success or penalties of failure affect the item, and not the user.

Strain Enhancer: This item makes it more difficult to affect time. Whenever the user spends
Time, he gets one additional Strain (if the user spends 2 Time at once, he would get 3 Strain
instead of 2).

Strain Sink: This item drains Strain away from its user. Whenever the user spends Time, he
gains one less Strain than usual (if the user spends 2 Time at once, he would get 1 Strain
instead of 2).

Time Battery: The user can gain Time from this item. Whenever the user spends Time, he may
draw a replacement Time from the items reserves (if the user spends 2 Time at once, he would
recover 1 Time). This lowers the items Time pool by 1, if it has one.

Time Drain: The item drains its owners Time in order to replenish its own reserves. If the item
has less than 10 Time, it will drain an extra Time from its owner every time the owner attempts
to use it until it is back at 10.

TMing Item: This item can utilize one or more TM techniques. It possesses any Techniques that
the GM wishes, and starts with a Time pool of 10. If it Breaks Strain, it is destroyed. Common
item Techniques include Pausing, Previewing, and Time Shifting.

Traveling Item: This item can Travel, as per all the normal rules, at the GMs discretion. It can
have any combination of Aspects and starts with a Time pool of 10. If it Breaks Strain, it is
destroyed. Common item Aspects include Passenger, Gate, and View.

Examples of Items:
DR347 TMAD (Temporal Movement Assistance Device): This small device, usually clipped to the
users belt, emits waves that calm the sub-quantum foam that a Temporal Officer must push through
to fulfill their duties. It does have to periodically recharged and maintained.

Effects:
Strain Sink
Time Battery

Dracula’s Sword: This unremarkable blade is said to have been wielded by Vlad Dracul himself, both
before and after his rumored transformation into a creature of the night. It’s wielder finds himself a
better, and more savage, warrior when using it, but at what cost?

Effects:
Independent – It can force the user to replace their appropriate Arena with it’s own.
Intelligent – Can communicate telepathically with its user.
Life Drain – Activates any time the user’s stat is replaced. Drains Physical Capacity or Arenas.
Stats: Fitness +3, Might +3, Fighting +4, Charm –3, Cool –4

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Timestream Chapter 4
Remote Control for the Universe: This bizarre item looks like a normal TV remote, but when the but-
tons are pushed, the entire world changes. Strangely enough, the Remote Control seems only to fall
into the hands of pre-pubescent kids.

Effects:
TMing Item: Techniques: All, Time: 10, Strain: 0
Rechargeable – Change the batteries.

Time Machine: The Time Machine is a baroque creation of brass and glass, covered in piping, tubing,
gears, valves and switches. It can fit two people within it at once, and has a panel to set the time they
wish to Travel to. It Travels with the users, and remains in the new time until it is used to return.

Effects:
Traveling Item: Aspects: Range x4, Passenger x2, Ease x1, Time 10, Strain 0

Warding Circle: This circle of stones and ancient trees protects those inside from the evil powers of
witches and demons.

Effects:
Independent – It’s powers only activate against those that try to affect people inside the circle.
Strain Enhancer
Time Drain – It drains Time from those trying to cross the circle.

Item-Powered Characters: Some characters manage to find or create an Item to affect time
for them. While some of these qualify as Thralls, others may wish to simply create an Item-dependent
character. Such characters are created and played exactly as normal, with the following caveats:

If you are ever separated from your Item you cannot access your powers, spend Time or accrue
Strain. If you would Break Strain or go Out, you can choose to have it affect the Item instead of your-
self. In both cases the Item is effectively destroyed, and in order to Travel or use TM you must find an
entirely new Item. Native Shift and Permanent Vu both affect you as normal.

As an additional step in character creation, create your Item. Choose either Traveling or TMing Item
with 3 Aspects/Techniques, in addition to any two other Item powers. Work with the GM and group
to create an appropriate Item for the style of game you wish to play.

Settings and Genres: This short list of settings and genres gives some examples of all the
ways to play Timestream, and should help spark your imagination. Each description includes any
rules changes that apply.

Bible-stream: The Lord giveth. You are an angel or prophet, gifted with the ability to see the scope of
Gods creation, and move within it. Why? Because Satan has the same kind of agents working for him,
and he is intent on disrupting the Divine Plan. For an added twist, you are working for the other side.
Thralls only, and each must have at least one View Aspect.

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Timestream Chapter 4
End-stream: The end times have come, and everybody knows it - but the world still can, and must,
be saved. You possess the knowledge that some malevolent force or group is triggering Armageddon
- and you have the power to do something about it. This kind of game is all about heroic risks and
noble self-sacrifice in the name of the preservation of the world as we know it. All characters have the
Goal [Destiny] of Save the World at +6.

Magic-stream: You are from a culture or time period that embraced the use of magic. While knowl-
edge of these arts is lost in the modern day, it was a very real force for many in other epochs. You use
your eldritch skills to give you power over time, and further your own aims. To limit play to a fantas-
tical version of a given time period, all characters are TMers.

Mythos-stream: Whether the Elder Gods, alien beings or malevolent demons, there exist entities in
the world with immense amounts of supernatural power and the dark will to use it. You are working
against the big evils, both to prevent their whims from taking force in the world, and to keep their
very blighted existence from becoming known to the populace at large. Any time a character Breaks
Strain, he must roll on his Mental Capacity, to represent the mind-bending power of the dark forces
involved.

Stream-time: This game starts from the end and works back towards the starting point. All characters
are victims of either Native Shift or Permanent Vu, and have Goals of regaining their powers. You
may start with +4 among your 3 Capacities, or 2 additional Aspects/Techniques, and your Arenas can
add up to +6 in each column, as opposed to the value of that Capacity (to represent your experience).

Time-cops: Imagine every time-travel cop movie you have ever seen. Now play it. You are a future
cop, sent through time either to prevent crimes before they happen, or to pursue criminals that escape
into the past or future. All characters must take Profession (Law Enforcer) at least at +1, if not more.

Time-missions: You are part of an elite team of time-warriors - or a not-so-elite team of gifted teenag-
ers - or any other group of people brought together by an organization for the sole reason that they
can all affect time. Shadowy or forthright, altruistic or exploitative, you are sent on missions by this
organization. Over time, you may eventually be able to free yourself from bondage. Or maybe not.
The group is probably a mixed bag of Travelers and TMers, though it does not have to be.

Time-pulp: Oh no! Dr. Mephisto and his bio-augmented Legion of Destruction is descending on New
York from his fleet of steam-powered zeppelins - again! Good thing that you and your merry band
of cohorts have the savvy and skill to zip back through time to destroy the fleet before it took off, or
perhaps the stop the evil doctor before he even began the attempt. You are a late 19th/early 20th cen-
tury over-the-top pulp action hero. Starting Capacities may add to +6, and each character starts with
4 Aspects or Techniques.

Time-punk: Life on the street is never easy, but sometimes certain people have an edge. You are lucky
enough to have the ultimate edge: the ability to manipulate time itself. All the characters are TMing
street people - punks, homeless, insane, or just unlucky. Every day is a struggle to survive, and even
having the power to affect time is not enough to guarantee a full stomach. Starting Capacities can
only add to +2, and each character starts with 2 Aspects or Techniques.

Time-steam: Think H.G. Wells and the middle-to-late 19th century. Mad scientists and solo inventors
abound, tinkering with their latest creations far into the night to the exclusion of real life. As may be
expected, some come up with machines that access subtle but potent physical laws of the universe
in order to transmute and play with time. You are either one of these inventors, or on good enough
terms with one to use his invention. Characters are more likely to be Travelers than TMers, and could
easily be Thralls.
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Timestream Chapter 4

POSTSCRIPT
So that’s it. Everything you need to know. I hope you enjoy your adventures in the Timestream as
much as I have. I want to use this space to emphasize some things about the game, as well as thank
you for reading and playing!

First off, you will notice that nowhere in the text do you see anything about a “golden rule” – you
know, that caveat that says that if any rule doesn’t work, you should throw it out and do whatever
is fun. Well, every rule in here has a purpose, and if you aren’t having fun playing with those rules,
maybe this isn’t the game for you. There’s a bunch of other great time travel-themed games out there
(see the credits page), or generic systems that you could use, and I recommend you try those out and
see if you have a better time.

That said, I know that Timestream isn’t perfect, and am always interested in getting feedback on it.
Use the contact info below to get in touch about questions, suggestions, your actual play of the game,
or anything else. If you have something to say about the game, I want to hear it!

This game is, at heart, about exploring the lighter side of time travel. The side where you can be any-
where and anywhen you want, without worrying about the consequences. A certain level of paradox
is fun, and you can set that dial however high you want to in your game, but my philosophy is that if
I spend more time thinking about Timestream than actually playing it, I’m not doing the game justice.
Read it, play it, enjoy it.

Finally, please visit http://www.hamsterprophetproductions.com for all the latest news and infor-
mation for Timestream, including special offers, downloadable character sheets and other content,
updates, reviews and more. Use the site to get in touch with me about anything that you want to say
about the game.

Thanks again, and good gaming!

Nathan D. Paoletta

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Timestream Index

INDEX Send (9, 25)

View (9, 10, 25)
2d6, definition of (5) Benefits of Success and Penalties of Failure (17)
Aging (19) Breaking Strain (15, 21, 36)
Anchors (7) Effects of Breaking Strain (21)
Creating Anchors (13) Prolonging Strain (22)
Anchors, in play (18) While Traveling (23)
Arenas (7) While Time Shifting (26)
Mental Arenas: While Pausing (26)
Creativity (8) While Future Looping (27)
Education (8) While Past Looping (28)
Invention (8) While Previewing (28)
Memory (8) Capacity, general (7)
Profession (8) Mental (7)
Puzzles (8) Physical (7)
Science (8) Social (7)
Shooting (8) Capacity, in character creation (7)
Wits (8) Capacity, in play (15)
Physical Arenas: Capitalized Terms, meaning of (5)
Appearance (8) Character, definition of (5)
Fighting (8) Conflict Resolution (16)
Fitness (8) Extending Conflict (17)
Gymnastics (8) Summary of Conflict Resolution (17)
Might (8) Conflict Modifiers (17)
Perception (8) Arenas (17)
Profession (8) Obstacles (17)
Speed (8) Anchors (17)
Stealth (8) Consequences (21)
Social Arenas: Drawing the R-Map (13)
Adaptability (8) Dynamic Change, in play (15)
Charm (8) Examples, format of (5)
Cool (8) Examples, of mechanics:
Intimidation (8) Example of Character Creation (11)
Leadership (8) Example of Phase 2 Character Creation (14)
Loyalty (8, 9) Examples of Conflict Resolution (18-19)
Misdirection (8) Examples of Travel (23)
Persuasiveness (8) Example of Play (2)
Profession (8) Example of Prolonging Strain (24)
Arenas, in character creation (8) Examples of Techniques:
Arenas, in play (15) Time Shifting (26)
Aspects, in character creation (8,9) Pausing (27)
Aspects, in play (15, 24) Future Looping (28)
Ease (9, 24) Past Looping (28)
Gate (9, 24) Previewing (29)
Passenger (9, 25) Skipping (29)
Range (9, 10, 25) Examples of Items (40-41)

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Timestream Index
Goals and Obstacles, in character creation (7, 10) Techniques, in character creation (8, 9, 10)
Goal Descriptors (11) Techniques, in play (15, 26)
Obstacle Descriptors (11) Time Shifting (10, 26)
Final Goals (13) Pausing (10, 26)
Goals and Obstacles, in play (15, 18) Self Pause (27)
Going Out Of Time (22, 37) World Pause (26)
How to GM Timestream (34) Looping (27)
Plot threading (34) Future Looping (10, 26, 27)
Agressive scene framing (34) Past Looping (10, 26, 28)
Items (39) Previewing (10, 26, 28)
Item effects (39-40) Skipping (10, 26, 29)
Item-powered Characters (33, 41) Temporal Manipulation (26)
Laws of Travel (33, 37) The Law Dial (38)
Moment of departure (20, 26) The Male Pronoun, explanation of (5)
Moment of influence (20) The Masters Control Arena (9)
Native Shift (21) Thrall, as a Style (7, 8)
Native Shift, Voluntary (19) Thralldom (31)
Native Timeframe (7, 10, 36) Fighting The Master (31)
Native Timeframe and Aging (19) Time (15)
Non-Conflict Improvement (19) Time, in play (20)
Obstacles, in play (15) Time, counters (7, 11)
Paradox, GM assigning Strain (33) Time, focusing to regain (20)
Penalties of Failure (and Benefits of Success) (17) Time, lending/borrowing (20)
Perceptions (35) Time, running out of (20)
Of Travel (35) Time, sharing (20)
Of TM Techniques (35-36) TM, as a Style (7, 8)
Permanent Vu (21) TMer, as a term (5)
Personal Information, character creation (7) Travel, as a Style (7, 8)
Phase 1 Character Creation (7) Traveler, as a term (5)
Phase 2 Character Creation (13) Traveling (23)
Player, definition of (5)
Postscript (43) Index Of Illustrations
Ranges, in character creation (8, 10)
Travel Range (10) All illustrations are public-domain photographs,
Travel Range, in play (23) found at http://www.morguefile.com. Each
View Range (10) credit includes the artists name, morgueFile alias
Settings and Genres (41-42) and contact info, if any.
Story and Narrative (33)
Strain (15) Page 9: Photograph “Saturn” by Emilia Bertolli
Strain Dice (15, 20) Contact: parsifae@uol.com.br
Strain, in play (20) Page 22: Photograph by Natascha T. S. Rausch.
Strain, bleeding (20) Contact: info@pixelography.de &
Strain, counters (7, 11) http://www.pixelography.de
Style (7) Page 25: composite image; Source images by
Style, in character creation (8) Daren Hester (aka ppdigital) & Clara Natoli
Technique Interactions (30) Pages 30, 36 and 43: Photographs by Clara Natoli.
Contact: clarita1000@virgilio.it
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