I just finished up running some TimeWatch and our crew had a lot of fun. It got me thinking about time travel in #TTRPG. I think the big thing to remember is to stay consistent with how time and time travel works in your game. TW does that so well.

In TW you can go back and forward in time to change events (or "set right" events others have changed). Giant changes to world history and small changes, like going back a half hour to hide a weapon in a room you know you'll be in later.

This is SUPER fun, but also could make the game very easy (and boring) if you could just keep time traveling to fix every bad roll or surprise. So TW gives you a resource: Chronal Stability. Whenever you create a time paradox or time travel, you might lose some CS.

Lose all your CS and you cease to have ever existed. You and everything you've ever done fades out of reality. WILD stuff. Even your fellow PCs forget all about you (and might have to go back and redo missions you accomplished.)

CS makes the game super fun. They're a bit like time hit points. There were a few sessions that ended with my players low on health, but high on CS and vice versa. Rarely did they end with both super high (though several times with both low).

TW spends a lot of time clearly defining what a time paradox is and is not to give the GM guidance on adjudicating how much CS a certain action requires. You can do AMAZING things, including having another you show up to aid you in a scene, but you can't do them all the time.

So time travel becomes another tool in a PCs toolbox. They can also fight, persuade, and more to accomplish their goals. Time travel adds an extra layer of creativity and a chance for really open storytelling.

The other rules TW clearly establishes is how time works in the game. There are specific rules for the time stream and reasons for wanting to keep the time stream consistent. TW provides MANY different modes of game play, so you can tweak (or ignore) rules to fit your group.

There's also lore about how reality begins to set and become permanent after a time traveler mucks up the time stream.

Anyway, if you're interested in having time travel be a part of any game, I recommend checking out TimeWatch. @KevinKulp and crew did an amazing job. https://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/timewatch/