Traveler the Stream
This page is for the fan-made nWoD supplement, Traveler: the Stream - a Storytelling game of Temporal Displacement.
The original thread can be found here
If you want to help, head over to the Introduction Page
Introduction
Time. God dammit. Don't talk to me about time.
I doubt you've seen what I've seen. In fact, I'm sure. I've been places you wouldn't believe, done things you've only ever read about. I was there when Caesar was felled. I was there when the Empire rose. I was there at the invention of gunpowder, the discovery of the Daniels-Calviner Effect. I saw the moon die, like a lightbulb burns out. And now I'm sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee that tastes like you pissed in it.
I was born when the nation was still young and I grew up against a fledgling society. I was rich, young, powerful… I had friends in high places. I knew artists, circus freaks, scientists... one guy swore he was onto something, gave me a metal door bolted to the wall covered in gears and embossed script. I said what the hell, sure. I fiddled with the dial, pulled the switch. And what happened? I had this glimpse of… of-- of movement-- I was in this place like blue fire and blurs in the distance, and men who stared at me like they were snakes, not snakes, monsters shaped like men--
And I woke up and I knew what a car was. Do you understand me? I was raised before Henry Ford was a gleam in anyone's eye. I was raised in a world where the horse was it. And I woke up knowing what a car was, what a 401k was and how to manage it, what stocks were, how to work computers, phones… I had a perfectly clear memory from the year I was born, 1978, to the present date. And I had an equally clear memory of being born in 1784, yeah, that's right, seventeen-eighty-god-damned-four, and leading up to that door. And the antique doorknob, apparently a prized heirloom. So what do I do? I sit at my desk and I do taxes with sums that are completely ridiculous- huge dollar values, hundreds for a single meal- and that are reasonable and moderate. I eat food that wouldn't go to a horse. I eat takeout curry, which is what I have every Thursday night. I know that, and I know that it's dishonest heathen food, and I know those things are contradictory and I hate myself for knowing them both. For a while I thought I was going crazy.
One day I woke up and the portrait on the wall had changed. It had been a New Yorker cover. Now it was this minutely detailed little piece of parchment, cranked out meticulously by a hand press, with a political cartoon about King George. No sign of the old thing. I panicked. I almost burnt it. I reconsidered. I keep it in my pocket now.
I took the doorknob off my desk, recognized the design. The little dial on the top with a list of dates and titles- "The Creation", "The Nation's Founding", everything. I turned it back to where I had come from in the first place, turned it in the air and vanished through blackness, the sensation of falling. I went home.
What did I find? Happy strangers. Nobody knew who I was. Nobody was even remotely aware that I was gone. My position and my company had vanished. My parents had never had children. I left. For a while I just… drifted. Visited everywhere I could find in my books of Classics. Talked to a few famous figures. Saw a future, the stars up close to my face, held in my hands. And I snapped back.
I was young and rich and I owned the New World, and here I am drinking lattes in a cafe. And a year ago I didn't know what either of those words meant.
Hell. Keep the change. Yes, the coins are old stuff. Not modern quarters. Keep them anyway. Probably worth a mint.
Character Creation
Steps 1-4: Concept, Attributes, Skills, Specializations Ho-hum. It's nWoD; you know the drill.
Step 5: Apply Traveler Template A Traveler is no longer entirely human. Part of her- the place where she belongs, the sense of existing concretely- is stripped away by the flows of the Stream. Only her Crux and the power of Aion sustain her in a single place.
ZEITGEIST
-Satya Yuga, or the Nobility (Golden Age): Gregarious, carefree and a bit narcissistic, the Nobility come from times of luxury, wealth and culture. They pay special attention to the capacity of the Crux to support a number of people. An exaggeration of this type can be found in the Eloi. (+1 Capacity; the Nobility can support one extra person with their Crux when Jumping or in the Stream.)
-Philosophes, or Sophists (Silver Age): Intelligent, inquisitive and prideful, the Sophists come from times of intellectual advances, technology and thought. Their Cruxes are designed specifically for the sake of pushing the boundaries of knowledge; they have no need for limitations on the knowledge it grants. (At character creation, choose a Mental skill. Any Traveler who holds the Crux has their Understanding expanded, and can take 9-again on this specific mental skill.)
-Miles, or Soldiers (Bronze Age): Imperial, destructive and focused, the Soldiers are from periods wracked by destruction or war; generally, they participated in some way, and the Distortion of violence feeds into them. Their Cruxes are combat-designed: durable and capable of taking a hit or stray round. Anyone who travels back to assassinate Hitler will probably fit. (Bronze-made Cruxes receive a free point of Durability and Structure at creation.)
-Viandanti, or Seekers (Heroic Age): Obsessive, optimistic and ruthless, Seekers come from transitional periods, when humanity has found a new place or a new world to reach and are making strides toward a new world; their focus is on the world that's ahead, and they put their all into exploration... in more ways than one. Imagine a space colonist or- for that matter- Marty McFly, going somewhere he doesn't understand at all for the sake of going. Anyone who's climbed a mountain because it's there. (A Seeker-made Crux can spend Willpower in lieu of Aion when Jumping, using force of will and the Crux's capabilities to rip Aion from the environment.)
-Proles, or the Oppressed (Iron Age): Downtrodden, heartless and guarded, the Oppressed come from painful, repressive cultures- dystopias, caveman times or ages of war and lifelessness. They design their Cruxes as an escape from the world; it's certainly not intended to ever send them back... though a complete lack of a place to go weighs more heavily than one might think, and in the World of Darkness, there aren't many places that aren't painful. Think Donnie Darko, Morlocks or anyone from 1984. (An Oppressed-made Crux gives a +1 to resisting snap-backs, and extends the time one can remain by one day.)
OUTPOST The Y-splat. Essentially, groups for supporting you in whatever purpose sent you out of your timeline.
Department of Linear Enforcement (Enforcers): Time cops keeping reality from breaking. They catch those who abuse Jumping, both morally and as relates to the timeline, and punish them. They have access to Signal Chronologia for organization of their forces.
Homecoming Society (Recidivists): People trying to go back to their home times; they organize Travelers, support them in need and try to ease their lives. They have access to Reversion Chronologia, returning things back to their natural states.
The Bacchanalia Club (Dionysians): Temporal hedonists using Jumps to live it up- this club of Travelers, full of joie de vivre and desire, uses Liberation Chronologia to keep themselves free and happy.
The Organization for Temporal Samaritans (Saviors): People preventing past catastrophes- people who Jump in order to prevent catastrophes form this loose confederation. To change the past, they utilize Redaction Chronologia.
Interval Archive (Annalists): The Annalists live to understand Aion and compile facts from all of time; each endeavors to understand in his or her own way. They study Aion and the Stream directly via Horology Chronologia.
CRUX
- how to mechanically design the Crux here*
