by Ken MacLennan
A campaign concept using the risus rules by s. john ross
uarding the integrity of the space-time continuum is a demanding and dangerous task, requiring the services of agents with truly extraordinary abilities. These elite agents, handpicked from throughout the tapestry of history for outstanding skills and qualities making them distinctive in their own times and places, representing the absolute best and brightest that humanity has to offer. They are the ETERNITY CORPS, and in their hands lies the safety of Time as we know it. Note: Playing in this setting requires the RISUS rules, by S. John Ross, which rules are available (for free, in the basic version) via the Cumberland Games website: [Link] Very little of what follows will make sense as a game unless you are familiar with the RISUS system (or can access it for reference purposes).
Personages of Historical Significance: Character Adaptation
In ETERNITY!, player characters are not so much created as adapted. Players take the roles of famous (or infamous) historical gures charged with guarding the space-time continuum against threats to its integrity. Characters may be chosen from any era, famed for any eld of endeavor, BUT will ideally be individuals who require little or no explanation to ones fellow players. Characters may be semi-historical (say, Moses, Robin hood, or Gilgamesh), but not wholly mythological or ctional (e.g., Hercules or Miss Marple). An ETERNITY! player character is also known as a Personage of Historical Signicance or PHS for short (PsHSpronounced peezaitch-essin the plural).
Persona and Hidden Talents
The Clichs that dene a PHS should, for the most part, reect the individuals persona as history and tradition have dened it. Thus, players really ought to choose individuals who are familiar enough to their fellow players that the historical/traditional clichs resonate; otherwise, you will be less entertaining to them and the game wont be as much fun. One Clich, however, may depart radically from that persona; we call this Clich the Hidden Talent. It must be a minor Clich, but it can (indeed, should) be as anachronistic or outlandish as the player wishes. The Hidden Talent may represent skills picked up since the PHSs induction into the Eternity Corps (and their death in Earths recorded history), it may represent some lesser-known (i.e., entirely made-up) aspect of the PHSs persona allegedly overlooked by History, or it can (GM willing) be completely fantastic (i.e., magical or super powers). Note that Time Cop is not an appropriate Clich for a PHS, despite the fact that all PsHS in the Corps are by denition time cops. Such a Clich would take valuable dice away from more entertaining Clichs, and the Hidden Talent rule gives players the chance to balance out their characters skill sets if the historical personas are weak in abilities important to the job. Gun Nut, Extreme-Sports Athlete, or even Private Gumshoe, are examples of Hidden Talents that can help PsHS manage the rougher aspects of time-stream policing.
Hooks in ETERNITY!
You may assign a Hook to your PHS, if (and only if) said Hook is drawn from the historical persona of the PHS. (No Hidden Flaws here!) For example, if you decided to play Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a PHS, you could use his polio as a Hook; if playing Napoleon I, your GM might allow a Hook for his obsession with winning.
Tales in ETERNITY!
Tales, on the other hand, dont really have a place in ETERNITY! Were playing with the stereotypes of historical gures, and any background beyond the level of general knowledge threatens the slapstick quality of the setting. But if your GM wants to allow em, who am I to forbid it.
Sample PsHS
Intrepid Fugitive Guide (4): Evading Pursuers, Finding the Way, Hiding from People and Dogs. Crusader for Justice (4): Confronting Villainy, Speaking Truth to Power, Agitating for Positive Social Change. HT: Wuxia Master (2): Martial Arts Blows, Feints, and Dodges. 3
Harriet Tubman
Wizened Chinese Sage (4): Dispensing Cryptic Wisdom, Knowing Ancient History and Classical Literature, Inspiring the Respect of Ones Juniors. Beacon of Righteousness (3): Resolving Moral Dilemmas, Standing Up to Evil, Keeping People on the Straight and Narrow. HT: Improvisational Jazz Genius (3): Playing Killer Riffs, Laying Down Grooves, Looking Cool.
Confucius
Baseball Star (4): Throwing, Catching, Batting, Running. Party Animal (4): Holding His Liquor, Eating Prodigious Quantities, Picking Up Women. HT: Connoisseur of Ancient Art (2): Identifying Ancient Cultures, Spotting Forgeries, Estimating Market Values.
Babe Ruth
Authentic? The Eternity Corps thinks not!
About the Eternity Corps
The origins and history of the Eternity Corps are so tangled up in time-traveling paradoxes that it is impossible to say, really, when and how it was founded. In a sense, it has always existed, for wherever there has been trouble with the space-time continuum, Eternity Corps agents have been on the scene to straighten matters out. More prosaically, it would have to have been established after humanity had mastered the art of time travel, but honestly, its not that important. Make up whatever backstory suits your purposes as a game master. However, the Eternity Corps headquarters exists outside the space-time continuum, in an articial bubble of existence created especially for the purpose of housing the Corps. Members of the Corps ignore any paradoxes caused by this circumstance, and you should feel free to do likewise. Mission teams may be permanent (if you and your players want to keep using the same PsHS) or ad hoc (if you want to keep experimenting with new PHS ideas). Each team is managed by a controla senior agent whose job entails brieng, monitoring, debrieng, and evaluating Eternity Corps eld teams. This control should also be a PHS, although whether you assign a personage of traditional moral/political authority (e.g., King Solomon) or not (say, Ed Wood-in or out of drag) depends on your tastes and intentions as GM. The Corps maintains a large-scale Anachroscanner (q.v.) system that both identies dangers to the continuum and enables the Corps to track its agents. They can send you out, know when youve accomplished your mission, and then pull you back to HQ when youre done-or when youve screwed up so badly that they need to send out another team. In a standard Corps mission the control calls a team of agents in, briefs them on the problem to be dealt with, then sends them out to their rst destination. From there the agents assess the problem, take whatever measures they deem appropriate, and signal the Corps if they need to move on to another set of time-space coordinates to further the mission goal. This process generally continues until the mission is completed. That standard, however, is tenuous at best, and Im certainly not going to tell you GMs how to do your job.
Equipping Agents
Agents of the Eternity Corps dress in plainclothes; i.e., they wear what they wore in their earthly lives, and carry the appropriate Tools of the Trade, except when a case requires incognito. (Then, of course, hilarity ensues.) The Corps also issues certain standard pieces of equipment to help agents resolve cases: A detector designed to locate objects and entities displaced from their proper position in the time stream. The device can be fooled, and its range tends to be short, but it is generally effective. The Corps usually assigns one to each team of agents.
Anachroscanner
5 A hand-held, non-lethal ranged weapon ring a particle beam. Each PHS is equipped with one as a Tool of the Trade, no matter what Clichs she might have. If the PHS needs to use the stunner, then use an appropriate or Inappropriate Clich for the action as circumstances may suggest. Of course, there are other ways to subdue bad-guys besides zapping them with a stunner... Each PHS carries one. Permits contact between team members who are separated, as well as with Control. Not as reliable as one would hope; as with cell-phone service, in some areas of space-time reception is poor or entirely absent.
Stunner
Chronommunicator
A memory-modication device. As part of protecting the spacetime continuum, PsHS occasionally have to modify peoples memories so that their necessary and (hopefully) minor anachronisms dont end up written into the historical record. Each team is issue one, and they are strictly instructed to use it no more than absolutely necessary. The device only works at very close rangei.e., within hand-to-hand combat reach. Excessive or improper use of an SMR can get a PHS into very deep trouble with the Corps.
Synaptic-Mnemonic Recongurator
Saving the Space-Time Continuum: Eternity Corps Adventures
So, what sort of threats does the Eternity Corps guard against? Space-time is full of people (in the broadest sense of the term) willing to risk unraveling it in order to have things their way. In addition, occasionally the fabric of space-time produces its own threatswormholes, time storms, and whatnotthat threaten to unravel the continuum and put an end to existence as we know it. Here are some of the types of cases that Eternity Corps agents handle: The unauthorized transfer of technology to an inappropriate era, for prot or to inuence the outcome of events. Unscrupulous time travelers bury objects in the deep past in order to improve their resale value in the future. Subverters of History kidnap key individuals from their proper contexts and replace them with imposters or duplicates who attempt to change the course of events to their employers liking. The restoration of persons or items dispersed in time storms to their appropriate contexts. If left unsealed, wormholes in the space-time continuum can pull unsuspecting persons or important objects into wholly inappropriate contexts, threatening the integrity of the continuum and/or the safety of any individuals involved. Wormholes, however, may be difcult to access due to their tendency to pull people and things through them.
Anarchrosmuggling
Artifact Forgery
Dopplegangering
Time Storm Cleanup
Wormhole Closure
Pick-Up Adventure Design Mechanic
I learned this trick from a friend who in turn learned it from another friend, so Im not in a position to give due credit for itif its your idea, by all means claim it. Weve used it in all our ETERNITY! adventures to date with some success. Have each player write down one wordany word, within such limits of comprehensibility or good taste that you might wish to setwithout telling the others. When everyone is done, the GM collects the words. Take ten minutes to work out an adventure that incorporates all of the words in some fashion as elements of plot or atmosphere.
Shout-Outs and Sources
S. John Ross, creator of the Risus system Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure John Scieszka and Lane Smith Time Warp Trio Steve Purcell Sam & Max, Freelance Police Jay Ward and Ted Key Peabodys Improbable History Donald P. Bellisario Quantum Leap Otto Binder and Sheldon Moldoff Kid Eternity I should probably cite David Wassons Time Squad here, too, but I must confess Ive never actually watched it.
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Oops! almost forgot my playtest crew:
Colin Amato (Jesus of Nazareth) Adam Boring (Nikola Tesla, Jim Lizard King Morrison) Becky Steussy-Boring (Florence Nightingale, Cleopatra) Marcus Clawson (Salvador Dali) Geneva Clawson (William Bill Shakespeare) Brent Wolke (Sam Mark Twain Clemens, Rube )
ETERNITY!
Name:______________________________________ Cliches: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Tools of the Trade: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Hook: _____________________________________________ `
ETERNITY!
Name:______________________________________ Cliches: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Tools of the Trade: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Hook: _____________________________________________ ` `
ETERNITY!
Name:______________________________________ Cliches: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Tools of the Trade: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Hook: _____________________________________________ `
ETERNITY!
Name:______________________________________ Cliches: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Tools of the Trade: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Hook: _____________________________________________
