No, the greatest time travel story is clearly Time Bandits, closely followed by Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Apologies for the click bait title.
Time travel stories are notoriously difficult to write satisfactorily, given the plethora of paradoxes and fallacies one can fall into. This is especially true for TTRPGs where the players have far more narrative control than characters in a scripted story. But temporal manipulation calls to me like the swan song of an albatross to a crossbow man.
The Dark Souls series has quite the habit of putting in time travel in unexpected places. From fighting a corrupted knight with a huge sword in the 1st game’s DLC, to fighting the memories of giants in the 2nd, to fighting a corrupted knight with a huge sword in the 3rd game’s DLC, I think there’s some rich fruit on the vine to steal, with minimal temporal paradoxes. After all, all games are Souls-likes.
- The Failed Hero. Legend recalls that Artorias sacrificed himself and banished great evil. He did not. After being corrupted, the player must first slay Artorias then finish his task of banishing the great evil.
- How to use: Basically 1-to-1. Seed the legend of a hero who saved the world, then time travel the players to the past. They must first overcome the corrupted hero then become the hero themselves.
- Issues: This is “cool fight DnD” not “door DnD,” more appropriate for 5e or Pathfinder than OSE, Knave, or Carin. Are there paradoxes? I’d say a minimal amount. If the heroes fail, maybe there’s another group who succeeds. Place this far away, temporally and spatially so any reverberations to the present are small.
2. Memories of You. Touch a tree, and relive the memories of giants invading the continent.
a. How to use: “Memory” as a time-travel device is much more malleable than actual time-travel. The players travel to the Sphinx’s memory of an otherwise forgotten crypt.
b. Issues: Can objects travel out of memories? Maybe they just need lore hidden in the past. Also requires a bit more framing -- whose memory is this? Paradoxes could be more common, but easily resolved by saying “Hmm, that isn’t quite how I remembered it.” You’d have to decide whether the player’s actions have real effects on current events.
3. The Future Martyr. At the end of the world, Gael has devoured the dark souls of all pygmies, save one. Yours.
a. How to use: The arch-villain and/or MacGuffin lies in the far flung future, at the end of the world. The players must travel there, do what needs to be done, and return.
b. Paradoxes? By setting the destination in the far future, you make it so any ripple effects aren’t felt. Setting the destination at the end of the world means no ripple effects are felt.
c. Issues: Again, this cool fight DnD. This premise does need more massaging to compel players more. Dark Souls 3 doesn’t need to do this because the aim of the game is having cool fights. Maybe a future temple to plunder? Or a treasure vault set to open in 10,000 from the player’s time?
4. Stealing from Borrowed Time. A precious relic has been lost to the ages. The player must travel back before it's lost to recover it. Ok, this one isn’t from Dark Souls, but I still really like it.
a. How to use: As on the tin. Fits a nice little causal time loop too! (The relic only goes missing because the players stole it).
b. Issues: Again, setting things in the far distant past and spatially far away can minimize any timeline tampering. Similar to (1), if the players fail, maybe another group succeeds. Could also place the relic in the present day in a hard to find area. This is a bit of quantum ogre-ing, but one could argue that’s appropriate for time travel plots.
5. Ocarina of Time. The great demon lord takes over the kingdom while you, the hero of destiny, are but a child. You skip forward in time to face them as an adult. Ok, this one isn’t from Dark Souls either, but it would be silly not to mention it.
a. How to use: Have two timelines -- one where the players are children and one where they are adults. As children, they cannot fight but can explore and influence the world around them. As adults, they are taken seriously by NPCs and can solve problems with violence.
b. Issues: Yeah this one is tough. You’re going to have to juggle two timelines and see how one influences the other, making potential paradoxes rife. One solution is to minimize the impact of the players as children. Maybe they can’t alter fate entirely (can’t kill NPCs because they are children, can’t convince anyone with any power to change), but can make more subtle changes (hide a cache of goods to find in the future, take out long term bonds (?), change a minor NPC’s disposition, save a marriage, etc).
And those are my current thoughts on time travel. I’ve used Memories of You in a 5e campaign and it worked out well, especially to drop some lore on my players. Why have them learn about a historic NPC when they could meet them?
