Continuum (role-playing Game) - Terms

Terms

Spanner

Anyone who travels in time. C°ntinuum's time-travel technology requires no external device and only the exercise of one's will to function.

The Continuum

The society of time-travelers who believe that the timeline cannot (and thus should not) be changed. Whether this is true or if it is this way because the Inheritors want a stable existence is unclear. In the Nªrcissist 0.7 playtest document, they are called the Swarm by Crashers, in reference to the way they act in great numbers with little strategy.

Narcissists

The members of the society that opposes the Continuum, believing that the timeline can and should be changed. In the Nªrcissist 0.7 playtest document, they are shown to also believe in a continuous multiverse, and their efforts to escape into it via time travel lead to their being called Crashers; their poor reputation is shown to be the result of the Continuum perceiving this as only attempts to undermine the stability of reality.

Up/down

Up and down refer to the absolute future and past, as distinct from a time traveler's subjective experience of time. For example, the year 2000 is "up" from the year 1990. Use of the words comes from visualizing the Big Bang as the ultimate "bottom" of space-time.

Slipshank

A time-travel technique where your future self gives your current self something. This accrues a small amount of Frag until you actually perform the action. For example, a spanner sitting in front of the television may be thirsty, but not want to get up. She may then reach under the chair, find a beer, and drink it. It is now necessary for her to, at some point in her yet, get a beer, travel back in time, and place it under the sofa, and she will have a small amount of frag until she does.

Yet

A spanner's personal future timeline. What history knows you've done, but isn't in your 'age'. You have 'yet' to do it. "When I slipshanked myself that beer, putting a beer under the chair went into my Yet."

Age

A spanner's subjective past, in contrast with the world's (which is down). For example, a spanner who ate a cookie on Tuesday, immediately time-traveled to Sunday, then might say on Monday, "I ate our last cookie a day up and a day ago of age. Make sure you don't take it before I eat it, okay?" The "day up" indicates that today is Monday and the cookie will be eaten on Tuesday. The "day of age" indicates that the spanner remembers eating the cookie one day ago in his personal timeline.

Gemini Incident

Encountering yourself. This is risky, because if the event happens differently the "second" time, there is potential for paradox and frag.