Wild Talents in Timeship

According to page 12 of the Timeship rule book, “One of the more pleasing aspects of Time Travel is that Voyagers gradually become more expert as their experience increases.”  Although the Voyagers, of course, are the players themselves, author Herbie Brennan is referring to game mechanics, not player skill.  Successful completion (i.e., survival) of a Time Capsule entitles a Voyager to points of PERMANENT ENERGY.  Whenever a player determines PERSONAL ENERGY before beginning a Time Capsule, any PERMANENT ENERGY previously gained is added to the total.

“[T]he more dangerous the capsule,” we are told, “the greater the quantum of PERMANENT ENERGY which accrues to surviving Voyagers.”  A Voyager who successfully completes the 'Murder at the End of Time' Capsule receives one point of Permanent Energy.  However, a Voyager killed in the Capsule “must deduct FIVE points of Permanent Energy.”  So, it's possible for a Voyager to have negative Permanent Energy and thereby deduct points when determining Personal Energy.  'The Destruction of Gomorrah' Capsule offers 3 points of Permanent Energy; however, this seems applicable only if the Voyagers deactivate a certain device and find an EXIT to the Capsule.  No provision is made if the Voyagers don't find the device; which seems strange since it's an Adventure Capsule and not a Task Capsule.  Dying in Gomorrah causes a loss of three points of Permanent Energy.  A Voyager successful with the 'Assassinate the Fuhrer!' Capsule gains four points of Permanent Energy but a Voyager who dies in the Capsule loses two points of Permanent Energy.

Other than PERMANENT ENERGY, Voyagers can obtain Wild Talents.  According to the rules, “Wild Talents are extremely rare, but it is well to recognize the possibility of their appearance, especially as their use does not invariably involve ENERGY expenditure.”  The rule book does not provide much information about Wild Talents.  However, Voyagers have an opportunity to gain a Wild Talent in 'The Destruction of Gomorrah' Capsule, specifically “FIRE RESISTANCE.”  There is a 21% chance that a Voyager in that Capsule will gain that Wild Talent “when entering a fire.” So I guess they really are rare.  FIRE RESISTANCE is also conveyed to whatever possessions the Voyager is carrying.

The 'Timelord Screen' supplies a “sampling” of Wild Talents as well as the following information:  “In some cases the Timelord may...determine the Wild Talent to only be useable with the expenditure of Personal Power in addition to the passage of a dice check.”

• TELEPATHY – “This ability may range from picking up an occasional strong thought to the ability to completely read another's thoughts.  A negative aspect of this ability is the receiving thoughts from many people at one time, causing great confusion.  This ability is limited to reading only the thoughts of humans.”
• PSYCHOKINESIS – “This ability may range from the ability to control extremely small objects for short distances to objects weighing up to ten pounds for several dozen yards.  A negative aspect of this ability is the uncontrolled and undesired movement of articles at inopportune times.”
• PYROKINESIS – “This ability only works on flammable items. The negative aspect of this ability is the occasional, uncontrolled use of the ability when the possessor is either disturbed or frightened.”
• PRECOGNITION – “This ability is rarely ever controlled and occurs most frequently while the person possessing the talent is dreaming.  Often the person experiencing it will not be able to tell if the event seen pertains to him or herself, or to another known, or unknown, person.”
• EMPATHY – This Wild Talent should more properly be named psychometry.  “The negative aspect of this ability is that the person empathizing will actually experience the feeling obtained from the touched object..  For example, depending upon the mood of the subject, the player may feel extremely depressed, rejected, untrusting, drunk; even homicidal of (sic) suicidal.”

Interestingly, all Voyagers are capable shape shifting.  The rule book and the Timelord Screen contradict one another regarding the Personal Energy costs involved with shape shifting.  According to the rule book, “A full sex change...requires only” three Personal Energy points whereas changing “skin colour, hair colour, general racial characteristics or height (within normal limits)” has a cost of two Personal Energy points per change.  According to the Timelord Screen, “slight changes in appearance such as changing the color of the eyes, hair, or slight alterations to skin tone”...each cost one to three points of Personal Energy.  Note the spelling of 'colour' in the rule book but 'color' on the Timelord Screen.  We must assume the contents of the rule book represent the opinions of Herbie Brennan while statements on the Timelord Screen are likely from Stephen Peek.  According to the Timelord Screen, the “drastic alteration of skin tone, physical changes to the facial structure, and changes in height and weight” cost between five and fifteen Personal Energy points each.

The rule book suggests that “major shape shifting should be discouraged” but, when implemented, should cost 75 - 150 Personal Energy points (or more).  In any event, “such shifts do no more than create an appearance.”  This means...“Intelligence, speech, speed, strike capacity and general abilities are not affected unless the new shape renders them physically impossible.”  For instance, forms without hands cannot operate telephones, but “a human shape shifted into a mouse retains human strength.”  Yet...

Some advantages may be gained provided these are inherent in the new shape.  A human shifted into an owl would, for example, have the power of flight, since the ability to fly is inherent in the structure of a bird.  But a human shifted into a cobra would not have a venomous bite since poison is a characteristic of the reptile, not something inherent in the shape of a snake.

Finally: 

Shape shifting is one of the most intriguing aspects of TIMESHIP – and one that in certain circumstances, can be vital to a Voyager's survival.  But it needs to be kept under careful control, otherwise the entire game will degenerate into cloud cuckoo land. 

Remember, there is only a short distance between time travelling shape shifters and cloud cuckoo land.

Interview: Stephen Peek

J. Stephen Peek was a game designer for Yaquinto.  He is credited with several board/war games, but more importantly (for purposes of this blog) he was the developer of Man, Myth & Magic and co-developer of The Egyptian Trilogy.  Recently, he was gracious enough to answer a few questions...

Thoul's Paradise:  MM&M was Yaquinto's first RPG.  What was the impetus for entering the RPG market?

Stephen Peek:  During this period Role Playing games, (read as Dungeons & Dragons) were rising to dominate the hobby gaming industry.  War games required each player to read and fully understand tedious and long game rules.  Role playing required one player to understand the rules and be the game master.  The rest of the players in the group only had to understand the aspects of their character for the adventure.  Other companies were beginning to compete with Dungeons and we needed a game that allowed us to jump into the market.

TP:  Why did Yaquinto go with MM&M as its first RPG and not some other game/genre (Timeship, for instance)?

SP:  Herbie approached us with Man, Myth and Magic.  We loved the idea that it was rooted in history and ancient mysteries instead of pure fantasy.  Herbie offered us Timeship sometime later.

TP:  You have a “developed by” credit.  In collaborating with Herbie Brennan, how did you influence the game?

SP:  Herbie had created a great game system.  What I tried to do was expand the world in Man, Myth & Magic so that it had a better chance of competing with D&D which had, by that time, an enormous world for gamers.

TP:  The setting for the original Man, Myth & Magic rules was circa AD 41.  The Egyptian Trilogy allowed for campaigns in 1375 BC.  Were there any long range plans to adapt the rules for other times and/or places?  Were there any times and/or places you would have liked to address?

SP:  Eventually Man, Myth & Magic would have allowed players to play in any historical period through the middle ages.  Targets would have been:  The Hollow Earth, Mu, Incas, Maya, a Lost City series and a few others were on the drawing board.

TP:  I doubt you would remember this from thirty years ago, but the nerd in me is compelled to ask.  Page 14 of MM&M Book II states:

Distant Memory is a very important concept in ADVANCED MM&M. It is the key to the ultimate character – a skilled, experienced amalgamation of all classes; and the ONLY character entitled to strive toward the final goal of ADVANCED MM&M.

What was the “final goal”?

SP:  The premise was that once an advanced character died there was a Distant Memory role for his next incarnation.  Only high level characters had a chance of achieving the Distant Memory roll.  If the player did then his next incarnation possessed his own newly created skills plus a percentage of skills from the previous character.

TP:  Several Yaquinto games (including your own Mythology) command respectable sums on E-Bay.  What is the feasibility of reprinting some of these games?

SP:  Zero from me.  Yaquinto was purchased a few years ago by Carte Mundi and I don't think they have an interest in these old games.

Thanks you for your interest.

Interview with Herbie Brennan

signed by "C.A. Millan"

Yaquinto Publications managed to publish a decent selection of games during its brief existence, including a handful of role-playing games. Two of these RPGs – Man, Myth & Magic and Timeship – were designed (or co-designed) by accomplished author Herbie Brennan.  Mr Brennan has been gracious enough to answer a few questions about these games for this blog.

Thoul's Paradise:  First, what lead you to create Man, Myth & Magic and Timeship?  How did Yaquinto become the publisher?

Herbie Brennan:  I was having a wonderful time with FRP games (mainly Dungeons and Dragons, a bit of Runequest and something called Boot Hill) when I got it into my head that I’d like to create one of my own based on time travel, a theme that still fascinates me to this day. So I put together Timeship. I’d seen Yaquinto games advertised in several FRP magazines and thought the name sounded cool, so I submitted the project to them. I got a reply from the then President of Yaquinto Games, Steve Peek, who said he liked Timeship and wanted to publish it, but he thought my first move into this market should be in the area of fantasy, which was a proven seller, and proposed that we collaborate on creating Man, Myth and Magic. I jumped at the chance. As far as I can remember, Steve and I created the game system together, and wrote half the scenarios each. It was the start of a lifelong friendship. (Steve’s now out of the gaming industry and busy writing fabulous novels: you’ll find them on Kindle.)

Steve published Man, Myth and Magic first then Timeship several months later. Timeship got the most player reactions and Steve had so many people phoning he had to instruct his secretary to ‘tell them to call back yesterday.’ The fans loved that. A Texas software company called Five Star hired a 14-year-old to convert it into a computer game. This was right at the beginning of the computer game industry so the end product was a sort of text adventure with illustrations, pretty leading edge for the time.

TP:  What lead to the game being called Man, Myth & Magic ?  I can appreciate the alliteration, but there was already a magazine/encyclopedia by that name.  Why not Myth & Magic or Magic & Myth or even Leprechauns & Gladiators ?

HB:  That one was completely down to Steve, as instigator of the joint project. When he called me with the name, I pointed out that it was the name of a very successful partwork. He argued that we were in a completely different field of activity so it didn’t matter. I was a bit uneasy, but he was the publisher...

TP:  One of the innovative features of Man, Myth, & Magic is the concept of “Special Categories”  – a player, through his or her own skill, can adopt the “meta-role” of Sage and/or Orator.  Can you comment as to how the “Special Categories” concept was developed?

HB:  I didn’t even remember special categories until you mentioned them and I still can’t really remember them now, so I’ve no idea how the concept was developed. As a broad principle, though, Steve and I bounced ideas back and forth by letter (this was the pre-email age, of course) then refined the ones that looked useful. I’d imagine special categories came out of this process, driven by a need to do something a little different to existing role play games.

TP:  At the time M, M & M was published, most other RPGs had an 'experience' system through which characters could improve.  M, M & M had something different  – POWER  – which served as experience as well as a 'fuel' for spells and abilities.  Ultimately, POWER was used by characters for re-incarnation.  Do you recall how the POWER and re-incarnation concepts originated?

HB:  One of the aims of MM&M was to create a game that was a little different to the rest and also, if I had anything to do with it, simplified the gaming system. (Even at that time I was convinced most RPGs were too complicated and game systems often got in the way of players’ enjoyment.) The POWER concept was a way of combining the EXPERIENCE points with spell drivers like MANA, CHARISMA or what have you, thus eliminating one more thing for players to worry about.

The use of POWER for reincarnation emerged directly out of my interest in reincarnation. I spent some thirty years engaged in reincarnation research, mainly hypnotic regression, and produced two books on the subject: Five Keys to Past Lives and Discover Reincarnation (a.k.a. The Reincarnation Workbook.) A good FRP system closely mimics real life and in some instances can provide interesting insights into how the world works. I wanted to see what benefits/problems a reincarnation factor would provide in a game context and thus supply clues as to how reincarnation might work itself out in life.

TP:  The notion of hypnotic regression is an interesting one.  Parts of the 'Great Ritual of the Timeship' seem conducive to hypnosis, especially the dimmed lights and the gateway 'visualization'.  Was this intentional?

HB:  I’m afraid the inspiration for the dimmed lights and gateway was more disreputable than hypnotic regression. I drew it from an esoteric technique known as pathworking. It doesn’t involve hypnosis, but the original pathworking (not the modified form I introduced into the game) can sometimes induce trance in particularly susceptible subjects. Interestingly enough, my experience of role play, led me years later to develop what I called the Atlantis technique which is a specific type of pathworking designed to stimulate archetypal elements in the psyche. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but looking back, I suspect the Timeship ritual may have been an important root of this technique.

TP:  Timeship offered three adventure “capsules.”  Another adventure, The Werewolf of Europe (also suitable for M, M & M), was published separately.  Can you describe any other capsules that you used with your players?  Were there any you wished had been published?

HB:  The original business idea was to create two popular game systems then feed them with an open-ended series of adventure modules for as long as there was a market for them. MM&M was published first and Steve and I between us created a goodly number of modules to give it the best springboard into the market. Unfortunately the project didn’t achieve the sales we hoped, so we were more cautious in our approach to Timeship. The second game sold better than the first (in my view because it was a more original idea) but still not well enough to justify the creation of any modules beyond the ones you mentioned. No regrets and I’m delighted all this led to a lifelong friendship with Steve, but I can’t pretend either game was a runaway success.

TP:  If Timeship had been more successful, what sort of capsules would you have liked to publish?

HB:  I’ve long been interested in the scientific possibility of time travel and wrote a serious book on the subject some years ago. So I’ve often thought about what eras I’d most like to visit if time travel ever became a reality. Those would definitely have been the experiences I’d have turned into Timeship modules. My top choices would have been 1) The building of the Great Pyramid, 2) The Crucifixion, 3) The destruction of the dinosaurs 4) the sinking of Atlantis. Those modules would all have involved trips into the past. I’d also have tried two trips to the future with 1) a module built around humanity’s first contact with an alien life form and 2) an exploration of the Face on Mars (postulating an ancient civilisation on that planet.)

TP:  In Timeship, you adopt the conceit that you translated Sumerian cuneiform from manuscripts discovered by “Professor Mauzer.”  Was Mauzer entirely a product of your imagination or was he based – however loosely – on someone of your acquaintance?  What about Mauzer's colleagues (Bord and Speir)?  Are you prepared to reveal the details of “Professor Mauzer's tragic death”?

HB:  As best I can remember, I made them all up. Reference to somebody’s ‘tragic death’ is an old literary trick of mine. It gives the reader the impression of a whole back story without my having to bother actually to write one. I can, however, reveal that in this instance, Mauzer’s tragic death was occasioned by a bus falling on him.

TP:  You write about the TIMESHIP culture as though it died out long ago; however, since we are dealing with time travel, extinction is relative.  For all we know, the culture might not exist until some point in the future.  What relation (if any) does the TIMESHIP culture have with the Time Traveller's Guild?  What does the Time Traveller's Guild actually do?

HB:  Good point. A physicist friend of mine, Fred Alan Wolf, once told me it’s theoretically possible to build a time machine by lashing together ten neutron stars to form a (slightly lumpy) rod. Their combined gravitational field distorts time and space in such a way that it creates areas where you can fly your spaceship into the past and future respectively. The point here is that if this gizmo is ever built by a future technology, it will instantly and simultaneously exist throughout the whole of time. So concepts like a 'past' culture become essentially meaningless. Furthermore, since we know next to nothing about the nature of time, the possibility exists that it is circular, so you will eventually arrive at the same point in time whichever way you travel. The culture of the Timeship and the Guild are linked in that it’s a bit pointless having a Time Traveller’s Guild before you have time travel. In the world of Timeship, the Guild came into being as soon as time travel became popular and inexpensive. The purpose of the Guild is to look after the interests of time travellers (‘everywhere and everywhen’ as it says in their brochure) and provide them with travel insurance if and when they need it.

TP:  One of the interesting things about Timeship is the concept of Wild Talents.  The 'Timelord Screen' states that “Wild Talents manifest rarely; but once manifested remain with the player forever.”  However, the Rule Book implies that Wild Talents can only exist within a given capsule.  What is the final word?

HB:  They stay with you forever.

TP:  Back to M, M &M, in your 'How to Become the All-Time Greatest Lore Master of the Known Universe', you mention that one group of playtesters insisted on travelling to Colchester.  Do you recall this incident?  Do you recall what occurred to the playtest party?

HB:  I can’t remember this at all now: can’t even remember the playtesting generally. But I suspect I was being coy when I said the group insisted on visiting Colchester. For a long time I suspected I had a past life as a Roman living in Colchester, so I imagine I was looking for an excuse to visit it. Which I did eventually, but without stirring any memories.

TP:  Have you considered making M, M & M and/or Timeship available again as print-on-demand products?

HB:  I’d certainly be happy if a nice publisher appeared and offered me a contract, but the thought of tackling the job myself would fill me with horror, given my current work load.

TP:  Thank you for taking the time to respond to these questions and best of luck in your future endeavors.