Temporal Inertia questions

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

What would that even do? You can't be erased by events in the present. I guess it might stop something like Darkseid's Omega Beam.

That, or other paradox-creating events that might occur with you present. I agree that it doesn't look like it is worth much... I'd say that is another reason to consider disallowing it.

[Dinadon]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

The problem is, it is not quite clear how even temporary TI works, let alone how temporary does. It's all pretty much Unusual Background: GM Patronises The PC in Temporal Paradoxes anyway.

Unless someone has existed since the dawn of the universe, there will always be a point in time before someone with TI existed. They could get TI by being born a Destined One, wearing a device, or just doing bucket loads of time travel. It shouldn't matter as TI guarantees its own existence as best it can.

Temporary is a very subjective term with time travel. A lifetime is only temporary after all.

In all honesty, you need to define how the setting works in order to define how TI works.

[Darekun]

Originally Posted by Dinadon

Unless someone has existed since the dawn of the universe, there will always be a point in time before someone with TI existed.

That doesn't mean they weren't destined, since the dawn of the universe, to be born.

If you get TI at birth, or a hundred years before birth just for a margin, that's still temporary TI, with all the attendant problems, and attendant differences from permanent TI. For an advantage whose very operation is from beyond the time stream, being embedded in the time stream is a vast change, and one which can yield paradox.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

What would that even do? You can't be erased by events in the present. .

Sure you can. If a person gets into a time machine and leaves in it and he's going to change history, then you are protected by Temporal Inertia if you have it when he leaves if the change is instantaneous, and when the change hits the present if historical change takes time to "catch up to the present"

[Dinadon]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Sure you can. If a person gets into a time machine and leaves in it and he's going to change history, then you are protected by Temporal Inertia if you have it when he leaves if the change is instantaneous, and when the change hits the present if historical change takes time to "catch up to the present"

That sounds more like what I've been saying than what Not Another Shrubbery has been saying.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Dinadon

Unless someone has existed since the dawn of the universe, there will always be a point in time before someone with TI existed. They could get TI by being born a Destined One, wearing a device, or just doing bucket loads of time travel. It shouldn't matter as TI guarantees its own existence as best it can.

Temporary is a very subjective term with time travel. A lifetime is only temporary after all.

In all honesty, you need to define how the setting works in order to define how TI works.

But with the standard time travel wackiness, one may possess TI before they exist.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Sure you can. If a person gets into a time machine and leaves in it and he's going to change history, then you are protected by Temporal Inertia if you have it when he leaves if the change is instantaneous, and when the change hits the present if historical change takes time to "catch up to the present"

I would not have a big problem playing* under that assumption. The 'change' is coming from someone from your current "now", so allowing your temporary TI to protect from such agents of change sounds OK.

*But not GMing, as the extra thinking hurts :/ ;)

[vicky_molokh]

I've made some very detailed analysis of how Temporal Inertia (including Temporary Temporal Inertia) works, but it is done under the assumption that time is Plastic (as per IW definition), and it depends heavily on understanding the framework set by Plastic Time. Full analysis found here. Sadly, a couple of questions are left unanswered (pertaining to what happens after you lose TI).