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Continuum is a time-travel RPG, delivering a clear and intriguing picture of the twisty possibilities of time-travel. It is in its infancy -- at this writing, you can only get Version 0.7 -- so the book is short. But they pack a lot of ideas into that space.

The "setting" is anywhere in history. The authors provide an outline of that history -- in which all known history is only a fraction -- but there are very few details. I hope that, as the game matures, the authors will flesh out the uncharted eras of the future and the prehistoric human past; just now, there are only exciting hints. A creative GM could work with those hints, but two different creative GMs would come up with wholly different settings.

Player characters are "spanners," time-travelers, as contrasted to ordinary folk, who are called "levelers." But every spanner was once a leveler. Time-travel, "spanning," is not done by machine or by inherent super-power. Rather, it is a teachable skill that almost anyone can learn. As you get better at it, your "span" increases and you are able to move through exponentially greater and greater intervals of time and space. (The ability to span includes the ability to teleport, too.)

Stylish terminology is one of the appeals of this game. Besides "spanning," "spanners," and "levelers," important terms include "Gemini incidents," "the Yet," and "Frag."

A Gemini incident is where you meet your older self. This means that, later on, you are going to be called on to play the older self, meeting the younger self. (The GM takes on the alternate role.)

The Yet is that part of your personal future that you know about. Thus, once you have the first part of a Gemini incident, you know that being the elder self is part of your Yet. Or it had better be. Because if you don't fulfill your Yet, or if you alter your past, you suffer Frag.

Frag is how Continuum copes with the issue of paradox. Any time-travel game must do this, and Continuum puts the issue squarely in center stage. If you are involved in temporal inconsistencies, you acquire levels of Frag, which are like temporal hit points. At low levels of Frag, your memory is impaired, you suffer deja vu, and have similar complaints. If you don't rectify the inconsistencies, or let them pile up, your Frag level gets worse: your impairments escalate, you start losing substantiality, and, you eventually fade to an uncomfortable chill, a few garbled clues, and a flicker seen out of the corners of other people's eyes. Then you are gone. And everything is consistent again.

You can acquire Frag by accident, by carelessness, by stupidly bucking the Scheme of Things, or by having an enemy inflict it on you. This is where Time Combat comes in. The authors devote a fair chunk of the book, including a useful example, to Time Combat. They describe several Time Combat moves, and illustrate the commonest ones in the example combat.

Time Combat can be a leisurely affair, since some of the commonest moves can take days or weeks, like "Oracle," in which you research your attacker's movements from a convenient remove in the future. You then take steps to Frag them or undo the Frag they did to you, which may not even involve a physical encounter. Or it may. Frag is only one form of damage; you and your foes can also burn good old-fashioned hit points (called "impairment points" or IPs).

Your foe is probably a Narcissist. Spanners come in two flavors, members of a large, necessarily loose, but generally cohesive and supportive community called the Continuum, and reckless, self-willed Narcissists. It's not that the two sides are angels and devils, but the Narcissists are irresponsible strewers of Frag, while the Continuum is responsible and always acts to prevent or erase Frag (except maybe to shove it back on the Narcissists). There are no Time Patrols or Time Lords or other large-scale temporal organizations.

The premise of the book is that it is being published by the Continuum as a gentle way of introducing themselves to us "levelers" of 1998 and later. It's done well, and in general, the writing style is clear and amusing. Sometimes, in the depths of the temporal mechanics, it gets rather murky, but never too bad.

There is very little art. What there is, is fine and often very original. There are some nice pieces of symbolism and such. Everything except the cover is black and white. What do you expect for the Beta-test edition? Anyway, I think art in RPG books is given undue importance.

The mechanics are simple and light. There are three attributes -- Body, Mind, and "Quick" -- plus a handful of skills. You roll a d10 against a given stat, and win if you roll lower than the stat. The GM can modify rolls for circumstance, and there are some rules for critical success and failure. Characters advance in stats by practice; after enough successful uses of a stat, you go up a point in it.

For the rest, your character sheet keeps track of Span and Frag, and a meticulous record of when you've been and how long you stayed. This, we are told, simulates the careful record-keeping spanners must do to avoid tripping over their own worldlines and giving themselves Frag.

Continuum is a carefully-constructed game for a twisty, tricky, intriguing subject. I hope it grows up to be even better. They plan to debut it at GenCon, in August. Meanwhile, I recommend it and point you to the Continuum Web-site.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Continuum
Author: Chris Adams, David Fooden, Barbara Manui Category: game Company/Publisher: Aetherco/Dreamcatcher Line: Continuum Cost: $7.95 $3.00 s/h Page count: 72 Capsule Review by Earl Wajenberg on 04/20/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Modern_day Historical Far_Future Conspiracy	Continuum is a time-travel RPG, delivering a clear and intriguing picture of the twisty possibilities of time-travel. It is in its infancy -- at this writing, you can only get Version 0.7 -- so the book is short. But they pack a lot of ideas into that space. The "setting" is anywhere in history. The authors provide an outline of that history -- in which all known history is only a fraction -- but there are very few details. I hope that, as the game matures, the authors will flesh out the uncharted eras of the future and the prehistoric human past; just now, there are only exciting hints. A creative GM could work with those hints, but two different creative GMs would come up with wholly different settings. Player characters are "spanners," time-travelers, as contrasted to ordinary folk, who are called "levelers." But every spanner was once a leveler. Time-travel, "spanning," is not done by machine or by inherent super-power. Rather, it is a teachable skill that almost anyone can learn. As you get better at it, your "span" increases and you are able to move through exponentially greater and greater intervals of time and space. (The ability to span includes the ability to teleport, too.) Stylish terminology is one of the appeals of this game. Besides "spanning," "spanners," and "levelers," important terms include "Gemini incidents," "the Yet," and "Frag." A Gemini incident is where you meet your older self. This means that, later on, you are going to be called on to play the older self, meeting the younger self. (The GM takes on the alternate role.) The Yet is that part of your personal future that you know about. Thus, once you have the first part of a Gemini incident, you know that being the elder self is part of your Yet. Or it had better be. Because if you don't fulfill your Yet, or if you alter your past, you suffer Frag. Frag is how Continuum copes with the issue of paradox. Any time-travel game must do this, and Continuum puts the issue squarely in center stage. If you are involved in temporal inconsistencies, you acquire levels of Frag, which are like temporal hit points. At low levels of Frag, your memory is impaired, you suffer deja vu, and have similar complaints. If you don't rectify the inconsistencies, or let them pile up, your Frag level gets worse: your impairments escalate, you start losing substantiality, and, you eventually fade to an uncomfortable chill, a few garbled clues, and a flicker seen out of the corners of other people's eyes. Then you are gone. And everything is consistent again. You can acquire Frag by accident, by carelessness, by stupidly bucking the Scheme of Things, or by having an enemy inflict it on you. This is where Time Combat comes in. The authors devote a fair chunk of the book, including a useful example, to Time Combat. They describe several Time Combat moves, and illustrate the commonest ones in the example combat. Time Combat can be a leisurely affair, since some of the commonest moves can take days or weeks, like "Oracle," in which you research your attacker's movements from a convenient remove in the future. You then take steps to Frag them or undo the Frag they did to you, which may not even involve a physical encounter. Or it may. Frag is only one form of damage; you and your foes can also burn good old-fashioned hit points (called "impairment points" or IPs). Your foe is probably a Narcissist. Spanners come in two flavors, members of a large, necessarily loose, but generally cohesive and supportive community called the Continuum, and reckless, self-willed Narcissists. It's not that the two sides are angels and devils, but the Narcissists are irresponsible strewers of Frag, while the Continuum is responsible and always acts to prevent or erase Frag (except maybe to shove it back on the Narcissists). There are no Time Patrols or Time Lords or other large-scale temporal organizations. The premise of the book is that it is being published by the Continuum as a gentle way of introducing themselves to us "levelers" of 1998 and later. It's done well, and in general, the writing style is clear and amusing. Sometimes, in the depths of the temporal mechanics, it gets rather murky, but never too bad. There is very little art. What there is, is fine and often very original. There are some nice pieces of symbolism and such. Everything except the cover is black and white. What do you expect for the Beta-test edition? Anyway, I think art in RPG books is given undue importance. The mechanics are simple and light. There are three attributes -- Body, Mind, and "Quick" -- plus a handful of skills. You roll a d10 against a given stat, and win if you roll lower than the stat. The GM can modify rolls for circumstance, and there are some rules for critical success and failure. Characters advance in stats by practice; after enough successful uses of a stat, you go up a point in it. For the rest, your character sheet keeps track of Span and Frag, and a meticulous record of when you've been and how long you stayed. This, we are told, simulates the careful record-keeping spanners must do to avoid tripping over their own worldlines and giving themselves Frag. Continuum is a carefully-constructed game for a twisty, tricky, intriguing subject. I hope it grows up to be even better. They plan to debut it at GenCon, in August. Meanwhile, I recommend it and point you to the Continuum Web-site. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)