At the beginning of Chapter 2 in my current campaign my players will quickly discover that they will need to travel back in time to confront their enemies. The Cult of Demogorgon are attempting to use the past to gain access to very rare components required for a ritual. They have uncovered a ritual and will be faced with the task of interpreting the ritual while avoiding altering the past. The riddle hints at something black, blue, and red. Most of the players have already decided that this means dragons and that the required components are one piece or another of the beasts.
The tricky part of all of this is that they must confront the dragons and either slay them or allow them to live as they have already done so as not to alter the time continuum. It get’s confusing when you think about people altering their own destinies or past affecting the present which is the future… I am more interested in the large scale changes that might occur based on their actions and might even allow them to change certain aspects of my world as they are in the past if they show an interest.
The problem is that this just might ruin the flavor of the world I have created and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that. It’s nice to involve players and give them a piece of the world to call their own. I want them to feel involved and engaged in the world they are a part of. I’m just not sure at what cost.
I guess if you love your worlds and maps enough at some point you have to set them free. Let them evolve and grow and stand on their own merit. If you have done your job well as a creator of worlds it will endure the revisions and edits of others.
