Casting Shadows

Today is Monday, August 31st and the final day of #RPGaDAY2026. As usual, it has been a privilege to witness how different communities all over the world have taken time out of their lives and social media activities to share their love and appreciation for roleplaying games and the people who play them. Although changes to social media over recent years have made it harder to discover and easily share responses in most places, or outright hide them, people continue to participate and encourage each other to respond to the prompts. It’s fantastic. David and I talk a little about it in our Closing Video so I don’t need to use space and your time to write about it here. Instead, let’s get to the final prompt: Edge. On the infographic, today starts its own single-day week, so we get ‘ability’ as one filter, and ‘fair of face’ for the other. The game I have chosen for today is one that is out on the fringes of RPG conversation. Today, my response will be drawn from Continuum: Roleplaying in the Yet by Aetherco / Dreamcatcher Multimedia.

Continuum is a game of time travel and advertised itself as the RPG of ‘genuine time travel’ as the authors took great pains to consider the capabilities, consequences, and requirements of characters able to span different points in time and present all of this as a game for we who are trapped within our perception of time’s normal flow. Each time I take it down off the shelf I am cast back to the first moment of receiving it in the mail and all the wonder and challenge it represents, and each time I take the time to go through it, it inevitably sparks ideas for an ambitious campaign for the right group of people. Unsurprisingly, this is a model of how the game is set up. Like many games of the type to have characters who are significantly different from the norm, the conceit is often to have them be recruited into one of the organizations who are ‘in the know’ and who might need the characters to help them achieve some grand goal or who could be there to regulate their behavior in order to prevent disaster.

I think we can see why it might be important to recruit, guide, and oversee those who can travel in time…

Like so many solo games rely on now, Continuum tracks its characters’ activities in a journal of their subjective perspective of time. It it necessary to know in what order they have accomplished events and in what moments in time that order took place while being aware that when they took place in time does not have to match the order in which they were done. A deep part of the play is the intersection of actions taken across time and how that comes to matter to those involved.

The game itself presents the idea that it is best to begin with beginners and for this response I have created a person with a lot of potential, some of which has begun to show real promise, but none of which has been honed to mastery. This journey is all about the very idea of being a journeyman. The road is long, there is much to learn, and much of the instruction will be in the form of mistakes made and opportunities missed.

At first glance, and sometimes at second glance, Continuum can seem intimidating or ‘of its time.’ The character sheet, for example can suggest that chargen is hard and involved. In reality, it is not. A concept is formed with some guidelines to simplify the process and give it context, a very small number of points are assigned, and then some more framing of the character in the world of the game follows it up and gets you ready to start playing. The result? You make the character you want to play as a newcomer to this world of ‘spanning time’ and then you start a journey in play which demands that they learn more, think beyond their limits, and start to extend their reach.

In thinking about Edge as filtered through Ability and Attractiveness, I found myself drawn to the idea of a young martial arts student and junior instructor who was deeply into the whole experience of the lifelong pursuit of that way of life. Physical improvement. Meditation. Investment in understanding their dreams. Travel and experimentation with the tradition in other places and from other generations of teacher. The growth of and the effort to combat the ego. The recognition of breathing. The feel of peace born of the contemplation of violence. The rest wrought from honest fatigue from honest work. The stillness of a mind ready to accept the world as it is, and the quickness of thought supported by that stillness. Finding sense in being alone and knowing how to find a place as a part of a group.

Imagine recruiting such a person and seeking to forge them anew in the fires of a world they had not even dreamed was real.

Character creation in the game is advised to be collaborative between the player and the GM so that connections and contexts can be an active and present part of play and its expansive view of time. For this response, we will keep things simple.

Our young martial artist is not an academic in the sense of having been able to benefit from higher education, but has built a solid foundation of skill and understanding which will enable them to make a living teaching their art (praying mantis). Still, for all of their hard work and personal achievement, they are still waiting for the right mentor to help them find the best path toward their future.

To that end, the character was set with above average Body and Quick, but average Mind. They have the Benefit of Sharp Reflexes, which enhance that Quick rating when needed, and they are ambidextrous.

For skills, there are some basics like knowledge of one’s own time, culture, and language to arrange in accordance with the setup for the campaign. Then, the focus shifts to what it is the character has put time into learning. The game considers skills in terms of Novice to Grandmaster and caps starting characters at Master – if the player is willing to sink the number of points required for mastery in a single skill. For this character, I have selected some attractive skills for a Spanner at Novice or Apprentice ratings, things like Lucid Dreaming (which helps assimilate knowledge) and intentional and organized Observation. For their core and character defining skills I have set these at Journeyman. I considered narrowing the focus a little to achieve mastery in one area, but that did not give me the sense of open-minded and meditative character that grew out of framing the initial concept in step one. So, this character has been a practitioner of Praying Mantis, gradually growing more serious as they grew toward adulthood. They have the physical skills and outlook to develop in the art and help others do so. They are a well-rounded athlete but have an appreciation for gymnastics. In the art, they have dedicated equal time to honing armed and unarmed skill with particular focus paid to the staff and striking.

Should their life come to require serious violence, they will need to be prepared to invest time and discipline in hardening their body and growing in toughness.

As a character, the skills chosen and the attributes which support them present abilities to move more freely through an area than most people, defend themselves without weapons, with common objects (broom handles, etc), and get away on foot or in a good spread of vehicles. They have patience and are a trained observer.

Interestingly in terms of the daily filter for Monday, there is an optional rule for what the game calls limits (flaws). Unlike most games, the player opts to take a limit and gains bonus character points. The limit is determined from a random list after chargen is over. Provisions are made for limits and benefits or skills cancelling each other out, but generally they are significant and conducive for description and roleplay. Many will factor into making situations different and/or more challenging.

I opted to take a limit for this character and the random result was “Facial Tic.” It is remarkable how this small detail made things fall into place for why the character sought to “find inner peace” through martial arts practice, how they view the world, what their tiny personal goals are, and so on. It also draws attention to the character’s appearance and makes them easier to identify should someone ever ask about them…

What they do next, and to what extremes they are pushed, to what degree their experiences hone them…?

That is for play to reveal.

There are no more prompts for #RPGaDAY2026. If you are looking for more just change the date of the hashtag and follow where the search engine leads you, there are hundreds of thousands of responses in multiple languages awaiting you. Thank you for joining me on this journey in positivity this year, in past years, and hopefully, in the future~

Travel safely!