A tabletop role-playing game in the temporal detective genre. Players become semi-legal mercenaries in the 19th-century Russian Empire, specialists in manipulating the past and the future. Instead of the usual dirty jobs for the elite, the new scenario forces them to confront geniuses unbound by the laws of time.
The temporal skill of working with time is possessed by all people to some extent, but it is developed to a professional level in certain individuals.
The Empire views such specialists with suspicion; the Third Division strives to keep them under control.
This is why the shadow market thrives. Wealthy clients pay for the resolution of delicate problems outside the bounds of the law.
Where a legal temporal specialist cannot be used, they hire the Heroes of Our Time.
The fundamental law of the universe is the density of matter.
The denser the material, the more deeply it is «rooted» in its time and the more resistant it is to temporal interference. Paper is easy to carry away, but gold is nearly impossible to «steal» from the present moment.
Therefore, dense materials are valued higher—they serve as the most reliable and expensive protection against external interference. They are used to safeguard archives, seals, safes, the walls of important buildings, and especially valuable documents.
Because of this, the economy of the Heroes world differs from reality. Gold, platinum, and tungsten are valued as strategic materials, and silver has taken the role of the primary measure of wealth—it is used to calculate fortunes, debts, salaries, and trade deals.
Chronological Axis
For any work involving a timeline layer, there is a rule: the nearest and farthest timeline layers are the most expensive. The 1–3 year window is the most advantageous zone. However, it is equally challenging to envision what will happen in the next minute or to jump back a hundred years.
How is this verified?
Any action involving time requires a countervailing check. The player rolls a skill die, and the Game Master rolls a difficulty die. The higher result wins; a tie favors the player. The difficulty is determined by the higher of the two dice: how dense the material is and how distant the time layer is. Therefore, working with thin paper is easier than working with lead. And in the next year—it is easier than in the last century.
Time Management: Four Directions
Vision— a look into the future without physical immersion.
«I see that in four years, a child will be playing on the floor of this room… and they will find a mercury ampule under the floorboards. That’s evidence!»
Trace — a look into the past without physical immersion.
«I see what happened in this room 10 years ago: a stranger brings a lit match to a letter. But I manage to read the contents!»
Step — physical movement into a layer.
«I am stepping three years ahead, when the family with the child has not yet moved into this room. I lift the floorboard—the mercury ampule is here. But taking it with me…»
Grasp —the extraction of physical objects from another time.
«A letter that a stranger burns ten years ago will be useful to us as leverage. We have to manage to snatch it.»
Temporal masters who have crossed the boundary of human capability—Timeless
Brether — the undefeated duelist-mercenary. He sees minutes and seconds ahead. He knows where the bullet will fly before his finger touches the trigger—and dodges before the opponent can even fire. To stop him, one must create a situation from which even the foresight of every second cannot save him.
Director
A shadowy intermediary with good connections in the imperial secret police offices and wealthy households. The manager quickly grasped a simple truth: the state pays temporal specialists poorly and controls them strictly—unlike the private sector, which is willing to dispense money for the resolution of delicate problems.
A soldier nearing retirement, a fallen noblewoman from high society, a wandering aristocrat burdened by gambling debts, and a village fortune-teller—the Director of Operations appears at the moment when it seems there is no way out. He offers a deal, secures contracts, money, and protection.
They must strive to break free from the Administrator’s control and become one of the Timeless Ones. Only then will they be able to exist freely in this world.
