Storm Time – Part 1: Setting

Last night, Will, Jared and I began a Primetime Adventures season of indeterminate length. After brainstorming a healthy number of ideas, we finally settled on a show about time-traveling thrill seekers searching for the ultimate prize: happiness.

Brainstorming

We began our ideation by brainstorming concepts that’s we’d like to play:

• Jazz-age Paris (inspired by Django Reinhardt playing in the background)
• Jerusalem 10 A.D.
• Cro-Magnon vs. Homo Sapiens
• Grifters and Drifters (Steinbeck meets Flannery O’Connor)
• Universe 3050 A.D. (Star Trek)
• Pirates, Ninjas, Cowboys
• Roman Empire in Space
• White Trash Doctor Who (the Tardis is a Port-a-let)
• Cat Drama

After an interval we began crosspollenating these ideas by mixing them together or adding Zombies to the mix. Among the mongrel premises we concocted were Zombies in Jazz Age Paris, and Cats vs. Aliens.

The real gem was found, however, by mixing almost all of these concepts together (I don’t think we quite integrated cats). Our final concept is the still tentatively titled Sailing the Seas of Time.

Setting

In the middle of an unknown ocean is an island built on the wreckage of lost ships from all eras. This island is known as The Turtle. It is a lawless place, ruled by the violent and the clever, and is populated by the survivors of lost ships, both seafaring and spacefaring. Whenever a vessel is lost at sea without explanation, it will eventually drift into sight of The Turtle.

The Turtle exists in a temporal limbo. A few days out to sea, there is a storm which encircles the entire island. If one sails in any direction, eventually he will find a port to in which to dock, for there are an infinite number of ports. The catch is this: they are all ports to the same city for a given ship, only in different times.

Time Ships

Time Ships are gradually pieced together from the wreckage of ships lost in the storm of time. Each addition to the ship results in opening up new routes through time, while closing others. Some believe that choosing the right combination of parts is an art, others believe it is a science, but most believe that it is completely random.

The trade in salvage, especially from newly wrecked ships, is fierce and highly competive.

Unobtainium

Time Ships are fueled by a strange substance known simply as Unobtainium. Its source is unknown, but somehow there are semi-regular shipments to various bosses on The Turtle.

Prolonged exposure to unobtainium causes a type of brain poisoning which manifests in symptoms such as increasingly frequent blackouts, then insatiable carnal lust, then cannibalistic hunger, and finally post-mortem animation.

The White Fairy

The temporary antidote for Unobtainium poisoning is a distillation of an opium poppy native to The Turtle. This distillation is known as The White Fairy or The White Lady, and is administered by smoking or injection into the bloodstream. The poppy grows quite freely on the island, but the method for producing its distillate is a very well kept secret.

Use of The White Fairy is quite addictive itself, and causes hallucinations and an overall sense of euphoria. At most, an addict can survive a week without the drug before going through withdrawal. The detox period for someone addicted to the substance is usually fatal, and those who survive it invariably succumb to the symptoms of Unobtainium poisoning.

Xanadu

Legends tell of a perfect city, a hedonist’s paradise, called Xanadu. In Xanadu, a man (or woman) may find everything that he has ever desired, or at the very least forget that he ever desired anything he doesn’t find. It is said that with the perfect combination of parts, and perhaps some forbidden knowledge, one may sail into the Port of Xanadu. Most people consider Xanadu a myth at best, and a dangerous obsession at worst.