How did it all go so wrong? This is the end of everything: the Big Crunch, when all matter collapses into singularity, to be reborn in a new Big Bang. At the horizon stands the Ashen Tower, where the mind-states of the wealthy and powerful will survive into the next universe. Out here, the rest of us wait to die. But we still have hope as long as we draw breath. Did I really just say that? Sorry, I meant that we still have hope as long as we have our time machine. The future is already gone, but the past is yet to be rewritten.

The Unravelers
A Game of Marxist Time Travelers at the End of History

In this game, the protagonists are among those left to die at the end of the universe while the elite survive into the next world. The characters use a time machine to rewrite history, trying to write a better ending to humanity’s story. 

This game uses chance and resolution decks from Itras By.

I.	Weaving History

The players first create a Microscope-esque timeline chronicling how humanity’s exodus to the stars ended in inequality and injustice.

●	The timeline is divided into periods (centuries or millennia long). Each period is described on a vertically-oriented index card, and marked light (empty circle) or dark (filled circle). The first period is a light period, “Humanity leaves Earth.” The last is a dark period, “The End of History.” Periods contain events, major occurrences within the period. Events are written on horizontal index cards, marked light or dark, and placed under their period. Add an event describing the building of the Ashen Tower under “The End of History.” No events may come after it. At least half the events in each period (rounding down) must always match the tone of the period. 
●	Each player adds a new period or event.  
●	Next, another round of additions occurs, with the theme of “class struggle.”
●	Do three more rounds. For each round, one player should choose a focus to be explored through the additions - a social issue, a technology, an institution, an event, etc. 
●	Afterwards, choose a GM. For each event, the GM should secretly note what prior events or periods changing would cause that event to not happen, or to happen differently. Changing the Ashen Tower event should require that two events and one period in the timeline all happen differently.

II. Setting and Characters 

●	Discuss what life is like for those excluded from the Ashen Tower.
○	The society has five tags - short phrases describing key aspects.
○	Four tags must be based on the focuses from timeline creation (including class struggle). Thus, the setting reflects the past you created. GM chooses the fifth.
●	Each player creates an outlaw time-traveller dedicated to rewriting history to create a just present. Characters need:
○	A goal for how the present should be, and the emotion behind that goal (love, hate, etc).
○	Three relationships with NPCs, and the emotion underlying each relationship
■	One must share the goal’s emotion.
○	Five tags (short phrases), describing the character’s role in society, background, skills, etc.
○	Their age.

III. Session Structure

●	Present Scenes: First, each character gets a scene set in the present with one of their relationships. Conflicts may emerge, but scenes must end without resolution
.
●	Mission Briefing: Second, the characters convene for a mission. The players choose a timeline event to target. They then create the crux: the key moment on which the event turned. One player asks the key question of the crux - Who killed the regent? Why didn’t the reforms work? Then play the scene, each player controlling a historical character. When the question is answered, the scene ends. That is history as the PCs understand it.
 
●	Time Travel Time! Third, the characters travel through time to the crux. Ask them when they want to arrive: 
		At the key moment!
Early by:	Hours 
		Days 
		Weeks 
		Months 
		Years 
		Decades 
	
	Then roll 1d6-1 and move that many spaces up or down the chart (player’s choice). Chart wraps around. The earlier the characters arrive, the more time available to prepare. Players narrate what their characters did during the wait. If the characters are years or decades early, they must each swap out a personal tag to reflect their time in a new era. Adjust character ages.

GMful, scene-based play begins shortly before the crux starts. The PCs can interfere. Play and see what happens! Resolve conflicts and uncertain situations by drawing from the resolution deck. After the crux, a time portal will appear. The PCs must find it to escape. 

	TIME DANGERS!
●	Paradox! Time travel unsettles the universe. At a dramatic moment, once per time trip, anyone may draw a chance card and apply it to the scene. 
●	Historical inaccuracy! The history presented in the crux scene is what the PCs know - it’s not necessarily all true. The GM is free to subvert expectations, particularly on “yes but” results. 
●	Time Locks! The Ashen Tower event is warded against time travel. The PCs can only affect it indirectly.  
●	Time Cops! Sent by the Ashen Tower to a key point in time with enough resources to live like kings. Their only responsibility is to protect the crux from rogue time travelers. 
●	Zeitgeisten! When a time traveller kills someone in the past, the deceased becomes a zeitgeisten - a vengeful ghost untethered in time! Zeitgeisten can appear at any point in the past. 

Resolving a Time Jaunt

●	When an event changes, flip the card and write a new event on the other side (same or different tone).
○	GM must check their notes to see if other events flip as a result.
●	If every event in a period has the opposite tone of the period, flip the period card and write a new period with a tone matching the events.
●	If the new timeline affects any society tags, the GM rewrites them.
●	Each PC gets a final scene with the same NPC from their first scene. Show off the effects of timeline changes. Conflicts can be resolved via the resolution deck.
○	PCs are unaffected by timeline changes. Only experiences in the past change PCs. 
●	When the PCs meet a prerequisite required to flip the Ashen Tower event, GM should make a major alteration to the setting.
○	When they meet the second condition, GM should give them half of what they want - e.g. put their families safely inside the tower.
○	When they meet the third condition, flip the Ashen Tower card and create a light event on the back. Each player narrates an epilogue for their PC.