The Continuum FAQ

The Continuum time travel roleplaying game has been officially in existence for almost five years now, having first been officially published for GenCon 1999 in July of that year. While the game is still not all that known of in roleplaying gamer circles, Continuum is beginning to attract new fans of the system and mechanics of time travel, and rpgers as well. The lack of familiarity with Continuum on the part of many led to my compiling this file. This Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page is designed to answer some of the commonly asked questions about the Continuum game system, as well as to provide some insight into several elements of the game system.

Continuum RPG Frequently Asked Questions

What is Continuum?

Continuum, also commonly referred to as "CON" for short, is a time travel roleplaying game that owes its roots to the science fiction genre, but whose mechanics of time travel are largely drawn from scientific premises of our own time.

Who Publishes Continuum?

The Continuum RPG is published by Aetherco, a company down in the New York area, in conjunction with Dreamcatcher Multimedia. Officially, Continuum was published in a v1.0 edition July, 1999 to coincide with its release at GenCon of that year, but there are a couple of earlier versions of the game out there as well.

What Materials Have Been Published for Continuum?

To this point, there have been two products published in the Continuum line, and these are the 1st Edition of Continuum and a game supplement called Further Information. See the separate Continuum Products Index page for more details.

What is the Game System?

The Continuum RPG uses a Skill-based gaming system (as opposed to a Class- or Level-based gaming system) to model the universe and the events of the game. It uses 1d10 for actions (skill resolution, combat, and the like) and to resolve all damage from physical combat and the like. Unliike many of the rpgs out there, Continuum only uses three Atrributes (Mind, Body, and Quick), and Skills have a more generic basis, to which the player adds a specialty or two. Players generally take skills based on when and where their characters originate, but the mechanics of character generation are quite simple and easy to work with.

Why is the Game Called Continuum?

This is one of the questions that quite a few gamers ask about the system, especially if they aren't all that familiar with the game and its universe's history. Beyond that, the simplest explanation is that the invention of time travel creates a finite loop in and of itself. Regardless of the method of time travel, once the process is invented and used successfully, the first time traveller who goes out there will find a society of time travellers already in existence, with superior time travel ability to their own, since the time traveller society has had plenty of time to improve on the technology or means of time travel.

The society of time travellers that exists in the universe are called the Continuum. Hence, the name of the game.

What Makes the Continuum RPG Unique?

Where Can I Find More Continuum RPG Resources?

The best place to start with looking for other resources for the Continuum game is on the Continuum Links & Resources Page found on this website. You can also check out one of the various search engines on the internet for other Continuum RPG web pages.

Continuum: Roleplaying in The Yet is a trademark and copyright of Aetherco/Dreamcatcher. The Continuum Logo and other graphics are copyright of Aetherco/Dreamcatcher, and are used with their permission. All distinctive Continuum logos and terms are trademarks of Aetherco/ Dreamcatcher. No attempt is being made here to supercede any of the copyrights and trademarks mentioned above.