Alright, so here's my take on a Red Markets/Profit setting hack/variant. The idea is to channel the feeling of life under oppressive regimes like North Korea, use resource scarcity through rationing and to inject nerd tropes through time travel.
The State arose following the glorious Revolution, eclipsing all resistance of the ideologically backward and counter-revolutionary, and merging all previous nations into a single, global mega-state under a planned economy, all until the loving gaze of the loving figurehead, the Leader. All citizens of the State are equal, all economic activity is planned and executed meticulously by the fine men and women of the Ministry of Resource Allocation. One world, one system, one economy, one people, one ideology. Utopia has been achieved. All citizens of the State know this.
To suggest otherwise is not done. Or rather, those who do it are rarely heard from for much longer. Someone else is found to be living in their apartment; their spouse is found to have been married to another person. The State is pernicious and omnipresent, its presence reaching into every aspect of your life.
And yet, though none would publicly declare it, the resources each citizen receives from the Ministry are not enough for their needs. Because what you say you need is different from the Ministry says you need. And where there is need, there is opportunity and there is profit. There is a black market that will provide you with these things. The question is how to earn it.
Everyone has memories of the world before the Revolution, before the markets were controlled, certain goods and services were outlawed. Everyone has lost something to the ever-present march of Progress. Everyone was promised a utopia that only partially manifested. Everyone had someone they loved go up against the wall when the Revolution twisted and suddenly they were counter. The past is fertile ground, full of things that people want and need. This is where you dive, through illegal and tightly-regulated technology. You reach into the Revolution to retrieve lost things, to pull contraband from the past into the present; you secure local time-loops so a bereaved lover can relive the last night they spent in their paramour's arms; you give the counter-revolutionaries a glimmer of hope by providing them with proof that things can be/were/will be different, better. But you must do so secretly, because time travel is an illegal technology - why, the State asks, would you want to look at the past when Utopia is today? To suggest that this is no so is sedition.
Allocation: At the start of the game, the MRA gives you what it tells you that you need, that you deserve. This is your ration book, essentially. This is how much you have to live on for the session and also how much you must be seen to have; if your neighbour sees you suddenly bringing home armfuls of expensive whiskey, they'll mention it to someone who'll mention it to the Ministry. Naturally, it is not enough. You have a need that the Ministry will not - cannot - provide.
The Market: Commerce is illegal under State law, but most citizens dabble in the black market to make up the gaps in what the MRA provides. This is where you go to meet the needs the MRA does not meet, and this is your "enclave". It might be as small as the room above a bookshop, or a covert speakeasy in a cellar, or perhaps it is an extensive network of sewer tunnels. This is where people sell veal from cellar-reared calves, bathtub whisky, hand-drawn pornography. And this is where Divers ply their trade. Market is one of the variables of a job - it represents the raw value (monetary or emotional) of what is being dealt with; saving a wedding ring from being cremated in one of the mass graves of the Revolution, stealing cargo of a product no longer manufactured as the State deems it decadent.
The Dive: You have a rare, valuable talent - the ability to take jaunts back in time. So far the longest unassisted Dive has gone for one day before the Diver "rubber-banded" back to the present day. At the Market, Divers operate crews that use time machines to assist their natural talents to allow for longer dives, to bring larger things back with them, to bring others back with them. This is where you earn your money.
The Risks: Because of course it can't be that simple. Diving is not an easy task. If nothing else, the past is a dangerous place; the Revolution was a shooting war (several, really) where many strange weapons were deployed, where many things not found in the State roamed and roared and spewed fire across the loyal soldiers of the Cause. What's more, there are risks inherent in changing the past; much was lost in the Revolution, so pilfering boxes of ammunition for a depot moments before the artillery shell hits causes little change, but saving the life of a martyr will.. draw attention. Mankind is not the only thing to have evolved the ability to move in four dimensions; the bravest and most ambitious Divers soon find themselves.. hounded. In-game, Ripple is the other variable in a job - essentially, this is the "demand/risk" element of the job. The higher the Paradox rating, the greater the historical change completing the job represents, thus the riskier the job will become. (Everyone who has time travel wants to kill Hitler, no-one wants to deal with the fallout of killing Hitler.)
Paradox: This is the "refresh" mechanic; instead of Adaptability representing the ability to have just what you need, it represents the ability to edit the scene to your advantage; having a gun under the table you just sat down at, having already cut the wires, reaching behind the dumpster to pull out a spare magazine for your weapon. (And yes, it's stolen from Continuum.) Your Adaptability stat represents how many times you can SAFELY invoke a Paradox, how easily you keep track of your own personal timeline and can be relied on to, say, later (relative to your perspective) go back and duct-tape a gun under the table five minutes before you grabbed it. Invoking paradox AFTER that point can be done, but automatically puts a point on a new Paradox track which works like a Humanity track (Cracks, Crumbles and Breaks represent different levels of compromise to your personal timeline; at a Break, you are devoured by a Hound, or kill your grandfather by accident and erase yourself, or otherwise commit a paradox huge enough to destroy yourself and significantly disrupt those around you) Certain high-Ripple jobs carry an inherent Paradox value just for completing them. [Need an idea for how to reduce Paradox]
What I Would Have Done: Everyone has the idea of what they would do to change the past, to change the course the Revolution took so that it didn't create the corrupt, incompetent, murderous State that exists today. Who they would save, who they would kill, how they would do it differently, what they would do if they were in charge. This is a Diver's retirement; they save up to get enough time and power on the Machine that would allow them to permanently jump into the past and make a huge, meaningful change. To create their own Utopia. To change reality. To become the new Dear Leader of a new State after a new Revolution - nothing changes for anyone else. The Dive continues. (Because while zombie movies are how we talk about totality, time travel stories are how we talk about unintended consequence, about how good ideas can go back. And because every dystopian regime began life as a Utopian ideal until it met reality.)
Thoughts?
