Why hasn't Caliph discovered the Secret?

[Tom Mazanec]

Another world to worry about is Shikaku-mon. Their technology is at least as advanced as Homeline's and they are chronosynched to Homeline and Centrum. Someone (Heinlein I think) once said that when it is time for railroads you get railroads. It is about time for chronotravel on Shikaku-mon. Of course, there is Reich-5 (I hinted that they are already infiltrating Aesop in my one published article...or maybe it is the next destination of the chronobahn).

[Rocket Man]

And of course, don't forget Gernsback. They're not chronosynched, but the local laws of physics are strange enough that they could end up being a wild card entry. Maybe projectors don't work there ... but who's to say they might not come up with something even stranger? It's starkly possible. :)

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Canon isn't quite clear on whether you could take a conveyor througha projector to a Q^ would and then jump around Q^ as you pleased. Just to clear up this situation, I would rule no as GM.

It seems pretty clear to me. Everywhere it says travel within a quantum requires only a conveyor, and across quanta requires an improved conveyor and a projector.

It's always seemed clear to me that the preferred method of working two quanta away from home would be to set up a permanent base camp, probably on some uninhabited world, and use cheaper sub-quantum conveyors to shift in-quantum. This is cheaper, and frees up a lot of projector capacity.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

And of course, don't forget Gernsback. They're not chronosynched, but the local laws of physics are strange enough that they could end up being a wild card entry. Maybe projectors don't work there ... but who's to say they might not come up with something even stranger? It's starkly possible. :)

I think Gernsbeck's tech is so weird that anything they came up with (and that could well include pretty flash stuff, like open-circuit snatchers) would only work on Gernsbeck itself, so unless they came up with a 'snatcher' type device all they'd be doing is making their research objects/subjects disappear into thin air, never to return.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I think Gernsbeck's tech is so weird that anything they came up with (and that could well include pretty flash stuff, like open-circuit snatchers) would only work on Gernsbeck itself, so unless they came up with a 'snatcher' type device all they'd be doing is making their research objects/subjects disappear into thin air, never to return.

Good point -- at least until they start realizing they're dealing with universes with alternate physical laws. At that point, would Gernsbackian superscience allow the invention of a trans-quantum converter, the parachronic equivalent of a power adapter for your electric razor? Instead of gearing from European to American current and vice versa, imagine being able to tune from Tesla's physics to ours and back again....

[Rupert]

But, again, the blasted thing will probably only work in Gernsbeck, to their considerable annoyance. However, once they get hold of a conveyor from someone else, they'd certainly be able to do a lot of interesting things with it, and they'd be the one who find a way of snatching things and people, which removes the need to have the machinery off Gernsbeck, and thus avoids the need to deal with 'normal' physical laws.