Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-17-2014, 03:17 PM   #1
pgb
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Default [IW] Infinite geography

I'm just trying to get my head round the (canonical) workings of travel between timelines in Infinite Worlds. The jump is always to the "same" geographical location on the destination timeline, as I understand it. But is there any guidance on what that means for very divergent timelines? Is it just assumed that, however weird the destination timeline, a given location on Homeline always matches up to the same geographical location at the other end? Any canonical support for this, or counter-examples? (I have Infinite Worlds, but don't know my way around it all that well - apologies if I've missed something obvious.)

Thanks!

Paul.
pgb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-17-2014, 03:27 PM   #2
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

The way that I do it is that geography matches for worlds that are true "alternate Earths". This doesn't mean it matches perfectly: the characters in my campaign have moved between 1720 and 258 in Ostia many times. The silting up of the River Tiber means that Ostia has gradually moved to stay at the mouth of the river, and the difference is quite noticeable across 1500 years.

Worlds that aren't alternate Earths, like Yrth, or Discworld, don't have geographic matching. The mapping that will be used if the campaign goes to them will be defined individually for each world (a narrative-dependent mapping is highly appropriate for Discworld).
johndallman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2014, 06:12 AM   #3
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
The way that I do it is that geography matches for worlds that are true "alternate Earths". This doesn't mean it matches perfectly: the characters in my campaign have moved between 1720 and 258 in Ostia many times. The silting up of the River Tiber means that Ostia has gradually moved to stay at the mouth of the river, and the difference is quite noticeable across 1500 years.

Worlds that aren't alternate Earths, like Yrth, or Discworld, don't have geographic matching. The mapping that will be used if the campaign goes to them will be defined individually for each world (a narrative-dependent mapping is highly appropriate for Discworld).
Hmm. Well, you could declare that Ankh-Morporkh corresponds to London...
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2014, 11:02 AM   #4
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
Hmm. Well, you could declare that Ankh-Morporkh corresponds to London...
Well, yes. But it also corresponds to Paris and Rome. If a cultural group has a dominant city, which is the place to go for answers you'll find nowhere else, that corresponds to Ankh-Morporkh.
johndallman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2014, 11:10 AM   #5
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Well, yes. But it also corresponds to Paris and Rome. If a cultural group has a dominant city, which is the place to go for answers you'll find nowhere else, that corresponds to Ankh-Morporkh.
I don't think that's true. Raising Steam has a passage where Moist pays a visit to an obvious French nobleman in an adjacent country, Quirm I think, so it seems pretty clear that there is an analog France on the Disc.

Bill Stoddard
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2014, 06:43 PM   #6
aesir23
 
aesir23's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I don't think that's true. Raising Steam has a passage where Moist pays a visit to an obvious French nobleman in an adjacent country, Quirm I think, so it seems pretty clear that there is an analog France on the Disc.

Bill Stoddard
Although, Leonard of Quirm is clearly Leonardo da Vinci, so it also corresponds to Italy.

More likely Quirm corresponds to the archetype of "the continent", just as Klatch corresponds to "the middle east" or "Arabia."

Personally I like the idea of places corresponding to each other by feel rather than specific location.
aesir23 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2014, 10:29 PM   #7
Miles
 
Miles's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

My instinct would be to to generally go the thematic route, with an additional note Infinity and Centrum have a complicated 8-dimensional physics model that explains exactly how it all works. The fact that this just so happens to coincide with an intuitive, "this culture matches this culture" model seems to lend support to the Williams-Khor hypothesis. Except when the portal to Ankh-Morpok happens to be in Western Siberia.
Miles is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-19-2014, 01:31 AM   #8
Tyneras
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

I tend to play with the idea that Infinity and Centrum don't know as much as they think they do, but just enough to make predictions that seem right until it gets them into deep trouble ( and lead to ADVENTURE!)

So a conveyor in London would take them to alternate London's (or where London would be if it had a London)... until it inexplicably puts them 20,000 feet over the middle of the pacific ocean on a world where the only difference is that Microsoft has a slightly different logo.
Tyneras is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-19-2014, 08:34 AM   #9
Drifter
 
Drifter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Los Angeles
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyneras View Post
I tend to play with the idea that Infinity and Centrum don't know as much as they think they do, but just enough to make predictions that seem right until it gets them into deep trouble ( and lead to ADVENTURE!)

So a conveyor in London would take them to alternate London's (or where London would be if it had a London)... until it inexplicably puts them 20,000 feet over the middle of the pacific ocean on a world where the only difference is that Microsoft has a slightly different logo.
I like this. It keeps PCs on their toes. If they know "everything" about an aspect of a setting that can get boring.

In my games I like to randomize the breakout IF its a new, unexplored world. The larger the difference in time the greater the randomization. Known timelines generally get a pass - a sort of built in GPS on the conveyor.

For a place like Discworld or Yirth its whatever drives the story. Especially Discworld, where cinematics seems to a law of nature.
Drifter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2014, 04:02 PM   #10
pgb
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Default Re: [IW] Infinite geography

Thanks for all the input. I hadn't really thought about the discworld case, as I don't naturally think of that as linking to Infinite Worlds - even though there is a brief visit to Earth in one of the early books. Interesting ideas though. I'm surprised no-one mentioned the impact of L-space...
pgb is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
infinite worlds

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:22 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.