Q Shift world designations

[Running Wolf]

Asked on FB but also asking here.

Does anyone have an idiot's guide to the Quantum Designation of Infinite Worlds.... Not along the lines of if they are open or closed but how "far off" they are from Earth Prime.

I'm using it more as a baseline for my own homebrew. Strange mix of a privately held mash of Sliders & Stargate.... easiest way to run things as my players might be revolving per session.

Not having magic worlds (might have an exception for a small Technomancer adventure to see if they like that setting).

World Designation A = Alien World

WD 0 = indistinguishable from Earth Prime (New Jersey is 3 sq ft larger or has 5 extra births per year)

WD 3 = major recent POD. JFK not being assinated in Dallas. The Bombs not being dropped on Japan.

WD 5 = major few centuries ago. Diseases went from the Americas to Europe. Failed Reformation. Calculus never published.

Ect.... along those likes. Almost on par with a tech level scale but a POD or Differences scale.

Could come up with my own list but knowing other folks who play and run GURPS asking for input on this is the RPG/GURPS equivalent of peer review :)

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Running Wolf

Asked on FB but also asking here.

Does anyone have an idiot's guide to the Quantum Designation of Infinite Worlds.... Not along the lines of if they are open or closed but how "far off" they are from Earth Prime.

I'm using it more as a baseline for my own homebrew. Strange mix of a privately held mash of Sliders & Stargate.... easiest way to run things as my players might be revolving per session.

Not having magic worlds (might have an exception for a small Technomancer adventure to see if they like that setting).

World Designation A = Alien World

WD 0 = indistinguishable from Earth Prime (New Jersey is 3 sq ft larger or has 5 extra births per year)

WD 3 = major recent POD. JFK not being assinated in Dallas. The Bombs not being dropped on Japan.

WD 5 = major few centuries ago. Diseases went from the Americas to Europe. Failed Reformation. Calculus never published.

Ect.... along those likes. Almost on par with a tech level scale but a POD or Differences scale.

Could come up with my own list but knowing other folks who play and run GURPS asking for input on this is the RPG/GURPS equivalent of peer review :)

To the best of my knowledge, which is limited, the only official guide to actual quanta designation is p. B526 (page 526 of GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns, if you're not used to the notation). As such, what quantum a worldline is on has nothing to do with how recent the point of divergence is nor with the type or degree of difference in the rules of reality.

For example, Caliph (1591), a science fiction parallel; 8 of the 19 known Gothas (indeterminate dates), hell parallels; Sherlock-2 (1888), a myth parallel; Orichalcum (9590 B.C.), another myth parallel; and Reich-2 (1961), a historical parallel are all Quantum 6 (which is a measure of how hard it is to pay the energy cost to get to any of those worlds. Pretty easy if you're from Homeline, which is a Quantum 5 world; harder if you're from Centrum, which is Quantum 8).

Other Reich parallels, for instance, are on different Quanta. It's not the case that all worldlines with a common point of divergence are on the same Quantum.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Other Reich parallels, for instance, are on different Quanta. It's not the case that all worldlines with a common point of divergence are on the same Quantum.

There is no link between quantum level and any feature of the world line, it's a storytelling tool that allows you to adjust how easy it is for Homeline and Centrum to clash over them. There is a partial exception that originally all the echoes were on 6, because their story role of allowing you to do "save history" time travel plots despite the absence of actual time travel required them to be accessible to both sides, but I think even that isn't held to completely anymore.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by malloyd

There is no link between quantum level and any feature of the world line, it's a storytelling tool that allows you to adjust how easy it is for Homeline and Centrum to clash over them. There is a partial exception that originally all the echoes were on 6, because their story role of allowing you to do "save history" time travel plots despite the absence of actual time travel required them to be accessible to both sides, but I think even that isn't held to completely anymore.

There are comments somewhere about Centrum not really getting/beliving magic because they almost never see it, and many of the weirdest worldlines are on Q3 and Q4, but I think this aspect has been dropped from the setting. I like to bring it back when I play though.

A "World Type" guide is found on page 82 of infinite worlds, continuing through to page 96. This doesn't give codes, but it does give solid types you can use.

generally, you identify a world with its world type, its date, its divergence, its TL, supernatural features, and its dominant world powers. For example:

Far parallel in 2010 with a 1933 divergence point. TL8 with advanced space and genetic technology, and psionic world jumpers. World Power are an Autocratic Germany and a Monarchical Japan.