06-17-2014, 03:17 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
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[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. |
06-17-2014, 03:27 PM | #2 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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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). |
06-18-2014, 06:12 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [IW] Infinite geography
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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. |
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06-18-2014, 11:02 AM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [IW] Infinite geography
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.
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06-18-2014, 11:10 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [IW] Infinite geography
Quote:
Bill Stoddard |
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06-18-2014, 06:43 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
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Re: [IW] Infinite geography
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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.
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My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters. |
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06-18-2014, 10:29 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Oct 2009
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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.
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06-19-2014, 01:31 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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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. |
06-19-2014, 08:34 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Los Angeles
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Re: [IW] Infinite geography
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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. |
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06-20-2014, 04:02 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
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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...
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infinite worlds |
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