[Infinite Worlds] Compiling a list of canonical ways to cross quanta

[Crystalline_Entity]

Are you including Alea (IW30) in the "Homeline's projectors" category? To me it's such a radically more useful technology it's worth a separate mention, as there's no two-quantum limit (plus it implies Centrum don't have the same technology).

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Crystalline_Entity

Are you including Alea (IW30) in the "Homeline's projectors" category? To me it's such a radically more useful technology it's worth a separate mention, as there's no two-quantum limit (plus it implies Centrum don't have the same technology).

Good catch, I missed that one.

[Crystalline_Entity]

Does "GURPS Infinite Worlds: Collegio Januari" count as "Infinite Worlds"? It has the book title, and the sidebar on Ashlars refers to many worlds from the Infinite Worlds setting, but it doesn't feel quite as well integrated as the Cabal etc.

If so, the actual College uses Plane Shift which is already on the list, but the Herlechine Horse has the Jumper (World) advantage without any quantum-distance limitation (magical Jumper with enough extra carrying capacity for a rider, rather than using Tunnelling). This is technically a parachronozoid though, carrying its rider across worlds.

There's also the "Curragh of Bran" from the same book, though there's no indication of whether that goes across quanta or not.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Crystalline_Entity

Does "GURPS Infinite Worlds: Collegio Januari" count as "Infinite Worlds"? It has the book title, and the sidebar on Ashlars refers to many worlds from the Infinite Worlds setting, but it doesn't feel quite as well integrated as the Cabal etc.

If so, the actual College uses Plane Shift which is already on the list, but the Herlechine Horse has the Jumper (World) advantage without any quantum-distance limitation (magical Jumper with enough extra carrying capacity for a rider, rather than using Tunnelling). This is technically a parachronozoid though, carrying its rider across worlds.

There's also the "Curragh of Bran" from the same book, though there's no indication of whether that goes across quanta or not.

I looked at Collegio Januari but you're right about it not feeling as integrated as the Cabal—the book seems to have mainly been written as an alternative to the standard Infinite Worlds setting rather than something that could be slotted into it. Though I had missed the Herlechine Horse, and I'm glad you pointed it out because we need more concrete examples of parachonozoids.

[Michael Thayne]

Looking closely at the Infinite Worlds book, I see a few more details on specific nexus portals, though they're still pretty sparse:

• IW37: A nexus portal was used to access Rustic, a wordline where conveyors (among other technology) don't work. Unclear if it's a direct Homeline-Rustic link or an indirect route was used.
• IW76: Shroud of Turin on Ariane (where 99.9% of the population was killed of by a pandemic) associated with frequent nexus portals to first-century Jerusalem.
• IW136: Mandeville (a myth parallel) is mentioned as having "many nexus portals".

One other thing: am I right that spell-based world-jumpers basically have no reason to care what quantum a world is on? Seems like a huge advantage, even relative to characters with Jumper (World), since that takes a -5 penalty per quantum of separation.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by maximara

Red Moon is effectively Möbius on steroids.

There are several things that suggest this is a quantum anomaly.

*"The Infinity Patrol is monitoring this timeline closely, as they know that Centrum is very interested in it, though they aren’t sure why." Infinity Patrol isn't sure why Centrum is interested in a Quantum 5 reality that Centrum can access?! Potential access to Homeline immediately springs to mind...unless Infinity Patrol somehow doesn't know the reality is actually in Quantum 5. Which means Infinity's equipment must be reading this reality as Quantum 6 or 7; otherwise Infinity would be freaking out that Centrum was able to access Quantum 5...and they aren't.

* "The Infinity Patrol is correct that Centrum is very interested in Red Moon, but while their true goal is rather impressive, their means to that end are somewhat minimalist. They’re planning to steal something from this timeline’s Mars that does not exist on their own, and think that the Soviets’ near-domination of space is the most cost-effective and surreptitious way to get it". Why would Centrum care about what is on this reality's Mars when it allows them to access Quantum 5?! Again the only way this makes any degree of sense is if Centrum's equipment is reading this reality as Quantum 6 or 7.

*"Reich-5: The Nazis have landed in Red Moon but are playing this one very carefully, which is why neither the Infinity Patrol nor Centrum have spotted them just yet." But per Infinite Worlds Reich-5 is supposed to be limited to Quantum-3 and yet nothing is made of the fact they are accessing Quantum 5 and it doesn't appear Reich-5 even knows this. So again something is off.

Per Occam's razor all this means that Red Moon has to be a Quantum Anomaly similar to Möbius only in this case it coexists in Q3, somewhere in the Q6-7 band, and its native Q5.

I always thought that listing of Quantum 5 was a typo, meant to be Quantum 6 (typos are kind of the ultimate Occam's Razor explanation...).

But then both Centrum and Reich-5 were listed as interested, which would seem impossible (basically canon that the two Infinity enemies don't overlap).

Perhaps the writer was suggesting possibilities, that the Red Moon world could be set in different quanta/accessibility, depending on the campaign. The article has different possible futures for the timeline, for a similar sort of variable campaign accessibility.

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

By this logic, Homeland is also a quantum anomaly, because per IW147 Centrum has agents on Homeline. This point was explained when the relevant issue was released. Also, it's not the only case of Reich-5 having access to worldlines outside Quantum 3—they also have access to Stormbomb-1, which is on Quantum 4 (Pyramid 3/63). They access Stormbomb-1 through a world they call Rache-Welt ("Vengenance world"), which may also be on Quantum 4, though if the banestorms created by the stormbombs cross Quanta Rache-Welt may be on Quantum 3.

Given how prevalent Reich-5's limitation to Quantum 3 is, I think it's more likely that Rache-Welt is also on Quantum 3.

Which would mean that the Stormbomb itself a canon example of cross-quanta travel.

But it is limited travel, mostly just one-way, with only temporary trips back by original inhabitants.


Stormbomb is very similar to the Banestorm, including being not fully two-way. It's not known where the worlds that Yrth's Banestorm drew from. While not canon, there's certainly a chance that the Banestorm can draw from across quanta.

This could mean that the origin of Yrth's humans comes from a Q4 close non-parachronic parallel. Maybe Yrth's Banestorm grabbed that world's Van Zandt?


A cross-quanta Banestorm could also mean that the origin worlds of other imported Yrth races, like Halflings, could be Quantum 2.

Though I think one of the reasons that Reich-5's travel has always been limited to in-quanta is because, if Reich-5 could go to Quantum 4, it could go to Quantum 2, and that's too many worlds even for Infinite Worlds...

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by fchase8

But then both Centrum and Reich-5 were listed as interested, which would seem impossible (basically canon that the two Infinity enemies don't overlap).

The sidebar on IW54 suggests that Centrum renegades—or even the official leadership, if backed into a corner—might be able to make an alliance with Reich-5. So even before the "Red Moon" Pyramid article it was established as something that could happen, even if it hadn't already. Also, I don't think there were any examples of Centrum and Merlin-1 overlapping until Taft-1 got fleshed out in Worlds of Horror, so there's a first time for everything.

I grant that Centrum tech is limited to Q6-Q8, while Reich-5's mules can't cross quanta. But nexus portals can go damn near anywhere, and there's nothing impossible about both sides using nexus portals to go to Q5.

Given how prevalent Reich-5's limitation to Quantum 3 is, I think it's more likely that Rache-Welt is also on Quantum 3.

I don't know if I would call the limitation "prevalent". I think in the main Infinite Worlds books Reich-5 is only unambiguously on three or four worlds: Nostradamus, Friedrich, Merlin-1, maybe Agamemnon? And implied to be on Merlin-3. All those are Quantum 3 worlds, but it's a small sample size to generalize from, especially if those are just the first few worlds they managed to reach.

Though I think one of the reasons that Reich-5's travel has always been limited to in-quanta is because, if Reich-5 could go to Quantum 4, it could go to Quantum 2, and that's too many worlds even for Infinite Worlds...

This logic applies to the Reich-5 mules, but nothing says that if they find a nexus portal (or Chronobahn route or whatever) to Q4, they have to find one to Q2 too.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

I grant that Centrum tech is limited to Q6-Q8, while Reich-5's mules can't cross quanta. But nexus portals can go damn near anywhere, and there's nothing impossible about both sides using nexus portals to go to Q5.

Good point.

On a side note there are enough problems with Infinite Worlds and Time Travel to justify the existence of a Homeline-2

[Crystalline_Entity]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

One other thing: am I right that spell-based world-jumpers basically have no reason to care what quantum a world is on? Seems like a huge advantage, even relative to characters with Jumper (World), since that takes a -5 penalty per quantum of separation.

I think that's true (though this depends on the GM). There's no explicit skill penalty to the Plane Shift spell I can find, for example. The Sorcery spells that I can find this morning for travel between worlds (based on Jumper (World) - Planar Visit and Gateway of Worlds) have no quantum distance limitation, and whilst the text in Basic talking about Jumper (World) mentions "distance" possibly costing more FP (with specific numbers given in IW), there's no mention of a skill penalty. So I don't think magical world-jumping has a skill penalty regardless of whether that's Plane Shift or based on Jumper (World). It's only psionic world-jumping that seems to have the skill penalty.

I originally assumed that while psionic world-jumpers took a skill penalty, that was somewhat balanced by magical world-jumpers needing to learn a separate spell for each world, but there's Improved Planar Visit in Sorcery which has no such restriction, so with that precedent I don't think that's necessarily a limitation on magical world-jumping. Though I don't think there's a canonical example of magical world-jumpers getting the equivalent of the New Worlds enhancement, whereas that's part of the Exploration technique for the psionic Quantum-Jumping ability. (Personally I'd give world-jumping sorcerers access to New Worlds, myself).

So yeah, I think you're right here, magical world-jumpers have an advantage here over psionic world-jumpers.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

By this logic, Homeland is also a quantum anomaly, because per IW147 Centrum has agents on Homeline. This point was explained when the relevant issue was released. Also, it's not the only case of Reich-5 having access to worldlines outside Quantum 3—they also have access to Stormbomb-1, which is on Quantum 4 (Pyramid 3/63). They access Stormbomb-1 through a world they call Rache-Welt ("Vengenance world"), which may also be on Quantum 4, though if the banestorms created by the stormbombs cross Quanta Rache-Welt may be on Quantum 3.

I doubled checked and J. Edward Tremlett not PK is the author of "The Red Rockets' Glare". and to quote "If I goofed, I goofed. Mea culpa. :) Run with it or ignore it. Party on."

More over having spies is not the same as having access and for all we know they could actually be akin to Garbo of WWII