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

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by maximara

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."

This seems like a big authorial shrug than any kind of definitive explanation of what the author was thinking. And actually, re-reading the arguments in that thread, a lot rests on the vignette on IW45-46, which indicates Centrum knows very little about Nazis and has no contact with Reich-5 in particular. But the vignette also includes this bit:

“Sadly for us, Chang, the only [Nazis] with parachronics seem to be out where we can’t go.”
“Unless we find a tunnel. It’s been known to happen, Sir.”
“Precisely...”

Which seems to suggest that at the time of this vignette, they haven't made contact with Reich-5 yet, but probably have found nexus portals to worldlines outside the quanta they can normally access. Also, the article on Red Moon notes that both Centrum and Infinity are unaware of Reich-5's presence on the worldine, which is consistent with Centrum having little intelligence on Reich-5.

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

True, you can imagine Centrum meeting up with natives of Homeline on Q6 or Q7 and turning them. But you could also imagine, say, native Centrum agents slipping in among a group of tourists or a mining operation from Homeline, or even posing as outtimers with skills that make them worth recruiting. All of these techniques would let agents of Centrum potentially go anywhere Homeline can go.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

TAll of these techniques would let agents of Centrum potentially go anywhere Homeline can go.

With some of those methods the Centrum agents may not be able even to return much less send information back in a timely manner. An usable agent needs a practical route back to his bosses.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

With some of those methods the Centrum agents may not be able even to return much less send information back in a timely manner. An usable agent needs a practical route back to his bosses.

More over a later piece (Stormbomb-1 in Pyramid 3/63) states. "Fortunately, at Quantum 4, Stormbomb-1 is too far away for Centrum to interfere with." and that was in 2014 well after the article on Red Moon.

Also the "Secret in the Storm" piece detailed how Reich-5 is in Stormbomb-1: the people Reich-5 found on Rache-Welt were used as loadstones to get to Stormbomb-1 on Q4 using their mules but the effect only lasts about an hour (the time the loadstones live for) "and then they fade back to Rache-Welt, like phantoms."

If getting to Q4 was that much of a PITA for Reich-5 then how are they getting to Red Moon on Q5?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

With some of those methods the Centrum agents may not be able even to return much less send information back in a timely manner. An usable agent needs a practical route back to his bosses.

Who says the agent needs to return in person? If Centrum was able to develop a network of agents in quantum 5, surely it could be something like:
-> Red Moon cell drops message on Earth-Beta
-> Homeline cell recovers message from Earth-Beta and dead drops it to an accomplice traveling to Q6/7 world.
-> Accomplice travelling to Q6/7 world drops message for pickup by Centrum Central (try saying that 10 times fast)

Originally Posted by maximara

If getting to Q4 was that much of a PITA for Reich-5 then how are they getting to Red Moon on Q5?

It's obviously a mistake; wallpaper over it with a Nexus portal, move it to Q3 (and possibly drop Centrum), or drop Reich-5. And let's be honest; it's not as if Red Rockets' Glare with Infinite Worlds. Centrum's plan hinges on turning the Russian Mars lander into a conveyor and automatically teleporting it back to Centrum; even if it was in Centrum projector range, and Centrum had a project on Mars, it still wouldn't work, because the timing's the important thing.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by maximara

If getting to Q4 was that much of a PITA for Reich-5 then how are they getting to Red Moon on Q5?

There's little indication that nexus portals, dimensional highways, and the like have to care about quanta. True, some dimensional highways aren't known to extend outside one or two quanta, but others seem to go everywhere. While information on nexus portals is scant, one of the few we definitely know about outside Engstrom connects Merlin-1 (Q3) to Taft-1 (Q6). And there's especially not the slightest indication of that the difficulty of using a natural connection between worldlines has any correlation with how many quanta separate them: for all we have in canon, you could easily have a difficult-to-open portals connecting worlds on the same worldline alongside easy-to-open ones connecting worlds on different worldines.

I think the real intent is for GMs (and supplement writers!) to basically do whatever they want. And I just stumbled across a quote from IW204 that appears to confirm this:

The default Infinite Worlds campaign sets up some fairly ironclad rules: conveyors can only travel along the same quantum without a projector (i.e., without the GM’s permission); there isn’t really reliable time travel; the quantum structure keeps trouble-some worlds away from your home base. It then sneaks around hinting at loopholes, should the GM wish to explore them: nexus portals, Gates of Thoth, and banestorms blowing Communist penguin mana and Argentine Nazis everywhere, for example.

[Michael Thayne]

One thing that's frustrating about the presentation of nexus portals in the canon Infinite Worlds we have is that on the one hand, they seem to be common enough—Infinity is said to have encountered them on every worldline except Coventry, and presumably there are ones they haven't discovered yet, but on the other hand they seem to be a disfavored means of travel in most cases. Maintaining that balance seems tricky, and concrete examples of how to maintain it would be nice.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Who says the agent needs to return in person? If Centrum was able to develop a network of agents in quantum 5, surely it could be something like:
-> Red Moon cell drops message on Earth-Beta
-> Homeline cell recovers message from Earth-Beta and dead drops it to an accomplice traveling to Q6/7 world.
-> Accomplice travelling to Q6/7 world drops message for pickup by Centrum Central (try saying that 10 times fast)

Seems overly complicated.

Besides for step one the Red Moon cell would have to have a world jumper as per canon machine based Parachronic transport only works on two worlds (four if you count Time Travel): Homeline and Centrum (Homeline-2 and Centrum-2 are the other two).

And if Centrum has a world jumper able to reach Red Moon why would they need to go through this complicated process? The fewer moving parts the better.

[Crystalline_Entity]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

One thing that's frustrating about the presentation of nexus portals in the canon Infinite Worlds we have is that on the one hand, they seem to be common enough—Infinity is said to have encountered them on every worldline except Coventry, and presumably there are ones they haven't discovered yet, but on the other hand they seem to be a disfavored means of travel in most cases. Maintaining that balance seems tricky, and concrete examples of how to maintain it would be nice.

Agreed. Nexus portals have disadvantages (inconvenient location, requiring a "key" which is difficult to obtain, etc) but they have distinct advantages too (no power requirement, large ones allow you to transport a lot of material, and no quantum limit).

Infinity does put effort into policing nexus portals and dimensional highways - that's what Nexus Oversight does - but to me this feels more like Infinity trying to control (or at least monitor) all parachronic travel rather than making significant use of it itself.

There is an example on IW54 which gives a mission to Q8 as a reason Infinity would use a nexus portal for travel, but I'm struggling to find more.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

One thing that's frustrating about the presentation of nexus portals in the canon Infinite Worlds we have is that on the one hand, they seem to be common enough—Infinity is said to have encountered them on every worldline except Coventry, and presumably there are ones they haven't discovered yet, but on the other hand they seem to be a disfavored means of travel in most cases.

A nexus portal is in a specific place, and to use it, you have to travel there. Travelling long distances rapidly and inconspicuously is impractical in a great many worlds, but putting nexus portals in handy places for a plot line strains credibility if it happens at all often.

In Infinite Cabal, which was mainly set in the UK, the characters knew of a site that was a nexus in many worlds (Wookie Hole Caves) but they never went there.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by maximara

per canon machine based Parachronic transport only works on two worlds

It doesn't; the limitation is projectors (there's also programming but that's just an one-time expense).

Originally Posted by maximara

And if Centrum has a world jumper able to reach Red Moon why would they need to go through this complicated process?

Now the mailman's more valuable than the mail.

Originally Posted by maximara

Seems overly complicated.

There's a logic to it. It's probably doable for a team of Centrans to swipe a conveyor from organized crime, and thereby have a run of several Q5 timelines. There are several timelines that have lots of traffic with Homeline. A mail route that goes:
-> Q5 World of Interest
-> Q5 World (i.e. Earth-Beta, Gallatin)
-> Homeline
-> Q6/7 World (i.e. Armada-2, Brittanica-3 both have high Infinity Class)
-> Centrum

This would co-opt much of Infinity's infrastructure (lowering costs), and it's not as if they need to rebuild the whole system if they add another world of interest; just add more mail traveling through the Q5 World.