10-31-2017, 08:42 PM | #21 | |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
Define Centrum as holding "peace, order, and good government" as important. Define the terms the way you consider positive. Then define Homeline as holding of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - for Homeliners only" above everything else. This ends up with Centrum being positive-stereotype Canadians and Homeline being negative-stereotype Ugly Americans - both of which one can find dozens of examples for in 20th-century literature. (Just don't look at works that accurately describe either country.) Riff from there...
__________________
Rob Kelk “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” – Bernard Baruch, Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950 No longer reading these forums regularly. |
|
10-31-2017, 08:56 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
Which actually sort of fits the Centrum mindset. They don't look around them and see a multiverse of limitless opportunities, they see limitless chances for things to go catastrophically wrong. From that POV, the Homeline emphasis on individuality is simply self-indulgence, like a lunatic who drills holes in the hull of a ship to 'express himself'. Centrum might actually be able to hold off decay longer than Homeline simply because their mindset already turns that way. They can't do it forever, but they might maintain benevolence and competence (by their definitions) for a good while, because they think that way in the first place. The weakness of the Centrum mindset is missed opportunities, the strength of it is avoiding dangerous temptations. Which one is 'better' depends to a large degree on circumstances.
__________________
HMS Overflow-For conversations off topic here. |
|
11-01-2017, 01:31 AM | #23 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
How is Centrum any less arrogant than Homeline?
Infinity itself may have been founded on a lovely dream and there may well be a lot of idealistic Infinity agents, but we know that the nations of Homeline use the Secret to supply weapons and agents for Outtime nations they prefer - the Russians and the Israelis especially. We know that there are lots of groups with access to the technology that go exploit worlds for their own desires or just to steal resources from. How is (for instance) Russia trying to manipulate a worldline to make an Imperial Russia or USSR any different than Centrum trying to nudge a world to its preferred view of society? Centrum's not really the enemy. The enemies of Homeline and Centrum both are Shokaku-Mon, Reich-5 and the Cabal. What's worse to Infinity's idealism - a centralized bureaucracy where everyone's has purpose and a modicum of freedom (if less than on Homeline) or a cyberpunk corporate dystopia? Homeliners might not want to live in a Centrum society but they sure don't want to be selling their votes for kibble and paper clothes like in Dark Consipiracy. Centrum is "the enemy" because that's how the setting is intended to run, but it doesn't take much thought to realize that doesn't really make a lot of sense. Quote:
|
|
11-01-2017, 01:55 AM | #24 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
They're enemies, because they each consider only their reality's citizens actual people. And they have the power to attack each other's home reality, something no other main organization/planet/etc. can.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
11-01-2017, 03:00 AM | #25 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
One amusing idea; imagine Homeline discovered a world much like Centrum, but without parachronics, before they met Centrum. Let’s face it, every social and political scientist on Homeline would go nuts trying to work out how someone preserved a global technocratic bureaucracy without slumping into gross inefficiency or corruption, and getting quite lost in admiration for the architects of that system.
__________________
-- Phil Masters My Home Page. My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG. |
|
11-01-2017, 03:26 AM | #26 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
Incidentally, when I look at Infinite Worlds, what I want to see, either as a metaplot thing or a campaign premise, is some third majorly parachronic faction emerging, one that would unite the other worlds around its goal of stopping the former two worlds from covertly meddling in the affairs of others, going from world to world disclosing the secret and forging mutual defence treaties. Sort of like the plot of Babylon 5, where in the end B5's commander stares down the Vorlons and Shadows and sends them off, ending their attempts to infringe on the sovereignty and independence of development of 'lesser' civilisations. |
|
11-01-2017, 03:51 AM | #27 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
One could use that third faction as an instigator of the lightening of Centrum and darkening of Homeline. War changes culture all the time.
What kind of enemy would do that though?
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
11-01-2017, 04:21 AM | #28 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
Centrum is the enemy because in GURPS Time Travel it was the Other Power (just like Timepiece/Stopwatch in the main body of the book). When the setting was updated for GURPS 4e, there was clearly some attempt to move from the Cold War mindset to something a bit more polar, but the powers are defined primarily in terms of how they interact with Homeline; there's not much about how they feel about each other. If I were running an ongoing IW campaign, or if it had an official metaplot, I wouldn't be surprised to see a mistrustful alliance between Infinity and Centrum to do something about Reich-5 and at least establish a standoff with the Cabal.
__________________
Podcast: Improvised Radio Theatre - With Dice Gaming stuff here: Tekeli-li! Blog; Webcomic Laager and Limehouse Buy things by me on Warehouse 23 |
|
11-01-2017, 07:24 AM | #29 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
This pretty much forces them to work together, for the short run at least.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
|
11-01-2017, 07:45 AM | #30 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Quote:
|
|
Tags |
infinite worlds |
|
|