Infinite Worlds and GURPS settings

[Jürgen Hubert]

From the Infinite Worlds blurb:

"Welcome to the core setting of GURPS Fourth Edition! Every other GURPS setting is on one of the Infinite Worlds timelines . . . whether they know it or not!"

Does this also include Transhuman Space? Or GURPS Traveller? Or all the other SF settings set in a time after the "Absolute Now" of Homeline and Centrum?

[knarf]

I don't see why not. While many people may be tempted to "play by the rules" and disallow any date past 2027 (Is that right?), some intrepid GMs may decide to go their own way and tweak the rules or situation to allow something like that to happen in their game. The IW meta-setting is intended to open up possibilities, not restrict them, so I don't think anyone would mind if you went with the spirit, if not the letter, of the book.

[Harald B]

I second that. Besides, those settings need not necessarily be beyond the "absolute now". It is conceivable that in those alternate realities humanity started to develop slightly earlier than in our world (A couple of decades or centuries maybe? In fact even millennia aren't much on a scientific scale here.), yet otherwise developed in a remarkably similar fashion with a large "common history".
This rationalization could be pushing the limits of hard science ofc, and it makes the "absolute now"-restriction effectively useless. Still, it works.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Harald B

I second that. Besides, those settings need not necessarily be beyond the "absolute now". It is conceivable that in those alternate realities humanity started to develop slightly earlier than in our world (A couple of decades or centuries maybe? In fact even millennia aren't much on a scientific scale here.), yet otherwise developed in a remarkably similar fashion with a large "common history".
This rationalization could be pushing the limits of hard science ofc, and it makes the "absolute now"-restriction effectively useless. Still, it works.

quite possible if Catholisum had not taken such an any scince point of view in the dark ages, but ineasted took ther current posstion of "scince is descovering god's methords" there would not have been such a dramtice loss knolwedge from the prvious age, and insead would have all those year head stat instead of a dark period, then the redsecovery in the age of enlightenment.

[Wonder Lemming]

Originally Posted by SJGames

Every other GURPS setting is on one of the Infinite Worlds timelines . . . whether they know it or not!

Of course some of the more advanced settings (Traveller, Star Trek etc) may be extremely hard to get to, and may even only be accessable by accident (read: Plot device)

[AOTA]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Does this also include Transhuman Space? Or GURPS Traveller? Or all the other SF settings set in a time after the "Absolute Now" of Homeline and Centrum?

I don't think that they will be supported directly as being included in the Infinite Worlds setting. Especially GURPS Traveller since its a licensed product.

But I can see a GM using them if they want. Personally I think it might be tricky for the Infinity Inc to try to sneak around in the Transhuman world unless they use some form of magic to bypass the high security of the 5th wave countries.

[the adventurer]

Being the game is called "Infinite Worlds" I'd imagine that there should be no limit to what world your PCs can land on.

Transhuman Space? Traveller? Discworld? Samarai Jack? The Marvel Universe? The World of Darkness? Harry Turtledove's World War Saga?

I have no problem sending my PCs to any of those worlds, and beyond.

[LoneWolf23k]

I'd imagine interaction between Homeline and higher-tech Parallels could be similar to Earth's interactions with ultra-tech alien civilisations in Stargate SG-1... Perhaps the "No more advanced Parallels" bit is a lie created by Infinity Inc, to preserve the status quo in Homeline while they seek to acquire some of those advanced worlds' technology...

[LoneWolf23k]

Alternatively, I wonder if the Infinite Worlds book would be a good sourcebook to work on a "Crossover World" type setting, like Grim Jack's Cynosure, or *cough*Palladium's Rifts*cough*...

...I just love the idea of a setting where different genres can collide together. Which is one of the reasons I like GURPS so much.

[thastygliax]

According to the archive of the 2/4 Ken Hite chat, it's pretty much up to the GM whether to include TL9+ worlds: "[H]igher-tech realities have a much higher chance of messing up crosstime adventures. Better detection, deadlier weapons, etc. [T]here are a few higher-tech worldlines in the IW setting, but they're very dangerous and restricted."

Hopefully, we won't have to wait much longer to see what's actually in IW, since it's shipping now. (I'm owed a copy from the lookalikes contest, so was glad to hear that news.)