Infinite Worlds and GURPS settings

[the adventurer]

There needs to be a parallel earth that's exactly like ours, except the Phonetics are all wrong. So when they read things they read like

Ded En


Cawshune

Kno Parcking

etc...

[GoatRider]

Originally Posted by the adventurer

There needs to be a parallel earth that's exactly like ours, except the Phonetics are all wrong. So when they read things they read like

Ded En


Cawshune

Kno Parcking

etc...

That's the great thing about Infinite Worlds. You can segue just about anything.

[Ack]

Back on topic:

My personal version of an Infinite Worlds setup involves what I call the "Tapestry"; a huge number of world-lines intertwining in 'temporal space', the medium you actually travel through when you world-jump. Just as there are in the real world three effective directions or dimensions that it is possible to travel in (forward/backward, left/right, up/down) there are also three "directions" or "dimensions" that it is possible to travel along within the Tapestry.

Forward/backward involves what is otherwise called "time travel" - movement along a world-line in one direction or another. This is the easiest to do, just as to move forward and backward is the easiest for a person to do in ordinary 3d space.
"Lateral" travel involves stepping over to worlds that are similar in all but history. The farther you travel sideways, the farther the history will diverge from the one you know. This is harder, but not particularly so, than standard time travel.
"Up/Down" travel is hardest, just as it is in the real world. In the Tapestry, this involves travel to worlds where physics is ... different. Close to, the worlds may have a slightly variant speed of light. Farther away, magic, psionics and even full-blown superpowers may very well work with ease.

That covers the fourth (time), fifth (lateral) and sixth ('planar') dimensions. There is also rumoured (though not yet proven, except by example) to be a 'seventh' dimension, or direction of travel. This dimension links all versions of a particular world, regardless of physics, actual history or even the species of the dominant race. Place names, events, important people - if these are the same (or consistently similar), then the worlds in question are linked (so some say) by the seventh dimension, making it easier for some forms of travel to find their way from one to another.

Comments?

Cheers,
Ack

[Lord_Kjeran]

Chello!

[OT]Poor Jurgen...another drailed thread. [/ot]

[voice of Red Leader]Stay on target...stay on target.[/voRL]

Ack, that's pretty kewl. So you're saying that you're not using the Q-levels of TT/IW, but a system of your devising. 3 Axes based on time/historical difference/diff in physical laws?

Easy to move in time and alternate history, but difficult to move up/down (different laws). Fascinating.

I'll have to remember "the Tapestry"....Do you have anything like Homeline in your game?

Personally I always like to let Reich 5 get parachronics. Evil dimension-travelling Nazis!

Tony

[flyingwombat]

Back to the original subject...

I think the idea of parallels more advance than Infinity, Inc., and Centrum existing in the Infinite Worlds setting should be up to the GM. What happens when some PBG worlds, Hellboy, Prime Directive, Gurps WWII and licensed world books -> Traveller are reached by plot device? There is also the problem of consequences.

The Federation with their Prime Directive will pounce over some of Infinity's and all of Centrum's policies. Federation scientists may find a way to get around the 2 quantum limitation. Anti-matter is very powerful. Hey wait! Never mind the Feds, what about the Klingons? Dimension-hopping starfleets! Oooh.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

I took a bit of a page from Heinlein, (Was that Number of the Beast?), and just have many different worlds on many different axis, some of which know how to and can access other worlds, but are restricted by their home world's physics.

It's always fun too, to have a shotgun wielding biker getting summoned accidentaly in the midst of a mage duel. It took my players 3 sessions to figure out what their characters saw, and the PCs just ended up writing it off as sometype of arcane demonology.

[Ack]

Originally Posted by Lord_Kjeran

Ack, that's pretty kewl. So you're saying that you're not using the Q-levels of TT/IW, but a system of your devising. 3 Axes based on time/historical difference/diff in physical laws?

Easy to move in time and alternate history, but difficult to move up/down (different laws). Fascinating.

I'll have to remember "the Tapestry"....Do you have anything like Homeline in your game?

Wherever you want to put it. Also, Timepiece has a worldline too. In the backstory I figured out, the fallout from Timepiece/Stopwatch and Homeline/Centrum clashes has caused a third party to be formed, called Tesseract. They oppose the meddling of all four other parties, generally from behind the scenes. This is where a few of the world-jumpers who would otherwise be exiled to Coventry have ended up. Their travel modules can directly access the Tapestry, giving them more or less unlimited direction in which to travel (allowing for energy constraints).

Originally Posted by Lord_Kjeran

Personally I always like to let Reich 5 get parachronics. Evil dimension-travelling Nazis!

Always fun, yes. And of course if/when Tesseract gets wind of the Reich 5 offensive, they would have to set about working against them too. They aren't powerful, and they don't have huge resources; all they have is more movement capability than any one of their foes, and secrecy.

While Tesseract scientists don't claim to have perfect knowledge of dimensional travel physics, they have a better idea of the basis of it, due to their access to the Tapestry. From there it is possible to see how world-lines twist and curl around one another; meddling with one line might cause it to kink and go in a different lateral direction, while another might branch off a secondary line. Where the destiny of a worldline hangs by a thread, there are nodes where the slightest outtime influence might cause a branching. In other places, a massive intervention may cause a slight branch that soon re-merges with the original line, when all changes have come to naught. For not all historical changes actually cause a branch; for all that something different did happen, it appears to be perception and memory of the inhabitants that in some degree influence the historical line.

Cheers,
Ack

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

I took a bit of a page from Heinlein, (Was that Number of the Beast?), and just have many different worlds on many different axis, some of which know how to and can access other worlds, but are restricted by their home world's physics.

It's always fun too, to have a shotgun wielding biker getting summoned accidentaly in the midst of a mage duel. It took my players 3 sessions to figure out what their characters saw, and the PCs just ended up writing it off as sometype of arcane demonology.

yes it Started with The Number of the Beast, (they Gay Deciver was cool) But continued with The Cat who could Walk though walls.

I don't see the direction approch as incompatible with the Quantum levels, thet Quantum level more a mesure of how far down the differnt axis the world is, and how much power it takes to get there.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

My favorite was always Methuselah's Children, but then not only do you have parallel worlds, but you have time travel as well, now that's adding tangents to your possibilities.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

My favorite was always Methuselah's Children, but then not only do you have parallel worlds, but you have time travel as well, now that's adding tangents to your possibilities.

"Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Stranger in a Strange Land", and "Friday" where my favorites, it just particularly liked the Gay Deceiver 8)

Edited for spelling, though see the reply for the humorous spelling mistake