Alternate Versions of Inifinite Worlds

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

That would certainly keep them out of reach of civilizations below a certain TL, which is a neat idea. Though the ease of running ground transport through ones at dirt-level is probably better for interconnecting worlds.

Then underground or undersea. A new tunnel in NYC for a subway line happens upon a portal and it’s only open when the other world has dug there. Even more concerning when the second world’s digging crew suddenly finds a subway train full of people in their newly dug tunnel.

Or to take a page from Planescape, perhaps the portals require a particular key to activate; a substance, signal, sound, particular thought, etc.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Or push for development of mega-planes making for even more divergence in culture and tech.

Hold on, I have an insanely unrealistic picture for this occasion:

https://www.deviantart.com/tonyholms...-art-407343587

Originally Posted by Culture20

Perhaps they are always there, but ozone naturally masks them somehow. The Antarctic portal would be the first observed, but others might have been found via concerted searching (and hopefully not extended CFL use)

The light that passes through them/they emit might be scattered in just the right way by ozone to make them, at best, weird blobs that are dismissed as atmospheric phenomena.

Originally Posted by Culture20

Or to take a page from Planescape, perhaps the portals require a particular key to activate; a substance, signal, sound, particular thought, etc.

Which means you can probably turn them off. Which means you have to think of people who might do that, how to stop them, and what happens if they do it while matter is passing through.

[Astromancer]

My varient is simple. The Earth the PCs are from is drafted into a panchronomic society. The humans of the drafted parallel simply are resistant to a whole range of world hopping issues the overwhelming majority of sophant species are vulnerable to. Thus drafting this parallel's humans is an economic and millitary necessity.

It switchs were the PCs and their world are in the pecking order which makes everything else different too.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The humans of the drafted parallel simply are resistant to a whole range of world hopping issues the overwhelming majority of sophant species are vulnerable to. Thus drafting this parallel's humans is an economic and millitary necessity.

I'm not following: what are the "issues"? It sounds like something that would be an advantage the way you've worded it.

[Flyndaran]

The only world hopping "issues" I can think of involve reality quakes and time line interference.
If natives are for whatever reason immune to such quakes and their home reality has insanely high inertia such that no outtimers can cause major change or damage, things may get interesting.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

I'm not following: what are the "issues"? It sounds like something that would be an advantage the way you've worded it.

Basically, most other humans from other parallels have serious disadvantages. Humans from the PC's Earth simply lack these problems. Relative to the other humans of different parallels, yes, the PCs have advantages. Relative to each other and other humans from their world, it's a Zero-point-trait. If you don't put Can Breath Oxygen on the character sheet, this wouldn't go there either.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The only world hopping "issues" I can think of involve reality quakes and time line interference.
If natives are for whatever reason immune to such quakes and their home reality has insanely high inertia such that no outtimers can cause major change or damage, things may get interesting.

They are resistant Relative to other humans from different parallels. They are distinctive in their neighborhood. They are valuable enough to be worth forced recruitment as a junior (very junior) partner.

This setting has the PCs coming from a world like our world, but they have been forced into membership in a panchromatic imperium. Earth humans are highly useful idiots that have the ability to improve their status. Think underdogs that can prove themselves, but it won't be easy or fair.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Okay, I see what happened: the way the post was structured I thought that the resistant humans were the ones doing the recruiting.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The House on the Borderland. There's a house, it's always at a place that's sort of between. It could be the last house on the street in a suburb that's the last suburb out from the city. It could be in a neighborhood between the gentrified areas and the slum. The last house on the road on before the forest. It could be the old roadhouse out by the county line. Wherever it is, is on the border, the margin, or the edge.

The house is always the oldest house in the area and never looks like any other house in the neighborhood.

In spite of appearances, there is only the one house.

The house is easiest to find in times of change. When things are beginning or ending, the House will be near.

If you are supposed to find the House, you can't escape your destiny, you will find the House and enter in the door.

This idea is a darker more Gothic version of the Horatio Club from the Gurps:Infinate Worlds book. The house is a living thing, a sort of Yog-Sothoth like being. Only it's aware of humanity and places some kind of value on people. That said, the House may seek a worthwhile goal for humanity, but it uses individuals as pawns.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

15) Infinite Intervention

In this Homeline there are more progressive interventionists, resulting in an Infinity Unlimited that doesn't care about keeping parachronics a secret if it means bringing technological and social change to a timeline.

While this results in an Icorps that's a lot less grey in morality, it also means they've screwed up big time at least once. Maybe in this version Reich-5 is the result of a failed "liberation", and the timeline are doubtless crawling with criminals who got their hands on something that gives them an unfair advantage. Maybe instead of sinister facists* Centrum are the Spocks going "You should be using cold logic."


* Hyperbole for effect. No need to correct me..