Infinite Worlds: How to Assess Quantum?

[Diogenes]

Is there a way (for the GM, at least) to estimate the quantum of a world from its properties, or is The Plot the only one? I understand that all of Homeline's Echoes (and, strangely, apparently all Anchors) are on Q6, and that most Farther Parallels are on Q5 (including one Yrth). How come, and why?

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by Diogenes

Is there a way (for the GM, at least) to estimate the quantum of a world from its properties, or is The Plot the only one? I understand that all of Homeline's Echoes (and, strangely, apparently all Anchors) are on Q6, and that most Farther Parallels are on Q5 (including one Yrth). How come, and why?

My understanding is that homeline does not know the reasons why any world is in a particular quantum. Centrum might have a better idea, but I am not sure they know either.

[William]

Originally Posted by Diogenes

Is there a way (for the GM, at least) to estimate the quantum of a world from its properties, or is The Plot the only one? I understand that all of Homeline's Echoes (and, strangely, apparently all Anchors) are on Q6, and that most Farther Parallels are on Q5 (including one Yrth). How come, and why?

Depending on what sense you're asking the question:

The in-game theory holds that similar worlds are more likely to be on the same quantum. Thus, worlds more significantly different from Homeline will have tendencies to be on farther quanta. This is the reasoning behind Centrum's cultural interventions to move timelines closer to them, for example.

The meta-game answer is that particularly odd worlds will be harder to reach. (Also, possibly, that it sets up the Infinity-Centrum conflict.) A very odd world is likely to be very far away; one where the difference is fairly subtle, a reasonable twist in the river of Homeline's history, is likely to be near Q6. This may not be a hard and fast rule, but it is probably a strong tendency.

The way Infinity, in-game, calculates a quantum is said to be due to some characteristic integer in the transport calculations (which presumably can be reverse-engineered from any transmissions or readouts when they're looking for a lost team).

[tratclif]

Originally Posted by Diogenes

Is there a way (for the GM, at least) to estimate the quantum of a world from its properties, or is The Plot the only one? I understand that all of Homeline's Echoes (and, strangely, apparently all Anchors) are on Q6, and that most Farther Parallels are on Q5 (including one Yrth). How come, and why?

Plot, modified slightly by accumulating canon.

In Time Travel, Steve Jackson and John M Ford explicitly set the Echoes in Q6 as a field for cold-war style conflict with Centrum, and set Reich-5 in Q3 as a potential hot-war conflict safely removed from Homeline. David Pulver set Merlin in Q3 possibly because Reich-5 was one of the few outtime worlds that had a canon quantum. Alternate Earths 1 put Shikaku-Mon in Q3 to add the potential for that hot war with Reich-5 to extend to Homeline. With these three strange timeline in Q3, "weird timelines go to low quanta" became a rule of thumb

With 4th Ed and Infinite Worlds, Ken Hite happily dropped a bunch of strangeness in Q3 and Q4, but there are weird parallels all over.

As far as I can tell, there's no real pattern explicit to Lesser Minds. Q3 is a place to put worlds that go well with Antarctic Space Nazis or other such weirdness, Q5 is the place to put worlds that might make direct problems with Homeline, and Q6 and Q7 are places to put worlds that would make good battlegrounds with Centrum.

[blacksmith]

Also Q3 is the place to put things where they are hard to get to, and not in the easy range to get to from centrum.

Q4 is easier to get to and innaccessable to centrum

Q5 is easy to get to inaccessable to centrum

Q6 is easier to get to but hard to get to for centrum

7 is hard to get to but easier for centrum.

This makes their placement draumatic, and I think that is large why evrything is placed where it is. Merlin(or mabey worse Merlin 2) meeting Reich 5 then stems from those choices. I really need to figure out something involveing the argentinian nazi's and the reich 5 ones.

[Diogenes]

So it is as I suspected: The Plot rulez!
Well, if putting a world into Q6 means placing it on the battlefield, so be it...

[tratclif]

Originally Posted by Diogenes

So it is as I suspected: The Plot rulez!
Well, if putting a world into Q6 means placing it on the battlefield, so be it...

Since "Plot rulez," if you want a line on Q6 that isn't on the battlefield, you can just say so without embarrassment. There are lines that Infinity knows but Centrum doesn't (and vice versa). You can simply say that Infinity (or Centrum) has problems getting to the line for whatever technobabble you want to say.

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by tratclif

Since "Plot rulez," if you want a line on Q6 that isn't on the battlefield, you can just say so without embarrassment. There are lines that Infinity knows but Centrum doesn't (and vice versa). You can simply say that Infinity (or Centrum) has problems getting to the line for whatever technobabble you want to say.

You could, but at least the way that most I-Cop or I-Scout way of doing things is to ahve a stageing world per quantum(it just makes alot of sense to me at least, and has to others). So that explanation would be harder. Still they might not know about it, or simply might not care. If centrum knows that a world is an anchor(and they know how to determine this) it would not be of much interest to them. Now they might go there and try to infiltrate infinity but it will largely not be in play.