Infinite Worlds

[mcross]

OK, maybe this is a dumb question, but I've been reviewing the info on Quantum levels. I can't find where the issue of for example, a native of Quantum 5 going to Quantum 7 and from there accessing Quantum 8 which would normally be inaccessable. Does anyone have any insight? Thanks.

[Harald B]

If I understand things correctly, the standard way of going from one quantum to another requires a quantum projector, which has a maximum reach of 2 quanta and can only operate from Homeline (Q5) or Centrum (Q8). To get from Q5 to Q8 would hence require assistance from within both Homeline and Centrum, whose governments are very much opposed to eachother.

[tratclif]

Most parachronic conveyors are subquantum conveyors, limited only to one quantum. To go to another quantum you need conveyor with one-quantum or two-quantum capability (proportionately more expensive) and a quantum projector (a base station that only works on Homeline or Centrum). It's possible to get from Q5 to Q8 on a conveyor with the cooperation of Centrum.

Other methods of parachronic travel don't necessarily have that limit though. World-jumping, magical gates, quantum nexi may let you make that jump.

[dynaman]

Can't remember where I read it, but Homeline had a single machine that could cross quanta without starting at Homeline. It must have been the rumors section.

[elShoggotho]

I like the parachronic penetrator portals of The Probability Broach, which can penetrate to any world whose exact quantum level is known or guessed by the operators. Don't enter a blue circle in mid-air, it's almost certainly a portal into a right-wing anarchist Galactic Confederacy.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by tratclif

Most parachronic conveyors are subquantum conveyors, limited only to one quantum. To go to another quantum you need conveyor with one-quantum or two-quantum capability (proportionately more expensive) and a quantum projector (a base station that only works on Homeline or Centrum).

So is the limitation here technical (nobody knows how to build appropriate projectors anywhere off of Homeline and Centrum) or, as it were, administrative (the know-how is there, but it's too expensive or politically sensitive to attempt it)?

[tratclif]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

So is the limitation here technical (nobody knows how to build appropriate projectors anywhere off of Homeline and Centrum) or, as it were, administrative (the know-how is there, but it's too expensive or politically sensitive to attempt it)?

The real reason is that Steve Jackson and John M. Ford said so in GURPS Time Travel.

Ken Hite and others have written parachronic baffflegab over the years, and in canon neither Homeline nor Centrum completely understand the fundamentals of parachronics.

The current working theory is based on the observation that Homeline and Centrum are at the exact same Local Present down to the second, and all other parallels are at least a few seconds behind -- with the one exception of Shikaku-Mon.

Homeline would like to experiment with a projector on Shikaku-Mon, but they're terrified of the spy tech available on that cyberpunk world.

[eddie]

Originally Posted by dynaman

Can't remember where I read it, but Homeline had a single machine that could cross quanta without starting at Homeline. It must have been the rumors section.

Repeat after me, this machine DOES NOT exist, it has NEVER existed, it IS NOT called Alea, a brief write up about it CAN NOT be found at the bottom of pg 30 of the Infinite Worlds book. Move along people, nothing to see here.

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

So is the limitation here technical (nobody knows how to build appropriate projectors anywhere off of Homeline and Centrum) or, as it were, administrative (the know-how is there, but it's too expensive or politically sensitive to attempt it)?

I've always been under the impression (don't know if I actually read it in TT, or just assumed it, DHTBWM) that Infinity tried to set up projectors on other worlds but were never able to get them to work.

[David Johnston]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

So is the limitation here technical (nobody knows how to build appropriate projectors anywhere off of Homeline and Centrum) or, as it were, administrative (the know-how is there, but it's too expensive or politically sensitive to attempt it)?

As I understand it, on most lines a Centrum or Homeline projector simply will not work. It's superscience and just as Gernsbackian broadcast energy will not work for Homeline, Reich 4 can't build a projector that works on their principles. However there is the possibility that, once made aware of Homeline or Centrum, that an independant Earth might develop some alternative means for travelling there and threatening them. This might be magic as in the case of Merlin, where an alerted American government has started sending out spies via Gate spells, or it simply be a different flavour of superscience. For example a Homeline projector won't work on IST-1, but the world of the International Superteams could almost certainly build something that would do the trick. Someday Homeline may have to deal with some comic book supervillain who has decided that worlds without superheroes are a bit easier to conquer.

Both sides are leery of the possibility of adding another player to the war, especially one in "range" to make a direct attack on them.

[Pstrych9]

Originally Posted by tratclif

The real reason is that Steve Jackson and John M. Ford said so in GURPS Time Travel.

Ken Hite and others have written parachronic baffflegab over the years, and in canon neither Homeline nor Centrum completely understand the fundamentals of parachronics.

Right. The point is that that limitation keeps the whole setting in the alternate history genre rather than a straightforward war setting, which would surely be the case if it was any easier to reach each other's quantums.

So knowing that you want to have it that way, all that's left is to rationalise a reason for it to be what happens to make for the better game.