Why no FTL and Infinite Worlds together? An explanation

[Kymage]

I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this here. I got a chuckle when I came across this short story and I thought I would share it to the forum. It does a pretty good job of explaining of why you may not have FTL and Infinite Worlds in the same setting.

https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2023/01...g-short-story/

[Refplace]

Ok, that was funny. Also seriously worth considering.

[mburr0003]

Ah, a good old r/HFY "Humans Are Weird" story.

[cptbutton]

See the "Where Are the Starships?" box in "GURPS Infinite Worlds" page 72 for another explanation.

[thrash]

In my Time Traveller variant, I proposed that the jump equations had two solutions: one space-like, one time-like. The first "starship" discovered it was the space-like solution that was unphysical and should be ignored...

[Anthony]

In a more meta-game sense, FTL and Parallel Worlds accomplish the same narrative purpose (providing a ready source of new places to explore) so there's not a lot of motive to have both in the same campaign.

[Walden]

All that said, Caliph in canonical Infinite Worlds does have FTL travel. Remember, they even have a offworld state that calls itself the Star Caliphate (I may not be remembering the name quite correctly.)

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Anthony

In a more meta-game sense, FTL and Parallel Worlds accomplish the same narrative purpose (providing a ready source of new places to explore) so there's not a lot of motive to have both in the same campaign.

Worse: If you have access to a nearly infinite number of Earths, many of them empty of humans or otherwise freely useful, all them already human-habitable, where you usually know where to find the useful resources and so forth, with travel time between them comparatively negligible...parallel travel outcompetes star travel fairly easily for most purposes.