Infinite Worlds

[Rhino]

Has anyone checked out this campaign setting for GURPS? It really caught my imagination and I am thinking of using it for a Hero System game.

[Darren Watts]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Actually, I'm playing in a Hero-translated campaign of it right now, run by the inestimable Derek Heimforth and including Archermoo, Gamephil, JohnT and some bum who doesn't post on our boards. It is in fact the bomb- so far, we've visited an alternate Roswell and battled a colony of nanites who had destroyed their own Earth and had designs on ours. Can't recommend it enough. dw

[Rhino]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Sounds awesome! I'll try and make contact with you guys at KublaCon and discuss how Derek is translating the content.

[BigJackBrass]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Sounds like just the thing for my Fringeworthy conversion (another excellent world-hopping game, by the way).

[Rhino]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

I remember looking through the Fringeworthy rulebook when it first came out long ago and thinking, how cool. How did that little ditty about the Mellor (sp?) go?

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Actually' date=' I'm playing in a Hero-translated campaign of it right now, run by the inestimable Derek Heimforth and including Archermoo, Gamephil, JohnT and some bum who doesn't post on our boards. It is in fact the bomb- so far, we've visited an alternate Roswell and battled a colony of nanites who had destroyed their own Earth and had designs on ours. Can't recommend it enough. dw[/quote']Thanks for the kind words, Darren!

 

(And the "other bum" does post on the boards sometimes... he's "tgaptte". And "our" John is JohnTaber on the boards... the JohnT on the boards is someone else.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Oh, and yes... the Infinite Worlds book does indeed rock on toast. Only the presence of Pulp Hero in the same release year kept me from voting for IW for the Ennie award for best RPG supplement.

[John Desmarais]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Oh' date=' and yes... the [b']Infinite Worlds[/b] book does indeed rock on toast. Only the presence of Pulp Hero in the same release year kept me from voting for IW for the Ennie award for best RPG supplement.

 

So, when are we gonna see some campaign notes? Inquiring minds (and those of also interested in using Infinite Worlds in our campaigns) want to know.

[Edsel]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

I remember looking through the Fringeworthy rulebook when it first came out long ago and thinking' date=' how cool. How did that little ditty about the Mellor (sp?) go?[/quote']

Tehrmelern version:

Mushy Mellor, Funny Fellor

Running 'midst the trees.

"Who's There?" I said,

As I stood on my head

But no one answered me.

 

Ed Powers version:

Mushy Mellor, Funny Fellor

Running 'midst the trees.

"Who's There?" I said,

As it bit off my head

And gurgled gleefully.

[steriaca]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

I myself was thinking about doing a series of dimention articals for Digital Hero. But I stoped myself, cause someone recently did a time travel artical for DH. I was going to call it HERO In 3D (after the infamous Champions In 3d supliment). I was going to cover Null Time (the dimention where time dose not move), The Microverse and The Macroverse, The Mindscape (the dimention within your own brain), and eventuly alternitive earths like Emperer Destroyer Earth (where Dr. Destroyer suseded in slaming a meteor down upon the North American continent, and now rules about 80% of the planet, with about 15% of the places he dosen't rule a total waistland) and Secret Hero Earth (where superheros exist...just not in the public eye).

 

Anyways...it was a thought.

 

Stanley R. Teriaca.

[Midas]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Infinite Earths looked interesting to me too, but I have a philosophical problem with the multiple timelines concept: Its utter pointlessness.

 

Lemme give you an example: Our group of "sliders" goes to Naziworld, where the Axis won WWII. They find (or found) a few cells of resistance fighters, promote a rebellion, and Democracy Is On The March! Mission accomplished, and the PCs go onto the next adventure.

 

Except that the timeline split somewhere here. For every victory they accomplished, somewhere in spacetime there is a defeat. While the Nazi's are on the run in this adventure, there is an alternate timeline where they failed. The heroes were defeated, and the 1000 year Reich stands triumphant. Pointless.

 

Anybody addressed this conundrum?

 

Midas

[John Desmarais]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Infinite Earths looked interesting to me too, but I have a philosophical problem with the multiple timelines concept: Its utter pointlessness.

 

Lemme give you an example: Our group of "sliders" goes to Naziworld, where the Axis won WWII. They find (or found) a few cells of resistance fighters, promote a rebellion, and Democracy Is On The March! Mission accomplished, and the PCs go onto the next adventure.

 

Except that the timeline split somewhere here. For every victory they accomplished, somewhere in spacetime there is a defeat. While the Nazi's are on the run in this adventure, there is an alternate timeline where they failed. The heroes were defeated, and the 1000 year Reich stands triumphant. Pointless.

 

Anybody addressed this conundrum?

 

Midas

 

Don't use alternate timelines, just different "times" in a single timeline. I've been reading through Infinite Worlds and have decided that I will be incorporating many of it's concepts into my Champions campaign, but as Time Travel reference, not a Dimension hopping one. One of the optional campaigns in the book details a time patrol, similar to the multi-dimensional folks, with interesting limitations on their ability to travel in time. I'm planning on using these time patrol folks as occasional plot-driver NPCs and the PCs will get to visit some of the other Hero settings while travelling through time (it started this past Sunday - the session ended with them in the Turakian Age).

 

When they return to the present they will discover things are now different - Germany won WWII. Not because they are in a different timeline, but because something they did in the distant past has been ripplying through the (one) timeline causing problems. They'll have to go back in time again to fix what happened (this time to either the Pulp Hero setting or the "not yet published so I'll just make it myself" Golden Age Champions setting). This "problem rippling through time" will then be used occasionally throughout the campaign as an excuse for me to do another time travelling adventure.

[JohnTaber]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

I can post the campaign notes but Derek should give the okey dokey. He may also have a later version he wants to share. Hec...I could upload my PC or his notes from the first mission if folks are interested.

 

I agree with Darren. It has been REALLY fun. We figured out what REALLY happened at Roswell...ok fine it was a parallel but still...then we went to a parallel that was infested with nanites. The nanite scenario was multipart and really engaging. It was fun because we couldn't discuss anything openly because the nanites were EVERYWHERE! We didn't even know if we could leave the dimension without dragging home a gaggle of the little fellers. We ended up finding getting home then deciding that we had to go back! On the return trip we found that an ancient alien god and goddess were present. He helped us stop them after his wife convinced us to wake him up. It was complicated.

[sinanju]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Infinite Earths looked interesting to me too, but I have a philosophical problem with the multiple timelines concept: Its utter pointlessness.

 

Lemme give you an example: Our group of "sliders" goes to Naziworld, where the Axis won WWII. They find (or found) a few cells of resistance fighters, promote a rebellion, and Democracy Is On The March! Mission accomplished, and the PCs go onto the next adventure.

 

Except that the timeline split somewhere here. For every victory they accomplished, somewhere in spacetime there is a defeat. While the Nazi's are on the run in this adventure, there is an alternate timeline where they failed. The heroes were defeated, and the 1000 year Reich stands triumphant. Pointless.

 

Anybody addressed this conundrum?

 

Midas

 

Not that I know of, but it's fairly simple to address. The "infinite" timelines theory is wrong. There is a fixed (small or large, as you choose) set of parallel timelines branching from a single Technobabble Incident (or magical event or whatever). These timelines will not diverge farther, nor will others come into existence, barring another Technobabble Incident .

 

Thus, preventing the Nazis from winning in Timeline A does NOT mean that timelines A1, A2, A3, A4 ... A5,612 (etc) will arise. It means that you have, in fact, saved Timeline A from the Nazis.

[Springald Jack]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Infinite Earths looked interesting to me too, but I have a philosophical problem with the multiple timelines concept: Its utter pointlessness.

 

Lemme give you an example: Our group of "sliders" goes to Naziworld, where the Axis won WWII. They find (or found) a few cells of resistance fighters, promote a rebellion, and Democracy Is On The March! Mission accomplished, and the PCs go onto the next adventure.

 

Except that the timeline split somewhere here.

 

Anybody addressed this conundrum?

 

Midas

 

Well in GURPS Infinite Worlds while Timelines are probably infinite it doesn't necessarily mean that all possibilities happen. Also it doesn't seem like timelines branch the way you are describing. If you change Reich-5 you do change that timeline. Other timelines of course still have victorious Nazis but this one doesn't anymore.

 

Secondly not everything is pointless. One timeline is your home (probably) a threat to that is worth fighting. And for the default goodguys (Infinity) there are numerous threats.

[David Johnston]

Re: Infinite Worlds

 

Infinite Earths looked interesting to me too, but I have a philosophical problem with the multiple timelines concept: Its utter pointlessness.

 

Lemme give you an example: Our group of "sliders" goes to Naziworld, where the Axis won WWII. They find (or found) a few cells of resistance fighters, promote a rebellion, and Democracy Is On The March! Mission accomplished, and the PCs go onto the next adventure.

 

Except that the timeline split somewhere here. For every victory they accomplished, somewhere in spacetime there is a defeat. While the Nazi's are on the run in this adventure, there is an alternate timeline where they failed. The heroes were defeated, and the 1000 year Reich stands triumphant. Pointless.

 

Anybody addressed this conundrum?

 

Midas

 

Well actually in the Infinite Worlds setting, timelines don't diverge so far as they can tell. There were just an "infinite" number of worlds to start with. So if you defeat the Nazis on Nazi world, there is no "alternate timeline where you lost". Nor is the nazi world the offspring of some pivotal choice that produced two worlds, one in which they won and one in which they lost. It's just another world, separate from the start, that happens to resemble your world in most ways up until the 20th century.

 

Now in theory somewhere out there there could be a counterpart to your world which produced people very much like you who went to a Nazi World and failed but those people are not you and never were you.

 

In fact it's very obvious that many of the Infinite Worlds are in no way alternate timelines of history. After all, they contain things like Yrth which has geography nothing like that of Earth, and the version of our earth which is the same in just about every way except everyone is a talking human-sized dinosaur. There's no point of divergence which could produce that.