GURPS Infinite Worlds
Encyclopedia
GURPS Infinite Worlds is a supplement for the Fourth Edition of the GURPS
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...

role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, published by Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...

 in 2005
2005 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 2005. For video and console games, see 2005 in video gaming.-Game awards given in 2005:...

 and written by Kenneth Hite
Kenneth Hite
Kenneth Hite is a writer and role-playing game designer. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor's degree in Cartography from East Central University. He has been writing games since 1981 and full-time since 1995...

, Steve Jackson
Steve Jackson (US)
Steve Jackson is an American game designer. After working for many years at Metagaming Concepts designing such games as Ogre and The Fantasy Trip, he left to found Steve Jackson Games in the early 1980s...

, and John M. Ford
John M. Ford
John Milo "Mike" Ford was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer, and poet.Ford was regarded as an extraordinarily intelligent, erudite and witty man. He was a popular contributor to several online discussions...

. It expands upon the campaign setting of conflict between the Infinity Patrol, which is the time-travel agency on "our" Earth, referred to as Homeline, and Centrum across a multiplicity of alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...

 Earths. This was presented in the Fourth Edition GURPS Basic Set (and originated in the Third Edition supplements GURPS Time Travel, GURPS Alternate Earths, and GURPS Alternate Earths II). It won the 2005
2005 Origins Award winners
The following are the winners of the 32nd annual Origins Award, held in 2006:-Hall of Fame inductees:* Aaron Allston* Jolly R. Blackburn* Rodger MacGowan* Dennis Mize * Mike Pondsmith* James Ernest-External links:* *...

 Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...

 as Best Game Supplement.

GURPS Infinite Worlds has eight chapters: Infinity Unlimited, Enemies Everywhen, Present at the Creation, Worlds Enough, ...And Time, Infinite characters, Infinite Campaigns, and Alternate Infinities.

Infinity Unlimited

This chapter describes one of the two worlds (known locally as Homeline) that have full-fledged, public "parachronics" programs (the technology behind traveling between parallel universes) Travel between worlds is generally done through ground-based equipment ("projectors") or vehicles ("conveyors"), but magic, parahuman abilities and even stranger methods can and have been utilized by both. Alternate worlds (also known as realities or worldlines) are grouped into "quanta", which have varying degrees of ease of access not only to Homeline but to her opponents

Enemies Everywhen

This is the chapter that describes Homeline's adversaries and hazards. The major adversary is Centrum the only other reality known to have a public parachronics program who can be played as a deadly adversary, occasional opponents or grudging allies depending on the GM's preference.

The secondary adversary is Reich-5, the worst of the five known 'Nazis win/survive WWII' realities in the setting. An ill-advised raid by Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...

 troops from Homeline Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 resulted in the capture of a troop conveyor, a handful of live prisoners, and the corpse of a scout with a genetically-linked psionic world-jumping ability. A quick-thinking local Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....

 made a deal with the mystical SS society of the Ahnenerbe
Ahnenerbe
The Ahnenerbe was a Nazi German think tank that promoted itself as a "study society for Intellectual Ancient History." Founded on July 1, 1935, by Heinrich Himmler, Herman Wirth, and Richard Walther Darré, the Ahnenerbe's goal was to research the anthropological and cultural history of the Aryan...

 to take possession of the booty (and to keep it all secret from the mainstream Nazi hierarchy); Reich-5 scientists and sorcerers are using occult rituals and horrific medical experiments to slowly spread their Thousand Year Reich to other realities.

Present at the Creation

This chapter describes how to create your own alternate reality and concepts to look at such as the Great Man, Great Moment, and Great Motherland.

Worlds Enough

This is the chapter on some of the alternate worlds in the setting. Reich-5, Caliph, Dixie, Ezcalli, Gernsback, Roma Aeterna, and Shikaku-Mon all appeared in slightly different forms in the older Alternate Earths volumes.

Armada-2

So named because it is the second world discovered by the Infinity Patrol in which the Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...

 was victorious over the English in 1588, Armada-2 is a world just now (in "current year" 1812) emerging from the shadow of Catholic Spanish hegemony, with Sweden, an industrialised Egypt and Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 Nouvelle France as other powers.

Attila

A parallel where city-razing Mongol
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 hordes under Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....

 destroyed first Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 and then all the cities of Europe, where now their descendants (in "current year" 2004) rule an entirely nomadic continent. The world was mistakenly named for Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...

 by early Infinity Patrol researchers who were confused as to which nomadic leader was responsible for the destruction. Meanwhile, Japan trades across the Pacific Ocean with the urbanized tribes of North and South America, and city-states dot Africa, where steam engines have just been developed.

Azoth-7

When Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

 discovered the secret of the philosopher's stone
Philosopher's stone
The philosopher's stone is a legendary alchemical substance said to be capable of turning base metals into gold or silver. It was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal...

 in 1693, he paved the way for an Alchemical Revolution that has left Azoth-7 dominated by the magical might of Britain, Venice, Prussia, and Spain by "current year" 1780.

Bonaparte-4

In Bonaparte-4 Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 sacrificed the romance of an Egyptian campaign (which he conducted in 1798 in our timeline) for a stealthy invasion of Ireland, granting him victory over Britain. By "current year" 2024, the world is divided between French, Japanese, Russian, and Brazilian Empires, along with the United States and the Russian Republic, and the world has achieved a stage of technological achievement and social disaffection and tension reminiscent of cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...

.

Britannica-3

The success of the rebellion of James, Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...

 against James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 in 1685 is the point of divergence between our own world and Britannica-3; wiser and more Protestant rule in Britain meant that tensions with the North American colonies never reached the point of rebellion as they did in real history. Despite the rise of other strong European powers, the world is free of major conflicts, which can be attributed to the strong influence of Centrum in this parallel.

Caliph

In this world the printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

 was invented in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 in 796 and was shortly followed by the widespread adaptation of the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...

 and an oil-based industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

. The current year here is 1684, but the technological acceleration stemming from these changes has resulted in a society seemingly centuries ahead of Homeline. Unfortunately a burgeoning global war between the tradition-minded major states (Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...

, Persia, Andalus
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...

, the Bulgarian Caliphate
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 and the Ummah
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

) and the technocratic Jamahiriya of the western continents threatens the existence of this advanced society.

Campbell

Named for the early death of influential science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 editor John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...

 which occurred in this parallel but not in real history, Campbell is a world notable for the poverty of its scientific advancement. While military applications of scientific research advanced rapidly enough, science as an intellectual pursuit became associated exclusively with death, destruction, and catastrophe (especially after World War II ended with the bombardment of Germany with radioactive dust
Solution Unsatisfactory
"Solution Unsatisfactory" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It describes the US effort to build a nuclear weapon in order to end the ongoing World War II, and its dystopian consequences to the nation and the world....

, killing hundreds of thousands of people). This led to an anti-scientific wave of pacifist Luddism and charismatic religious revival in the 1960s. Lacking the positive fruits of scientific inquiry, the world heads (in "current year" 2004) through ecological disaster and failing economies to a nigh-inevitable showdown between its capitalist and communist societies.

Centrum

The nominal villains of the campaign, Centrum is a totalitarian, homogenized world-state, and the only world other than Homeline to have a major parachronic program. Its point of departure was in 1120, when the White Ship
White Ship
The White Ship was a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived. Those who drowned included William Adelin, the only surviving legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England...

 carrying William the Aetheling, the heir of Henry I of England
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...

, did not hit a rock in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. William's survival precluded The Anarchy
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...

 and the Hundred Years War, and ultimately the "Anglo-French Empire" became a world-spanning power, with technological progress centuries beyond that of Homeline.

However unbearable tensions existed just below the surface, and in 1902 unknown parties decapitated the ruling house
House of Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet , a branch of the Angevins, was a royal house founded by Geoffrey V of Anjou, father of Henry II of England. Plantagenet kings first ruled the Kingdom of England in the 12th century. Their paternal ancestors originated in the French province of Gâtinais and gained the...

 by detonating a nuclear device in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. The resulting succession wars included nuclear and biological weapons, wiped out much of humanity and reduced most of the survivors to preindustrial barbarism. But Terraustralis (Homeline Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

) escaped much of the destruction, and the techno-military cabal known as "The Centrum" that took control there ultimately extended its authority across the globe.

Centrum is a socialist
Socialist economics
Socialist economics are the economic theories and practices of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems.A socialist economy is based on public ownership or independent cooperative ownership of the means of production, wherein production is carried out to directly produce use-value,...

 technocratic meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...

; the government provides all employment and handles the economy, which is bolstered by the massive resources acquired from other worldlines. They believe other worlds should be aiming to follow their example and have a dedicated program of supporting political and economic groups that reflect their own values—stability, meritocracy and an unconscious prejudice toward speakers of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. They view the mix of competing government agencies and private companies from Homeline as dangerously reminiscent of the period prior to their own "Final War".

Centrum Beta

One of the most important parallel Earths from the Infinity Patrol's point of view, Centrum Beta appears to be an exact copy of the home parallel of Centrum - except that the "current year" is only 1895. Understanding Centrum Beta as it is now might give the Infinity Patrol the key to understanding and besting Centrum proper.

Deadly Settings

Also known generally as "Reality Vanish", there are at least 41 parachronic coordinate settings where people or objects sent into them never return. These are assumed to be worlds where the laws of physics are sufficiently different from that of our own universe to kill visitors and/or cripple their equipment (see Rustic under Puzzle Worlds, below).

Dixie-1

In this world, William Walker succeeded in conquering Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 in 1856; during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 this provided a way around the Union blockade
Union blockade
The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...

 for the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 that ultimately ensured their victory. In revenge for British support of the rebels, the United States invaded and annexed most of Canada; meanwhile the Southrons reintroduced their "peculiar institution"
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 into Central America and the Caribbean at gunpoint. Today ("current year" 1993) the U.S.A. and C.S.A. watch each other warily across an armed border
Mason-Dixon line
The Mason–Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and...

 that stretches to the Pacific, while India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the Chinese republics and their neighbors expand their economies at the expense of the moribund European monarchies that never fell after 1918.

Ezcalli

Here the Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations , communicable disease, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres . It was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history...

 occurred two thousand years early, when a Carthaginian
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

 fleet was blown across the Atlantic to discover the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

. This premature contact gave the native American civilizations time to recover from the shock of new diseases and adapt the newcomers' technology; in addition, the early introduction of maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 and the potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

 to the Old World eventually reduced Rome's
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 ability to control its subjects through Egyptian grain. The Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 ended with Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

, and the patchwork of European successor states were ill-equipped to resist subsequent barbarian invasions. In the "current year" of 1848, the expansionist, steam-powered Tenochca Empire faces off against the Hotinohsavannih League
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 to the north and the Songhay Empire (the last remnant of Roman culture) to the east; whoever wins is likely fated to take on the somnolent but fearsomely large Mongol Khaganate that covers most of Eurasia.

Friedrich

This parallel world is named for the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...

, who in this timeline managed to be the great imperial unifier and conqueror that the vagaries of fortune prevented him from being in our history. In "current year" 1219, seventeen years after his death, Friedrich is notable for being a hotbed of activity by the SS Raven Division from the Nazi-dominated parallel Reich-5, who seek to turn his Holy Roman Empire into a First Reich and breeding ground for Aryan warriors.

Gallatin

Gallatin is named for Albert Gallatin
Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York...

, the dominant member of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

's government due to Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...

 having died in the Battle of Trenton
Battle of Trenton
The Battle of Trenton took place on December 26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, after General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River north of Trenton, New Jersey. The hazardous crossing in adverse weather made it possible for Washington to lead the main body of the...

. Without Hamilton to defend and explain the Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution of 1787 was never ratified and the independent colonies balkanized
Balkanization
Balkanization, or Balkanisation, is a geopolitical term, originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other, and it is considered pejorative.The term refers to the...

 into nine separate republics across the continent by 1860. In "current year" 2004, Gallatin's great powers include Texas (whose nuclear arsenal shields the other libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

 American republics), German-dominated Europaverein, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Japanese Empire; peace is maintained by the fear of mutual destruction in an atomic war.

Hell Worlds

Many timelines have suffered catastrophes (some natural, others man-made) that have rendered humanity either extinct or nearly so. These are colloquially known as the "hell worlds". Examples include Ariane (where the Spanish Flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...

 killed 99.9% of the population), Lenin-2 (where nuclear war and unconstrained industry have combined to crash the biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...

) and the worrisome Gotha parallels (where a prion
Prion
A prion is an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form. This is in contrast to all other known infectious agents which must contain nucleic acids . The word prion, coined in 1982 by Stanley B. Prusiner, is a portmanteau derived from the words protein and infection...

-based disease has turned almost all humans into bloodthirsty cannibals on 19 otherwise dissimilar worlds).

Homeline

The main world in the game. The world of "our" timeline (apart from the development of parachronics) and home base of Infinity Patrol, and of players in the game. Seeks to counteract Centrum and its efforts to interfere with natural development of alternate worlds.

Lenin-1

Here Franklin Roosevelt maintained Henry Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...

 as his vice president when he was reelected in 1944; consequentially Wallace became president in 1945 upon Roosevelt's death. His passive stance (and that of his successors) against the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 resulted in the steady expansion of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 across the globe. In the "current year" of 1989, the isolated and malaise-stricken United States is essentially the sole remaining capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 country on the planet.

Merlin-1

Named after the wizard of that name
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...

, Merlin-1 is a world where magic entered the world due to the Trinity nuclear test in August 1945. In "current year" 2004 America (where much of the magic is centred) uses both magic and technology to be the dominant superpower. Homeline has begun investigating this world to obtain information about this mana-rich reality, but unbeknownst to them the Merlin-1 American government is aware of their actions and has begun spying on them in return. The setting of GURPS Technomancer.

Merlin-3

A world where magic entered the world in 1916, and is centered in Germany. In "current year" 1942, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 is being fought with magic. The setting of GURPS WWII: Weird War II.

Myth Parallels

Many worlds have inhabitants that closely resemble characters from the myths, legends and stories of Homeline. The characters from the Arabian Nights stories, three different King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

s (Riothamus
Riothamus
Riothamus was a Romano-British military leader, who was active circa AD 470. He fought against the Goths in alliance with the declining Roman Empire. He is called "King of the Britons" by the 6th-Century historian Jordanes, but the extent of his realm is unclear...

, the Vulgate Cycle Arthur, and Thomas Malory's version
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...

) and Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 are all represented by various worlds, along with hundreds of others.

Nergal

Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III was king of Assyria , and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II....

 of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

 wiped out Jerusalem and Tyre in this world in 854 B.C., and his successors destroyed the Greek city-states
Archaic period in Greece
The Archaic period in Greece was a period of ancient Greek history that followed the Greek Dark Ages. This period saw the rise of the polis and the founding of colonies, as well as the first inklings of classical philosophy, theatre in the form of tragedies performed during Dionysia, and written...

 a century later. In the "current year" of 1678, various empires based on slavery and human sacrifice cover the globe (except for an Infinity Patrol-supported haven in southern Africa) while an anomalous ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

 threatens to wipe out those unfortunate to live in a world where monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...

, democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 and the Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...

 and Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...

s were destroyed almost before they could begin.

Puzzle Worlds

Some worlds do not follow the generally accepted laws of physics in one way or another or otherwise demonstrate unusual characteristics—it is important to note that in the Infinite Worlds setting, most magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...

 fits under the category of "accepted laws of physics". Rustic (where artificial electric discharges are impossible to generate), Enigma (where the entire population of the world disappeared on July 12, 1982) and Blip (where one day spent there is equal to a little over six minutes on other worlds) are some examples.

Reich-5

Widely regarded as one of the most disturbing and potentially dangerous worlds so far discovered, in this parallel Giuseppe Zangara
Giuseppe Zangara
Giuseppe Zangara was the assassin of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, though United States President–elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have been his intended target. Roosevelt escaped injury, but five people were shot including Cermak.- Early life :Zangara was born in Ferruzzano, Calabria, Italy...

 succeeded in assassinating Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. His successors Garner
John Nance Garner
John Nance Garner, IV , was the 32nd Vice President of the United States and the 44th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives .- Early life and family :...

, Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...

 and Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...

 proved unable to handle the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, and America stood by while Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 conquered Europe and Japan took over most of Asia. In 1944 Japan attacked Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

, the Philippines and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

; in the ensuing chaos William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley was an American extremist and spiritualist who founded the Silver Legion in 1933, and ran for President in 1936 for the Christian Party.-Family:...

 was elected President. Pelley quickly assumed dictatorial powers, and his blatant theft of the 1948 election from Robert Taft
Robert Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...

 triggered wholesale civil war. The president called for aid from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, which quickly sent 40 Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 divisions through Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The pro-democracy resistance collapsed after Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...

 developed the atomic bomb which was used on four American cities in 1950. A second attempt at rebellion in 1976 failed, and America is now a (very) junior partner of the World-Axis that dominates the planet. Reich-5's technology (military or otherwise) is superior to that of any Homeline country, and despite being the only timeline besides Homeline and Centrum to possess world-jumping technology, their parachronic program is well behind those of the other two.

Roma Æterna

Here Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus , born Decimus Claudius Drusus also called Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a fully patrician Claudian on his father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family...

 did not die in 9 B.C. In turn, he became the successor to Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 instead of Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

. The imperial line that followed was so successful that when the First Empire fell apart in the 5th century the guiding ideals of Rome were never discarded and were ultimately restored. After the Mongol invasions broke the Second Empire in the 14th century, colonies in the Hesperides
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

 preserved these ideals in turn and ultimately re-restored the empire in the late 18th century. The "current year" is 1893, and the musket-wielding legions of the Third Empire are found from the Magna Campania
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...

 to the Ganges, with no sign of retreating anytime soon.

Shikaku-Mon

In this "four-cornered world" Juan, Prince of Asturias
Juan, Prince of Asturias
John, Prince of Asturias, was the only son of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon who survived to adulthood.-Early life:...

, the son of King Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...

 and Queen Isabella of Spain survived to take the Spanish throne
Spanish monarchy
The Monarchy of Spain, constitutionally referred to as The Crown and commonly referred to as the Spanish monarchy or Hispanic Monarchy, is a constitutional institution and an historic office of Spain...

 as King John III. The resulting changes in history spread all the way to Japan, where an increased Jesuit presence prolonged the life of Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga
was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...

 and prevented the closing of the country
Sakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...

 by the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

. In the resulting cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...

 "current year" of 2027, the dominant powers include a Japanese Empire that covers China, India, New Zealand, and much of East Asia, the economic superpower of Brazil, the totalitarian Swedish Empire and the technologically advanced Kingdom of France.

United States of Lizardia

A world very similar to our own, except reptilian creatures descended from a species of Troodon
Troodon
Troodon is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period . Discovered in 1855, it was among the first dinosaurs found in North America...

 are the dominant sentient lifeform. The similarities exist down to cultural and political divisions (resulting in this world's colloquial name) and are assumed by Homeline scientists to be evidence of a "law of temporal inertia" (or "gods with a strange sense of humour").

Yrth

A fantasy world, inhabited by humans, dwarves, elves etc., all of whom have been involuntarily taken from other worldlines. The setting of GURPS Banestorm.

...And Time

This chapter deals with the many theories of Temporal Physics both real and fictional that exist.
  • Paradoxes (Assumes Fixed Time with one past, present, and future.)
    • The Grandfather Paradox
    • The Free Lunch Paradox (also known as the Ontological paradox The example is taken from The Eyre Affair
      The Eyre Affair
      The Eyre Affair is the first published novel by English author Jasper Fforde, released by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001. It takes place in alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Plot summary:In a parallel...

      and has the time traveler give Shakespeare a book detailing his plays which Shakespeare copies. The result is no one actually writes the plays!)

  • Plastic Time (past can be changed but there are dangers to doing so)
    • Traveler at Risk (Example: Back to the Future)
    • World at Risk (Examples: Back to the Future II, and New Twilight Zone Episode "Portrait in Silver")
    • Past or Traveler at Risk (Combines Traveler at Risk and World at Risk)
    • Returned Blocked

  • Chaotic Time (extreme version of Plastic Time where small changes can result in big alterations. Example: short story "Sound of Thunder")

  • Plastic Time with High Resistance (It is very hard to change history and the larger the event the more difficult it is to change. Examples: Twilight Zone episode "Back There
    Back There
    "Back There" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.- Synopsis :On April 14, 1961, Peter Corrigan feels faint after a discussion of time travel with his friends at the Potomac Club, and finds it's April 14, 1865, the day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He...

    ", The Time Machine (2002 film)
    The Time Machine (2002 film)
    The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction film loosely adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, and the 1960 film screenplay by David Duncan...


  • Paradox-Proof Time (Extreme version of Fixed Time where the past cannot be changed and any attempt to do so snaps you back to your present.)

  • New Timelines

  • Parallel Worlds (Time travel is really parallel universe travel. Examples: Timeline (novel)
    Timeline (novel)
    Timeline is a science fiction novel by Michael Crichton that was published in November 1999. It tells the story of a group of history students who travel to 14th Century France to rescue their professor...

    , James P. Hogan's The Proteus Operation
    The Proteus Operation
    The Proteus Operation is a science fiction novel which was written by James P. Hogan and published in 1985. Alternate history, time travel, and parallel universes form the basis of its plot, in which a group of military commandos, diplomats, and scientists travel back to 1939...

     and the Parallels (Star Trek: The Next Generation) episode all use the Parallel Worlds mechanic for alternate timelines (Data calls them Quantum Realities).


There are some other ideas provided to make things either easier or more difficult for your intrepid travelers such as Linearity Principle, Oscillating Time, Recency Effect, and Temporal Exclusion as well how communication works.

Alternate Infinities

This chapter provides alternatives to the "default" Infinity setting.
  • The Order of the Hourglass - psychic time travel
  • The Time Corps - a setting similar to that of Pacesetter's Time Master series where the player's homeworld is battling against an alternate timeline (called Stopwatch) with access to the past as the prize.
  • The Horatio Club - a house whose doors open on to other times and other histories.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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