History TabletopGame / InfiniteWorlds

* DeathWorld: Several parallels qualify, even appart from the aforementionned Gotha and Lucifer parallels, many of them colloquially called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Hell Worlds]]. The causes run the gamut from [[DepopulationBomb incredibly deadly]] [[ThePlague epidemics]] to [[GreenAesop man-made ecological meltdown]] to [[NukeEm nuclear war]] to [[AlienInvasion Alien]] [[{{Ultraterrestrials}} (or maybe not)]] [[AlienInvasion Invasion]], but probably the most worrisome (i.e. most likely to be completely and irreversibly quarantined) are the (thankfully few) parallels that seem to exist in a CosmicHorrorStory universe.

** Casting Centrum as a Villain is a mind boggling move by Steve Jackson Games, seeing as Centrum has a better society with higher living standarts, no unfair discrimination, more peace, less egotism, corruption and unfairness in general. The price is centralism, more conformity and no lip service to the notion everybody beeing a precious, unique snowflake.

* ItGotWorse: Many on Homeline in the know consider Reich-5's discovery of parallel worlds to be this; while their own version is, so far, ''much'' less performant than that of Homeline or Centrum, it could potentially end up forcing Homeline in a two-front conflict, as the latter's dimensional coordinates are between the other two.

** There's a section explicitly allowing the GM to decide if they should be ALighterShadeOfGrey or ADarkerShadeOfGrey.

* DoingInTheWizard: Inverted, as there are several parallels where magic clearly exists, making it kinda hard to deny. There is even a loose group of powerful magic-users and monsters that also travel through realities, the Cabal (from ''Gurps Cabal'', natch).

* ForScience: Appart from the Gernsback parallel which plays this straight (if mostly benevolently), there's an interesting variation with the Cabal

The basic concept is this: A Parallel Earth (that calls itself "Homeline") develops the technology for travel to other timelines. It is controlled by the UnitedNations, which effectively becomes a World Government (an opinion not every nation and corporation agrees with). They secretly explore and exploit the other Earths (in ''relatively'' benign ways - buying resources from Earths that have plenty, for example, and dumping wastes on Earths that never developed life) and forms an organization known as "The Infinity Patrol" for the purpose of keeping "The Secret" (that is, the existence of TheMultiverse) from those Worlds that do not know about it (the vast majority discovered so far).

** In a more general sense, just about every other GURPS setting has a corresponding world mentioned in the book. Including the licenced ones (yes, Infinity agents can visit {{Discworld}}, [[ConanTheBarbarian Hyboria]] and WitchWorld).
* CrapsackWorld: Not as bad as most other cases and not immediately apparent, but the more you read, the more obvious it is that there are a LOT more crappy parallel worlds than reasonably nice ones (from the [[ColonyDrop Lucifer parallels]] to the [[StupidJetpackHitler Reich parallels]], with the disturbingly common [[ZombieApocalypse Gotha parallels]] and many others in-between), and even the nice ones tend to have ugly caveats - Gernsback, for example, has world peace under the League of Nations (both {{the Great Depression}} and WorldWarTwo were averted) and awesome RaygunGothic SchizoTech thanks to NikolaTesla's inventions, but due to not having had those experiences, racism, sexism and colonialism are still firmly entrenched at pre-1940's levels in most inhabitants' minds. It still is one of the most positive parallels overall.

* MultiversalConqueror:

The reason is twofold. First, worldlines that learn The Secret may either be aggressive timelines, or become the victim of one, creating another reality-hopping danger. But the second deals with "echo" timelines that mirror Earth's past -- changing an echo by interfering too much may cause that reality to "shift" closer or farther away from Homeline (that is, it becomes more or less easy to access.) In fact, Homeline's biggest rival, Centrum, a World that also has "cross-time" technology but with a [[strike:Communist-type]] socialist technocratic society, seeks to draw worlds "closer" to themselves so they can influence them into developing similar governments. Occasionally, "outtimers" (slang for people from outside Homeline) are recruited to join Infinity if they are judged worthy. This is similar to a TimePolice setting genre except it involves parallel worlds instead of the actual past or future. (The book also includes a separate, Time Travel setting called "Timepiece" as well as settings such as The Order of the Hourglass, a pulp setting where adventurers [[MentalTimeTravel travel through time via their minds]].)

The reason is twofold. First, worldlines that learn The Secret may either be aggressive timelines, or become the victim of one, creating another reality-hopping danger. But the second deals with "echo" timelines that mirror Earth's past -- changing an echo by interfering too much may cause that reality to "shift" closer or farther away from Homeline (that is, it becomes more or less easy to access.) In fact, Homeline's biggest rival, Centrum, a World that also has "cross-time" technology but with a [[strike:Communist-type]] socialist technocratic society, seeks to draw worlds "closer" to themselves so they can influence them into developing similar governments. Occasionally, "outtimers" (slang for people from outside Homeline) are recruited to join Infinity if they are judged worthy. This is similar to a TimePolice setting genre except it involves parallel worlds instead of the actual past or future. (The book also includes a separate, Time Travel setting called "Timepiece" about people [[MentalTimeTravel traveling through time via their minds]].)

The basic concept is this: A Parallel Earth (that calls itself "Homeline") develops the technology for travel to other timelines. It is controlled by the UnitedNations, which effectively becomes a World Government (an opinion not every nation and corporation agrees with). They secretly explore and exploit the other Earths (in ''relatively'' benign ways - buying resources from Earths that have plenty, for example, and dumping wastes on Earths that never developed life) and forms an organization known as "The Infinity Patrol" for the purpose of keeping "The Secret" (that is, the existence of TheMultiverse) from those Worlds that do not know about it (the vast majority discovered so far). The reason is because each World is Earth though each is slightly different (or not so slighlty in some cases), and changing it by interfering too much may cause that reality to "shift" closer or farther away from Homeline (that is, it becomes more or less easy to access.) In fact, Homeline's biggest rival, Centrum, a World that also has "cross-time" technology but with a [[strike:Communist-type]] socialist technocratic society, seeks to draw worlds "closer" to themselves so they can influence them into developing similar governments. Occasionally, "outtimers" (slang for people from outside Homeline) are recruited to join Infinity if they are judged worthy. This is similar to a TimePolice setting genre except it involves parallel worlds instead of the actual past or future. (The book also includes a separate, Time Travel setting called "Timepiece" about people [[MentalTimeTravel traveling through time via their minds]].)

TimeTravel combined with [[AlternateReality alternative world]] hopping. '''GURPS: Infinite Worlds''' is the default {{GURPS}} 4th edition setting, loosely inspired by HBeamPiper's "Paratime" novels. The successor to GURPSAlternateEarths.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted hard. Parachronics are well on their way to making Homeline a utopia.

*** The Yugorovsky Group are a [[TheMafiya Mafiya]]-affiliated [[MegaCorp mining conglomerate]] known for sending executives out to build empires on primitive worlds.

* EnemyMine: one suggestion in the book is that Infinity and Centrum could ally against Reich-5.

* EvilerThanThou: What is likely going to happen when Centrum and Raven Division finally meet (Centrum are EqualOpportunityEvil meritocrats, while Raven Division...are [[{{Ghostapo}} Nazis]].)

* MultiversalConqueror: Both Centrum and Reich-5's Raven Division count, for different motives (Centrum [[WellIntentionedExtremist thinks they're civilizing alien realities]], Raven Division because they're [[ThoseWackyNazis greedy Nazis]]).

* NGOSuperpower: Infinity Inc. is probably the most powerful entity on Homeline economically and politically.

* AlienSpaceBats: Centrum and Homeline do a ''LOT'' of this, as often as not as a part of their ongoing conflict. More worryingly, it seems that they may not be the only ones who do this, as [[{{Mayincatec}} Ezcalli]] and the no less than 18 Gothas (parallels which all suffered a ZombieApocalypse with a common source) seem to point to...

** In a more general sense, just about every other GURPS setting has a corresponding world mentioned in the book.

Oh, by the way there's a third up-and-coming player in the multiverse that recently extracted The Secret from a crashed Homeline conveyor. Homeline's name for their timeline? [[StupidJetpackHitler Reich-]][[Ohcrap 5]].

Oh, by the way there's a third up-and-coming player in the multiverse that recently extracted The Secret from a crashed Homeline conveyor. Homeline's name for their timeline? [[StupidJetpackHitler Reich-5]].

* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: In what may just be the Most Triumphant Example, the director of the Infinity Patrol's secret ISWAT special task force is... an alternate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny Otto Skorzeny]]. However, this alt-Skorzeny was, in his home parallel, a freedom fighter for the [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits multi-national and -denominational]], proto-democratic [[TheRepublic Republican]] [[TheAlliance Alliance]] (in this timeline, european monarchies endured almost unopposed until central-european uprisings in the 1930's), and really, really ''hates'' ThoseWackyNazis (even when they're other hims), and so uses live-fire sabotage missions against them [[TrainingFromHell as part of the standard ISWAT training]].