History TabletopGame / InfiniteWorlds

** Strangely enough, the Dixie-1 USSR is also this, being a democratic two-party Socialist welfare state with a prosperous economy an

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: While the setting as a whole can be considered this, especially due to the focus being on parallel world-hopping adventures on, well, [[TitleDrop infinite worlds]], special mention must be given to the Cyrano timeline, which is basically what happens when you mix Creator/AlexandreDumas-style swashbuckling adventures, PlanetaryRomance, Franchise/StarWars, and Franchise/BuckRogers... then throw in a jumbo-size WeirdnessMagnet. Infinity has literally given up sending standard Patrol teams there; only ISWAT personel are considered badass and/or crazy enough to succeed missions there within acceptable parameters.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Infinity completely missed a trick on Roma Aeterna. Infinity's intelligence indicated that Centrum would probably have to deal with their usual issue of only speaking English natively, which would make it harder to penetrate Roman society. ''That'' was incorrect; while English is the only living language on Centrum, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics classical studies]] never quite lost their central place in education like they did on Homeline, meaning Centrum on the whole did a ''much'' better job blending in. As a result, Centrum has infiltrated Rome much more thoroughly than Infinity expected.

** The ''[[https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/worldsofhorror/ Worlds of Horror]]'' supplement introduces another Sleeping Giant that is potentially far, '''''far''''' worse: Taft-1. Both Infinity and Centrum think that the point of divergence is Truman's early death and the election of Robert A. Taft in 1948. [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos It's]] [[CosmicHorrorStory not]].

** The wheels are starting to come off in Quantum 3. Reich-5 is out of the bottle (though their parachronics are limited to a GovernmentConspiracy within the declining Reich) and has begun invading other worlds, while due to the emergency circumstances of first penetration, Merlin's U.S. government has discovered Infinity and is in the process of trying to infiltrate Homeline back.

** A more humorous example is Johnson's Rome. It was originally "just" a world in which the Roman Empire (founded by victorious Mark Anthony and Cleopatra) never fell and remained powerful until 1192 AD. That's when Alex A. Johnson, a small-time businessman from Homeland, arrived on a randomly dialed timeline, looked around, and openly breached the masquerade to... start a tourist resort, along with a hefty dose of (including literally) GivingRadioToTheRomans. By the time ISWAT figured out what Johnson Crosstime Incorporated was up to with their ostensibly "time travel to the Roman Empire" tourist venture, the timeline was changed so drastically and so thoroughly that it was too late to do anything about it. An average Roman citizen doesn't know where the "Jonsonus visitors" are coming from, but they don't mind all the tech and money that keep popping out from the "barbarian" tourists.

* CosmicHorrorStory: There's hints of this in the margins. In particular, [[spoiler: the power of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos not only transcends time and space, but local physical laws. Azathoth's power can be called on ''anywhere'', even mana-dead worlds]]. This has disturbing implications for the Infinite Worlds, to say the least.

* DeathWorld: Several parallels qualify, even appart from the aforementioned 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. One of these parallels may have the Things back-tracing the parachronic trail from a Homeline Scout team.

* DirtyCommies: In the Infinite Worlds, most forms of Communism are a very bad thing, driving several worlds directly into Hell or worse.

* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: With honorable exceptions, neither Infinity nor Centrum quite view people from other worldlines as ''real''. Among other things, the book notes that some Homeline filmmakers have taken to filming real battles on other worldlines with thousands of people dying to use as footage in their historical epics.

* LowCultureHighTech: Homeline, oddly enough, is slipping into this. The majority of Homeline's cutting-edge technology is "parachronic spinoffs," which is a euphemism for [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum stolen outtime technology]], and as a result, Homeline's own scientific development is starting to stagnate while such things as fusion power are adapted wholesale without a firm understanding of the theory.

** The "Gotha" parallels, and the plague named after them. The name came about because the first such world that Infinity discovered was just a particularly bleak Dark Ages parallel where Visigothic berserkers had destroyed every city in their path. It was only later that Infinity discovered that things were [[ZombieApocalypse far darker than that]].

* RaygunGothic: Several timelines are defined by a mid-20th-century SF aesthetic; notable examples include those described in ''[[https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/worldsofatomichorror/ Worlds of Atomic Horror]]''.

* SterilityPlague: Taft radiation, found on Taft-3, Taft-4 and Taft-7, causes sterility in primates. It's only doing anything on Taft-3, though; Taft-4 has other things going on and is partly shielded from the radiation, and Taft-7 never had any life to begin with. Someone upstairs at Infinity has ordered that Taft-1 be checked for Taft radiation as well. [[spoiler: Actually, the implication from Taft-1 is that it's weirder than that; the source of the radiation is implied to be ''[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Azathoth]]''.]]

* SummonBiggerFish: [[spoiler: On Taft-1, Case DEXTER is a Centrum plan to expose Infinity to Joseph Stalin, who in this parallel is an Azathoth cultist. Centrum doesn't actually like Soviet Communism at the best of times, Taft-1's Soviet Union is probably the most horrifically-evil USSR in the Infinite Worlds, and the Franchise/CthulhuMythos is completely antithetical to everything Centrum stands for, but Stalin is a potentially apocalyptic threat to Homeline if he discovers it.]]

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: The random timeline generation has a specific result that produces these, by the book's own admission (see the quote on that page) driven by RuleOfCool.

** Caliph is a mostly-peaceful world of Islamic CrystalSpiresAndTogas, but its technology is centuries ahead of anything that Infinity and Centrum have, and both sides want it. Of course, any intrusion risks telling Caliph about the existence of parachronics, and that centuries-advanced technology makes Caliph into quite possibly the most powerful single worldline in existence.

''The good news is, we can visit other Earths.''

* DecadentCourt: On Cyrano, the court of Louis XXV. The manipulations of corrupt nobles and the mysterious Voice of the Phantom are leading France Outremonde to ruin, and even the King himself is either a pawn or collaborator with evil.
->To the new order, a man of honor was a threat to be crushed.

* FromBadToWorse: 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.
** A potentially much, much worse case happened recently on the former myth parallel once designated Oppenheim: Once an Edwardian/WWI-era world with some myth parallel elements, the [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu Spanish Flu]] hybridized with the Gotha virus to create the Gotha-Z strain - this one creates ''actual'' [[ZombieApocalypse undead]].

** The Ahnenerbe ''did'' come up with a lot of arcane lore in Taft-1, but never really managed to put it to use. [[spoiler: Captured Nazi occultists helped fuel Stalin's development of Azathothic power.]]

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The chapters dealing with example alternate timelines and time travel are respectively [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_His_Coy_Mistress "Worlds Enough..." "And Time"]].

For more information and tropes concerning several of the worlds (including Reich-5 and Centrum), also see ''TabletopGame/GURPSAlternateEarths''. For one setting within the Infinite Worlds framework that has received its own separate treatment, see ''TabletopGame/GURPSInfiniteWorldsBritannica6''.

** Merlin's another partially-awakened giant: a world with technology equal to that of our own Earth, but with access to advanced {{Magitek}} as well (in fact, the world of the ''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'' supplement). A blunder with Gate magic and Infinity's response to it made America's CIA aware of parachronics, and they've started spying on Homeline back (though Homeline is as of yet unaware of this); however, they are not necessarily hostile. More worrisome, [[ArgentinaIsNaziland the Condor Group Nazis in control of Argentina]] have made an alliance with Reich-5's Armanen.

** The ''Worlds of Horror'' supplement introduces another Sleeping Giant that is potentially far, '''''far''''' worse: Taft-1. Both Infinity and Centrum think that the point of divergence is Truman's early death and the election of Robert A. Taft in 1948. [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos It's]] [[CosmicHorrorStory not]].

* CosmicHorrorStory: There's hints of this in the margin. In particular, [[spoiler: the power of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos not only transcends time and space, but local physical laws. Azathoth's power can be called on ''anywhere'', even mana-dead worlds]]. This has disturbing implications for the Infinite Worlds, to say the least.

* TheWorldAsMyth: There are more than a few parallels based on explicitly fictional settings, called "myth parallels."

* DidntSeeThatComing: Infinity completely missed a trick on Roma Aeterna. Infinity's intelligence indicated that Centrum would probably have to deal with their usual issue of only speaking English natively, which would make it harder to penetrate Roman society. ''That'' was incorrect; while English is the only living language on Centrum, they had plenty of old-timer families who knew classical Latin and Greek. As a result, Centrum has infiltrated Rome much more thoroughly than Infinity expected.

* SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility: Varies from relatively plausible timelines with minor changes from OTL (e.g. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died The Day the Music Died]] never happens and several music greats are less self-destructive, so they all continue to make music well past when they would have otherwise), to relatively unlikely histories (e.g. a Nazi WW2 victory resulting from an isolationist USA) to very implausible (e.g. early invention of printing press leads to Muslim interplanetary colonization by the 1600s) to extreme AlienSpaceBats (e.g. Newton invents alchemy, summons an angel to destroy the Spanish armada, and Europe fights space battles over the celestial spheres). And then there's the United States of Lizardia, which is just [[JokeLevel plain silly]].

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Centrum is explicitly called out as finding the concept of discrimination based on race and gender very strange. They're a little more lenient on social divisions, but that's because they're [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority meritocrats]]. (They also have an unconscious bias towards the English language and culture.)

*** Johnson Crosstime, Inc. ended up taking over Rome-2 because Infinity didn't read the fine print on his business license. By the time they realized what he was doing, the situation had become insane enough that they threw up their hands and ratified his buyout of the Roman Empire (luckily for the locals, he's a fairly BenevolentBoss and a human rights advocate; slavery is already beginning to be phased out over a millenium in advance thanks to him).

Something that looks like TimeTravel combined with [[AlternateUniverse alternative world]] hopping. ''GURPS: Infinite Worlds'' is the default TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} 4th edition setting, loosely inspired by Creator/HBeamPiper's "Literature/{{Paratime}}" novels. The successor to the Third Edition sourcebook ''GURPS Time Travel'' and its supplement ''TabletopGame/GURPSAlternateEarths''.

** Centrum and Homeline do a ''LOT'' of this, as often as not as a part of their ongoing conflict. Centrum promotes an ideology of a meritocratic, rationalist OneWorldOrder in more advanced worlds, or outright colonization of more primitive timelines. Infinity's less picky; they largely want trading partners for White Star, "benevolent guidance" in favor of peace and human rights, and most importantly to keep anyone else from developing parachronics.

* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: Neither Infinity nor Centrum quite view people from other worldlines as real people. Among other things, it notes that some Homeline filmmakers have taken to filming real battles on other worldlines with thousands of people dying to use as footage in their historical epics.

* ThoseWackyNazis: There are six known parallels with Nazi Germany victorious to some degree, most notably Reich-5, where a subfaction of the Nazi apparatus have discovered parachronic travel and joined the war across the Worlds. Taft-2 downplays this, in that Nazi Germany survived until 1949, at which point [[InSpiteOfANail the Wehrmacht knocked Himmler off]].

** Possibly Infinity's greatest handicap in its parachronic operations (especially compared to the mostly unified front Centrum presents) is that a LOT of Homeline's various governments, corporations, [=NGOs=], and even criminal groups have access to parachronic tech (legally or otherwise) and use it to push their often wildly conflicting agendas across the parallel worlds. Consequently, a lot of their ressources are tied up monitoring, policing and otherwise cat-herding all these groups.

** Even the most routine trips and missions to Tsarevich tend to be so fraught with unpredictable problems and complications (up to and including outtimers and Patrolmen involuntarily becoming GothicHorror monsters and villains) that the phenomenon is known as the "Tsarevich Curse" by Infinity personel, not helped by the worldline's main hotspot being [[{{Uberwald}} the region in and around the Balkans]]. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to Homeline, this is due to interaction between parachronic radiation and the fragments of a prehistoric meteorite reality shard.]]

** The ''Worlds of Horror'' supplement introduces another Sleeping Giant that is potentially far, '''''far''''' worse: Taft-1. Both Infinity and Centrum think that the point of divergence is Truman's early death and the election of Robert A. Taft in 1948. [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos It's not]].

* PatrioticFervor: This is a major pain in the ass for Infinity. Every major power on Homeline wants to support its parallel selves, even if they're kind of nasty (Infinity isn't allowed to mess with Bonaparte-4's France because Homeline's France is blocking it) or if their actions endanger the Secret (such as Russian involvement in the Reichsostland). This does ''not'' apply to the Reich or Imperial Japan; Homeline Germany actually has plans to invade the former on Reich-5, and Japan has no fondness for the latter except in [[ZombieApocalypse exceptional circumstances]].

* SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility: Varies from relatively plausible timelines with minor changes from OTL, to relatively unlikely histories (e.g. a Nazi WW2 victory resulting from a cooperative USA) to very implausible (e.g. early invention of printing press leads to Muslim interplanetary colonization by the 1600s) to extreme AlienSpaceBats (e.g. Newton invents alchemy, summons an angel to destroy the Spanish armada, and Europe fights space battles over the celestial spheres). And then there's the United States of Lizardia, which is just [[JokeLevel plain silly]].

* SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility: Varies from relatively plausible timelines with minor changes from OTL, to relatively unlikely histories (e.g. a Nazi WW2 victory resulting from a cooperative USA) to very implausible (e.g. early invention of printing press leads to Muslim interplanetary colonization by the 1600s) to extreme ASB (e.g. Newton invents alchemy, summons an angel to destroy the Spanish armada, and Europe fights space battles over the celestial spheres)

* BrokenMasquerade: The wheels are starting to come off in Quantum 3. Reich-5 is out of the bottle (though their parachronics are limited to a GovernmentConspiracy within the declining Reich) and has begun invading other worlds, while due to the emergency circumstances of first penetration, Merlin's U.S. government has discovered Infinity and is in the process of trying to infiltrate Homeline back.

* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Centrum values human life and prosperity very highly. That is, they value the lives of ''all'' Centrans, and to a lesser extent outtimers, very highly, and if individual rights and lives have to be sacrificed for the greater good, that's simple practicality, and a rational person would be honored to make that sacrifice.