Welcome to Infinity

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The Files

The Characters

Meital Ben-Levy: A former Israeli soldier
Hope Adams: A technician on the run from the Mafia
Nicky Palmeretti: A former Mafia member and street fighter
Dexter Finn: An outtimer and troublemaker
Quincy Jones: An archeologist and academic

Campaign Synopsis

In an alternate 2027, a way to travel between parallel dimensions has been discovered. This technology is licensed out by Infinity Unlimited, a supranational corporation that oversees and polices “parachronic” travel.

However, another civilization capable of parachronic travel has been discovered—Centrum—that wishes to take worlds from Infinity, uniting them under its monolithic culture. To do this, Centrum has discovered a means of altering events on certain worlds, setting up a chain reaction that can literally cause worlds to become inaccessible to Infinity.

Infinity is always short on people. The campaign begins with the player characters as new recruits to Infinity, arriving at “the Academy” to undergo the training necessary to become a full agent. The first few sessions of the campaign will cover the events that occur at the academy over the course of training. Afterwards the player will graduate as full agents and receive their world assignment (specifically an “echo,” a world that mirrors historical Earth at some point in history).

The job of “penetration service, echo surveillance” agents contains a simple, broad mandate: “Protect your assigned world from outside interference, especially interference from Centrum agents or that could cause the world to become inaccessible. Most such worlds really ought to have a global network of agents communicating by ultrawave – keeping tabs, for instance, on every minor kingdom and caravan stop from Chichen Itza to Chang’an – but have to make do with overworked “circuit riders” who travel the Silk Road and other trade routes with a cargo of spices and an eye for the uncanny. The agents may have to deal with local crises from wars to plagues to suspicious Inquisitors, chasing down every rumor of sorcery or angels that sounds like a Centrum cover. Eventually, of course, one of those rumors may pan out, and the game becomes one of cat-and-mouse as the two sides choose their pawns and begin the contest in earnest.

Once characters have been assigned their (low-tech) world to protect, the campaign will primarily be the characters on that world, trying to keep their cover, pursuing rumors and leads that could possible be a cover for an off-world threat, and dealing such threats when they are found.

Setting History

The year is 2027. Thirty two years ago the former Dartmouth professor Dr. Paul Van Zandt built the first working parachronic projector -- a device that could send matter (including living matter) between dimensions. He concealed his discovery and six months later after a mysterious fire destroyed his laboratory, he resigned from teaching in order to set up a "consulting" firm. This freed up his time to further pursue his research without the oversight of academic, or the Department of Defense, which had supplied most of his former grant money.

In February of 1998 Van Zandt made headlines by publishing and formally incorporating Infinity Unlimited, with several subsidiaries. He then announced his intention of license his designs to any government or corporation interested in crossworld travel. This announcement created an outrage, with an immediate motion in the U.S. Congress to nationalize and classify all parachronic technology and simultaneous calls from the governments of Japan, the EU, China and Russia demanding its internationalization and suppression. The next day Van Zandt addressed a closed session of the U.N. Security Council. No one knows what he said, but the world powers accepted his proposal... within certain limits.

Infinity Unlimited was reincorporated as a corporation whose formal partners were the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Van Zandt retained his position as CEO, but half of the corporation's board were to be Security Council appointees. Early on Van Zandt won a victory by insisting that Infinity be "forced" to rely on its own profits for funding. The major powers agreed on this, believing that the limit on finding would serve as a cap on Infinity's power. However, the opposite ended up being true; with Infinity financially independent of the major powers, it ensured that they did not have financial leverage over the organization, while Infinity reaped the profits of its licensing.

The introduction of parachronic technology into society had profound economic and political repercussions. The discovery of worlds where human life never developed opened up entire worlds with untouched natural resources; this caused the cost of raw materials to plummet, as did the price of land, as similar worlds were also opened up to colonization. The environment of Homeline (the name coined for the original worldline of Van Zandt and this setting) began to slowly improve, as the worst industrial wastes and polluting industries could be moved offworld to otherwise dead and uninhabited worldlines -- in short, the wealth and quality of life for Homeline soared through the roof, as they brought in a glut of resources from alternate Earths.

All this lead to the concern about the exploitation to inhabited worldlines that might occur from licensees of parachronic technology. Thus, early on the United Nations Interworld Council (UNIC; a body set up by the United Nations Security Council to oversee their stake in Infinity Unlimited and consequently parachronic operations) brought before the board the proposition of "The Secret." Simply put, indigenous inhabitants of other worldlines were not to learn of the existence of other worlds or parachronic travel. The rest of the Infinity board readily agreed to this proposal. The effect of which was twofold: As long as the secret was kept, other worlds would not receive parachronic technology or knowledge, and thus wouldn't become competitors with Homeline for crossworld resources And it had the implicit effect of banning crossworld operations too large or exploitative enough to keep the secret on inhabited worldlines.

Even before the policy of “the Secret” took effect, Infinity Unlimited established its own security force. Known as the Infinity Patrol—or Patrol for short—it was charged with the task of monitoring parachronic operations and protecting the Secret. With the discovery of Centrum, it took on the task of protecting worlds from Centrum manipulation as well.

Things were going well—for the most part. But then a discovery was made that changed everything. There was another civilization out there capable of parachronic travel. This civilization—called Centrum by Infinity—existed just outside the reach of Infinity. And while Infinity could not reach Centrum directly, they both could reach a set of worlds located between them. The initial contact that was made between Centrum and Infinity was peaceful, as both groups had similar ideas about “protecting the Secret.” But then relations broke down: Centrum somehow caused a world formerly relatively close to Infinity to “shift quanta” and move out of Infinity's reach.

From Infinity's point of view this was Centrum stealing resources that belonged to Infinity and thus a quiet war by proxy was begun, as Centrum sent its agents into the mutually accessible worlds, with the goal of invoking some change that would shift the world out of the reach of Infinity, while Infinity sent its agents into those same worlds with the goal of preventing this (and perhaps finding out how Centrum was able to calculate what would cause worlds to shift in such a way).

The Situation Today

Today the conflict between Centrum and Homeline goes on. Infinity continues to produce more agents to be sent to the mutually accessible worlds, as Centrum continues to try to shift more worlds away. There are even rumors or another parachronic travel capable civilization entering the stage... Centrum's means of predicting what will shift worldlines is still a mystery to Infinity, however, considerable resources have been put into research, trying to discover their method.

Technological development on Homeline diverged sharply from our own Earth when Van Zandt invented the parachronic transfer in 1995. How sharp that divergence was, and whether there were any other previous divergences, are unsolved questions.

What even many Homeliners don’t appreciate is the change made in basic scientific progress by the accessibility of other timelines. Almost all the innovations a Homeliner thinks of as “parachronic spinoffs” – fusion plants, wrist-top weblinks, the leukemia cure, and even Mango Spredd – are actually thefts from other worlds’ scientific establishments. The brilliant cancer and AIDS researchers of the 1990s, for example, took fat Infinity consulting contracts to vet other worlds’ cures, only sporadically attempting to integrate decades of parallel researches into Homeline’s own publications database. Similar effects occurred in almost every science; the sheer magnitude of the task discourages many scientists from even trying to master whole libraries of new scientific data, especially when other worlds may not quite have the same quantum setup Homeline does, so their results may not be reproducible. Finally, why bother working 15 years to perfect a vaccine or algorithm when Infinity could bring it home, already licensed and commercially proven, next week?

For game purposes, Homeline is a mature TL8 with a few TL9 pockets. True AIs, for example, remain purely theoretical, although several expert research systems exist to harvest, sort, and handle data. Homeline’s space program is static, devoted to upkeeping satelites rather than terraforming Mars or settling orbital space. Cars are safer, faster, more energy-efficient and better looking than 1998 models, but only their fuel cells (adapted from Lenin-3 models) are TL9. Fusion power, microtech factories, and genetic therapy are all TL9 in effect, but a very “safetech” TL9 that hasn’t bled back into the society at large outside the hospital. Whole-body cloning, artificial wombs, designer babies, and even wide-scale bionics remain controversial and undeveloped. Organ and limb cloning, healing, and general medicine and trauma care can be considered TL9. Weapons are still mature TL8. Laser rifles have yet to reliably outperform the M-23 assault rifle in testing, balky and experimental battlesuits are less practical than tanks, and the “smart spaceplane” remains on the drawing board.

Worldlines and Classifications

Infinity knows of several hundred worlds spread throughout 8-dimensional space in a pattern that is almost predictable. These worlds are divided between a number of different “energy levels,” or quanta. It is easy to reach a world on the same quanta, hard to travel outside your own quanta. Homeline is on Quantum 5 (Q5). Infinity can reach Q4 and Q6 fairly easily and can reach Q3 and Q7 with difficulty. Q2 and below, and Q8 and above are inaccessible. Centrum is located on Q8 and can reach Q7 and Q9 fairly easily, and Q6 and Q10 with difficulty.

Infinity Unlimited divides different worlds into various classes based on their similarity to Homeline and properties. The different classes are as follows:

Empty: These worlds contain no native intelligent life. They are free for exploration and typical uses include colonization, industry and hunting preserves.

Echoes: These worlds exactly resemble Homeline at some point in the past. For example, they are may be exactly like Homeline was in 1492 or some other year. Echoes are usually restricted to Infinity agents or specifically licences research expeditions. This is because Echos may be vulnerable to quanta shifting, in which history is changed and the world becomes a parallel instead of an echo. Echoes vary in a property known as “parachronic inertia,” which is a measurement of how hard it is to change history in the world. Low inertia worlds can take dramatix swings away from Homeline history at the flap of a butterfly's wings; high inertia worlds always seem to try to keep correcting history to make it follow Homeline's more closely. High inertia worlds are also known as anchors.

Parallels: These are worlds that have diverged from the course of “known” history at some point. They are varied and are divided into several subcategories.

Close Parallels: A close parallel is a world very much like Homeline's history, but with small differences, such as: a world where Buddy Holly's plane didn't crash and he later went into politics.

Far Parallels: These worlds varied from Homeline history at some point, but are significantly different, such as: the Mongol invasion of Europe crushed European and Islamic civilization by the end of the Middle Ages.

Weird Parallels: These worlds are similar to Homeline in some way, but differ in a way that is strange or unbelievable. For example, a world where intelligent reptilian descendants of the dinosaurs have formed a civilization that mirrors our contemporary one. These parallels are also known to include strange forces.

Of the following world types, close parallels and echoes are by far the most common, with empty worlds and far parallels being second most common. Weird parallels (and several smaller sub-types of worlds not mentioned here) are relatively rare, but a couple dozen are known.

Homeline's parachronic technology is based around the parachronic conveyor and the parachronic projector. A conveyor is an enclosed device capable of emitting a parachronic field. Travelers climb into the conveyor and travel with the conveyor between worlds. Conveyor trips are cheap, but can only travel between worlds within the same quanta. Projectors, on the other hand, are large installations the size of gymnasiums that can send conveyors housed within them across different quanta. Projectors do not come with the traveler across worlds, but remain where they are installed. Projectors can also be set to intercept conveyors that are trying to jump into the projector from across quanta—although this requires things to be done from the projector side of the jump. Projector use is relatively expensive.

Parachronic Theory

In 1957, Dr. Hugh Everett III came up with the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, as a way to resolve the paradoxes of the Privileged Observer and such thought experiments as Schrödinger’s Cat. The Privileged Observer (according to the rival Copenhagen Interpretation) is the observer who causes the quantum wave function to “collapse” into particles with location and speed and other characteristics while under observation. Schrödinger’s Cat is inside a box with a vial of deadly poison that will break when a given atom decays and releases an alpha particle, killing the cat. Since quantum-mechanically, the atom might or might not release a particle at the instant of decay, the cat is famously half-alive and half-dead in the Copenhagen Interpretation – until the Privileged Observer opens the box and “collapses” the cat into either the alive or dead state.

According to Everett’s interpretation, every quantum “choice” creates two worlds, two timelines. In one, the observer sees a live cat. In the other, the observer sees a dead cat. There is no Privileged Observer, because both outcomes occurred – just not in the same universe. Every single decision, every single atomic flow or switch, creates another worldline. Initially, the Many Worlds Interpretation held that information (and therefore energy, and therefore, matter) could never pass between worlds. However, string theory in the 1960s, and strange experimental results showing seemingly instantaneous “dipole communication” in the next decades, made it seem theoretically possible.

Van Zandt’s discoveries did not actually solve the question. Although he discovered many worlds, they weren’t of the infinite “one photon displaced” variety the orthodox Many Worlds Interpretation predicts. Instead, they were like “knots” in the superstring – places where the potential fog of alternatives “collapses” into actual worlds. Further, these “knots” bunched up into different “energy levels” that Van Zandt dubbed the quantum levels, or quanta.

Thus, parachronics actually managed to combine Everett’s theory with an empirical Privileged Observer – the parachronic traveler. And that, with minor mathematical fillips, is where the theory remains even now, with nobody satisfied, and with some radical theorists proposing that a kind of Observer Effect holds for parallel worlds, or that the expectations of the traveler have some effect on his destination.

Precisely how the infinite worlds vary and interrelate remains a tangle. Most of the fundamental physical constants remain the same, but some differ wildly while somehow not reducing the universe to quantum fog. It’s difficult to make valid crosstime theories work, in large part because physical laws don’t seem to hold constant across the continuum. Not only are there worlds where strange forces collectively dubbed “magic” works, or where the luminiferous ether exists, there are innumerable subtle variations down to the level of individual electrons. Other changes don’t seem to make any real sense, or exist in isolation when they should affect the entire system of physical constants. For example, there are two worlds in which the speed of light is measurably greater by some half of a percent, and one in which it is less by almost a full percent.

The only universal difference is that the second is nanofractionally slower on all known inhabited worldlines except three: Homeline, Centrum, and Shikaku-Mon. (This implies that Shikaku-Mon could, if it discovered the theory, build parachronic projectors; This does nothing for Security Division’s peace of mind.) This divergence has been true on all worldlines for approximately 3.5 billion years, roughly (and possibly randomly) coinciding with the emergence of organic life on Homeline. Theoretical paraphysics is split between two schools, the “gradualist” and the “catastrophist,” mirroring the intellectual divisions in the early history of geology and biology. In the gradualist or “naturalist” view, the alternate worlds were inevitable, or have always existed, or are a natural outgrowth of the Big Bang, which emitted all the alternate universes along with all the matter and energy in Homeline’s universe. Gradualist theory depends on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which quantum uncertainty is explained by postulating an infinity of worlds existing simultaneously at every decision point down to the subatomic level. If this theory is true, then any seeming irregularities in the continuum must be observational. What Infinity calls “parallels,” for instance, are merely clusters of historical or paraphysical probability; echoes are simply parallels with a different charge, and once their proper quantum is fully observed (in faultless Heisenbergian fashion), they “move” into it.

All of Infinity’s theories rest on Van Zandt’s original notion of an 8-dimensional superspace containing a single quantum “axis” and many, many worlds. However, this may just be “locally true,” like Newtonian physics. The topology of reality quakes presumes a 9-dimensional matrix, for example. Rumors of completely alien travelers encountered during conveyor mishaps, the infamous “frog error” that seems to knot 8-space around on itself, and other weird empirical data such as the Möbius worldline also cast doubt on the “limited infinity” notion. Every so often, the parachronic detection antennae at Woomera pick up signals and pings from impossibly distant quanta – for four minutes in 2025, the computers all insisted that conveyors were arriving from Quantum 93!

Although Paralabs physicists have decided that echoes drift into the accessible band from other quanta, there’s little evidence for this thesis – there are no reports of echoes “passing through” Quanta 5 or 7, for example. Some radical mathematicians believe that the echoes (and possibly many high-inertia parallels such as Ezcalli) come from other worldline axes outside or “perpendicular to” the quantum field as understood.

Infinity Unlimited

The Infinity Patrol, like all of Infinity, is specifically chartered by the U.N. Security Council. It has a unified command with an existence independent of any given mission, and so resembles a private security force more than a multinational peacekeeping task force. In practice, the Patrol is a supranational paramilitary agency under Infinity’s control, dedicated to protecting Homeline, The Secret, Infinity, and the unknowing innocents of other worlds, in roughly that order. Patrol facilities, like all Infinity property, are considered “U.N. soil,” and cannot be searched or seized without violating international law. By its charter, it must “keep the peace, and preserve the smooth operation of interdimensional travel for the good of all mankind.” This translates, for Infinity Unlimited and the Patrol alike, as “ride herd on everyone else with a conveyor, keep Homeline problems on Homeline, and do well by doing good in the meantime.”

This was hard enough when the Patrol thought itself alone in the continuum, but nine years ago, Corporate Security captured an intruder in a secret Infinity facility on the Quantum 6 world Turkana. He turned out to be from another cross-dimensional paramilitary organization, the Interworld Service, of a crosstime civilization called Centrum. Centrum was aggressive, competent, and devoted to spreading its own hierarchical system across the worlds. Fortunately, Centrum was on Quantum 8; it could not reach Homeline and neither could Homeline reach Centrum. The quanta between became battlegrounds, especially the Q6 “echoes,” worlds that mirrored Homeline history exactly. Centrum could, and did, shift many of those echoes out of Quantum 6 and into quanta inaccessible to Homeline! The conflict had begun, and the Patrol had a new set of missions.

Technically, all parachronic equipment in existence is the property of Infinity Unlimited, and the Infinity Patrol has the right (and duty) to supervise its use. In theory, every conveyor from a two-ton “tramp trader” to a stealthed CIA insertion capsule falls under the Patrol’s jurisdiction, and the Patrol can ask to see its hardwired service record (giving the time and parachronic coordinates of every jump a unit makes) without cause or reason. If something doesn’t smell right, it can investigate – and if the investigation warrants, Infinity can revoke a parachronic license or even confiscate and destroy equipment. With conveyor and projector traffic approaching tens or even hundreds of thousands of trips per day, the Patrol’s job is never easy.

These ever-expanding tasks strain Infinity’s time and attention more than its pocketbook. Infinity management still only has 24 hours in every day to attend to and supervise events on hundreds of worlds. Expert systems, streamlined decision making, and ruthless policy triage only go so far. Infinity has to allow Patrol agents broad discretion – they simply don’t have the time to second-guess Patrolmen or make tactical decisions upstairs. The same time pressures work on the Patrol’s 60,000 personnel (10,000 of whom are full-time field agents), forcing the Patrol to prize initiative, creativity, and independent problem-solving over all other factors. Patrol recruits enter a “sink or swim” world where one decision can save millions (even billions) of lives or dollars. Only true catastrophes result in active oversight – and disasters usually kill Patrolmen who make stupid decisions.

But even with the incentive of initiative, staffing remains an ongoing problem for the Patrol. In the rich and comfortable Homeline created by Infinity Unlimited, not a lot of people volunteer to risk their lives . . . much less spend years on end in backwater parallels without fusion power or dentistry, even for a fairly handsome paycheck. Increasingly, Infinity turns to outworld recruiting on those timelines where they can manage it without revealing The Secret. Outtimers, after all, are used to crummy working conditions, danger, and filth – they live there.

Infinity encourages a mix of experiences in its individual Patrolmen. Corporate policy favors Patrolmen with a broad, multibranch background over “timeservers” and “stair-climbers” who move up the ranks in a single branch, or even a single service. Infinity’s board refuses to consider candidates for Patrol Director, or any executive rank, without several years’ experience in both the Scouts and the I-Cops. Although this creates discontinuities and duplication of effort, it prevents (or at least mitigates) bureaucratic empire-building and encourages well-rounded, lateral thinking at all levels of the Patrol.

The Academy

Located on the shores of the glacial Lake Agassiz (in the equivalent of Homeline South Dakota), in the Pleistocene parallel Mammut-1, the Infinity Academy trains every new agent accepted into the Patrol. Each year’s class begins in mid-September with about 650 cadets; the rigors of training whittle the average graduating class down to about 400. This is barely enough to stay ahead of the current death, retirement, injury, and disappearance rate of existing Patrolmen, but Commandant al-Wahid (a Special Ops veteran who lost her right arm) refuses to ease up on the Academy regimen. The Academy trains both Intervention and Penetration Service agents, and although it is officially a division of Intervention, its faculty remains rigorously neutral in any turf wars between the services.

All cadets begin with a three month “basic training” program emphasizing stamina, decision-making while fatigued or stressed, and basic Patrol combat and weapons drills. (These emphasize surprise, subtlety, and teamwork.) After dinner, coursework on the basics of parachronics, languages, and global history fills a cadet’s time until lights out. In their scanty free time, cadets play intramural sports from a wide variety of worldlines.. The unofficial line between “basic” and “advanced” training is Sleepout: an unannounced midnight alert that picks up four to seven cadets at a time (depending on class size) and drops them a couple of hundred miles away from the Academy to find their way back through sabertooth country. With only what they were wearing and carrying five minutes after waking up. In December. In an Ice Age.

The Academy rewards survivors with a week around New Year’s (universally called “Spring Break” despite the timing) to do what they like in Johnson’s Rome or another freewheeling but primitive world – which is another test. Cadets who can’t adjust to other cultural mores, who treat outtimers with contempt or condescension, who reveal high-tech devices, or who are stupid enough to fall for the badger game get weeded out of the Academy upon their return. If a cadet makes it past Sleepout and Spring Break, he is considered a Patrolman. Perhaps not an agent yet – but someone worth investing more time and money in.

The rest of the winter is more physical training – long marches across the glacier, mammoth hunts with equipment from a variety of tech levels – interspersed with applied parachronics, the care and feeding of conveyors, and still more history and language courses. Weapons drill gets more complex, and there are “practice surveys” of mostly mapped (and mostly harmless) worldlines. The work keeps piling on, and the team sports take a break.

In the spring, “aptitude training” begins; the Patrol needs too many skills from too few people to build complete generalists. (This is part of why Patrol training emphasizes teamwork so much.) Infinity can hire the foremost experts on any topic: aikijutsu, wine tasting, archery, or dance. Team sports come back with the warm weather. The last week is “Finals,” during which the graduates prepare a lengthy, specific report analyzing shortcomings in the Academy and their training. No cadet can be flunked for his report – the only failing grade is for turning in nothing. On Graduation Day, the cadets parade in formation for the last time, receive their commissions and duty assignments, and ship out into the multiverse, entitled to wear the blue and black of the Patrol. A week later, the new class comes in.

Practice and Protocol

Once a parallel has been classified as an echo – an exact duplicate of Homeline history vulnerable to timeline shifting – the Patrol turns it over to Echo Surveillance Division. This division has the unenviable task of monitoring all potential crisis points in the echo’s current affairs for signs of Centrum involvement, or for other changes that might shift the echo out of place. Depending on the change potential and TL of an echo, a given world might have one team or more. Most echoes really ought to have a global network of agents communicating by ultrawave – keeping tabs, for instance, on every minor kingdom and caravan stop from Chichen Itza to Chang’an – but have to make do with overworked “circuit riders” who travel the Silk Road and other trade routes with a cargo of spices and an eye for the uncanny.

Agents—once they receiving their worldline to monitor—are given great leeway in how to handle situations that arise. Infinity values creative thinking and initiative on the part of its operatives and is even willing to look the other way to minor infringements and abuses of the Patrol code of conduct—so long as the agents are doing their job and not committing too flamboyant violations of the Secret or too many unethical acts.

Assignments to patrol specific worlds usually last for a duration of several years, after which the agents receives all his accumulated pay and some time off. Sometimes in a crisis, assignments may change in the middle of that duration of time or the agents may be pulled away from the world for a time if sudden, extremely important manpower is needed elsewhere.

Given the conflicting imperatives of keeping The Secret and influencing outtime locals, much thought and effort goes into providing Infinity agents with solid cover while on operations in parallel worlds. Necessary documents, travel passes, forged currency, and so forth are the responsibility of the Document Section of the Penetration Service (a cross-divisional unit staffed by the Intelligence, Records and Research, and Technical Analysis divisions). Planting actual identities in offworld data banks, maintaining safe houses and bank accounts, and other local jobs fall to whichever Service runs the main Infinity station on the parallel (if the Scouts, usually the Intelligence Division; if the I-Cops, usually Security Division).

The actual nature of the cover varies by milieu and TL. In low-TL societies, up to TL2 or 3, agents can pass themselves off as travelers from a faraway kingdom, as magicians (this is harder on worlds where magic actually works), or as emissaries from the gods. Some of these stories also work in post-disaster milieus. In societies at TL4 or 5, Patrol personnel have to either invent secret societies to belong to, or suborn existing guilds, orders, or groups (or at least individual lodges or churches). Once nation-states have monopolized power, usually by TL5, Homeline agents have to begin the careful game of claiming to be spies or agents from different nations, hoping to avoid close cross-checking. This, however, makes getting the cooperation of a local government more difficult, and often forces Patrolmen to work through less-than-ideal local cutouts. Impersonating the home government’s spies or secret police is the best possible cover, but is fraught with danger.

In very bureaucratic governments (which began by TL2 in China and Rome), Patrolmen can often claim to be from another government department or a far province . . . or from the capital, if they are operating in a far province. If they can present the right credentials, and use the right tone of voice, this is often sufficient for short-term operations. Over a longer term, such a cover is always in danger of collapsing. In some cases, it might be possible to claim to be time travelers, or even aliens – presenting advanced Homeline technology as “proof.”

All high-tech outtime equipment contains fingerprint locks keyed to the Patrol team (they can be reset in the field, but only by a pre-programmed user). Attempting to open or use such devices without fingerprint access activates a self-destruct charge that implodes and slags the device. Patrol radios can also send a “slag now” signal to any or all devices; they destroy themselves automatically after 48 hours without a “keep alive” signal. Some equipment has even more stringent security, as noted in the descriptions.

Centrum

Infinity knows less about Centrum than Infinity would like. Since Centrum is located in Quantum 8, it is outside the direct access of Infinity and thus Infinity's spies. Most of what is publicly known about Centrum is below.

Centrum is the only human timeline other than Homeline to independently develop parachronic technology. It is also Homeline’s fiercest enemy. Centran agents intrigue against the Infinity Patrol across the dimensions, and will settle for nothing less than total domination of the infinite worlds. Only in unity, Centrum believes, is there safety and order.

It is believed that in Centrum's history there was a cataclysmic war sometime in the very early 20th century that Centrum's society and depopulated the globe. The war left scattered survivors, and the society that is now Centrum began in the ruins of the war, convinced that it was the disunity and conflict of cultural values that brought about the mass destruction. With the rise of Centrum civilization to prominence, the civilization began to work towards rebuilding its globe, unifying the remnants of its culture and building a self-consciously rational meritocratic society.

Centrum is a regimented meritocracy: all citizens enter the Service for which they have most aptitude and inclination, to be promoted strictly by talent and achievement. Each adult citizen belongs to one of seven grades, corresponding to a specific rank within his Service. Everyone starts as a Grade 1 citizen, and nepotism is discouraged by common opinion (as well as being illegal); people are supposed to rise on their own merits.

The Services have individual regulations about the meanings of the different grades: some are more overtly hierarchical than others. Command privileges never cross Service lines, but lower-grade citizens generally defer to higher ones socially. (The exception: any Grade 7 can command someone not of his Service as though he were a Grade 5 in that Service.) All citizens must display a badge giving their name, grade, Service, and personal ID number. Most Services also have a uniform their members wear while on duty; Interworld’s are crimson and midnight blue.

All parachronic travel is technically the province of the Interworld Service, and it runs all of Centrum’s parachronic stations. In practice it delegates much of the routine transport among the safe zones to the various industrial Services, but otherwise jealously guards its monopoly. Calling in the Military Service, although sometimes necessary, is a serious black mark against an I.S. agent; this can give a bad situation a chance to get far out of control.

The Interworld Service maintains its own enforcers in order to avoid such embarrassments, and trains its scouts and covert agents for combat. (That said, the main I.S. weapons are the stunner and the needler; there is a strong cultural predisposition toward subtlety within Interworld.) The I.S. values finesse as well as ordinary success, and encourages the use of local resources. Its agents are supposed to take a long view, which accounts for their preference for secrecy and infiltration over quick-and-dirty interference: they want to maintain maximum freedom of action.

The official language of Centrum is English, which sounds like a heavily accented version of Homeline English, with a rather larger number of French loan-words. As part of the drive to global cultural unity, the Centrum deliberately wiped out all other languages (a project which had begun, to some extent, under the old Imperial dynasty). If any families have retained fluency, they have certainly learned to hide it. The only exceptions are Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, still studied by classical scholars and theologians. Apart from such specialized cul-de-sacs, Centrum never even developed a true science of linguistics – an omission that has hampered Centrum operations almost as much as the lack of native speakers.

Other Hazards

Not all the dangers between the worlds are human, or even sentient. Simply traveling the continuum can be a harrowing experience, especially without a handy conveyor. Charting these hazards and their effects remains an inexact science. Surveyors can determine deformations of the physical landscape, and map them to field strengths of various quantum energies. Paraphysicists, meteorologists, and geologists find their disciplines merging as the connections between physical and paraphysical phenomena teasingly flit through the available theories and data. Pure mathematicians offer helpful comments on catastrophe and chaos theory, and rather less helpful comments about “nonbirational mappings.”

Although the worlds vary widely, they are all still worlds, and usually Earths. The spaces between the worlds, however, can be anything at all – or nothing at all. The most common experience of the space between Earths, for the Infinity Patrol anyway, is nothing. (For which they are profoundly thankful.) If it’s working correctly, a conveyor simply vanishes from one point and reappears instantaneously at the same point on another Earth. Whether it travels through a microwormhole at billions of times the speed of light, or simply transposes itself like an electron when nobody’s looking, or ravels down the superstrings that knot the Earths together beneath even the quantum level, nobody knows for sure. The math explains it all three ways, depending on which figures you emphasize. If the “jump space” that conveyors transit has any characteristics, they don’t show up on Infinity’s instruments.

The other type of space between the Earths that the Patrol has encountered so far is “the Current,” a rushing flow of charged particles that runs “back” from Homeline through all other worlds. (Centrum may also generate a Current of its own.) Paralabs calls these “oz particles,” after the twister that took Dorothy Gale to another world in The Wizard of Oz. Powerful eddies of the Current roil around some worlds; travel to or from those worlds by any means is always at -1 or more to skill.

The Current mostly appears on the various Earths in the form of banestorms, which are properties of its much more massive and dangerous flow. Although only a few especially hardened Patrol conveyors have breached the Current (entering through larger and more stable banestorms), it may be possible for other vehicles to somehow ride it between the worlds. With conveyors so much easier and less dangerous, Paralabs hasn’t put too much effort into designing an “oz ship,” although the threat of some barbarian crosstime culture descending onto Homeline in oz-riding vessels does preoccupy a few UNIC planners.

A “banestorm” is a localized event that transports everyone within a certain area to another dimension or worldline. Most often circular, banestorms range in size from a few yards to a few miles across. Within an atmosphere, a banestorm tends to manifest as a thick fog bank, mysterious thundercloud, or heavy electrical storm that builds up slowly and vanishes suddenly. When the banestorm vanishes, so does everyone within its radius. These “passengers” reappear . . . elsewhere. Banestorms do not necessarily send their passengers to the equivalent spot in their world. With the oz charge they carry, banestorms often have a major effect not only on the unfortunates caught up in them and the countryside through which they plow, but the quantum field around the Earth they strike.

A reality quake (or, as Paralabs prefers to call it, an “ontoclysm”) creates such an upheaval in the path of time or worlds that history itself is upthrust and overturned, leaving a new past in its wake. Not just history can change in a reality quake, of course. The laws of nature and physics can alter.

Much as an earthquake leaves breaks in the strata and fractures in the geology, or flings up material from deep in the earth onto the surface, a reality quake leaves breaks in civilization or fractures in the historical record. It can also and fling up anomalous fragments of other realities – “reality shards” – into the new/old past. After each shift, only the reality shards remain, and the fossilized traces of the previous reality survive only in the subconscious mind and myths of surviving cultures, and in the strange artifacts rejected by the inhabitants as oddities or forgeries. Many reality shards show up in multiple versions on more than one Earth.

Patrolmen who find reality shards are supposed to bring them to Paralabs for study. However, given their weird, anomalous effects on conveyors (and Patrolmen!), they are often “accidentally” left behind in hidden caches, or (if seemingly lucky or useful) “accidentally” left off the incident report.

Reality shards tend to give anomalous readings under scientific testing, especially carbon-14 or thermoluminescence dating. Many seem to be palpable forgeries, “given away” by their anachronistic composition, construction, or artistic technique. Paralabs nervously admits that on some Earths, they might cause reality quakes!

The fracture zone is the “epicenter” of the reality quake, a location in space-time usually a few square miles and around six days in extent. After the quake, it technically becomes a “reality subduction zone” where the old reality is “sucked under” the new one. In practice, everyone calls the area a fracture zone regardless, issues of chronology being what they often are around reality quakes.

Finally there are parachronozoids. These are rare creatures that seem to have an innate parachronic ability. How and why these creatures get their world-traveling abilities or where they come from is unknown to Infinity, but parachronozoids are extremely varied in appearance and ability.

Character Creation

Player characters are—in general—assumed to be capable citizens of Homeline who—for whatever reason—have chosen as a career move to apply (and were accepted) for a fairly dangerous job that requires full-time immersion in a (probably low-tech) backwater world without proper sanitization, modern luxuries or dental work (for years at a time, no less). That stated, you are responsible for creating a character who fits that situation and who would reasonably be in such a position.

Characters are to be built on 75 points, however, keep in mind that their point value will increase significantly during the first few sessions.
Characters may have up to -30 points total in disadvantages, bought down attributes and quirks.
Characters may not start with an attribute above 13 or below 9; these may be bought above this limit during play.
We are playing with the Divorced Will house rule, which means that Will is not based on IQ, but instead are bought up from 10 separately.
Characters may begin with no more than 4 points in a skill.
All characters gain Luck (Points) 3 [15] on top of their 75 points.

Character Advancement

In general, players should expect to gain somewhere between four and six character points per session.
Sometimes non character point awards may be given out in addition to or in place of the normal character points awarded for the session.
Character points should be spent on things that can be justified through play; the GM reserves the right to veto character point expenditure.
Only one level of any given skill or advantage can be purchased at a time.
In addition to normal character advancement, for the first few sessions characters will receive special advancement for training (described below).

Character Niches & Niche Protection

The Infinite Worlds setting doesn’t have as well defined character archetypes (within the Patrol) as do settings such as Deadlands or Dragonlance. Still, carving out a character’s niche (the benefit the character brings to the group, etc.) can be important. That stated, I have implemented a form of niche protection that both defines character niches in terms of Wildcard skills and protects a character’s niche to an extent.

Every player character will have a niche Wildcard skill. We will talk about the Wildcard skills available and they will be selected during the character creation session. Once a player has a Wildcard skill as her niche, no other player character may take that Wildcard skill—it is “protected.” In addition, each character may take another Wildcard skill (if desired) as a secondary Wildcard skill. No player character may have more than two Wildcard skills. It would be wise, before you commit yourself to a particular niche Wildcard, to think about the role it might play in the game and whether it would be exciting to you to play.

Additionally, I am house ruling that component skills of the Wildcard skills can be bought up from the value of the Wildcard as if the Wildcard was a default for that skill. For example, The Detective! Skill includes Shadowing. Shadowing is normally bought up from DX. If it would be better, a character with the Detective! Skill can be bought up from Detective! instead of DX, just like other skill defaults.

The different Wildcard skills that are available (equating roughly to one per niche) are as follows:

Academics! (IQ): This wildcard skill covers the academic areas of the social sciences and the humanities. For the physical sciences, take the Science! Wildcard skill. Fiction is filled with characters who know a cinematicly wide scope of history, anthropology and other such fields. This wildcard skill can be substituted for any such Anthropology, Archeology, History, Geography, Literature roll, etc.

Detective! (Per): It can often be useful to find out things that others want hidden. This skill covers the various detective work and can be used in place of Forensics, Criminology, Interrogation, Shadowing, Disguise, Streetwise, etc.

Doctor! (IQ): Any team that might acquire physical injuries probably needs someone to patch them up. This skill covers Diagnosis, First Aid, Veterinary, Physician, Physiology, etc.

Melee! (DX): This wildcard skill covers one approach to the combat specialist niche. Melee weapons are very versatile weapons that come in many forms and in almost all worlds aren't so technologically advanced as to endanger the secret, meaning they can be used openly. This skill can be used for swords, axes, maces, etc.

Projectile! (DX): The final approach to the combat specialist, this skill covers projectile weapons, from bows, to guns to blow darts.

Science! (IQ): This wildcard skill covers the physical sciences and can be used for their various skill rolls, including Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Cryptography, Metallurgy, etc.

Social! (IQ): Every patrolman is expected to be able to convincingly protect the Secret, but some people specialize in socializing and manipulating others. This skill can be substituted for Diplomacy, Intimidation, Carousing, Detect Lies (based on Per) and Body Language (also Per).

Survival! (Per): This skill is the cinematic ability to be able to survive in the wild. It includes Survival, Tracking, Naturalist, Hunting, Fishing, etc.

Technician! (IQ): The ability to use and fix things can be extremely useful. This wildcard skill can be used in place of Electronics Operation, Electronics Repair, Mechanic, Engineering, Computer Operation, Computer Repair, etc.

Advancement During Academy Training

As this campaign begins by telling the story of a group of people who have entered the training academy for the Time Scouts, there will be special advancement for the first few sessions to represent skills and abilities acquired through the training program. For the purposes of characters creation and planning, what may be acquired during training has been included here, although characters may not be aware of the specifics initially.

Training is broken down into three major units: basic training, advanced training and world training. After each unit a character will be granted a number of points in the various things listed below as chosen during that session.

Basic Training: You gain 10 points to spend on attributes (attributes can be raised to a max of 13). You gain 8 points to spend among a number of skills depending on your course of study chosen in the academy. You gain 12 points in your niche wildcard skill (see above).

Advanced Training: You gain 10 points to spend on attributes (attributes can be raised to a max of 13). You gain 8 points to spend among a number of skills depending on your course of study chosen in the academy. You gain another 12 points in your niche wildcard skill.

World Training: You gain 12 points to put into languages spoken on your assigned world. You gain 1 cultural familiarity for that world, 1 point in History, 1 point in Area Knowledge and 1 point in Current Events for that world. Finally, on graduation from the Academy you gain a Duty to the Patrol and Patrol Rank 1.

Note: Character points put into an attribute or skill that are not enough to immediately raise that trait, are put into a special pool that remains until you have enough character to pay the rest of the points needed for that trait. It should be noted that the training grants increases to attributes and skills, but not to advantages. With that in mind, it might be a good idea during character creation to make sure to include the advantages that jibe with your character concept (things such as Language Talent, Direction Sense, High Pain Threshold, etc.), even if that means you are a little advantage heavy compared to skills at first.

New Traits & Skills

Anachronistic Training: Technique Average. Defaults: Special (see below). Prerequisite: Any one TL skill; cannot exceed prerequisite skill. This technique allows you to use the prerequisite skill without suffering a TL penalty for antique or anachronistic methods. Each level of this technique removes one level of TL penalty; a TL8 Patrolman with Anachronistic Training (Artillery)-2 would take no TL penalties for Artillery/TL7 or /TL6 rolls, and would make Artillery/TL5 rolls at the -1 penalty for skills one TL lower. Anachronistic Training cannot be used to remove the penalty for futuristic gear or methods. The GM may still enforce a familiarity penalty for unfamiliar equipment. You must buy this technique for each skill separately.

Electronics Operation (Parachronic) IQ/A: This skill covers the use of parachronic machines, such as projectors and conveyors. It is covered by Technician!

Electronics Repair (Parachronic) IQ/A: This skill covers the repair of the aforementioned parachronic machines. It is also covered by Technician!

Expert Skill (Cliodynamics) IQ/H: This is the Expert Skill governing historical change, used to analyze parallels to spot divergence points, push echoes toward a desired goal, pick which Civil War general to kill so that the South can win the war, and so forth. It can stand in for Current Affairs, Economics, Geography, History, or Sociology to discover change points (historical or potential) in a worldline, determine what kinds of causes will bring about desired (or feared) effects, and detect such historical changes currently underway. It can also work as Intelligence Analysis or Market Analysis for this purpose (only). This skill is covered by Academics!

Historical Familiarity: Technique Average. Defaults: prerequisite skill-4. Prerequisites: Archaeology, Egyptology, or History; cannot exceed prerequisite skill. Your intensive training in ancient societies gives you some familiarity with the overall geography and cultural norms (such as manner of dress and certain styles) of a certain period of time. You may default to the relevant Area Knowledge (or, at the GM’s discretion, Current Affairs) from Archeology, Egyptology, or History instead of IQ, and gradually buy off the -4 default. Each historical specialty is a separate technique.

Physics (Parachronic) IQ/VH: This is the knowledge of how the physics of world travel works, the theory behind it and to predict things involving it. This skill is covered by Science!

Unusual Background (Outtimer): There are several types of Unusual Backgrounds available. The least of which is Unusual Background (Outtimer) [5] which allows a character to be from a world other than Homeline. This may allow for a number of different traits to be purchased, of particular note, lower TL skills and abilities. Wat traits are allowable may be negotiated with the GM.

Unusual Background (Psi): In addition, on some worlds strange powers exist. If a character already has Unusual Background (Outtimer) [5] to be from one of those worlds, she may take Unusual Background (Psi) [10]. This allows the character to possess a psionic talent or even multiple psionic talents. (Psychic Healing is unavailable.)

House Rules

Simplified Fatigue v3: A fatigue point can be spent to give +2 to any attack, damage or defense roll--whether in or out of combat.
Simplified Improvement Through Study: During periods of significant downtime, a number of character points to cover what was studied during that time will be handed out.
"Extra" Rules: Characters and creatures that are not important to the plot in some way (a.k.a. not PCs, major villains, important NPCs, etc.) roll HT at 0 HP. On a success, they're unconscious, on a failure, they die.
Variant Fright Checks: Fright check rolls occur as normal, however, instead of rolling on the fright check table on a failure, you instead are frightened and unable to do anything but take Do Nothing, Change Posture or Move (away the source of fright) maneuvers for a number of rounds equal to your margin of failure. If you suffer a critical failure, roll HT. On a success you merely suffer the normal effects of a failed fright check, on a critical failure you suffer a heart attack (B429). You may spend 1 FP to suppress your fear for that round and take your choice of maneuver for the rounds you are affected; however, you act at -2 from the fear.
Three-Second Combat Rounds: Combat rounds last three seconds instead of one second. This effects the movement on a number of maneuvers and how long extended actions last (see table on cheat sheet).
FP for Initiative: Characters may spend a fatigue point to move first in initiative. If multiple characters have spent fatigue in this way, then they act in normal initiative order among those who have spent fatigue, followed in the normal order by those who didn't thus spend fatigue.
Shield Blocking Bonus: Instead of shields giving a defense bonus to all active defenses, they instead only give their defense bonus to the Block defense. This prevents the abuse of simply taking shields for an increased bonus to Dodge (which unlike other defenses never goes down with use).
Attack Lowers Defense: For every 2 points of margin of success a character has in her attack, the target's defense is lowered by 1. For example, say you have Attack-14. If you roll a 10, you succeed by 4, giving your target a -2 penalty to her defense. In the case of attacks with a high Rate of Fire (RoF), your target's defense is lowered by 1 for every 2 points on your margin of success past what is needed to score all your hits. For example, say you have Attack-18 on a weapon that is RoF 3 and Rcl 2. You roll a 10; your margin of success is 8. You needed a margin of 0 for one shot to be good enough to hit, a margin of 2 for two shots and a margin of 4 for 3 shots to be good enough to hit. Your margin of success was 4 above this, giving your target -2 to defense with the defense roll otherwise being resolved normally.
Alternate Wound & Fatigue Penalties: Instead of the normal penalties, characters suffer a -1 penalty to all skill, defense, IQ, DX, Will and Per rolls per 1/2 max HP lost. In addition, their basic move decreased by a number equal to the penalty. For example, a 10 HP character would suffer -1 at 5 HP, -2 at 0 HP, -3 at -5 HP, -4 at -10 HP, etc. At a -2 penalty the character is considered to be in moderate pain, severe pain at -4 and terrible pain at -6. (As per the rules for pain; B428). High Pain Threshold halves these penalties, rounded towards 0. Penalties for fatigue accumulate similarly. Characters suffer -1 for every 1/2 max FP lost to all the rolls listed above, plus ST. The penalties for HP and FP do not stack, take whichever penalty is highest (in an absolute value sense). Finally, ignore Knockback (B378) and Knockdown (B420), except in the case of specific attacks made for the purpose of their effects, as otherwise we are not using them.