Interworld: The Forgotten Gate

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June, 1993

Rodford E. Smith 730 Cline St. Frankfort, KY 40601-1034

Gateways

This involves exploration of alternate universes. The players start in the contemporary, "real" world, and should create their characters to fit. While there will be a use for combat skills on occasion, more common will be a need for basic medical skills, knowl-

edge of languages, general woodsmanship, and so forth.

How to Build an Omniverse

Tree: The entire Omniverse

Trunk: Geological alternatives, resulting from variations in the way the planets in the solar system formed. These variations are generally held to be caused by minor differ-

ences in the Big Bang for each Trunk.

Limb: Biological alternates. Even with the same world to start with, life evolved in

many different ways.

Branch: Major historical alternates. Caesar survived the Ides of March. Napoleon

won. Churchill lost.

Twig: Minor historical alternates. Depending on how long ago the branching took

place, this could lead to a series of worlds very different from each other, or very similar. The Twig "contains" the buds.

Bud: The specific alternate. These tend to occur in clusters at the "end" of Twigs, said

clusters containing a number of minor variations on a theme.

The Base

Beside each powered door is a white ceramic panel, set flush with the wall. A black handprint is on this panel, with an array of square-framed symbols around it. Unsecured

doors require only a light touch to activate their mechanism. Secured doors must have the hand of an authorized person placed flat on the panel for three seconds, or a special code entered by touching the symbols, or a combination. All signs are in six languages. From top to bottom, these are: Sanskrit, Chinese, Phonetic Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek, Latin, and Urdu (Hindi written with Arabic letters).

The walls are generally of fused earth and stone, usually painted in pastel shades. Floors are a button-textured, firm material, similar to neoprene. Ceilings are uniform glowing panels, which are soft and somewhat flexible, doubling as acoustical tiles. These panels light when someone enters a room, and shut after the last occupant

leaves. Large corridors are 3 meters high and wide, small corridors are 2.5 meters high

and 2 meters wide.

Room 1: Transport Center

This is a single, open room, with an arched roof 9 meters high at center, and 85

meters long by 39 meters wide.

a) Small transport discs, 8 meters across. These can access any world on the

twig, and any location on the world, but only after being locked onto a locator box already in position. There can be as many as ten of these in a standard Twig base.

b) Large transport disc, 17 meters across. This can access any location on the Branch for which the operator has coordinates. These devices are used to place the lo-

cator boxes.

c) Transport disc control consoles. Type (1) can handle up to 10 small discs. Type (2) can only operate the one large disc. There is only one of these in a typical Twig

base.

d) Vehicle parking area.

e) Doors to outside. These are 21 meters wide by 7 meters high. AV 20, BP 1400.

f) Ready racks. Small equipment which may be needed in a hurry, such as weapons and medical kits.

g) Door to rest of station. AV 20, BP 70.

Room 2: Lounge

a) Bathrooms

b) Kitchen and Dining Room. 2 tables which seat 6 each. Foodarackacycle on West wall.

c) Holoprojector with 2 semicircular couches.

Room 3: Women's Barracks

a) Bunk room. Light partitions separate 10 single living quarters. Each has a comfortable bed, bookshelf, storage closet, storage locker at foot of the bed (these will have been removed from stations which were evacuated in an orderly fashion) and a small

desk with a terminal.

b) Shower room. Four stalls, four toilets, 4 sinks, and a small sauna. There are no curtains or doors on the shower stalls and no partitions around the toilettes.

c) Storage for soap, towels, linen and cleaning supplies.

Room 4: Men's Barracks

desk with a terminal.

b) Shower room. Four stalls, four toilets, 4 sinks, and a small sauna. There are no curtains or doors on the shower stalls and no partitions around the toilettes.

c) Storage for soap, towels, linen and cleaning supplies.

Room 5: Medical and Administrative

a) Infirmary. Four instrumented beds, cabinet of supplies, work desk.

b) Administration. Three offices, each with a desk and terminal.

c) Automed unit. For emergency cases. Can work on it's own or with doctor's supervision.

d) Communications room. Can call any station on the branch, as well as teams on

the Buds.

Room 6: Envoy and Storage

a) Envoy room. There are eight beds similar to those in the Infirmary, except for a helmet on a swivel arm connected to each. In the east end of the room are the lockers

for the eight envoys.

b) General storeroom. Weapons and ammunition are in NW corner.

Room 7: Storage, Support and Escape

a) Mechanical room. Power generation and distribution; main computer;

waste/water recycling; air conditioning.

b) General storage.

c) Jump tube. These generally have the Branch station as their destination. This

can be changed, but it requires reprogramming with special equipment.

A Brief History of Crosstime

The official history of the civilization which eventually went on to create the Crosstime Exploration Agency began over seven thousand years ago, when the postglacial melt-

ing caused a rising oceans, which in turn severed several land bridges and flooded large areas of shore. In a large village on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, a leader arose. Known as Ptah, this man was the greatest craftsman and leader of his

day. Legends ascribe to him the first harnessing of animals to haul loads, the first wheeled transport, fired pottery, the sword, and a host of other creations. Modern anthropologists believe that Ptah was actually a compilation of several men, or perhaps one man who use the inventions of others. Whatever the case, he gave his people a

head start that eventually led to a very early technological civilization. The descendants of Ptah's tribe had radio communications by 350 BC.

Euromajor Twig Station

This is where the players start. The box discovered in the field will bring them to the fourth small transport disc [a(4)]. All of the buds on this twig have Europe as the major shaper of recent (i. e. the past thousand years) history. On most of these alternates, the New World was discovered, but generally not exploited for one reason or another. The station was shut down and evacuated in an orderly fashion in AD 1589, by the PCs' calender. Everything is clean and in perfect working order, ready for use. All personal

items and most small equipment was removed, but the computer's memory is intact.

The evacuation was only expected to last for a few years. Due to a continuing eco-

nomic depression and the discovery of other Branches felt to be more interesting, this entire Branch has received only casual attention in the past four centuries.

Room 1: Transport Center

This is a single, open room, with an arched roof 9 meters high at center, and 85 meters long by 39 meters wide. Players arrive on a(4). The room is empty except for the basic equipment. The outside doors will only open with help, as they have been almost completely buried by earth, with only the top three feet uncovered. This was deliberate; timed charges were used to bring the slope above the doors down after the station was abandoned. The large transport disc is set for the Russomajor branch.

a) Small transport discs, 8 meters across. These can access any world on the twig, and any location on the world, but only after being locked into a locator box already in position. There can be as many as ten of these in a standard Twig base. Note that they usually access boxes at more than one location on the same bud. It just happens that all of these were tuned to the geological location of the base before everyone left.

(1) Euromajor: Germanic (Germany conquered most of Europe and now is domi-

nant in the New World. There are several revolutionary groups striving to throw off the yoke of the oppressor, including the Indian Nations Freedom Force.)

(2) Euromajor: Spanish (Most of the world is bound in a

tight grip of religious tyranny. The New World is less affected, because it is considered less important, but people are still put

to death for swearing at a government/Church official.)

(3) Euromajor: French (A strange dichotomy exists here. All men are guaranteed equality and freedom under the law, yet Frenchmen look down on all non-French. There

is much international rivalry.)

(4) Euromajor: English/Monopoly (The Player Characters' world.)

(5) Euromajor: English/Mixed (The English were the major colonizers and exploiters of the New World, but through trade agreements and treaties the resources discov-

ered were shared by an international consortium. The continent is treated much the way as Antarctica is in the PC's world in terms of who "owns" what.)

(6) Euromajor: English & Spanish (These two countries overcame their rivalry to cooperate in the exploration and exploitation of the New World. The result is that they now run most of the planet. They still don't get along too well, and have the occasional small war between them, but business is business.)

b) Large transport disc, 17 meters across. This can access any location on the Branch for which the operator has coordinates. These devices are used to place the locator boxes. This is currently set for the Non-Prime Major Branch, where the Interworld Agency has a major outpost currently in service. The machine has 29 locations in

memory, 24 of these on the 6 alternates served by the small disks. One is for the Branch station, and the other 4 are set for other Twig stations. These are Plaguemajor, Late Mediterranean Major, Russomajor and Japanomajor. All these stations are also mothballed. The large disc can be manually set to scan through alternates as finely as the operator wishes, though the more detail chosen in one characteristic the fewer the characteristics which can be entered.

c) Transport disc control consoles. Type (1) is for the small discs. Type (2) is for the large disc.

d) Vehicle parking area. There are no vehicles present.

e) Doors to outside. These are 21 meters wide by 7 meters high. AV 20, BP 1400. These will have to be forced open.

f) Ready racks. Small equipment which may be needed in a hurry, such as weap-

ons and medical kits. These are empty.

g) Door to rest of station. AV 20, BP 70.

The door at the far end of the corridor refuses to open. If an attempt is made to force

it, an alarm will sound, the door at the transport chamber end will close, and the corridor will flood with knockout gas (40 points stun only damage).

Room 2: Lounge

There is a 5% chance that a thorough search will find some small item which has

been overlooked.

a) Bathrooms

b) Kitchen and Dining Room. 2 tables which seat 6 each. Foodarackacycle on

West wall.

c) Holoprojector with 2 semicircular couches.

Room 3: Women's Barracks

The quarters were cleaned out. However, the occupant of room 5 forgot her backpack, which is under her bed. The pack contains a Mark II laser pistol (3D6) with two ten-round magazines, still in the box and only fired a dozen times; One box of photochemical cartridges for the pistol, with 38 left; a nearly new makeup kit, including

skin-color pills (25% chance of failure for all makeup, due to age); small mechanical tool kit, brand new; and a box containing a new pair of lightweight hiking boots, size 6 1/2 E. The pack is well-used but in good shape.

a) Bunk room. Light partitions separate 10 single living quarters. In use, each has a comfortable bed, bookshelf, storage closet, storage locker at foot of the bed and a

small desk with a terminal. Currently, the beds are stripped, the shelves bare, the closet empty and the locker gone.

b) Shower room. Four stalls, four toilettes, 4 sinks, and a small sauna. There are no curtains or doors on the shower stalls and no partitions around the toilettes.

c) Storage for soap, towels, linen and cleaning supplies. This is fully stocked, though the fabric is somewhat weak and brittle, due to age.

Room 4: Men's Barracks

a) Bunk room. Light partitions separate 10 single living quarters. In use, each has a comfortable bed, bookshelf, storage closet, storage locker at foot of the bed and a

small desk with a terminal. Currently, the beds are stripped, the shelves bare, the closet empty and the locker gone.

b) Shower room. Four stalls, four toilettes, 4 sinks, and a small sauna. There are no curtains or doors on the shower stalls and no partitions around the toilettes.

c) Storage for soap, towels, linen and cleaning supplies. There are some items noticeably missing.

Room 5: Medical and Administrative

This is fully stocked and operational. A few personal items were left in the desks.

a) Infirmary. Four instrumented beds, cabinet of supplies, work desk.

b) Administration. Three offices, each with a desk and terminal.

c) Automed unit. For emergency cases. Can work on it's own or with doctor's supervision. Many medicines will be ineffective due to age.

d) Communications room. Can call any station on the branch, as well as teams on

the Buds.

Room 6: Envoy and Storage

a) Envoy room. There are eight beds similar to those in the Infirmary, except for a helmet on a swivel arm connected to each. In the east end of the room are the lockers

for the eight envoys.

There are four human envoys, all Amerinds, dressed in local garb appropriate for

Summer. The equipment locker for each envoy has other clothing, as well as standard tools, ornaments and weapons. There is an adult male, an adult female, a late adolescent male and a late adolescent female.

There are four robot envoys: A Mark II utility robot (humanoid; a Mark III utility robot (centauroid); a Mark IV Sentry (tracked box with turret); and a Type 3 Infiltrator (wolf-like dog).

b) General storeroom. All equipment is here except the weapons and ammunition.

A thorough search will discover a Type II laser cartridge under the shelves.

Room 7: Storage, Support and Escape

a) Mechanical room. Power generation and distribution; main computer;

waste/water recycling; air conditioning; laundry.

b) General storage.

c) Jump tube. This is set for the Branch station. This can be changed, but it requires reprogramming with special equipment.

The World Outside

This station was established on what was felt to be the baseline trend for the Branch.

No European nation became dominant, but instead a dynamic balance was achieved.

There is minor activity in the New World, mostly trading with the natives. The overall technological level is similar to that in the mid-eighteenth century Europe of the PC's world. Medical care is somewhat better, and a slow, thorough exploration of new areas

is proceeding. There is a 10% chance per day the PCs will encounter Amerinds, and a 2% chance per day of encountering European explorers.