Best of
Alternate-History

2005

GURPS Infinite Worlds


Kenneth Hite - 2005
    Maybe an infinite number. The bad news is, somebody out there doesn't like us.The shuttles of Infinity Unlimited jump between parallel Earths, seeking adventure, profit, knowledge, and even entertainment. But a parallel called Centrum has also developed the technology to hop between the worlds . . . and they want to rule them all. The Infinity Patrol must deal with their ruthless rivals, as well as with world-jumping criminals, and with the possibility that the secret of dimension travel might escape to some of the really nasty alternate worlds like Reich-5.Welcome to the core setting of GURPS Fourth Edition! Every other GURPS setting is on one of the Infinite Worlds timelines . . . whether they know it or not! GMs can use this to create a whole meta-campaign, or just as an excuse to move characters between worlds when the plot requires it.Compiled by Kenneth Hite, the master of alternate histories, GURPS Infinite Worlds combines and updates material from GURPS Time Travel, GURPS Alternate Earths, and GURPS Alternate Earths 2 into one full-color hardcover volume, and gives dozens of new worlds to explore as well! This is the complete genre book on both alternative-world gaming and time travel. It offers detailed advice on the unique challenges of running this kind of campaign, and on designing and playing characters who regularly cross between settings. It also provides a wide variety of suitable threats and hazards – from evil cross-time Nazis and cosmic conspiracies to "ordinary" monsters and disasters. And it gives guidelines for building alternate worlds from the perspectives of the setting, the story, and the rules.Whether you're playing accidental travelers or the hardened troops of the Infinity Patrol, this book is your gateway to adventure. Infinite adventure.

Ghosts of Columbia


L.E. Modesitt Jr. - 2005
    Johan Eschbach, professor at a small college in the northeast and secret agent for the government of Columbia. This is an alternate history world shaped by the fact that ghosts are not mere superstition but have a literal physical reality--and political implications--because your crimes can haunt you, and the ghosts of your crimes are visible to others.Here are two adventures--Of Tangible Ghosts and Ghost of the Revelator--that bring Johan Eschbach out of his retirement and happy marriage in northern New Bruges and into danger and intrigue. This edition includes a new afterword by the author explaining the history of this fascinating alternate world.

Hitler's Peace


Philip Kerr - 2005
    Since Stalingrad, Hitler has known that Germany cannot win the war. The upcoming Allied conference in Teheran will set the ground rules for their second front-and for the peace to come. Realizing that the unconditional surrender FDR has demanded will leave Germany in ruins, Hitler has put out peace feelers. (Unbeknownst to him, so has Himmler, who is ready to stage a coup in order to reach an accord.) FDR and Stalin are willing to negotiate. Only Churchill refuses to listen.At the center of this high-stakes game of deals and doubledealing is Willard Mayer, an OSS operative who has been chosen by FDR to serve as his envoy. He is the perfect foil for the steamy world of deception, betrayals, and assassinations that make up the moral universe of realpolitik. A cool, self-absorbed, emotionally distant womanizer with a questionable past, Mayer has embraced the stylish philosophy of the day, in which no values are fixed. In the course of the novel, his beliefs will be put to the ultimate test.But as compelling as Mayer is, the key players in this drama-FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Hitler, as well as Himmler, Bormann, Molotov, and Schellenberg (with marvelous walk-ons by Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, and Evelyn Waugh)-are astonishingly true-to-life.Hitler's Peace is Philip Kerr in top form. With his sure hand for pacing, his firm grasp of historical detail, and his explosively creative imagination about what might have been, he has fashioned a totally convincing thinking man's thriller in the great tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.

A Mankind Witch


Dave Freer - 2005
    It is here that Manfred, Prince of Brittany, and his Icelandic bodyguard, Erik, must venture in the dead of winter, to a rugged land of trolls and ice. Their quest: to find a pagan relic.