Psionic Potential

The year is 2123. The first Leviathan Jumpships have been launched and contact has been made with the extrasolar colonies founded in the previous century using Aberrant technologies and then lost contact with in the subsequent Aberrant War. Some have survived, some have been lost, and some find themselves under attack by Aberrants and alien species. Aberrants remain a constant threat. They attacked Sydney, Australia in 2105 and in 2120, they dropped the Esperanza, the ailing European Union’s space station which it hoped would revitalise its future, on France, leaving both France and Belgium as devastated and corrupted landscapes. The mark of Aberrants can be seen in the Blight, the explosion of an Aberrant in Nebraska, which corrupted everything within 200 KM and spoiled soil fertility within 1,000 KM, ravaging the USA’s agricultural belt and in the resulting chaos, saw a military coup, the establishment of the Federated States of America, and the occupation of both Canada and Mexico. In the bombed-out city of Bahrain, the headquarters of the Aberrants until they were driven from Earth and the Solar System by the Earth Strike Ultimatum. This was issued in 2067 by the Chinese government and forced every Aberrant to leave lest it launch every nuclear missile from the satellite missile platforms under its control. This ended the Aberrant War and the Nova Age. For the Aberrants had not always been monsters. From the 2020s until the 2050s, they were Novas, powerful superhumans who transformed societies, technologies, and the planet, enabling exploration and settlement throughout the Solar System and beyond. Then they turned on Humanity, resulting in the Aberrant War. In the wake of the war, the worldwide aid and development organisation known as Æon Trinity has worked alongside the United Nations to help rebuild Earth and a force of individuals with the powers to control their own body and its form, to see into past, present, and future, manipulate technology and the electromagnetic spectrum, alter energy and mass, control kinetic energy, heal, contact and read the minds of others, and even teleportation. They are Psions.

Each Psion possesses a primary Aptitude. There are eight Aptitudes, each one associated with a psi order or organisation. When this latent Aptitude is detected, he is approached by its associated order and his psionic abilities transformed from latency into full use by being placed in a Prometheus Chamber, a device which will activate his psionic abilities. Each order possesses a single Prometheus Chamber. The eight orders are The Æsculapian Order, Chitra Bhanu, ISRA (the Interplanetary School of Research and Advancement), the Legions, the Ministry of Noetic Affairs, Orgotek, Nova Força Nacional, and Upeo Wa Macho. The Æsculapian Order focuses on Vitakinesis, biological healing and enhancement, and operates primarily as an international emergency response and aid organisation. Chitra Bhanu studied the relationship between energy and matter, Quantakinesis, including noetic and Quantam powers. Quantam powers are what lay behind the abilities of first the Novas and then the Aberrants, whereas the abilities of the Psions are connected at the subquantum level. It was the study of Quantam powers and rumoured connection to Aberrants which led to the eradication of Chitra Bhanu Order. Members of ISRA are Clairsentients whose study of the past, present, and future is put to use helping each other and humanity. The Legions is a military organisation which uses Psychokinesis to help protect humanity from Aberrant and extraterrestrial threats. The Ministry of Noetic Affairs is an Order of telepaths that is also an independent division of the Chinese government, which studies the mind and provides humanitarian aid and research, often in pursuit of utopian ideals. The Sudamerican-based Nova Força Nacional is an environmentalist order whose members employ Biokinesis to control and alter their body and form, often to radical effect. Orgotek is a corporation in the fascist Federated States of America, which specialises in electronics and biotech, but also Electrokinesis, the ability to control technology. Upeo Wa Macho—Swahili for ‘the horizon’ is an Order of teleporters, its members capable to travel vast, even interstellar distances. In the wake of the eradication of Chitra Bhanu, Upeo Wa Macho expected to be targeted next and its members vanished from the Solar System, only having returned in the last six months. They are often distrusted by the other orders.

This is the setting for Trinity Continuum: Æon. Published by Onyx Path Publishing, it is update of the Trinity, originally published by the White Wolf Game Studio in 2000, the first of the three roleplaying games set in the Trinity Universe. The others being Aberrant and Adventure!, both set earlier in its timeline. Trinity Continuum: Æon is not a standalone roleplaying game and requires the rules in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. Trinity Continuum: Æon takes the cinematic action of the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and expands it fully into the realms of Science Fiction and psionic powers. On its own, the Player Characters in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook are exceptionally skilled characters known as ‘Talents’. It is entirely possible to play a Talent in the setting of Trinity Continuum: Æon and such a Player Character would have certain advantages, being unexpectedly skilled when everyone’s focus is upon Psions. For the most part though, the Player Characters will be Psions.

A Player Character—or Psion—in Trinity Continuum: Æon has the same stats and the same creation process as in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. For his Society Path, a Psion will typically choose his Order, which will also allow Order specific Edges to be chosen, but there is a new Origin Path: Oceanian (for Player Character originating in subaquatic settlements and societies) and new Role Paths which include Off-Earth Colonist, Spacer, and Space Military. The penultimate step in character creation is the application of the Psion Template, which provides a Psion’s Aptitude, Psi Trait, and Modes. Psi Trait is a Psion’s psychic strength, representing both the dice to be added to the pool for activating the Psion’s abilities, the number of Psi points used to activate and power abilities, and more. The typical beginning Psi trait is two, or three for the Quantakinesis and Teleportation Aptitudes. This can be raised as high as six or seven during long term play, which would be equal to a very powerful Psion or a head of one of the orders, or Proxies as they are known. Each Aptitude has three Modes, the actual powers that the Psion will be using. For example, Translocation, Transmassion, and Transportal for Teleportation and Psychometry, Psychlocation, and Psychocognition for Clairsentience.

Activating a psionic ability requires a roll of a dice equal to the Psion’s Psi Trait and the Mode rating. The default Difficulty is one Success to activate an ability, but this can go up or down depending on the Mode rating. This even enables a Psion to use a higher Mode ability that he does not yet have, but at a greater difficulty, with abilities lower the Psion’s current Mode ability will be easier to activate. The Psi Trait determines the duration, range, and radius of an ability, but can be boosted with Psi points. Favouring one ability or Mode over another can lead to psionic dysfunction and odd quirks of personality. However, it does give an advantage with the favoured Mode whilst levying a penalty upon the use of the other Modes. Other rules cover connections with people and objects and co-operating in the use of psionic powers. The rules in Trinity Continuum: Æon also cover hacking as well as a wide range of technology, including hardtech and biotech, all the way up to spaceships and starships of various sizes.

The Science Fiction of Trinity Continuum: Æon is intended to be positive. It is inspired by Babylon 5 and The Tomorrow People, Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke and Julian May’s Galactic Milieu series, and the Mass Effect series of computer roleplaying games. It provides a wealth of detail in terms of its background, which takes in a hundred years’ worth of history, details of the major powers and nations of the early twenty-second century, the remaining seven Psion Orders, the various extra solar colonies, the threats faced by mankind both within the Solar System and beyond. Not only is the background and setting detail immensely readable, but it is also immensely playable because of the differences between its various locations and organisations. It is in these differences where the brilliance of the background comes to the fore. They provide numerous options in terms of the games and campaigns that can be run within the future of the Trinity Continuum: Æon. The fascist Federated States of America with economic underclass, high crime rate, and a police response based on the economic status is perfect for a campaign of Cyberpunk style espionage. The Lunar colony of Olympus is perfect for future crime stories. The extrasolar colonies are intended for Space Opera, whilst miliary Science Fiction is perfect for the Chinese colony of Khantze Lu Ge, where Aberrants have invaded. The remains of France and Belgium are suitable for post-apocalyptic scenarios. Campaigns involving The Æsculapian Order focus on search and rescue missions, emergency response, and the politics of non-governmental aid, ISRA on secret missions to protect humanity, the Legions on military operations, Ministry of Noetic Affairs on intrigue and politics, Nova Força Nacional on espionage and small-scale operations—criminal, guerilla, or military, Orgotek on engineering projects, conducting counterterrorism missions for the Federated States of America government, investigating Aberrant cults, and Upeo Wa Macho on exploration and travel. It is important to note that the membership of each order does not solely consist of Psions with just the order’s associated Aptitude. Those with other Aptitudes can belong too. It is also possible to have a campaign with freelancers or even with the Player Characters from a variety of Orders, but working for the humanitarian agency, Æon Trinity, and that would lend itself to a variety of different scenarios and campaigns.

For the Storyteller, there is a discussion of the various genres possible with Trinity Continuum: Æon, and how to create optimistic scenarios and evoke the themes of the Trinity Continuum universe. These are Hope, Sacrifice, and Unity—the latter in particular for Trinity Continuum: Æon. There is good advice on handling discipline and rank in military campaigns, for example, if tunning a campaign based around the Legions, either discuss it with players and embrace it, run campaigns based on covert operations, or simply keep it more cinematic in style. There is advice too on how to incorporate Talents into a campaign. The Storyteller is also given stats and details of a wide range of NPCs and threats, including aliens and Aberrants. Lastly, there is a section for her eyes only on the secrets of the Trinity Continuum: Æon. It includes a projected timeline too for the setting, enabling the Game Master to plot out scenarios and events as her campaign progresses. Including this information is both generous and useful, as it really helps the Game Master understand the setting and thus create better scenarios and campaigns.

Physically, Trinity Continuum: Æon is very well written and easy to read. It is decently illustrated throughout, and really the only issue might be that the book’s map could have been better produced.

Trinity Continuum: Æon is a great expansion for the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. The Psionic abilities are not too complicated and are easy to use, but it is the background which really shines through. It is engaging and detailed, whilst at the same time offering a wealth of detail to bring into play and almost mini-settings in which to run the different genres of Science Fiction. Overall, Trinity Continuum: Æon is pleasingly optimistic in its outlook and generous in the types of Science Fiction games it can support.

Friday Filler: Critical: Foundation – Season 1

It is the year 2035. The digital age has been surpassed by the nanotechnology age and the USA is already colonising and terraforming Mars. On Earth, huge multinationals have extended their reach and power so it is also the Age of Corpocracy. Europe has regressed into totalitarianism and protectionism, Asia remains in lockdown after the Third Pandemic, South America dominates global banking via cryptocurrency investment, and there is war in Africa. As the power of the corporations has grown, the power of nation states has dwindled, leaving often unable to deal with emergent threats. This is where Icarus steps in. Sanctioned by numerous states and given freedom of movement and legal authority beyond local governments, Icarus fields highly effective agents from the diverse backgrounds. They have to be the best and they cannot fail, because some day they have to be ready to save humanity.

This is the set-up for Critical: Foundation – Season 1, a roleplaying game which looks like a board game, is designed to introduce roleplaying to the board game playing hobby, and plays like a ‘filler’ game, intended to be played in between or before longer games. It looks like a board game because it uses a lot of cards as reference, much like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition—but very much without any of the complexities. As an introductory roleplaying game, it uses simple mechanics, introduces the rules and concepts in a step-by-step fashion to make learning easy, and it uses a familiar set-up. This is near-future Spy-Fi action, with a team of specialists working together to investigate mysteries and deal with threats, but Spy-Fi action as a television series—and that leads into the ‘filler’ game format. Critical: Foundation is designed to be played in episodic fashion, the box including a total of nine episodes each with an estimated playing time of thirty minutes. Thus, a game of Critical: Foundation is designed to be played over several sessions rather than one, and with the physical nature of its components, around the table rather than online. From a roleplaying viewpoint, Critical: Foundation is like the equivalent of a starter set, complete with rules, four pre-generated Player Characters, dice, rules, and an adventure, all designed to introduce the setting and rules of a roleplaying game. Except that Critical: Foundation is a complete roleplaying game designed to showcase the roleplaying experience rather than a particular game or setting.

Published by Gigamic and available via Hachette Games, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is designed to be played by between two and five players, aged fourteen or more, one of whom is the Game Master. Although there are suggestions as to how to adjust if there are fewer players, the roleplaying game really works best with a Game Master and four players. Its board game like design means that it has plenty of components. For the Game Master, there is the Game Master’s Screen, the What is a Roleplaying Game? sheet, a Synopsis Booklet for Season 1, nine Episodes, thirty-four Episode cards, eight NPC cards, ten Clue cards, eight Wound card, fifteen Status cards, plus thirty-two 32 Narrative tokens, five Clue tokens, and two six-sided dice. For the players there are four Character cards, eight Background cards, 19 Equipment cards, four Hero tokens, one eight-sided and four twelve-sided dice, a dry-erase marker, and for Name cards. The What is a Roleplaying Game? Sheet provides a brief explanation of roleplaying, whilst the Synopsis Booklet for Season 1 gives an overview of all nine episodes of the first season, some background to the setting, and the epilogue to the season. The Episode cards are used to illustrate scenes and locations within each Episode; the NPC cards detail the other members of the season’s cats the Player Characters will encounter; and the Narrative Tokens to track everything from the passage of time and escape attempts to equipment use and NPC health points. Clue tokens and Clue cards are used to reveal further information during play.

For the Game Master, the highlight of all of these components is the Game Master’s Screen. Although quite low as Game Master’s Screens go, it is very sturdy affair, with all of the rules on the inside for easy reference. It also has handy little pockets to slide NPC cards into so that the Game Master can see the details for the NPC whilst her players can the picture of the NPC on the other side.

The dice consist of a mix of six-, eight, and twelve-sided dice. The six-sided dice are black and marked with various keyed to the NPCs, and are used by the Game Master. Both the white eight- and twelve-sided dice are white and numbered differently. Both are average dice rather than being marked with the full range of numbers as standard polyhedral dice. For the twelve-sided die, this also includes a zero and an ‘×’, the latter indicating a critical failure when rolled.

The four Character cards are double-sided, male on one side, female on the other. They consist of an Analyst, Coder, Scientist, and Military. Each has a quality and a flaw, four—Dexterity, Mental, Physical, and Social, a quick description, and a quote. Each is fully illustrated. One attribute is marked in red to indicate that is a Character’s specialisation. Unlike any other roleplaying game, the attributes do not have an associated value, although they do have linked skills. So the Physical attribute covers Athletics, Combat, and Stealth, whilst Mental covers Knowledge, Investigation, and Perception. The Background cards further define the Characters, there being two per Character. For the Analyst there is Profiler and Private Detective, for the Coder, Hacker and Programmer, for the Scientist, Researcher and Forensic Physician, and for the Military, Mercenary and Special Forces. The Equipment cards include a short range of arms and armour, plus various pieces of technical gear like a Medical Drone or Holo Tablet.

Character creation in Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is fast and easy. Each player selects a Character and chooses which side of the card he wants to use, then chooses one of the two Backgrounds for the Character, plus the associated equipment. He uses the dry-erase marker to write his Character’s name on a Name card, and that is it.

Mechanically, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is also fast and easy. To have his Character undertake an action, a player rolls the twelve-sided die to get a result equal to or more than a Difficulty Level. The Difficulty Level ranges from one for Easy to six or more for Impossible. The bonus from the die ranges from zero to three, and further bonuses can from a Character’s Specialism for an Attribute, if appropriate, his Background, and the Equipment he is using, for a maximum of three. A Critical Success is achieved if the roll is double the Difficulty Level, which doubles the outcome of the action, but if the ‘×’ is rolled, the attempt is a Critical Failure. This also applies if any player rolls an ‘×’ on a group check in which everyone rolls. When a Critical Failure is rolled, the group earns a Hero Token, up to a maximum of four. Hero Tokens are expended to add the eight-sided die to a roll. Some items of Equipment also allow a reroll of a check.

Combat is likewise kept simple. Initiative is handled through simple Perception checks and when a Character acts, he can do one action and use one piece of equipment. There are just four combat actions—Attack, Help, Take Cover, and Find a Weakness. NPC actions are determined by rolling the Game Master dice and referring to the card for each NPC. A Character can suffer a maximum of two wounds. Any damage after that and the Character suffers an ongoing penalty indicated by a Status Card, the most common of which is ‘Exhausted’, which leaves the Character unable to act until the next scene. Whilst Wounds can be healed, the effects of Status Cards typically need time to heal.

The Episodes are four-page leaflets and start with an episode zer0—the equivalent of a pre-credits scene—before running through to the finale in episode eight. Each includes a Set-up guide, an Episode Synopsis, and then an Introduction followed by two or three scenes and an epilogue. Throughout icons are used to indicate which sections are narrative, involve action, investigation, or roleplay, or require a dice roll by the players or the Game Master. There are also notes running alongside the scenes which give the Game Master pointers on how to portray various NPCs and describe various situations, the latter primarily drawing from action movies. Preparation requires the Game Master to study an episode and make sure that she has all of the cards and tokens ready. Some of the scenes are more complex than others, primarily the action or chase scenes, and these will require more preparation than others. So preparation can take anywhere between five minutes and twenty minutes depending upon the complexity of the scene. Set-up and take down is easy, the latter made easier because the game includes envelopes that each player can store his Character’s cards in.

As a roleplaying game, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is simple and straightforward and easy to grasp. For the experienced player and the experienced Game Master, it is really easy to pick up and play. The experienced player can start with the simplest of explanations and start play with almost no preparation, whilst the experienced Game Master really only needs to learn the rules, ready an episode, and then run the game directly from the really great Game Master’s Screen, it is that simple and straightforward. For the player and Game Master who have not played a roleplaying game before, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 does its very best to present a direct and accessible roleplaying game. This shows not only in the simplicity of the mechanics, but also the easy-to-grasp televisual, action-orientated style of its story and the fantastic presentation in terms of the NPCs and the Episode cards which help the players visualise the antagonists and other members of the cast, the various locations, and clues. (Further play aids, including music and maps, are available from the publisher’s website. More content has also been promised.)

One aspect missing from Critical: Foundation as a roleplaying game is the scope for the Player Characters to learn and grow from their experiences. In part, that is due to the simplicity of both the Player Character design and the mechanics, but if Critical: Foundation is viewed as something akin to the traditional starter set for a roleplaying game, this is not always an aspect covered anyway. More potentially problematic is the directed, quite tightly scripted nature of the episodes, which do not give the players and their characters a lot of freedom in what they are expected to do. For the experienced roleplayer, this can feel constraining, less so for anyone newer to the hobby, though they may find it so should they return to Critical: Foundation after trying other roleplaying games. That said, Critical: Foundation is designed to be the equivalent of a television action series so a certain degree of scripting is to be expected.

Critical: Foundation – Season 1 could be played as a traditional roleplaying game starter set and the episodes all in one go. However, that would be to miss the episodic nature of the design, which although runs counter to today’s prevailing practice of having all episodes of a television series released at once and everyone binging on them, leaves room for anticipation and a sense of mystery from one episode to the next. The episodic nature also means that each session is focused and never outstays its welcome. Beyond the limits of Critical: Foundation – Season 1 core box, there is advice on using the contents again to create other episodes, though again, the more experienced Game Master will find that easier than the one that Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is actually aimed at.

Physically, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is very well presented. The quality of the components are uniformly excellent, the artwork as good as any modern board game, and the writing decent too. Still, the standout piece is the Game Master’s Screen.

Although there is nothing to prevent either from enjoying playing through it, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is possibly a bit too light a roleplaying game for the experienced player or Game Master. The campaign and design of the game does not quite support the introduction for the players as much as the Game Master and it is likely that players new to roleplaying may need more of a hand or preparation than is given here. However, once they get started there is plenty keep them involved, but not overwhelm in terms of rules or mechanics. A more experienced Game Master will have no issue with easing her players into the play and roleplay of Critical: Foundation – Season 1, and that is probably how starting to play will best work.

Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is clever idea, one executed to give what is actually an introductory roleplaying game not just much more of a visual appeal, but also a physical, tangible presence that the players can hold and inspect. Hopefully there will be expansions because there is plenty of story to be told and because roleplaying in the short sharp bursts of drama and action provided by Critical: Foundation – Season 1 deserves future seasons rather than cancellation.

—oOo—

Hachette Games will be at UK Games Expo

from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.

Action Adventure with Competence

When Trinity was originally published in 1997, it was a Science Fiction roleplaying game of Psion surviving in the twenty-first century following world war. Published by White Wolf Publishing, it would go on to spawn two prequels—Aberrant, a superhero game set in the early twenty-first century, and Adventure!, a Pulp action game set during the Jazz Age of the nineteen twenties. Together they formed the ‘Trinity Continuum’ and together they are being redesigned and republished in second editions by Onyx Path Publishing. However, the redesign is not as a series of standalone books. Instead, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook—funded following a successful Kickstarter campaign—would provide the core mechanics, with Trinity Continuum: Aeon, Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, and Trinity Continuum: Adventure! providing specific setting and expanded background content for each of the three eras.

Now the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is not just the core rulebook for the Trinity Continuum, but it is a standalone set of roleplaying rules designed to emulate a particular range of genres. These encompass high-action, cinematic thrillers, Spy-Fi and heist movies, high tech techno-thrillers right up to near future Science Fiction and low-powered supers stories. So, Ocean’s Eleven, The Bourne Identity, Agents of Shield, Black Mirror, Eureka, Cryptonomicon, Leverage, and then Star Trek, The X-Files, The Martian, Stargate, and more. The more fantastic elements these settings have though, the more a Storyguide would need to create them for her campaign as they are obviously not covered in the book. At its core though, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is a contemporary—or near contemporary—roleplaying game of cinematic action in which the Player Characters are competent and capable, are working for the better good, and in doing so are bringing a sense of hope to the world. What this means is that despite there not being a great deal of specific background in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, a gaming group can still use it to play Hollywood- or television-style action adventure, intrigue, and investigative procedurals.

A Player Character in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is defined by his Concept and Aspirations, Paths, Skills and Skill Tricks and Specialities, Attributes, and a Template. The Concept is what the character—Best Wheelman in any Business, Reformed High Society Jewel Thief, Grandmother Hacker, and so on—whilst Aspirations, both two Short Term and one Long Term, are a character’s goals. A Short-Term Aspiration can be completed in a session, a Long-Term Aspiration takes multiple sessions. The Paths represent a character’s past and the decisions he has made and come in three forms—Origin, Role, and Society. The Origin Path is the character’s background and beginning; the Role Path is his occupation or expertise; and Society Path represents his link, positive or negative, to a particular Society. Several sample Societies are detailed in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and together they form the primary background in the book. An Origin Path might be Military Brat or Suburbia; a Role Path might be Charismatic Leader or Medical Practitioner; and a Society Path might be to 9, the almost United Nations-sanctioned intelligence gathering and law enforcement private agency, or The Global Cartography Initiative.

Mechanically, each Path provides several building blocks towards creating a character. These are access to four skills and points to distribute between them; community, contact, and access connections to the Path; and Edges, which represent areas of specialised training. In the long term, a Path also provides route along which a player can develop his character, and will be rewarded in doing so with slightly reduced Experience Point costs. There are sixteen skills, with most of a character’s skills coming from his Paths. Any skill with a rating of three or more gains a Speciality, such as Pistols for the Aim skill, and then can have a Trick for each point of Skill of three or more, so ‘Mighty Lifter’ or ‘It’s All in the Reflexes’ for Athletics, ‘Connecting the Dots’ or ‘Elite Hacker’ for Enigmas, and ‘Backseat Driver’ or ‘I Can Figure It Out’ for Pilot. Most of a character’s Skills come from his Paths, though he does get extras. Lastly, a character has nine Attributes, divided between Physical, Mental, and Social arenas as well as three Approaches of Force, Finesse, and Resilience. Most actions require a combination of an Attribute and a Skill, but this can be any combination, so there is a lot of flexibility here. Attributes are rated between one and six, Paths and Skills are rated between one and five. It should be noted that the Storyguide and her players are encouraged to create their own Paths, Stunts, Societies, and more.

Lastly, each character has a Template. This marks the Player Character as being more than just a mere human, having been exposed to ‘Aeon Fluxx’, the energy which seems to occur when universes are too close. Each of Trinity Continuum: Aeon, Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, and Trinity Continuum: Adventure! will provide various super-powered Templates, but in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, the Player Characters are generally Gifted, each Gift either being based on Luck or Aptitude, the latter tied to a skill.

To create a Player Character, a player defines his character’s Concept and Aspirations, then selects—or creates the three Paths and assigns the various points into each Path and its associated Skills and Edges, assigns more Skill points and picks Skill Tricks, assigns Attributes, and apply a Template. The process is by no means difficult, but does involve making a fair number of choices and it is not straightforward in that Attributes are selected last and in that a player will need to flip back and forth through the book to put a character together. This takes a bit of time as a player works through the process.

Our sample character is a reformed jewel thief who stole to support her father, an impoverished minor member of the Russian nobility. She was caught in the act of a theft on the French Riviera by Pharaoh’s Lightkeepers who were after the same artefact. Unlike the other occasion where she managed to escape her thefts, the Pharaoh’s Lightkeepers gave chase and managed to capture her. Instead of handing her into the authorities, they offered her missions and a better purpose.

Name: Claudia Romanov
Concept: High Society Former Jewel Thief

Origin Path: Life of Privilege

Role Path: The Sneak
Society Path: Pharaoh’s Lightkeepers
Moment of Inspiration: Exposure to Flux

ASPIRATIONS

Short-Term Aspiration: To find out more about Steve

Short-Term Aspiration: To learn what Hans Krueger knows
Long-Term Aspiration: To atone for her former life of crime

SKILLS

Athletics 1, Close Combat 1, Culture 2, Enigmas 3, Integrity 2, Larceny 3, Persuasion 2, Pilot 1

ATTRIBUTES
Intellect 2 Might 1 Presence 3
Cunning 3 Dexterity 6 Manipulation 4
Resolve 2 Stamina 2 Composure 3

FACETS
Destructive: 0

Intuitive: 2
Reflective: 1

Inspiration 3

Edges

Artefact 1, Big Hearted 1, Danger Sense 1, Direction Sense 1, Free Running 1, Photographic Memory 3, Skilled Liar 2

Specialities/Skill Tricks

Gems & Jewellery (Larceny Speciality)

Intricate Locks (Enigmas Speciality)

That Was Already Mine (Larceny Trick)

Instant Solution (Enigmas Trick)

Gifts
Contortionist, Nimble-Fingered, I’m on the List, X Marks the Spot

Path Contacts

Boarding School Alumni –Naomi Rothschild 1

Fence – Hector Mueller 1

Police – Inspector James O’Keefe, Scotland Yard 1

Where Player Characters in Trinity Continuum: Aeon, Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, and Trinity Continuum: Adventure! will have psionics, superpowers, and so on, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook focuses on skilled characters, often exceptionally skilled characters known as ‘Talents’. Each has a selection of Gifts, typically tied to a particular skill such as ‘Cold Read’ of a person using Culture or Empathy or ‘Daredevil’ for Pilot. Other Gifts are simply luck-based, such as ‘A Friend in Every Port’ or ‘Knee Deep in Brass’. Such Gifts are fuelled by Inspiration, which can also be used to create Enhancements to an action or skill attempt based on one a character’s Facets—Destructive, Intuitive, or Reflective, each representing differing ways of approaching a situation or problem, to undertake Dramatic Editing of a scene, or to improve a character’s current defence. Although a character only has a few points of Inspiration, it is easy to get back and so enable a character to shine again in a later scene.

Where the Trinity family originally used the Storyteller mechanics, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is written for use with the Storypath system. The Storypath system can be best described as a distillation of the Storyteller system—the mechanics of which date all of the way back to Vampire: The Masquerade—and certainly anyone familiar with the Storyteller system will find that it has a lot in common with the Storypath system, except that the Storypath system is simpler and streamlined, designed for slightly cinematic, effect driven play. The core mechanic uses dice pools of ten-sided dice, typically formed from the combination of a skill and an attribute, for example Pilot and Dexterity to fly a helicopter, Survival and Stamina to cross a wilderness, and Persuasion and Manipulation to unobtrusively get someone to do what a character wants. These skill and attribute combinations are designed to be flexible, the aim being any situation is to score one or more Successes, a Success being a result of eight or more. Rolls of ten—or ‘10-again’—allow dice to be rolled again to gain further success.

To succeed, a player needs to roll at least one Success, and may need to roll more depending upon the Difficulty of the task. Should a character succeed, he can increase the number of Successes with an Enhancement, such as having a fast car in a race or the right outfit for the occasion. Any Successes generated beyond the Difficulty become Threshold Successes and represent how well the character has succeeded. These can be spent by the player to buy off Complications, for example, not attracting the attention of the Police in a car chase, or to purchase Stunts. These can cost nothing, for example, the Inflict Damage Stunt, whereas the Disarm Stunt costs two and the Critical Hit Stunt costs four. Stunts can be used to inflict a Complication upon an opponent, to create an Enhancement for the current or another Player Character, or create a means to Defend the Player Character, which then has to be overcome by the opposition. Stunts in theTrinity Continuum Core Rulebook will also come from a Player Character’s Edges and Gifts.

Under the Storypath system, and thus in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, failure is never abject. Rather, if a player does not roll any Successes, then he receives a Consolation. This can be a ‘Twist of Fate’, which reveals an alternative approach or new information; a ‘Chance Meeting’ introduces a new helpful NPC; or an ‘’Unlooked-for Advantage’, an Enhancement which can be used in a future challenge. However, a character will typically gain Momentum, a single point for a simple failure, and two points for a Botch, the latter a failed roll in which a one is also rolled. Momentum is a resource shared by all of the players and they begin each game with a pool of points equal to their number. It is spent to activate Skill Tricks, to add extra dice to a roll, and to attempt rerolls for complex tasks.

The cinematic nature of combat in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is how reloading a gun is handled. If it is part of an action, such as shooting, then it becomes a Complication which a Player Character will need to spend a Success to buy off. A Reload action will typically be required when a player botches an attack with a gun or the character has performed the ‘Emptying the Magazine’ stunt for an automatic weapon. Rather than making the Reload action part of the mechanics, the rules make it part of the action.

One aspect of the action and the combat in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is that it not designed to be simple. Instead, it is designed to be complex, not mechanically, but narratively. The rules can handle the simple exchange of blows, feints, blocks, and deflections and does so with alacrity, but the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is inspired by the type of action and fights we see onscreen. What this means is that it allows for fights or pieces of action in difficult situations—fights or situations that the Storyguide is encouraged to create. For example, instead of a chase through city streets, the chase is through the streets of a city amidst a civil protest; instead of a fight to gain control of a vehicle, the fight is to gain control of a vehicle whilst it hurtles down the side of a mountain with faulty brakes. There is some complexity here in that a player has to calculate multiple actions, so in the case of driving down the mountain whilst fighting off the mook, his player will work out what he would roll for the driving attempt (Pilot plus Might) to keep the vehicle under control and what he would roll to fend off the attacks of the mook (Close Combat plus Dexterity). However, instead of making multiple rolls, the player will only make one roll, the one with the lowest number of dice. 

For example, Claudia Romanov has broken into the mansion of Hans Kreuger to steal the Gambaccini Quartet, a set of jewellery which she thinks has clues to the location of an ancient temple that she knows Kreuger has been searching for some nefarious purposes of his own. Unfortunately, an alarm has been triggered and as she attempts to work out the intricacies  of a complex lock system, a couple of guards are looking for whatever triggered the alarm. They have their torches out and are searching nearby. So Claudia wants to work out how to open the lock whilst avoiding the torch beams. Picking the lock would normally be a Larceny and Dexterity check, as would the stealth check to avoid the torch beams. The Storyguide though, states that the lock on Hans Kreuger’s vault is not straightforward and is more puzzle like, so suggests using Enigmas. This will be an Enigmas and Intellect roll. For Claudia, the Enigmas and Intellect will be with five dice, compared to the nine dice of the Larceny and Dexterity check, so her player will roll the former. The Storyguide sets the Difficulty at three. 

Claudia’s player rolls 3, 7, 9, 9, and 10. The target number for the dice is eight, which means that Claudia has succeeded. The roll of 10—or ‘10-again’—means that this die can be rolled again. A roll of a 9 adds another success for a total of four. Another two are added as an Enhancement for Claudia already have seen the plans for the locking mechanisms earlier in the adventure for a grand total of six. Three successes are used to overcome the difficulty. Claudia’s player decides that two of these extra successes will be spent to add a Complication, in this case leaving little or no trace for the security guards to follow as she makes her way out. The leftover success is used to make Claudia undertake the task quickly.

 Beyond the action mechanics, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook gives rules for handling Procedurals—or investigative play, Intrigue for interacting with people, and making friends and bonds, handling super-science, and vehicles right up to multi-crew starships. Each of these sections is not necessarily innovative, but straightforward  and easy to use. So the Procedural rules focus not on the Player Characters getting the core clues—that is automatic, but on their interpretation and on obtaining clues extra or alternative to any core clue.  The Intrigue tracks an NPC’s attitude towards a Player Character, with the actions of the Player Character determining how this will change and whether the NPC will help him. The Super-Science rules neatly cover repairing, reverse engineering, and reforging of items and artefacts, complete with a list of flaws and stunts. Again, simple should cover most situations.

For the Storyguide there is solid advice on her responsibilities—including sharing some of them with her players, creating a campaign, how to run and improvise a game, and more. There is also a lengthy discussion of the genres that the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook covers along with examples of each. In terms of background, there is not really very much to be found in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. Primarily, this because the default setting for the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is the here and now, or the near here and now, with stories ripped from the headlines. To support the fantastical or ‘Talented’ elements of the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook’s here and now, it details five allegiances, such as the Aeon Society and The Neptune Society, as well as lesser allegiances, which the Player Characters belong to and each of which provides a Path during character generation, as well as frameworks upon which to hang a campaign.

Physically, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is neat, larger than digest-sized hardback. It is well-written, the full colour artwork throughout is excellent, and the whole affair is attractive. Perhaps in places it feels a little too concise, for example, the sample combat feels as if it could have been better explained mechanically. It could also have been slightly better organised such as not having the Society Paths and the Gifts right at the back of the book, which makes the character creation process a bit of a chore. Neither of these issues are insurmountable, the Storyguide simply needing to work through the book to rough out potential niggles in the rules or book before bringing a game to the table, pretty much the same as she would for any other roleplaying game.

What the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook presents is not so much a roleplaying game with a setting, but a roleplaying game with a genre—the setting will be provided by the Storyguide and enhanced by the players. As a set of rules, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is the firm foundation upon which the three settings will rest, as a roleplaying game in its own right, the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook provides everything a gaming group will need for high-action roleplaying. It does both in a concise, easy-to-read fashion, leaving plenty of room for the Storyguide and her players to bring their ideas and their action to the table.