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.
Showing posts with label Thriller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thriller. Show all posts
Sunday, 21 January 2024
Sunday, 26 July 2020
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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