I love so many role-playing games and in particular the old Trinity universe. So I was ecstatic when the Kickstarter for a new version was announced, it’s called Trinity Continuum, from Onyx Path Publishing. The old White Wolf Game Studio published the original Æon Trinity in 1997; the game became known as Trinity due to a lawsuit with MTV due to their Aeon Flux, something that I recall helped spread word about the game at the local games shop I worked at. Set in the 22nd century Trinity was about humanity rebuilding after the Aberrant wars, with the game focusing on psychic humans call Psions. Over the years the Trinity Universe was expanded over the years to include Aberrant (Supes) and then Adventure! (Pulp) A d20 version in 2004. There was also a Trinity Battleground wargame (see end for poster collection). Then it was gone…
Like so many others I’ve been running the same Trinity campaign for many years, linking characters across multiple timelines. A big part of the appeal of the old games is their diverse settings and how they relate to each other, however, the old games were clearly not designed to fit neatly together, which put some people off. The Trinity Continuum Kickstarter has revealed that how Trinity Continuum fits together was a core design, and having read the new manuscripts I am very impressed. The multiverse of Trinity Continuum generates Flux, which besides being a great joke about old lawsuits, very nicely gives a basis to the luck and powers of the people in the different eras. This also makes any Trinity setting cannon, allowing Onyx to publish different products without violating anyone’s campaign deviations. This was never a problem for me, I would buy things and adapt them, but I appreciate many gamers felt the old vast metaplot made new products irrelevant to them.
Trinity Continuum will be using the new Storypath system, which I think is a big improvement on the old Storyteller system. For example: the introduction of the Momentum is a great mechanic that gives failures now add to the Momentum pool, which the party can use to overcome problems later. Momentum can also be used to power skill Tricks. There is more to Storypath system, so definitely check it out. I saw a negative post about somebody not liking the idea of Momentum and “failing forward”, personally I think this is a great addition. As normal for me and my group if we want to tweak things we do, and I already contemplating testing these mechanics in other games like L5R and GURPS; all part of the RPG mental toolkit 😉
The Storypath system is also used by Scion, but each game universe has its own tweaks. I love this because it will enable easy transition between different game universes, whilst allowing each game universe to have specialised mechanics to enhance the gameflow envisioned by the designers.
The core Trinity universe eras have been expanded in the Trinity Continuum. The Kickstarter is for the core rules, with a focus on modern day games. This has been done with foresight, allowing for games ranging from things like the Bourne Identity, Chuck (2007, TV), A Town Called Eureka (2006, TV), Fringe (2008, TV). There is nothing stopping a group from playing less action and super science games, such as focusing on the Æeon Society in the modern day that links to an era spanning campaign about the organisation over time.
A Kickstart add-on is Trinity Continuum: Æon book. This covers the original Trinity 22nd era, but there are a few tweaks, 99% of which I love. What is particularly impressive is how the Unity part of the setting is being given rules to help demonstrate the point, designer Ian Watson explained in an interview about how Psions can empower another Psion, like in Orpheus. One of my players always emphasises reasons for teamwork and they are going to love this tweak.
In a Polyhedron interview there were many gems such as a future settings of Anima, which will be set in 2084 (Total Recall, Remember Me) emphasising Implants and Memory Tech, and focusing on questions of identity. Another focus is people retreating to virtual realities after the Aberrant War, I wonder if full-borg conversions will be an option, or at least remote controlled androids, something like Surrogates. There was also mention of an era set in the ancient world, a Sword & Sandals style game; this was inspired by the Adventure! game notes of Doctor Primoris (who later became Divis Mal).
Another important point discussed in the interview was how diverse the old Trinity games were due to the global scale of the setting; it’s always great to have more game specific material. The new version will be building upon this legacy, which will include an expanded look at Africa, which never got its own sourcebook back in the old days in part due to them having so much to expand on; I’m sure it would have eventually if the games had not been cancelled.
There was such much I wanted to write about this Kickstarter, I had planned on summarising my own games but that would be too big a project and miss the point of highlighting what other people need to know about the Trinity setting. Thankfully lots of information is now available about the Trinity Continuum as well as the Storypath system via the Kickstarter. So before I end I will give a few campaign ideas that I have been pondering.
Psions Lost In Space / ST: Voyager: A Jumpship takes a group of people to a new colony, but they end up lost and so far away they are cut off from Earth. A campaign emphasising survival and testing the Unity ideas of the people aboard.
Paramorph Time War: empowered by the Trinity Continuum’s Flux, and assisted by many books, films as well as my trusty GURPS reference books. A vast Time War. Since leaving my old job games master job running Play-By-Mail games, one of the designs I have part finished is a way of tracking dynamic timelines, but due to how grand the game goal was I had to strip it back, and focus on a smaller project. I also have work from old Suzerain game focusing on time travel in tabletop games. Running a single player campaign would be much easier, imagine playing a character like Max Mercer seeing the sheer scope of the cosmos and trying to figure out how to help our species, add in the complication of other time travellers doing the same thing. This could be done for a group, maybe the group need to combine powers to jump.
Attack of the Titans / Kaiju Planet / Pacific Rim: Maybe set after the Aberrant War in a world that was even more devastated. Maybe beastlike Aberrants are left behind on Earth, but they have mutated further to become giant mindless entities. Can humanity defeat these Kaiju, and if so at what cost in lives and further global devastation?
Nova Terminators: Maybe the Op-net was destroyed not just because two Novas had a war, maybe there was a 3rd Nova that planned on world domination by initiating WW3 and ruling the remains like Skynet (SkyNova). In this world SkyNova succeeded and humans are now fighting a losing battle against Terminators. Maybe this game focuses on Daredevils and Psiads?
Æon Amber: Last year I finally got around to reading the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, Arthurian style court drama on a multiverse scale. Although travelling between every universe fighting other powerful factions is a bit too grand in scale; the TV series Sliders is a good example of this. Given that I am also looking forward to Changeling: The Lost 2nd Ed, maybe I can add this in as well? A nice way of cramming on more epic gaming in to limited playing time.
Lords of Light: Another Roger Zelazny book in which a human crew arrives at a planet but struggles to survive, so they alter themselves becoming vastly powerful entities. The crew masquerade as Hindu Gods subjugating the planet’s native inhabitants. A very interesting story following Sam trying to overthrow the crews control of the planet. This story would likely make a better fit for a Nova/Aberrant style game.
I’m sure many gamers are contemplating other campaign ideas, particularly the classic: Atlantis, Roman era, ancient Egypt dynasties, Aztecs, Mystic China, etc.
At the time of publishing there are 19 hours of the Kickstarter left. There are lots of stretch goals unlocked, so join in and reap the benefits even if just for the new PDFs and the $15 for most of the old 1st Edition Trinity books. I think Trinity Continuum seems to balancing the modern RPG approach of specialised rules whilst not sacrificing a broad ability to run so many games, this alone is a great reason to join in. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aeon-rpg/description
I dug out my old posters, publisher catalogue from working at Tower Models and the Trinity Battlegrounds wargame.
Batjutsu 