Trinity (role-playing game)


Trinity Continuum: Æon is a science fiction role-playing game previously published by White Wolf Game Studio in 1997 under the name Trinity. The current game is owned and published by Onyx Path Publishing.

History

had a hole in their 1997 publishing schedule, so CEO Steve Wieck asked designer Andrew Bates to come up with new a role-playing game, and Bates was able to bring science-fiction game ÆON from idea to publication in only 10 months. ÆON was intended to start an entirely new trilogy of games, and while its game rules were a variant of the Storytelling System, ÆON was meant to appeal to more action-oriented players than the World of Darkness. ÆON ran into problems early in its development when Viacom filed a lawsuit alleging a violation of their trademark for the Aeon Flux television series; White Wolf stickered over the names on the first printing of ÆON with the new name of the game, Trinity. With the success White Wolf was having with its ArtHaus imprint, low-settling games with high acclaim were increasingly added to ArtHaus, which brought Trinity to the imprint in 2000. ArtHaus produced d20 Trinity books to see how it would sell before trying d20 with the other White Wolf game universes, but Trinity d20 did not perform well in a weakened d20 market.
Five years after White Wolf's acquisition by CCP Games, CCP decided to shut down their traditional publishing endeavors. White Wolf's Creative Director, Richard Thomas, founded Onyx Path Publishing in 2012, and acquired the Trinity Universe, Scarred Lands, and Scion. After several years of publishing licensed material for White Wolf's World of Darkness and Exalted settings, the company was deemed stable enough to create a new system and new editions of both Scion and the now-renamed Trinity Continuum.

Description

Trinity was the first installment in the Trinity Universe series of games sharing a common background and developing an alternate history of humanity through two centuries, and allowing players to play almost all genres of science fiction - from comic-book superhero action to cutting edge technothriller, space opera, and old-fashioned pulp standards. Though it had a vocal fanbase the whole game line was discontinued due to low sales in 2001; an adaptation for the d20 system was released in 2004. Onyx Path Publishing acquired the rights to the Trinity Universe in 2012, and released a new edition. The basic rules used for the Trinity Continuum were released in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, while the futuristic science-fiction setting was released as an expansion under the name Trinity Continuum: Æon in 2019.

Setting

Set in the 22nd century, Trinity Continuum: Æon portrays a future Earth slowly recovering from a disastrous war and expanding in space. Former depressed areas such as Africa, South America and Eastern Asia, which suffered moderate traumas during the Aberrant War are now the leading political forces in the international arena, while Europe is a landscape of ruins and hard struggling survivors, and North America is under a fascist regime. Bio-engineering is the leading technology and psionics are known and studied if not exactly widespread. Alien contact has been made, with mixed results. Characters take the roles of psionic individuals, working for one of the many organizations in the gaming world, and tackling troubles when they arise. The game setting, which is detailed in a number of supplements, allows for a variety of styles, from cyberpunk-like corporate espionage to Mad Max-style post-holocaust frontier adventure, to space exploration.

Orders

Players have a choice of six "Orders" for their characters to join. Each Order possesses a mastery over a specific "Aptitude", a category of psionic powers. Each Order is based in a specific geographic location, often the homeland of its founder, and is heavily influenced by local culture. Actually, there are eight "Orders" in the Trinity Universe, but one only became playable after some metaplot hooks made it so, and the other has almost been exterminated by the year where the playable timeline begins.
;The Æsculapian Order
;Interplanetary School for Research and Advancement
;The Legions
;Ministry of Psionic Affairs
;Nova Força Nacional
;Orgotek
;Upeo wa Macho
;Chitra Bhanu

System

The game originally ran on a modified version of the White Wolf Storyteller System. A reprint was announced in late 2003 of the three Trinity Universe games using the Open Gaming License 3.5 rules, also known as the d20 System. The current version, by Onyx Path Publishing, became one of the first games to use the Storypath variant of Storyteller.

Books

Storyteller System

D20 System

  • ''Trinity d20''

Storypath System

Trinity Continuum Core RulebookTrinity Continuum: ÆonTrinity Continuum: Æon Reference ScreenQuantum Entanglement: A Trinity Continuum: Æon Jumpstart Æon Æxpansion Æon Ready-Made Characters Distant Worlds Terra Firma Under Alien Skies Prometheus Unbound Dawn and Meridian
  • ''Storypath Tasty Bit: Pets''

Fan-written supplements

Naming issue

Trinity was originally to be known as Æon, and was originally issued under that title in its hardback and deluxe versions. Legal issues arose with the holders of the rights for the animated series Æon Flux, which claimed the game challenged their trademarks. The matter was settled by White Wolf choosing to change the name of its game, and leaving "Æon" as the unofficial name for the whole line. Early copies of the game had a sticker with the new Trinity logo covering the original Æon logo.
Once White Wolf sold the IP to Onyx Path Publishing, the old Æon name returned as Trinity Continuum: Æon.

Reception

The reviewer from Pyramid #29 stated that "Hope. Sacrifice. Unity. Strong words used to define the spirit of Trinity, the new science-fiction roleplaying game from White Wolf."

Reviews