The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Until "Aberrant", this was the best RPG that White Wolf ever produced.

It's been a damned long time since an original science fiction RPG fired my senses like this one did. I never got into "Traveller" back in the day, and most of the science fiction games that followed didn't get my attention either. The exceptions were anything but "proper" science fiction; "Robotech", "Mekton II", "The Star Wars Role-Playing Game", and others like these stole me away from sword-and-sorcery gaming. I had no strong interest, other than the mechanics, until "Aberrant" came out. I took a second look, and that's when I got hooked.

Now I'm kicking myself for not getting involved sooner. It's as if all of the griping I've done, in and out of print, about White Wolf products finally got through to someone. The first big change is the division between What Is Objective and What is Subjective, which is closely tied to a renewed seperation of setting and rules. The book does this by splitting into a color and a black-and-white section.

The big ol' color section is all about setting, people. You should've heard about this by now, so I'll keep it short. The color section has all of the subjective information; if it's something that could become Very Wrong later on, it's there. The black-and-white section is all Cold Hard Fact. This is the rules section, the storytelling section, and the What's Really Going On section. What you read here is what you may rely upon to be true. This approach avoids confusion for all but the most dim-witted of gamers, and were there an audience I'd call for a standing ovation. This is practical and elegant game design.

What's the setting about? After the Novas of "Aberrant" go mad with Taint, there's an Aberrant War that ends with Divis Mal and his pals fleeing Earth for deep space. The results wreck the social order as we know from "Aberrant", and this includes spoiling or destroying the gains that the Novas made. Regimes rise and fall. The US becomes a facist state. It's Really, Really Bad for a while.

During this time the Aeon Society reorganizes into the Aeon Covenant, and that mutates into the Aeon Trinity. They start working again to unify humanity and build toward the future. Somewhere along the line, eight humans receive an infusion of power that makes them powerful psychics. These eight found the Eight Psion Orders, and the Trinity quickly moves to groom them to replace (and fight) the Aberrants that once served the Trinity as the champions/protectors of humanity.

They got their chance soon enough. Early in the 22nd Century, the Aberrants did return. The Legions, the psychokinetic order, beat back an attack on Syndey's spaceport. That battle exposed the orders, and soon all eight went public. It's gotten worse since, in increments, and the media--as pervasive as they ever were--fuel the hatred and paranoia. Humanity now deals with two alien civilizations, and Earth still has no world government. Real FTL drives are new, and somewhat experimental. All is not good, but this ain't the World of Darkness- there is real hope, and your PCs can actually achieve something worth having.

Let me say this again: THIS IS NOT THE WORLD OF DARKNESS! Your PCs are not doomed from the get-go. You can play a hero--a Good Guy--and not get screwed early, often, and repeatedly. If you've played the vilain or antihero for too long, give this a go. You will not regret the decision.

What about the rules? This is another piece of wonderful work. The game is where the Revised Storyteller System came from, and for this Andrew Bates and company deserve another round of applause. Many of the flaws in the Storyteller engine finally got proper attention, and that means that they fixed it. The wonky botch rule, along with the equally-wonky probability bug, went away when they rewrote the Rule of One and fixed the target number at 7 for all rolls. Now, if you want something to be harder than average, you require more successes on the die roll. This means that successes in "Trinity"--and "Aberrant"--are much more important than in WoD Storyteller; three WoD successes equal one AB/TR success.

"Trinity" is also the game that implemented the Bashing/Lethal damage classification. It's also the game that implemented the fix for the old (Stat)+(Skill) die pool; now all Abilities are fixed to one stat, and that never changes. Initiative is now (Wits)+(Dex)+1d10, and the multiple-action rules are much less forgiving. Some of these changes migrated to VRev, so if they seem familiar that's why. The new rules are reason enough to take a good, long look at this game. Oh, BTW, this time there are actual *rules* for vehicular combat, w/ very easy scaling. That's something many aren't used to seeing from White Wolf.

And the psi powers? They're keen, but not all-powerful. (If that's your scene, go see "Aberrant".) There are macro-powers, which they call "Aptitudes"; a PC psion has one primary Aptitude, and only that one can go above one dot. (He may acquire others.) There are three Modes with an Aptitude; a PC psion may advance all three to the five dot maximum. Psi powers work off the Psi stat, which is a die pool of its own. Like Willpower, it has a permanent rating and a temporary pool. You spend Psi points to use powers, and recover them during rest or by other means.

Of course, no good SF RPG goes without gear. There's a lot to be had, and some of it is organic. Biotech is usually meant for psions, so a lot of the biotech gear has "Psion PC" written all over it. It works by formatting a piece to the user's DNA code. Too much biotech at once, however, becomes detrimental to the user's health. The hardtech stuff is quite neat. It ranges from consumer goods, to computer tech, to military grade hardware or starships. It's keen, it's good, and it's easy for a GM to control.

What do you do with it? Whatever you want, of course. As the books and films in the back suggest, this is a wide-open setting. You can play it light or dark, close to home or far 'n' away, and deal with whatever you find interesting. (If you're going to make heavy use of Aberrants, then get "Aberrant" and use that book for your NPCs. The crib sheet in "Trinity" doesn't do them justice.) I can't do justice to the potential behind the setting, and neither does the short story at the front of the book. (Read it; it's a good window into how this game feels.)

If you want a top-notch original SF RPG, get this game. It's a joy to read, a joy to play, and a joy to write about. The only bad thing I have to say is that the softcover edition may not last forever; it's the only RPG I've bought that's more-than-pleased me with the cast. Oh, and beware combat. It's a killer; have a damned-high soak total, or don't get hit.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Trinity
Author: Andrew Bates, Justin R. Achilli, and a small army of people too numerous to name. Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Trinity Cost: $14.95 (softcover) Page count: 320 pages ISBN: 1-56504-622-6 (softcover) SKU: WW9099 Capsule Review by Bradford C. Walker on 07/26/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Space Conspiracy	Until "Aberrant", this was the best RPG that White Wolf ever produced. It's been a damned long time since an original science fiction RPG fired my senses like this one did. I never got into "Traveller" back in the day, and most of the science fiction games that followed didn't get my attention either. The exceptions were anything but "proper" science fiction; "Robotech", "Mekton II", "The Star Wars Role-Playing Game", and others like these stole me away from sword-and-sorcery gaming. I had no strong interest, other than the mechanics, until "Aberrant" came out. I took a second look, and that's when I got hooked. Now I'm kicking myself for not getting involved sooner. It's as if all of the griping I've done, in and out of print, about White Wolf products finally got through to someone. The first big change is the division between What Is Objective and What is Subjective, which is closely tied to a renewed seperation of setting and rules. The book does this by splitting into a color and a black-and-white section. The big ol' color section is all about setting, people. You should've heard about this by now, so I'll keep it short. The color section has all of the subjective information; if it's something that could become Very Wrong later on, it's there. The black-and-white section is all Cold Hard Fact. This is the rules section, the storytelling section, and the What's Really Going On section. What you read here is what you may rely upon to be true. This approach avoids confusion for all but the most dim-witted of gamers, and were there an audience I'd call for a standing ovation. This is practical and elegant game design. What's the setting about? After the Novas of "Aberrant" go mad with Taint, there's an Aberrant War that ends with Divis Mal and his pals fleeing Earth for deep space. The results wreck the social order as we know from "Aberrant", and this includes spoiling or destroying the gains that the Novas made. Regimes rise and fall. The US becomes a facist state. It's Really, Really Bad for a while. During this time the Aeon Society reorganizes into the Aeon Covenant, and that mutates into the Aeon Trinity. They start working again to unify humanity and build toward the future. Somewhere along the line, eight humans receive an infusion of power that makes them powerful psychics. These eight found the Eight Psion Orders, and the Trinity quickly moves to groom them to replace (and fight) the Aberrants that once served the Trinity as the champions/protectors of humanity. They got their chance soon enough. Early in the 22nd Century, the Aberrants did return. The Legions, the psychokinetic order, beat back an attack on Syndey's spaceport. That battle exposed the orders, and soon all eight went public. It's gotten worse since, in increments, and the media--as pervasive as they ever were--fuel the hatred and paranoia. Humanity now deals with two alien civilizations, and Earth still has no world government. Real FTL drives are new, and somewhat experimental. All is not good, but this ain't the World of Darkness- there is real hope, and your PCs can actually achieve something worth having. Let me say this again: THIS IS NOT THE WORLD OF DARKNESS! Your PCs are not doomed from the get-go. You can play a hero--a Good Guy--and not get screwed early, often, and repeatedly. If you've played the vilain or antihero for too long, give this a go. You will not regret the decision. What about the rules? This is another piece of wonderful work. The game is where the Revised Storyteller System came from, and for this Andrew Bates and company deserve another round of applause. Many of the flaws in the Storyteller engine finally got proper attention, and that means that they fixed it. The wonky botch rule, along with the equally-wonky probability bug, went away when they rewrote the Rule of One and fixed the target number at 7 for all rolls. Now, if you want something to be harder than average, you require more successes on the die roll. This means that successes in "Trinity"--and "Aberrant"--are much more important than in WoD Storyteller; three WoD successes equal one AB/TR success. "Trinity" is also the game that implemented the Bashing/Lethal damage classification. It's also the game that implemented the fix for the old (Stat)+(Skill) die pool; now all Abilities are fixed to one stat, and that never changes. Initiative is now (Wits)+(Dex)+1d10, and the multiple-action rules are much less forgiving. Some of these changes migrated to VRev, so if they seem familiar that's why. The new rules are reason enough to take a good, long look at this game. Oh, BTW, this time there are actual rules for vehicular combat, w/ very easy scaling. That's something many aren't used to seeing from White Wolf. And the psi powers? They're keen, but not all-powerful. (If that's your scene, go see "Aberrant".) There are macro-powers, which they call "Aptitudes"; a PC psion has one primary Aptitude, and only that one can go above one dot. (He may acquire others.) There are three Modes with an Aptitude; a PC psion may advance all three to the five dot maximum. Psi powers work off the Psi stat, which is a die pool of its own. Like Willpower, it has a permanent rating and a temporary pool. You spend Psi points to use powers, and recover them during rest or by other means. Of course, no good SF RPG goes without gear. There's a lot to be had, and some of it is organic. Biotech is usually meant for psions, so a lot of the biotech gear has "Psion PC" written all over it. It works by formatting a piece to the user's DNA code. Too much biotech at once, however, becomes detrimental to the user's health. The hardtech stuff is quite neat. It ranges from consumer goods, to computer tech, to military grade hardware or starships. It's keen, it's good, and it's easy for a GM to control. What do you do with it? Whatever you want, of course. As the books and films in the back suggest, this is a wide-open setting. You can play it light or dark, close to home or far 'n' away, and deal with whatever you find interesting. (If you're going to make heavy use of Aberrants, then get "Aberrant" and use that book for your NPCs. The crib sheet in "Trinity" doesn't do them justice.) I can't do justice to the potential behind the setting, and neither does the short story at the front of the book. (Read it; it's a good window into how this game feels.) If you want a top-notch original SF RPG, get this game. It's a joy to read, a joy to play, and a joy to write about. The only bad thing I have to say is that the softcover edition may not last forever; it's the only RPG I've bought that's more-than-pleased me with the cast. Oh, and beware combat. It's a killer; have a damned-high soak total, or don't get hit. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)