The Inside Scoop on Gaming

And now, it's time for the very first...

Sean Riley's
Trivia Quiz Review!

The only review where you get to play along at home! Our contestant for today is, as always, you, and the topic for today is The Trinity Players Guide, published by White Wolf Games Studio and written by R. Sean Borgstrom, Zach Bush, Richard Dakan, Bryant Durrell, Evan Jamieson and Richard Meyer, that good ol' boy Clayton A. Oliver, John R. Snead and Richard Tomasso, along with a lil' bit of help from the delightful Deird'Re M. Brooks and Batesy!

For those not familiar with the subject, here is some brief background information. Trinity is a game developed by White Wolf Games Studio, most known for their controversial (Initially controversial for it's subject matter, later controversial due to accusations of 'pretentiousness') World of Darkness series. A tradition for White Wolf is to include a "Players Guide" for each of their games, usually including a few extra groups to play, as well as extra information on groups already presented, and their "merits" and "flaws". The Trinity Players Guide is fairly traditional for the course, attempting to present information that will aid players, regardless of who their character is. That said, Andrew Bates has always stated that he attempts to put useful stuff for both players and storytellers in every book he develops (Even Adventure Modules!) so this should be regarded as focusing on players, not exclusively for them.

Your first question: The Trinity Players Guide is a breakthrough Trinity line book for which of the following reasons:

A: It is the first Trinity book not to be developed by Andrew Bates;
B: It is the first Trinity book to make a direct connection between Divis Mal and the Æon Trinity;
C: It is the first Trinity book without the trademark color setting section;
D: It is the first Trinity book to be printed on Clayton A. Oliver's new paper formula.

Answer: C. Developer Andrew Bates has convinced White Wolf to abandon the Trinity trademark format, which must have been a right pain to develop. As he has said, you have to do one section for color, then develop another section for black and white, and then make sure that neither is superfluous? I can see how quickly that would be tiresome. And I don't buy the line that doing this will reduce the cost, either, the Players Guide clocks in at a hefty $22.95 ($45 Australian, for those interested), a full seven bucks extra than the "Introductory Priced" soft cover Trinity main book, and the Trinity Players Guide is a book with no color and less pages. Would it have cost more to make with color? Undoubtedly. Are the savings being passed on to the consumer? I doubt it. Introductory price or no (for the soft cover main book), I refuse to believe that these books can be that disproportionately priced.

Do the changes hurt the presentation of the books? Hard call. What I will point out is that this change makes flicking through the book much more fun. I had a great time reading General Larssen's comments and Æon's replies, and the way that they're spread over pages is very effective. All up, I don't believe the change will hurt Trinity, beyond that having a tradition broken in this way is disappointing for me.

It's a bit like the out takes in Rush Hour. Were they funny? Hell yeah. But was it disappointing to see funny stuff instead of Jackie Chan getting hammered instead? Yes.

Question 2: Is the piece of opening fiction, "Nascendancy":

A: One of the most eye widening metaplot forwarders in Trinity history;
B: Somewhat puzzlingly titled and arguably at odds with previously stated material, but none the less very interesting and instructive.
C: Ignorable besides the picture of yet another naked chick in a Prometheus chamber. (Don't get me wrong. Naked chicks are very interesting. But they are becoming VERY obligatory. I have seen one, repeat one, picture of a guy in a Prometheus Chamber. Stop using the game device as an opportunity for titty, White Wolf artists! That said, this one is arguably more justified than previous ones, as it ties into the story.);
D: Totally unnecessary.

Answer: B. Whilst I have no idea what Nascendancy means, the story is an interesting if not exactly gripping story describing the experiences of recently dunked Psions, which is a good subject matter to explore. The ending in which the psions efforts are ignored by the press is somewhat confusing. Aren't psion stories considered sexy by the media? Why would they be ignored? Yes, the FSA doesn't exactly like psions, but isn't the media controlled by Australia, who loves 'em? And speaking less pedantically, that kind of end doesn't jibe with the theme of the story, centering on personal growth and development. It's a good story, but the ending seemed forced.

Question 3: Is the first chapter, centering on the Æon Trinity:

A: Somewhat technical and only minimally useful to players, but a Storytellers toy box;
B: Beautifully player focused and a stunning example of what the whole book should have been;
C: Confusing;
D: Amusing.

Answer: Both A and D, although maybe C, too.

The first chapter consists mostly of the structural details of the Æon Trinity, including details such as where its chapter houses are, who is in charge of what division, and so on. For a player, marginally useful (Although including the Nature of people most likely to be in each group is a nice touch), but a storyteller will have great fun including the tons of NPCs available. One of the main themes of Trinity is that the world really is a small place and that powerful people, even Proxies for example, are real people who are accessible. Smart storytellers should be using these guys, and I know I will be.

But I wanted more! Where is Trinity doing operations? There are some hints that Antarctica is home to a very interesting operation.. where else? I guess that is storytellers info and will be included in the Storytellers Guide, but I still wanted to know. Also, what is the average day in the life of an Æon Trinity member like? To me, that is useful information for a player. I want to know what tasks I am expected to perform and the kinds of paperwork I have to fill out. I want to have character background help. Leave the structural stuff to the Storyteller.

Question 4: Is the second chapter, focusing on the Psi Orders

A: Really interesting once you learn Bue Li is a transvestite;
B: Standard faire, nominally useful to both storytellers and players;
C: Where you'll find the worst bit of art in the book;
D: Very contradictory and confusing.

Answer: B, although unfortunately, also C. Page 49. But whoever did it makes up for it on page 57, which was very nice indeed.

Chapter Three has some great stuff, all round. Players will love the content on "Daily Life" and "Training", whilst storytellers will get a kick out of the "Beginnings", "Proxies" and "inter-Order Relations". I also am convinced that a lot of players will get mileage out of the Freelance and Rogue psions and that Storytellers worldwide will get frustrated by players whining "I wanna be a Rogue Psion! YEAH!"

That said, nothing here is spectacular. Richard Dansky once told his writers that if he guessed what happened next, then he wouldn't be impressed. I guessed everything in this chapter. There are just no surprises!

Question 5: The third chapter focuses on 22nd century everyday life. Could it be best described as:

A: Utterly irrelevant to most games, unless you're actually planning to play "Melrose Place: 2120" (It's not just an area code anymore!);
B: The product of a man with way too much time on his hands;
C: The chapter you should be smoking (Love that new paper formula!);
D: The best chapter in the entire book, and an excellent example of what the first chapter would have better looked like.

Answer: D. This chapter does something I'd been wanting ever since the main book, cover basically what growing up in the future is like. I'll tell ya, that's the one constant of every character - they had a childhood, parents. They grew up. In World of Darkness games, this isn't really necessary (Except maybe in Changeling) because the world is so similar to ours. Not here, blinky. In Trinity, the world is radically different, and this chapter fills you in on the details.

And boy, oh boy, talk about details. Here's a bonus question: How many people in the Trinity universe are below the poverty line? Answer: 1 in 5. You wanna play an outback pioneer from Australia? Covered it. Grow up in a shattered European community? Covered it. Spend your childhood days in the pique of luxury or the bottom of The Pit? Covered it. This resource is invaluable. Read it. Use it. Create realistic histories for your character with it. Love it. Be it.

For Storytellers, this chapter is even better. Whilst I wonder why the section on The Aberrant's Ultimate Goal (Yes, you heard me right) is in here, it's a very, very nice touch for the game, and it highlights one of the fundamental differences between Trinity and World of Darkness. Trinity, whilst having numerous conspiracies and secrets, is less about them and is more about the fate of a world trying to stand on its own two feet again. As such, storytellers are told the secrets, the game functions better when lines are drawn in and marks are made clear. The World of Darkness is about conspiracies and secrets, when they're revealed, the game falls apart. I'm not arguing either approach is better (in fact, I'm arguing the exact opposite), but this is a prime example of the way Trinity operates.

Storytellers will also enjoy the discussion of "blank" characters and chronicles, and the discussion of the United Nations. Very nice.

And now, it's time for (me to get sued by You Don't Know Jack) a....

Flickerpiss Nosescum!

That's right, it's time for a Gibberish Question! We don't have a counter on this page, so you'll have to do it yourself. If you're playing along at home, time yourself, and for each one and a half seconds you take to work it out, deduct 1000 points from the 10,000 you get to start. Let's play. (And no, I don't think anyone is actually trying to do this. I'm not that naive.) Tell me what cliché this rhymes with:

I won't slow carpet, My row's not a dyke.

You may find some of this stuff scattered throughout the Players Guide...
The stuff was done by Andrew Bates, Langdon Foss, Jeff Holt, Leif Jones, David Lynch, Alex Sheikman and Uko Smith, and Richard Thomas chose what went in and what didn't...
I'm not sure if this question may or may not be art, but I like it!

Give up? Here's the answer:

I don't know art, but I know what I like.

Which just about sums up my position on the artwork in the Trinity Players Guide. The artwork here is pretty good, and is really good when it's handled by Bates and Jones, both of whom have nailed the Trinity fashion sense with all the vertical lines. Both of their stuff is also pretty atmospheric, which is very nice indeed. I don't know who did the horrible page 49 piece, but most of their stuff is decent. Likewise, whilst the bit on page 144 is ugly, the same guy did the very impressive page 52.

In general, the artwork is good, often appropriate to the text alongside it (Shock) and atmospheric. Just ignore the inside cover illustration.

Question 6: The fourth chapter, focusing on developing characters, is:

A: Stacked with merits and flaws that range from the useful and interesting to the obligatory and pointless to the bizarre;
B: Simply weighed down by the nature of the beast;
C: Occasionally surprising and containing some original ideas;
D: All of the above.

Answer: D. The chapter starts strongly, with a great discussion on the importance of Origins, that is, the history of your character. It includes a great sidebar with some neat suggestions for storytellers on how to improve character histories. In other words, it starts out really well.

But then we get the obligatory extra natures. Even here, it must be said, there are surprising seeds of originality (The Psion and Xenophile natures are brill) but the chapter can be seen to being weighed down by the expectations of what should be in it. I don't envy Clayton A. Oliver, who wrote this chapter, it's not a pretty job to do, and he does his damned best to escape the format he's kind of boxed into. He partially succeeds.

His descriptions on Multiple Allegiances are great, and show the Clayton A. Oliver trademark - Common sense rules suggestions which work, and which most people wouldn't think of. (I knew I blew the way I handled that Norca plant in the Æon Trinity badly). But then, again, we hit the Abilities, and it seems awfully restricted purely by virtue of what it has to be: A listing of new Abilities. The discussion of old Abilities rendered somewhat redundant by the new ones is discussed, nice touch.

The new personal combat rules are limited by, again, virtue of what they have to be: Combat rules. They work, but I detest combat in my games and use it as little as possible. As such, I was non-plussed. That said, one of my players (A total combat freak) loved em. So I guess this is a bit of personal taste. I was impressed by Uchukukando, that was very cool indeed, and again, one of those seeds of originality that pepper this chapter and show a blossoming writer desperately trying to make his mark.

Wow, that sounded like a total suck up.

Anyway, the merits and flaws follow this same format. Yeesh. Huge Size. Joy. I remember that one way back there, and is fairly boring. Then again, Elgee (which concerns people born on low gravity environments... Low Gravity, get it?) is really, really well done and brought a smile to my face. Meanwhile, the flaw named.. ahem.. Horny is somewhat humorous. I've heard Andrew Bates himself put that one in, I guess he was either in an oddly humorous mood that day, or otherwise.. ahem.. mentally preoccupied.

I can't believe I said that. Next question!

Question 7: The chapter on Psi (Chapter 5) is;

A: A very well done section outlining the origins of Psi energy and the mysterious Doyen;
B: Boring as Chromatic Dung;
C: Filled with all sorts of details;
D: Both B and C.

Answer: D.

Look, this chapter has a ton of stuff. It's got the basic scientific theories of Psi. Nice. It's got a more detailed look at Atunement, Auxiliary powers and so forth. Wonderful. It's also as dry and boring to read as anything I've seen come out of White Wolf.

Is this chapter worth reading? Yes. Is it really, really hard to read? Yeah. Is it worth writing home about? Nah.

Question 8: Final Question. The Appendix in the Players Guide is all about;

A: The Qin, including player character Qin details;
B: An entirely new system for Psi Powers;
C: Andrew Bates getting to rant about certain other games out there;
D: A picture of Vampire: The Masquerade developer Justin Achilli's ass, with the words "The Followers of Set are eeeeeeeeevil! Marilyn Manson rules!"

Answer: B, and thank goodness it isn't D.

The Appendix supposedly is the way Andrew Bates wanted Psi to work the whole time, a free form system with no regimented powers. Think Mage, and you have the idea.

But Mage was never quite this complicated, at least at first glance. This is a ten step process for each and every power you want to create. That's right, ten steps. If you don't know how to use this thing, then don't try and learn it as you go - Your games will lose any pretense of tempo, flowing rhythm and so forth as you wrestle with the system.

That said, once you learn the system, it's not nearly so hard.

For example: I want to chuck a really nasty fireball, and I have Pyrokinesis 2, and Telekinesis 4. The real trick I want to pull off falls underneath the heading of "Liquefy", a level 4 pyrokinesis effect. Since I'm two short, but I do have one Psychokinesis power that high, I can still make the roll but do so at +2 difficulty (One for each level short in the required mode). I roll Psi, and turn up 2 successes, one short. Spending a point of Psi gives me an additional two successes, so I spend a point, and bung the extra success to bring me up to par. From here, I can pump Psi into the effect to do more damage, or to increase its range, or its area of effect.

It's not a lot harder than Mage. I'd recommend using the standard system if you're aiming for a light, heroic game (Cause it's quicker) and the free form system for a grittier game. (Because it is more versatile.)

And that concludes the game! To work out my final ratings for this book, count up how many questions you got right, divide that number by what you scored on the Gibberish Question, then give up and look at my ratings below.

All up, this book is excellent. It suffers, on occasion, by virtue of what it must be, and occasionally it gets far too dry for its own good. But generally, the quality here is awesome. I give it a 5/5 for Content, nothing in this book is useless, and there's a lot here. But it loses a point in style for the chapter on Psi, which was great on content but boring to read. I was tempted to ding them another point for losing the color, but I've decided that's mainly just my traditionalistic own opinion, so it gets 4/5 for Style.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)