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Trinity is a very paradoxical game to me. On the one hand, I can't deny that I love it. There are compelling characters, great vistas, cool powers, interested conflicts. But on the other hand, I also can't deny that I hate it. To me, Trinity can just as easily be a rampantly optimistic superhero game as it can be something good (just a note: I don't like superhero games myself, they aren't bad, I just have little to no interest in them as anything other than a source of humor). I've spoken at length with both fans and writers, and I have not been able to resolve the two poles of Trinity yet. Luckily for me, however, the Trinity Players Guide works more on the side of Trinity that I like, and I found it a very good read.

Nascendency

The opening bit of fiction, it was okay. Nothing really inspiring, just all right. It wasn't bad so there isn't anything to complain about, but neither was it really that good either.

The Aeon Trinity

This is the kind of information I've been waiting for from Trinity for a long time. Details on how the Aeon Trinity is structured and just how it brings its power to bear. The material presented was really quite good, giving me a surprising number of chronicle ideas. When reading it, I really wanted to run a game in Trinity where the players are the Aeon Trinity representatives for the local chapter house and have to run it, putting on a good face for the PR people, and then everything goes Lovecraftian. This is the book that gives me the information I need. Where is Aeon based? How are the structured? How do they set up chapter houses? What are they supposed to do? What about Aeon Trinity associates? These are the questions the chapter tackles.

My only problem with the chapter is that it doesn't fully explain the Aeon Trinity's past and just how it rose to power. Apparently the pseudo-official status that it has today is due to being a significant help to the UN and many other nations when they were rebuilding after the Aberrant War and also from blackmail that the Aeon Trinity has on many of the major political leaders of the world. That seems logical enough, but I am still left wondering just where they got enough resources to really make any sort of dent in the damages from the Aberrant War.

While the section does not wipe away all of my concerns and questions for the Aeon Trinity, it certainly does take a giant leap from "can't stomach" to "barely palatable." While I would still heavily modify the Trinity setting in any game I ran, my setting can now be much closer to canon with this new material.

The Psi Oders

The next 30 pages or so looks at each of the Orders in turn, talking about their recruitment and training methods, as well as how they treat their members and just how one leaves the Order. The last bit of information is especially useful, as it again stresses the idea that not every electrokinetic works for the Prexy, they can choose to work for whoever they want, and often do. Some Orders are harder to leave than others (the Norca, for example), but none of the Orders are truly oppressive and slavish regimes, each have some redeeming features and some annoying qualities, as any real-life organization would. While there is still something that just doesn't rub right with all of the Orders, I am glad that there is one book where at least the basics for all of the Orders is laid out, especially for those Orders not slated for supplements for quite some time.

After a look at all of the Psi Orders (including the Upeo and Chitra Bhanu), the chapter turns to independent psions. Talking about everything from how an independent psion gets paid to how they interact with their Order-bound comrades, the section was very nice, made even more so by details like the Vatican's interaction psions, forming its own group of Gifted to explore their powers.

Modern Society

This chapter oscillates between really useful and kind of boring. Trying to demonstrate how different life in 2120 is from that of today, most of the examples were not all that different. I think that the chapter would have benefited more from a closer look at life in arcologies and under the sea or in space, where life is the most different. Many of the sidebars and details were quite useful, however, including answering the question of why each citizen doesn't have their own robot servant and how much truth you can find on the OpNet.

The section on social climate I found to be too forgiving, reinforcing the essentially optimistic nature of the setting and revitalizing my dislike for that mood. Trinity is, much of the time, way too bright and optimistic a future for my tastes.

That is followed by a discussion of playing neutrals in the game, and some of the discussion on how to run characters without psi powers was useful, but mainly as a tool to point out all of the things that one has to remember when running characters with psi. There are also some rules on how to build latents and what to consider when creating, running and developing them.

The best part of the chapter was the section on the UN. Another section of much-awaited information, this gave me a better handle on how global politics flow in 2120, but again, like the Aeon Trinity information, I think that much more time should have been spent on it, considering its importance.

There is a short little section about Aberrants, and it has several interesting plot ideas, but unfortunately they are immediately followed by an explanation of what is really going on, which seems outrageously out of place in a players guide. While there is a short "don't read this bit if you are a player" warning, I simply do not think that the Colony's true intentions and immediate plans should be printed in the players guide.

Developing Character

The work horse chapter of the book, chapter four takes the standard Storyteller look at characters with new skills, merits, flaws, and backgrounds.

The chapter starts off with a nice look at how to use Origin to expand your character, and then moves on to Nature and Allegiance, providing a slew of new templates for each. While I've never really have much use for Allegiance, the new templates and rules for dual Allegiances are nice. My only problem was that freelance psions have a higher experience cost to raise their Modes because of their lack of an Order to train them. I prefer to take the experience chart as base line and say that training makes it easier.

The new Abilities are like what new Abilities always are, good enough but never anything to write home about. There are some more detailed rules for those who like them, and they work well enough. The only problem that I think the section has is that they introduce new Abilities and tell the players to convert their old skills to the new ones. The actual system for conversion seems great (although a bit confusing on the first read-through), but I don't really like that kind of precedent. I had liked the older World of Darkness system where you had Secondary Abilities. It keeps them in the background unless you want to bring them forward, allowing you to confidently build a character with the base book and not have to worry about converting for new skills later on.

The section on Backgrounds was damned nice indeed, giving several paragraphs on each different Background. The added detail is very nice to have, Backgrounds are sometimes the most commonly ignored traits on the character sheet. There are more examples and guidelines for Backgrounds like Devices and Resources and some interesting notes and ideas for the others. There are also some new Backgrounds, including Clearance (knowing access codes around OpNet), Identity (the "completeness" of a false identity), and Requisitions (getting the equipment you need when you need it).

The merits and flaws are the standard fare for a Storyteller game, although there are several Trinity specific ones, of course, like all of the noetic merits and flaws, some of which are very interesting indeed, and have lots of potential.

Psi

Easily the most interesting chapter in the book, here we get a closer look at psi itself, from the basics on up. The chapter is clearly written and talks about everything from Attunement to taint to latency and the Prometheus Chambers. The basic methods that each Order uses to train its new psions are also mentioned briefly. There are a slew of interesting optional rules for psi and taint and some general guidelines for psionic dysfunction. While I do not like every dysfunction in particular (some are great, some are silly), I do like the idea and it is nice to have a general discussion on it. While no rules are given, qualitative information on each Aptitude and Mode is given with general mention of how to use the dysfunction in the game.

Free-Form Techniques

This chapter was a very mixed bag. While I really liked the idea of the free-form techniques, I found the chapter very hard to read through and understand, even more so than Mage: the Ascension, which was remarkably simple by comparison. If I were to run a Trinity game, if the focus was going to be on psi powers, I think I would use this system, if, however, psi was supposed to simple be another tool to use, nothing really that special, I would use the standard system. I do really like the option, however.

The system itself works in the sense that the higher your Modes are and the broader your Modes within your Aptitude, the easier it is to perform psi powers and the more you can do. The freeform system works very well for a mood setting system, I think, and if it could be explained better, I'm sure it would be nice and easy to use, since it basically boils down to using successes to "buy" an extent of effect.

Now that I've said all that

I'm going to say that the Trinity Players Guide is at least worth a look-see. I bought it and it really helped me warm to the setting. It didn't fix everything, but then again, nearly all of my problems are simply taste issues and aren't "fixed" anyway. This is definitely a good book for fans and skeptics alike.

The book itself, however, seems to be falling off of the Trinity wagon. It lacks a color section (which I hope is not a sign for future Trinity products, I liked it a lot) and most of the art throughout the book is either passable or actually bad. The cover itself is pretty bad, although I really do like Alex Sheikman's art style, I think that the cover is horrible. The layout of the book itself is up to standard Trinity par, although editing sure is not. I don't know why, but I found a startling number of typos and repeated sentence fragments. All of these issues bug me more than most gamers, I'm sure, but I like my art and my color, I miss it.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Trinity Players Guide
Author: R, Sean Borgstrom, Richard Dakan, Bryant Durrell, Evan Jamieson, Richard Meyer, Clayton A. Oliver, John R. Snead and Richard Tomasso Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Trinity Cost: $22.95 Page count: 218 ISBN: 1-56504-768-0 SKU: WW9010 Capsule Review by Derek Guder on 10/25/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Space Conspiracy Superhero	Trinity is a very paradoxical game to me. On the one hand, I can't deny that I love it. There are compelling characters, great vistas, cool powers, interested conflicts. But on the other hand, I also can't deny that I hate it. To me, Trinity can just as easily be a rampantly optimistic superhero game as it can be something good (just a note: I don't like superhero games myself, they aren't bad, I just have little to no interest in them as anything other than a source of humor). I've spoken at length with both fans and writers, and I have not been able to resolve the two poles of Trinity yet. Luckily for me, however, the Trinity Players Guide works more on the side of Trinity that I like, and I found it a very good read. Nascendency The opening bit of fiction, it was okay. Nothing really inspiring, just all right. It wasn't bad so there isn't anything to complain about, but neither was it really that good either. The Aeon Trinity This is the kind of information I've been waiting for from Trinity for a long time. Details on how the Aeon Trinity is structured and just how it brings its power to bear. The material presented was really quite good, giving me a surprising number of chronicle ideas. When reading it, I really wanted to run a game in Trinity where the players are the Aeon Trinity representatives for the local chapter house and have to run it, putting on a good face for the PR people, and then everything goes Lovecraftian. This is the book that gives me the information I need. Where is Aeon based? How are the structured? How do they set up chapter houses? What are they supposed to do? What about Aeon Trinity associates? These are the questions the chapter tackles. My only problem with the chapter is that it doesn't fully explain the Aeon Trinity's past and just how it rose to power. Apparently the pseudo-official status that it has today is due to being a significant help to the UN and many other nations when they were rebuilding after the Aberrant War and also from blackmail that the Aeon Trinity has on many of the major political leaders of the world. That seems logical enough, but I am still left wondering just where they got enough resources to really make any sort of dent in the damages from the Aberrant War. While the section does not wipe away all of my concerns and questions for the Aeon Trinity, it certainly does take a giant leap from "can't stomach" to "barely palatable." While I would still heavily modify the Trinity setting in any game I ran, my setting can now be much closer to canon with this new material. The Psi Oders The next 30 pages or so looks at each of the Orders in turn, talking about their recruitment and training methods, as well as how they treat their members and just how one leaves the Order. The last bit of information is especially useful, as it again stresses the idea that not every electrokinetic works for the Prexy, they can choose to work for whoever they want, and often do. Some Orders are harder to leave than others (the Norca, for example), but none of the Orders are truly oppressive and slavish regimes, each have some redeeming features and some annoying qualities, as any real-life organization would. While there is still something that just doesn't rub right with all of the Orders, I am glad that there is one book where at least the basics for all of the Orders is laid out, especially for those Orders not slated for supplements for quite some time. After a look at all of the Psi Orders (including the Upeo and Chitra Bhanu), the chapter turns to independent psions. Talking about everything from how an independent psion gets paid to how they interact with their Order-bound comrades, the section was very nice, made even more so by details like the Vatican's interaction psions, forming its own group of Gifted to explore their powers. Modern Society This chapter oscillates between really useful and kind of boring. Trying to demonstrate how different life in 2120 is from that of today, most of the examples were not all that different. I think that the chapter would have benefited more from a closer look at life in arcologies and under the sea or in space, where life is the most different. Many of the sidebars and details were quite useful, however, including answering the question of why each citizen doesn't have their own robot servant and how much truth you can find on the OpNet. The section on social climate I found to be too forgiving, reinforcing the essentially optimistic nature of the setting and revitalizing my dislike for that mood. Trinity is, much of the time, way too bright and optimistic a future for my tastes. That is followed by a discussion of playing neutrals in the game, and some of the discussion on how to run characters without psi powers was useful, but mainly as a tool to point out all of the things that one has to remember when running characters with psi. There are also some rules on how to build latents and what to consider when creating, running and developing them. The best part of the chapter was the section on the UN. Another section of much-awaited information, this gave me a better handle on how global politics flow in 2120, but again, like the Aeon Trinity information, I think that much more time should have been spent on it, considering its importance. There is a short little section about Aberrants, and it has several interesting plot ideas, but unfortunately they are immediately followed by an explanation of what is really going on, which seems outrageously out of place in a players guide. While there is a short "don't read this bit if you are a player" warning, I simply do not think that the Colony's true intentions and immediate plans should be printed in the players guide. Developing Character The work horse chapter of the book, chapter four takes the standard Storyteller look at characters with new skills, merits, flaws, and backgrounds. The chapter starts off with a nice look at how to use Origin to expand your character, and then moves on to Nature and Allegiance, providing a slew of new templates for each. While I've never really have much use for Allegiance, the new templates and rules for dual Allegiances are nice. My only problem was that freelance psions have a higher experience cost to raise their Modes because of their lack of an Order to train them. I prefer to take the experience chart as base line and say that training makes it easier. The new Abilities are like what new Abilities always are, good enough but never anything to write home about. There are some more detailed rules for those who like them, and they work well enough. The only problem that I think the section has is that they introduce new Abilities and tell the players to convert their old skills to the new ones. The actual system for conversion seems great (although a bit confusing on the first read-through), but I don't really like that kind of precedent. I had liked the older World of Darkness system where you had Secondary Abilities. It keeps them in the background unless you want to bring them forward, allowing you to confidently build a character with the base book and not have to worry about converting for new skills later on. The section on Backgrounds was damned nice indeed, giving several paragraphs on each different Background. The added detail is very nice to have, Backgrounds are sometimes the most commonly ignored traits on the character sheet. There are more examples and guidelines for Backgrounds like Devices and Resources and some interesting notes and ideas for the others. There are also some new Backgrounds, including Clearance (knowing access codes around OpNet), Identity (the "completeness" of a false identity), and Requisitions (getting the equipment you need when you need it). The merits and flaws are the standard fare for a Storyteller game, although there are several Trinity specific ones, of course, like all of the noetic merits and flaws, some of which are very interesting indeed, and have lots of potential. Psi Easily the most interesting chapter in the book, here we get a closer look at psi itself, from the basics on up. The chapter is clearly written and talks about everything from Attunement to taint to latency and the Prometheus Chambers. The basic methods that each Order uses to train its new psions are also mentioned briefly. There are a slew of interesting optional rules for psi and taint and some general guidelines for psionic dysfunction. While I do not like every dysfunction in particular (some are great, some are silly), I do like the idea and it is nice to have a general discussion on it. While no rules are given, qualitative information on each Aptitude and Mode is given with general mention of how to use the dysfunction in the game. Free-Form Techniques This chapter was a very mixed bag. While I really liked the idea of the free-form techniques, I found the chapter very hard to read through and understand, even more so than Mage: the Ascension, which was remarkably simple by comparison. If I were to run a Trinity game, if the focus was going to be on psi powers, I think I would use this system, if, however, psi was supposed to simple be another tool to use, nothing really that special, I would use the standard system. I do really like the option, however. The system itself works in the sense that the higher your Modes are and the broader your Modes within your Aptitude, the easier it is to perform psi powers and the more you can do. The freeform system works very well for a mood setting system, I think, and if it could be explained better, I'm sure it would be nice and easy to use, since it basically boils down to using successes to "buy" an extent of effect. Now that I've said all that I'm going to say that the Trinity Players Guide is at least worth a look-see. I bought it and it really helped me warm to the setting. It didn't fix everything, but then again, nearly all of my problems are simply taste issues and aren't "fixed" anyway. This is definitely a good book for fans and skeptics alike. The book itself, however, seems to be falling off of the Trinity wagon. It lacks a color section (which I hope is not a sign for future Trinity products, I liked it a lot) and most of the art throughout the book is either passable or actually bad. The cover itself is pretty bad, although I really do like Alex Sheikman's art style, I think that the cover is horrible. The layout of the book itself is up to standard Trinity par, although editing sure is not. I don't know why, but I found a startling number of typos and repeated sentence fragments. All of these issues bug me more than most gamers, I'm sure, but I like my art and my color, I miss it. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)