The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I wish all of White Wolf's splatbooks could be like this.

Like all of the pre-Arthaus Trinity releases, this book is split into a full-color and a black-and-white section. For those who've joined us late, the color section consists of information that most PCs know while the B&W section has the truth behind it all as well as any new rules or toys. Each section has a table of contents, which does make it easy to allow players to use the color section without reading GM-only material. (The credits, for those looking for 'em, are in the back.)

What's in the Color Section

Like all of Trinity's color section content, this comes in the form of a data file created and distributed by the Aeon Trinity. After the introduction, the file splits into two topics that--given the two topics--are closely intertwined. These are Psi Order Orgotek (the electrokinetics) and the Federated States of America.

The information about Orgotek is quite interesting. Orgotek may be a psi order built and operated like a multi-national corporation with subsidiaries in every vital field of human endevor, but it is not the sort of corporate entity that gamers know so well via cyberpunk games and fiction. Rather, Orgotek is more like the entities that exist in the real world; the president, who is also the order's Proxy, truly wants to create a better world for humanity and he truly believes that the corporate capitalist model is best suited to achieving that goal.

The file goes over the coporate empire that Orgotek "prexy" Alex Cassel rules as a benevolent despot. Except for World Enterprises, Inc. and Tekne Group--Orgotek's administrations and hardtech arms, respectively--Orgotek focuses its efforts on soft technology and integration. The subsidiaries of Orgotek aren't treated like separate entities, but more like departments within a corporation. This is borne out by the inclusion of Operations in the roster of corporations held by Orgotek. Operations, as the name implies, is the security arm of the psi order- if it involves the usual gaming adventure stuff, this is the department that handles it.

Orgotek plays a very dangerous game with the FSA and its corporate allies; Prexy Cassel wants to see the fascist regime in place fall, a new (and Constitutional) one in place, and freedom for Cananda and Mexico. To this end, Cassel partakes of the spy game between his psi order and the FSA- often with assistance from other orders and the Aeon Trinity. (The fiction piece at the head of the B&W section makes this plane.) That's plenty of espionage goodness to be had, and it comes with that classic "rebels against the Evil Empire" schtick that makes such games run so well.

Speaking of the Federated States of America, that's the other half of the file. Most of the contents go over what a reader would need to know, which is how the geographics break down as well as what's going on there. While the government's working get a cursory explanation, no specifics are included.

Quite frankly, it isn't needed; the FSA operates the same way that the USA does, with the exception of being open and honest about it. Yes, this means that corporations spend billions of dollars on favorable government attention from the FSA and in return these corporations give the government what it wants on something resembling a reasonable timetable. The little guy bends over and takes it twice, just like in the real world.

This makes running games in the FSA really easy, as it's much like like in the real world- brutal cops who serve masters that don't give a damn about the common man, a military complex that's contemptuous of the people they supposedly serve, and a corporate culture that gladly exploits all of this for its own gain without regard for the future. Oh, and if the little guy speaks up he gets beaten until he's silent or dead- and if you're not willing to become a "terrorist" there isn't a damned thing you can do about it. This, of course, doesn't account for the conflicts between the races, cultures, etc. that still exist in 2120.

For good measure, the FSA fosters an anti-psion hysteria that serves much like the anti-mutant campaign that so many old and new X-Men fans know so well, and for many of the same reasons. This doesn't stop the FSA from employing psions for their own purposes, of course, which leads me to believe that all of the FSA psions either are blackmailed into working for them or are victims of brainwashing. No reasonable psion would work for this bunch of facist thugs.

Like any facist regime, the military and the spooks get most of the cash. The FSA maintains a war machine that only China can rival, and a spook crew--the Central Security Agency--that makes old-timers from the KGB envious. Their toys are second only to that of Orgotek (in general), Nippon (Hardtech VARGs- i.e. mecha), and China (armor and naval units). The rest of the government gets squat most of the time, especially in the education department, and thus rely regularly upon graft and corruption to make up the difference. I need not point out the consequences of such measures; the definitions of "nepotism" and "favoritism" will suffice.

Last is the Aberrant situation in North America. Most activity comes from the Blight Zone in the midwest of the old USA, where Wycoff blew up prior to the Aberrant War and sprend his mighty Taint across the heartland of America. While the Zone is less than it once was, it's still a mighty presence that warps the natural order of things; now it's patrolled by Legionaires in conjuction with agents from Orgotek's Operations branch. Other orders maintain a nearby presence, with the Aescupians in Minnesota (Rochester and Minneapolis) being the most visible.

Overall, I got a lot of information from the color section- info that the following revisits either to confirm or deny. That's a lot of useable content, yet not so much that do-it-yourself types will feel like you're walking through an over-developed chuck of territory.

And that brings us to the black-and-white section. After the short fiction piece, we get down to the good stuff. It starts with more on Orgotek, only this covers the truth of working for the order-company. The focus, rightly, remains on that which is playable. Each arm of the organization gets its turn in the sun, but Operations clearly is the choice to default to when you have nothing better to take. For most games you'll have a roughly even mix of sneaking, fighting, and diplomacy- an Operations character allows all three.

I got plenty out this stuff, but many of the unusual options makes it very difficult for a PC group to be involved in the greater events without expending more effort than its worth to do so. (The best of the bunch? A PC group centered around an armaments project of some sort, like a new BioVARG, or a new starship. That allows the GM to bring the bad guys to them first, thus sparking the personal stake in their defeat that players need to really get into a campaign.)

After this comes more info on Electrokinesis. There are alternate powers for each dot on each of the three paths, and the overlap is minimal. Some of the powers are rather gruesome, such as the one that animates recently dead corpses and manipulates them like puppets, and others are logical extensions of the power's defined scope of power- such as the Optical Cloak power under Photokinesis. There are also alternate Dysfunction effects specifically designed for use when eletrokinetic screw themselves. I haven't any problems with what's there; I find none of the powers to be outside the established limits of psi power in Trinity, and I plan on using them if I ever get another crack at a game.

After this is the North America chapter. It covers the history of the continent and its political entities from the mid-21st century to 2120 and it isn't pretty. After the Wycoff Explostion in 2054, causing the Blight, the US decided to invade Mexico and Canada in order to seize their foodstocks--the Blight wiped out the US's supply--and prevent foreign attempts to exploit the weakness of the US. (Sure, it doesn't quite make sense, but what senseless war does?) The wars sparked the ongoing resistance against the FSA, which formally succeeded the USA in 2060. Life is now one big gilded cage where the majority of people do nothing because they're too ignorant, fearful and complacent to see the truth of their oppression- much like the real world.

After the historical rundown, the book goes over the basics of how the government works and then gets into the geopolitics of the nation. The former reveals the extent of the control that the military and the intelligence arms of the government have over the rest. The latter goes into some detail about what's going on and how PCs might deal with it. Then comes the types and costs of FSA citizenship--they formalized the dual levels of citizenship that exists today--and the resources the FSA has. The truth about Aberrant activity ends the FSA portion of the book.

Toys and Important People end the book. New weapons, computers, agents, vehicles, and augmentation devices are present in small numbers. (If you want more, get the Technical Manual.) As expected, Alex Cassel gets the most space; his goals and agenda are there for all to see and employ. His wife and friends follow, then others of his order of note, and finally the top dogs and important others of the FSA. Playing Tail-End Charlie are the character templates and the bibliography, both of which are rather comprehensive.

Conclusion

At the listed price, it really is hard to justify a purchase. That isn't because it's bad, but because there isn't enough here. What is here is quite good and very useful; if you can, get it used. If not, buy it new anyway but only after you have the important purchases covered. Well done, gang.

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

Trinity: America Office
Author: Bruce Baugh, Rob Heinsoo, James Kiley Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Trinity Cost: $17.95 Page count: 144 ISBN: 1-56504-762-1 SKU: WW9003 Caspule Review by Bradford C. Walker on 07/29/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Far Future Space Espionage Conspiracy Post-apocalypse Superhero	I wish all of White Wolf's splatbooks could be like this. Like all of the pre-Arthaus Trinity releases, this book is split into a full-color and a black-and-white section. For those who've joined us late, the color section consists of information that most PCs know while the B&W section has the truth behind it all as well as any new rules or toys. Each section has a table of contents, which does make it easy to allow players to use the color section without reading GM-only material. (The credits, for those looking for 'em, are in the back.) What's in the Color Section Like all of Trinity's color section content, this comes in the form of a data file created and distributed by the Aeon Trinity. After the introduction, the file splits into two topics that--given the two topics--are closely intertwined. These are Psi Order Orgotek (the electrokinetics) and the Federated States of America. The information about Orgotek is quite interesting. Orgotek may be a psi order built and operated like a multi-national corporation with subsidiaries in every vital field of human endevor, but it is not the sort of corporate entity that gamers know so well via cyberpunk games and fiction. Rather, Orgotek is more like the entities that exist in the real world; the president, who is also the order's Proxy, truly wants to create a better world for humanity and he truly believes that the corporate capitalist model is best suited to achieving that goal. The file goes over the coporate empire that Orgotek "prexy" Alex Cassel rules as a benevolent despot. Except for World Enterprises, Inc. and Tekne Group--Orgotek's administrations and hardtech arms, respectively--Orgotek focuses its efforts on soft technology and integration. The subsidiaries of Orgotek aren't treated like separate entities, but more like departments within a corporation. This is borne out by the inclusion of Operations in the roster of corporations held by Orgotek. Operations, as the name implies, is the security arm of the psi order- if it involves the usual gaming adventure stuff, this is the department that handles it. Orgotek plays a very dangerous game with the FSA and its corporate allies; Prexy Cassel wants to see the fascist regime in place fall, a new (and Constitutional) one in place, and freedom for Cananda and Mexico. To this end, Cassel partakes of the spy game between his psi order and the FSA- often with assistance from other orders and the Aeon Trinity. (The fiction piece at the head of the B&W section makes this plane.) That's plenty of espionage goodness to be had, and it comes with that classic "rebels against the Evil Empire" schtick that makes such games run so well. Speaking of the Federated States of America, that's the other half of the file. Most of the contents go over what a reader would need to know, which is how the geographics break down as well as what's going on there. While the government's working get a cursory explanation, no specifics are included. Quite frankly, it isn't needed; the FSA operates the same way that the USA does, with the exception of being open and honest about it. Yes, this means that corporations spend billions of dollars on favorable government attention from the FSA and in return these corporations give the government what it wants on something resembling a reasonable timetable. The little guy bends over and takes it twice, just like in the real world. This makes running games in the FSA really easy, as it's much like like in the real world- brutal cops who serve masters that don't give a damn about the common man, a military complex that's contemptuous of the people they supposedly serve, and a corporate culture that gladly exploits all of this for its own gain without regard for the future. Oh, and if the little guy speaks up he gets beaten until he's silent or dead- and if you're not willing to become a "terrorist" there isn't a damned thing you can do about it. This, of course, doesn't account for the conflicts between the races, cultures, etc. that still exist in 2120. For good measure, the FSA fosters an anti-psion hysteria that serves much like the anti-mutant campaign that so many old and new X-Men fans know so well, and for many of the same reasons. This doesn't stop the FSA from employing psions for their own purposes, of course, which leads me to believe that all of the FSA psions either are blackmailed into working for them or are victims of brainwashing. No reasonable psion would work for this bunch of facist thugs. Like any facist regime, the military and the spooks get most of the cash. The FSA maintains a war machine that only China can rival, and a spook crew--the Central Security Agency--that makes old-timers from the KGB envious. Their toys are second only to that of Orgotek (in general), Nippon (Hardtech VARGs- i.e. mecha), and China (armor and naval units). The rest of the government gets squat most of the time, especially in the education department, and thus rely regularly upon graft and corruption to make up the difference. I need not point out the consequences of such measures; the definitions of "nepotism" and "favoritism" will suffice. Last is the Aberrant situation in North America. Most activity comes from the Blight Zone in the midwest of the old USA, where Wycoff blew up prior to the Aberrant War and sprend his mighty Taint across the heartland of America. While the Zone is less than it once was, it's still a mighty presence that warps the natural order of things; now it's patrolled by Legionaires in conjuction with agents from Orgotek's Operations branch. Other orders maintain a nearby presence, with the Aescupians in Minnesota (Rochester and Minneapolis) being the most visible. Overall, I got a lot of information from the color section- info that the following revisits either to confirm or deny. That's a lot of useable content, yet not so much that do-it-yourself types will feel like you're walking through an over-developed chuck of territory. And that brings us to the black-and-white section. After the short fiction piece, we get down to the good stuff. It starts with more on Orgotek, only this covers the truth of working for the order-company. The focus, rightly, remains on that which is playable. Each arm of the organization gets its turn in the sun, but Operations clearly is the choice to default to when you have nothing better to take. For most games you'll have a roughly even mix of sneaking, fighting, and diplomacy- an Operations character allows all three. I got plenty out this stuff, but many of the unusual options makes it very difficult for a PC group to be involved in the greater events without expending more effort than its worth to do so. (The best of the bunch? A PC group centered around an armaments project of some sort, like a new BioVARG, or a new starship. That allows the GM to bring the bad guys to them first, thus sparking the personal stake in their defeat that players need to really get into a campaign.) After this comes more info on Electrokinesis. There are alternate powers for each dot on each of the three paths, and the overlap is minimal. Some of the powers are rather gruesome, such as the one that animates recently dead corpses and manipulates them like puppets, and others are logical extensions of the power's defined scope of power- such as the Optical Cloak power under Photokinesis. There are also alternate Dysfunction effects specifically designed for use when eletrokinetic screw themselves. I haven't any problems with what's there; I find none of the powers to be outside the established limits of psi power in Trinity, and I plan on using them if I ever get another crack at a game. After this is the North America chapter. It covers the history of the continent and its political entities from the mid-21st century to 2120 and it isn't pretty. After the Wycoff Explostion in 2054, causing the Blight, the US decided to invade Mexico and Canada in order to seize their foodstocks--the Blight wiped out the US's supply--and prevent foreign attempts to exploit the weakness of the US. (Sure, it doesn't quite make sense, but what senseless war does?) The wars sparked the ongoing resistance against the FSA, which formally succeeded the USA in 2060. Life is now one big gilded cage where the majority of people do nothing because they're too ignorant, fearful and complacent to see the truth of their oppression- much like the real world. After the historical rundown, the book goes over the basics of how the government works and then gets into the geopolitics of the nation. The former reveals the extent of the control that the military and the intelligence arms of the government have over the rest. The latter goes into some detail about what's going on and how PCs might deal with it. Then comes the types and costs of FSA citizenship--they formalized the dual levels of citizenship that exists today--and the resources the FSA has. The truth about Aberrant activity ends the FSA portion of the book. Toys and Important People end the book. New weapons, computers, agents, vehicles, and augmentation devices are present in small numbers. (If you want more, get the Technical Manual.) As expected, Alex Cassel gets the most space; his goals and agenda are there for all to see and employ. His wife and friends follow, then others of his order of note, and finally the top dogs and important others of the FSA. Playing Tail-End Charlie are the character templates and the bibliography, both of which are rather comprehensive. Conclusion At the listed price, it really is hard to justify a purchase. That isn't because it's bad, but because there isn't enough here. What is here is quite good and very useful; if you can, get it used. If not, buy it new anyway but only after you have the important purchases covered. Well done, gang. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Trinity: America Office