The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I'm not a fan of sci-fi. I have no White Wolf game besides one of the free introductory lite versions one can get at WW's site. So, why am I reviewing the Trinity Players Book (TPB)?The first reason is because RPGnet had it available for reviewing, so I decided to take the chance to do the job. Also, because I wanted to get a glance on WW's products, and this was an opportunity to do it. Finally, because the positive mentions that Trinity found in RPGnet caught my attention.

Given that, there's an agenda for this review: is TPB good enough to make me wish to both expand my knowledge of Trinity, and to play this game?

GENERAL OVERVIEW

FORM

Format ( 5/5 )Nowadays I tend to prefer books of a smaller format. They are more convenient to use, not requiring as much space as larger books, and are easy to transport. TPB performs nicely in this respect, since it has been done in the format I like the most: 25.5*17.5 cms.

Structure ( 4/5 )The book is well structured. It has an introductory short story plus 6 chapters:1. The Aeon Trinity 2. The Psi Orders 3. Modern society 4. Developing character 5. Psi 6. Option: free-form techniques

There are plenty of useful examples, and most of the illustrations (both in text and graphic format) are pertinent.My only problem with the structure is the ordering of the chapters: I would put chapter 1 first, and chapter 4 at the end. But this is just a minor point.

Another structural point is the fact that the book includes information that's supposed to be directed at the Game Master. This should not be placed in a Players Book.

Layout, and editing ( 4/5 )The text is organized in two columns (except for the introductory story which is in a single column), with inserted boxes containing setting-based examples. Colour it's only used in the cover. Inside illustrations are in B&W. The pages have a grey graphical frame. The text is dense. This gives a rather dark look to the book, but does not make it hard to read.There are no major editing problems. Spelling mistakes are few and unimportant, and the book doesn't get wrong on cross-references.

Referencing ( 4/5 )The better way to ensure that one is able to find what one is searching for in a book without problems is to have a clear structure. TPB is not at fault in this field. ( 5/5 )On the other hand, it lacks indexes ( 0/5 ), and the table of contents is spartan ( 1/5 ).Finally, the book is filled with references to other books. Of course, this can be seen as publicity to those books. Personally, I think it's nice to have pointers to other resources that can expand on my knowledge of the universe, so I didn't mind it. It would even be more useful if WW included a page or two at the end of the book with a paragraph describing each of those other books.

Since I don't care about indexes, my personal rating is 4 (I value structure above all else as a way to ensure referencing in a book).

Art ( 3.5/5 )The art is unimpressive, but it serves the subject well.

Overall ( 4/5 )I rate the different aspects just described the next way: Format and Art = 1; Referencing = 2; Structure and Layout = 3.

The end result for Form is ( 5*1 + 4*3 + 4*3 + 4*2 + 3.5*1 ) / 10 = a final rating of 4.0

SUBSTANCE

Setting ( 2/5 )My expectations were that Trinity was a sci-fi, near-future game. I was wrong. From what I can read in this book, the Trinity Universe is neither sci-fi, nor near future.

You see, sci-fi is about technological advances brought by science, how these can change technology, society and the humankind. It may also be about the interaction between different species coming from different places in the universe. Yes, we find bits all those aspects in TPB. But the main thrust is not there. The main thrust of the game is in playing Psis, humans with psi abilities that provide them with extraordinary powers. In other words, Trinity is not a sci-fi game, it's a Super-hero game instead. This is reflected in the book. Three of its 6 chapters are about psi; psi users are presented as heroes; there's an "you're the hero" tone to it. The whole idea is that the players play psi characters that use their psi-derived extraordinary powers to fight several super-human menaces. To me this is not sci-fi, this is super-heroes. There would be nothing wrong with it… if the game was not presented as a sci-fi game.

I also expected to find a book about the near future. What I found was a pedestrian alternate reality of contemporary Earth. The political institutions, the geo-political regions, the cultures, the economy, etc., everything is based on Earth as we know it today. Of course, the future will develop from what we are now. But it will develop into something structurally different. That's not what we see in Trinity. In this game, tomorrow is, at its core, just like today. What's more, it does not even account for the huge differences that we can find around us across the globe. All we find are the platitudes of the typical North American worldview, with all its bias, and superficiality. Let's look at it in more detail: In p. 4, first page of the introductory story, the first thing one is supposed to read, we find the next pearl: "I'm a Scorpio, I like long walks on the beach, and my turn-offs are smoking, bad breath, and Aberrants". If we discount the mention of Aberrants, this is something the average Joe or Joan could say today. Do you want more? Take p. 5, for instance: "Now I'm 53 and have been passed over for promotion by people half my age more times than I care to reacall"; or p. 6, " 'You can leave your robe on the railing,' Tobias said, keeping his back to her. She silently thanked him for the small courtesy as she undressed." And it goes on like this, page after page. But I'll give you more: p. 15 "they even handle such minor tasks as rescuing Granny's cat from a nearby tree", p. 25 "if you'd be so kind, please remove your baseball cap when you're in a staff meeting", etc, etc., etc.The nec plus ultra comes in page 74, a core moment since it's the start of the chapter about Modern Society in the Trinity Universe. They say: "people interact primarily within their own social class and usually within their own profession, often ignoring people who don't belong to these groups. (…) This fragmentation is mirrored by increased physical isolation. Small self-sufficient communities like the outback enclaves thrive all over Earth". What's futuristic about this? That's just a rehash of we have been hearing for decades about where life today is and is going.Finally, there's the whole idea of ONGs (non-governmental organizations). Organizations like the Aeon Trinity or the Psi Orders are based on the ideology of the private well-being organization the way it is understood… in the U.S.A. of the 20th century. You see, according to this book, daily life on 23rd century Hearth is just like daily life in 20th century U.S.A. Remember, in those two centuries Earth is supposed to have been through the emergence of two types of super-humans (first Aberrants, next Psis), major wars like nothing before, contact with extra-terrestrian beings, expansion into space near and far. Yet, daily life is like 20th century U.S.A. That's insane. Next, we find the usual platitudes about the world at large, sign of an inability to understand the others… from their point of view: There's a major crash of a space station. Where would it land? On France, of course! RIP Europe. Yes, I know, having to account with Europe when trying to make a believable scenario of the future is hard. So, let's destroy the thing. And did the guys behind this game ever heard about a thing called European Union? Guess not. Since France was almost destroyed, let's make a government-in-exile for it. Where? In Quebec, of course! (p. 38) Remember I said it's pedestrian? It's that much pedestrian. We all know that South Americans are drug dealers at hearth. That's why drug cartels still play a major role in that region in the 23rd century (p. 43). But we also know that South America was the land of the Good Savage before Europeans moved in and spoiled it, that's why the main trait of South American culture is to live "in harmony with one another in nature" (p. 45). And what about the erratic way the setting combines Portuguese and Spanish? (On the plus side, it shows that the authors had the notion that these are different. But what they made with it is just plainly silly.) China, ah, China. Those damn Chinese, how they keep re-doing the same things again and again. They really like leaping, that's the only explanation why they'll do a Great Leap Outward in the future. And they love their classics. Otherwise, why would they have a Neo-Confucianism in the 23rd century? (Even if this must be at least the tenth Neo-Confucianism movement in the history of China?)

And I could go on, presenting more and more examples like these. So, don't believe in the authors when they say that "the trinity Universe is remarkably different from our own" (p. 74). It isn't. Trinity's 23rd century is uninspiring, un-creative, and boring. Maybe the authors never heard the expression "social sciences". Sci-fi is not only about "hard" sciences. It's also about society. Next time guys, buy yourselves a couple of books about history, sociology, and the like, and try to understand how societies evolve before attempting to design a near future game world.

And, to top it all, there are the conspiracies. The book is filled with hints about possible conspiracies. All the glitters has a dark stain somewhere. Since when do we need to jump two centuries to get conspiracies?

This is a disappointing setting. I give it a '2' because there are some things here and there that can be useful, and could be turned into a passable vision of the future.

System ( 4/5 )Now, it may sound strange – for a person that confesses not to know the system underlying an expansion book – to use 'system' as a review criteria. Yet, I think it can be done. The chapters that are primarily system-related are chapter 4 to 6:

· Chapter 4 deals with alternatives to character creation, variants to the basic rules presented in the main book of the game. · Chapter 5 explains how psi works, and how characters can enhance their psi abilities.· Chapter 6 presents a system to free-form development of psi concrete skills. This looks a lot like a magical system (which is acceptable when one considers that psi is just good old magic in a different fashion of trousers). It offers a good deal of flexibility.

Even if I can't exactly judge the exact usefulness of those chapters to players of Trinity, I liked the substance of what I found there. The portrayed psi system is logical, flexible and playable. The same can be said of the character creation chapter (of course, I don't like Merits and Flaws, something the game uses, but what they present is consistent both internally and with the setting).

Overall ( 3/5 ) A thing I didn't mention before because it has to do to both setting and system is the way the game handles the different types of Psi. You see, there are different categories of Psi abilities. Characters are 'hardwired' into one of those categories. And each of these categories has a corresponding Order, a specialized organization of the practitioners of that type of psi abilities. I just don't like this. It's too tidy, and puts an illogical constrain in both setting and system.

Given this, setting information is the most important component of TPB. So, I'll apply the next multipliers: System = 1; Setting = 2.

The end result for Substance is ( 2*2 + 4*1 ) / 3 = a final rating of 2.67 = 3.

FINAL COMMENTS

No, I do not intend to play Trinity. Reading through TPB convinced me that this setting is not for me. At '2' for setting, and '3' for substance, it just does not provide enough value to bypass the opportunity costs of time and money, two resources I may spend in games with better personal ratings. But I'm not reviewing the game for myself. I'm reviewing it for you. So, what can I tell you?

There are two possibilities:

· You are a player of Trinity. You have different tastes from mine, and value this setting in a different way from what I do. In that case, all you want to know is whether this book will be a good addition to your Trinity resources. If that's the case, I think that it may be a good buy. It presents a good deal of information on the setting, and the new rules for Character creation and Free-form Psi are interesting.

· You've never played Trinity. Yet, you think that you value things in a different light from what I presented above – and I hope that what you've read so far helps you understand where this game goes – you may feel attracted to the setting. In this case, this book may be an excellent acquisition: if you're going to be a player you may leave the main rules book to the GM and buy this PB for yourself.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Trinity Players Book
Author: various Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Trinity Cost: ? Page count: 218 ISBN: 1-56504-768-0 SKU: Capsule Review by Sergio Mascarenhas on 08/11/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Conspiracy Superhero	I'm not a fan of sci-fi. I have no White Wolf game besides one of the free introductory lite versions one can get at WW's site. So, why am I reviewing the Trinity Players Book (TPB)?The first reason is because RPGnet had it available for reviewing, so I decided to take the chance to do the job. Also, because I wanted to get a glance on WW's products, and this was an opportunity to do it. Finally, because the positive mentions that Trinity found in RPGnet caught my attention. Given that, there's an agenda for this review: is TPB good enough to make me wish to both expand my knowledge of Trinity, and to play this game? GENERAL OVERVIEW FORM Format ( 5/5 )Nowadays I tend to prefer books of a smaller format. They are more convenient to use, not requiring as much space as larger books, and are easy to transport. TPB performs nicely in this respect, since it has been done in the format I like the most: 25.517.5 cms. Structure ( 4/5 )The book is well structured. It has an introductory short story plus 6 chapters:1. The Aeon Trinity 2. The Psi Orders 3. Modern society 4. Developing character 5. Psi 6. Option: free-form techniques There are plenty of useful examples, and most of the illustrations (both in text and graphic format) are pertinent.My only problem with the structure is the ordering of the chapters: I would put chapter 1 first, and chapter 4 at the end. But this is just a minor point. Another structural point is the fact that the book includes information that's supposed to be directed at the Game Master. This should not be placed in a Players Book. Layout, and editing ( 4/5 )The text is organized in two columns (except for the introductory story which is in a single column), with inserted boxes containing setting-based examples. Colour it's only used in the cover. Inside illustrations are in B&W. The pages have a grey graphical frame. The text is dense. This gives a rather dark look to the book, but does not make it hard to read.There are no major editing problems. Spelling mistakes are few and unimportant, and the book doesn't get wrong on cross-references. Referencing ( 4/5 )The better way to ensure that one is able to find what one is searching for in a book without problems is to have a clear structure. TPB is not at fault in this field. ( 5/5 )On the other hand, it lacks indexes ( 0/5 ), and the table of contents is spartan ( 1/5 ).Finally, the book is filled with references to other books. Of course, this can be seen as publicity to those books. Personally, I think it's nice to have pointers to other resources that can expand on my knowledge of the universe, so I didn't mind it. It would even be more useful if WW included a page or two at the end of the book with a paragraph describing each of those other books. Since I don't care about indexes, my personal rating is 4 (I value structure above all else as a way to ensure referencing in a book). Art ( 3.5/5 )The art is unimpressive, but it serves the subject well. Overall ( 4/5 )I rate the different aspects just described the next way: Format and Art = 1; Referencing = 2; Structure and Layout = 3. The end result for Form is ( 51 + 43 + 43 + 42 + 3.51 ) / 10 = a final rating of 4.0 SUBSTANCE Setting ( 2/5 )My expectations were that Trinity was a sci-fi, near-future game. I was wrong. From what I can read in this book, the Trinity Universe is neither sci-fi, nor near future. You see, sci-fi is about technological advances brought by science, how these can change technology, society and the humankind. It may also be about the interaction between different species coming from different places in the universe. Yes, we find bits all those aspects in TPB. But the main thrust is not there. The main thrust of the game is in playing Psis, humans with psi abilities that provide them with extraordinary powers. In other words, Trinity is not a sci-fi game, it's a Super-hero game instead. This is reflected in the book. Three of its 6 chapters are about psi; psi users are presented as heroes; there's an "you're the hero" tone to it. The whole idea is that the players play psi characters that use their psi-derived extraordinary powers to fight several super-human menaces. To me this is not sci-fi, this is super-heroes. There would be nothing wrong with it… if the game was not presented as a sci-fi game. I also expected to find a book about the near future. What I found was a pedestrian alternate reality of contemporary Earth. The political institutions, the geo-political regions, the cultures, the economy, etc., everything is based on Earth as we know it today. Of course, the future will develop from what we are now. But it will develop into something structurally different. That's not what we see in Trinity. In this game, tomorrow is, at its core, just like today. What's more, it does not even account for the huge differences that we can find around us across the globe. All we find are the platitudes of the typical North American worldview, with all its bias, and superficiality. Let's look at it in more detail: In p. 4, first page of the introductory story, the first thing one is supposed to read, we find the next pearl: "I'm a Scorpio, I like long walks on the beach, and my turn-offs are smoking, bad breath, and Aberrants". If we discount the mention of Aberrants, this is something the average Joe or Joan could say today. Do you want more? Take p. 5, for instance: "Now I'm 53 and have been passed over for promotion by people half my age more times than I care to reacall"; or p. 6, " 'You can leave your robe on the railing,' Tobias said, keeping his back to her. She silently thanked him for the small courtesy as she undressed." And it goes on like this, page after page. But I'll give you more: p. 15 "they even handle such minor tasks as rescuing Granny's cat from a nearby tree", p. 25 "if you'd be so kind, please remove your baseball cap when you're in a staff meeting", etc, etc., etc.The nec plus ultra comes in page 74, a core moment since it's the start of the chapter about Modern Society in the Trinity Universe. They say: "people interact primarily within their own social class and usually within their own profession, often ignoring people who don't belong to these groups. (…) This fragmentation is mirrored by increased physical isolation. Small self-sufficient communities like the outback enclaves thrive all over Earth". What's futuristic about this? That's just a rehash of we have been hearing for decades about where life today is and is going.Finally, there's the whole idea of ONGs (non-governmental organizations). Organizations like the Aeon Trinity or the Psi Orders are based on the ideology of the private well-being organization the way it is understood… in the U.S.A. of the 20th century. You see, according to this book, daily life on 23rd century Hearth is just like daily life in 20th century U.S.A. Remember, in those two centuries Earth is supposed to have been through the emergence of two types of super-humans (first Aberrants, next Psis), major wars like nothing before, contact with extra-terrestrian beings, expansion into space near and far. Yet, daily life is like 20th century U.S.A. That's insane. Next, we find the usual platitudes about the world at large, sign of an inability to understand the others… from their point of view: There's a major crash of a space station. Where would it land? On France, of course! RIP Europe. Yes, I know, having to account with Europe when trying to make a believable scenario of the future is hard. So, let's destroy the thing. And did the guys behind this game ever heard about a thing called European Union? Guess not. Since France was almost destroyed, let's make a government-in-exile for it. Where? In Quebec, of course! (p. 38) Remember I said it's pedestrian? It's that much pedestrian. We all know that South Americans are drug dealers at hearth. That's why drug cartels still play a major role in that region in the 23rd century (p. 43). But we also know that South America was the land of the Good Savage before Europeans moved in and spoiled it, that's why the main trait of South American culture is to live "in harmony with one another in nature" (p. 45). And what about the erratic way the setting combines Portuguese and Spanish? (On the plus side, it shows that the authors had the notion that these are different. But what they made with it is just plainly silly.) China, ah, China. Those damn Chinese, how they keep re-doing the same things again and again. They really like leaping, that's the only explanation why they'll do a Great Leap Outward in the future. And they love their classics. Otherwise, why would they have a Neo-Confucianism in the 23rd century? (Even if this must be at least the tenth Neo-Confucianism movement in the history of China?) And I could go on, presenting more and more examples like these. So, don't believe in the authors when they say that "the trinity Universe is remarkably different from our own" (p. 74). It isn't. Trinity's 23rd century is uninspiring, un-creative, and boring. Maybe the authors never heard the expression "social sciences". Sci-fi is not only about "hard" sciences. It's also about society. Next time guys, buy yourselves a couple of books about history, sociology, and the like, and try to understand how societies evolve before attempting to design a near future game world. And, to top it all, there are the conspiracies. The book is filled with hints about possible conspiracies. All the glitters has a dark stain somewhere. Since when do we need to jump two centuries to get conspiracies? This is a disappointing setting. I give it a '2' because there are some things here and there that can be useful, and could be turned into a passable vision of the future. System ( 4/5 )Now, it may sound strange – for a person that confesses not to know the system underlying an expansion book – to use 'system' as a review criteria. Yet, I think it can be done. The chapters that are primarily system-related are chapter 4 to 6: · Chapter 4 deals with alternatives to character creation, variants to the basic rules presented in the main book of the game. · Chapter 5 explains how psi works, and how characters can enhance their psi abilities.· Chapter 6 presents a system to free-form development of psi concrete skills. This looks a lot like a magical system (which is acceptable when one considers that psi is just good old magic in a different fashion of trousers). It offers a good deal of flexibility. Even if I can't exactly judge the exact usefulness of those chapters to players of Trinity, I liked the substance of what I found there. The portrayed psi system is logical, flexible and playable. The same can be said of the character creation chapter (of course, I don't like Merits and Flaws, something the game uses, but what they present is consistent both internally and with the setting). Overall ( 3/5 ) A thing I didn't mention before because it has to do to both setting and system is the way the game handles the different types of Psi. You see, there are different categories of Psi abilities. Characters are 'hardwired' into one of those categories. And each of these categories has a corresponding Order, a specialized organization of the practitioners of that type of psi abilities. I just don't like this. It's too tidy, and puts an illogical constrain in both setting and system. Given this, setting information is the most important component of TPB. So, I'll apply the next multipliers: System = 1; Setting = 2. The end result for Substance is ( 22 + 41 ) / 3 = a final rating of 2.67 = 3. FINAL COMMENTS No, I do not intend to play Trinity. Reading through TPB convinced me that this setting is not for me. At '2' for setting, and '3' for substance, it just does not provide enough value to bypass the opportunity costs of time and money, two resources I may spend in games with better personal ratings. But I'm not reviewing the game for myself. I'm reviewing it for you. So, what can I tell you? There are two possibilities: · You are a player of Trinity. You have different tastes from mine, and value this setting in a different way from what I do. In that case, all you want to know is whether this book will be a good addition to your Trinity resources. If that's the case, I think that it may be a good buy. It presents a good deal of information on the setting, and the new rules for Character creation and Free-form Psi are interesting. · You've never played Trinity. Yet, you think that you value things in a different light from what I presented above – and I hope that what you've read so far helps you understand where this game goes – you may feel attracted to the setting. In this case, this book may be an excellent acquisition: if you're going to be a player you may leave the main rules book to the GM and buy this PB for yourself. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)