Note: this review refers in several places to feedback with the authors and developer during an online launch party for the ebook on December 20th-21st, and so contains answers to questions and responses to comments posed by myself and other visitors.
Terra Verde: Psi Order Norça & Sudamérica Sourcebook was intended to be the first Trinity release of 2001, but became the only one due to delays at ArtHaus and White Wolf, most likely connected to a dispute with WW’s fan club The Camarilla. Its release as an ebook, a .pdf document, rather than a physical book, follows the similar release of Witches And Pagans for ArtHaus stablemate Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade, and this move has unsurprisingly caused some controversy among the games’ fansbases.
It concerns the Nova Força De Nacionales or Norça, the “bad boys” of the psionic Orders from Trinity’s setting, and their main area of influence, South America. After the introductory story “Down To The Bone”, which actually concerns an important former member of the Order, and a brief introduction, the first chapter covers the history, structure and practices of the Norça.
The group has long seemed out of place among the other Orders. While most Orders concerned themselves with advancing and defending humanity, Norça was a drugs cartel and the members most often seen in Trinity games were assassins. Their shapeshifting signature power, Biokinesis, further made the Order seem monstrous.
In chapter one, Zach Bush sets to work deconstructing previous views of the Order. The “Norça mystique” is addressed on the first page of the chapter. Norça now have a purpose, a reason to be counted among the Orders beyond simple power, to produce heroes from the heart of the group rather than alienated fringes. It is as extensive a rewrite of an outsider power group as Clanbook Assamite Revised was for Vampire: The Masquerade. While acknowledging the previous views, it reconstructs the group to be playable and valid in the mainstream of the game.
Norça is now divided into departments, as is standard in the Order chapters of this series. The most visible groups are the Guerreros de Berço (Warriors Of The Cradle), fighting to defend humanity in full view of the public and the Valientes Sabuesos de Dios (Valiant Hounds Of God) an emergency rescue service using Biokinesis to save lives. These are the departments that player characters in a standard Trinity game will most likely be drawn from, and both are in their own ways admirable. The Sabuesos are heroic and the Guerreros aspire to be. The format for the departments discusses their numbers, their methodology and their ideals, including a ‘patron’ figure. This prompts a funny aside in the Guerreros’ entry. Their patron is listed as “Pélé (the 20th century soccer player, not the volcano goddess)”. As pointed out in the online launch party, gamers know about both and need to know which.
Músicos de Veridade, (Musicians Of Truth) reflect the Order’s early status as a drugs cartel and current position as a medical and recreational pharmaceutical company. They might interest a player who wants to portray a scientist but are more likely to join the background cast. Espíritos de Sangramento (Bleeding Spirits) are the spies and assassins that everyone familiar with previous visions of the Norça will be expecting. A boxout on page 23 reveals the higher purpose that, in this revision, this group and Norça as a whole has always had. Finally, Administração, Relaçòes Públicas e Operaçòes is Administration, Public Relations and Operations. Chances are this will be the least attractive to players.
Chapter Two, Biotechnology, actually covers the Biokinesis Aptitude (power) as well as organic tech. Deirdre Brooks’s Biokinesis section opens with an essay on the theoretical science of this amazing power before the usual selection of clever new abilities, and likewise Alejandro Melchor’s Biotechnology section discusses the technology before giving samples. The powers and gadgets are useful and the essays both work well to ground this most incredible of powers in science fiction rather than science fantasy.
Chapter Three, Sudamérica by Alejandro Melchor is the largest section of the book at thirty pages, presenting South America as complex, in many places highly advanced and in other quite dangerous. It has been influenced by Norça to an extent, but has more influenced the Order. We begin with history (real as well as future) which contains a view of future cooperation between the native and colonial races and nations of South America which seems highly optimistic. That note aside, this is a solid chapter on a part of the world with a real sense of both advancement and history. It includes several fine touches among its discussion of advancements and political developments. For example, the wearing of colourful bands to indicate emotional drug use has fallen out of fashion. Details like this help to ground the Trinity setting in reality, compared to a common failing in futuristic settings that jump from now to then with history in between sketched out but culture largely ignored. Meanwhile, a boxout concerning drugs in the Trinity era versus the present, inspired by discussion on the Trinity Universe forum at white-wolf.com, forms an important reminder that Norça aren’t the future equivalent of the modern druglords.
The Storytelling chapter (uncredited) includes advice on using the rest of the book’s material, a brief but well-argued essay on espionage games due to the Norça stereotype of spying and assassination, plenty of story hooks, and a number of Aberrants (human mutants, one of the main antagonists in the Trinity setting and the most varied) created by Deirdre Brooks which will provide interesting conflicts.
Chapter Five, Dramatis Personae, contains brief biographies of significant members of the Norça and the Sudamérican community, followed by character templates and a character sheet. The longest biography is given to Giuseppe del Fuego, founder and head of the Norça, outlining his plans, hopes and fears for the future as well as his background and personality. Other characters described include important figures from the Order’s history, political leaders, a satirical songwriter, the Trinity era’s foremost fashion designer and Sudamérica’s leading architect.
The character templates include fine examples of the most playable Norça syndicates (the sample Sabuesos member is modelled on a volunteer rescue worker Zach Bush knew in college) and interesting and playable characters from some of the varied Sudamérican cultures and power groups, and a healthy mix of psionic and non-psi characters. Finally, an appendix includes a historical timeline, a character sheet and two clip art flags forming the only colour illustration in a book intended to be printed in black and white.
The quality of writing reflects Trinity’s high standards, the design of the book is clean as standard although some paragraphs could have done with moving slightly so that, in the worst example, an NPC profile would all fit on a single page rather than the character’s name appearing at the end of the page before.
As a self-confessed fan of Christopher Shy’s photomanipulation work, I was pleased to see his work here. Trinity’s leading designer looks rather like Alan Rickman, I think.. Del Fuego receives a new portrait on the cover by Brom, while the previously-used computer masks from photographs are used inside, with a close resemblance to Lani Tupu (Crais from Farscape) which Brom does not echo.
However, the delayed and then rushed release of Terra Verde is reflected in an unusually high number of typos and text errors. The notorious Page XX appears several times, as well as a cross-reference to {get page} at one point. Quotation marks also fall victim, with “text” becoming <> in several places, and even at one point “text>>. Bruce Baugh has stated that he would have double-checked the editing himself had he known how rushed the release would be.
Finally, for those following the metaplot of the Trinity universe, there are a number of new developments. Terra Verde was originally scheduled for release before (html guff)Adventure!(html guff) so some of these mysteries are less surprising than they should be. For example, the long-discussed Process 418 plotline is finally revealed (to an extent) and will seem very familiar to Adventure! readers.
The Aberrants listed include two apparent crossovers to the Trinity setting’s other games, Aberrant and Adventure! The Arboreal, a monster who believes he is the Amazon jungle’s conscious mind is not an older version of the Aberrant character Antaeus according to Deirdre Brooks. Meanwhile Himalaia Pereira, a highly skilled mutant thief has powers which precisely echo some Stalwart (proto-Aberrant) abilities from Adventure!. When asked, Ms Brooks stated that this may all be coincidence. I believe her in one case.
Of course, there are also some new developments. A pair of in-character emails presented next to the first reference to Process 418 have provoked wild speculation among fans, a sidebar in the section on del Fuego reveals a rather important mystery.. And slipping by almost unnoticed, some of the theoretical science implications of psionic power suggest that Norça scientists are on the verge of proving the existence of the human soul..
In all, then, Terra Verde is a valuable addition to the Trinity setting. I feel that it has made its subject Order genuinely playable in mainstream Trinity games, as well as enriching the background, answering some long-standing questions and adding twists to a few more. I admit that I would rather have it as a physical book, but an ebook is far preferable to no book at all.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)