The Aeon --  err, that is, Trinity FAQ

    Version 1.0

    List maintained by Steven Otte
    By Steven Otte and Rick Jones

    What is Trinity?

  • Trinity is a science-fiction role-playing game of the near future, the latest offering from White Wolf Games. Most player characters are "psions," mentally gifted humans who use their psionic abilities to defend humanity from a variety of threats: bloodthirsty aliens, evil mutants and earth-bound conspiracies. It is a science fiction game world complete with many science fiction staples: teleporting jumpships allowing interstellar travel, at least 3 alien races, psionics, mutants, biotechnology and much, much more.

    • Didn't it used to be called something else?

  • Trinity was formerly known as Aeon, named for the benevolent organization that many player characters work for in the game. Viacom (owner of MTV) threatened a lawsuit, however, saying the name was too close to their trademarked property "Aeon Flux," even though role-playing games and TV series are completely different types of properties. While some minds think White Wolf could have won the case on those grounds, it would have meant delaying production until the court case had been resolved (and losing a lot of money), so the game's name was changed.

    • When and where is Trinity set?

  • Trinity is set in Earth's near future -- the year 2120, to be precise. With the help of the psions, humanity has colonized nearly all the planets of our solar system, as well as five other star systems and one nebula. Earth itself is quite different from the one we know; the former United States is a fascist dictatorship, Europe is an anarchic wasteland, and the oceans are populated with floating and undersea cities.

    • You mean this isn't the WOD? And it isn't even Gothic/Punk!

  • Trinity is not the World of Darkness in the future. There are no werewolves, vampires, wraiths, mages or fae lurking in the shadows, nor were there ever. The "future history" that leads humanity to the events of 2120 has some definite historical differences that preclude it from being the future of the World of Darkness. The mood of the Trinityverse -- encapsulated by the words "Hope, Sacrifice, Unity" -- is not as dark as the WoD, either.

    • Can I do a Trinity/WOD crossover?

  • You can do whatever you want. The White Wolf Game Police will not hunt you down. Various folks on the 'Net are experimenting with using psions in the World of Darkness and using World of Darkness creatures in Trinity. There's plenty going on in the Trinityverse without them, though.

    • What's changed from the Storyteller system?

  • The major change from Storyteller is the way dice are handled. All rolls are difficulty 7. Only one success is required. If the Storyteller judges a task is more difficult than usual, she can require more successes. Furthermore, rolled "1"s do not subtract from successes; they merely determine how severe a Botch is if no successes are rolled.

    • There are other differences as well:
    • Abilities are now grouped under specific Attributes.
    • Instead of Normal and Aggravated, the two kinds of damage are Bashing and Lethal. Bashing damage is recovered quickly and can be soaked. Lethal damage is more severe, and generally cannot be soaked without armor.
    • Soak -- whether a character's normal Soak or from armor -- subtracts from the attacker's damage die pool, not from the damage levels rolled. A successful attack will always roll at least 1 die of damage, even if the target's Soak exceeds the damage die pool.
    • Demeanor has been replaced with Allegiance. Allegiance not only gives the player insights into his character's beliefs and core values, but gives the character a starting set of Abilities that reflect her background and basic training.
    • Initiative is the sum of your character's Dex+Wits+1d10, not a Wits+Alertness roll.
    • There are actual vehicle combat rules.

    How do the Lethal/Bashing health levels work?

  • Attacks are classified as Lethal or Bashing; which is which is pretty straightforward. Fists, clubs, barstools, falling, vehicle crashes and the like are Bashing; knives, guns, lasers, Aberrant claws and so on are lethal. A character has 7 Health Levels, just as in the regular Storyteller system; both kinds of damage are tracked on the same scale. When a character takes Bashing damage, the box on the character sheet is marked off with a slash; Lethal damage is marked with an X. If a character who already has Bashing damage takes Lethal damage, an extra slash changes the Bashing level to a Lethal X, and the Bashing damage is moved another level down the chart. When a character reaches Incapacitated from Bashing damage, he's unconscious, and another level of damage -- whether Bashing or Lethal -- will kill him. Some players and storytellers have complained that this rule makes combat too deadly, and have proposed a house rule that Bashing damage inflicted after unconsciousness transforms a level of Bashing to Lethal; the character wouldn't die until all Health Level boxes have been X'd out. As with any WW game, the golden rule is paramount: If it doesn't work for your game, throw it out.

    • Can characters soak Lethal damage in this game?

  • Normally, no. Armor is the only means of soaking Lethal damage; armor is rated in terms of Bashing and Lethal soak levels. If you plan to run a less deadly, more "cinematic" series, though, there are optional rules allowing characters to soak some Lethal damage (you'll find them on page 241 of the main book). Of course, Aberrants break all the rules... most of them probably have Lethal soak levels.

    • What are the psionic aptitudes?

  • There are eight psionic aptitudes known to humans: Biokinesis (shapeshifting and body control), Clairsentience, Electrokinesis, Psychokinesis (encompassing pyrokinesis, cryokinesis and telekinesis), Quantakinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation and Vitakinesis (physical and mental healing and wounding). Two of these, Quantakinesis and Teleportation, are lost to humanity, along with the orders that practiced them.

    • What are the orders? How are they related to the Aeon Trinity?

  • The orders are organizations associated with the psions. Most psions work for one of the orders, or the Aeon Trinity itself. The Aeon Trinity, a worldwide charitable and political-action organization, helped organize the orders and wields a lot of influence with them, but does not control them directly. There used to be eight orders; currently, there are six. Only one actually calls itself an Order, but the word has come to be used as a generic term. Each is a different type of organization, and is associated with a different psionic aptitude. The current orders are:
    • The Aesculapian Order (a.k.a. Docs, Rexs, Vitakinetics): A nonprofit public-health and safety organization, similar to the Red Cross, based in Basel, Switzerland. Aptitude: Vitakinesis.
    • The Interplanetary School for Research & Advancement, or ISRA (a.k.a. Seers, Clears or Eyes): A freeform, vaguely religious university based on Luna; kind of a cross between a seminary and a commune. Aptitude: Clairsentience.
    • The Legions (a.k.a. Psychokinetics, Legionnaires, PKs or War Dogs): An Australian military order, with support, mercenary and space-defense divisions, and regional defense divisions in Australia, North America and Europe. Aptitude: Psychokinesis.
    • The Ministry of Psionic Affairs (a.k.a. telepaths, teeps): A bureau of the Chinese government. Aptitude: Telepathy.
    • Nova Forca de Nacionales (New National Force) (a.k.a. Norca, biokinetics or shifters): A semi-legitimized criminal cartel based in South America. Aptitude: Biokinesis.
    • Orgotek (a.k.a. electrokinetics, Eks, Orgotechs or teks): A North America-based megacorporation, preeminent worldwide in the fields of biotechnology, computers and spaceships.

    What happened to the Upeo Wa Macho and the Chitra Bhanu?

  • The Upeo Wa Macho were an African order specializing in teleportation. Following the Aberrant assault of the space-station Esperanza, which sent the station crashing out of orbit onto the heart of France, all of the teleporters vanished. Nobody knows why yet, though they aren't truly gone. Some of them have visited the Karroo Mining Colony in the Crab Nebula after they disappeared from Earth. They may yet be back.

    • The Chitra Bhanu, an India-based scientific research foundation, was the smallest of the orders, with only a few hundred members. The quantakinetics were revealed to be in league with the Aberrants, and they were hunted down by the other orders and were either killed or arrested (and then executed). Their Prometheus Chamber was reported to have been destroyed. There are occasional reports of fugitive Chibs hiding out in the North American blight zone, in Antarctica, or on the outer planets, though.

    Can a character have a different Aptitude than the one of the Order they belong to? In other words, do all telepaths work for the Ministry, and are all Ministry agents telepaths?

  • No, and no. To address the first question, the orders have agreements that allow them to "swap" psions; if the Legions recruit a fellow who has a strong latent tendency for electrokinesis, they will contact Orgotek and promise to "dunk" one of the corporation's latent PKs in their Prometheus Tank later in exchange for activating their guy in Electrokinesis. Psions are (more or less, depending on the order's policies) free to leave their order and go to work for another, for the Aeon Trinity, or for themselves. The Trinity also wields enough leverage to ask the orders to activate psions for them now and then. Secondly, psions are extremely rare. Most of the people who work for the orders are normal people -- doctors, nurses and orderlies working for the Aesculapians, Orgotek technicians, salesmen and factory workers, ISRAn teachers and researchers, and so on.

    • Then why aren't there any Orgotek quantakinetics, or ISRA teleporters, for example?

  • When the Esperanza crashed, it's reported that all teleporters everywhere, even those on the distant colonies, said something along the lines of "Whoops, gotta go" and vanished. Since (presumably) not all the Teleportation modes have to do with teleporting themselves, some of the Upeo may not have had the ability to teleport -- implying that the teleporters may not have been given the choice whether to leave. And when they left, the Upeo took their Prometheus Chamber with them, so even if a latent teleporter -- a rarity in the first place -- was to be discovered, there's no means to trigger her. As for the Chibs, it's conceivable that some of the orders may have conceled a "quark" or two among their ranks, but for the most part, they were all turned in and offed. And their tank was reportedly destroyed, so there will be no more of them, either.

    • Will there be more orders and aptitudes coming out in the future, like the Bloodlines or Crafts in the other WW games?

  • Trinity creator Andrew Bates has said, paraphrased, "Not while there is breath in my frame." The origins of the proxies and the Prometheus Chambers kind of precludes that. (There may be more info forthcoming about the Upeo or the Chitra Bhanu, though.)

    • Who are the proxies? Where did they (and the Prometheus Chambers) come from?

  • The proxies are both the leaders and the "parents" of their orders, as well as the most powerful psions on earth. In 2103, back when they were all just regular people, each of them answered a mental call and gathered in a secret meeting on Luna, where they were triggered in their respective psionic aptitudes and given the Prometheus chambers that let them create more psions. The best speculation of Aeon researchers is that the agency that did this -- which the proxies have only obliquely referred to as their "benefactors" -- was either a covert human group, an unrevealed alien race, or the proxies themselves projecting backwards in time. The truth is perhaps the biggest secret of the Trinityverse.

    • The individual proxies are:
    • The Aesculpian Order: Dr Matthieu Zweidler
    • Chitra Bhanu (lost order): S.K. Bhurano (deceased?)
    • Interplanetary School for Research and Advancement: Otha Herzog
    • The Legions: General Solveig Larssen
    • Minstry of Psionic Affairs: Rebecca Bue Li
    • Nova Forca de Nacionales (Norca): Giuseppe del Fuego
    • Orgotek: Alex Cassel
    • Upeo Wa Macho (lost order): Bolade Atwan (missing in action)

    How does the Prometheus Process work?

  • The process has been revealed only a little at a time. Here's what we do know: each Order has and controls only one Prometheus Chamber; each Chamber can only activate a psion in its specific Aptitude; a psion "dunked" in a tank will come out with that tank's Aptitude, regardless of any inherent latent tendencies (though strong latent tendencies may be responsible for Auxilary Modes); a tank can only activate one psion at a time; and the process takes about an hour (coincidentally, about the same amount of time as it takes to format bioware), but there is a varying period of disorientation afterward during which the psion's mind acclimates to and learns to control his new powers. Now, what the Prometheus Process actually does to activate a psion -- whether the process works chemically, genetically, noetically, somethingelseally or some combination of the above -- has not been clearly revealed. It's been said that even noetic scientists in the game world don't understand it all that well. It's just another one of those mysteries.

    • Can a psion go through the Prometheus Process twice? What happens?

  • In a word, "sploot." You're dead. Nobody can go through the process twice, not even in the same chamber.

    • Can a person become a psion any other way, without going through the Prometheus Process?

  • The utterly unsatisfying answer: Sort of. The game makes mentions of psychomorphs, a.k.a. "proto-psions," people who spontaneously manifest low-level psionic abilities. As of yet, though, there have been no rules released about how to build or run proto-psion characters. And before you ask, it's not been revealed what happens to proto-psions who try to go through the Prometheus Process.

    • What's the difference between a Psion and an Aberrant?

  • Psions manipulate Psi energy, Aberrants use Taint.

    • OK, smarty, then what's the difference between Psi and Taint?

  • A psion manipulates subquantum forces, powered by the recently discovered "psion particle," through as yet unrevealed means. The Mazarin-Rashoud Node in the brain of Aberrants allows them to manipulate inter-nuclear forces, using a type of radiation known as "taint." They are completely different sources of powers. Really. They mean it. They're not kidding.

    • From a post to the Trinity mailing list by game creator Andrew Bates:
    "Taint is supposedly what causes the development of the Mazarin-Rashoud node; has interacted with the Midwest ecology in a different way to twist and sterilize much of the region; has combined with and broken down some peoples' genetic structure as with D. Frankly, scientists are unsure exactly what the taint is -- and whether Aberrants spread it, or it creates Aberrants (or both!). And they've had a century to puzzle at it. (The fact that it seems somehow opposed to psi -- an energy source said to permeate everything in the universe -- is very significant. But scientists aren't yet certain what, exactly, it means. They're a very frustrated bunch right now.)

    Do I have to play a psion? Could I play a normal/alien/Aberrant?

  • The game is designed around playing psions, but there is a sidebar for creating highly skilled normal characters. There are not yet rules for playing aliens or Aberrants, though they may come in the future. An Aberrant sourcebook is reportedly in the works for 1999.

    • What aliens are in the game? Do they have psions/jump tech/other paranormal powers?

  • So far, there are at least four alien races, three of which we know something about:
    • The Qin: The Qin are meter long slugs that walk around in biotech humanoid bodies so as not to freak the mundanes. They are generally friendly to humanity. They are experts with biotechnology, though they do not possess FTL/jump tech. Humanity met them, and gave them rides on our ships. They do possess low-level telepathic powers.
    • The Chromatics: They first appeared attacking a human mining colony in the Crab Nebula. They did not used to have FTL/jump technology, though it appears they were recently given a jump ship by some outside agency. They are masters of "photokinesis," able to manipulate light in amazing ways.
    • The Coalition: Some time ago, ISRA clairsentients detected a "space ark" travelling at near-light-speeds toward Earth. The jumpship sent to meet it returned and was heavily classified, but the rumors regarding the interaction are quite sinister. The Coalition is made up of an unknown number of different alien races, three of which the humans have dubbed "Envoys," "Spinals" and "Sasqs."
    In addition, another race is referred to only by name in "Passage Through Shadow," one of the adventure books; and it's been said that 1999's adventure series, "Alien Invasion," will feature a fifth race not yet revealed.

    What do you get if you put an alien, like a Qin, through the Prometheus Process?

  • A really nasty mess inside the Prometheus Tank. Oh, and a really nasty visit from the Qin Ambassador. Aliens can't become psions.

    • Why are there so few extrasolar colonies, and why are the ones we have so far away?

  • Humanity only had a couple of years with the Upeo Wa Macho's jumpships to set up colonies before they mysteriously disappeared. Since then, humanity has just finished developing jumpships that do not depend on the Upeo's psionic abilities, and just reestablished contact with the colonies.

    • It has not yet officially been established why the colonies are where they are. A commonly expressed opinion is that, since the colonies were located by psi powers, and transported to via psi powers, those locations are somehow psionically "interesting."

    The Aeon Trinity can't really be that squeaky-clean, it must be a huge conspiracy factory, right?

  • On the one hand, this is not the World of Darkness. The Trinity developer, Andrew Bates, has been pretty emphatic that, in general, Aeon is working for the betterment of humanity. However, it is not a monolithic organization, and there may be members who are not as "good" as the others. It also is a large organization and, in general, large organization with lots of power are not to be 100% trusted.

    • What happened to Europe and the U.S.? Who are the new world powers?

  • The U.S. was the favored stomping ground of the Aberrants and is scrabbling to return to the glory days of the 20th century. In the wake of Aberrant attacks that sank the state of Florida, crashed the OpNet (successor to the Internet) and laid waste to the nation's food-growing heartland, the government was taken over by fascistic elements from within. Europe also suffered from Aberrant attacks and the OpNet crash, and had a bigass space-station dropped on it from orbit, turning much of France into a smoking hole.

    • The new world powers are: Brazil, due to the strength of their natural resources and cultural dominance; China, which was the only real superpower to weather the Aberrant Wars well; and Australia, which absorbed a lot of the regugees from America and Europe and is the home of Big Media.

    What's culture like in the Trinity future?

  • As there are different cultures in the present, there are different cultures in the future. The life of an everyday person in Australia (the new entertainment captial of the world) and an everyday person on the Moon are completely different.

    • Some of the more notable features of 2120 culture include: a fascination with Luna and the Qin; low-gee or zero-gee sports; a resurgence in interest in spiritual matters, including "anima," the principle that spirits inhabit everything; the pervasiveness of computers and satisfactory-intelligence computer agents; holovid (3-D) entertainment; bioware chic; and "bang" music, strident electronic successor to rock 'n' roll. (Subsets include ambient/atmospheric Anima bang and Middle Eastern-influenced Muezzin bang.)

    What's bioware? Do you have to be a psion to use it?

  • Bioware is organic technology -- tools, machines and vehicles that are grown, not built. Ordinary people can use some bioapps (pieces of bioware -- short for "bioware applications"), though they are much more limited in what, and how much, they can use due to the way psionic energy powers bioware. Psions can have bioware "formatted" to their DNA, allowing them to access more features and exert more control of bioware. Some bioapps work only when formatted.

    • What's the bonus for formatting a biotech weapon?

  • +2 Accuracy, +1 Damage.

    • How does this vehicle weapon/armor adds stuff work?

  • Vehicle weaponry is defined as Xd10 [Y] L. When a vehicle weapon fires upon a person, it automatically does Y health levels, plus however many derived from the Xd10 damage roll. Vehicle armor is defined as X [Y]. If a normal weapon is fired at a vehicle, X and Y are both subtracted from the damage dice, and unlike normal armor, if the damage is less than zero, no damage roll is made. Vehicles firing at vehicles ignore the adds altogether.

    • How come different size spaceships all have the same number of damage levels?

  • The armor scale is supposed to represent the size and durability of a spaceship, not the Health Levels; it's harder to do those 7 levels damage to a bigger ship, after all. This is one of several glitches in the vehicle combat rules that Andrew Bates said would have been ironed out if there was time; there are especially problems in compatibility between the main book and the Technology Manual. There is the "Vehicles as Extras" sidebar in the main book and optional rules in the Tech Manual for giving certain kinds of ships more or fewer Health Levels if you don't like how the system works.

    • Why aren't there warp engines/transporters/spaceship shields/hand phasers/other StarTrekky crap?

  • Short answer: Because this isn't the Star Trek RPG. It's also not the Babylon 5 RPG, the Star Wars RPG or the Lensman RPG. The technology that works in Trinity was decided upon for reasons, primarily because the creators wanted to put the emphasis of the game on individual characters and their psionic powers, not ubertech. If you had transporters, who would need the Upeo?

    • Are there sentient AI computers or androids?

  • There are "Satisfactory Intelligences" in Trinity. While not fully human in computing power, these "SI" agents are getting closer and closer. There are also robots, though they are generally not built to look identical to humans. It's generally considered a bad thing to have completely human-appearing robots, but the Japanese -- who are big into hardtech but have a near-pathological dislike of biotech -- have a few.

    • Is there other Trinity stuff besides the role-playing game?

  • Trinity was conceived from the start not just as a role-playing game, but an entertainment property that can be expanded into many fields: other games, TV series, movies, novels, comic books and more. The first spinoff, Trinity: Battleground, White Wolf's first miniatures-combat game, was released in August. George Alec Effinger, a well-respected science-fiction novelist who provided the opening story in the main rulebook, is expected to write a series of novels set in the Trinityverse. What else will come remains to be seen.

    • What Trinity materials are planned for release in the next few years?

  • The upcoming Trinity releases are now being tracked on the unofficial White Wolf Coming Attractions FAQ, which is also occasionally posted to the White Wolf Usenet newsgroups. For official information, check out White Wolf's own release schedule.

    • What are some sources for more info on Trinity?

  • The best source is White Wolf's official Trinity site. Since the game is so new, there's a small number of independent Trinity Web sites; right now you're reading one of them, OpZine, a bimonthly Trinity Web 'zine. You can find links to many of them at the home of the Trinity Web ring.

    • Trinity gamers and Storytellers sometimes post messages to several White Wolf-oriented Usenet newsgroups, alt.games.white-wolf and rec.games.frp.storyteller.
    One of the best sources of Trinity information is the innocence.com Trinity mailing list; to subscribe, send a message with the body "subscribe trinity-l your name" to the address majordomo@innocence.com. (That's a lowercase "L" after the "trinity-", not the number "1".) White Wolf maintains its own Trinity mailing list; it's been buggy in the past, though.

     

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