Three Reasons To Try the Trinity Continuum… [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

…And back the Kickstarter!

Using the classic Aeon Trinity motto: Hope, Sacrifice, Unity!

Reason #1: HOPE

We’re not talking about a shiny-happy ending to every game here, but that one of the base precepts of the Continuum is that efforts produce results. It’s a continuum of settings with some of them being very dark indeed, and others much more about heroic actions delivering heroic and positive results. And then, of course, you can decide at your table how far to take things beyond how we present them.

Your group of players may decide to shoot Otha Herzog in the head and put an end to his visions of the future – possibly leaving Earth with no fore-warning of dire events, while another table might be working with ISRA to arrive at the right time and the right place with the right equipment. That’s not just an external thing players do, but it’s built in to the Trinity Continuum to allow those choices and for those settings to exist with all the other ones in the Continuum.

This, to me, is what Hope means in the Trinity Continuum, a chance that in the nigh-infinite universes that could exist in the Continuum, human potential can reach untold heights and forge a new future.

On a Kickstarter level, we have hope that this KS is indicative of the interest that folks have towards not just these first two books, the Trinity Continuum Core book and the Trinity Continuum: Aeon book and all the additional projects we can do with them, but also for the additional settings we could do next. Both the two known ones, Aberrant and Adventure!, and also the many, many additional settings that can be part of the Continuum.

Reason #2: SACRIFICE

Again, your acts have consequences in the Trinity Continuum, and while it is set up as mentioned above to provide results when those actions are taken, sometimes those results have a cost. Which makes sense since we want all of the Trinity Continuum settings to allow dramatic resolutions no matter how light or dark they are.

Beyond the setting depth that Sacrifice adds, we also have game play systems within the Storypath System that function by the players using, and even encouraging, the bad things that happen to them so that they gain bonuses or advantages to further the storyline. This can be very meta-mechanical, or very story-based, or somewhere in between, but the important thing is that there are opportunities for meaningful game play even when you fail a roll.

On a Kickstarter level, a lot of folks, including some of the devs, have had to sacrifice a fair bit of patience waiting for their favorite game to come back. But since what we really don’t want are folks sacrificing cash, good will, or their excitement for the return of the Trinity Universe with our Trinity Continuum reboot during this Kickstarter campaign, we made sure that the sacrifice of time and effort was ours before the KS was good to go.

Which means that even though it took time to create what we wanted, we now have a fantastic and flexible game system that powers all of the possible Trinity Continuum settings, and both the Trinity Continuum Core and the Trinity Continuum: Aeon books are essentially done. Don’t worry, we’ll use backer feedback to polish, tweak a few areas, and clarify a few things, but the heavy lifting earlier has paid off now and the books should easily beat the “estimated delivery” KS dates.

(He says knocking on all the wood in the house, gluing broken mirrors back together, and throwing whole shakers of salt over both shoulders just in case.)

Reason #3: UNITY

In the Trinity Continuum, there are a ton of characters that could easily be described as a lone-wolf, as a one-person army, as a force of one. Yet, when they work with other characters, the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. The organizations, from two-person team-ups to international Agencies or Orders, exist in the setting itself, not just to codify the player characters. Particularly in the Trinity Continuum: Aeon setting, they are absolutely needed to enable mankind to face the challenges of rebuilding after the Aberrant War and taking up the exploration of the universe.

Our rules reflect this as well, from how Psion powers work all the way to the Initiative system encouraging party teamwork and strategy.

On a meta-level, the Trinity Continuum may well also be greater than any individual setting within it, but regardless of whether that is how folks see it, the Continuum is designed so that no matter what happens in any given setting it remains a part of the Continuum.

The example we use in talking this over is including the City of Super-Scientific Gorillas as part of Adventure! Something excellently pulp-y like that, somewhere in the jungles or in the hollow Earth, sounds fantastic. But how would that fit into a modern day Trinity Continuum Core story? It wouldn’t have to. There might be clues that something like that once existed, but now that whole place exists essentially “out of phase” with the modern day. You could get there. but a commercial airline flying over isn’t going to see it.

This also means that no individual table’s storyline is going to contradict the history and events presented in any setting published by Onyx Path. All worlds are true and can fit in the Trinity Continuum.

On a Kickstarter level, we tried to set up the KS rewards and stretch goals to give value to backers no matter whether they are new to Trinity or fans of the Trinity Universe already. Whether they did their gaming with PDFs or with printed books. Whether they loved the original Trinity(Aeon) setting, or were fans of Aberrant or Adventure! far more than our science fiction game.

It should be said, and I think our KS Manager Jumpin’ James Bell has already touched on this, that the Trinity Continuum Core is going to be needed to run Trinity Continuum: Aberrant and Trinity Continuum: Adventure!, so even if you’re waiting for them, now is the time to come together in Unity with your fellow Trinity fans and pledge to get the TC Core book to help this KS strive for greater goals.

We hope for, and really need, a Unity of our community behind this Kickstarter and are thrilled to see how much there already is. I mention this below, but seriously, now is the time to get the word out! With only a few days to go, let’s drive this mighty ship forward with our mental energies (for Psion powers, we have the internet) and tell everyone you once knew who enjoyed the first iteration that there’s a new and exciting version that they can get in on!

And with that, I think it should be obvious how apt our tagline is:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

The Trinity Continuum Kickstarter is roaring towards the finish line on Thursday in a psychokinetic burst of energy! And yet, there are still a lot of fans of the original releases out there who aren’t connected to our current incarnation, so please, if you know a fan from back in the day: LET THEM KNOW THIS KS IS HAPPENING!

So far, we’ve passed 300% of our funding goal, over 1600 backers, and we’ve gone through sixteen Stretch Goals including VARGs, new Noetic Biotech, new Cyberware, new Espionage-Related Hardtech, and Aberrants and their cults, and a section on how to play Psions in the modern day core rulebook setting will be added to the AEon AExpansion, a Trinity Continuum: Aeon novella entitled “Dawn“, a scenario called “Caper, Incorporated” has been added to the In Media Res scenario collection PDF for the Trinity Continuum Core, and backers will be able to download the Trinity Core Dice for the Onyx Dice Rolling App.

We’ve also now grown the bundle of first edition PDFs to 15 and with the $15 buy-in that means backers get this bundle for $1 per PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aeon-rpg

Trinity Continuum: Aeon, is our reboot of the classic Trinity (Aeon) game, and Trinity Continuum: Core is the core book that all of our Trinity Continuum game lines will spin off from. Both books will be a part of this Kickstarter and backers have already received the first two quarters of the Trinity Continuum: Core text, with more to come. James Bell, our Kickstarter Manager, has been keeping this KS hopping, so we hope you’ll check it out!

Our next Kickstarter is slated to be EX3‘s Dragon-Blooded.

As we try and find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Last week the devs are added a whole bunch of new game lines’ dice and rolling bg’s and got caught by a bug Apple needed to fix, so be sure to update your app and soon that should be fixed.

There’s been tweaks to all elements of the UI, you can now preview every die type in the store, and you can use multiple die types per roll! Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

(The Solar Anima special Dice above)

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook stores on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble). Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Look for the next two installments of our Exalted 3rd Edition monthly releases, and for new EX3-related merchandise on our RedBubble store on sale this Wednesday!

With a howl of RAGE, the W20 Changing Ways PDF and physical book PoD charges at you this Wednesday on DTRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/229183/W20-Changing-Ways

Changing Ways is an in-depth look at what it means to be a werewolf, both on a personal level and as part of a pack. It digs deep into what it feels like to have bones re-knit after breaking, the range of senses available across all forms, and the sudden heady rush of the Gifts and Rites bestowed by spirits. It also provides a look at what life is like for lupus and metis werewolves, characters who have had experiences alien to any person. It shows the many ways that werewolves organize in packs, and how those packs are designed as groups of warriors, rather than aligned to the behavior of wolves.

Changing Ways contains:

• A detailed look at what it means to grow up as a lupus or metis werewolf, and how that colors a character’s perspective.

• More information on what it feels like to be a werewolf, a creature that changes in both body and mind.

• Frameworks and organizations for packs, along with new tactics and systems for forging the pack as part of play.

Appearing on DriveThruRPG this Wednesday are the PDF and PoD physical book versions of Arms of the Chosen for Exalted 3rd Edition! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226224/Arms-of-the-Chosen

Take up the panoply of legendary heroes and lost ages, and awaken the world-shaking might of their Evocations. Before the dawn of time, the Exalted wielded god-metal blades to cast down the makers of the universe. In an ancient epoch of forgotten glories, Creation’s greatest artificers forged unimaginable wonders and miracle-machines.

Now, in the Age of Sorrows, kingdoms go to war over potent artifacts, scavenger princes risk everything to uncover relics of the past, and the Exalted forge great arms and armor on the anvil of legend. These treasures are yours to master.

Discover the mystical power of the five magical materials and the secrets of creating your own Evocations. Wield weapons of fabled might and don the armor of mythic heroes, making their puissance your own. Claim Creation’s wonders: the miraculous tools of the Chosen, living automatons, flying machines, hearthstones, and more. And unleash the mighty warstriders, titanic god-engines of conquest and devastation, to once more shake Creation with their footfalls.