Diving into the Continuum [Trinity Continuum]

Trinity Continuum

Hey, Trinity fans! It’s been a while, so let me re-introduce myself. I’m Ian A. A. Watson, and I’m the lead developer for the new Trinity Continuum.

My last TC post two and a half years ago (!!!) was pretty brief, but covered a bit of why we’re calling our setting a Continuum this time around. I’m going to rehash a little of that as I take some time to dive a little deeper into exactly what that means.

The original setting — the Trinity Universe — was more or less a straight timeline (although Max hopscotched around to different points): Adventure! happened in 1924, Aberrant happened in 2008, and Trinity happened in 2120. Pretty straightforward.

The new setting continues with the same three tentpole game lines, albeit with readjusted dates: Adventure! in the 1920s, Aberrant in 2028, and Aeon in 2123. And we’re also throwing the new Trinity Continuum core rulebook into the mix, with a new present-day era. But that’s not all: I’ve got five more eras beyond that on the drawing board. Not all of them may actually get as far as publication, but they’re floating around in my head for further examination. Some of them are getting some extra attention either from myself or one of our other developers, so we’ll be seeing more eventually. To use a comparison with the World of Darkness, some of the eras might end up being fairly small, 50-100 page books like Victorian Lost or Mage Noir. Some of them might end up being full (albeit limited) lines in their own right, like Promethean: The Created or Mummy: The Curse.

So that’s part of why it’s a Continuum now. It’s not just a trilogy anymore. While the same three tentpole games will continue to be important for reasons which will become obvious, we’re not just limiting ourselves to those three flashpoints anymore. We have endless centuries to play around with. Millennia, even.

Another reason?

A historical digression: some have noted that the original Aberrant felt like the odd one out, not really fitting in with the feel of the other two games. In 2001, toward the end of the life of the TU, some of the creators postulated an explanation: the time-travelling Max Mercer saw the Aberrant War, vaulted himself forward in time, and hit a wall of subquantum flux (what Trinity called the Venezuelan Phenomenon). Like the infamous double-slit light experiment, Max split into two: one “Hopeful Max” which saw the wonders of the future, and one “Pessimist Max” who bounced back hard and came to the conclusion that the Aberrant War would destroy the world. “Hopeful Max” goes back to found the Aeon Society we see in Adventure! and Trinity, while “Pessimist Max” goes back to found the Aeon Society we see in Aberrant.

Confused? Doesn’t really matter: the point is that the setting’s complexity and mismatching edges were already starting to blur what was once a pretty straightforward timeline. But this should be seen as a feature, not a bug. So now, while there are some discrete flashpoints as represented by different lines, we’re widening up options. For example, no metaplot. It’s odd to say “no metaplot” when we’re literally talking about games representing the past and the future. Maybe looking at it from the larger point of view of the Continuum as a whole, the lines could be considered metaplot for each other, but within each line, nothing.

Aeon, for example, will showcase some interesting upcoming events that characters might want to get involved in, and offers a number of different possible outcomes for them. They’re the sorts of situations that previously may have been covered in adventures like the Darkness Revealed or Alien Encounter series, which gradually advanced the timeline and had certain assumptions about unfolding events which all future supplements adhered to. That’s not happening anymore. Just as Exalted has always been set in Realm Year 768, so to will Aeon be perpetually set in 2123.

Looking back rather than forward, Aeon will feature the devastating Aberrant War as a key element of its history. However, that event still lies in the potential future of the Aberrant setting, and Aberrant books may not mention the War at all! There will almost certainly be hints that novas’ public perception may be on the wane, but exactly how that progresses in the future is entirely in the hands of the character and their Director. We don’t want anyone feeling boxed in by fate. Make your own fate.

Another topic brought up at last year’s Gen Con panel: the new “N-Day” where novas all erupt is coming soon. What happens when the “right now” setting of the Trinity Continuum Rulebook overtakes N-Day? Nothing. The books depicting the present will progress as before, presenting a Talent-rich action-adventure world. You’re welcome to kick off an Aberrant prequel game yourself, but we’re not going to force that on you. Nothing quite hammers home the idea that this event doesn’t have to happen like saying this event didn’t happen.

The Trinity Continuum isn’t a few dots in a straight line, it’s a vast multiverse of wibbly-wobbly quantum probabilities. Anything can happen, so it’s up to you and your cast to make it happen. This doesn’t even broach the topic of nova powers or super-science technologies that let you dive into alternate worlds intentionally as part of your game. You can easily run an entire series on the core concept the Continuum is based on. We’re giving you the keys to the rocket. Where do you want to take it?

And then there’s the third part to why “Continuum,” but that might not come to light for years down the road. Shhh.