Trinity Continuum: What’s in a name?

By any other name, this still smells like an awesome setting.

Hi, everyone. I’m Ian Watson, and I’m overseeing development on the upcoming Trinity Continuum books. I’m what Rich is calling the “uber-developer.” Currently I’m working with Æon developer John Snead and the writing crew he’s beginning to assemble.

So what’s with the new name?

Long-time fans are doubtless familiar with the troubles we’ve had with nomenclature in the past, but this is more about the direction we’re planning on taking things, moving forward.

We’re definitely hoping to make everyone happy with new editions of our signature eras: Adventure!Aberrant, and Æon. The setting, however, is grander than that. It’s a vast continuum, speckled with dramatic points in history where heroes — or villains — arise. What does the Æon Society look like in five hundred years? What was the Aberrant War like? Were Greco-Roman heroes descended from gods, or were they novas? Was the spiritualist movement of the Victorian period exactly what it seemed?

There are all valid questions, and we’d like to explore some of those answers. With the main “trinity” of games serving as our anchor, we’d like to visit some of the far reaches of the timeline to see where they take us. We might be surprised by what we find.

Will you join us?

It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.

— Q, Q Who, Star Trek: The Next Generation

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33 responses to “Trinity Continuum: What’s in a name?”

  1. Craig Oxbrow Avatar

    “Do you wanna come with me? ‘Cause if you do, then I should warn you… You’re gonna see all sorts of things – ghosts from the past, aliens from the future, the day the Earth died in a ball of flame. It won’t be quiet, it won’t be safe, and it won’t be calm. But I’ll tell you what it will be… the trip of a lifetime.”

    Doctor Who 2005 trailer.

    Couldn’t resist.

  2. Roger Avatar

    Absolutely, yes, sir! I would like to join the discussion!

  3. JDCorley Avatar
    JDCorley

    You know I’m in, right? Have me write a shit-ton of those little pamphlet books on minor topics like Psi Laws.

    1. Bryant Avatar
      Bryant

      Yeah! Like Psi Law!

    2. IanW Avatar
      IanW

      If you want in, throw in on the submissions page.

  4. Kenny Avatar
    Kenny

    Oh boy! I was nuts about adventure. Can’t wait to see what comes from this.

    1. IanW Avatar
      IanW

      Thanks! I’m looking forward to expanding it beyond a single book.

  5. Andrés Montañez Avatar
    Andrés Montañez

    I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
    When I found out t Adventure! and the while Trinity line… it was already out of print. Then there was some “d20 remake”… not for me. I was (still am!) thrilled with the idea of the Æon Society, the pulp theme and mood, with Aberrant and “Crayon” itself.
    For me this is like going back in time and really changing things for the better.

    So this is going to be a blast! And knowing that Onyx Path owns the IP is even better!!

    Good luck my friends!

  6. John Christensen Avatar
    John Christensen

    Hell yes. I can’t even express how excited I am about this prospect; Trinity was a great game and I miss it.

  7. el pinko grande Avatar
    el pinko grande

    “The setting, however, is grander than that. It’s a vast continuum, speckled with dramatic points in history where heroes — or villains — arise. What does the Æon Society look like in five hundred years? What was the Aberrant War like? Were Greco-Roman heroes descended from gods, or were they novas?”

    Is the implication here that Scion will be folded into the Trinity Continuum, or am I reading too much into that?

    1. IanW Avatar
      IanW

      You’re reading too much into it.

      The supernatural does not exist within the constraints of the Trinity Continuum.

      Gods exist in Scion.

      1. el pinko grande Avatar
        el pinko grande

        Ah, that’s a relief!

      2. Christophe Avatar
        Christophe

        Presumably, though, we could also conceive that Zeus and friends were novas of great power – or even not so great power. After all a few dots of mega-attributes and a quantum blast power would be enough to do Zeus: human superstition would have done the rest. That would be an interesting take on history / mythology (and it would leave a few doors open, such as: how come the greek “gods” are not around anymore, and who “offed” them…).

        1. AnonTeragen Avatar

          Mega-stamina only keeps you alive for so long, you know. But perhaps something on Mount Olympus had the ability to give people Nova powers, and it spawned a set of Novas who the people worshiped as gods for a while until they disappeared back onto Olympus for some reason and faded into legend.

  8. @frequentbeef Avatar

    Looks like Aeon/Trinity/Aberrant/Adventure is getting resurrected as well: http://t.co/yhugXTJZ

  9. Sebastian Avatar
    Sebastian

    “I would like, to take you, on a strange journey.” (Narrator, on the Rocky Horror Oicture Show)
    Count me in 😀

  10. Chris Shaffer Avatar
    Chris Shaffer

    Trinity was my first White Wolf RPG (in fact, my first non-D&D RPG). I still have my copy of the core book, which was originally printed with the Aeon logo and covered with Trinity stickers (which I removed). Heck, I still have the quickstart pamphlet I picked up in a store display all those years ago. I used to put compose soundtracks for individual stories when I ran Aberrant, arranging specific musical cues at particular times. Those notes were sadly lost in a crash years ago, but I was once part of that fan project that advanced Trinity into the year 2997.

    What I’m saying is this… You Have My Axe.

  11. Jeremy Roberts Avatar
    Jeremy Roberts

    Welcome back Æon, we missed you.

  12. IanW Avatar
    IanW

    It’s still pretty early in development. I can’t answer questions about details like this yet.

  13. Reighnhell Avatar
    Reighnhell

    Been looking forward to this for a long time.

  14. iPage Avatar
    iPage

    FYI, I LOVE how you guys treated the Baha’i faith in Aeon (Trinity). I was raised a Baha’i and was just ASTOUNDED at how good a job you guys did handling a relatively lesser known religion.

    Couple of points here on your vocab though:

    It’s called “The Baha’i Faith”
    Followers are called: “Baha’i’s”
    There should be an accent over the “i” there. (looks like an apostrophe, reverse “`”)
    For source material, go to: http://www.bahai.org/, lots of neat stuff there, especially if you want some holidays/observences in the telepaths.
    You were SPOT ON when you said that their leader said that he was NOT the next Messanger of God. In your world that’s EXACTLY how he would have handled it. Gratz!
    The group that said that he WAS would be known by the group as “covenant breakers” and wouldn’t have jack to do with them. There is an actual group of “covenant breakers” in our world currently. It boils down to a dispute in how the organization would be handled after the death of “the Guardian of the Faith.” They call themselves, “Orthodox Baha’i’s” but they’re a REALLY small group…IDK, maybe something to toss in there?

    I think I gave Ian a call/email when Aeon came out about some of this back in the day. We had a really good conversation about all this, and I am TOTALLY willing to help out on any weird questions you might have on that aspect. I LOVE what you did there, and so did a lot of other Baha’i’s in my community. I’ll tell you that you probably sold at least a dozen extra copies because of that in Indianapolis, and this is from people who don’t actually play any RPGs. They just wanted to read what you wrote and then support the game line.

    Again, great job, very excited!

    Oh, and for Abberant, you might wanna look at force field. I maxed a roll on that once and my lethal soak was like 125 with my Mega Stam + Survival skills. I could have essentially survived a small nuke thanks to FF. Just an observation.

    Again, LOVE IT!

    1. IanW Avatar
      IanW

      I think I gave Ian a call/email when Aeon came out about some of this back in the day.

      I doubt it; my first freelance work for the company wasn’t until nearly a decade after Trinity was first released. 😉

  15. Dawngreeter Avatar
    Dawngreeter

    This is awesome, awesome news. I continue to be amazed and psyched by the Onyx Path. I’ve been a White Wolf fan since early 2nd Edition VtM and I think this is, beyond any doubt, the best time to be a White Wolf fan.

    Keep on being awesome!

  16. Trey Byerly Avatar
    Trey Byerly

    I cannot stress enough how excited I and my players are over this. I ran the PCs through almost the entirety of the Trinity written adventures after running both Adventure! and Aberrant games so that they had to deal with the effects of previous actions in both games in the Trinity timeline. 3 years+ worth of gaming and it was some of the best we had. I cannot wait to see what Onyx Path comes up with next.

  17. Joe Arnaud Avatar
    Joe Arnaud

    Wow, Awesome. I still run all three games on occasion. But the grand Trinity and Aberrant campaign where highlights of my university gaming days

    1. Jason Hockley Avatar
      Jason Hockley

      I was one of the players in the games Joe mentioned. Fantastic stuff, and it lead to Trinity being one of only two game lines where I own every book published.

  18. abirkin2 Avatar
    abirkin2

    I just hope all three games(or at /least/ Aeon and Aberrant,) are cross compatible character-wise

    1. whafrog Avatar
      whafrog

      I’m very excited about this, I only found out about it by accident a little while ago…bought the PDFs of the old games and am very impressed. I’m actually hoping it will be cross-compatible with nWoD, at least as far as attributes goes. It may seem trivial, but nWoD is the first time I looked at an attribute list and went “somebody finally nailed it”. Trinity? Close, but not quite. Being a firm believer that good things flow from a solid core, I’m hoping that nWoD is the core…

  19. jackaal77 Avatar
    jackaal77

    I am so stoked for this!!! Me and my friends have been staunch white-wolf players for years now. We loved the Trinity continuum game line and still play it to this day.
    I can’t wait to see what you have store this go around. Well, as long as it is not d20, because that sucked!!

  20. Treasoner Avatar
    Treasoner

    When does this product go public? I have always loved this setting and eagerly await anything new. I need to find a new group so I can play when this comes out.

  21. Reading Dave Avatar
    Reading Dave

    Hm, if we are looking at reaches of time, what does the Aeon society look like as the universe approaches the omega point? What would a telepathic society look like? How would the Aeon society react to humans finding an imortality formula? How do they react to computers and other lifeforms gaining selfawareness?