Hey, nerds. As Miracle Mike Chaney is inputting Trinity Continuum errata, I thought I’d take a minute to talk a bit more about the Continuum in general and the setting of the TC core in particular.
With the Allegiances, we wanted to cover a wide array of different sub-genres within the wider action-adventure genre. If you’d like to play heist stories, Les Fantômes should tickle your fancy. If you like stories where a variety of skilled individuals are assembled by a mysterious overseer to accomplish certain tasks, we’ve got the Lightkeepers for that.
December 13, 1795: EXTRAORDINARY STONE Falls from Atmosphere – Lands at Wold Newton Cottage. Proof of Existence of Extra-Terrestrial Matter?
My goal with the Trinity Continuum — at least, the core setting — was to set up a sort of “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” setting: a setting where all works of fiction (or at least, the non-magical ones) co-exist. There’s a lot of ways you can approach this, based on the needs of your own game.
August 3, 1997: Cyber Division of Einsystems, Inc. set to launch Global Defense Digital Network. Project Lead Dyson: “Very Pleased”
Using the above examples, perhaps in your game you’re playing
Les Fantômes because you like the heist genre, using our provided Allegiance for playing the sort of game you like to play. Alternately, you could use the Ghosts as a basis for portraying a member of Leverage, International, or perhaps one of Danny Ocean’s associates, removing a layer of abstraction and going right to the source material. Or you could work on a combination approach: Les Fantômes and Leverage and the Oceans exist in the same universe. Sometimes they work together. Sometimes they’re at odds (something like the Leverage episode “The Two Live Crew Job”).
October 9, 2016: From the Desk of Maxwell Mercer: Stay out of Riverport!!! until at least five years have passed.
Similarly, perhaps your team of specialists was assembled by the mysterious Pharos. Or perhaps it was Charlie, or Miranda Zero, or the Machine. Or, interestingly, perhaps some or all of the above characters are actually the same. If the Machine is secretly Pharos, why is it hiding its activity separately from Finch’s team? Does Nathan Drake work with the Global Cartography Initiative, or are the GCI working with Katherine Marlowe?
Report, December 21, 1979: There’s been another sighting of one of the five alleged “Hollywood Wizards.” Experts examining the footage are still unsure if he’s actually that fast, or it’s just an elaborate special effect.
We tried to use our framework to give you as many options as possible to play the sorts of games you want to play, but also to provide some pretty compelling stories. You can use different Allegiances as antagonists to each other, different factions within a single Allegiance, or two separate-but-similar Allegiances who are both racing to reach the same McGuffin.
It’s a big Continuum, and anything and everything you find enjoyable can and should be a part of it.
Awesome write-up, Ian. Thanks for keeping our appetites wet while we await the hard copies.
OK: so are you saying that Wold Newton is part of the Trinity Continuum?
More that it is something a Storyteller could include as an idea in their framework, not anything official…I think.
Kinda like the mentions of The Shadow, The Rocketeer and the like in the “newspaper articles” from the original Adventure! advertising. Not official, but easily doable within the setting.
“Storyguide”, I mean. Whoops.
I’m not saying it is, but I’m saying it could be. A meteor with Flux properties is extremely in line with the Continuum.
I will admit to being slightly ashamed I have to ask…I managed to get or Google every reference you included, Ian, except the note from Mercer about Riverport. What’s that from?
Hint: Google [“time travel” Riverport] (use the quotes).
That is, after all, something which would concern Mercer more than most.
The Dyson references alludes to The Terminator, right?
Who are the five “Hollywood wizards”?