Hey there, welcome back to the third in... well, I think calling it a 'series' implies that it's planned out, when I'm just kinda doing these when I happen to have the time and energy. Regardless, this is my third
Trinity Continuum character, this time for \
Trinity Continuum: Aberrant. As with my
Æon character, this isn't going to linger as much on the character creation process as my
core character post (aside from the Aberrant-specific stuff, of course).
Now comes the part where I describe the game itself in more detail than is needed for context, so if you want to skip ahead to the character I'm gonna build, feel free to scroll down to the jump cut.
Aberrant was the second game in the original Trinity series, and thus came second in the post-core 'tentpole' Trinity Continuum eras in the current edition. Æon was about humanity in the early 22nd century dealing with, among other challenges, delayed repercussions of the Aberrant War. But how did we get to the Aberrant War? We start with novas in the early 21st century.
While the 'core' Trinity Continuum book presents a world very much like our own as filtered through action-adventure media, Aberrant is kind of an alternate timeline because in Aberrant's version of 2018 (1998, in first edition) saw the tragic explosion of the space station Galatea, bathing the world in then-unknown, difficult-to-quantify energies that cause people around the world to manifest superhuman powers based on manipulating fundamental quantum forces.
The book's 'day zero' picks up a decade later, in 2028 (2008 in 1e), after a decade in which these superhumans, commonly called novas (from Homo sapiens novus), have already begun changing the world. Over the course of that decade, the Æon Society set up an organization called Project Utopia to study novas (not just their powers but physical transformations that often accompany said power) and find ways to use their powers for the good of mankind. This has led to drastic reversals of climate change, cures for diseases, and massive technological advancements. A group of novas called the Daedalus League now lead efforts to explore beyond the Solar System with their powers and super-science.
But it's not all Arc Reactors and unstable molecules -- for some people, great power means great opportunity. Naturally, some novas use their powers for personal profit, leading to a class of independent superhuman freelancers called Elites -- the most prominent example being superhuman mercenaries who are drastically reshaping visions of warfare. And then there are those who argue humanity's acceptance of novas is based on a faulty premise -- the Teragen, who believe that novas should not be considered human but a separate sovereign species on their own journey to transcendence and should not be bound by human laws or morality. But keeping track of the various factions, regardless of their feelings about or allegiance to humanity at large, is the Directive: a secretive agency empowered by the UN to oversee nova activities and (in theory) protect humanity from nova-related threats.
Some decades after this point, as recorded in the history of TC: Æon, the novas were gradually corrupted by their powers, grew apart from humanity, and eventually a war broke out between the billions of humans and several thousand people with godlike powers. As more and more crises related to the Aberrant War stacked up and humanity's future was at its bleakest, China revealed it's trump card: A network of satellites capable of orbital bombardment, powerful enough to potentially wipe the planet's surface clean. With these satellites they presented an ultimatum insisting the Aberrants (as they were now regarded) leave or everyone goes down together. The novas/Aberrants backed down, and the mightiest of them -- Divis Mal -- immolated the UN Secretary-General, proclaimed "Your legacy is our future," and led the Aberrants to the stars.
(This sounds bleak, I know, but bear with me.)
All of these elements appear in the old and new editions, with one major difference -- the tone. The original Aberrant, like 1e Æon before it, is very 90's White Wolf. It's not a superhero game as such (Exhibit A: the intro for the Aberrant Player's Guide, infamously titled "This Is Not The Super-Friends") but a deconstruction in the style of Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, or The Authority. I haven't read it or seen the series, but I'm told The Boys (which Aberrant pre-dates) is a pretty perfect match for its tone. At its best, the deconstruction is nigh-brilliant (though lots of it haven't aged well), but every now and again it's like a pizza cutter -- all edge, no point.
It's a game about power and its corruption, heavily steeped in dark conspiracies that mean very few people can be counted among the 'good guys.' Said good guys are the titular Aberrants: a small resistance group trying to uncover and reveal the corruption and darkness within Project Utopia. The pre-eminent 'superhero'-type of the setting, Caestus Pax, is arguably the 'light beer' version of Homelander, the Teragen could be described as 'What if you combined the Brotherhood of Mutants with the Sabbat from Vampire: The Masquerade,' and the Aberrant War is all but inevitable.
Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, by contrast, actually
is a superhero game. Again, it's not all
quantum rainbows and quantum daisies, and there are guidelines for fine-tuning a given chronicle's sensibilities regarding the genre, but by default it's much more reminiscent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are people with powers across all political and moral spectra, but by and large there are more people doing good than not regardless of their motivations.
It's still a game about power and consequences, but it's a setting where the good guys can win. Project Utopia, while not perfect, is a force for good and Cestus Pax (spelling change between editions, not a typo), the leader of Team Tomorrow, is a moral man with power beyond his reckoning still getting used to leadership. The Teragen's core beliefs are largely the same, but they are much more about exploring transhumanism than trying to speedrun their ascendance to quantum-powered godhood -- though in this edition the titular Aberrants are a militaristic extremist faction of the Teragen, arguably outliers in the opposite direction from their 1e counterparts. And while it's possible to see the rumblings of the Aberrant War on the horizon, this edition emphasizes that the War (and Æon beyond it) are possible (perhaps likely) outcomes, but it encourages you more to avert that future in your own games -- part of Trinity being a continuum, and explicitly a multiverse.
Incidentally, one thing both editions have in common is good LGBT+ rep (with a 'good for its time' qualifier for 1e, to be fair) -- there are several prominent novas in the quiltbag, mostly taken beyond simple stereotypes. When the first edition Teragen book came out and revealed that their leader Divis Mal is openly gay and in a relationship with another man in the setting, someone on the White Wolf forums flipped their shit with a post titled "Divis Mal is GAY?!? WTF!!!!" This was responded to, famously, with a thread entitled "Divis Mal has ARMS?!? WTF!!!!" that created a meme that persists to this day. As someone who was there for (and posted in) the Arms thread, it gave me the warm and fuzzies when Onyx Path announced early on that they were rebooting the Trinity games and literally one of the first things that came up was official reassurance that Divis Mal 'would still have arms.'
I played and ran a lot of 1e Aberrant with my friends back in late high school and early college, and it's a game pretty close to my heart. I still have all of those old books, some of which are worn to the point I need to be careful handling them, including the two copies of the Aberrant Player's Guide I wound up with because enough time passed between the book's announcement and its release I accidentally pre-ordered it twice from two different stores. (Technically I don't have my original hardcover core book any more, having loaned it to someone who vanished with it about the time the game line was cancelled, but a few years ago I found another copy at Half-Price Books, probably in slightly better shape than mine had been when I lost it.)
I could probably go on, but I've already gone on far beyond what's necessary or even interesting to read. So whether you're still with me or just jumped ahead to the actual character write-up, thanks. And of course, if you have any questions, comments, requests, etc., let me know either here in the comments or any of the social media outlets in my profile.