Building a Character: Terra Surge (TC: Anima)

Welcome back! This is a little weird, I'll admit, because this is the second part of a character write-up. The game in question is Trinity Continuum: Anima, a tabletop RPG that plays in both the cyberpunk and LitRPG genres, and this post focuses on the latter. You really should have read the first part of the character write-up in which I created Erin Taylor, a youth counselor in the city of Cascade and know all this, but I'll quickly contextualize.

(Quick aside, reminding you that we're currently in the final days of a crowdfunding campaign to reprint the Trinity Continuum core and Æon books.)

In TC: Anima's setting of Cascade, there's a mystery involving missing players of a popular MMO called Terra Surge, linked to possible weirdness within the game itself. It may also tie in to rumors and mysteries surrounding the revolutionary neural implant, called Glass, that most people use to play the game and is given out to Cascade's citizens for free. Different gaming groups can adjust how much of the story is spent in the real world versus the virtual world, but by default the narrative is expected to move back and forth. Not only are there clues and leads in the game itself, but it's also going to be the best (and often only) way to connect with other people in the community who might know something, even if they're only using Terra Surge as a meeting spot.

In my previous post, I wrote up Erin as a character, but the game also has a well-crafted ruleset and setting for Terra Surge, and players are expected to write up at least one character -- called an 'anima' -- for the MMO as well. And since I'm really wordy and the previous post went on as long as it was, I decided to handle the creation of Erin's anima separately. So let's get to it.

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum: Anima

Been a while since I've done one of these, and I've been meaning to do this one for a little while now. Just been getting distracted working on other projects and getting my group's new Exalted series started. But I'm feeling like I need a bit of a palate cleanser, so let's get into it.

Trinity Continuum: Anima is interesting and a little experimental for a few reasons. To start, it's the first new time period introduced to the Trinity series after the initial three, taking place in 2084, between the end of the Aberrant War and the start of TC: Æon (and, in the default Æon timeline, a couple of years before the Shanghai Accords banned true AI and certain brain-computer interfaces). (Speaking of which, assuming I get this up in time, there's a campaign still up to crowdfund a fresh printing of the core books.) Second, it's very focused setting-wise -- while there's enough info to run a game elsewhere in the setting, by default the focus is on the city of Cascade, in the Federated States of America (the fascist military junta that the US turned into during the Aberrant War). Implied to be on the site of a war-destroyed Vancouver, Cascade is a newly-built city where the FSA is encouraging people to emigrate to start new lives. Third, it's got a pretty focused premise, which I'll get to after explaining the genre for context.

Where the other Trinity Continuum games present different genres, TC: Anima covers cyberpunk and a little something else (keep reading). See, as incentive to get people to move to Cascade, they're offering free implantation of the 'Glass' brain augmentation. Invented by a company called FulgurTech, Glass allows for the sort of mind-machine interface and virtual reality shenanigans long-promised by cyberpunk fiction. It also offers tools for better cyberware interfacing, managing a number of neurological or hormonal issues, and therapeutic functions like editing sensory input or one's own memories.

And yes, you can run Doom on it.

Which is where I'm getting into the 'little something else' genre-wise -- I don't want to get too deep into the weeds explaining if you don't know it, but TC: Anima is also a LitRPG game with the addition of Terra Surge into the setup. Terra Surge is a free-to-play MMO taking place in the fantasy realm of Synestia, in which players have adventures in a virtual world that's run by a number of powerful AIs called 'Narrators,' who are capable of greatly customizing the game experience to individual players' tastes. The Narrators can create custom quests and NPCs for players on the fly, all woven into a larger narrative being crafted by the game's developers. The MMO is actually playable in-game, with a proper ruleset and a fleshed-out setting of its own.

In a world still recovering from the Aberrant War and the Crash (the total destruction of the OpNet), Glass and Terra Surge offer much-needed options for coping with the fallout and trauma of the last couple of decades. (Incidentally, this game was pretty much entirely written in the early years of the Covid pandemic, and it shows in a lot of ways that make the game stronger for it.)

However, while TC: Anima is meant to be a more hopeful take on the genre, it's still a cyberpunk setting. Naturally, there's something wrong with it.

The game's premise, by default, revolves around a mystery surrounding Terra Surge and Glass itself: Popular players are going missing (sometimes with their game streams abruptly ending after the game's built-in spoiler warning system blanks the feed), and the ones who've turned back up have been behaving... differently. Conspiracy theorists link the phenomenon to the recent introduction of the Jahat, a mysterious new antagonist faction in Terra Surge. Some think it's all a planned marketing stunt, but others insist there's something wrong with the Jahat and the missing players learned something they shouldn't have. And then, of course, there are all manner of conspiracy theories in general about Glass itself and FulgurTech's relationship with the FSA, even before you factor in the possibility that there's a connection between this and the mystery of the Jahat.

So yeah, this is a lot of new territory for Trinity.

It's technically possible to play a psiad (a naturally-occurring psi-user) or even a low-power nova with the right supplements and a permissive Storyguide, but by default TC: Anima player characters are Talents, and I'm going to build one of those. Because there's a two-part character creation setup here -- one for the actual character in Cascade and one for their Terra Surge avatar (no, really) -- I'm going to split this up between two different blog posts for length and readability.

Before I get into it, in case it needs to be said, this write-up assumes you know the basic Trinity Continuum character creation structure, as seen in my first Trinity character build. I can't imagine it being indecipherable without having read that, but I'm not going to stop and explain every step as much as I do there (for better or worse).

The Road Between Light and Dark: The Horned One (Exalted)

Hey there, folks, here we go. More Exalted shenanigans from the cold, dark North of Creation.

And assuming I don't take way too long writing this post, the Indiegogo campaign to reprint Trinity Continuum, Trinity Continuum: Æon, and Scion 2nd Edition should still be running, so if you haven't picked up the books yet and want to save a buck on a traditionally-printed copy of any of the books, now's the time!

And with that...

The Road Between Light and Dark: Off the Beaten Path (Exalted)

Alright, been a couple of weeks since I've done this, let's see if I still remember how...

Hey there, folks, and I welcome you back to Creation yet again! This is the first session of my group's Exalted series, "The Road Between Light and Dark." For those of you who missed my intro post, this is a game about a trio of heroes moving back and forth between Whitewall and Gethamane, protecting fellow travelers and people in the small settlements outside the protection of Whitewall and Gethamane. The previously-linked intro post has a quick introduction to our characters, so I'm not going to repeat all that here. 

(Though, of course, if one of my players sees this and I got something wrong because I'm still getting used to your characters and their names, let me know.)

Also, before I get us into it, in case you haven't heard, Onyx Path is running a crowdfunding campaign to do a fresh print run of the Trinity Continuum core, Trinity Continuum: Æon (which I worked on), and Scion: Origin, including a couple of updates to the text. If you want a traditionally-printed copy of those books, check out the link! (Move fast, it's a shorter than usual campaign.)

And now...

The Road Between Light and Dark (Exalted)

Greetings, folks, and welcome back after the brief hiatus. 

In case you missed it, my group's taking a step back from the adventures of the Moonlight Maiden crew for a bit. In part it's so we can have a literal change of scenery and explore some new locales and new characters to change things up. And also it's because we've been wanting to switch over to the Exalted: Essence ruleset, and felt that taking a trio of Essence 5(!) characters with almost a hundred sessions' worth of XP(!) and trying to approximate them was a bad way to learn a new system.

Which brings me to this post, wherein I lay out the basic idea for this series and introduce y'all to the cast. And if you need it, I put together a setting primer a while back, which you can find at this link.

(Note that it's early enough that details might get tweaked here and there in the early sessions, so I may or may not come back and make adjustments after this post goes live. On a related note, if any of my players see this and I screwed something up in the descriptions further down, let me know and I'll fix it.)

This series is located in the wintry North, with the characters moving back and forth between the cities of Whitewall (an overcrowded bastion of safety protected by mystical pacts and a massive wall that literally glows at night) and Gethamane (a creepy, insular city hidden beneath a mountain), protecting travelers on the road and keeping an eye on villages and towns too often left out in the cold. Their stretch of Creation is beset by all sorts of horrors -- the Fair Folk, the dead, and weather you don't dare turn your back on.

This is "The Road Between Light and Dark."

And now let's meet our cast. In no particular order:

• Wandering Dawn (aka "Wanderer"), a Dawn Caste Solar played by Bryan (he/him) -- A local monster hunter, Chosen by the Unconquered Sun while defending his fellow hunters against an attack of Wyld-mutated animals. Now he and his bonded familiar, a wolverine named Mollie (short for 'Mauler of Man and Beast'), have become minor celebrities in the region as he works to keep the area around Whitewall safe... all while looking for the monster that destroyed his childhood home or any trace of his sister, lost in that attack.
• Stray Dog Serenade, an Ascendant Caste Infernal played by Sean (he/him) -- A wandering singer and rabble-rouser, preaching freedom and anarchy. As a wealthy boyar's son-turned-malcontent, another extremist tried to get him to assassinate another of the city's nobles. He balked, only to see his bodyguard accept the offer and strike the target down -- only to be apparently awarded with his own Exaltation. As he recoiled from this, shocked that that's all it would take, a voice whispered in his ear to offer him an alternative power of his own. Now he wanders with his cult of personality, using the power of Hell to fight for those who fall outside of Heaven's gaze -- and if he can empower them to rise up against their own oppressors, so much the better.
• Lecht, an Exigent played by Zach (they/them) -- A death-priest displaced from their own time, Lecht nearly died centuries ago defending their temple from an attack during the days of the Great Contagion. They didn't fall at the hands of invading raksha, but against those condemning their goddess, Vesmara the Bringer of Eternal Rest, for making the hard choice to spare her congregation of the Contagion's suffering in the most drastic way imaginable. Vesmara put Lecht in a sarcophagus infused with the power of the Exigence, giving up her own existence to save her worthiest follower. After slumbering for most of an Age, Lecht has awoken into a very different Creation with the power -- and the responsibility -- to decide where the line between life and death is drawn.

Anyhow, thank you for indulging me as I introduce you to a fresh batch of characters about to experience a fresh run of stories. If you've read and enjoyed any of my group's Exalted adventures in the past, I hope you stick around for this -- or, if you're just now coming in, feel free to check my index of actual play posts if you want to look back at what my group's done with Exalted so far.

Take care, and enjoy!

Quick and dirty update

Hey there, folks, sorry it's been quiet here. I hope everyone had a safe holiday season and that things have settled down where you're all at.

First off, since Tales of the Moonlight Maiden has wrapped up its massive 'season' arc, my Exalted group and I have been working on starting a fresh story with fresh characters using the Exalted: Essence rules. The plan is to eventually circle back around and revisit the Moonlight Maiden crew, converting them over to ExEss in the process, and if at all possible incorporating the two groups of characters together (and I already even have a seed of a way I might do that). But we figured it'd be better to get the hang of the system as it's intended to be played from the ground up, before trying to convert over characters with almost a hundred sessions' worth of XP (and over-generous bonus XP) on them. Also, having a change of scenery and a change of character perspective for a bit certainly doesn't hurt either.

Anyhow, I'll have more info on that soon!

On other things blog-related, the final PDF of Trinity Continuum: Anima is up, and I plan to do a character build post for that now that it's out. I'd have done it sooner, but, um... *glances further up the page* ...I've been distracted. After that, I've been kicking around an idea for doing a character build for Cyberpunk RED as I got the PDF super-cheap in a sale a while back and it's a game I haven't actually played, so the novelty of building a character for a system I haven't been neck-deep in is appealing. 

Though maybe I'll do something else between Anima and Cyberpunk, so I'm not doing the same genre back to back. Maybe I'll do an Exalted 3e core system version of the ExEss Dragon-blood I did for comparison's sake, or maybe I'll even just write-up a Solar or Lunar for the system. I've also had an idea for a Pathfinder character I could do a post on, but I've only got the base 2e books and I feel weird using those when the Remaster books are out, so I'd rather wait until the official online rules reference updates so it all squares up.

(I'm holding off on getting the Remaster books because I haven't played or run anything Pathfinder/Starfinder-related since before Covid. I haven't even actually used the base 2e books for anything other than occasionally flipping through. As much as I want to support Paizo and some of the work they've been doing as of late, my bookshelves just have enough dead weight on them as it is.)

Nothing new to report on the writing front (but I want to address it while I'm here). It's mostly just revising some old material that I hope to do something with, but it's taken a while for a handful of reasons I won't get into here. And then there's some idle poking at one or two ideas that might not see the light of day, because that's just how my brain works. Shrug emoji.

Anyhow, if anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, questions, recommendations, inarticulate rants from someone whose hobby is yelling at strangers on the internet because I tripped a weird Google alert, spambot ads for questionable dating sites, platitudes about how I'm too hard on myself, so on and so forth, reach out in the comments or any of the various places you can find me on social media.