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).
Step One: Concept
First off, if you've read my other Trinity Continuum character posts, you'll know that I've been doing a gimmick of writing up characters from the Taylor family allied with some iteration of the Æon Society, and I plan to continue that tradition here. (If you'd like to see something else, I'm always open for suggestions.)
Okay, so I've got a pretty firm concept in mind -- a young woman in her early 20's living in Cascade, whose family has a history of working for/with the Æon Covenant (as the Society currently calls itself). She's not one of their investigators or operatives herself, but instead works at a Project Neptune shelter for homeless LGBTQ+ teens. Erin practically grew up in an Æon chapter-house for safety reasons during the last few years of the Aberrant War, and her family was certainly supportive enough she didn't need a shelter like this, but that also means she grew up with the sort of values and awareness of the world that she can't sit idly by when she's got the chance to pay it forward.
Fleshing this out a little: She wanted to work for Æon and do some good in the post-War, post-Crash world, but also wanted to start in on the ground floor. So her uncle, working for Project Neptune in Cascade, offered her a spot working there, where people are building new lives and Æon could use an extra pair of hands to keep the weight of the FSA off their backs.
Officially she's a 'counselor,' but not in any sort of formal, clinical way. But she does what she can for the kids, handles outreach, so on and so forth. She's still at that age range where she's an 'adult' in their eyes, but still young enough they can talk to her about stuff and expect to be taken seriously. Which also means she's in a position to notice anything strange happening to them, or overhearing if something's happening to their friends. I'm gonna summarize this character concept as "Inquisitive youth counselor."
I'm gonna call her Erin, still using the Taylor name. Also, during this step, I'm supposed to talk a bit about her Terra Surge avatar (called an 'anima'), but I'm going to save that for what's likely going to be a separate blog post.
Step Two: Aspirations
Now I figure out some goals for her. Two short-term Aspirations and one long-term Aspiration. As I have in the past, since I'm not writing her up for a specific game or with a particular group, I'm just doing with her unofficial to-do list as of whatever inciting incident would start the chronicle.
First short-term Aspiration is going to be "Check in on Jesse at home." Now, I just pulled the name 'Jesse' out of thin air and don't have any idea of whom they are. But for the sake of inventing an errand for Erin, I'm thinking that one of the shelter kids recently got settled into some long-term accommodations (either getting to go home, or staying with someone else), and she's planning to go check on them and make sure they're okay -- this isn't an official thing for the shelter, but just something she feels like she has to do. Her other short-term Aspiration will be "Take an outreach trip through Point Taylor." Point Taylor is the run-down, bad part of Cascade that suffered from an earthquake years ago and has never fully recovered. Lots of non-citizens, oppressed and abused by the FSA, live there and they need the most help -- and Erin takes it upon herself to occasionally go out there and look for people who might need nudged to any of the shelters that the Æon Covenant runs.
Her long-term Aspiration is... hm... I don't necessarily want her to be too keyed into the mystery from the start, like she's about to stumble over it. Oh, I know -- maybe she's pursuing some sort of certification for her job, maybe something she started doing before she moved to Cascade and has kept up long-distance, or something that has been difficult to complete with her shelter work schedule. If I were playing her, I might refine it later, but for now, let's call it "Finish my degree."
Step Three: Paths
And now, I pick some Paths. First is the Origin Path, which is gonna be... hm... admittedly, this may be like putting powdered sugar on a glazed donut, but Erin's Origin Path is going to be Æon Trinity Legacy, from Mission Statements -- it's a TC: Æon supplement, but it's meant to represent someone who grew up within the influence of the Society, wants to give back, but also might have the pressure to succeed on their head as they've got a family legacy there. On the sheet I might rename this to 'Æon Society Legacy' or something like that just so it's a better fit, but it's the concept that matters. (If the Storyguide didn't want me using a Path from an Æon book for some reason, I'd switch her over to 'Life of Privilege' from the core, which isn't as good of a fit but close enough.)
So now she gets three dots of Skills and two dots of Edges. All of the Skills listed fit her, so I'm just gonna put a dot each in Culture, Empathy, and Humanities. And now her Edge dots are going into Always Prepared, and... y'know, let's go something a little weird with this. The other dot's going into Covert. The humanitarian work she does is the sort that gets the side-eye from fascists, so between probably a combination of knowing how to cover her own tracks and maybe a little bit of protection from the Covenant, she's a little harder to track than the average person.
And now, connections. Her community connection is going to her Project Neptune colleagues, and her contact is going to be her uncle David, who works in a mid to high-level position within the local branch of Neptune and helped get her set up in Cascade when she moved out here a few years ago. He's going to have the 'Well-connected' tag.
Next is Role Path. And... I'm actually having trouble finding a suitable one for what I've got in mind, but there are a couple that are close... Y'know what, today's the day. I keep saying I'm gonna make a new Path as part of these, I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is. We're doing it live.
(By the way, I'll include a full book-style write-up of the Path at the end of the post.)
It's not as exciting a name as 'Detective' or 'The Face,' but I'm gonna call this Role Path 'Social Worker'. Someone with a flair for untangling puzzles, bureaucracy, and people, but not with the implied manipulative focus of The Face (from New Lives, and also appearing in the upcoming Trinity Continuum Player's Guide) and more about reading people than crime scenes like the Detective.
So first, I pick four Skills. Empathy and Integrity both seem vital, so I'm starting there. I'm thinking also Enigmas for unraveling complex situations. And also... hm, I can see a couple of different Skills that might handle the 'know how to deal with bureaucracy' angle, and I think to better differentiate Social Worker from the Detective or Face paths, I'm gonna go with Humanities as the 'book learning' Skill.
Next, I pick 15 dots of Edges. These will be Edges that someone can take when the Path gains dots (including character creation), and get a cost break with Experience later. So in no particular order, as these come to me... I'm not a big fan of the Bond system as presented in the books, so I'd have no use for it, but it feels like cheating to only pick Edges this character could ever take, so first is gonna be Big Hearted (1 dot). Next is Iron Will (3 dots), Skilled Liar (2 dots), Speed Reading (1 dot), Fame -- but just the first dot, to represent getting a little bit of reputation (1 dot, obviously), Patron (3 dots). Okay, that's 11 dots down, now... yeah, let's go with something a little off the beaten path, no pun intended -- Safe House, since you're probably making the connections that lead to crash space (1 dot), Danger Sense (1 dot), and the first two dots of Photographic Memory (2 dots).
I knew that'd be pretty easy, and even I was pleasantly surprised -- the above two paragraphs really are 90% stream-of-consciousness cleaned up into semi-coherent sentences. So now to apply this to Erin. Her three Skill dots are going into Empathy, Enigmas, and Integrity. Edge dots are going into Safe House and Danger Sense.
Now for connections. Normally a Path comes with a bunch of sample connections, and I'll certainly throw together a list, but for now let's just pick one -- not to get too poetic or downtrodden, but I'm thinking that Erin's community connection is going to be 'Cascade's downtrodden' -- mostly the people who've slipped through the cracks (or have been shoved there), like non-citizens and the disenfranchised, probably mostly in and around Point Taylor.
And now I need a contact, and I'm thinking someone from a local cartel called "The Consortium," who do a lot of the 'actual neighborhood protector' schtick to try and keep the crime manageable and keep bloodshed to a minimum. The TC: Anima book even says that there are people in the Consortium actively working with the Æon Covenant to keep Point Taylor safe for everyone, so why couldn't Erin be one of those? So, taking a spin on some random name generators, her Consortium contact is going to be Jasmine Morand, an office worker at one of the shipping companies the Consortium uses as a front for its smuggling activities. She's gonna have the 'Informant' tag.
So now there's the Society Path, which -- in case you missed it -- is going to be the Æon Covenant. So she's putting Skill dots into Enigmas, Humanities, and Integrity. There's a lot of appealing Edges for the Path, but I'm gonna spend her two Edge dots on Far-Reaching Influence. This lets her trade on the Covenant's reputation and gives her bonuses for certain situations where it would be helpful to say "I'm from Æon, and I'm here to help."
Her community connection is going to be the staffers in Ananke Division, who do support and admin for the Neptune and Triton divisions of Æon. Erin's still pretty street-level, but she's made enough inroads that she doesn't necessarily have to go through her superiors for every little thing (and some of those staffers are probably in her Terra Surge guild). Her contact is gonna be Jan Costello (they/them), someone who works in Ananke tech support. Also, I'm thinking Erin's got a bit of a crush on them but nothing's come of it because both of their schedules are rather busy, and a lot of their non-work social interaction comes when they're unwinding in Terra Surge. In case it needs to be said, Jan's gonna have the 'Tech Geek' contact tag. (I came up with all this on the fly, it's really cute in my head, and now I'm tempted to revise one of Erin's Aspirations to something like 'Ask Jan out on an actual date.' But I think I'll just have that as a backup if she accomplishes one of her other Aspirations, or for adjustments if I ever got to play this character, etc.)
I think that covers us for Paths, so...
Step Four: Skills, Skill Tricks, and Specialties
Okay, unless you're reading this as your first TC character build, you know what's coming. Six more dots of Skills. I'm going to put two into Empathy, one into Enigmas, one into Technology, and two into Persuasion.
That gives me a final Skill spread of Culture 1, Empathy 4, Enigmas 3, Humanities 2, Integrity 2, Persuasion 2, and Technology 1. This is pretty focused, and if she winds up in a real world fight her combat style is going to be "Not in the face, not in the face!" but that's okay.
Now we pick a Skill Trick for a Skill at 3 or higher. That's gonna be either Empathy or Enigmas, and looking at the list available... let's go with Cold Reader, from Empathy. It lets me ask the Storyguide for a little personal detail about someone that she could pick up on, like where they're from, the name of a relative, a food they like, etc.
And now I pick Specialties for any Skills at 3 or higher. For Empathy, that's going to be Teenagers -- she's good at reading them, good at connecting with them. For Enigmas, her Specialty is going to be... hm. We'll call it The Missing Piece. I'm thinking it would apply to figuring out that one little detail that everyone's overlooked, or should be there but hasn't been spotted yet -- like intuiting a familial connection nobody's noticed, or realizing that something should have been at the crime scene but wasn't. I have no clue when that'd come up, but half the fun of playing games like these is when it does wind up saving the day.
And are we good on Skills? Yup. Good on Skills. Next is...
Step Five: Attributes
Alright, we should know the drill by now. First, we rank the Arenas, and Erin's will be Social, Mental, and Physical in that order. Distributing dots will bring us to Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 3, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Resolve 3, Might 1, Dexterity 1, and Stamina 3.
Now I choose a favored Approach. I feel like Erin's the type to be patient and enduring, waiting for her moment rather than trying to overpower or outmaneuver the world. So we'll go with Resilience. That'll be +1 to each of those Attributes.
Right now, her Attribute layout is Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 4, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Resolve 4, Might 1, Dexterity 1, and Stamina 4.
Step Six: Apply Template
Okay, now I need to pick a Moment of Inspiration for Erin. I'm thinking maybe this came at the shelter, perhaps while standing up to an abusive parent who came looking for their kid. I don't think she'd have stared them down until they backed off, but stonewalled them until security or someone similar could arrive and back her up. That feels like Social Challenge to me, which gives her another dot of any Social Attribute. My first instinct is to put that dot in Composure, though I could also see Presence if she pushed back against the intruder. But I think Composure's a slightly-better fit.
Now I distribute points in her Inspiration facets. I think I'm gonna lean into a theme I've been doing with this character, and go with Reflective 3, which will give her Inspiration 3 (1 to start, +1 for the first dot of Reflective, +1 for the third dot of Reflective).
And now we move on to Gifts. I pick four -- one from each of her Paths, and then a fourth from any list. Let's do the Path ones in order. Her Origin Path doesn't have Gift lists included -- outside the core book, almost none of them do, which is a little annoying. It's easy enough to pick something appropriate, but we shouldn't have to. I'm torn between picking lists more like the established Origin Paths or something more in line with what Æon offers as a Society Path. Eh, I'll do the latter, and say that the Æon Society Legacy Path offers the Culture, Empathy, and Humanities Gift lists. Let's go with I Know That Feel, from Empathy -- it lets the Talent change the Atmosphere of a scenario, letting them calm down (or rev up) a situation.
Next is Role Path, and since I came up with a custom Path I certainly get to pick the Gift lists here. So in line with other Role Paths, I'll pick an Attribute -- we'll say Resolve -- and two Skills, like Empathy and Humanities. And looking at the Resolve list, I'm gonna take The Late, Late Shift, which lets Erin ignore points of Complication from fatigue, lack of sleep, or a drug-induced haze. All-nighters are her default mode.
And now we come to the Society Path, which already has Gift lists waiting for me. The Æon Covenant offers the Enigmas, Integrity, and Survival Gift lists. And she's gonna get Don't Lie To Me, off the Integrity list. It does what it sounds like -- makes it harder for someone to lie to her without being caught.
And now the 'whichever list I want' Gift, and let's go with Easily Dismissed, off the Luck list. It basically means she gets ignored for the first round of combat until/unless she attacks someone. She just naturally comes across as the least-threatening person in the room. (Which is likely, quite frankly.)
And I believe that brings us to...
Step Seven: Finishing Touches
Yup, here we are. First, Erin gets an extra Attribute dot. Let's put that into... oh, Cunning, beef her up a little bit there. That plus her moment of Inspiration earlier gives her a final Attribute layout of Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 5, Intellect 2, Cunning 3, Resolve 4, Might 1, Dexterity 1, and Stamina 4.
Now, I do four more dots of Edges. First, I wanna give her a dot of Wealth -- between her family connections and having a job, even if it's charity work, means she's got a few bucks to toss around. And normally, she gets a Glass implant for free along with her free Second-Degree Citizenship, but I think want to spend two Edge dots to get the two-dot version of Glass Installation to jailbreak her implant so she doesn't have to worry about being tracked. She has to keep on top of that every time there's a big update, but it's worth it. And her last Edge dot is going to Universal Translator, a Glass app that lets her understand any language that's spoken, written, or typed.
So including free Edges that are just a part of character creation, or derived from other Edges, her final Edge list is: Always Prepared (1), Covert 1, Danger Sense (1), Far-Reaching Influence (2), Glass Installation (2), Lightning Calculator (free with Glass Installation), Photographic Memory 1 (free with Glass Installation), Safe House (1), Second-Degree Citizenship (free at character creation), Universal Translator (1), Wealth 1.
Now I calculate her Health. She starts with three injury levels: Maimed, Injured, and Bruised. She's got Stamina 3, so that gives her an extra Injured. And then there's the standard acknowledgement of how Defense works in the Character Creation section.
And that's it for stats. Now, a quick physical description. I imagine Erin's pretty average height and build, but she wears baggy clothes that make her look scrawnier than she is -- she's big on hoodies and sweatshirts. She's got short blond hair and glasses. And, um, I can't think of anything else immediately worth pointing out.
This post is already really wordy, so I'm creating her Terra Surge characters in a separate post.
In the meantime, here's a full write-up for the Social Worker Role Path, and her character sheet!
Social Worker (Role)
Example Connections: City government workers, lawyers, homeless population, doctors, teachers
Skills: Empathy, Enigmas, Humanities, Integrity
Edges: Big-Hearted, Danger Sense, Fame •, Iron Will, Patron, Photographic Memory •-••, Safe House, Skilled Liar, Speed Reading
Gifts: Attribute (Resolve), Skill (Empathy, Humanities)
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