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.
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.
First, for further context -- Terra Surge takes place in a fantasy realm called Synestia, a once-barren plane of desolation that intersected with the Garden of Earth, a plane of life and creativity. Both planes have corrupted and healed and changed each other and brought life to a world that was never meant to sustain it -- not just living things but gods, magic, and so forth. The world has multiple playable peoples and factions, each with their own mysteries and quests and lore to investigate and discover. The Narrators, powerful AI who craft the Terra Surge game experience, cater to different players' needs and play styles to give them as much freedom as they can in defining their own individual narratives.
This isn't intended to be a review of the game, so I'm not going to explain all of the peoples, classes, etc. that can be played, but just know that it's a surprisingly-rich setting for a game-within-a-game. I dunno if it's something I'd necessarily want to play in or run (such would depend on a lot of factors), but there's literally nothing stopping someone from just running a Terra Surge campaign as its own thing, using the systems in TC: Anima and ignoring the rest. Player characters' anima have their own sheets and their own systems, and barring a couple of rare exceptions, nothing on the 'primary' character's sheet affects the MMO character.
Before we get into it, I'm thinking that Erin has two Terra Surge animas at the moment. She's got her main, that she plays with friends and colleagues, but she also has a secondary character she plays with some of the kids from the shelter for homeless teens where she works.
So we'll start with her main. The process isn't outlined exactly like it is for a regular character, but I'm just going to go by the list of steps at the beginning of the Anima Creation chapter on page 157.
Step One
Like the main Trinity Continuum line, Terra Surge uses the Paths system, and we start there. I pick a Culture Path, a Class Path, and a Guild Path. Culture and Class Paths add bonuses to Approaches (which are basically Attributes), Skills, gear, etc. I'll explain stuff as best I can as I go. The Paths are partially an abstraction in this case, if I understand correctly -- for example, each Class has three Paths available to it, but if I understand correctly those are meant to represent common builds rather than a box explicitly ticked at in-setting character creation (though for all I know, Terra Surge could have some in-game character builder you can use). BTW, if you're more familiar with Anima than I am and I'm getting this wrong, feel free to let me know.
So first, we choose a Culture. Erin's main is going to be one of the Veer, a jungle-dwelling bird-like people. They look mostly-human, but with feathers instead of hair and faintly avian features -- they're not anthro birds or anything. One of the setting's Vibrants (gods) had a habit of temporarily turning animals into a humanlike form to more-easily talk to them, and one day got distracted and forgot to turn a bunch of birds back and so they've made the best of it. They tend to be very scholarly with a very politically-active society, but I'm thinking Erin's character is going to be one who eschews the intrigue in favor of discovery.
Her anima is going to be Naddol, a Veer woman with orange and black feathers that look kinda spiky. Being Veer starts her off with four points of Skills: Arcana 1, Magic Attack 2, and Persuasion 1. (Skills work like they do in regular Trinity, except there's a much shorter list.) She also gets the Featherlight Aspect, which makes her immune to fall damage, boosts her jumping ability, and otherwise gives her benefits when being lighter than an average person would be an advantage.
Now we pick Naddol's Class Path. Class Paths define a character's starting Approaches -- Force, Finesse, and Resistance, like regular Trinity characters, except in this case the Approaches replace Attributes altogether. As I know I've mentioned in other write-ups, the rule systems for Trinity Continuum and Exalted Essence are close cousins. So if you're familiar with ExEss, a few of these specific systems are going to seem familiar.
Naddol's going to be one of the Boundless, explorers driven by the thrill of adventure and discovery. The Boundless are one of the Planar classes, meaning that their soul is tied to one of the various major planes -- in this case, the Plane of Motion and Elegance (also known as the Gray Plane, which is why Boundless are sometimes called 'Grapes' by the players). In more common fantasy game terminology, Boundless tend to be 'rogues.'
There are three major builds/Paths for Boundless, and I think Naddol's going to be a Boundless Skirmisher, a scout and front-line fighter who tends to move all over the battlefield. This gives her starting Approaches of Force 2, Finesse 3, and Resilience 1. It also gives her Skills and Enhancements (which boost Skill rolls in certain circumstances): Athletics 2 (Movement +1), Physical Attack 2 (Ranged +1), and Stealth 2. It also gives her a starting HP of 5, as well as some equipment: a Common weapon with Enhanced 1 and Extended Range (which I don't think I have to define right now, so I'll just make a note of that), and a Healing Potion. She also gets another Aspect, Stealthy Strike, which lets her strike stealthily.
Next is her Guild Path. Presumably this is something I'd be working out with other players because we might all be part of the same guild. But guilds work a little like Society Paths in the 'main' game, where people in your guild are folks you can talk to for help or information in- and potentially out-of-game (though with a risk of consequences for that last one). And you get some bonuses doing stuff with them the MMO. There are different guild templates, and each one offers some sort of assistance you can leverage.
It seems pretty obvious to me that Naddol's part of an Exploration Guild, which I'm gonna make up on the fly here -- it's called the Epoch Foundation, and it's blatantly a bunch of Æon Covenant employees, mostly lower-level (as far as they know), who want to explore and go on adventures in the spirit of the Æon Society's pulp-era roots. (And yes, Erin's co-worker Jan is also in this guild, though I'm not gonna go so far as to delve into Jan's character here.) Being part of an Exploration guild means that Naddol can leverage help from guildmates to get access to parts of the world she'd have trouble getting to for some reason or another. Hypothetically Erin could also leverage that connection for out-of-game help at a potential cost, but given it's a guild for her co-workers with whom she's already connected via Paths, I have trouble imagining that coming up at all.
Step Two
Now I add up all of the dots I've got from Paths here.
So right now, Naddol's got:
Force 2, Finesse 3, Resilience 1
Arcane 1, Athletics 2 (Movement +1), Magic Attack 2, Persuasion 1, Physical Attack 2 (Ranged +1), Stealth 2
(It's worth noting that while this isn't the case with Naddol, if the Culture and Class Paths had both added dots to the same Skills, it all would have stacked.)
Step Three
Okay, I was right, I do save defining the gear for later. Though I think all I really do is come up with a description for Naddol's starting weapon. I'm supposed to choose whether it's a melee weapon or ranged, but the Extended Range tag only applies to ranged weapons, so that seems to decide that. I'm thinking it's a bow crafted from a rare and exotic wood from a distant corner of Synestia -- Naddol doesn't know exactly where it's from, only that her uncle brought it back from one of his own adventures. He claims not to be sure he remembers where he got it, but she suspects he wants her to find out for herself some day. Naddol also starts with a Healing Potion, which I don't think needs much in the way of further definition.
Steps Four and Five
Step 4 is just 'add levels,' and Step 5 is 'find out what the level bonuses are and write it all up,' so I'm combining those here.
Naddol starts at level 1, and TC: Anima characters get 15 levels to apply to their Terra Surge animas. They can divide these up among multiple anima however they want, within reason (depending on whether you're a free or paid Terra Surge you have an alt cap, for instance). So hypothetically, Naddol could be at level 16 and I'd apply the bonuses and be done with it. But as I said before, Erin's got an alt she plays with kids from the shelter. So I'm gonna put 10 levels on Naddol and save the rest. There's a pattern of advancements you get as you level, and a convenient chart that shows you cumulatively what you should have. I'm obviously not going to reproduce it here, but being level 11 gives Naddol three Skill dots, 3 Enhancements, 3 Aspects, a dot of an Approach, +2 Health, and a roll on the Item Drop chart. Fun!
So first, Skills. The Skill list is really short. I think I'm going to put two dots into the Block Skill for Naddol, and another dot into Athletics. She also gets three Enhancements, and so I'm gonna bump up the Ranged enhancement for Physical Attack, add a +1 Hiding Enhancement to Stealth, and put a +1 Magic Defense Enhancement on Block.
Now, three dots of Aspects. These can boost existing Aspects or have new ones. I'm going to put two dots into Break Equilibrium, which lets her inflict the Confused Condition on an enemy (though it's got a bit of a cooldown), and outside of combat reduce certain penalties based on her Stealth rating. The second dot increases the range to Long, which conveniently matches the range of Naddol's bow. And the third's going to go into Shadow Step, which is going to increase her movement, reduce certain movement-based penalties, etc. She also gets a dot of an Approach, which I'm going to put into Resilience.
And now we get a roll on the Item Drop chart. Now, obviously, if I were ever in a situation where I was gonna play in a game and someone said "Hey, how about you play Erin," I'd offer to reroll this since it's something I'm doing on my own without a group. I mean, as it is you're all going to have to take it on faith that I roll this fairly and stuck with it. I could bust out my dice, but for maximum fairness I'm gonna roll some d10s on random.org.
Okay, so according to the book, I skip the Rarity chart and roll for a Common item (a reward for reaching level 10). There isn't a system for determining what type of item it is, so I'm just gonna randomly roll to decide whether it's an armor (1-5) or a magical focus (6-10) since Naddol's already got a weapon. Rolled a 1, so that means it's a piece of Common armor. Now I roll a number of times equal to the available tags on the armor, based on its rarity (two, for Common), and pick a tag from each result, and if I get something that doubles up or is too high-rarity for the gear, I reroll or take Enhanced instead. (I think that's how it works, the wording in the book is a little ambiguous)
...
Okay, so I've done some fiddling, and rewritten this bit a few times as I've done some rolls, and I've come to realize a few things: First, there are no Common-grade tags available for armor aside from Enhanced, unless you can take an Aspect as a Common effect. However -- and this is the second thing -- there's literally no guideline for taking an Aspect even though it appears as an option on the Loot Drop tables and on a couple sample items. Third, the Enhanced tag says it increases the rarity of the item if purchased multiple times, but doing a bit of poking around finds plenty of examples of Common equipment in starting gear that just have 'Enhanced (2).' I don't mind having a 'number bonuses and nothing else' item, but I shouldn't have to decipher book to figure out that's what I've got. (I suspect the line about the Enhanced tag and rarity is a versioning error.)
I could go back and change the item to something that'd be more interesting and reroll, but I'm just gonna stick with it as-is. Again, not trying to get into a full-on review of the book and I don't want to seem overly-critical, as for the most part it is very good. But there are a few bits where I can't help but wonder how it slipped past the feedback/errata stage -- the issues with the equipment tags and armor might be minor enough I can see someone not noticing on a casual read, but there's stuff in other places that I honestly wonder how anyone missed it.
Anyhow, moving on... oh, actually, checking the book, that's it. Character finished, just gotta copy everything onto the mini-sheet. Great!
Now let's do it again, for Erin's alt.
Not gonna go through the steps as formally this time, I don't think. Just gonna talk through it.
For Culture Path, Erin's alt is going to be one of the Sentients, who are spirits possessing artificial bodies -- often dolls, mannequins, scarecrows, but also suits of armor and sometimes clothing. They're animated by life storms, and they're still trying to figure out where they really come from and what they're for -- but these days they're as focused on the journey as the destination in that quest. I'm imagining Erin's Sentient anima as being a humanoid bundle of colorful robes with runes stitched into them named 'Sigil.' (also, the character's a they/them)
The Sentient Path gives Sigil a dot of Arcana, a dot of Crafting, and two dots of Stealth. It also gives them the Uninhabit and Unliving Flesh Aspects, which respectively give them the ability to temporarily become incorporeal, and establish that they're a construct with certain resistances (like resistance to poison and disease).
Next is the Class Path. Sigil is going to be one of the Muses, another Planar class tied to the Garden of Earth, the Plane of Life and Inspiration (also known as the Green Plane). In common fantasy game parlance, they're the clerics, druids, and shamans of the setting as they call on the Vibrants themselves for their power. Sigil's going to be a Muse Intercessor, which are as much diplomat as healer -- a deliberate choice given that Erin's playing this character to be a chaperone or den-parent to a bunch of queer teens going through a rough time in their lives.
Being a Muse Intercessor means that Sigil starts with Force 1, Finesse 3, and Resilience 2 as Approaches, and adds Arcana 2 (Healing +1), Lore 1, Magic Attack 1, and Persuasion 2 (Convincing +1) to their Skills. (While the player might know things about Synestia and Terra Surge, the Lore Skill represents knowledge that the anima could conceivably have that the player might not, factoring into solving puzzles and such.) Sigil also starts with 4 HP, a Common weapon with Enhanced 2, and a Healing Potion, as well as the Healing Song Aspect (which, spoiler alert, allows them to heal others). I'm gonna say it's a melee weapon and describe it as a staff carved with the same runes that are stitched into Sigil's fabric-body, which are in a language they know is magical but have never been able to translate.
Finally is the Guild Path. Sigil's going to be in a Special Interest Guild called "Neptune's Promise," for teens from the homeless shelter where Erin works (those currently living there, those who've recently moved out, and on rare occasions carefully-vetted family and friends they've connected with), so she can keep an eye on them. It's not something official Erin does as part of her job (and she certainly doesn't play during work hours, aside from maybe hopping on to send a message), but I imagine this being on par with someone volunteering to handle their office's social media account on the side. Special Interest Guilds, unlike other Guild Paths, can only be called on for real-world help -- I doubt it'd come up in an actual TC: Anima chronicle, given who the other people in the guild are, but I'm not terribly worried about that.
Not that it necessarily matters mechanically, but I can't help but imagine that Erin's been through a number of characters like Sigil, leveling them up while playing with the kids. I figure all of these 'shelter guild alt' characters are Sentients (because they've got a lot of themes likely to resonate with the residents) with support class builds. Sometimes, when someone is able to get to a good place in their life and move on, she transfers the character to their account as a gift and creates a new one so she's more likely to be playing at the same level (literal and metaphorical) as the kids who come and go at the shelter.
Okay, and now we add levels. New characters start at level 1 and I've got 5 levels left from my initial allotment, so they're all going into Sigil to make them level 6. Again, if I wanted to, I could give Erin two alts and divide those levels up between them so she's got a level 4 and a level 3 character, or whatever. But one main and one alt feels like plenty.
Thanks to the helpful cumulative bonus chart, that means they start with two more Skill dots, two more Enhancements, one more Aspect dot, and an extra HP. I'm gonna put the Skill dots into Arcana and Physical Attack, so they're not completely useless with the staff. And the Enhancements are going to be a +1 to Healing for Arcana, and a +1 to Melee for Physical Attack. There's a good reason for the extra attack boosts, and that's because I'm going to put the Aspect dot into Bolstered Spirit, which lets them spend extra successes on a Physical Attack roll to revive someone who's near-death or, outside of combat, protect someone from consequences (like a trap going off) that might kill or harm their anima.
And that's it. It's all done but copying them onto sheets and posting them, so I'm gonna do that. For simplicity's sake I'm gonna put both sheets here, rather than put Naddol's in between the character write-ups.
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