The Trinity Continuum from Onyx Path Publishing is a series of action-adventure role playing games using the Storypath System. The Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is set in the immediate future with a focus on action-adventure stories featuring hyper-competent heroes. Television shows like Charlie’s Angels, The A-Team, Leverage, and Arrow serve as inspiration for the game’s basic fare: a group of incredibly skilled and lucky people, known in the game system as Talents, fighting corruption, helping the helpless, and acting as heroes in a weird world full of bizarre happenings with a science-fiction flavor. 

Different Settings For Different Genres

Beyond the core rulebook, the Trinity Continuum expands into several settings, each taking place at a different point in time and focusing on a different genre of storytelling. These settings require the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and expand on the rules by integrating new character types or story elements. Looking to the future, Trinity Continuum: Aberrant is a superhero game set in the year 2028 in which the players assume the roles of novas and balance godlike power, social media celebrity, and the weight of the world’s expectations. Moving forward to the year 2084, Trinity Continuum: Anima explores a cyberpunk dystopia as the fascist FSA works to rebuild after global catastrophe with an experimental city steeped in Augmented Reality called Cascade.

Heroes in Anima, like in Trinity Continuum Core, are Talents. These Talents fight oppressive governments in the flesh and blow off steam in the virtual world of Terra Surge, where they can adventure in the world’s most immersive MMORPG!Beyond that is Trinity Continuum: Æon which takes humanity to the stars! Set in the year 2123, the heroes of Æon are psions. Granted psychic powers through biotechnological devices called Prometheus Chambers, these psions stand as humanity’s defenders against threats of Aberrants and aliens. Psions and the advent of biotechnology allow humankind to explore and colonize deep space in this far future setting!

The Trinity Continuum also offers settings in the past, exploring other genres through a science fiction lens. Trinity Continuum: Adventure! turns back the clock to 1934 with an emphasis on pulp action and punching Nazis! In this era, players have three character types to choose from. Daredevils are similar to Talents, though their deeds are even more impressive in this era. Mesmerists use psychic powers and tricks of the mind to defeat dastardly foes, and Stalwarts channel powers beyond those of mortal men and women, tossing their bodies of bronze between the oppressed and their oppressor, leaping tall buildings, and wielding incomprehensible power for justice! Before that, in 1895, Trinity Continuum: Aether delves into the weird fiction of the Victorian Era with Martian invasions and monstrous enemies. Characters in this timeframe gain power from a mysterious substance known as Aether. By manipulating this substance they can perform amazing feats and even travel through time and space! Players can be Squires who are Talents with additional Aether-spinning abilities, Gogs, who use technology to manipulate Aether, or monstrous Magogs who internalize Aether, altering their bodies to gain great power, but at great cost!

Apart from these eras, the forthcoming Trinity Continuum: Aegis will allow players to visit Greece’s Iron Age, and Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars will provide adventures in an alternate 1890s when the nations of earth fight wars in massive steam-powered mechs! Both of these games are yet to come, with Aegis available for pre-order on Backerkit and Steam Wars entering crowdfunding at the time of publication! 

Each of these settings offers a unique and fun spin on the basic premise of competent heroes doing amazing things, fighting for justice, and helping make the world a better place. It is a setting that centers hope, sacrifice, and unity. There are frequently Trinity Continuum Games running on Startplaying, often being run by writers who have worked on the books, granting an expert experience to newcomers and veteran players alike. Onyx Path Publishing runs a game night on the final weekend of every month as well, providing a perfect opportunity to try out the Trinity Continuum!

How To Play Trinity Continuum

As mentioned above, the Trinity Continuum runs on the Storypath System. This is a straightforward d10 dice pool system that is fast at the table, easy to learn, and fun to play. The basics of the system are centered around dice pools generated by a character’s Skill plus Attribute rating. Roll a number of d10s equal to the appropriate Skill + Attribute looking for results of 8, 9, and 10. 10s can be re-rolled to generate extra successes. The number of total successes generated is compared to the roll’s Difficulty. If the appropriate number of successes are attained, the roll is successful. Equipment and circumstances in a character’s favor can add enhancement to a roll while negative circumstances can add complications, which are factors that can cause a character to succeed at a cost if unresolved. An example I often use is a pair of characters fighting on a rain-slick rooftop. Hitting your enemy may be Difficulty 2 thanks to the enemy’s Defense. However, because of the rain, you may have a complication of 2.

If you do not resolve that complication by spending sufficient successes after reaching the Difficulty, you might hit your enemy, but you also slip and fall prone – or off the roof – in the process. Surplus successes beyond those needed to beat the Difficulty and resolve complications are used to purchase Stunts which provide additional beneficial effects to your roll. While powers, permutations, and subsystems expand on this basic system, the core engine of Storypath is fairly simple.

I welcome you to come learn more about the Trinity Continuum. Hop into a one-shot, request a booking with a Storyguide who is running the game, or even set up your own game to learn how to play by running during one of Onyx Path’s game nights! Most of the available settings have a Jumpstart you can pick up with ready-made characters, a pre-written scenario, and all the rules you need to run it! I hope to see you out in the Continuum!

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Travis Legge is a writer, developer, and streamer working with Onyx Path Publishing, Aegis Studios, and more.