Remove ads

Sardonyx: Scion and Trinity Continuum

Reader mode
Remove ads
OP and links to the first two spoilers
  • Threadmarks
    • Nervaqus987

    Nervaqus987

    As you may or may not know, Scion is a gameline by White Wolf about playing a modern day child of the gods and punching horrible titanspawned gribbilies in the face and eventually working your way up to full on divinity.

    The Trinity Continuum is a shared universe scattered across three different eras;

    Adventure!(the exclamation mark is necessary): set around the World Wars, featuring people called Daredevils who may or may not have subtle powers to warp probability.

    Aberrant: a Fifteen Minutes in the Future setting featuring Novas, ostensibly superheroes but definitely quantum powered demigods who eventually get to cross off the "demi" part, usually about the time they completely abandon anything resembling a human mindset.

    Aeon: A future setting featuring Psions, people with psychic powers who work to enable mankind to spread to the stars and protect regular humans from insane Aberrants and the occasional alien menace. Mostly Aberrants though.

    Now that the background is out of the way, we can move onto the purpose of this thread.

    Onyx Path outright bought these two lines and are developing the new editions for them. Recently, the new game system being used for both has started to go into open development.

    Link here and here. The blog posts have links to googledocs with the system information. Things are still pretty basic, going over the nuts and bolts of core mechanics and how you get your dicepools, but I personally like what I'm seeing so far.

    This Thread is a place to discuss the gamelines, share homebrew and setting ideas, and so on.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • I don't have time to look it over right now, but you're saying they're moving away from the old Storyteller system?
     
    TheLastOne said:
    I don't have time to look it over right now, but you're saying they're moving away from the old Storyteller system?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Apparently:

    "So rather than try to hack one system that was originally created for horror gaming into three separate tiers of power, Rich asked us to come up with something that scales properly to all three, and was built with an action focus in mind."
     
    TheLastOne said:
    I don't have time to look it over right now, but you're saying they're moving away from the old Storyteller system?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Sort of.

    There's some of Storyteller in the DNA that you can see(Attributes and Abilities, Attributes divided into groups of three covering Physical, Mental, and Social, covering Force, Control, Resistance, etc)

    That said, things are fairly different.

    The Attributes are Might, Finesse, Vitality(Physical), Reason, Cunning, Disciple(Mental), and Presence, Grace, Poise(Social).

    Skills(which is what Abilities were renamed) have these things called Skill Tricks which can give you extra effects and that were lifted from a nWoD book called Mirrors, apparently.

    There's very few to no methods of adding dice directly to your dicepools. I'll just copy and paste the section from the googledoc;

    The Short Version, for Seasoned Roleplayers
    Roll a dice pool of Attribute + Skill. Each die that hits the target number is a success (10s are 2 successes). If you score 1 or more successes add any Enhancement bonus successes. Spend successes equal to the difficulty. You succeed if you have any left over, and fail if you don't. You gain Momentum or a Consolation for failing. If you score 0 successes rolling the dice and one or more of them show a 1, you botch and fail especially badly, but earn more Momentum than for a failure. Consult the rules for variations and adjustments for specific situations.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The main things that seem to modify things are Enhancements and Complications. Enhancements are things that make a task easier, such as a Specialty in what you're doing, good equipment, or favorable circumstances. Complications are things that, in general, make things more difficult or may inflict harm. You can spend Successes to buy off Complications, but you don't need to.

    The example given is returning fire against someone laying down suppressive fire against you. You can spend Successes to time things right or aim carefully or whatever and prevent yourself from getting hurt. If you don't have enough or want to spend your Successes elsewhere, you can still shoot the guy, but risk getting shot yourself.

    Another factor is Tier, which in general seem to set the Target Number(and possibly Doubles) for your particular splat. Mundanes have a Target Number of Eight, but Novas or Demigods may have lower Target Number, meaning their dice count for more(and their powers probably make their successes go further).
     
    Nervaqus987 said:
    There's a blog post from Ian Watson about the Continuum for the Trinity Gameline.

    Link.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Great, now I want to play one of the Earth "heroes" fighting against mysterious Psionic orders, which are on the crusade to annihilate anything impure in the far reaches of future.

    p.s. It seems, that new Core setting will be daredevils(potentionally first unknown novas) in present days.
     
    Last edited:
    Having perused the mechanics a bit I really like the way Enhancements and multiple actions work. Use the lowest skill, if you fail to roll a success you fail overall, then if you roll one success add in all applicable Enhancements and distribute them between actions. It really makes attacking multiple opponents very easy to resolve and it makes me think I should just import that rule straight into Exalted.

    Though why they changed all the stat names around when they already had the same breakdown for New World of Darkness eludes me. I don't really like pointless renaming stuff when they don't have to and the changes aren't very significant.

    Though speaking of changing things; they should rename successes as something else (hits, scores, whatever) because all the talk about "roll successes and subtract difficulty and then split you can succeed and then spend successes on different successful stuff" gets annoying and confusing.
     
    Aaron Peori said:
    Though why they changed all the stat names around when they already had the same breakdown for New World of Darkness eludes me. I don't really like pointless renaming stuff when they don't have to and the changes aren't very significant.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Different names having different connotations?

    Like Manipulation into Grace. I know there were a couple posters on the Onyx Path forums that said they preferred it because they had players treating Manipulation as the "evil" social stat.

    *shrug*

    YMMV, I guess.

    I sorta see the point. If you say, for example, "He's very manipulative" instead of "He's very graceful", it changes your initial impressions.

    Though some of the changes just seem to be for change's sake. Strength into Might for example.
     
    Nervaqus987 said:
    snip
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I think it is attempt to distance themselves from previous system. \\both in mental capacity- this does not to have work like it did before and in marketing capacity-look at these new shiny things.

    Question: Does anyone else find Divis mal annoying? He feels very sueish to me, he is too perfect(most annoing), too correct and too important and it just irks me the wrong way.
     
    Creticus said:
    Didn't he fail at everything that actually mattered to him?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah, kinda. That i what makes him kinda interesting, but books did not really present it that well, there is a lot of whitewashing he seems simultaneously responsible and at the same time, completely misunderstood. It might be we just never did get to the supplements, which showcase, why is he full of it, but while the meta plot suggests he is utterly wrong, he is nearly always correct in Abberant. It is kinda jarring.
     
    Okay, having now read the new teaser, I have come across the first bits of Sardonyx as proposed that I don't like.

    I don't particularly like the way initiative is set up. I had to read it a few times to get what it is saying, which seems to be "The person who wins get's to decide who follows him, who then decides who get's to follow them, etc."

    Focus straight up needs to be chopped.

    Scale is......

    Okay, I get what they're going for and I do appreciate that they say outright that it shoots realism with a cannon. I get that it's basically intended to represent things like "the Hero manages to avoid being hit directly by the combat mech's main gun, but is battered and sent flying by the resulting shockwave."

    I prefer a greater sense of realism in my games. I mean, okay, I know "realism" is sorta the wrong word to use when playing a character who flies off to the moon when he wants a few moments of quiet to think/look at the stars without all that pesky light pollution. More accurately, I like logical results.

    Like this video;


    Superman is vastly more powerful than Batman and is able to brush off everything the later throws at him. Bats doesn't stop him by means of fisticuffs or a clever gadget. He stops him by showing he knows Superman's name and uses it to get them talking and move past the inevitable "Superheroes meet for the first time and fight for reasons" stage.

    That is perfectly logical in light of their respective abilities, which is what I prefer in my games.
     
    Nervaqus987 said:
    snip
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Imo it will ultimately come down to damage and life, which makes making final judgment problematic, but yes it does kinda middle finger Abberant, but if you read dev quotes to detail, it is rather clear Abberant is the one setting, which will not really be in the Trinity continuum, and instead we will get Abberant in name only-something much more similar to generic Superhero game. (Mostly AOEN will always be good guys, we are bringing settings into a line and expressed dev preferences)
     
    Scale is supposed to let heroes not instantly die when you throw a tank at them, which is nice.

    Especially since Psions are now supposed to be super-hardcore: Legionnaires are likely to have the firepower and maneuverability and toughness of attack helicopters.

    It's basically trying to hew to action-movie realism rather than real realism.

    zorb42 said:
    Imo it will ultimately come down to damage and life, which makes making final judgment problematic, but yes it does kinda middle finger Abberant, but if you read dev quotes to detail, it is rather clear Abberant is the one setting, which will not really be in the Trinity continuum, and instead we will get Abberant in name only-something much more similar to generic Superhero game. (Mostly AOEN will always be good guys, we are bringing settings into a line and expressed dev preferences)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Aeon not being pointlessly moustache twirling Hitlerian evil is something most Aberrant fans wanted, me included. I doubt they're going to be never wrong goody two shoes, they're just toning down the Hitler.
     
    Last edited:
    MJ12 Commando said:
    Aeon not being pointlessly moustache twirling Hitlerian evil is something most Aberrant fans wanted, me included. I doubt they're going to be never wrong goody two shoes, they're just toning down the Hitler.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Every dev Quote on the subject I can find says, that they are now good guys across all settings and there is nothing sinister about Aeon organization and all evil is work of subversive elements.
     
    zorb42 said:
    Every dev Quote on the subject I can find says, that they are now good guys across all settings and there is nothing sinister about Aeon organization and all evil is work of subversive elements.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    ...which is exactly what he said. They're good people working with the best intentions but tend to fuck up like all human beings do. We don't need them to be engaging in outright genocide for them to be morally grey.
     
    MJ12 Commando said:
    Especially since Psions are now supposed to be super-hardcore: Legionnaires are likely to have the firepower and maneuverability and toughness of attack helicopters.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    More so.

    From the "What we know" for Trinity;

    • My specific instructions on Psychokinetics are that a maxed out PK should be equal in power and capabilities to a hybrid fighter (a jet fighter with orbital capability). (http://bit.ly/VMXK0M)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
     
    I really hope that the new Scion will be good. I liked the fluff a few years ago when I was young and stupid, though I couldn't get the mechanics to work well enough to actually run a game.

    Also, how long until we can port Exalted over to this system? It looks better than Ex3's version of the Storyteller System so far.
     
    MJ12 Commando said:
    Enjoy having to rewrite 900 charms. :p

    That's the issue with Exalted porting, more or less. You need to basically completely redo the Wacky Wuxia Wizardry part.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Or pick a system that can easily natively do it. For the Dragonblooded/Godsblooded level, there are are actually a number of systems that could work pretty easily - it's only when you start trying to represent the can of absolute effects Celestial Exalted get up to that you need that much effort.
     
    MJ12 Commando said:
    Enjoy having to rewrite 900 charms. :p

    That's the issue with Exalted porting, more or less. You need to basically completely redo the Wacky Wuxia Wizardry part.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    And that's why you've basically gotta go Raiden on the Charm list.

    I mean, one of the basics for Sardonyx so far is "Don't add dice and don't futz with TN outside of what your Tier does."

    That alone should cut out like, what? 800 charms or so?
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top