Trinity Continuum: Æon is a science fiction role-playing game previously published by White Wolf Game Studio in 1997 (and later by the ArtHaus imprint) under the name Trinity. The current game is owned and published by Onyx Path Publishing.
History
White Wolf had a hole in their 1997 publishing schedule, so CEO Steve Wieck went to designer Andrew Bates to fill it; the result was a new game, ÆON (1997), which went from first conception to publication in just 10 months. ÆON was a science-fiction game intended to create a whole new trilogy of games, and although it used a variant of the Storyteller game system, ÆON was intended to appeal to a more action-oriented audience than the World of Darkness. ÆON ran into troubles almost immediately due to a lawsuit from Viacom who felt that it violated the trademark of their TV show, Aeon Flux (1991-1995); the names on the first printing of ÆON actually had to be stickered over with the game's new name, Trinity. Because of White Wolf's imprint ArtHaus' success, acclaimed-but-low-selling games were added to the imprint over the years, and Trinity came to ArtHaus in 2000. ArtHaus produced d20 Trinity books to test the waters for White Wolf's other universes, but Trinity d20 (2004) came and went in a time when the d20 market was already weakened.
Five years after White Wolf's acquisition by CCP Games, CCP decided to shut down their traditional publishing endeavors. White Wolf's Creative Director, Richard Thomas, founded Onyx Path Publishing in 2012, and acquired the Trinity Universe, Scarred Lands, and Scion. After several years of publishing licensed material for White Wolf's World of Darkness and Exalted settings, the company was deemed stable enough to create a new system (the Storypath System) and new editions of both Scion and the now-renamed Trinity Continuum.
Description
Trinity was the first installment in the Trinity Universe series of games (the two others being Aberrant and Adventure!) sharing a common background and developing an alternate history of humanity through two centuries, and allowing players to play almost all genres of science fiction - from comic-book superhero action to cutting edge technothriller, space opera, and old-fashioned pulp standards. Though it had a vocal fanbase the whole game line was discontinued due to low sales in 2001; an adaptation for the d20 system was released in 2004. Onyx Path Publishing acquired the rights to the Trinity Universe in 2012, and released a new edition. The basic rules used for the Trinity Continuum were released in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, while the futuristic science-fiction setting was released as an expansion under the name Trinity Continuum: Æon in 2019.
Setting
Set in the 22nd century, Trinity Continuum: Æon portrays a future Earth slowly recovering from a disastrous war (the origins of which are covered in Aberrant) and expanding in space. Former depressed areas such as Africa, South America and Eastern Asia, which suffered moderate traumas during the Aberrant War are now the leading political forces in the international arena, while Europe is a landscape of ruins and hard struggling survivors, and North America is under a fascist regime (the Federated States of America, or FSA). Bio-engineering is the leading technology and psionics are known and studied if not exactly widespread. Alien contact has been made, with mixed results. Characters take the roles of psionic individuals, working for one of the many organizations in the gaming world, and tackling troubles when they arise. The game setting, which is detailed in a number of supplements, allows for a variety of styles, from cyberpunk-like corporate espionage to Mad Max-style post-holocaust frontier adventure, to space exploration.
Orders
Players have a choice of six "Orders" for their characters to join. Each Order possesses a mastery over a specific "Aptitude", a category of psionic powers. Each Order is based in a specific geographic location, often the homeland of its founder, and is heavily influenced by local culture. Actually, there are eight "Orders" in the Trinity Universe, but one only became playable after some metaplot hooks made it so, and the other has almost been exterminated by the year where the playable timeline begins.
The Æsculapian Order
Based in Europe, this Order is a global medical clinic first and foremost; its members fulfill the roles of combat medics, healers and scientists. They teach the Aptitude of vitakinesis, the usage of the mind to heal the body.