70% and 14 Stretch Goals
about 6 years ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 11:18:34 AM

Hello Fellow Backers!

Over the past few weeks, I've have some Olympic Coverage on in the background while I was checking on the kickstarter campaign, or writing updates, or taking notes in the comment section. One of the events I caught was the cross-country ski relay. I mean, you think it would be easier to race when you've got skis on, but then you see a hill and it looks so much harder than it would be to just run up a snowy slope...

So, when these athletes are racing in their 5 km or 10 km portion, there's this point where they've done a chunk of the work, and they're about three-quarters finished, and then it's the uphill bit. And, wow, does it look like effort. Every step - can I call it a step when they're on skis? - every bit of ground they cover going up that hill seems like such a small portion of the overall race they're running, and it's just consuming so much energy. 

But then, they crest that hill, and there's a moment where they adjust their pace, collect their breath, and then the speed increases dramatically.

We're just about three-quarters through our campaign (we've actually just passed the 70% mark, but still...). This last chunk of stretch goals are our final steps up the hill. Every little bit is effort, every little bit is gained one pledge at a time. But, once we get through these and onto our final days, it's going to be amazing how fast we move as we race toward the finish.

But first, let's climb this hill, and then we can collect ourselves, take a breath, and prepare to adjust our pace.

NEXT STRETCH GOALS

In keeping with our trinity theme, there are three flavors of stretch goal, which will be added in rotation and built on what has come before.  

[BONUS REWARDS] Any stretch goal rewards achieved as part of this stream will be automatically added to all Reward Tiers that include [BONUS REWARDS] Stretch Goal Additions.  

[ÆON ÆXPANSION] Achieving these stretch goal targets will add new sections to the Æon Æxpansion PDF supplement for the Trinity Continuum: Æon setting. Only Reward Tiers receiving the Æon Æxpansion PDF supplement will receive this additional content as part of their rewards.  

[1E BUNDLE] Achieving these stretch goal targets will add additional titles to the Trinity 1e digital bundle, and received by any backers who have chosen the FIRST EDITION FAN or any of the "+ ALL STRETCH GOALS" Reward Tiers or selected this as an Add On reward.

This handy-dandy chart shows which Reward Tiers include each of these Stretch Goal Additions:

 And so, our climb up this slippery, snowy hill requires four steps:

At $145,000 in funding - An essay on using psions in the modern day with the Trinity Continuum Core book will be added to the Æon Æxpansion PDF supplement. [ÆON ÆXPANSION]

At $147,000 in funding - Two beautiful electronic wallpaper files, featuring an image/collage of images from the Trinity Continuum Core Book and Trinity Continuum: Æon setting. [BONUS REWARDS]

At $149,000 in funding - Stellar Frontier: Psi Order Upeo wa Macho & Extrasolar space Sourcebook 1E PDF will be added to the Trinity 1e digital bundle. [1E BUNDLE]

And then, as we crest that hill, we take a moment to collect ourselves and celebrate hitting 300% funding with another general achievement, an Onyx Path tradition of rewarding success by investing back into the project.

 At $155,000 in funding - Investing additional funds into the art budget will allow for the inclusion of more art into the core books. [GENERAL]

Once we've cleared the summit, we begin our rapid approach to the finish. Each goal will cover more ground as we enter the final days. That final rush may see some new weapons and armor, an Æon-themed d10 for the OnyxDice app, more fiction, information on enhanced humans known as Nihonjin Superiors... and more! But I'm getting my poles ahead of my skis. Let's get up the hill first, and then we'll begin the final sprint.

STRETCH GOAL ACHIEVEMENTS

70% through the campaign, and 14 Stretch Goal Achievements. Depending on your selected Reward Tier (see chart way up top), you will be receiving:

[Æon Æxpansion]: A PDF supplement for the Trinity Continuum: Æon setting. The Æon Æxpansion will contain sections which will be added to this PDF supplement via Stretch Goals, as detailed below. The supplement currently contains sections on:  

• VARGS (large battlesuits) and VARG rules 
• Additional Aberrants and Aberrant Cults 
• New Noetic Biotech
• New Cyberware and New Espionage-Related Hardtech

[BONUS REWARDS]: A scenario supplement PDF called “IN MEDIA RES” will be created for the Trinity Continuum Core contemporary setting. The current scenarios included are: 

• CAPER, INCORPORATED –When the system doesn’t work, these con artists put their thumbs on the scales of justice to even things out. Inspired by: Leverage, Ocean’s 11, Inception. Related Allegiance: Les Fantômes. 
• CODENAME: AQUARIUS – Working for an independent intelligence agency, a team of special agents investigates, infiltrates, and eliminates global threats. Inspired by: James Bond, Mission: Impossible, Jason Bourne. Related Allegiance: 9.

In addition to the scenario supplement, [BONUS REWARDS] backers will also receive:

• "DAWN" - a novella set in the timeline of Trinity Continuum: Æon
• A Trinity Continuum D10 unlocked on the OnyxPath dice-rolling App (iOs/Android)

The Trinity 1e digital bundle currently includes 14 PDFs:  

• Trinity Rulebook 1E PDF 
• Trinity Player’s Guide 1E PDF 
• Trinity Technology Manual 1E PDF 
• Trinity RPG Quickstart 1E PDF  
• Trinity Field Report: Extrasolar Colonies 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Alien Races 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Psi Laws 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Media 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Oceania 1E PDF 
• Trinity: Hidden Agendas 1E PDF 
• Luna Rising: Psi Order ISRA & Luna Sourcebook 1E PDF 
• America Offline: Psi Order Orgotek & FSA Sourcebook 1E PDF 
• Terra Verde: Psi Order Norça and Sudamérica Sourcebook 1E PDF
• Shattered Europe: Psi Order Æsculapian & Europe Sourcebook 1E PDF

In addition to those three flavors, we celebrated crossing 200% funding with a general reward that will be open to backers who pledge for any reward - you will be notified (after the campaign) when a deeply discounted T-shirt design is available on our Redbubble site for a limited time. (T-shirt images is a mock-up and may not reflect final design).

So, to drive my cross-country ski analogy right into the ground - take a deep breath! Keep doing the work! These last steps up the hill will certainly take effort and energy, but we've accomplished so much so far! We're almost three-quarters of the way through the campaign, and soon will be starting our down-hill speed run. So, let's keep at it and make it to the podium!

HOPE. SACRIFICE. UNITY.

#TrinityContinuum

Backers Only - Manuscript Preview Part 7
about 6 years ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 04:12:45 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Storypath Continuum
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 05:57:14 AM

Hello Fellow Backers!

As noted in Danielle's update from February 7, you've been getting a peek behind the curtain as the Storypath System slides into completion. And with the first few previews of Trinity Continuum: Æon posted, you've seen how the Storypath System can work for both the contemporary setting with Talents and the future setting with Psions.

The great thing about getting in on the ground floor with the Trinity Continuum is that you're not only learning the rules for one setting and genre, but learning the foundation for a whole host of possible settings featuring different genres. Similarly, learning the Storypath System isn't just about knowing how to play in the Trinity Continuum, but you've also learned the basics for several upcoming and in-the-works Onyx Path games.

Here's Eddy with a bit about the philosophy behind his work with the various versions of the Storypath System.

***

Greetings, Psions! (Trinities? Triads? Something.)  

I'm Eddy Webb, and I'm part of the team helping to make Trinity Continuum: Aeon a reality. To be honest, my contribution is small compared to the heroic efforts of Ian, John, and Danielle. Indeed, I came on board to help in one specific area -- the Storypath system.  

For those that don't know, Storypath was designed from the ground up to be Onyx Path's "house system" of mechanics. Both Scion and the Trinity Continuum struggled under the aging Storyteller system, so we decided to start from scratch and build the best system for those two games. Rich Thomas commissioned folks to produce something that would feel familiar to original fans, but incorporated twenty years of growth in RPG design, while also scaling between rough-and-tumble action heroes and godlike characters (or just gods!) easily.  

As Scion and Trinity Continuum design was progressing, however, I noticed each game was struggling to simultaneously find their own voice while also keeping a cohesive system between them. This isn't an admonishment of the design teams -- on the contrary, they did an excellent job straddling those two (sometimes contradictory) goals -- but no one was thinking solely about the needs of the system as a whole. That's where I come in. I take the groundwork built by Scion and Trinity, and smooth out the edges so that we can use it to create new games. Not only additional books in those two lines (I hear your cries, fellow Aberrant and Adventure fans), but also brand new games like 50s sci-fi movies ("They Came From Beneath the Sea") and post-apocalyptic horror ("Dystopia Rising").  

The goal isn't a generic system that does absolutely everything out of the box. There are some great systems that do that, without a doubt, and I play with a few of them myself. But that doesn't fit the Onyx Path aesthetic of providing flavorful, robust experiences. So I think of the system as flexible instead. While the core loop of compiling dice pools, reading them, and resolving them is identical in every game, how you interpret and apply those results can differ.  

Here's a great example. In Trinity Continuum, Talents have access to a pool called Momentum. If you fail, you can generate points of Momentum, which can be used by anyone in the team to improve their dice rolls later, as well as fuel a few powers like Skill Tricks. In Trinity Continuum, that's just something that Talents and the like have access to, a nod to Dramatic Editing from Adventure. In They Came From Beneath the Sea, which is more about the campy 50s movies aesthetic, the system is called Rewrites. It's the exact same mechanic, but now it's a resource the actors playing the characters use to convince the writers of the movie they're in to give them better scenes. The change in context, with a few under-the-hood tweaks, gives a distinctly different experience that fits for each game, without learning a ton of new rules.  

So as you review Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Æon, check out how each book subtly changes and tweaks the core system. We expect that future books will do the same -- you'll still have a great central experience, but we'll make decisions that emphasize superhuman feats in Aberrant and pulp weirdness in Adventure. But that's in the future. For now, let's continue to celebrate the start of the next evolution of the Trinity Continuum!

***

Thanks Eddy!

Just wanted to end today's update with a quick note about three new Reward Tiers that have been set up for this campaign. They haven't added anything new or changed the way anything works, but have just made some of the calculations a bit easier.

We've added in three Reward Tiers that include "ALL THE STRETCH GOALS." These are simply the previous reward tier with the +$15 addition of the TRINITY 1E PDF BUNDLE. These combinations were previously accomplished by increasing your pledge by the Add On amount of $15 and then selecting the 1E BUNDLE during the BackerKit phase after the campaign, but being able to select these Reward Tiers from the start allows someone to ensure they've worked the math correctly, and to not worry about remembering what their add-on selection was supposed to be. Basically, it allows you to "set it and forget it" when it comes to your backer pledge. 

It's not a big change, and affects very few current backers, but part of a continued learning process that will allow new backers to join in more easily (I hope)!

Speaking of new backers... as we near the final countdown (only 12 days to go!), remember to share your excitement and interest in this campaign with your gaming friends, your reading group, and... well, everyone. We've already hit TWELVE stretch goals, but we have a lot more to add if we can keep growing the backer count and building this Æon Society. So don't let friends miss out on this opportunity, and let's keep spreading the word.

HOPE. SACRIFICE. UNITY.

#TrinityContinuum

Backers Only - Manuscript Preview Part 6
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 04:10:43 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

ELEVEN STRETCH GOALS DOWN
about 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 11:22:42 AM

Hello Fellow Backers!

We just tip-toed over the 11th Stretch Goal Achievement of this campaign. Some of this may seem familiar (we have hit 11 goals!!), but let me indulge. While we celebrate, let's take a moment to do that trinity thing: past, present, future...

Future: What's Next

In keeping with our trinity theme, there are three flavors of stretch goal, which will be added in rotation and built on what has come before.  

[BONUS REWARDS] Any stretch goal rewards achieved as part of this stream will be automatically added to all Reward Tiers that include [BONUS REWARDS] Stretch Goal Additions.  

[ÆON ÆXPANSION] Achieving these stretch goal targets will add new sections to the Æon Æxpansion PDF supplement for the Trinity Continuum: Æon setting. Only Reward Tiers receiving the Æon Æxpansion PDF supplement will receive this additional content as part of their rewards.  

[1E BUNDLE] Achieving these stretch goal targets will add additional titles to the Trinity 1e digital bundle, and received by any backers who have chosen the FIRST EDITION FAN Reward Tier or selected this as an Add On reward.

This handy-dandy graphic shows which Reward Tiers include each of these stretch goal additions:

And so, our next three stretch goals are:

At $139,000 in funding - A Section on New Cyberware and New Espionage-Related Hardtech will be added to the Æon Æxpansion PDF supplement. [ÆON ÆXPANSION]

At $141,000 in funding -  A TRINITY CONTINUUM Core themed d10 will be created for the OnyxPath dice-rolling App (iOs/Android). All backers receiving Bonus stretch goal Rewards will be able to unlock this die for free on the app. [BONUS REWARDS]

At $143,000 in funding - Shattered Europe: Psi Order Æsculapian & Europe Sourcebook 1E PDF will be added to the Trinity 1e digital bundle. [1E BUNDLE]

Past: What We've Achieved

Eleven Stretch Goal Achievements so far. These have been achieved by spreading the word, pledging our support, inviting others to join, and working together. I've said it a bunch of times, and you'll see it echoed throughout the Trinity Continuum setting: HOPE. SACRIFICE. UNITY. This three word motto is reflected directly in the community we're building and project that is being assembled.

Present: How These Break Out

And here's what each of those achievement badges means. The Stretch Goals have been divided into three streams, that I've referred to as the three flavors of the Trinity Continuum campaign. Your selected Reward Tier and Add-Ons determine which flavor will be mixed in with your rewards when the campaign concludes. Here's where those rewards stand:

[Æon Æxpansion]: A PDF supplement for the Trinity Continuum: Æon setting. The Æon Æxpansion will contain sections which will be added to this PDF supplement via Stretch Goals, as detailed below. The supplement currently contains sections on:

• VARGS (large battlesuits) and VARG rules 
• Additional Aberrants and Aberrant Cults
• New Noetic Biotech

[BONUS REWARDS]: "DAWN" - a novella set in the timeline of Trinity Continuum: Æon will be written, adding to the fiction for the universe. Also, a scenario supplement PDF called “IN MEDIA RES” will be created for the Trinity Continuum Core contemporary setting. The current scenarios included are:  

• CAPER, INCORPORATED –When the system doesn’t work, these con artists put their thumbs on the scales of justice to even things out. Inspired by: Leverage, Ocean’s 11, Inception. Related Allegiance: Les Fantômes. 
• CODENAME: AQUARIUS – Working for an independent intelligence agency, a team of special agents investigates, infiltrates, and eliminates global threats. Inspired by: James Bond, Mission: Impossible, Jason Bourne. Related Allegiance: 9.

The Trinity 1e digital bundle currently includes:     

• Trinity Rulebook 1E PDF 
• Trinity Player’s Guide 1E PDF 
• Trinity Technology Manual 1E PDF 
• Trinity RPG Quickstart 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Extrasolar Colonies 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Alien Races 1E PDF  
• Trinity Field Report: Psi Laws 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Media 1E PDF 
• Trinity Field Report: Oceania 1E PDF 
• Trinity: Hidden Agendas 1E PDF 
• Luna Rising: Psi Order ISRA & Luna Sourcebook 1E PDF 
• America Offline: Psi Order Orgotek & FSA Sourcebook 1E PDF
• Terra Verde: Psi Order Norça and Sudamérica Sourcebook 1E PDF

In addition to those three flavors, we celebrated crossing 200% funding with a general reward that will be open to backers of any Reward Tier.

Backers who pledge for any reward will be notified after the campaign when a deeply discounted T-shirt design is available on our Redbubble site for a limited time. (T-shirt images is a mock-up and may not reflect final design).

The most important thing to remember when looking at this list: all of these expansions, PDF bundles, scenarios and T-shirts are our secondary goals. The first and foremost objective was written on the top of the campaign page - help create, publish, and distribute the new edition of the TRINITY CONTINUUM tabletop roleplaying game.

Thanks to you, the Trinity Continuum Core rule book and Trinity Continuum: Æon setting book will be published. Take a moment to celebrate that amazing feat, along with all of the extra goals we've achieved. And then remember that we've still got just over three weeks to keep the achievements coming! Let's grow that expansion, let's add more scenarios and fiction and other bonus rewards! Let's fill that PDF bundle with everything DrivethruRPG's got available.  

HOPE-SACRIFICE-UNITY