WW's Adventure/Abberent/Trinity to be d20! (Merged w/other thread)

[Voneth]

Makes me wish I could access RPG.Net at work (it trips the internet filters for games) just so I could start reading the responses. It's good news to me because I'm an avid hater of dice pool systems. I only hope they revamp the Trinity setting into something halfway interesting.

Be warned the threads are looooong already. The WW rep has had to put a lot of people on is ignore list since some people are not taking to the news kindly.

For me, it at least means that the lazy gamers in my area will at least give the setting a try since they "don't have to learn anything new."

Trinity was very interesting, its biggest flaw was that it tried to be too much too soon. You could run everything from Space Opera to Cyberpunk (or to be more exact Biopunk) if you chose the right organizations and locations.

As Dragon Magazine said, Trinity is "smart, intense space-opera... high-IQ roleplaying,"

 

[JEL]

Be warned the threads are looooong already. The WW rep has had to put a lot of people on is ignore list since some people are not taking to the news kindly.

Hehe I can imagine.

For me, it at least means that the lazy gamers in my area will at least give the setting a try since they "don't have to learn anything new."

Trinity was very interesting, its biggest flaw was that it tried to be too much too soon. You could run everything from Space Opera to Cyberpunk (or to be more exact Biopunk) if you chose the right organizations and locations.

As Dragon Magazine said, Trinity is "smart, intense space-opera... high-IQ roleplaying,"

I really can't put my finger on exactly why I found it uninteresting. I only ever got the main rulebook and it just sort of bored me in spite of having some good ideas. I do know that I wish they'd focused less on the psychics, or at least made them more generic (though it wouldn't be a WW game without having all the character types broken up into distinct groups). I'll definitely be giving the new version at least a good looking over.

 

[hellbender]

Well, how well did d20 modern sell vs. D&D?

Personally, if its d20 Modern, I wouldn't touch them. Regular d20, I'll probably be getting Adventure at least.

I was a d20 Modern naysayer, sticking to my traditional d20/DnD, but I have to say, after getting Modern and putting together a game I wish Dnd was that streamlined. I traded a guy here for Urban Arcana and just bought the Menace Manual, after originally just buying Modern for the upcoming Gamma World setting. D20 Modern isn't that bad, and an excellent format for any campaign style.

hellbender

 

[ES2]

Personally, I could care less what system they used, its just cool that they are bringing them all back out and giving them another try. At least, this way, they will have more potential purchasers of their products. Still, I myself like the dice pool system and I think they worked (best for adventure! though). I don't think the dice pool mechanic worked for Aberrant, though.

 

[Voneth]

I really can't put my finger on exactly why I found it uninteresting. I only ever got the main rulebook and it just sort of bored me in spite of having some good ideas. I do know that I wish they'd focused less on the psychics, or at least made them more generic (though it wouldn't be a WW game without having all the character types broken up into distinct groups).

Ahh, this was another flaw of Trinity, you had to READ it -- not scan it.

In the basic book, you could have designed a psion that worked for a governement. (Allegences pg 165 "Depending on your character's concept, she may have an Allegence to a specific governement, corporation, religioon, criminal organization ..." ) Or a nonpsion that worked for a psionic organization.("Who needs Psi Powers Or, Playing a 'Normal' Human" sidebar page 169)

The book just didn't spell everything out in big headers, a fault of the WW style to mix rules and fluff together.

Yeah, you could play a Telepath from China, but you didn't have too, if anything it was playing to stereotype. In fact, the very idea of someone wanting a d20 (a class based system) version of Trinity because they wanted more "generic" characters (which were available if you sat down and read the whole book) is very ironic.

 

[Henry]

Sorry to rant, but I am amused/frustrated how a lot of former WW naysayers are now the biggest customers of Sword and Sorcery stuff ... and they seemed shocked that WW can make good DnD stuff. The company was always good at game, it was just that few gamers wanted to take the effort to jump out of their ruts.

It was never a "rut" for me - I've always loved both White Wolf's and FASA's stuff, but their respective systems drove me NUTS. Personally, I'd rather have my eyes removed with a melon-baller and my ears shoved through with hot pokers than play the Storyteller system in any genre, because dice pool games where number of successes are counted and compared rub me like shark-skin. That's personal preference.

With S&SS making d20 compatible materials, I get some of WW's best minds working on stuff in a system I enjoy. Not to mention, more than just White Wolf staff release under the S&SS logo - both Fiery Dragon and Malhavoc Press are S&SS books, so even if someone though White Wolf as the Devil Incarnate, they'd have to take the good with the bad...

While I am not thrilled that the settings will go d20, I am hoping it will give them the exposure they deserved the first time around. To my knowledge, Trinity was one of the first RPGs to embrace the idea that cybernetics could be made obsolete as bio-tech develops.

That to me is one of the best things about the d20 license - if a certain game/system combo works well and is trés cool, d20 can at least introduce people to a game concept that they would have never seen on a store shelf previously. I made this argument many times over an Aetherco game called Continuum, but the other fans of Continuum REALLY didn't agree with my viewpoint. Oh, well, I'll continue to be one of the 500 people in the world who know of this game's existance.

 

[Voneth]

because dice pool games where number of successes are counted and compared rub me like shark-skin. That's personal preference.

Call me a gaming slut, as long as the system works and the combat is not too long, I'll use it.

As an aside, I do make one prediction about d20 Trinity. ...

Legionare player are finally going to be happy. IMHO, I don't blame them.

 

[d4]

Personally, if its d20 Modern, I wouldn't touch them. Regular d20, I'll probably be getting Adventure at least.

i feel the opposite. IMO if you're going to do a d20 setting that's modern or near-modern (give or take a few centuries in either direction), d20 Modern is the better ruleset to use, because it does a better job at simulating the modern world than the PHB.

i skipped FFG's "Redline" game because it was PHB-based instead of d20 Modern, even though i'm normally a fan of the genre.

Also, on the plus side, having it regular d20 should make it easier to use with Call of Cthulhu d20 or Stargate

i can't speak to Stargate, but CoC d20 is pretty much its own d20 system. i don't see why it would be easier converting from D&D-based d20 to CoC than it would be to convert from d20 Modern to CoC.

Sorry to rant, but I am amused/frustrated how a lot of former WW naysayers are now the biggest customers of Sword and Sorcery stuff ... and they seemed shocked that WW can make good DnD stuff. The company was always good at game, it was just that few gamers wanted to take the effort to jump out of their ruts.

For me, it at least means that the lazy gamers in my area will at least give the setting a try since they "don't have to learn anything new."

i'm not shocked that WW makes good D&D stuff. they've always been good at story, it's just their game mechanics that stink. i'm right along with everything Henry said on why i dislike their rules. now that they are working with a rules engine i like, i have no problem supporting them.

i've owned/played Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and Changeling in the past, so i have given them a decent shot at impressing me with their game design. they haven't yet. that's why i've avoided picking up Adventure! so far.

 

[Staffan]

i've owned/played Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and Changeling in the past, so i have given them a decent shot at impressing me with their game design. they haven't yet. that's why i've avoided picking up Adventure! so far.

The Continuum games have a modified version of Storyteller though, where everything uses a fixed target number of 7. If a task is more difficult, that's modelled by requiring more successes rather than a higher target number. Also, skills are more strongly tied to stats - if you're rolling a Firearms check, you use Dex by default.

 

[d4]

The Continuum games have a modified version of Storyteller though, where everything uses a fixed target number of 7. If a task is more difficult, that's modelled by requiring more successes rather than a higher target number. Also, skills are more strongly tied to stats - if you're rolling a Firearms check, you use Dex by default.

i'm aware of most of the changes in the ST system between WoD and these games. let's just say i'm still not impressed with their rules engine.