Revision as of 18:23, 9 April 2008

This campaign may possibly be starting in the fourth week of April, or the first week of May.

In terms of Trinity, this game will be set in very early CR, and will begin in the Ronkan City-States of southern Sarteri.

This page will house most of the relevant information for the game.

Game Information

Trinity uses a 32 point buy.

Ability Scores

Trinity uses the standard ability score set along with Perception, which is necessary to ensure that firearms are not overpowered.

Race Restriction

Unlike most other Trinity games, this game will have a race restriction. The following races are allowed:

• Human
  • Gaeli Favored Class: Choose one - archer, druid, scout.
  • Ronkan Favored Class: Choose any class.
  • Xianese Favored Class: Choose one - bard, monk, unfettered.
• Clavat
• Dwarf
• Esper (LA +1)
• Gnome
  • Blue Gnome Favored Class: Choose one - akashic, learner.
  • Tinker Gnome Favored Class: Inventor.
• Gremlin
• Halfling
• Moogle
• Orc
  • Favored Class: Choose one - barbarian, metamorph.
• Selkie

Race Descriptions

Human

Short-lived and impressionable, humans were the prime movers and shakers that produced the Ronkan Empire. Fuelled by a desire for progress and thirst for knowledge, they study and research everything they can get their hands on. In the world of the Ronkan Empire, most of the City-States are ruled by humans. While foundational technological research has a tendency to be performed by other races, humans are at the forefront of their fields, expanding the boundaries of what is known.

There are three varieties of human found in the Ronkan Empire and the surrounding lands: the ronkans, the gaeli, and the xianese.

Ronkans

The Ronkans are those that moved southward to found the Ronkan Empire. They are a tall, fair-skinned people, proud and intelligent, though sometimes rash in their pursuit of knowledge. Ronkans are the dominant human subrace in the Ronkan Empire, and they are well aware of this fact; while not utterly arrogant, they tend to look down upon their other human brethren. As a general rule, the Ronkans are open to new ideas, while tending to utterly reject the old - anything resembling the ways of old is scoffed at.

Gaeli

The Gaeli were the primary human subrace of the Woodland League. Fair-skinned and often sporting red hair and green eyes, theirs was a culture reminiscent of real-world celtic culture. When the Ronkan Empire conquered the Woodland League, the gaeli were seen as something of a traitor people, having defended the elves and their druidic ways. Unlike the elves, the gaeli remained in the Ronkan Empire, and have attempted to make amends between the world of nature and the world of machine.

Xianese

The Xianese are a distant group of humans, who seem to have culturally matured on the island-continent of Distarin. Their culture is one of patience and philosophy; order, tradition, and discipline are their principles of life. Xianese speak little, and what they do say can be quite profound. They excel in the spoken arts, in song and poetry, and have produced some of the world's greatest philosophers.

Clavat

A peaceful people, most of clavat culture is unknown to the Ronkan Empire. Hailing from their nation of Colianth on the island-continent of Distarin, they seek to ensure peace both in their homeland and lands abroad. Clavat culture is a melting pot of those societies with which they interact: Colianth itself is a mixture of Xianese, moogle, and clavat society. However, it is clear from the guards upon their foreign seacraft that the clavats know well enough how to defend themselves.

It is understood by most that clavats are extremely democratic and altruistic, though they are wise enough to know when someone is attempting to take advantage of them. Clavats view almost every other sentient creature as an equal, and treat them with the same sort of respect they expect. Clavats tend to be reasonably level-headed folk, and as such are accepted amongst the Ronkan Empire.

Dwarf

Strong-willed and industrious, dwarves are acknowledged as the originators of barag'xoth, otherwise known as technology. It was through their efforts that the Ronkans found the means to conquer their old oppressors. Dwarves are greatly respected throughout the Ronkan Empire, despite the fact that few tend to leave their mountainous homes. Dwarven society is responsible for producing most of the metals that are used to fuel the technological designs of the Empire. In recent years, however, with Ronkan society beginning to study magic, the dwarves have begun to withdraw themselves from the limelight, having no desire to deal with such arcana.

Esper

An enigma in the world, espers are thought to be the product of magic-saturated lands; this theory arose from the fact that those espers who speak of their homeland seem to be speaking of the Lost, a desolate tract of desert in which nothing will live or grow, which was brought about by a great arcane battle. The people of the Empire are uncertain of how to deal with the espers; some are interested in studying them and understanding how magic is incorporated in their being, while others would rather seem them be destroyed, as they are a reminder of one of the human race's greatest follies.

Those who hail from Distarin see the espers as a curiosity, but have no particular love for nor fear of them. Clavats understand that they are sentient beings, and so treat them no differently from others, while moogles are often very curious of their nature, as espers tend to stand out from the rest of the peoples of the Empire.

Gnome

Gnomes are known to the world as sages, wise folk who understand the world from studying the world memory. While usually patient, they sometimes show an intense interest in things previously unseen in the world, as there is nothing in world memory with which it can be compared: for this reason, many gnomes have gone to the dwarves, and begun studying the ways of technology.

At the time of the Ronkan Empire, the gnomish people are a people divided. Those who remain in the gnomish homeland of the Blue Hills, who honor their peoples' ways and study the blue (world memory); and those who go out into the world to experience and learn of this strange thing called technology. These two groups are sometimes referred to the "blue gnomes" and the "tinker gnomes," respectively. The blue gnomes warn that the human approach to technology is just like their approach to magic, in years gone by, and that it will end in catastrophe; the tinker gnomes believe that, with their intervention, such a catastrophe could be avoided.

Blue Gnomes

The gnomes have dwelled in the part of the world known as the Blue Hills for as far back as the eldest amongst them can reach back into the world memory. Some choose to venture out of their homes, however, and dwell in the larger cities of the Ronkan Empire, where their ability to read the past and the memories of those long gone are seen as valuable services. Oftentimes, those gnomes who participate in the culture of the Empire serve as educators or assist in the legal system. For the most part, however, the blue gnomes keep to themselves, studying the blue and attempting to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

Tinker Gnomes

A relatively new group of gnomes, these are gnomes that have decided that studying the blue will not have much of an impact on the world; instead, they turn to technology, a relatively new field of study. For these gnomes, technology is fascinating in a way that nothing else can be: there is nothing in the world memory that is a parallel for it, and this greatly excites them. Tinker gnomes seek to understand as much as they can about all the facets of technology, and their limited ability with the blue allows them to gain much skill in a rather short period of time. Tinker gnomes are seen as an important part of the growing Empire, as people believe that the gnomes joining in the industrial revolution means that they are progressing further than has ever been done before.

Gremlin

Only having surfaced in the past few decades, the gremlins are a curious race of scavengers with an intense interest in technology. Having lived in the same cavern complexes as the dwarves, the gremlins had begun scavenging the leftover bits of technology and learned everything they could from them; when they began attempting to steal larger and more difficult-to-move technology, the dwarves finally caught on. While there is some amount of animosity between the two races, the dwarves tolerate the gremlins, as their child-like intensity for technology amuses them.

In the rest of the Empire, the gremlins have proven themselves incredibly resourceful, and seem to intuitively grasp the basics of technology and what stops it from ticking (and are usually knowledgeable enough to restore things to working order, as well). Gremlins are often put to work in Empire machine shops, repairing machines and constructing new ones.

Gremlins have an intense animosity towards moogles, with whom they compete for work in the new field of airship design and repair. While this animosity usually takes the form of intense yet friendly competition, one wrong word can often turn an argument into a flurry of scales and fur.

Halfling

The halflings are a wandering people, travelling in caravans that traverse the countryside. The first domesticators of the chocobo, the halflings value their freedom and their families above all else. As a people, they are not particularly interested in technology, magic, or other such things as pursuits in and of themselves: such things must have a readily-understood purpose, for a study that produces nothing useful is of no interest to them.

Halfling legend holds that creatures known only as prophet moths plague their people, for unknown reasons. In an earlier age, it is said that the halfling Liat'ned of the Eld traveled to the various races of the world to seek their help against the menace; from the gnomes, his people learned the art of the learner, and from the dwarves, his people learned of the ways of the gunslinger. Liat'ned himself was gifted with the gunblade called Excalibur, and armed with it, he and twelve of his most trusted gunslingers rode out and smote the queen of the creatures. Halfling prophecies tell of a time when the moths will return, and in that time the halflings will build and gather in the city of Medibaria, the first and last halfling city.

However, such things do not concern most of the rest of the world. The halflings are known for their ability to take the most useful capabilities of new ideas or technologies and put them to expert and immediate use, though they themselves innovate little. Most Ronkans are content to leave the halflings to themselves; they are allowed to travel throughout the Empire unhindered, so long as they do not interfere with the workings of the Empire.

Moogle

Hailing from the island-continent of Distarin, moogles share their homeland with the clavats and the xianese breed of humans. Moogles are cheerful, optimistic, and intelligent, often approaching the world with a sort of cheerful innocence. Moogles came to the Ronkan Empire accompanying clavats, and immediately became fascinated with technology. In the few decades they have interacted with Ronkan society, the moogles have engineered a machine that can fly: an airship.

In Ronkan society, moogles are oftentimes spoken to like children, though most are aware enough of the world to recognize that moogles tend to be smarter than humans; the seemingly condescending speech is a byproduct of the moogles' short statures and childlike demeanor. Moogles are also well-known for their animosity with gremlins: from the moogle standpoint, gremlins are disgusting, uncivilized creatures, who destroy machines simply for the sake of destruction, and such behavior is unthinkable to a moogle.

Orc

The southern mountains of Sarteri are a harsh land, filled with various predatory creatures. This unforgiving land is where orcs first rose and howled at the moon in defiance. Unfortunately, orcs are not gifted with an abundance of intelligence, and thus their population rapidly dwindled. However, when their numbers were at their lowest, something unusual happened: the orcish young began to change, growing vicious claws and leathery wings, physiology which no orc before had possessed. But not all the orcs changed in the same way: some developed powerful vocal chords that let them bellow forth screams that could shatter rock, while others developed immunity to fire or electricity, while yet still others grew to giantic sizes. Armed with this strange new armament, the orcs fought back against those who preyed upon them, and the hunted became the hunter.

Orcish society did not grow past this point, though orcs did begin to grow in number, and expanded outward. They encountered the dwarves, who saw them not as sentient beings, but as bizarre creatures whose only purpose in life was to consume - and they were not far off. However, after realizing that the dwarves were not specifically hunting them down, the orcs stopped attacking the dwarves, and instead sent a small group of orcs to speak to the dwarves. While communication was difficult, a peace was reached, and the dwarves and orcs dwelled in the same lands in relative peace.

In modern times, the orcs are recognized as being naturally highly mutagenic - when exposed to high levels of evolutionary stress, a single orc can rapidly assume strange new evolutionary paths. As a race, they are tolerated, but seen as bizarre and unnatural: the Ronkans do not approve of them, as they lack the intellect to understand technology and properly progress, and the druids and other remaining proponents of nature despise them, as they are an aberration and affront to the natural order. Of all the races to interact with them, only the clavats seem to accept them simply as they are.

Selkie

No one is quite sure where selkies originated, but it is somewhat known that most hail from the Skipstones, an island chain off of the southwestern coast of Sarteri. The selkies are a primarily seafaring race, rarely setting foot on land, and are known amongst the Ronkans as shrewd merchants. Selkies often bring unrecognized foreign goods to the Empire's ports, and though there are often reports of a disturbingly high number of merchant vessels ransacked by selkie pirates, the selkies are still allowed to dock in the Empire's cities, given that they bring exotic goods.

Amongst the clavats and other denizens of the island-continent of Distarin, the selkies are something of a menace: the selkies have terrorized their shores for ages. While not all selkies tend towards a life of piracy, almost every selkie ship has, at one time or another, flown the pirate's flag. Despite this reputation, the clavats are a forgiving people, and often are willing to give an individual selkie the benefit of the doubt - once.

Class Availability

Due to the nature of the gaming group, the Cleric, Fighter, and Monk are available, and their Trinity replacements (Priest, Einhander, and Karateka, respectively) will not be available.

Class Descriptions

I'm not going to give an explanation of every class in Trinity, but here I'll try to provide a short synopsis of what possible role some classes could play in this game.

Artificer

Ages ago, men wielded arcane power, only to abuse it, and the elder races - elves, primarily - sought to deny man access to that power. Now, the elves are gone, and humanity reaches out for power wherever it can be found. The artificer is the result of relearning ancient arcane lore and attempting to combine it with the new technology of the modern world. You are part of the bleeding edge of a science termed "arcanodynamics," the combining of magic and technology into a cohesive whole; while you aren't there yet, your ability to use arcane magic to repair technological items is considered a giant leap towards success. Purist researchers of both the arcane and technological may either scoff at your attempts to bridge the two disciplines, or have respect for your ability to combine the best of both worlds.

Defender

Common only amongst the dwarves, the ancient tradition of the defender is slowly dying, even amongst your people. While you have been trained to make the most of armor, firearms and other advanced technology have shown that something greater than a defender would be required to protect the dwarven homelands. If you are a dwarven defender, your profession is seen as strange amongst non-dwarves, while you are shown the same honor and respect by dwarves, though this is tinged by a sadness appropriate for the loss of the tradition. If you are not a dwarf, your choice of profession is seen as very strange in a world with firearms, and some may even question your sanity; amongst dwarves, however, you are given much greater respect than you would otherwise deserve, and are praised as someone who recognizes the importance of tradition and dwarven values.

Druid

It was only a short time ago that the Woodland League held the majority of northern Sarteri, and under their rule, nature flourished - the elves and dryads sought a balance between civilization and nature. Since the Ronkans invaded, however, that has all changed: the Empire has no concern for nature, instead choosing to improve its industry and technologies. As a druid, you may seek retribution against the Empire for its crimes against nature; or, you may be of a gentler sort, seeking to remedy the pains the Empire has caused by attempting to show them the error of their ways. Amongst the peoples of the Ronkan Empire, you are seen as backwards, someone who refuses to accept the changing times and clings to out-dated ideologies; while some may feel sympathy for you, the most common reaction to you is one of frustration and anger.

Fighter

Yours is a dying breed. In a world where guns and 'walkers are nearing commonplace, it is thought that the age of the sword and shield is coming to a close. Those who yet teach or value these skills, however, point out that martial skill is an honorable tradition, a symbol of man overcoming his own limitations and reaching a pinnacle of physical power, health, and skill. While most soldiers of the Empire carry swords in addition to their guns, few focus on weaponry and martial lore as you do. Should you choose to be one of those few who wield guns but ignores the path of the gunslinger, you are viewed as an oddity, somehow deficient in skill - perhaps you are not as quick as you must be to be a gunslinger, or perhaps not as insightful as is required.

Monk

A rarity amongst the peoples of the Ronkan Empire, the ways of the monk have been brought by the Xianese from far-off Colianth. The monk is exotic, a rarity amongst the bustling peoples of the Empire. Few people in this age have the patience and discipline to focus as much as you do, and so you often feel a disconnect while in the crowds of the Empire. If you are yourself a part of the Ronkan Empire, you are seen as a curiosity, and some may even feel that you are a traitor to your people; if you are from Distarin, your strange ways are accepted as your own, and your occupation does not hinder peoples' opinions of you.