TURE! VEN AD TTALESALES OFOF THETHE ÆONÆON SOCIETYSOCIETY THIS ISSUE: A HOW-TO GUIDE SO THAT YOU TOO CAN JOIN THE 10¢ AEON SOCIETY 929292 CHAPTER FIVE C CHAPTER HARA CHARACTERCHARACTERCHARACTER FIVE CTERS Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! is a game of pulp heroism set in the 1920s. It’s a game The World of Adventure! about men and women who take action. They’re visionaries, inventors, The world of Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! is much like our own early 20th century. explorers, sages, scientists, mystics and more. They come from every Assume that any facts you read in history books or on the Internet continent and from every stratum of society: princes and paupers, shop- are the same in Adventure!Adventure!Adventure!, unless explicitly noted otherwise in this keepers and mechanics made good, businessmen and heiresses turned book (or the Game Master [GM] tells you she’s changed them). to more exciting pursuits. Adventure!’sAdventure!Adventure! settings range from lofty sky- Strange things happen, but they make little impression on history. scraper penthouses to squalid slums and sewers, from arctic wastelands The reasons for this are many — most incidents are hidden from or to deep oceans to sweltering jungles. Adventure! goes everywhere in- distorted for the public, dismissed as hoaxes or misunderstandings teresting — not always nice or safe, but never dull! or never even recorded for posterity. Even many people in the In- The following chapters take you through the steps of making an spiration Age shrug off the more bizarre tales, while other challenges Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! character, and provide you with the game-mechanical and solutions play out in secret. In many cases, this is because Earth details necessary to run or play in an Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! series. isn’t yet the global village we’re used to today. Your character’s en- Note that you do need the Player’s Handbook to utilize the game counter with hyper-intelligent albino apes deep in the Congo may content in this book. That core rulebook has the framework of char- never be revealed to the world at large simply because CNN isn’t acter generation and level advancement, skills and feats, combat and around to record it. The tale may spread, but details are lost or other ground rules that Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! builds upon. warped, and the whole thing soon takes on the shape of myth. At 939393 TURE! other times, your character (or other agencies) may decide the world posed to some portion of the strangeness flowing around the edges doesn’t need to know just how close it came to apocalypse this time of the known world. Whether driven by curiosity to discover the around. Some perils are just so outright strange and mysterious that origin of his new talents, lured by the thirst for knowledge or drawn VEN it might be best to keep the specifics quiet until proper research can into events by forces beyond his understanding, your character delves be done. into the new world hiding behind the known. Mysteries beckon, and AD Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! begins “officially” in the spring of 1924. Maxwell you alone have the wit and talent to reveal the truth. Anderson Mercer established the Æon Society for Gentlemen six months previously. This date is roughly 18 months after The Trinity Universe Hammersmith’s experiment with collecting and containing telluric Adventure! is the first of three Trinity Universe games, speaking radiation ended in disaster. That seminal event is the dawn of the chronologically. They occupy different eras of the same history, as Inspiration Age, for the very energy Hammersmith hoped to cap- well as different portions of a thematic trilogy. ture radiates around — even through — the Earth. For the most AberrantAberrantAberrant is a superpowers game set in the present time, focusing part, the pseudoaetheric waves pass with no effect. Some small por- on powerful individuals called novas — a new incarnation of tions of the globe are affected: Hidden pockets transformed into Adventure!Adventure!Adventure!’s stalwarts. TrinityTrinityTrinity is a science-fiction game, a far-future places lost to the mists of time, or locales only ever experienced in setting featuring evolved humans known as psions — the genetic de- the imagination. Rare individuals are also affected, forever changed scendents of Adventure!Adventure!Adventure!’s own mesmerists. Daredevils exist in every by their exposure to Z-rays — though many never realize what force era, but it is here in Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! that they enjoy the spotlight. has touched them. These people often become heroes and villains According to the two subsequent games’ timelines, most of the on a global scale. They are the Inspired. events from the Inspiration Age fade into obscurity or legend by the The aftershocks of the Hammersmith event ripple subtly across end of the 20th century. Certain characters introduced in this book the globe for some time to come. Most people who know about the — most notably Max Mercer and Doctor Primoris — continue to changes inspired by it struggle to understand the full scope, not to influence events in the Trinity Universe throughout the next two mention just what impact the Z-waves have on Earth and its deni- centuries. Players and GMs familiar with either Aberrant or Trinity zens. Æon and other groups detailed earlier have operated, publicly are free to include as much — or as little — of the “official” Trin- or privately, for a little while now, pursuing a variety of agendas. ity Universe metaplot as they like, but it isn’t necessary to enjoy As a daredevil, a mesmerist or a stalwart, your character was ex- Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! It’s all up to you how you want to play it. Character Genesis d20 Design Principles Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! is a game of epic… well, adventure, on a grand scale. The characters who engage in these exciting exploits are all human, GMs who wish to use material from Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! in but they belong to one of three templates: daring (daredevil), psy- other d20 games should be aware of some core de- chic (mesmerist), and superhuman (stalwart). As a group, they’re sign ideas that went into its construction. called the Inspired. (If you want to play a non-human Inspired, check There is no magic in the Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! setting; mes- with your GM.) “Inspired Templates,” below, has details on each. merists and stalwarts gain their powers from the For now, let’s cover character concept. pseudo-scientific premise of telluric energy (daredev- It takes a little thought to make sure your character fits the feel of ils are just naturally good at what they do). This ab- the era and the mood of the pulp genre. The genesis of your Adven-Adven-Adven- sence influences characters’ talents across the board, ture! character involves two things: his Origin and his Inspiration. but the main impact is this: A character’s Armor Class, abilities, saving throws and the average damage they Origin inflict may not always be what you're used to in other Your character’s origin describes him in a word or a short phrase, a d20 games. vague shorthand that gives you an idea of where he came from. What To maintain consistency, the save DCs for some sort of life did he lead before becoming Inspired? Was it dominated by knacks are also lower. GMs who wish to use material mundane chores, leaving him no time to look to the horizon? Did he from Adventure!Adventure!Adventure! in other games may wish to increase live on the edge, spending each day as if it might be his last? save DCs, or make them level-dependent following the Consider your character not as a ready-made hero, but as some- standard d20 formula (10 + 1/2 character level + rel- one who has the seeds of greatness within him. Your character gains evant ability bonus). exceptional abilities later on. Right now, focus on making a person The bonuses granted by class features and back- first, and let the hero grow naturally from that. ground feats have been left uncategorized to allow The concept could center on a skill (“I’m the world’s greatest doc- them to stack with the bonuses granted by other feats tor!”). It could come from the character’s back story (“He was raised and knacks. If class feature bonuses should not stack, by wolves until the age of six.”). Or you might focus on a personality that information is included in the description of the trait (“He’s obsessed with fathoming the criminal mind.”). If you’re features. more visual than verbal, you might develop a mental picture and go 949494 CHAPTER FIVE C from there (“He’s tall and impeccably dressed, but gaunt, with dis- HARA turbingly long teeth and fingernails.”). After that, you can work out in all directions — personality (Why Sources of Inspiration did he want to become the world’s greatest doctor?), history (Where These examples of Inspiration sources can act as spring- did the gaunt gent get the money for that suit if he apparently can’t boards for your own ideas. “Inspired Templates” has de- afford decent meals?), skills (What has he studied in order to un- tails on the three human templates, while Chapter Seven derstand criminals?), appearance (How does Mister Feral dress?) has specific rules on Inspiration. CTERS and so forth. • Dawning Awareness:Awareness:Dawning In studying esoteric philosophies You do not need to flesh out the character’s life history nor choose or branches of science, the character unlocks the true po- his favorite book. Keep your concept in mind throughout, though.