Shattered Europe Psi Order Aesculapian and Europe Sourcebook Trinity Game Accessory | ||||||||
Bruce Baugh, John R. Snead and Greg Stolze | ||||||||
White Wolf, 142 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Don Bassingthwaite
Europe is in a bad way in the Trinity setting. It has lost its
place in the world, devastated first by the Aberrant War and the chaos
caused by the collapse of the world's Op-Net communication system, and then
by the catastrophic crash of a space station into northern France. Not just
any space station, but Europe's own. As the book points out, the damage of
the crash was two-fold, both physical and financial. The countries of Europe
had a lot tied up in that station. By and large, they're a mess now. France
is toast, with French refugees scattered across Europe and the world.
England has gone isolationist. Spain, Portugal, and Scandinavia limp along.
Germany has balkanized into a number of independent states following a
variety of political philosophies (typically oppressive). As for the Balkan
states themselves... well, they're simply referred to as "the Shatter." Italy
and Switzerland are the shining lights of progress, while the Ukraine,
Poland, and Turkey (in the guise of the New Ottoman Empire) are the military powerhouses.
Through all of it are the healers of Aesculapian, carrying out their
missions of mercy. Not that the Aesculapians aren't a little bit
shattered themselves. The order is divided between the rigorously rational
medical and scientific viewpoint of its founder and a more holistic, organic
viewpoint of alternative therapists. Furthermore, a group of Aesculapian
researchers have just been implicated in a horrendous experimental project
(detailed in the Darkness Revealed adventure series), devastating
their previously squeaky clean image.
Readers who have browsed through these sourcebooks before will immediately
recognize the structure of Shattered Europe. At the front of the book
is a glossy section cast as an Aeon Trinity report to its agents. The report
gives a "player's guide" version of the information in the book, along with
bites from news reports and personal correspondence. The bulk of the rest of
the book goes over the same information again, this time detailing a little
more about what's happening behind the scenes, while a game master's section
serves up some real dirt -- at least in theory.
Although Shattered Europe is a solid book and definitely a useful tool
to have if your Trinity game takes your characters into Europe,
I was disappointed in how little juicy material actually came up in the
book. For one thing (and I noticed a similar pattern in the
America Off-line sourcebook), a lot of what is presented in the Aeon
Trinity report is duplicated in the rest of the book with relatively little
new information added. There's some, but not much, and what there is tends to
be heavy on politics and light on ground level setting. Likewise, the
information on the Aesculapian order is thin and really advances very little
beyond what was presented in the basic Trinity game book.
I
was really disappointed in the so-called Storyteller's Information
section. At a mere 7 pages, it presents a couple of somewhat interesting
characters, a smattering of weapons that would hardly seem top secret, and
information that would barely turn a player's head. There are Aberrants
hiding in out-of-the-way parts of Europe? No way! Some of the best
information actually seems to be in other books -- it's very frustrating to
be referred constantly to the various Darkness Revealed adventures
and the Hidden Agenda book and storyteller's screen (especially
when adventures and screens are not products I'd normally buy).
Out of the three Trinity sourcebooks available so far, I
still have to give the highest marks to Luna Rising for its
combination of style and content. Shattered Europe is good,
but it could have been better.
Don Bassingthwaite is the author of Such Pain (HarperPrism), Breathe Deeply (White Wolf), and Pomegranates Full and Fine (White Wolf), tie-in novels to White Wolf's World of Darkness role-playing games. He can't remember when he started reading science fiction, but has been gaming since high school (and, boy, is his dice arm tired!). |
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