Trinity RPG - An alternate subplot

[Pythagore]

This is the first draft of the subplot to my campaign. I'm still working out a couple of glitches, and the end is highly specialised for my player characters. But I'd love to hear what people think about it. It does contain some spoilers - but then again, so do most threads on the Eon Forums.

Ever since Divis Mal left Earth, Maxwell Mercer has been looking for his old enemy. The Chinese Ultimatum was not a part of Max's plan, and seeing Mal disappear among the stars was frustrating indeed. But with the arrival of the psions, Max finally saw his chance to find him again.

Maxwell pushed Aeon to gain influence over the Orders. He personally seduced Rebecca Beu Li, and tricked her into using her telepathic powers to gain an edge over the rest of the proxies. He intended to use the psions for one purpose only - to find Divis Mal and destroy him. The protection of Earth come as second priority for him, but he realised early that relations with humanity was important for the survival of the Orders and the power of the Trinity.

But there were three proxies that escaped Beu Li's telepathic powers. The first was Otha Herzog, who saw what was happening and escaped to Huruf al-Heyy. The Ministry has secret orbital stations that search the outer reaches of the solar system for ISRA's secret home - to no avail (of course, they don't know that it is hidden on Luna). Otha realised that he could not bring the information to the rest of his fellow proxies, as they would not believe him and accuse him of treachery.

The second was Bhurano. Somehow the proxy's powerful quantakinetic abilities blocked out any telephatic probes - luckily for Beu Li Bhurano never noticed what was going on. When the Chitra Bhanu scandal became public, Max saw his chance to finally get rid off Bhurano. He still fears that Bhurano is alive somewhere, and even that she is collaborating with Otha Herzog, but has yet to find any evidence for this theory.

The third was Bolade Atwan. The constant flux surrounding the teleporter made it hard for Beu Li to get a good fix on her psyche - the other problem was the fact that Atwan often teleported off planet, far from the telepathic powers of the Ministry proxy. When Upeo wa Macho brought the information about Eden to the rest of the Orders Max was thrilled - he believed that this planet was really the home of Divis Mal. When Atwan refused to give out the location of the planet, Max influenced the rest of the Orders to distrust the teleporters. He hoped that the capture of the Upeo wa Macho would be able to produce the information he needed. He did not expect what the teleporters did next - they disappeared en masse. Once again, Divis Mal had gotten away - right in front of Maxwell Mercer's nose.

This sets the backdrop for the rest of my campaign. When the chromatics raid Earth (at the end of "Passage through Shadow", and the final attack in "Ascent into Light"), Maxwell sees his chance of finally finding Eden. He orders the attack on Chrome-Prime, in a hope to rescue the teleporters and bringing the information about the Nova planet back with them. At the end of "Alien Encounter: Invasion" I plan to bring the characters to Eden, and let them return to Earth with a message. After "Deception" they return to Eden - but with a traitor in their midst (one of the PC - a your Ministry agent). After they have spent a couple of days on Eden, which I want to present to them as a form of utopia (so that the characters get a special bond to the planet) they realise that human ships have surrounded the planet. This sets up the grand finale of the campaign - I got a couple of more twists, with Otha sharing what he knows with the PCs (probably secret files from Aeon - including the fact that Max is still alive) and the final destruction of Eden. The campaign will end with Divis Mal's voice ringing telepathically through the ears of the PCs (not for the first time, though - I am planning to have him in the background during the entire campaign); "the final test is over. Humanity has finally proven itself. We will return to our old home and take it back. Remember - your legacy is our future".

Then I plan to show the players the rest of the Aeon Continium - both Aberrant and Adventure!. But there are a lot of questions that haven't been answered yet, so in time we will return to Trinity.

Any thoughts?

[Slagheap]

I don't know, your subplot kinda make Max Mercer, he who is suppose to be the ultimate good guy, in to some kind of vengence crazed mad man. I guess it just seems out of character for him. He is humanity's one stalwart defender (HA! aren't puns great). I guess I just don't picture him acting like that.

-Slag

[phoenix]

He is humanity's one stalwart defender (HA! aren't puns great).

AAARGH

[Pythagore]

I guess I have a tendency to focus a lot on corruption and subjective views of "good" and "evil" in my games - in this case, Max believes that he is acting for the "greater good", that Divis Mal is the "great evil" that must be vanquished to ensure the safety of humanity.

Maybe I have been playing too much World of Darkness during the last 10 years, but I don't like the concept of "the ultimate good guy". I want the players to feel that they are completely alone, and that they can't trust anyone - and also to force them into creating their own subjective standpoint when it comes to what is right or wrong.

[Pythagore]

I noticed that I had written that "The protection of Earth come as second priority for him" - scrap that, and instead add what I wrote in my other reply. Max thinks that he is acting for the good of humanity by destroying Mal, but he is not very rational in his desicions.