An Introduction to Trinalia At left is Varisha (the world on which the continent of Trinalia lies) from the lesser moon, Corwin (The above image is copyright by Eric Knight Holbrook, used by permission of the artist. Please do not re-upload without the artist's permission . For more info and full size graphics, see the Digital Knight website )

The "Theme" of Trinalia

    Those of you who are familiar with TSR and other companies that promulgate a number of "Campagin Settings" may know that themes are frequently associated with such settings. For example, TSR states that the Forgotten Realms setting is about "ancient empires" and that Dragonlance is about "epic struggles."
    What is Trinalia about then? Certainly, it has a heaping scoop of both ancient empires and epic struggles--I like to think it handles those 2 subjects as good as (if not better) than either of the aforementioned TSR campaign settings. However, while those themes are well represented in the Trinalia campaign setting, combining those two does not define the flavor of Trinalia.
    The best single word that I can think of to define the flavor of Trinalia is intruige. The glories of ancinet magical empires crops up frequently in the campaign as do epic struggles. But the interplay between the powers that be is the real driving force behind the campaign. Accordingly, the first thing I went out of the way to HTMLize for the gentle reader is the Who's Who List.

How Did Trinalia Come to Be?

    Inspirational material for the Trinalia campaign primarily old games.  This means that many of the trappings you will find in other games will also be found here: Gods, undead wizards, empires, ancient tombs, demons, bandits, and damp, musky labrynths.  However, the author has encountered some very bizarre referees in his role-playing experience, and hopefully I can carry on the tradition and interject a little bit of unique twist into these time honored conventions.
    Other works of fiction, games, and pieces of non-fiction have served as inspiration for certain aspects of my game. Among these are: Steven Brust's Taltos and Phoenix Guard books, Raymond Feist's Riftwar Sage, Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, varous works by Larry Niven and H.P. Lovecraft, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and the early Ultima games (II-V), the Final Fantasy series of games (especially FFIII -- by American numbering).

What's Unique About Trinalia?

    For the most part, the Trinalia is a game about the rise and fall of various powers.  At the outset of the campaign years ago, I defined the land of Trinalia as being a land where good was widespread and evil was on the rise.  As participants in the campaign know, the scales are quickly shifting in the other direction: forces of evil are gaining dominance, and threaten to overwhelm everything that the PCs stand for.
    At the same time, the Trinalia campaign is a game of politics and people - real people (well, real people in the role-playing sense.)  A player in the Trinalia game frequently encounters the mythical beasts known as "pure good" and "evil incarnate"; I wouldn't dare dispense with those high fantasy conventions!  However, there are shades of gray. In between those two extremes, a web of shadows and intruige on which the wars of good and evil are played out.
    Accordingly, while the goals for which the players may strive is clear cut, the paths to that goal seldom are, and are always frought with peril.  While the players may know for sure that the Empire of Drakkar is their foe in some effort, who is to say if the Dark Circle should be trusted, or if the Witch Queen is a more important threat, or if the Old Clans harbor hidden potential that can be harvested as allies, if only the PCs are silver-tounged enough?
    Alas, it seems that enigma is the main difference between Trinalia and the archtypcial campaign world.  Though  many of the trappings are familiar, some are not.  And even some of those that seem familiar harbor hidden secrets.  One thing a wise wanderer of Trinalia knows is that nothing in Trinalia happens without a cause.  Very few happen without a purpose.  All events are a result of the delicate interplay between the power-players who pull the strings of the people and nations of Trinalia.  While it may not be immediately obvious exactly WHO or WHAT caused some event to come about, one is much better off who becomes wise to the currents of fate.  Those who are unwary of such currents are doomed to be washed downstream with them.

Wheels within wheels: Plots in Trinalia (or: Alan's DMing philosophy)

    I had felt from my early days of DMing that a role-playing game had to be more than one person telling a story and the rest acting the part. The setting had to live.
    To understand what I mean, I must go into my philosophy on DMing. A DM's primary jobs are arbitrating the outcomes of events and portraying NPCs. Many DMs do not see those two as closely linked. I do. As far as I'm concerned, the best way for me to make a complex, rich background is to determine WHO the major powers are in the world are (both NPC individuals and groups), WHAT they want, and WHAT they do to acheive it. Then you must decide how the action of these "powers" interact and conflict with one another, and decide what possible outcomes of that are expoitable for adventure material.
    Then, when your player characters become involved, you must determine how that changes the status quo and what events are spawned from it, as well as how all your "powers" react to the evolving state of the world. This, I feel, makes the world more real for the players and makes it infinitely more intruiging.
    In the information age, this mode of play is the only major advantage a flesh and blood DM that interacts with the player holds over the gaggle of computer games. CRPG's have incredible graphics and fascinating (if rigid) storylines. But computers have a long way to go before they can emulate the role of a human DM's judgement and creativity in producing a dynamic flexible storyline.