James Bell

CREATOR

12 days ago

Project Update: August 2025 Monthly Update

Hello Steam Warriors,

As we've seen in the past few updates, our book is still in the "Art Direction" phase. There's a lot of stuff in layout in the Onyx Path project summary, so perhaps a bit of a logjam there. The last note I saw on TC: Steam Wars, Mike Chaney noted that he was "Digging up samples for potential splat artists" so it seems that there's still some illustrations to be assigned while Larry works on the other artwork for the book.

Hopefully things will start progressing soon. I'll share any artwork that appears as they move closer to finishing up Art Direction and getting into Layout.

While we wait, I'll continue to share excerpts from the Leviathan companion book that we unlocked via Stretch Goal. Today... up in the skies!

Aerial Combat

In this time of steam, condensed coal, and infinite possibility, no frontier on the planet is safe from the Steam War. The Tillencrest Airsled, the Luftramm 19, and the Hirohata Long Range Aerial Ram — detailed in Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars — introduced the idea of aerial combat and the rules in this section will allow you to design, and run, thrilling aerial encounters.

These rules modify the core rules, are to be used alongside them, and apply to vehicles, rigs, leviathans, and any other character type. Collectively, these are termed combatants throughout.

Elevation

Height is a major factor during aerial combat. To keep things as simple as possible, elevation is tracked as a new type of Advantage.

The lowest combatant in an encounter always has an Elevation Advantage of 0 and each other combatant has an Elevation Advantage of 1 for every range band they are above the lowest combatant. This Advantage always applies to attacks. It also applies to attempts to stay hidden during the day, when looking up into the sun makes it harder to see, but is applied in reverse at night, when the higher combatant would be outlined against the moon.

Optional Rule: Fixed Elevation 0
The ground has an Elevation Advantage of 0 and every range band from the ground increases a combatant’s Elevation Advantage by 1. This makes Elevation Advantage less impactful overall, but easier to track.
Elevation also impacts how a combatant moves.

When descending, a combatant may move an additional range band as part of the usual reflexive action. This means, absent any special rules, a combatant can move from Close to Medium range. A character piloting a vehicle, or a leviathan capable of flight, can attempt a difficulty 3 roll using any appropriate pools as a simple action to move from close to long range.

Unless they are capable of sustaining flight, a combatant descends one range band at the end of their turn. If this results in them hitting the ground, roll a pool of d10s equal to twice the number of range bands fallen. They lose a number of Injury or Ruin levels equal to twice the number of successes.

Additionally, whenever a combatant uses the Roll Away Defense Trick, they may spend a second hit to move an additional range band.

An ascending combatant must attempt a difficulty 1 roll of any appropriate pool as part of the reflexive move action. If they fail, they must use a simple action to move instead.

Areas and Area Effects

Most of the Areas you will be using for aerial combat are in the sky, an environment devoid of fixed cover and susceptible to different types of weather.

When a combatant uses the Utilize Cover action, they gain one of the following benefits, determined by what they are using as cover:

Cloud Cover: The combatant’s Defense increases by +1, +2, or +3 depending on the thickness of the cloud.
Terrain: Things like mountains function as full cover, hills as heavy cover, and trees as light cover (Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars, p. XX).
Weather: While weather itself can’t provide cover, it can rob an attack of momentum and provides up to two points of Armor (Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars, p. XX).
When applying Complications from area effects, any Complication that causes a combatant to fall prone or similar, results in them moving one range band closer to the ground.
The following area effects presented in the core book can be used to represent a variety of aerial effects by tweaking their potential consequences:
Aflame: Fighting in a lightning storm invites disaster from stray bolts igniting wooden panels, condensed-coal reserves, or wing membranes.
Overgrowth: Snow-heavy clouds can freeze machinery and organic flight systems alike.
Overstimulating: Storms flood the senses with extraneous information.
Quaking: Turbulence is the bane of skilled pilots the world over.

Other area effects — such as Darkness, Extreme Temperature, Extreme Weather, and Suffocating — can be used as written.

Optional Rule: Effects of Elevation
As a combatant rises, the effects of extreme altitudes make themselves known. When a combatant starts their turn at Long range or further, relative to the ground, they must use a reflexive action to make a difficulty 2 roll using Athletics + Stamina to resist the effects of altitude sickness. Failure imposes the Deprived status effect and failing two consecutive rolls imposes the Dazed status effect. These status effects resolve after spending two rounds at Medium range or less, relative to the ground.

Additional Systems

The following systems are optional mechanics.

Gravity

Projectile-based ranged attacks firing upward have their range reduced by one range band to a minimum of Short. Projectile-based ranged attacks firing downward have their range increased by one range band to a maximum of Long range.

Look Out Below!

Stray munitions, corpses, and chunks of armor rain down on the ground. When an encounter takes place over any terrain that has Storyguide characters present, or that the characters are likely to visit, the Storyguide should roll 5d10 when a ranged attack misses, a vehicle loses one or more Ruin levels, or a combatant is Taken Out.

The number of successes rolled is applied, on a one-for-one basis, as lost Injury or Ruin levels to an individual character or rig; an increased difficulty to the next action undertaken by any Large-Scale Units present; or, in the case of empty terrain, the Contaminated Ground area effect Complication.

Storyguide characters present shift their Attitude by one at the end of the encounter, in a direction based on their view of the outcome.

Rushing Wind

Unless characters are within Close range of each other, the wind makes communication difficult. All attempts to communicate become a reflexive action requiring a Culture or Leadership + Stamina roll with a difficulty equal to the character’s Elevation Advantage compared to the ground.

Next month we'll look at Underwater Combat.

Pending Projects

Many dots to fill in.

Rewards Delivered to Backers

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Æon PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Aberrant PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Adventure! PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Assassins PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Anima PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Aether PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
Trinity Continuum: Aegis PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
They Came from Beneath the Sea! PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
They Came from Beyond the Grave! PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
They Came from the Cyclops's Cave! PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)
They Came from [CLASSIFIED!] PDF + PoD Codes (April 9 '25 Update)

Pledge Manager

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://trinity-continuum-steam-wars.backerkit.com/

Onyx Path Project Tracking

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Onyx Path Discussion Channels

If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:

To Contact James

If you've got a question about your pledge or BackerKit page or any part of the process, you can contact me with any of these methods

Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
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