Films and TV Shows to inspire Trinity Aeon - Suggestions

[Drumheller]

Hi all,

I'm doing a deep dive into Trinity Aeon to prepare for an upcoming campaign I'm running. I'm putting together a film or TV show watch list to get some inspiration. I'm looking for suggestions. Any would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Drumheller

[Timecrafter]

not a show, but may be helpful. It's my pinterest for Aeon; I collect images since 1st edition. (the really ugly ones are Aberrants :P)

https://br.pinterest.com/frankmalcher/ref-aeon-trinity/

[IanWatson]

Hi all,

I'm doing a deep dive into Trinity Aeon to prepare for an upcoming campaign I'm running. I'm putting together a film or TV show watch list to get some inspiration. I'm looking for suggestions. Any would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Drumheller

Page 19 has a list of inspirational media which should get you on the right page.

[Drumheller]

Page 19 has a list of inspirational media which should get you on the right page.

Yep, I read that. It's a good list.

[Florin]

Earth: Final Conflict has some biotech, and while the aliens are much more in the forefront than in Aeon, they could be used as the template for a seemingly benevolent race to meet.

[Shalmaneser]

It's a bit obscure, but there's a BBC serial "Outcasts" that ran for eight episodes. Distant, marginally-habitable alien planet with a small human (and slightly genetically-enhanced human) population cut off from an evidently devastated Earth. This might work as inspiration for a small colony shortly after the Upeo book it.

[No One of Consequence]

Astra: Lost in Space (2019) - A sci fi anime in which a group of high school students in a future space-faring go on a school trip and end up sucked through a worm hole to an area beyond known space and now have to find their way home.

The Fifth Element (1997) - A visually beautiful and fun to watch French made sci fi action film with locations that run the gamut from working class urban apartments and middle of nowhere archaeological digs to high tech labs and ultra-lux space cruise liners.

[Astromancer]

Although the second season was silly, but charming, Space Opera (how could you not like Maya?) and the first season was one of the last gasps of the British Scientific Romance, Space 1999, in spite of the lousy science, has elements that can be used.

The very 1970s take on the future is visually distinctive. It gives unfamiliar alternatives for visual models. Some of the ideas that drive the plots are pretty good. The execution of the scripts is often poor, but the cast where almost all troopers. But the more exotic plot elements of the first season of Space 1999 do fit Trinity even if the show itself doesn't seem to.

[Waldi]

The Netflix-Version of "Lost in Space" could also be worth a look. I could easily imagine the "Resolute" to be an old colonisation vessel build by the Daedalos League. It moves by some prototype novatech Warp-Engine none of the colonists on board really understands and since the Nova, who built the engine, is now dead, transcended or otherwise gone, the colonists have no means of actually steering the Ship. And since the prototype warp-engine sometimes not only warps through space but also through time, the colonists have no clue, where they are and when they are.

[johntfs]

The Expanse does a really good job from the "space side" of things.

[Planguy]

Farscape is a good show. Has a living starship. Moya's a good girl. John Crichton is definitely a Talent.

[Waldi]

And now, for shits and giggles alone, something from the department "things, that would be awesome inspirational stuff - if they werent so horribly obscure, that virtually no one has a chance of knowing them":

"Die Terranauten"

This german series of "Heftromane" (Pulpnovels) ran from 1979 to 1981 has it all:

- interstellar travel powered by psionic Starfarers!
- heroic PSI-Orders! (Well...one heroic PSI-Order...)
- tyrannical Proto-Cyberpunk-Megacorporations!
- a civilisation transitioning from hard-tech to bio-tech!
- high adventure in outer space!
- lost colonies!
- mysterious aliens!

To summarise it shortly:

The series takes place in 2499. Earth is the center of a sprawling interstellar empire - but a quite dystopic one at that. The gouvernment consists of a conglomerate of Mega-Corporations that rule human space with an iron fist. The society is based on a strict caste system. The far away space colonies are pretty much oppressed, while Earth itself degenerated into an ecologically ravaged hellhole. Interstellar Space-Travel is based on a caste of psionic navigators. And while the ruling mega-corporations are so authoritarian that they almost resemble the noble houses of ancient times, the psionic Starfarers called "Treiber" are a quite free-spirited bunch. The mega-corporations accept this grudgingly, because "Treiber" are desperatly needed. This changes, when a new form of engine, the "Kaiserkraft-Antrieb" is invented, that works without any psionic Navigator. Almost immediately, the Conglomerate decides, to get rid of those pesky Psionics. (Despite knowing, that "Kaiserkraft" has some seriously horrible side-effects such as permanently damaging the fabric of space-time) The "Treiber" get wind of that and thus, rebellion breaks out. What follows, is a cheesy Star-Wars-like Space-Opera-Romp.

The series also contains an early 80s eco-message, that is somewhere between "hamfisted" and "in your face", together with a heavy dose of quite cringy mystic mumbo-jumbo. The unfortunately MASSIVE downside: The whole nonsense never left Germany. And within Germany, "Die Terranauten" is almost completely forgotten. Therefore, the linked Info is unfortunately only available in German. Relatively recently, a lot of the old novels have been rereleased in ebook-format. So, if you can read German and don´t shy away from something that is pretty much the literary equivalent of a cheesy B-Movie-Series, than this could be for you...

[Drumheller]

Thank you for all the good ideas. Trinity Aeon can certainly cover many Sci Fi film & tv show ideas.

[Loneshark]

I meant to respond to this thread a while ago, but since I am snowed in on this New Years Eve, let me throw down some of my personal favorites for Aeon inspriation. Warning: 90's nostalgia incoming!

Iria: Zerim the Animation - A mid-90's anime and two part film series (just titled Zeriam) that is good for the aesthetics of space travel, teleportation, and the villian is a perfect Aberrant who spawns his own sub-aberrant mutants. It's old, yes, but holds up surprisingly well.

Bubblegum Crisis - The original and the early 2000's series (BGC: 2040), which features a team of badass women in powered armor fighting rogue cyborgs, are both great inspiration for cyberpunk/urban action campaign. Just change the Boomers (the rogue cyborgs) into Aberrant mutants and cultists, and it fits right in. Its spin-off series, A.D. Police, is also great inspiration for an Anima game (warning: you'll have to forgive a lot of the misogyny in that one).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - A colonial outpost on the edge of a border shared with a hostile alien race just screams to be adapted to a series based around Karoo and the Chromatics.

Event Horizon - While the immediate thought for this one would be "World of Darkness in Space", it's not totally off-point if you just tone down the horror elements. It's a great example of how jumpship technology could go horribly wrong. As an alternative, Solaris (the original Russian, not that garbage American remake) also works.

Dominion: Tank Police - More 90's anime nostalgia (see a pattern here?)! Overly armed cops in a massively polluted, crime-ridden city makes for a perfect FSA campaign. The main villain has a trans-humanist subplot, and (according to the notes in the manga) the tanks are actually biotech!

Tenet - A more recent film which deals with high espionage and time travel. Great for mining inspiration, if a bit slow. Okay, really slow. It'd probably be better for a main campaign/Talent story.

Dr. Who - Both the "classic" series and the more recent relaunches cover so many sci-fi tropes that it would be impossible to list them all here.

Scanners - Classic David Cronenberg. Again, more aimed at classic WoD aesthetics, but it's still a great example of psychics who have to hide themselves from a paranoid government that wants to exploit them.

If I can think of anymore I'll add them. Good luck!