The Role of Character Part 1

 Articles about better playing, D&D, Doctor Who, Featured, Kromore, Paizo Publishing, Palladium Books, Pathfinder, Rifts, Savage Worlds, Shadowrun, Silvervine Game System, Star Wars, Valiant, Wizards of the Coast  Comments Off on The Role of Character Part 1
Dec 112014
 

The Role of Character

What does it mean to have character? If you are like most players you will start defining your path by picking your race and rolling some stats. Then you pick a class and maybe an alignment, and then you gear up for adventure. For many that’s all there is to creating a character, but for what I believe to be a much more exciting experience, personality needs to be bred into the character. I don’t mean a superficial background that is created by a few random rolls; I mean one that gives a certain amount of depth to one’s personality thus influencing thought patterns. Creating a character like that is a challenge that introduces ethical challenges that go beyond an alignment or dispositions established by a particular game system.

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Valiant RPG Rules Review

 Catalyst Game Labs, Featured, RPG's, Valiant  Comments Off on Valiant RPG Rules Review
Sep 182014
 

The Full book is about 200 pages. Nearly two thirds of the book is about the Valiant universe, its characters and some adventures. That means the meat of the rules are contained in about fifty pages. This sets the stage for a rich setting, great roleplaying and light rules.

I’m a big fan of this book. The art alone makes it worth the purchase. You find great valiant art on nearly every page. If you’re new to the valiant universe, like me, You will find this book to be a tome of vast knowledge. It was way too easy for me to become immersed in the fluff – not something I normally do.

I have already reviewed the QSR, but if you haven’t read that here is what I think you should know. Valiant is a storytelling game. The players each take turns narrating a chapter. They must combine their efforts to play through the challenges while attempting to overcome the obstacles thrown at you from by the lead narrator (ln) – who is also playing a character.

As you might expect you will face challenges that will require you to pass a test or two along the way. In order to make such a check you roll a d12 plus the appropriate stat die vs d20 plus some modifiers. The higher number wins. Luck is the wild card and it always remains a static number. When the die roll plus the static number match luck it’s a crit!. The other cool part about this is that the stats are represented by dice.

Which brings us to character creation. It is a pretty fast and smooth process, I made my first character in 20 minutes and my second in about 15. Creation uses nine steps one of which is assigning power dice and picking powers. This system is fast and easy. It’s so easy I think Valiant could be a great gateway game for a college dorm.

I have played a few time now and I find that the system flows smoothly, with very few hiccups. I was really surprised at that the narration works. It seems that there is never a dull moment in this universe, largely because each narrator is trying to out do the other. With all that said, I’m concerned for theValiant RPG – it might just be too much fun.

 

You can find a copy at DriveThruRPG or visit Catalyst to learn more

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Words with Randall Bills from Catalyst Game Labs Part 1-3

 Battletech, Board Games, Card Games, Catalyst Game Labs, Featured, Origins 2014, Shadowrun, Shadowrun Crossfire, Sprawl Gangers, Valiant, Words With  1 Response »
Jul 162014
 

First I’m sorry this took so long, but I had a lot of unforeseen problems after Origins that prevented me from taking the time to break this down into three parts. For example flooding put our internet provider under water, that makes the whole social media thing pretty difficult.  There were other weather problems but no access to the internet was the worst. But Randall and I did talk at Origins game Fair about nearly everything Catalyst related.  Since Randall had so much to say it was necessary to break it into smaller segments.

  • Sprawl Gangers
  • Battletech and SR box sets
  • Valiant, The Duke, and Hostile Takeover

Part one is about the current trends with Sprawl Gangers. The Skirmish Game that takes place in the Shadowrun Universe. We do chat about Valiant briefly but we come back to it later.

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