Narrator | Through Gamer Goggles

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

Valiant RPG QSR Rules Review

Have you seen the new quick start rules for Valiant Universe RPG? I have. They made me reminisce on some of my early RPG days. In high school we role-played like it was our life. I can’t tell you how much D&D we played. We also played Marvel Super Heroes, Rifts, and even a little bit of DC mingled its way in. We had countless night where we would sneak out of our respective houses and meet up to play in a tent. Yes, I said a tent. Which didn’t do so well in the winter, but we managed to find a barn. There wasn’t any heat at first but we made it work.

I was and I still am very fond of the Marvel Super Heroes Game. It was the first RPG that expanded my vision of what RPG’s could encompass. The game also had a unique flair to it with karma and and power shifts. Valiant is going to be a game that does that same exact thing. Catalyst has introduced some very unique concepts that might just influence the future of story telling games. Two of these are the cue system and the introduction of a lead narrator, at least I have never seen it before.

The Cue system in a nutshell is this; character definition. On each character sheet there is a series of sentences that depict the characters personality. Some of these reflect the hidden identity of the character while others display attitude of the hero, and some exemplify the approach taken in combat. Basically, they are a guideline to influence the players decision making while attempting to stay in character.

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