December Update: All Conditions Go!
13 days ago
– Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 09:57:27 AM
Hello heroes!
I hope you’re having a happy holiday season! We’ve been hard at work getting the final drafts of the Valiant Adventures books in place and preparing for the fun process of laying the books out and adding pieces from the amazing catalog of Valiant Comics art. I can’t wait for you to see the final product soon!
Today I want to talk about another one of the interesting changes from the core Mutants & Masterminds engine we’re bringing to better suit the gritty style of this universe. Like many RPGs, the Mutants & Masterminds game engine that powers Valiant Adventures makes use of various Conditions shorthand for the game modifiers imposed on a character’s Traits or Actions by Effects, Maneuvers, or other circumstances. Most of these are familiar to long-time players of the third edition of M&M, with a few exceptions:
● Damage Conditions: We’ve specifically called-out the Conditions caused by Damage, since they interact with recovery and Effects like Healing and Regeneration, among other things. We’ve likewise called-out specific Damage Conditions for objects, like Broken or Destroyed, as compared to Damage Conditions for characters.
● Surprised: We’ve made Surprised into a Condition characters can experience, which makes it easier to define in terms of its interactions with Effects and other game traits.
● Wounded: There’s a Wounded Condition to round out lethal Damage Conditions in the game. A Wounded character is badly injured, leaving them Dazed, Disabled, and Hindered.
There are also a few changes in existing conditions, mostly in terms of interaction with Bonus and Penalty Dice. For example, the Vulnerable condition grants attacks targeting the character a Bonus Die rather than halving Defense Ranks, for example, and the Weakness Condition means a character has a Penalty Die on Resistance Checks against certain Effects or descriptors and their best possible result on the Resistance Check is one Degree of Failure, regardless of the Check Total.
Since the Affliction Effect is strongly based around imposing Conditions, its range of options has expanded slightly with the addition of more Conditions to choose from.
We should have a bigger update for you all in January so keep your eyes in this space and as always, stay Valiant!
~ Alex Thomas, M&M Line Developer
Remaining Surveys Going Out!
about 1 month ago
– Mon, Dec 02, 2024 at 11:17:15 AM
Hey there Heroes!
The Backerkit smoke test did indeed reveal a couple of small issues over the weekend, so we were a little bit delayed in getting the rest of the surveys sent out, but the good news is that they are on the way this morning!
Be sure to check your spam filter if you don't see it in your inbox, but if necessary you can request another survey email at this link: https://valiant-adventures-roleplaying-game.backerkit.com And if nothing else seems to work, send us an email to [email protected] and we'll sort it out for you.
One of the issues we had was that two of the introductory survey questions were not connected with the correct pledge levels (digital vs print). If you were one of the very first smoke test backers to complete your survey after they went out last Wednesday, please double check to make sure that question has been answered now that it has been fixed. We cannot lock your order without it, even if you answered it before since the pledge manager sees it as a brand-new question for you. Fortunately, there are only a very small handful folks who ran into that issue.
Let us know if you run into any trouble at all, by emailing Customer Service at [email protected]. Sending a message through Kickstarter is not a good way to reach us, as that inbox is only occasionally monitored. Please use email, particularly if the issue is time sensitive.
Pledge Manager Surveys at long last!
about 1 month ago
– Tue, Nov 26, 2024 at 03:24:14 PM
Hey there Heroes!
Good news! We are finally getting the Backerkit surveys sent out! Apologies that it took so long, but we've been hard at work setting up some long-term fulfillment partners to both ensure cheaper shipping rates for folks in the UK/EU and in Australia/New Zealand, which will also extend to our other crowdfunding campaigns, as well as future direct-sales from our online store to customers in those regions! We're really excited about these new opportunities, but it has taken longer than we expected it to.
Today we are going to start with the "smoke test". For those of you unfamiliar with this process, the "smoke test" will send an initial batch of surveys, roughly 5% across all pledge levels, so we can evaluate the system and see if anything breaks, or if there's anything critical we missed. Once everything looks solid, we'll send out the remaining surveys.
Given the upcoming holiday in the US, where most of our backers for this campaign are located, we will let the smoke test run through the holiday and wait to send out the remaining surveys on Friday or Saturday if everything goes smoothly. If you aren't one of the initial 5%, no need to worry, you will see your survey in just a few days.
Fulfillment of digital and physical rewards is still a way off, but we will try to leave the surveys open for any adjustments you may want to make, or needed address changes, until the last possible moment when we go to press. We will give everyone as much advance notice as possible before we lock orders, and charge for shipping.
PDFs will start rolling out to backers as soon as the files are ready, and just before they are sent to the printer. These will be mostly complete, but we'll leave a few days between backers getting copies, and sending them to print just in case you all spot any typos or proofing errors we may have missed. It seems impossible to catch all of them, even when we hire outside proofreaders!
Thanks so much for all your patience while we got this new system in place, and for your continued patience while Alex and Steve get the books ready for release. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to reach out to us directly at [email protected].
October Update: It Takes Skill
2 months ago
– Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 09:29:01 AM
Hello heroes!
Welcome to a spooky update about the Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game! Today I wanted to talk about one of the big changes we’re making to the core Mutants & Masterminds experience in this iteration of the game. As long-time players of M&M are aware, Skills are more focused and specialized versions of the basic Abilities: A character with a high Agility Rank is quick, nimble, and graceful, while a character with Ranks in the Acrobatics Skill is trained specifically in those nimble movements. During the design process of Valiant Adventures we discovered that some of these Skills were a little too generalized to reflect the specialized training inherent in the idea of a Skill, or were a little too all-encompassing for a setting with the needs of Valiant. Technology is a great catch-all skill in a world where superscience is only one aspect of the wider superhero community, but Valiant comics feature a ton of high-tech action that could be steamrolled by a character with the base Technology Skill. To that end we’ve expanded the list in a few key areas to further specialize characters and increase difficulty in gameplay.
Here is a few places we’ve expanded the Skills:
● Interaction Skills: The Interaction Skills from M&M (Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion, as well as the related Insight) all exist in Valiant Adventures, but there are some slight differences in terms of what you do with them due to an update to Actions and Maneuvers in the game, notably Overwhelm, which we’ll look at in another preview. Sufficient to say, interacting is something more Valiant characters can do with less required training
● Occult Skill: Given the importance of Occult knowledge to many parts of the Valiant Universe (and characters such as Doctor Mirage, Punk Mambo, and Shadowman, to name a few), we broke Occult out into its own specific skill, separate from Expertise.
● Technical Skills: The Technology Skill from M&M was too broad for the more technical Valiant setting, so it is broken down into three Skills: Computers, Electronics, and Mechanics.
● Thief Skills: We rounded out Sleight of Hand and Stealth with Thievery, a Skill that handles burglary, security systems, traps, and the like for the sneaky and felonious characters who aren’t technical experts otherwise, and with an Escape Artist Skill for slipping out of bonds and other traps.
● Vehicle Skills: Similar, rather than a single Vehicles skill from M&M, we’ve broken it down into Driving and Piloting, with the option of a separate Riding Skill, if the setting or era calls for it. (Otherwise, Riding is easily covered by the Athletics Skill.)
That gives Valiant Adventures a list of 22 Skills to the default 16 in Mutants & Masterminds. Valiant characters might have a few more Skill Ranks overall, or a slightly more focused set of Skills, while M&M characters can be assumed equally good at all of the “sub-skills” of things like Technology or Vehicles, if they have them.
There you have it! As for production updates, the Hero’s Handbook has returned from editing and is now in the capable hands of layout and I’m working through my developer’s pass of the text for Worlds of Valiant. We are pushing ahead full steam getting everything squared away for a release in 2025!
Until next time, stay Valiant!
~ Alex Thomas, M&M Line Developer
September Update: A Challenging Point!
4 months ago
– Mon, Sep 16, 2024 at 11:18:18 AM
Hello heroes!
It’s wild thinking about how fast the summer went by. Gen Con was basically 6 hours ago and somehow, it’s already September and time to give you all an update about the state of the Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game! Initially we were hoping to release the PDF of this game in October, but thanks to a myriad of factors that won’t be possible. However, I do have some good news on that front: the Valiant Adventures Hero’s Handbook is officially off at editing. That means the text is written and I’ve gone over everything and now it’s time for the proofreading and copyediting pass. We’re really close to the first book being ready for the layout step and that is so exciting!
For this month’s update I wanted to share a bit of text from the new book aimed at our Gamemasters! We’re codifying one of the Ominiversal Variant innovations from the Atomic Think Tank in the core rules of Valiant Adventures, the Challenge Point! Challenge Points are a Gamemaster’s version of Hero Points that allows the GM to adjust the flow of adventures and encounters.
The Gamemaster can spend their Challenge Points for any of the following effects during play:
Activation: Activate an “action” on the part of the environment. Usually this is springing a trap or using some weapon or power as part of an installation or headquarters, but it might be some other hazard or aspect of the environment, depending on the circumstances.
Escape: A Challenge Point allows Non-Player Characters to escape from the heroes. The Gamemaster provides some suitable explanation for how the characters escape at the time.
Extra Action: One Non-Player Character of the Gamemaster’s choice gains an additional action of their choice on their turn.
Initiative: One Non-Player Character of the Gamemaster’s choice moves immediately to the top of the initiative order, like a use of the Seize Initiative advantage.
Instant Counter: One Non-Player Character of the Gamemaster’s choice can use their Reaction to attempt to counter an Effect.
Recover: One Non-Player Character of the Gamemaster’s choice can immediately remove a Dazed, Fatigued, or Stunned Condition. This option also allows a character to use Extra Effort without suffering Fatigue, which makes all of the uses of Extra Effort potential uses of Challenge Points as well.
Resistance: If a Non-Player Character fails a resistance check, the GM can choose to spend a Challenge Point to make the check one Degree of Success instead. This includes Damage Resistance Checks as well as checks against ongoing effects.
Challenge Points in Play
Whereas Hero Points tend to be focused on helping the heroes to succeed, recover, and endure, Challenge Points tend to focus on helping the heroes’ foes last longer (Escape, Instant Counter, Recover, and Resistance) and do more (Extra Action and Initiative). There’s no re-roll provision for Challenge Points, for example. If a villain fails a roll and you want them to try again, have them take an Extra Action to do so.
Likewise, Challenge Points function differently from Hero Points in some cases. Resistance with a Challenge Point provides an automatic success, rather than a re-roll or another attempt as with a Hero Point, allowing a villain to shrug off certain effects that would otherwise take them out of the fight too quickly, without completely negating the effects of Damage. You can think of Challenge Points in some ways as additional “minion”-level opponents for the heroes, capable of taking added actions, or sacrificing themselves for the benefit of a master villain, or otherwise serving as distractions or challenges for the heroes, but quickly removed from play once they have done their work.
Unlike the heroes, who earn Hero Points over the course of the game, the GM’s Challenge Points do not increase and only refresh at the start of a new adventure. Therefore, the Gamemaster is advised to reserve some for the climax of the adventure and other occasions where it is important to ensure a suitable challenge for the heroes and the use of Complications (following) is less suitable.
I’m so excited for GM’s everywhere to use Challenge Points to increase the threats of their Valiant villains and to forge more exciting and dangerous encounters for their heroes.
Until next time, stay Valiant!
~Alex Thomas, Mutants & Masterminds developer
