Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game

July Update: Deadside Preview
5 months ago – Fri, Jul 26, 2024 at 09:49:47 AM

Hello, heroes! 

We’re closing-in on the complete text for both Worlds of Valiant and the Valiant Hero’s Handbook. Over on the Atomic Think Tank, we’re getting feedback from folks playing the Valiant Quick-Start. If you have played through it or run it and have comments for us, check out the Think Tank or drop us a line at [email protected].

Worlds of Valiant provides more than just a look at the diverse aspects of the Valiant setting, it offers a who’s who of Valiant with all of their game traits, characters you can use as heroes, villains, or somewhere in-between. It also delves into specific game systems for handling aspects of the Valiant setting, such as this bit from the Deadside chapter:

Entering and Leaving the Deadside

There are two primary means of entering and leaving the Deadside: spirit and physical, although the difficulty of using them may vary depending on the character’s abilities and the conditions of their travel.

In some cases, it is simply a matter of the character having the correct abilities, particularly the Dimensional Travel Effect, and making the transition from the living world to the Deadside or vice versa. However, certain conditions may limit or complicate this travel—for example, the character might be able to go to the Deadside at any time, but then not be able to return for at least three days, for example. The Gamemaster decides when these conditions apply, often depending on when characters travel or where they go. Generally, experienced travelers—those trained in the Occult Skill—know about these limitations in advance, but they might not always. Gamemasters can award characters Hero Points for unexpected Complications in Deadside travel, especially if they affect their otherwise established abilities.

Deadside Portals

In some situations, characters have to either keep a portal between Earth and the Deadside open (long enough to accomplish whatever they need to do) or they want to close such a portal—again, ideally before whoever is using it can cause problems.

Keeping a portal open is typically a Concentrate Action and may also require a Check of some sort, such as Occult. The longer the portal is kept open, the more difficult it becomes: Increase the DC of each successive check to keep the portal open by at least +1, possibly more. Characters can use Extra Effort to gain an extra Standard Action to both Concentrate and do something else, otherwise their Standard Action is taken up keeping the portal open, unless the GM decides it takes a lesser action. Once no one is holding the portal open, it closes, usually at the start of the next Turn of the character who was holding it open.

Closing a portal can be as simple as a Countering Check against the character or force holding it open: Each side rolls an Opposed Check using Power Rank, Will, or Occult, and the character who wins decides if the portal stays open or closes. In some dramatic situations, the GM may decide closing a Deadside portal is a Challenge Sequence, as follows:

Time: Typically 1 round, although possibly longer.

Checks: Most often Occult, but Will or Fortitude Checks may be called for, and other magical power Ranks may apply. This is either against a set Difficulty Class or an Opposed Check against another character or force keeping the portal open. The DC for opening a Deadside portal may be lower in a blight or shadow place.

Success: When the character achieves the needed Degree of Success, the portal closes. This can be anywhere from 2 to 5 Degrees or more. Likewise, the Degree of Success needed may be lower in a blight or other place where the veil between the worlds is thin.

Consequences: The primary pressure for this Challenge is getting the portal closed in time, but the Gamemaster may decide that Failure on a Check has other consequences, including Fatigue or a Damage Resistance Check, or a Fortitude or Will Resistance Check to avoid being Stunned and no longer able to try to continue closing the portal.

Closing or eliminating a blight is similar to closing a portal, but usually with a longer time interval, minutes or even hours rather than rounds, and requiring 5 or more Degrees of Success. Deadside creatures dependent on the blight may well try to prevent it being closed as well.

The Road Ahead

Like we said, the text is almost finished for both books and Alex has begun the design work for some of the other products associated with the Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game such as the GM and Player Journals. We’ll show off some of that information in an upcoming update. We’ll also be doing some more Valiant-themed actual plays on the Atomic Think Tank in order to give our members a chance to try the game with the designers before it's finalized. Finally, we’ll all be at Gen Con next week! Alex will be running a ton of M&M games at the con and we will both be at booth 101 with the rest of the Ronins. Please stop by to say hi or drop into a game we’re running!

June Valiant KS Update: Special Effects
7 months ago – Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 11:29:28 AM

Hello heroes! 

I can’t believe it’s already summer time and con season. I’ll be running a ton of M&M events at Origins Game Fair when this post goes out, but I wanted to take some time to showcase some more of our new mechanics for Valiant Adventures. One of the coolest aspects of the superhero genre is the wide range of exciting powers and abilities on display. However, these unique talents manifest in thousands of different ways, which can be daunting to replicate in RPG form. We boil these superpowers down to their base Effect on the world around them.

Effects define what different powers do in game terms, from Damage to Protection, Flight, Teleport, and many other broad categories. While Valiant Adventures makes use of most of the Effects found in M&M, we have adjusted or updated some of them, along with adding a couple to give Valiant players and Gamemasters a robust toolkit for describing their characters and what they can do.

●       Affliction is a key Effect when it comes to attacks that don’t necessarily inflict Damage, but focus on various Conditions. We’ve added a few new Conditions an Affliction can impose, along with providing several ready-made Effects that are specific “shorthand” configurations of Affliction to make it easier to grab just the Effect you want, and have something to call it. They include Dazzle, Mind Control, Paralyze, Snare, Stun, Suffocation, Toxin, and Transform.

●       Obscure is a new Effect from our “Omniversal Variant” test articles on the M&M Patreon—with more of these articles planned for the new Atomic Think Tank. Obscure will be familiar to those who played the Second Edition of M&M. It neatly handles sense-blocking Effects from areas of darkness or blinding smoke to silence fields or even radio jamming frequencies.

●       Tether is likewise an “Omniversal Variant” making its appearance in Valiant Adventures, an Effect binding the user to a target and allowing them to exert force on it at a distance.

Those are just a few examples of the 40-some Effects found in Valiant Adventures, each with their own modifiers to enhance or limit how they work. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the creative applications you come up with using these Effects and many others after the game launches!

~Alexander Thomas, lead developer for Mutants & Masterminds

May Update: Taking Action!
7 months ago – Tue, May 28, 2024 at 09:36:13 AM

Hello Heroes! 

I just wanted to check in to let you know that our work continues on the Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game. We’re deep into the amazing setting work of Worlds of Valiant, creating a ton of iconic statblocks and I’m personally working through my chapter on the Stalinverse at the moment. It’s a fitting bit of development work to be doing in what is traditionally Multiverse May at Mutants & Masterminds Monday!

However, I wanted to use this month’s update to chat about some of the new actions we’re introducing for this game. Valiant Adventures uses the familiar actions and action-resolution system of Mutants & Masterminds with a few additions and clarifications. In particular, we’ve taken some things that have been described as actions, in the form of “take a standard/move action to do X” and turned them into named actions to provide clear shorthand, where it’s far easier to say “take the Command Action and” or “it requires a Sustain Action each turn”.

Action Types

We’ve added Reactions to the familiar list of Standard, Move, and Free Actions. Reactions are something that you do as a reflex or in response to something else and doesn’t even need to happen on your Turn. The game rules specify when you can use your Reaction to do something. You can perform one Reaction per Round, and regain your Reaction at the start of your Turn, if you used it on the previous Round.

Reactions open up a wide range of game abilities and options where players need to make a tactical decision in terms of how to use their Reaction each turn, particularly in terms of Advantages and maneuvers in combat. One of the things I love about a lot of our Reactions is that they tap into the feeling of camaraderie and teamwork inherent in superhero teams and help fill out the options for “support” character concepts. Now you have ways to influence the action without worrying about your allies already being at the Power Level caps.

New Actions

As noted, Valiant Adventures defines a number of “new” Actions, although many of them are just pre-existing options in M&M, codified into specific Actions so players and GMs can more easily reference them. Some examples include:

●        Command (Move Action): Issuing a command to a character under your direction, such as a Minion. If you want to issue different commands to different characters or groups, each one requires a Command Action (so you can issue two different commands per Round as two Move Actions).

●        Concentrate (Standard Action): You concentrate to maintain an Effect with the Concentration Duration. So long as you continue to take this action on each of your Turns, the Effect continues.

●        Feint (Standard Action): You attempt to mislead an opponent, leaving them unprepared for your real attack. Make an Attack Check or a Deception Skill Check (your choice) opposed by the better of your target’s corresponding Attack Bonus, Deception, or Insight. If your Check succeeds, the target is Vulnerable against your next attack until the end of your next Turn.

●        Overwhelm (Standard Action): You attempt to use sheer force of personality to overwhelm someone, forcing them to briefly do as you wish. Make an Interaction Skill Check or an unskilled Presence Check against the result of your target’s Insight or Will Check: With one Degree of Success your target is Dazed, with two they are Compelled to be Helpful towards you, with three they are Controlled to be Helpful towards you. Any Condition imposed by Overwhelm is removed at the end of your next Turn.

I’m so excited to see how players engage with all of these new options and hope that it continues the narrative-driven combat of Mutants & Masterminds. If you’d like to see an example of some of these actions at play, you can check out an actual play we ran this month set in the Deadside in the video below or for more hands-on previews and playtest material come visit us at the recently reopened Atomic Think Tank! We have sections there dedicated to all of Green Ronin’s games, including separate hubs for Mutants & Masterminds and Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game! I hope this update finds you well and, until next time, make some time to play a game and be good people!

~Alex Thomas, M&M Line Developer

April Update and The Atomic Think Tank!
9 months ago – Wed, Apr 10, 2024 at 04:04:19 PM

Hey there Heroes,

We should have the pledge manager set up on Backerkit soon, but in the meantime we've got an update for this month from Alex, as well as a link to join us on the new Atomic Think Tank!

Take it away, Alex!

Hello heroes! I just wanted to take some time to say thank you so much to everyone who helped us fund the Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game! We’re so excited to create a comprehensive breakdown of this amazing setting using the flexibility of Mutants & Masterminds. Since the end of the Kickstarter, Steve and I have been hard at work finishing up our sections of the Worlds of Valiant sourcebook. Gamemasters will be able to run believable, immersive games in any corner of the Valiant universe with this book. I can’t wait to start revealing portions of this text as we finish getting it ready.

Speaking of, The Atomic Think Tank, our community platform, has launched a space devoted to Worlds of Valiant, alongside the Mutants & Masterminds space, and you are invited to be among the first to join! Check it out at this link for a front row seat for the development of these books! Members of this community get the first opportunity to look through the text of the Valiant Adventures Hero’s Handbook, try the new rules with their home groups, and provide vital feedback as we continue development. If you’d like to get involved with the new Think Tank, please follow this link!

As for what comes next, Steve and I will continue the development process for Worlds of Valiant and I have begun designing the Player and Gamemaster Journals. Over the next few months we’ll continue giving previews here through Kickstarter Updates and we’ll be sharing more in depth previews on the Atomic Think Tank. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the great adaptations we’re bringing to Mutants & Masterminds and I hope you enjoy the preview process just as much as me! 

Alex Thomas - Mutants & Masterminds Line Developer

That's A Wrap!
11 months ago – Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 05:05:13 PM

Thank you so much, Heroes!

Our campaign has been a success, thanks to all of you, and we even unlocked the stretch goal for the Dust Jackets at the end there!

We're going to take a break for the evening, but we will be back soon with an update on what comes next, our plans for the pledge manager, and monthly updates on the progress & production of the Valiant Adventures RPG!

And as always... Stay Valiant!