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Valiant Universe: The Roleplaying Game $9.99
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
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by The H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/27/2014 21:57:04

I'm not a reader of the Valiant comics, but I have to appreciate just how comprehensive the Valiant content is in this game. There's an exhaustive supply of character profiles, writeups for them and major organizations, as well as a slew of ready-made adventures (Event Briefs) to play. Valiant fans will get a ton of mileage out of this one.

Unfortunately, the best part about Valiant Universe is also its greatest flaw. There's a lot of setting information. Too much, in fact. At least, it seems that way...but the ruleset the game runs on (based on Cosmic Patrol) is so sparse in certain places that it feels like a flimsy framework to base games on. I can deal with rules-lite, narrative games that rely on a little handwaving to move things along, and I always expect them to run better with the right kind of group. However, this game doesn't focus on a single GM to keep things in order - it expects you to rotate between each member of the group to narrate the scene, relying on sparse Cues to guide the action. There's little to no insight on solving common problems that may occur beyond a simple "just make it up, I guess!" and for a game that expects players to act as GMs as well, that lack of codified guidance can put them on the spot.

But even beyond that, the rules feel sparse. The basic mechanic is simple enough but it feels like there's little to set characters apart from each other, especially in terms of their powers. Like Marvel Heroic, Valiant has you assign powers a die rating, but unlike that game, the rules don't seem to cover any special effects a power might have (which do tend to pop up in some of the character profiles). Marvel Heroic didn't exactly have clear-cut character generation rules for its special effects either, but at least there were a few options. The lack of them makes Valiant characters feel bland, most of their sheets being taken up by lists of visual and action Cues to add roleplaying.

The game is definitely rules-lite, but it's by no means cofidied like other rules-lite games. If it gave more narration guidance, maybe had optional rules to help make the rules feel more substantial, this game could've easily gotten four stars thanks to the wealth of Valiant content and Event Briefs, which are a good cheat-sheet of sort for GMs. As it stands, Marvel Heroic has more going for it than this game.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Valiant Universe: The Roleplaying Game
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