{"id":41701,"date":"2014-05-03T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=41701"},"modified":"2014-05-10T21:43:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T02:43:48","slug":"review-catalyst-game-labs-valiant-universe-rpg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=41701","title":{"rendered":"Review: Catalyst Game Labs – Valiant Universe RPG"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RPC-Review-Banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Valiant Universe RPG<\/strong>
\nValiant Universe RPG is a superhero role-playing game, based in the Valiant comic universe, written by Randall N. Bills and Phillip A. Lee and published by Catalyst Game Labs.
\nBy Aaron T. Huss<\/em>
\n\"CGL-VUR-Quick-Start-Rules\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about Valiant Universe RPG here<\/a>
\nPurchase Valiant Universe RPG here<\/a>
\nFind other Valiant Universe RPG products here<\/a><\/p>\n

Valiant Universe RPG<\/em> is the latest entry of comic books made into tabletop role-playing games. It features superheroes from the Valiant Comics universe and is powered by the same game system as Cosmic Patrol with a slight change for powers. The system is simple and story-oriented and keeps with the GM-less features of the original system, allowing everyone to have a turn at being the antagonist of the story. All in all, it’s a very solid entry into the comic book RPG realm and a good addition to anyone’s library.<\/p>\n

I was a big comic book fan in the 1980s and 1990s. One of the heroes I like was Ninjak, although I didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy him as I was at the tail-end of my fandom. When I saw that Catalyst was developing a comic book-based RPG, I had my doubts. When I saw that it was set in the Valiant Universe, my curiosity was piqued. When I got my hands on the Quick Start Guide, all of doubts fell to the floor and my eyes opened to something amazing.<\/p>\n

I have a bit of a problem with many superhero RPGs. Many of them feel like regular RPGs with a superhero theme wrapped around them. But when you look at comic books, superhero careers are nothing like what most RPGs represent. They generally don’t have long-term campaigns, battling hordes of mooks until reaching the one big-bad. At least not the comic books I was a fan of. Every one I read consisted of short adventures (with deeper stories in the later years) with one to only a mere handful of adversaries to deal with. But most RPGs are mechanically designed to play like long-term campaigns or lengthy adventures against lots of different adversaries. So when I finished reading through the introduction of the Quick Start Guide and realized it was based on the same, very simple system of Cosmic Patrol<\/em>, I got a glimpse of those comic book-like adventures, pinning the heroes against villains that were all-but equally matched. This is all done without adding a bunch of layers of mechanics.<\/p>\n

Valiant Universe RPG<\/em> is powered by a GM-less system whereas each player spends an entire scene as the Lead Narrator (i.e. the Gamemaster). Of course, the LN also gets to play as a PC, giving him the chance to act on both sides of the screen. One of the coolest things about this type of mechanic is that everyone gets a hand in driving the story forward, using the given framework, kind of like the ever-changing mentality of a super-villain who must react to the heroes and adjust his plans accordingly. To me, this makes for a much more dynamic game, which comic books always seem to be. They’re not as static as a pre-designed campaign where the characters drive the story, altering regular outcomes, but the overall movements of the one big-bad generally stays the same. In comic books, you’re always fighting the big-bad, and that really comes out in the Valiant Universe RPG<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I can’t wait until this comes out in print!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valiant Universe RPG Valiant Universe RPG is a superhero role-playing game, based in the Valiant comic universe, written by Randall N. Bills and Phillip A. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1935,169],"tags":[168,3521,18,3516],"class_list":["post-41701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","category-reviews","tag-catalyst-game-labs","tag-headline","tag-superhero","tag-valiant-universe-rpg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41778,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41701\/revisions\/41778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}