The Inside Scoop on Gaming

With the advent of the World Wide Web, anyone these days can spread information on a large scale to any that care to read. Given the tendency of gamers to create their own games, it seemed only natural that after a time, gamers would share their own homemade role-playing games on this medium. Sometimes they're decent, sometimes they make you groan; the world simply does not need another treatment of how to fit the Predator into your Vampire game. Valence 592© is just one example of the former category. As far as role-playing is concerned, it's not bad, especially for content provided over the Web. But maybe, just maybe, it shouldn't be Web-based.

The world of Valence 592 is set thousands of years into the future, far after human contact with extraterrestrials and indeed far after the fall of the Human Galactic Empire. The ancient mythic races of old, such as dragons, elves, and ogres, exist on other worlds far removed from "Old Earth." The Lording, discovered millennia ago by the other races and often called "magic" by Earthlings, flourishes as an art. What remains of the Empire, recently devastated by a great war against creatures it created, is mainly dominated by megacorporations. Characters in this game can be almost anybody, from street urchins to corporate-financed mages to genetically engineered supersoldiers.

The mechanics of Valence purport simplicity, relying solely on a d20-based system reminiscent of an odd cross between the GURPS system and that of Legend of the Five Rings. Each task is assigned a "target number" from 1 to 50. When attempting this task, the player rolls a d20 and adds his level in the applicable skill to the roll, plus a bonus determined by the skill's base characteristic. Characters without any applicable skill are reduced to rolling a d10 and praying.

For example, our hero, Johnny Hargrave, is attempting to sneak past the guards assigned to patrol the hallway of the prison ship he's breaking out of. Johnny has a Stealth rating of 14, an Agility of 11, and a Mental Endurance of 7. The GM assigns a difficulty rating of thirty - these guards aren't slackers. Johnny's player rolls a nine, plus the 14 Stealth rating, plus a bonus of one point for his Agility - grand total of twenty-four, not good enough. Johnny is in a fair amount of trouble.

Like any other game system, it can get complicated at times, but after reading the rules through once or twice, what seems intimidating actually isn't that tough at all. In the combat section especially, much mention is made of using fractions of statistics added to other fractions of statistics. While acknowledgement must be made for the desire for realism in gaming, most gamers seem not to want to deal with math any more advanced than the second grade. (There's a good reason for this; after all, it's a game, something to have fun with, not to pore over with a calculator.) However, this transgression isn't that bad when you look at it more carefully. The only truly tricky bit about the whole situation is remembering the various formulas for attacking, dodging, parrying, and the like. Since they're all relatively similar, it's not that tough, especially since the downloadable character sheet contains spaces to list these values.

Unfortunately, the same innovation that gives Valence the edge over products sold in stores is the one that proves to be its greatest weakness. Valence, as a Web project, is at times difficult to read and difficult to navigate. While the central sitemap helps, navigation within the content itself can become confusing, as in the case of the link which promises to talk about the Economy in the Galactic Year 592 but ends up delivering the beginning of the equipment list. Also, its heavy reliance on graphics for intra-site navigation can be a liability for those with slow connections or computers.

All in all, Valence 592 is a pretty hefty game for something found on the Web. With a project of this size, it might be better off if the whole game were in fact presented as a standard book, easy to flip through and including a central table of contents. Here and there, a few typographical errors and points of confusion (such as the skill purchase chart) serve as examples of where a good thing could be made better given a professional production team. Given that the backing force behind Valence isn't in fact professional, this is a very good job.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Valence 592
Author: Colin Fredericks, Eric Garrison, Eric Tapley Category: game Company/Publisher: (Web published) Line: Valence 592 Cost: FREE Page count: n/a ISBN: 1887911-79-0 SKU: various Capsule Review by Andrew Tatro on 08/15/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Science fiction Far Future Space	With the advent of the World Wide Web, anyone these days can spread information on a large scale to any that care to read. Given the tendency of gamers to create their own games, it seemed only natural that after a time, gamers would share their own homemade role-playing games on this medium. Sometimes they're decent, sometimes they make you groan; the world simply does not need another treatment of how to fit the Predator into your Vampire game. Valence 592© is just one example of the former category. As far as role-playing is concerned, it's not bad, especially for content provided over the Web. But maybe, just maybe, it shouldn't be Web-based. The world of Valence 592 is set thousands of years into the future, far after human contact with extraterrestrials and indeed far after the fall of the Human Galactic Empire. The ancient mythic races of old, such as dragons, elves, and ogres, exist on other worlds far removed from "Old Earth." The Lording, discovered millennia ago by the other races and often called "magic" by Earthlings, flourishes as an art. What remains of the Empire, recently devastated by a great war against creatures it created, is mainly dominated by megacorporations. Characters in this game can be almost anybody, from street urchins to corporate-financed mages to genetically engineered supersoldiers. The mechanics of Valence purport simplicity, relying solely on a d20-based system reminiscent of an odd cross between the GURPS system and that of Legend of the Five Rings. Each task is assigned a "target number" from 1 to 50. When attempting this task, the player rolls a d20 and adds his level in the applicable skill to the roll, plus a bonus determined by the skill's base characteristic. Characters without any applicable skill are reduced to rolling a d10 and praying. For example, our hero, Johnny Hargrave, is attempting to sneak past the guards assigned to patrol the hallway of the prison ship he's breaking out of. Johnny has a Stealth rating of 14, an Agility of 11, and a Mental Endurance of 7. The GM assigns a difficulty rating of thirty - these guards aren't slackers. Johnny's player rolls a nine, plus the 14 Stealth rating, plus a bonus of one point for his Agility - grand total of twenty-four, not good enough. Johnny is in a fair amount of trouble. Like any other game system, it can get complicated at times, but after reading the rules through once or twice, what seems intimidating actually isn't that tough at all. In the combat section especially, much mention is made of using fractions of statistics added to other fractions of statistics. While acknowledgement must be made for the desire for realism in gaming, most gamers seem not to want to deal with math any more advanced than the second grade. (There's a good reason for this; after all, it's a game, something to have fun with, not to pore over with a calculator.) However, this transgression isn't that bad when you look at it more carefully. The only truly tricky bit about the whole situation is remembering the various formulas for attacking, dodging, parrying, and the like. Since they're all relatively similar, it's not that tough, especially since the downloadable character sheet contains spaces to list these values. Unfortunately, the same innovation that gives Valence the edge over products sold in stores is the one that proves to be its greatest weakness. Valence, as a Web project, is at times difficult to read and difficult to navigate. While the central sitemap helps, navigation within the content itself can become confusing, as in the case of the link which promises to talk about the Economy in the Galactic Year 592 but ends up delivering the beginning of the equipment list. Also, its heavy reliance on graphics for intra-site navigation can be a liability for those with slow connections or computers. All in all, Valence 592 is a pretty hefty game for something found on the Web. With a project of this size, it might be better off if the whole game were in fact presented as a standard book, easy to flip through and including a central table of contents. Here and there, a few typographical errors and points of confusion (such as the skill purchase chart) serve as examples of where a good thing could be made better given a professional production team. Given that the backing force behind Valence isn't in fact professional, this is a very good job. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)