Review of Valence

This review took longer than initially expected. The usual procrastination, disobedient software, and a flu epidemic I'm still suffering from even as I prepare to submit this are partly to blame, but there's a much bigger problem for yours truly: I don't quite know how I feel about this RPG. Doesn't make much sense, huh? Well come along and let's try if we can do this step by step.

This RPG is only available as a pdf for $20, either from RPGnow or DriveThruRPG. For that you get a 5.9 MB zip file that includes the book itself and a seperate charactersheet, although that is also included in the book. There's also a secondary copy of both included in the zip for MacOSX, but I don't use that so this review will not include that. The pdf is quite nicely bookmarked for ease of browsing.

Lovely, but what is this RPG about?

In a nutshell it's a skill-based space opera RPG. There are classes but no levels, and the classes aren't really constrictive. But more about them later.

Starting to thumb through the book.

The cover page is a digital picture of a green planet with a ring, some moons and space station orbiting, and a lense flare for a sun. This is all suspended in space, so I don't recommend printing this out unless you have lots of black ink you need to get rid off. Next is the title page, credits, writer's notes, and a pretty complete table of contents which is only missing a listing of sidebars for the completists, but that's about it.

What you need to play? I think most if not all people who buy this game will be experienced roleplayers, so this section is a bit superfluous to us. But in case you're completely green and a statistical anomally by buying the book, this is a pretty good section on getting started and gamer ettiquete.

Now we're finally getting somewhere in the Introduction. A quick overview of the species, cultures, and history of the galaxy in the year 592 - that's 3029 AD, by the way.

Species

When we look at the species initially we can breathe a sigh of relief; they didn't fall for the classic Star Trek trap of an endless list of humanoids with funny ears, noses, or eyebrows. They're listen in order of appearance into the cosmic field of importance.

• Inuueliting are the oldest of all races, humanoid, and mystical. They're divided into five different castes with notable physiological differences. They were the first to develop faster-than-light travel through their mysticism and thus also the first to forge an interstellar empire. It didn't last though.
• Budetug are roughly insectoids with a strong worker ethic who built their own empire after being first enslaved by the Inuueliting and later revolting against them.
• There's two kinds of the reptillian Caractingessen; Greats can be best described as dragons (wings and all), while the more cunning Serpentines are, of course, more like snakes. They are the tallest and most physically powerful of all species with demeanors to match. They in turn conquered the galactic empire from the Budetug.
• Another humanoid species, the Halla are best as starship pilots. As you might've guessed, these guys too gained, ruled, and lost the empire.
• Valorians are a silicon-based, aquatic lifeform that are like living computers. The trend breaks off here though - the Valorians never ruled the empire.
• Nesti are aggressive plants that build their homes out of their own dead ancestors. They've very fast and strong, but quite stupid.
• Now we hit upon the metaplot: Archangels are a very obviously created race by... something anyway. Physically superior to just about anything you could imagine, looking like armored and winged humanoids, and uniquely talented in Lording (magic, we'll get back to Lording in its own chapter) - but completely unable to lie and their "homeworld" is filled with technology they didn't make and don't know where it came from.
• Sa'crontor. They're snakes and they shoot lasers out of their eyes. Yes, let that sink in for a moment. Although this game took aspects of every pulpy (read: B-quality) science fiction book, movie, show, and videogame to construct itself, this goes just a little further than I normally like in my pulpy games. But, to do them the minimum amount of justice, let it be said that they have a religious belief that trickery and cunning are superior to physical force. Don't hit backspace on your browser just yet though, I promise it gets better from here.
• Ogres are divided up into three sub-species, one of which is wholy artificial. Trolls and Titans evolved seperately on the same planet, whilst the Draconians are the result of the Caractingessen wanting to have a reptillian servant species based on Titans. All of them are tough and unlikely to be geniuses, to say the least.
• If I need to tell you what a human is, just look into a mirror. Interesting to note is that our species is not the paragon of vanilla in this game, unlike so many others. Compared to the other races we are physically quite unassuming and not particulalrly mentally imposing either, but we do have absolutely unmatched speed and adaptability of thought. While the other races invented fantastic technologies over the course of literally millions of years, it was us who copied and modified it almost overnight once they showed us how it was done.

  This rapid development, plus the fact that the Halla empire had just collapsed out of sheer lack of vision and skill, caused our ambitious selves to - you guessed it! - take on the role of the new galactic empire.

  Oh, and there's two human subraces. Thanks to the Caractingessen's mucking about there is a race called Succubi, out of pretty much the same reasons that the Draconians are a subspecies of the ogres. There's also the Ariel who were made by the Inuueleting out of our primitive cavemen to have a worker caste. It seems we're just popular that way.

Cultures

One of the most significant contributions mankind gave to the galaxy is the concept of culture. While the other species developed far too slowly to truly get social diverges on a significant scale, we did not. The idea that, say, a Budetug can feel more kinship with his Halla neighbour who shares the same city, goverment, and society than with another Budetug who lives on the other side of the galaxy was completely new.

• Genetechnologies, Inc. If a culture includes "incorporated" into its title, it can't be good. This culture is all about fashion, hypes, and trends. The media will tell you what it is you like this season and you will follow. Can't be some social outcast, right? This society is also very forgiving when it comes to genetic engineering and has even created the so-called Ultramercenaries - vat-grown soldiers made for killing.
• The Coalition believes in unity, freedom, catering to everybody's needs, and every other kind of basic "human" rights. The problem is of course that outsiders don't like a bunch of commie hippies who try to tell everybody how they should behave.
• Aegis holds the finest minds in the galaxy, in both terms of education and ethics. They're a bit underfunded and very much short of blue-collar workers though.
• Armageddon Industries can only be described as the wild west with spaceships and the mafia thrown in. Conflict is a daily reality here and people aren't afraid to take justice into their own hands, while the government is run by tightly knit families who take care of themselves.
• You didn't think the other species would just dissolve their societies and join the various human megacorporation-cultures, did you? The Inuueliting Star Empire are the remnants of what they once had. Although it's been a million years since their authority as an empire has been recognized, this society is positively glacial in its speed to adapt so the name stuck.
• The Budetug Core are likewise remnants of old, these days ruled by complete democracy - every day citizens cast their votes on various subjects so a central AI can act on the desires of the population.
• Caractingessen can claim their own culture only by virtue of that they don't commonly join any of the other ones. It's all instinct for them to be rather territorial, and due to their might-makes-right attitude they tend to be a bit sexist because their males are often stronger than females.
• Communals are counted as a culture of their own, but it's actually a rather sweeping generalization of independant planets who live under socialist conditions. For mutual protection and aid they sometimes band together, and this alliance calls itself Ascripti.

Cultures provide each character with four starting skills for free. For example, Genetech is so caught up in fads and fashion that all its citizens will start with the Style skill (amongst others), whereas the brainiacs from Aegis will all have History and Research.

More Setting

Perhaps not the best name ever for a chapter, but it sure does nail it down. A lot of setting already has been blended into the descriptions of species and cultures, so here's just a few more things you ought to know about the galaxy. There's information on laws, relgions, inter-special relations, a timeline, details on communication and travel, and a cartography section. That is to say, it's described how the galaxy is broken up in sectors and quadrants and whatnot, but no actual map. That makes sense, as it would be impossible to make sense out of one anyway. Just because systems are closeby doesn't mean they're ruled by the same government. A galactic map that tried to show where the various cultures hold say would inevitably be just a chaotic caleidoscope of colors and borders.

Most interesting in this chapter is the information on the Fall. Here we learn that the human empire (read: Genetech Inc.) had created a unique lifeform for the purpose of being essentially slaves, called Demons. This race eventually rebelled and ruined planet Earth by chucking a moon at it, thus collapsing yet another galactic empire. It's almost certain that they had help from either without or within the empire, but it's not known to this day who those culprits are. Though eventually defeated, the Demons are far from vanquished...

Character creation

The steps are fairly easy: Concept, Culture, Species, Class, Attributes, Background, Skills, Equipment. That is, assuming you're a relatively normal character. You can also play one of the Ultramercenary, as mentioned earlier under Genetech. Instead of Species and Culture, you'll select Genes and Mentor in this case.

It turns out there are 11 ability scores in all, rated from 1 to 10 for most people. Higher is of course possible but very unusual. Nine of the attributes are given a default value by your Species, which are agility, creativity, dexterity, intelligence, lording, mental endurance, stamina, strength, and visualization. There's also Charisma and Knowledge, which get their default value from your class.

This makes a lot of sense if you think about it. A human diplomat might not be expected to be as Intelligent as a Valorian one with his computer-like brain, but they can both be expected to be very persuasive because of the jobs they do. They would both be expected to have a greater grasp on current events and trivia than a pickpocket on the streets though, regardless of what species this lowly criminal would be.

After determining default scores you are given some points to divide amongst them to raise yourself above the average a member of your Species and Class would be. This game is about movers and shakers after all; you're not just any old human soldier, you're Rambo. Skill points, beyond the free skills from your culture, depend on Class. Speaking of which...

Classes

There are 17 Classes, plus one "No Class", which is mainly meant for the average Joe on the street. Now, classes are not exactly the most popular thing in RPGs nowadays, but this one manages to make it work. All a class does is give you a number of skill points and a few skills for free (what doctor wouldn't have studied medicine?), determine two of your default ability scores as previously mentioned, adjust the costs of some skill groups (we'll get back to that in the Skills section), and give a special power.

• Archmages are of course the masters of the Lording, the magic of the setting. Because Valence is strongly skill-based, anybody can learn the relevant skills and call himself a mage of sorts. Few if any of these mages can match an archmage at the Lording game however. Archmages have an ability called Overdraw, which allows them to instantly recharge a lot of their spell points back.
• Arctic Commandos are rather self explanatory. Special forces trained for the many mineral-rich frozen planets. To be quite truthful I'd have provided a template instead so you can also easily make Desert Commandos, Jungle Commandos, and Aquatic Commandos, but alas. Still, the classes are so easy and loose, you'd have to be some sort of moron not to be able to do this yourself.
• Assassins! Groovy, who doesn't like a class based on the silent kill? Their special power makes them emminently suitable to be snipers.
• Bio Docs are healers plain and simple, and therefore your best friend. In fact that's also what their special ability is all about: clearly mark yourself as a medic and practically everybody will refrain from firing on you.
• Bounty Hunters don't need any introduction, do they? Dead or alive, that sort of stuff.
• Diplomats talk the talk. And they talk it very well indeed.
• Furies are street fighters. Their power is simple and frighteningly effective; the more opponents they fight, the stronger they get by making their foes interfere with eachother. Good times, good times.
• Interface Knight. Hacker of the future basically that sends out his consciousness into the computer-world, just like in Shadowrun, Alternity, Cyberpunk 2020, and a host of other games. If you want to know more, skip ahead to the Lattice chapter.
• Merchants do in the future the same as what they've always done: rip people off for fun and profit. Very smooth guys and galls with silver tongues... and a special ability that lets them reduce all their purchase costs by 10%.
• Operatives sneak in and out without you ever noticing it. They're the masters of snooping and infiltration. But, are they better at this game than the...
• Ninjas? Yes, even in space there are ninjas. Don't act so surprised. Stealthy warriors that flip out and wail on guitars. (Oh, but the Operative is indeed slightly better at stealth than the ninja.)
• Paladins are our knights in shining armor even in the far future. Powerful warriors a knack for Lording, and special ability that lets them infuse their melee weapons with power for extra damage.
• Space Jockeys are fighter pilots with that same kind of skill and flair that flying aces had in the first world war. But here's a bit of foreshadowing for you: is this class all that necessary? Stay tuned...
• Space Troopers are experts in a radical and, in my opinion, absurd method of combat. In a ship-to-ship battle they'll be deployed in armored environment suits, float over to the enemy ship, and cut it up with their special photon blades. Now those photon blades are mighty cool, make no mistake - they can cut through any material! But why do these targeted ships not use point defense guns to ventilate these troopers? I guess we'll never know (there's that foreshadowing again).
• Star Commandos do quite literally what their name implies. They put in special shielded suits and go inside a star to wage war. For the record, that usually means they go after the special stations that collect energy there. But here I must ask a similar question as I did with the previous class: if stations can be shielded to survive inside a star, why develop a similar shield for individuals instead of a gunboat or a missile even? And once again with the foreshadowing: I don't know.
• Tech Docs are what you and I would call engineers. They fix things and are good at using gizmos.
• Thief. I love it. None of these wishy-washy "rogues" for us. Thieves steal things (who would've thought!) and are at home in the urban sectors.

As you can see from these classes, this game doesn't take itself entirely too seriously. I think that's part of its charm. It's possible to change your class, but very hard. If you expect easily multiclassing like in D&D 3.x, you won't find it here. But it does make sense. How many brain surgeons do you know who had a change of heart in their late 40's and became SWAT snipers?

Backgrounds

This vital step to fleshing out your character concists of three parts; Advantages and Disadvantages speak for themselves, and they include classics such as light sleeper, ambidexterity, and phobia. It's important to note that money is an advantage, so if you don't spend any points on that one you'll be penniless.

A little bit more interesting are the Walks of Life. While not random in the sense of Traveller's or Cyberpunk 2020's lifepaths, this is a codified template of your past what truly sets apart one human archmage from the Coalition from the other. While one might be a researcher of sorts, the other could've been a teacher who trains the next generation of spellslingers. There's 80 Walks in all (I counted). A few are generic, but most are restricted to certain groups of classes or cultures. Each Walk has a list of skills in which you get a couple of bonus ranks.

A nice touch is that you can also use Walks to advance the timeline by a few years, if you run the kind of campaign that has that sort of downtime. How cool is that? It's easy to say your merchant spent the past three years making one brilliant deal after another, but this game will let you pull it off and give you bonus skills to reflect that success and growth you had in that time.

Ultramercenaries

Remember the genetically engineered vat-grown killers from Genetech I mentioned earlier under Character Creation? Well this is where you learn how to play one. It's actually really simple: you're given a budget and with that you construct your body by picking options from a bunch of lists and buy training. Bodyparts include things like what type of brain you have, skeletal structure, musculature, eyes, type of locomotion, and special modifications like gills or regeneration.

Then you'll need to pay for the kind of mentor you had, which functions more or less like your Class. You get free skill ranks, some skills become easier to buy, and you get a special ability. If you have any money left at this point you can also buy extra skill packages that are available to any Ultramercenary regardless of mentor. Want the special assassination skill package? Take 250.000 off your budget and add 5 ranks in both the Backstab and Silent Kill skills.

Like I said, really simple stuff here. It will take a piece of scratch paper and some time to read through all the charts and options at first, but in the end you should have no trouble making your own unnatural warrior that was born to kill!

Demons

Now before you think that the Demons are actual demons with pitchforks and brimstone and all, let me just make this clear: they were only called that because the very first one of their kind sort of looked like one. We humans have a knack for misnomers and recycled vocabulary.

The information on this species is fairly basic. Some stuff on their organization (terrorist cells, essentially) and how to make them (in between a normal character and an Ultramerc). Interesting and plausible enemies to throw at your PC's, though fans of 100% hard science will condemn their improbable genetics. Then again, those people will condemn lots of things in this game.

Skills

At long last we've reached a point where we can talk about mechanics. It's pretty easy and nothing you haven't heard of before: roll a d20 and add both your skill ranks and the relevant attribute, hoping to meet or beat the target number set by the GM.

Skills have a base cost which determines how expensive they are to buy, though this cost increases as you get more and more ranks. It's easy to start out in a skill, but hard to become an absolute grandmaster.

There are in total 16 different groups of skills. For instance, the “science” group includes biology, chemistry, physics, geology, and then some. This is also where classes come in. Your class lets you treat certain skill groups as if their base cost is different. The Bio Doc would find it a little cheaper than most others to buy skills from the science group, but more expensive to buy skills from the espionage group.

On a final note I'd like to say that there are a lot of skills. While some games are content to have just medicine as a skill, this game treats it as a group with seperate skills for first aid, genetic engineering, cybernetics, pathology, and treatment. I'm not going to count them for you this time. Yes, that many.

Rules

A bit odd to put this section after skills, or indeed well over half into the book. I would've appreciated it if the basics would've been briefly glossed over in the intro, so the whole process of character creation made a bit more sense in context. You already know the real basics (d20 + modifers), but there's a lot more in here. First is hero points, which let you increase your roll, allow you to inflict more damage, or suffer less. Renown is like your reputation, to see if people have heard of you. As a humerous sidenote, try and see if you can catch the Star Wars references in this section (“Blew up giant space station to save the rebels: +8 renown”). Then there's the obligatory nuisances like falling, poison, darkness and all that jazz.

But you were waiting for the section on combat, right? Basically you roll your d20 and hope to defeat the target number as you would resolve any skill, and if you get hit the damage is compared to a table to determine what sort of health level you lose and how badly you're bleeding. If you get hit by an attack that deals just 3 points of damage you just suffer a single health level of bruised. Hey no problem, based on how tough you are you've probably got a few more of those. Then again, if the attack did 30 points of damage you've suffered from a mortal wound, and you've got considerably less of those. You might even be killed outright.

Obviously this section also has rules on matters such as armor, range, fatigue, surprise, and other such combat related issues, but one of them in particular is worth mentioning: pulse, this game's buzzword for weapons with a high rate of fire. What happens if you unleash a weapon that does 20 damage upon somebody? Simple, you look up “20” on the table and check what kind of a wound the poor sod gets. What happens if the same weapons has a pulse rating of 3? Then you look up 20, 19, and 18 upon the table and the unfortunate bastard suffers from all three of the results. Pulse weapons aren't a tactical advantage – they're a method of execution. Really, I'm getting a gleefully sadistic “gamer high” when I drool over the various weapons with pulse ratings in the weapons section.

Ah, but don't think this game just caters to the hack and slashers! Quite the opposite, the social combat system is perhaps the best I've ever seen. It works exactly the same like physical combat, complete with different kinds of social wounds (confused, doubting, convinced, etc.), and various arguments and evidence to use as social armor and weapons. This system will let you deal with scenes like bartering, courthouses, seduction, and even notes on permanent brainwashing. But the real icing on this cake is the inclusion of social maneuvers. Physical combat traditionally has things like trip, disarming, and grappling, but why doesn't social combat has moves like that? Well, Valence gave it to them. Want to use circular logic against your opponent? This game has the stats for it. Girls, want to give those drooling idiots an eyeful of your bosom so they'll agree with anything you say? This game also has the stats for that. Going for the good cop/bad cop approach? Just won't stop talking? Using a sob story? This social arena does it all.

Lording

It's magic with spell lists and mana – sorry, I meant “spell points” - but with a twist or two that manage to keep it all from going down the sink like just any other tired old magic system. First and foremost is the place where Lording comes from, another dimension with mysterious beings in it that are somehow strongly tied to the setting's metaplot. The book is cryptic about this though, so I can't really make any other comments than saying that I'm intrigued. And I normally don't like metaplots.

Interesting is to note that Lording can not affect any living being directly. You could fly by messing with gravity and the wind, or you can burn somebody by creating plasma, but you can't turn him into a newt or anything.

As this game is strongly skill-based, Lording is no exception. There's a seperate skill for duration, range, area, and other facets of spellcasting. Two mages with an identical spell list will still function very differently this way. One could employ Plasma Blasts with extraordinary range and area of effect to carpet-bomb the hell out anybody who pisses them off, while the other could have a much more damaging one for shorter ranges. Still that's dandy and all, but it has spell lists! Everybody knows the common flaw about lists is that you could fly but don't know how to leviate or slow your fall, which doesn't make sense if you think about. True, and Valence agrees with you. Therefore the concept of cascade spells has been used. The idea is simple: if you know a spell you can also cast a lesser or incomplete version of it, which costs less spell points to do. For instance, if you know the spell Ice Storm (which calls down a rain of sharp icy bolts), you can also do Transmute Nitrogen to Water, Freeze, Sharpen, Hail, Cool Room, and other lesser variations on it. While these cascade spells are not described in any way other than name, it should be clear from context what they do to all but the most challenged of minds.

There's two ways to learn a particular Lording technique. One is as a simple spell, which works pretty much like you think it does; spend the spell points and the thing activates. The other – and it must be said, the harder and more expensive – way is to learn it as a power. Then you permanently reduce your pool of available spell points, but then you can cast the spell at will for as often as you like with just a thought.

Finally, some people aren't using Lording in the traditional sense, but are so-called Duelists instead. They operate entirely under their own rules and are more or less mutually exclusive with the way regular mages and archmages use Lording.

The Lattice

It's the internet... of the future! This section's filled with sample computers and programs, and how to construct your own from scratch, as well as some technical info about how the Lattice works and how it is maintained. Frankly, this section is completely useless to most people. That is, unless you're an Interface Knight. No I'm not being hard on this chapter, there's even a sidebar that says so.

The few who call themselves Interface Knights though will pretty much have to be famiar with this chapter, because it's the bread and butter of their class. These are the chaps and dames who send out their minds into the Lattice (literally, the body is left braindead while doing this) and engage into computer combat with automated programs or eachother to break into all sorts of systems they're not supposed to be in. Computer combat works like social combat does, except you use software instead of words. While the specifics aren't terribly interesting to go into right here, they do of course feature a whole new list of special combat maneuvers just like normal social combat does. Copy/paste, Gone 404, Lag, and many others can be used to overcome your digital menaces.

Basic equipment, Weapons, Armor, and Cybernetics

I'm going to gloss over these chapters in one fell swoop, because they pretty much do what it says on the label. There's all the stuff any spaceworthy adventurer could hope for as well as some you never knew you wanted, like the NanoCloud, an airborne collective of tiny 'bots that invisibly swarms around you and acts like a small computer without having to bother carrying one. Weapons are armor both come with a fair amount of costumization options and the cybernetics don't magically rob you of your soul as soon as they're implanted. The Basic Equipment chapter contains the only real goof I caught, namely that it lists “advanced medical pack” twice, though the secondary one should obviously have read “ammunition” instead.

GM advice

The advice on running a game is fairly solid, but I expect most experienced GM's will have heard it all before. This chapter also tell you how to award experience, awarding hero points, mook rules, and loads of adventure hooks to get you started if you don't know what to do with Valence. Finally there's the character sheet and two example characters, and thus ends the rundown of the material itself.

Well, that concludes the contents of the book itself. But what to make of it all?

The Good There's some stuff in here I really liked. Combat maneuvers in social conflicts for one, but also cascade spells pleased me. I was impressed with the way the information is packed so densely while still maintaining a casual feeling in the writing. It feels more as if somebody was telling you about a book rather than actually reading a dry old tome of text.

The Bad Even though I understand the fact that Valent games might not be capable of commissioning lots of art, I would've liked at least one piece of art for every species. Preferably one also with a lineup for easy visual reference. Also, most gamers will quickly notice one particular funny abuse in the form of Rejuvenation Patches. They're medical stimulants that quickly heal you up, but using too much of them will result in permanent loss of stamina. Any gamer worth his salt will undoubtedly turn these medical marvels into ironic implements of torture. I'm not sure we need that.

The Ugly Remember all that foreshadowing I put into the Classes section? Well here it is: there's no information on spaceships, or indeed any vehicles at all. I understand that there might've been issues with space (nu pun intended), but I want to do daring dogfights, blockade runs, chases, and vehicular manslaughter. What's the use of a Space Jockey class if there's nothing for him to pilot?

The Conclusion I'm afraid I'm looking at a heartbreaker here. And it will not just break the heart of the author, but mine as well. Thing is, I will never play this. There's not enough time in my schedule and there's too many other games out there I still must try. Shiny games with glossy hardcovers and lots of art. Games that had slightly more experienced designers. Games with radical concepts that blow me away. And Valence? Unplayed but not forgotten. Because I want to play it. Badly so even. I read through it with the same goofy grin I had when I got my hands on my first RPG. The grin I got when I said with guilty pleasure, "You are the fighter and you are the spellcaster, now let's go out there and do fantastic things!"

Sorry Valence. I'm not the kind of gamer you deserved. It's not you, it's me. Perhaps you'll find somebody else out there who's ready to do those fantastic things you deserve.