Review of Valiant Universe RPG: Transcendent's Edge

This book follows almost exactly the same style and structure as the core rules for Valiant RPG. The chapters cover story, rules, characters then adventure modules (or "event briefs" in Valiant language). It's all done in such a concise style, even the pretty long descriptions of San Francisco politics, city layout and local color, that it's a super easy read and doesn't drag.

The first section contains really dense setting info on San Francisco, mixing real-world history and local knowledge with Valiant-specific adventure hooks. This is a really nice concept that fits in with the Valiant comics' ethos of superhero happenings in the "world outside your window". The chat room inserts are cheesy but they are consciously so and have so many nice in-jokes that they don't get annoying (another classic Valiant tactic). I definitely got the feeling the authors are having fun with this material.

As with the Core Rules, the art and text quotes heavily from the actual Valiant titles (the new ones, not the 90's versions as far as I know). As a Valiant fan I love this; the choice of pics fit with the new use they have been put too, and the selection of characters' one-liners is actually part of the game mechanics, such as they are (plot comes first).

San Francisco is the setting for at least one of the Valiant Quick Start Rules modules, e.g. "Rumble in the Bay". That would tie in nicely to this campaign. One caveat is that there are more and more references to character stats and rules from the Core Rules as you get closer and closer to the main campaign meat, so you'd have to get the Rules or improvise.

Next come SF-specific rules - there's a whole page about how to run an earthquake, for example - and characters that tie in with the location. Mostly they fit in with a small bunch of mini-adventures that you could play as one-shots, and also serve to lead in to the main attraction: the mysterious "Facility". Some of the rules are a little bit more general and serve to make the rules-light system fit into an urban sprawl.

The Facility section is a hugely re-playable multi-threaded adventure path starting in SF with whichever mini-campaign, and centering on a kind of dungeon crawl of the Facility. You pick an adventure theme that will tie together characters, hooks and events, and there are options for each in each room. You roll for rooms within given parameters. I think this would feel very much like a classic old school video game level set up.

The concept of the Facility "campaign" is built on 40 "room-isodes", each containing multiple story thread ideas, and linked with a simple "progression" system to make the actual sequence of events massively unpredictable and customizable. I've never seen an explicitly modular campaign like this before. The way the stories and locations mesh together like a matrix is so easy to follow and the justification in the plotline for the slightly random location progression does make sense. You could easily use this part with other rules if you like the Valiant more-genres-the-better approach to plotting.

Who's going to love this book? Anyone who likes Valiant comics - for the piles of storyline and character lore. Unless you've literally read up all the titles to date, you're going to learn at least a little bit. If you're sold on the Valiant RPG, definitely buy this. It's better written than the Core Rules but with the same enthusiasm and humor. And anyone who's looking for a bizarre and detailed adventure setting with layers and layers of plots and events should at least check it out. Also if you live in SF or for some reason love that city, the alternative reality SF city map on the back of the poster (a giant schematic of the Facility which gives you a general idea but leaves the details to you) will be a lot of fun.