Episode 3 Guest – Vanessa Hoskins

Get ready, Cavaliers! Valor Live will be launching on September 25th! The Stream will be hosted on our Twitch Channel and will run from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM Pacific Time every Friday. The 25th will be Episode 0, our initial character creation session, with the game officially starting on October 2nd. Look forward to it!
With Best in Class almost complete and the launch of Valor Live just around the corner, one of the things we want to provide is a way for people who play Valor to build a community around it. Valor was designed to be highly modular and work with a lot of different stories and styles, so it’s important to us to make sure that those who want to play it are able to find other players, share their own homebrew, and receive support for playing the game.
To that end, we are deploying our official Valor Discord which can be found here: Valor Tabletop RPG Discord
The Discord will allow players to connect with each other, share notes, and organize online play sessions. It’ll also serve as a place for Patrons to discuss content as we roll out our Patreon, as well as discuss Valor Live as the show launches.
Another major aspect we want to highlight is the Creative Commons License Valor operates under. The operating license can be found here. It allows you to, with appropriate attribution, freely share and adapt the Valor rules. What’s notable under these rules is that users are able to create their own rulesets and even publish them for profit without any royalty requirement. The only major requirement is that all material published in this fashion must also be published under the same Creative Commons License, in essence you pay it forward by allowing creators that come after you to benefit as you did (those wishing to utilize a private license may coordinate with and license the system from us directly if desired).
We also have some logos for those hoping to make use of our Creative Commons License. These are free to use for all Valor Creative Commons projects, and can be found here:
We are excited to announce our first live campaign!
For our first campaign, we’ll follow the exploits of a group of Cavaliers, semi-professional adventurers as they help solve problems in their community. This game will take place in our first official campaign setting, Valress, a world of magic and fantasy that has reached the modern era. While many things within the world have changed, some things remain the same and among them are the need for skilled individuals to take care of unusual problems. Valor Live will take place Fridays from 7-10 PM Pacific Time. The official start date will be announced soon!
We’ll be revealing everybody’s characters a bit later, but we’d first like to introduce our players! We had a lot of amazing people apply for a spot and it was a really tough decision. Every player in this group really stood out in terms of what they could bring to the table, and we could not be more excited to have this crew on board!
A self-proclaimed “King of Screaming,” Zack Maher is a voice actor who’s work you can hear in various indie animations and video games all over the internet. Notable credits include Dr. Sylvester Ashling in the animated series Epithet Erased, and various characters in the So This is Basically webseries. If you need unrivaled exuberance with a professional attitude and sound to match, look no further than having Zack involved in your next project!
Zack also isn’t a stranger when it comes to telling stories and crafting characters in tabletop RPG’s. For that past five years Zack has been creating laughs, delivering tears, and making unforgettable memories in various tabletop games. He is a frequent GM and player in different streamed shows that can be found at https://www.twitch.tv/surpriseroundrpg. This includes the Valor: The Heroic RPG system that has become a favorite of his in recent years. With the combined efforts of the rest of the cast, Zack hopes to tell an exciting and important story that inspires everyone to further pursue tabletop gaming, voice acting, or hopefully both!
When he’s not booking jobs or playing games, Zack is also pursuing the field of school psychology, where he hopes to provide kids the resources they need to succeed in their education. He also hopes to develop a speciality for transgender advocacy in the schools he’ll be working with in the future.
Francesca Calo is a New York City born and raised actor, MoCap performer, and voice actress. She is half Chinese and half Spanish, and spent her childhood on film and television sets with her parents. She began acting at the age of seven, and has since enthusiastically followed her passion. She studied and performed with theaters such as the Moscow Art Theatre Company, New York Stage and Film, as well as with acclaimed international director, Adolf Shapiro.
She can be seen alongside Sandra Bullock in the Warner Bros film, Ocean’s 8, and with Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Select THEATER credits include: Julius Caeser (Casca), King Lear (Earl of Kent), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth).
Finally, Francesca entered the foray of voice over six years ago, and can be heard on shows like Pokemon (Disney XD), Regal Academy (Nickelodeon), Webby nominated children’s podcast, Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest (Pinna Audio), and more! More information about her can be found on her website at: https://www.francesca-calo.com/
Lily Lammers is a voice actress from Valencia, California. After studying theater at Mills College in Oakland, she’s returned home and currently resides in Los Angeles. Lily’s provided additional voices for anime including HunterXHunter and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun as well as voicing main characters in indie games such as Chronicon, Negative Atmosphere, and A Field of Flower and Stars. During her time at Mills, she was lucky enough to study at both the American Conservatory Theater and Middlebury Language Schools. Lily staged numerous productions at Mills and ACT, often acting as a sound designer as well as a performer. At Middlebury, she studied Japanese language and culture, with a focus on performing arts, from rakugo to anime. In her free time, Lily enjoys listening to old radio dramas, practicing lightsaber combat, and learning new languages.
Paul Greene-Dennis is musician and voice actor who hails from Brentwood, NY. Paul recently graduated this year from CUNY Queens College with his Masters of Music in Classical Performance. Paul loves to sing opera. Recently, Paul has done productions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greenwood Cemetery and Queens College. When Paul is not doing voiceover or singing classical music, he is either working out, watching anime, or reading novels.
Tamara Fritz is a British-American Voice Actress who has been producing work online under her handle ‘totalspiffage’ for more than 10 years, including original music, parody songs, and covers. She got her start in VO in 2014, in the MMO Hounds: The Last Hope, and has worked as a full-time VO ever since. She works primarily in the commercial sector, but video game VO is her passion.
Her more notable credits include Wargroove, where she played Queen Mercia, and Warframe, where she played a giant, evil spider called Profit-Taker as well as the lead quest-giver in the expansion Fortuna. She was also a cast member on Live Play series URealms for two years, where she provided voices for animations as well as performing on the show.
She currently lives in Columbus, OH, where she spends her free time writing music, streaming, and memorizing obscure video game lore.
Valorous Games is seeking outgoing, talented people for a Valor Live Play program! This will be a paid position where actors will play a campaign of Valor within our upcoming Modern Fantasy Valress setting. The play sessions will be posted and uploaded, and depending on the circumstances they may also be streamed on Twitch. The games themselves will be run online through Roll20 using our Valor character sheet, and will use either Discord or Zoom for the recording. We’re specifically seeking voice actors or stage actors (established or not), especially those with interest or experience in JRPG and Anime acting. We also strongly encourage LGBTQI+ and BIPOC actors to apply!
Hello everyone Austin here again, thank you all for your well-wishes and understanding as we navigate the COVID-19 crisis. We have some great news on our end, as well as an early release of some fun bonus content as an additional thanks for your understanding during this difficult time.
First, I’ve received an offer for a position which will eliminate the immediate funding crisis. I expect it will take a bit of time to fully ramp back up (especially since I’m running into issues getting my Unemployment due to the strain on the system and my Valor operations being incorrectly classified as income), but my hope is that by mid-May or early June we should be back on track. Additionally, since we did have some distribution earnings, I have resumed production on Best in Class, the distribution earnings aren’t enough to complete the project but they’ve got us working again so hopefully we’ll be able to return to the project in full soon and get this finished.
As a reminder, our Valor store sale is continuing through the rest of the month, if you’re looking for a Hardcover book at $10 off or an eBook for justt $5, now is a great time to grab it!
Finally, one of the things I am looking at is ways to get content I’ve been working on out to the general public earlier – while having it written is all well and good if I’m not able to get it released fully due to expense (such as with the entirety of the Foes book), it’s not really doing any good. I’m looking into a Patreon-based model to keep moving these larger book projects that require a massive amount of investment to complete, while I don’t have a full view of how it will look this is an example of content you might generally expect were you to back us – regular micro-updates of new skills and abilities. The abilities presented below are some of my favorite introductions in Villains, Creatures and Foes – the Personal Domain Ultimate Core and some related mods (as well as the Effect Lock standard mod). This Core allows you to create a domain of influence around the area and gives a lot of interesting and unique abilities, it’s especially handy for big, threatening bosses but can also be effective in the hands of PCs. Just make sure to come up with a dramatic chant about bones and swords so you can get that extra Valor from your GM!
Personal Domain
You exert your influence over a part of the battlefield, generating a personal domain that empowers your allies and hampers your enemies.
Action: Support
Cost: 3 per Technique level
Effect: This Technique creates a broad zone that aids your allies and hinders your enemies, targeting every space within 1 space of the user per Season (2 spaces at Season 2, 3 spaces at Season 3, and 4 spaces at Season 4). When creating a Personal Domain Technique, select a combination of Flaws and Skills. Each point of Core Power for this Technique counts as 1 SP for flaws, or 2 SP for Skills, and the combination of Flaws and Skills cannot exceed the Core Power. Personal Domain may use Boost and Weaken-only Skills and Flaws. All Skills are automatically applied to the user and any allies within the Domain. When you use this Technique, make an opposed roll of any Active Attribute, chosen at the time of the technique’s creation, against all targets in the affected area. At the start of your turn, roll again against any unaffected enemies still in the Domain. A successful roll applies all Flaws to the character until they leave the Domain, at which point the Flaws expire at the beginning of your next turn. The defender may substitute an Active Attribute as if the Personal Domain were a Weaken Technique. The Domain persists until the end of the scene, or until the character who created it is Incapacitated.
Special: A Personal Domain Technique gets 2 levels of Modifiers at no cost. Each level of a Personal Domain Technique that is not used for a Core Power counts as two levels for the purpose of non-Ultimate Modifiers. Ultimate Modifiers are exchanged at a rate of 1 Core Power for 1 Modifier Level, as with Ultimate Damage Core. A Personal Domain Technique is eligible for all Modifiers that can be attached to either a Boost or a Weaken Core. Skills attached to a Personal Domain may be up to one Season higher than your current Season. Modifiers attached to Personal Domain which typically have a single effect, such as Reposition, initiate at the beginning of each turn, but you must make an Attack Roll against all enemies as normal.
Effect Lock
Your field effects stay trained on you no matter where you move.
Applicable to: Personal Domain, Technique with Persistent Effect and Blast Radius
Season: 2nd
Level: +2
Effect: If this Technique is centered on a target, it will stick to them for the duration of the effect, moving as they do. If the target is an enemy, it only sticks to them if technique hits. If it misses on a later turn, it stops sticking to the target.
Special: If this Technique is a Mind Technique, the level is reduced to +1
Astral Form
Even when outside your Domain, you can still influence it directly.
Applicable to: Personal Domain
Season: 2nd
Level: +2
Effect: If you are not within your Personal Domain, you project an Astral Form inside of it which occupies the center of the Domain and creates a Zone of Control. You may attack through your Astral Form as if it were you. The Astral Form does not block movement.
Astral Mobility
Your Astral Form can move within the bounds of your Domain.
Applicable to: Personal Domain with the Astral Form modifier
Season: 3rd
Level: +2
Effect: You may move your Astral Form within your Personal Domain in addition to yourself when you use a Move Action.
Influential Control
Within your Domain, you exert a greater Zone of Control
Applicable to: Personal Domain
Season: 1st
Level: +3/+3
Effect: While inside your Personal Domain, your Zone of Control extends 1 additional space.
Level Up: Extend your Zone of Control by 1 additional space.
Special: Bonuses from Influential Control do not extend outside of your Personal Domain; if your Zone of Control reaches the edge of the Personal Domain, the bonus does not apply to any spaces outside of the Domain.
Locked Domain
People cannot enter or leave your Domain without your approval.
Applicable to: Personal Domain
Season: 2nd
Level: +2
Effect: If a character attempts to move out of your Domain, they must make an opposed Attribute Roll based on the Attribute assigned to the Domain. If successful, they may leave the Domain. If not, their movement stops at the edge. Techniques being used on an area inside the Zone from outside the Domain or vice-versa suffer a -2 penalty to their Attack Roll if applicable. This includes techniques used by allies, unless you apply the Smart Area of Effect modifier to your Personal Domain. If the Technique is one which requires no roll, it instead costs 4 additional Stamina per Season of the User.
Many of the people who play and develop Valor are scattered across the globe. To help facilitate easier play and testing of new rules and content as well as to just make playing the game easier, we’ve used Roll20 to schedule and play games online. To make this even easier, Valor co-creator Alan “Quinn” Gordon developed a Character Sheet for the platform, which is now available to the public. While this character sheet doesn’t have the full capabilities of the character builder application we are developing, it’s still a great tool for GMs to easily put together NPCs and players to put their own characters together. It does require the Valor core rulebook to use, but even if your game meets in person, this is a great tool to make the experience easier.
When starting a new game on Roll20, you’ll have the option to select a character sheet. Simply select “Valor” from the drop-down menu and you’re ready to go!
There are three parts of the Character sheet, Attributes, Skills and Flaws, and Techniques.
The attribute section will automatically calculate all of your attributes based on your level, skill selection, and primary attribute array. The level and type will also factor in, if you are playing a PC or Elite you will receive the full stats but if you select Soldier or Flunky you’ll note dramatically reduced skill point and stat totals to reflect the different enemy type.
The skills and flaws section lets you input skills and flaws. Every skill and flaw in the Core Rulebook is included, but no descriptions are present in the Character Sheet so players will need to refer to the rulebook for the effect. Any skills or flaws that directly effect your base stats will be automatically calculated into the character sheet. You can also input custom skills, in this case the level of the custom skill equals the amount of skill points it removes from your character.
Finally, the Technique tab makes the hardest part of Valor character creation much easier. You can select from any cores within the book and assign an attribute, which will determine how Modifiers and Limits interact with it. All Modifiers and Limits can be typed into the respective text boxes with a number at the end signifying their level. These inputs will populate the text section with a full description of the Technique, how to use it and what it does. While all modifiers are loaded into the Character Sheet, you will still need the core Valor rulebook for their names and the level requirements.
The Valor Character Sheet is completely free to use for anyone with a Roll20 account. While Valorous Games is not in any way affiliated with Roll20’s service, we use it quite a bit, and hope it will help some of you either for building characters and NPCs, or even for running whole games online with friends all over the world!
Hey Valor fans! We’ve got a number of announcements, so let’s dive right in!
In celebration of International Tabletop Day, the Valor team got together and put together a podcast of an adventure for your enjoyment! You can listen to the trailer here:
The full version can be found here: