#randomworlds Q&A and New Character Bio
almost 7 years ago – Sun, May 05, 2019 at 09:43:36 PM

We're quickly approaching almost 125% funding as we head into the home stretch, bringing us ever closer to our character builder stretch goal. Let's keep it up!

As a reminder, Austin MacKenzie, the owner and lead designer of Valorous Games will be in the #randomworlds chat for a Q&A session at 5:30 Pacific/7:30 Central on Tuesday, May 7th. If you'd like to join and ask some questions, a link to their chat can be found here. Be sure to check up on their format if you want to join in and be respectful to our hosts. We'll be addressing any Valor-related questions you may have, so please feel free to stop by and ask!

Today's character is the second human character, Andy  Déng, is the other human character in the class.

Andy is an International student from the Tuan Jie Lian Meng, an alliance of nations to the far east. His parents are monks who serve Maudran, the god of the Arts, and his temple is made up of practitioners of an ancient art known as Tattooed Animism, a magical art that breathes life into tattoos inscribed upon one's own body. Andy has always been a promising student with exceptional magical capability, having taken on the ink at a very young age. Seeing this potential, his parents moved into the city and took on corporate jobs to put him through school. Andy excelled at his studies, winning a scholarship that allowed him to study abroad.

Because of the support he was given from his family, Andy's hope is to graduate and become a recognized Knight of Amastur, as they are in high demand in many Tian provinces and are able to find high-paying work. He wants to get a good government job and repay his parents, who made major sacrifices for his schooling.

Andy is a back-line control character, excelling at keeping his distance and using his abilities to impede his enemies, as well as buff and heal his allies. Andy is a lower health character with little in the way of physical defenses, so he wants to stay out of the way as much as possible. 

Character Bio - Edward Mitchell
almost 7 years ago – Thu, May 02, 2019 at 08:27:23 PM

Today we'll be meeting a Beastfolk student, a mouse Beastfolk by the name of Edward Mitchell. Beastfolk have always been regarded as the most nimble and quick of the mortal races, and are the second-shortest race on Valress, with only the Dwarves being shorter. 

Edward is a student of both meteorology and Elemental Arcanum, with a focus in wind magic. A young man with a strong interest in weather patterns, Edward is fascinated by the movement of weather, not only in its natural course but also in how it can be altered with the appropriate application of magic. The son of two MU Alumni, Edward has had a world-class private education his entire life and is a member of his father's fraternity Epsilon Zeta Kappa. Due to the Knight program requirements, Edward has recently moved out of the frat house and into the Knight barracks for his final term. A quick-witted, quick moving young man, Edward is exceptionally sharp and observant, but also quite playful.

With his education and familial wealth come expectations, and Edward's life has generally been laid out for him by his parents. He is intended to join his father working for the Amastur Embassy to the Lauchestein Union upon graduation.

Edward is a fast and mobile ranged character with the ability to strike back at his foes with crafty counterattacks. He has low health and is vulnerable to damage, hoping to keep distance at all times and assault with high damage from the back lines. 

Character Bio - Kahana Iona
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 07:21:34 AM

The next character also introduces one of Valress's less conventional races. There are five mortal races that exist upon Valress, the humans, elves and dwarves who were introduced with Madison, Hardy and Christian, and the Ogres and Beastfolk. Kahana is an Ogre, the tallest of the mortal races and widely regarded as the most physically powerful of mortals.

Kahana Iona is the daughter of a world-class fencer who holds a number of gold medals and titles from a number of countries. While she is in many ways his perfect protege with impeccable technique and form, Kahana has no interest in fencing as a sport. Kahana dreams of becoming a Knight, and is honing her skills for true combat. Having realized early on that mere swordfighting isn't sufficient in the demanding world of Knighthood, she is double-majoring in Elemental Arcanum, with an emphasis on Lightning. Kahana blends her magic seamlessly with her swordplay to create a unique and dangerous combat style of quick aggression and powerful blows that are, quite literally, electric.

Attending Mercurial University has long been a goal for Kahana. Having achieved this, she's looking forward to her next goal: to graduate with distinction and join a well-known Order and serve as a Knight. 

Kahana is a quick character who is highly mobile and can attack with a mixture of long-ranged magic and closer-range or movement-focused physical attacks. She can flit in and out of the front line, as well as easily vaulting past the front line to strike at vulnerable targets in the rear. 

Fully Funded!
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 05:56:54 PM

In just seven days, we've reached full funding. We cannot thank you enough, we're excited to bring Best in Class to you and are thrilled we can make it happen! Being able to launch this expansion, and the setting behind it is exciting and the team is already working hard behind the scenes to get this book into your hands as fast as possible. We have a few things to discuss today, so let's jump right in!

Character Builder Stretch Goal

Now that we've cleared our first major milestone, we wanted to talk a bit more about the Character Builder and what we expect it to look like. As mentioned earlier, the character builder is an expansion on a character sheet initially developed by Valor Co-Creator Quinn Gordon for Roll20. The character sheet that was developed for Roll20 and is now available today has access to all the skills and technique information on the back-end, but as it assumes purchase of the core book none of the descriptions of the skills are loaded, nor is there a list of names for modifiers to choose from. The official character builder will retain all of these features but will pull back the curtain - you will be able to see every skill, every cost, and every value. It will be fully possible for a player to create a character for Valor using just this program without the purchase of a Core Rulebook, making it a good tool for GMs to get their party situated. 

Upon release, the Character Builder will launch with all skills, technique cores, and modifiers currently in the Core rulebook. As new books are released, we will explore options but we expect there will be a small charge per user to add the expansion books to the Character Builder's library. The character builder will have full capability to create any NPC type available, meaning Flunkies, Soldiers, Swarms, Elites and Masters will all be fully supported. It will perform all of the math for creating a stat line, including factoring in skills at their appropriate effect ratio for the different NPC types. We are also going to be including a randomization option, where you can put in a few variables and have the builder generate a fully formed NPC to your specifications, complete with stats, skills and techniques ready for play. Our hope is that this character builder will support GMs and do a lot of heavy lifting as we continue to work toward the completion of Villains, Creatures and Foes. In our experience with the character builder in its current incarnation on Roll20, we've found it easy to make characters in a fraction of the time it would take with just the book, a pen and a piece of paper.

If we manage to attain our stretch goal of $4,000, the character builder will be included as a bonus for all backers of at least the digital edition of Best in Class. 

Chat with #randomworlds

We'll be joining the #randomworlds chat (formerly rpg.net) on May 7th at 5:30 PM Pacific Time/7:30 Central Time to chat about Best in Class! The chat can be accessed with this link. We'll be doing a Q&A session, so people are welcome and encouraged to stop in and chat with Austin MacKenzie, Valor Co-Creator and Best in Class writer and designer!

Character Bio

Today's character is the third "Commander" of the team, the Dwarf Word Magus Christian Fox.

Christian Fox is enlisted in the military officer program at Mercurial University and specializes in Words of Power, a branch of Arcanum that imbues words and commands with power and weight that compels those around them to obey. The son of a blue-collar union family who struggled since birth with keeping his voice down and not talking, Christian was expected to follow his father into the manufacturing sector. During a tense labor negotiation, the then-13-year-old Christian lent his voice and support to his father, helping fire up the Union members and inspiring them to secure a strong contract. Recognizing his gifts and talents, the Union members chipped in to move him to a private high school and to give him a shot at an education that could get him into Mercurial University.

While he remains active with the Union, Christian is now enlisted with the Marines who are paying for his education, an opportunity he has thrown his all into his education.

Christian is a powerful short-range mage and tank who wants to mix it up in the thick of battle and draw attacks from his allies. He directs combat from the front lines, dispensing healing and harm with equal vigor.

Nearing 75%, Stretch Goals and Second Character Profile
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 09:00:40 PM

We're only 5 days in and we're already almost 75% of the way to goal! We cannot be more grateful to everyone for their support! We want to look ahead a bit, beyond the main goal and toward the other things we would like to accomplish. To that end, we're going to go ahead and announce our first Stretch Goal. With the progress we've made thus far, meeting goal feels quite attainable, but we'd like to deliver a bit more.

Our first Stretch Goal will be achieved at $4,000. We announced recently that a Roll20 Character Sheet was available for free and was usable to create builds within the Valor system. This character sheet serves as a prototype for a standalone program in development - with additional funding we should be able to release it alongside Best in Class with the full suite of features we have been exploring. If this stretch goal is reached, this program will be free to all backers starting from the Freshman Tier, enabling you to create your own characters even if you do not possess the core rulebook. The character builder is planned to include the following features:

• Supported by Windows, we will look into Mac compatibility as well
• Full character sheet that can manage all aspects of any type of character from Elite/PC characters to Masters, Flunkies, Soldiers and Swarms.
• All skills, flaws, technique cores and technique modifiers loaded with a description of effect and cost up-to-date with the current errata.
• Ability to automatically generate a random NPC build that will be viable in quick play, as well as set some parameters so it will focus on stats you select.
• Ability to generate random names for both enemy types and techniques based on the build.

We will also allow backers to submit suggestions for adjectives and creature types to be included in the random name generator, should the goal be met.

We're excited to bring Best and Class to Valor players, and hope we can also make the full character builder a reality. 

Also for today's update is our second "Commander" character, the elfen Psychic Brawler Hardy O'Brian.

Hardy is the oldest member of the team, having taken a gap year to begin hormone therapy and hone his considerable talent for Psionic Arcanum. Hardy is the son of an Amastur Senator who was herself a Mercurial University graduate, and while his placement at the university was all but assured Hardy wanted to make sure he was a worthy candidate. During his gap year he worked under a private tutor, entering MU with a level of proficiency usually not seen in an undergrad, much less a Freshman.

Hardy is a friendly and gregarious young man, he is easy to get along with and possesses a keen tactical mind. Having entered the Knight program while still a Sophomore, Hardy is well-established within it and is a prime candidate for a number of high-ranking positions upon graduation. Hardy is currently looking at working within one of the Amasturian Intelligence Agencies.

Hardy is a strong front-line presence that controls the battlefield with powerful movement effects, allowing him to launch his foes around the battlefield with impunity. While his Techniques may lack some of the raw damage of other characters, he makes up the difference by launching enemies into walls and each other. Hardy's goal in combat is to control the field with his superior movement and make sure his enemies stay where he wants them.