Valus

[Messageboard Golem]

By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Initiative Round
Valus is a Dungeons & Dragons supplement from Different Worlds. This is a 176-page softcover by Ryan Smalley. The cover features a map of the continent by Chuck McCann, with interior maps prepared by Clayton Bunce. Clayton Bunce, Scott Ruggels, Alan McFarlane, and Stefan Poag provide the interior art. Valus retails for $29.99.

Valus (more correctly, The Valus) is a campaign set on an island off the shore of a larger continent. This continent, to which we are introduced only in brief, is part of a much larger world called Ostia Prim. Ostia Prim is unique in that all of its continents are actually the fallen corpses of Dead God-Chidren. The first chapter of Valus introduces us to the region immediately around the island, as well as the calendars used by the world, the languages, and the peoples of the region.

Valus offers all of the standard Player’s Handbook races, though not all are immediately recognizable. Humans fall into one of six ethnic groups, for example, each one with different beliefs, names, characteristics, and languages. Durven are dwarves, of which there are three racial subtypes, and Drel are elves, with six subtypes. Half-orcs, halflings, half-elves (pardadrel) are pretty much standard fare, but pems (gnomes) are changed quite a bit from their Player’s Handbook counterparts. Two new races are also introduced; the roven (half-gnolls, for lack of a better description), and trulls (descendents of troll-human crossbreeds, now a race unto themselves). Changes to the established races are fairly small, but they make sense for the ethnic group in question.

There are no new core classes in Valus, but some of the existing ones are changed slightly. Clerics, for example, may freely mutliclass with any class except paladin or druid. Violating this taboo means the loss of all clerical abilities. Paladins have the most difficult time of all, because of their very nature. They eschew the Risen Gods and believe that only their deity Saficea and her angels are worthy of worship. The lot of a paladin is a harsh life of being hated by those you seek to protect. There is only one new prestige classes to be had in Valus; the covenguard. Covenguards seek to eradicate all extraplanar creatures from the Prime Material.

Valus details seven new feats, most of which are aimed at clerics. Devoted rewards a cleric for his faith, Divine Conduit permits a cleric to channel divine energy, and Sanctify Holy Symbol imbues a cleric’s holy symbol with divine energy. A fourth clerical feat, Favored, helps overcome the campaign-unique effects of deific Suppression. Preceptorship permits a paladin to gain a squire, of sorts, and Haft Strike allows a character to use a polearm to attack creatures within 10 feet. Finally, the Scent feat is identical to the extraordinary ability, but is limited to roven characters.

Valus has a complex and structured religious system which I won’t go into here, except to say that it shows a lot of thought and effort. What it boils down to is that the current deities most commonly worshipped in Ostia Prim are the Risen Gods. Each Risen God has a particular color associated with it and this hue manifests itself in recurring patterns around the sun. The Ostian calendar is based on these occurrences, wherein each god is associated with a particular month. When a particular god’s color manifests around the sun, the god is said to be Ascendent and its followers gain certain divine bonuses. Conversely, every deity suffers a period of suppression, during which their follower’s powers are weakened. There are other beliefs in Ostia Prim, such as the Old Faith, but these are not as widespread.

The Valus itself is very well-detailed, the gazetteer taking up about 35% of the book. Sections of the island are mapped in detail, and plenty of adventure hooks have been provided as well. Also found herein is a chapter that summarizes what makes a Valusian campaign different from a typical fantasy campaign. I was happy to see this as well. Too often, when someone creates a new campaign setting, they go into great detail, but tend to forget that only the DM may actually have the campaign guide and that he or she has to break all of this information down for the players. Valus does that for you, pointing out things that you need to know to get things started.

Two appendices round out the work. The first is an introductory adventure that gives a good feeling of the unique qualities of this campaign. The second appendix introduces some unique items, including weapons, narcotics, and flora of the region.

Critical Hit
One thing that struck me immediately was the thought that went into creating this campaign setting. In my homebrew world, there is no common tongue. Well, technically, there’s trade tongue, but it was intentionally developed as a common language, it did not grow from one. The reason for this is that in our own world, there is no common tongue that everyone shares (even in medieval Europe, on which most fantasy campaigns are at least loosely based). I was pleased to see that Valus shared this opinion and aspect. The lack of a common tongue may make the PCs’ lives harder, but it preserves a degree of realism.

In like fashion, I was delighted to see things like racial epithets in use. Don’t get me wrong. Racism is an ugly thing, but it’s also a fact of life. Whenever you have two or more groups of people in a single region, someone is not going to get along with someone else and is going to find a way to insult them. To the author’s credit, he notes that not all groups will feel comfortable using racial slurs, but they are a part of life and the campaign. As a side note, I loved the racial preference chart that showed how different races felt towards one another. It brought back happy memories from 1st edition.

Critical Fumble
One of the first things that I check, as a reviewer, is the Open Gaming License and declaration of Product Identity. I can’t help it, that’s what I’ve been trained to do. In this case, I just couldn’t find any declaration of Open Gaming Content. I found the OGL and the d20 Trademark usage license, but not a declaration of what is considered to be open content. Either it isn’t there, or I’ve overlooked it. Also, the product that the license itself covers should always be included in Section 15 of the OGL.

There’s nothing that I would specifically pinpoint as being wrong with this volume (outside of the above), but from a personal standpoint, I would like to have seen a little more crunch; maybe a few original monsters, a couple of spells, etc. That’s not to say that there aren’t any original mechanics to be found here, quite the contrary. I’d just like to have seen a little more.

Coup de Grace
Valus makes for a very interesting campaign setting that is certainly worth a look. There are some concepts here that I will probably be lifting for use in my own campaign setting, and even the setting itself is unique and shows a lot of potential. There is relatively little artwork beyond the maps, but what is there is largely of good quality and seems to be placed appropriately. The book is lacking an index, but the table of contents is strong enough to stand on its own in this regard.

My thought is, whether you’re seeking an entirely new setting or just want a few ideas to spice up your own, then you might look at Valus. It stands alone nicely, and the island can even be easily transported almost whole into an existing setting if you prefer. The setting shows an excellent amount of research and thought and Ryan should be rightly proud of himself.

Final Grade: B+

 

[GameWyrd]

Every now and then an original d20 fantasy roleplaying game shows its head. It's true, even today this is possible. If you are chuckling sceptically then I'll cite Valus as an example.

Valus can be brutal. This is a world born without love. I tend to make notes as I flick through RPGs and supplements these days (a tell of someone who's written too many reviews) and as I began to soak up the differences in this world setting from the countless others on my shelves I scribbled down "without love". For all my efforts "A World Born Without Love" is the big strapline at the top of the blurb so I shouldn't claim any success in divining the author's (Ryan Smalley aka Destan) between-the-lines theme, I just didn't read the blurb until after I read the book. Valus delivers, in just a few pages, what it promises it would. This feat certainly should not be taken for granted these days. Too many supplements seem to have blurbs alien to their contents. Sure, Valus is not a complete and populated world within just a few pages, it achieves that status some 170 pages later, but from the beginning it clear that this settling is intriguingly different.

I wonder how many roleplayers have the anthropology gene? Do you know any anthropologists who aren't roleplayers? There's a thrill of discovery in Valus. Just why does the Risen God Mordûk oppose Galar? How will the Druids and those of the Old Faith start to act when time moves the years through 100 UA, to 25 UA, to 5 UA and then to 1 UA where there is less than a year before the Mother-Father awakens? What would happen if more and more people turned to the Old Faith? ... Whereas some gamers enjoy the tactical thrill of combat and dice mechanics there are other gamers who lap up world settings, cultures and creatures. These are the world-builders and gamers who probably pounced on the hugely respected Book of the Righteous or noticed how cleverly different Arcana Unearthed was. Like those two examples, Valus takes the D&D staple that we're so very familiar with and carefully changes bit, cutting here, adding spice there and (I think) improves on the recipe. These changes are not achieved by adding new monsters or creating a new set of powers for heroes and villains to tap into but are achieved by carefully intertwining a darkly thrilling new mythos with the vicious world created by it. Unlike the these two examples, Valus doesn't ease you in carefully, you're dropped in the deep end and part of the thrill (for me) was reading on to collect the pieces and put them together.

It's of course impossible to pigeon hole gamers into tidy groups like "world-builders" or "tacticians" as we shamelessly overlap and spill out of such niches. Another strength and success for Valus is that this setting and supplement does the very same. There's not a single new monsters in Valus and yet this is an especially dangerous setting. Expect fatalities here. This is achieved simply by upping the Challenge Rating for encounters. In a World Without Love you no longer have the luxury of finding just as many troglodytes as you can safely handle when you go exploring the cavern complex or being attacked by a gang of bandits who, feeling braver than normal, decided to move against you even when they lacked overwhelming force. In Valus you had better hope there are enough characters among the party who know how to fight, when to flee, how to ambush and how to calm a situation or the would-be brave heroes won't live to study the bloody history of the land.

Saficea, the Mother-Father, slew her children. The bodies of these two dead gods form the land of Valus just as the Mother-Father's tears form the great oceans and lakes. With their death, Saficea slew her Love so it could rest with them. This is the religion which the dangerous Druids and those of the Old Faith follow. They believe that in less than five centauries Saficea will wake from her slumber.

The first to grow from the bodies of the dead child gods, the new world from which Love and been killed, where the Drimm. These incredibly powerful beings waged a terrible war against one another, without Love but with passions such as Greed and Fear the bliss of battle was the same to them as the bliss of paradise. Each death among the Drimm created a star in the sky. When nearly all the Drimm had succumbed to the terrible wars Saficea woke, and although she could not love her grand-children she did pity them. The Mother-Father would have no more carnage on the bodies of her Child-Gods. Those Drimm who wished to continue their war and who were fast enough to accept her offer where taken to the moon. It's their ongoing wars which, at that time, kept the moon always bright and full. Some of the Drimm failed to respond in time and were trapped on the land and prohibited from warring. These Drimm soon discovered that they could create monsters to wage wars for them and so the lands were torn asunder between two terrible armies. These Drimm had discovered what could be achieved by working together and had formed two groups. A small set of Drimm, however, were excluded. A pitiful third group of twelve Drimm could not master the art of creation and therefore could not war.

It came about that one group of Drimm was facing the impossible - defeat. After lifetimes of bloody and terrible war it seemed possible that one of the god-like factions would loose. Rather than surrender to this fate they disobeyed the dictate of the sleeping Saficea and directly slew one of their Drimm enemies. Saficea woke and wrought her revenge. The Drimm who had disobeyed her where banished to the moon where they would die but be reborn forever - and this is why the moon darkens, the death and rebirth of the dark Drimm at the hands of their fellows. The horrific armies created by the Drimm where banished to the darkest regions of existence - the Abyss and the Hells. What of those pathetic twelve Drimm who did not take part in the war because they had failed to master the art of creation? Saficea granted the Twelve immortality - making them gods - so that they would never die. She granted them the power of creation but also locked them away from the bodies of the Child-Gods.

For a short time these twelve worked together. They created the angels to watch over the dark places and ensure that demons and devils created by their brothers and sisters would not return. They feared that another war would re-awaken Saficea. By the time new races started appearing on the world these newly risen gods were in conflict again, but locked in a circle and unable directly effect one another or return to the world there was little they could do in comparison to the bloodbaths of before.

Then, among the youngest of the young races, Man came to be. Unlike those who had come before them, Man learnt to pray to the twelve. There were times Man, weak alone but stronger together, sought assistance from the great powers they knew existed in the Sun. To begin with the Twelve ignored Man as Man had nothing to offer. In time, however, the Risen Twelve noticed that their powers grew as Man prayed and so was born the new faith.

Clerical magic in Valus is exceptional. Here is a system that adds layers of politics, drama, tactics and interest to both game mechanics and game setting. The Twelve are arranged in an opposing circle. For one month in the year each God is more powerful than usual - and so are their clerics! For one month in the year, while their rival is powerful, each God is weaker than normal - and so are their clerics! This necessitates careful time keeping by the gaming group but the ebb and flow of power is thrilling.

In addition to extra or fewer spells at certain times of the year and month, clerics also suffer and benefit from boons and banes. For example, the Risen Gods strongly oppose those who would risk Saficea's wrath again by summoning beings from the planes to Valus (and Divine Retribution for such a calling is detailed in the book...) but the vile Cula Vak is known to turn a blind eye to such actions when his clerics are careful about doing so at certain times. However, when Puriel rules the sky Cula Vak's clerics still in towns and cities are surrounded with a purplish glow as she marks the servants of her enemy, picking them out so her own followers can deal with them...

As each God takes their yearly ascendancy the Sun shines with a halo of their colour. Everyone, cleric or mundane, can see which God is currently most powerful and it's little wonder that the common people worship the entire pantheon, praying to individuals as needed.

Druids and Paladins are dangerous heretics. Paladins are especially loathed by the Churches and the common people. Paladins follow neither the Old Faith nor pay homage to the Risen Twelve and instead walk the path of the Angels. Paladins that Angels, created in a moment of purity and harmony, have bettered their apathetic and divided parents.

Every class is different in Valus, some more so than others. Everyone enjoys an additional bonus feat at first level. The reason for this is fantastically simple. Valus has more emphasis on the personal skills and abilities of its heroes, villains and survivors than on the magic items they gather. Superb!

Valus has its "fantasy" gauge carefully balanced and finds a harmony between the typical D&D high fantasy and the more intricate roleplaying settings of low fantasy worlds. Valus doesn't introduce any more monsters but it does not take any monsters out either. These creatures are simply rarer in Valus and encounters with them are likely to be more deadly.

Valus does introduce new player races; half-trolls, for example and divides up the mass of humanity into interesting ethic groups. A good sign, I think, that the game has not been dumbed down is that there's no single, convenient and inexplicable single language on Valus. Literacy isn't common on Valus either and player characters don't have that skill set for free either.

There's one prestige class in Valus. This is a whole new d20 setting and there's only one prestige class! Do you know what... this is a prestigious class! The Covenguard defend Valus from otherword beings who should not here. Becoming a Covenguard feels like a significant event, it's noteworthy, it could even be campaign worthy and this is such an improvement on prestige classes as taken-for-granted career/stat enhancing moves. There's even a discussion on alignment conflicts between good Covernguards and good outsiders.

The bulk of the book is about Valus. This is a world book and fits firmly into the "Gazetteer" niche that the d20 industry ascribes to such compendiums. There is this new (and entirely intoxicating) religion of twelve conflicting, love-less, gods and the rival Old Faith, there are new feats, new player races and twists on character classes but the most of the 176 pages describe the geography, history and people of the world. There's no filler here (but perhaps so many locales that you'll never fit them all) and rather nicely Adventure Hooks are ceded directly into the gazetteer's entries. Valus is as interesting as it is deadly. All it takes is a look at a map, for example, to notice that Traitors' Plains is known as Heros' Plains to some people.

I'm not a fan of pre-written adventures but I do believe there is room for short adventures in the back of a new setting. Why? The adventure helps set the scene and show explicitly the style of game the world author had in mind for their creation. This "permission" for an adventure is upgraded to "need" when the world setting differs so uniquely from what's come before and where GMs (or DMs as Valus persists in maintaining) may genuinely be in need of some directional guidance. Valus concludes with a sample adventure and ideas. One such adventure possibility looks at what might happen if the Mad Druid manages to convert the Tundreth Clans to the Old Faith. Will the players be able to stop them allying with their traditional enemies - the roven - who also follow the Old Faith or will the Antlered King now have a powerful army which he can throw against civilisation? I know. The suggestion alone is enough to make me want to pick up the book and turn to the Tundreth Clans sections again.

Valus does have a chapter there to advise GMs and discuss issues like ad hoc experience points, NPCs, social classes and monsters. I think, though, the first advice to any d20 GM should be to go out and buy the book.

This one is a winner.


* This Valus review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Jannica Thales]

Valus is a d20 fantasy campaign setting that possesses a strong ability to create and maintain mood. It boasts that it is a “dark & brutal world” with a “high mortality rate”. This is very true and the writing is very well done. While Midnight would probably still take the prize for “darkest d20 world”, it does so largely on the basis of mechanics. Valus achieves the same end on the basis of prose. However, does that make it a good setting? Let’s open the book and see.

The introduction is the best introduction in gaming. I say this not only because I enjoyed the introductory cover story, but because it gives a brief description of each chapter. If you’ve read my previous reviews, you know that this was an invaluable reference for me! Thank you, Different Worlds Publications, for making my job easier. As a caveat I should say that I made an effort to get this review out before the close of the ENnie awards, this book is up for two, best writing and best setting. Were it not for the introduction, I probably wouldn’t have been able to complete this in time (and this still may not make rpg.net before deadline). This is absolutely no reason for anyone else in the entire world to buy this book, but let’s give your pal Jan a break, eh?

Chapter One covers the world of Valus. Valus is just an island, about 600 miles long, or roughly the size of a medium American State. The rest of the world is “the mainland” and the empires there are in a long struggle for ascendancy. The history of the world and the calendar are also covered as well as languages and racial pejoratives. It’s not a very big chapter and ends at page 20.

Chatper Two is where we find most of the game mechanics. Humans start with a free “heritage level” that indicates a +1 bonus to a save, a skill that will always be treated as a class skill, a free pre-selected feat, and a favored class. This limits the human’s ability to pick up classes, but they start out with a little extra “oomph”. There are three subraces of dwarves (durven) and they are somewhat similar, the -4 penalty across the board to swim checks is a nice touch and I wish that was in the core rules. Elves (drel) are broken up into two subraces that are more distinct. Giving the Magical Aptitude feat to the Horadrel (think high elves) is a good way to establish that the elves are truly magical. The Gammhedrel are wood elves and the Paradrel are the luckless half-elves that actually age faster than humans. Half-Orcs and Halflings make a brief appearance. Gnomes are replaced with Pem. Pem are a lot like gnomes, only more magical and reclusive. There are new races: Roven (dog men) and Trulls (half Trolls). Neither of these did that much for me. I’m hard pressed to see the need for Roven when Gnolls exist and the violent-yet-lawful nature of the Trulls escapes me.

We continue on to classes and their place within Valus. Bards are broken up into skalds, troubadours, and minstrels, each with their own slight variation on the bard class. This may not make much sense now, but when we get later into the book and we see how Valus is culturally broken up into thirds it makes far more sense. Clerics are a big deal, the Risen Gods are eternally warring and being a cleric is a big deal in Valus. Gods are both good and evil and they all grant their own special abilities. Druids gain Intimidation as a class skill and that should tell you most of what you need to know about Valusian druids right there. Fighters, Monks, Rangers, and Rogues are unchanged. Paladins – get this – are the bad guys of Valus. They worship angels, not gods, and are therefore heretics. That is, like, so goth. Very nice portrayal and a very original take on the class. Sorcerers and Wizards gain slight tweaks that distinguish the two classes better and again they’re changes I’d consider adding to my campaign if I could ever tie anyone down to a chair and force to game with me as a DM.

There is one prestige class, the Covengaurd. Covengaurd see it as their job to defend Valus from outsiders. All outsiders. Angels, demons, devils, elementals, whatever. They’re all unwelcome to the Covenguard. This is something that will make a little more sense in upcoming chapters. There are a few new feats and HEY look at this! A picture of a guy using the Haft-Strike feat on what I presume are Roven. I couldn’t say of course because this is the first picture of Roven we see. What they’re doing next to a combat feat as opposed to where the race is introduced is anyone’s guess. No this isn’t really a big deal, but if I have a new race I’d kind of like to see what it looks like.

Chapter three beings on page 54. Religion is a very big deal in Valus and understanding the nature of the gods is vital to understanding the nature of the world. Essentially, the creator was forced to kill her first children, who fell to the planet and formed the landmasses. In his/her grief, he/she gave her dead children all her love, which meant she had none left when she created the next batch of kids. A bit of a snafu there if you ask me, but then I don’t go around creating universes. The result is that mortals which sprang from the bodies of the dead gods, have the ability to love. Immortals don’t. This may seem like a very touchy-feely Hallmark romance thing to add to a campaign setting, but when you think about what the afterlife is like you begin to think again. My SO -- who is thoughtfully watching Matrix movies at full volume while your humble scribe types this – compared departed souls to shrapnel and I think that’s an apt metaphor. The various gods and their granted powers commences which is a nice segue into the next chapter which is about magic.

Chapter four is very short and covers the consequences of the previous chapter. Clerics are a little stricter about brining people back from the dead and those they do bring back are scarred magically. The differences between summoning and calling are also touched on.

Chapter five is about Northern Valus, Hor Valu. There are two empires here which are covered as well as some major geographical features and points of historical interest. This area has a kind of a King Arthur feel to it. Except there’s no high king, everyone hates each other, and the civilization the Romans brought is forgotten. If you’re thinking this is traditional fantasy you’re thinking wrong. This is where Valus starts to shine as a campaign setting. The towns and histories really come alive and there are places like Andoric’s Steps where a noble prince committed suicide, presumably after seeing too much war and hatred. Plot hooks are interspersed here and there, but I think they’re the weakest part of the chapter. Which is not to say they’re all that weak, just that if I have to pick something I pick the hooks.

Chapter six is more celtic and barbaric. The Durves live here along with the various human clans. We are also treated to a sample town. The picture of the sign giving the costs for what different human and humanoid heads are worth pretty much sums up this chapter.

Chapter seven is southern Valus with its elves and Pellmen. The Pell are merchant princes and there is no law other than the laws of supply and demand. I love the Pell. When a merchant prince dies they have 30 days of peace while the houses scramble to form alliances and hire mercenaries, then they fight it out for 30 more days with no quarter given, then the merchant lords get together alone and decide on a new merchant prince, dissenters are executed on the spot by the other lords. Wall Street never looked so tame.

Chapter eight starts on page 144 and is DM advice. I’m pretty sure there’s a small violation of the Open Gaming License in the opening pages, but I won’t tell anyone if you won’t. The DM is suggested to make encounters a little tougher and to use a silver standard instead of a gold standard. Modifications to skills like Diplomacy are given for social rank, so even a 15th level wizard will still have a hard time convincing a king to listen to him, a nice way to enforce the importance of rank in a medieval society. Also present are three campaign outlines, each with three styles of play depending on how much your players like combat to roleplay.

We end with an introductory adventure. I won’t spoil it. It is a good adventure and a good introduction to Valus in that I think it’s pretty likely that it’s going to end in a character death. Take points in Spot, is all I’m saying.

Conclusions:

So the mechanics are fine and the atmosphere of the setting is sublime, what’s not to like about Valus? Well, nothing except that I don’t think I could get anyone to play it. Parts of this book are just great. The Farthis Fight is one of many examples where the brutality of Valus comes alive and the game ideas just pop out at you as you read about a village where once a year everyone leaves and let all comers participate in a battle royale. And the image of a half-orc keeping a Pem as a pet in his russack won’t leave my mind soon. You could get a really, really good game out of Valus if you had a bunch of good roleplayers who had all read the setting, and no you can’t say that about all campaigns, though I’ve read many who claim otherwise.

Also parts of this book are just hard to read. The sidebars are in a textured grey format, which is a pain. The introductory fiction paragraphs – and this book is full of them – are well done, but don’t really break the text up. This is a full, rich world, now how am I going to get a group to play in it compared to, say, the Forgotten Realms? I think people will enjoy Valus more than the FR, but the initial investment to read up on the different cultures is high.

And thus I don’t know how to really rate this book. 4/5 substance, 4/5 style? Am I showing no love? Well, Valus is used to that!