September 13, 2024
Last time I did a brainstorm session like this was for Persona: 1, 2, 3. This one's way shorter though. The idea is to flesh out some kind of specific JRPG-inspired campaign structure for Valiant Horizon.
So let's say there's these crystals, right? Used to be 12 of them - nowadays there's, uh, let's say 3-5 PCs crystals remaining. Each of them has the power to maintain the last few villages that stand in the world and prevent them from being swallowed up by the darkness that has consumed the rest.
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July 9, 2024
Hi there! v1.1 of Valiant Horizon is out!
This includes:
Tweaked Create an Opening downward because it was Too Good By Far. Clarification of interaction of inverse with resist/vulnerable (it does the thing you’d expect and reverses the step to do less or more Harm respectively). Clarification on if moving to far counts as two near movements for the purpose of anything that cares (yes). Clarification on encounter composition and scaling: Upgraded composition to its own page with an example and some extra advice and dedicated an entire page to scaling to make it clear what’s going on there.
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February 4, 2024
So we started poking at turning Valiant Horizon into Persona in Part 1 by establishing initial premises of what even this kind of game is like. It's got a lot of the DNA of urban fantasy/masquerade style games (WoD, Unknown Armies, etc) but with a very different emphasis, and especially the fact that there's a harder divide between the two "halves". Now we start digging in to what we want to do with that.
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February 4, 2024
*Before I release the extra edition that tacks on like 2 more posts.
In Part 1 we established what kind of game we're using. In Part 2 we tied together Valiant Horizon's class system with the tarot thing Persona has going on. In this final installment (because at this point more beyond what I'm covering here would involve just making the thing) we're gonna think about using what we set up in part 2 for a session and campaign structure.
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February 3, 2024
I'm thinking about Persona* a lot lately, partially because P3 Reload is out and I kind of want to play it but also it's $70 so fuck that shit. But partially it's because I realized while putting together the playlist for Valiant Horizon how well the two concepts overlaid with each other with only a little reflavoring/stretching:
Normalish people given extraordinary power Powers come from discrete beings with archetypical distinctions that are intended to match with the character Huge emphasis on relationships and building both towards understanding that archetypical power better and being closer to the person who wields it, is associated with it, etc.
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January 23, 2024
Valiant Horizon v1.0 is finally out! Some big changes:
12 incredible illustrations by Charlotte Laskowski! Editing and revision by Marx Shepherd! And some smaller ones:
Swarm enemies don’t exist anymore and Prime enemies are a bit different. Relationship rolls are now reversed so high rolls are good. Various little fixes, typos, and tweaks. Thanks so much to everyone who backed the game! I’ll have news about a season pass soon. And for everyone’s generosity, I added one community copy for everyone who bought it (and a few more on top).
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January 21, 2024
Hi there! Last class overview devlog, because after these two we’re out of core classes! Introducing the final two, Tactician and Windmagus. Just in time for the full release on January 23rd!
The Tactician From the start, I wanted one full-support class - not just for mechanical reasons, but thematically, I wanted someone whose almost exclusive role was to support and boost allies. As mentioned in the Commander overview, I’ve had the idea of Tactician via 36th Way Weigh the Odds Commander via 13th Age Commander via 4E warlord in my head for awhile, and I knew I wanted something like it here - so tying it to full-support made sense.
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January 18, 2024
Hi there!
Valiant Horizon v1.0 is coming out on January 23rd! So we’re devlogging fast now.
As noted in #1, all role/sub-role talk is referring to Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts.
The Knight Once of the martial ideas I wanted to replicate was someone who is just absolutely steadfast in every sense: physically and otherwise. I knew I wanted a Knight somewhere too - I just inherently like the idea of a warrior defined by dedication.
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January 16, 2024
Hi there!
Valiant Horizon v1.0 is coming out on January 23rd! So I’d better get moving on these devlogs.
As noted in #1, all role/sub-role talk is referring to Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts.
The Earthmagus All of my mages (the -magus classes specifically) are just a little off from what people expect. “Earth” is probably the most skipped element in video games on top of that - you see fire/ice/lightning a lot, and earth sometimes comes in as like “acid” or some similar cop-out like that.
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December 21, 2023
Hi there! Long time no see!
Now that Valiant Horizon is nearing full release, this is #3 in our design series. We’re back with the Commander and Dark Knight.
As noted in #1, all role/sub-role talk is referring to Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts.
The Commander To get the elephant out of the room, yes, I came at this starting with the 4E warlord by way of its less acclaimed distant cousin, the 13th Age commander.
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