Here Be Dragons!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 02:12:25 AM

Now that we're comfortably past the original goal and looking ahead to the Stretch Goal, we can start talking about some of the Foes you'll be seeing in the Villains, Creatures and Foes stretch goal supplement! Dragons are classic creatures of myth and fantasy, and we've created our own original set of Dragons for our settings. In our upcoming Foes book, here are some of the Dragons you can look forward to, and if we hit the stretch goal you'll have full stat blocks to go with them!

Dragons

Dragons are long-lived protectors of the natural world. Said to be the firstborn among all the creatures of the world, they live about three centuries and tend to live solitary lives or dwell within small communities. Dragons make their lairs among the natural world in the areas most suited to their presence, safeguarding it and ensuring that it flourishes. The Dragons have generally been somewhat enigmatic in their dealings with mankind, but have no qualms razing entire settlements if they are interfering with the Dragon’s duty. The following are the dragon species found within the world.

Magma Dragon

Dwelling in the hottest volcanic regions, the Magma Dragon is among the rarer breeds. Their bodies are a deep red with visible veins of magma flowing throughout. Magma dragons have four limbs but no wings, as well as porous vents across their underbelly and back that ooze lava. They breathe lava and fire, and are capable of flight by expelling flame and lava from the vents.

Mountain Dragon

Mountain Dragons are slow, ponderous dragons who dwell within the rocky mountain ranges. They possess no wings and cannot fly, but their bodies are on average larger than that of most other dragons and enormously muscular. Their scales are jagged like mountain crags, making them look much like a mountain themselves. Mountain Dragons excel at climbing, they can make their bodies adhere to stone at will allowing them to climb freely. This effect can be dismissed at will, so it is a simple enough matter for the Mountain Dragon to “let go” of any object. Mountain Dragons can regurgitate bile and gastric acid that can easily melt through steel.

Stone Dragon

Stone Dragons are massive creatures, among the largest of dragonkind, with scales like rock. When at rest, it’s quite easy for a stone dragon to be mistaken for a rock formation. Stone Dragons have no wings, and when they move they make a distinctive grinding noise from their stone-scales moving against each other. Stone Dragons have no eyes, their heads being a massive bulwark of stone that can be used as a potent ramming vehicle. They have exceptional senses of touch and hearing and can easily navigate the underground caves and passages they call home through a combination of echolocation and tremor sensing. Stone Dragons have an intensely high internal temperature allowing their bite to melt rock with ease, and they feed on rock and metal. Metal isn’t fully digested, but is instead stored in their bellies in molten form which they can expel at will.

Forest Dragon

Forest Dragons are among the most commonly known dragons, having dwelt among mortals for millennia. Possessed of strong bodies with lashing tails, a respectable wingspan and a long serpentine neck, Forest Dragons are what most people think of when they think of dragons. Forest Dragons are the traditional caretakers of the forest, with keen insight as to the nature of the plants and animals within their domain. Forest Dragons can expel any number of liquids from their mouths depending on the kinds of berries and fruits they incorporate into their diet, allowing them to create any number of toxins and tonics within their belly that they can then regurgitate. If they eat certain foods, the chemicals within them can be combined and expelled as flame, allowing them to clear underbrush and maintain forest growth.

Sand Dragon

Sand Dragons dwell within the vast deserts and sandy beaches. Typically light brown or white in color, they blend easily within the sand, which they can move through swiftly and silently. Sand dragons can manipulate sand and loose earth, hardening or softening it to create openings or barriers. Possessed of slim bodies, sand dragons lack the serpentine necks that many other dragons possess. Their wings can be tucked closely to their bodies for rapid movement through the ground, and can be used to glide through the wind although they cannot actually fly under their own power.

Sky Dragon

Sky Dragons are a fairly small breed of dragon. Long and serpentine in shape, they have no limbs save for two great feathery wings that protrude from their back. Sky dragons are the unmatched masters of flight within dragonkind, moving swiftly through the air at high speeds. Sky dragons are highly agile, their serpentine bodies allowing them to slither, duck and dive their way through most situations. Since they are often airborne, Sky Dragons gather water vapor as they fly, which they can release to create clouds or mist around them, as well as sustain themselves should they lack for prey. Sky Dragons can adhere to clouds, where they will often settle to sleep.

Storm Dragon

Storm Dragons are said to resemble Wyverns, but Wyverns they decidedly are not. While they have no fore limbs, they instead have two large wings sprouting from their long serpentine body, with two hind legs allowing them to stand upright. Storm Dragons are strong fliers, larger and slower than Sky Dragons but with stronger frames and greater endurance. Storm Dragons love to dance among the storm clouds, drawing power from the electric charge. Storm dragons store the lightning within their bodies, which they can slowly consume to restore energy as efficiently as if they were sleeping or expel with deadly force and precision.

Sea Dragon

Sea Dragons are limbless, serpentine creatures that dwell in the murky depths, making their lairs in underwater caverns on the ocean floor. Sea Dragons can grow to enormous lengths, their scaled and finned bodies sliding swiftly through the water and displacing massive amounts of water as they move. Sea Dragons have great mastery over the water and the currents. Sea Dragons have large and highly acute eyes, but at greater depths they rely far more on echolocation to guide them, as well as sensing objects and creatures by feeling the flow of the currents. Sea Dragons can even alter the currents, bending them to their will, and if desired can dramatically increase the volume and frequency of their sound waves to be used as a powerful weapon. Sea Dragons are fully aquatic, they cannot breathe on land.

River Dragon

River Dragons are the smallest breed of dragon, with sleek, serpentine bodies that end in squat limbs that almost resemble branches at the front and back of their body. River Dragons move quickly through fresh water, making their lairs in off-channels, tributaries or other parts of the river with particularly placid currents and feeding on the fish that dwell within. Although they have no wings, they are capable of harnessing the winds and currents to take to the air, moving swiftly through the sky but unable to sustain flight for long periods of time. River Dragons are notable for their amphibious nature; they can breathe both in and out of water. River Dragons don’t have the full mastery over water currents like Sea Dragons, but they do have some mastery over the air currents which allows them to manipulate the water and wind in their immediate area.

Lake Dragon

Lake Dragons are bulky dragons that dwell at the bottom of large lakes. Their bodies are covered in thick armored shells that they can retreat into for additional protection, and their immense lung capacity allows them to draw in and expel huge amounts of water or air from their shells allowing them to suck prey into the shell to be quickly finished and devoured. Lake Dragons, much like their River Dragon cousins, are amphibious and can breathe both in and out of water, but are typically not particularly swift on dry land. Lake Dragons tend to store water in their bodies which they can expel with immense pressure from any open point in their shell.

Swamp Dragon

Swamp Dragons are large dragons characterized by their long snouts full of razor sharp teeth. Possessing powerful but squat limbs and a bulky body, Swamp Dragons are at home in water and on land, possessing large fragile wings that allow them to glide over water and provide additional propulsion when underwater. Swamp Dragons have an extremely powerful digestive system and can ingest just about anything, if they ingest anything particularly toxic they store it in a separate digestion sac which allows them to expel it as acidic venom.

Frost Dragon

Frost Dragons are medium-sized dragons with squat, thick bodies and covered in thick white fur. They have expansive feathered wings on their back and their limbs are short and muscular, ending in clawed paws. They are the least reptilian of all the dragons, with only a scaly underbelly to belie their otherwise mammalian appearance. Frost Dragons have a high internal body temperature to keep them moving in the coldest of climes, and they can ingest ice and expel it as blistering hot steam. Frost Dragon blood is so hot it is scalding to the touch.

FULLY FUNDED!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 04, 2022 at 07:08:30 AM

In just over a week's time, we are 100% Funded! Thank you so, so much! We could not be more excited! With the completion of our initial funding goal, we can now look forward to our stretch goals!

First on the list is a Full Text Edition of the Valor: Villains, Creatures and Foes supplement. Initially, we were going to ship the bonus with the new abilities found in the book, but if we can achieve a stretch goal of $10,000 we will ship a full text version of the entire book. The additional money raised for this book will be devoted to the additional writing requirements we will have to get it ready for release, as well as designer costs to prepare it post-release for the full book format so we can start placing artwork for a proper hardcover release. Achieving this will dramatically increase our speed, allowing us to target 2023 for the full edition release!

Should we manage to raise even more beyond that, the next goal will be an additional text-only setting book for the Lenaia setting we'll be featuring prominently in our Foes book and in a lot of our streamed content! If we get there, we'll talk more about that a bit later!

Thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts. Your support, be it new or continued, means the absolute world to us. Valor wouldn't exist without all of you, and we're happy to continue delivering more tools and exciting additions to keep Valor fresh and fun for years to come!

Week 1 - Almost to Goal!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 01, 2022 at 06:42:02 PM

Hey everyone, thank you so, so much for your support already. With everyone's generous backing, we are just shy of $600 to our first goal! We're super excited! While the middle of a campaign can always be a bit slow, our hope is we can cross that threshold soon!

In anticipation of that, we wanted to talk about what we're looking at for our first stretch goal! We've been sitting on a nearly complete edition of Valor: Villains, Creatures and Foes for quite some time now. The text is all together, but because the book is enormous we've been looking at ways to get it published. With some of the new directions our settings are moving in, some of the Foes we'd initially planned aren't quite suitable and we're looking on stripping down stat blocks as much as we can to save printing space and reduce art cost to make it publishable. For our first Stretch Goal, our plan is to deliver the full text-only book and get it moving through the layout stage so we can start placing art.

The end result will be for all backers who go in for the PDF edition of the Valor Core book, they will ALSO receive a full text version of the Foes book which contains all of the new rules, skill and abilities as well as every planned Foe.

Finally, since we've had some extremely generous backers who want to give more than the highest tier and have asked if there's anything we can do for them, we absolutely can! Any excess will be spendable in the Backerkit store once the campaign wraps up for additional copies of all books and Valor products. We are still assessing the completion of the Valor Character Builder standalone program, but that may also be added depending on progress.

We're thrilled to have come this far in so short a time, and we're hopefully we can smash our current goal and keep going higher! Thank you all again, let's make this happen!

Over 50% Day 1
over 2 years ago – Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 11:39:08 AM

We are absolutely blown away by the support. Over 50% in a single day, we could not be more grateful! During the Kickstarter we'll be running a number of events so if you know folks who are still on the fence about backing, or if you want to stop in and chat with other Valor fans, please stop by! Everyone is welcome! 

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of Two Lions: Join Anoriand the Game Dad and a bunch of incredibly talented players for a Final Fantasy-inspired Valor game that airs every Monday! This game is fantastic and we're usually hanging out in chat screaming excitedly about how amazing everyone is. Tune in to the next show on Monday, September 26th at 4:00 PM Pacific/7:00 PM Eastern!

Randomworlds RPG Chat: We'll be sitting down with the Randomworlds to chat about Valor on Thursday, September 29th at 5:30 Pacific/7:30 Central! If you're interested in chatting with us, or any of the phenomenal creators they're chatting with. You can find their full schedule here.

Valor Live: The Woven: Join us every other Friday alongside a cast of TTRPG creators and professionals for Valor Live: the Woven! The next game will be on October 7th at 5:30 PM Pacific/8:30 PM Eastern! This is one of our active Actual Plays, with the second, Windriders, which stars a number of professional voice actors, coming back online soon. The Woven takes place in our upcoming Lenaia Magical Girl/Magical Academy-inspired setting.

Valor: The Leftovers: For local folks, join us every other Saturday for an in-person play session at Gamer's Heaven North in Lynnwood, Washington! The Leftovers is an open game taking place in our Lenaia setting and completely open to the public. The next session will be on Saturday October 8th at 3:00 PM Pacific! Also join us later around 6:00 PM Pacific on their Twitch for a streamed Valor game with some local players!

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts! This is a fantastic start and we're so excited to get this off the ground! With everyone's support, we can absolutely make this happen!