Why Valt?

I thought I would take a moment to talk about Valt in it’s role as a story setting.

Every veteran gamer has seen a dozen and one game settings, and knows that each one is different from the other.  Spelljammer was a game of “You got sci-fi in my fantasy!/You got fantasy in my sci-fi!”.  Ravenloft was the game about hopelessness, despair, and powerlessness.  So what separates Valt?  What are the key things that the world (as a story setting) is about?

Polarization- The first and foremost element of Valt is a feeling of “Us vs Them”.  Even if the players don’t want to take part in it, they are part of an ‘Us’.  Many ‘Us’s', in point of fact.  And to each ‘Us’, there is a ‘Them.’  It’s like a giant food web, with the players trying to avoid being eaten by all the conflicts around them.  Often times in Valt, the PC’s will be forced to work with someone they hate in order to fight an force that views both parties (the PC’s and their enemies) as “Them.”

History- There is a lot of known history in Valt, and more that has been lost.  The return of the lost and forgotten enemy is a common factor, meaning that researching the history of the world is usually necessary.

No man is an island- The PC’s aren’t the only adventurers in the world.  Many times the party will run into other adventuring groups operating in their area.  Sometimes the two parties are existing cotangently, both sides pursuing their own adventure arcs.  Sometimes they can find themselves in competition.  On rare occasions, they might find themselves in opposition.

Betrayal- Valt is an evil world, filled with evil creatures.  This pervasive wickedness creeps in everywhere, and touches everything.  At some point in every Valt campaign, the PC’s should be betrayed by a trusted friend and ally.  (So much the better if it is one of them.)

Continuity- Typically, after every Valt game I advance the timeline a century or two.  The actions of the PC’s matter, and shape the world.  For instance, the Scaled Emperor was never supposed to rule over Fassett, but the game ended before the PC’s got around to dealing with the threat.  What the PC’s do, and how they do it, has long lasting effects.

Artificiality- Valt isn’t supposed to support life.  Whatever the nature of Silduggis, his malignancy has spread to every corner of the world, and everything is tainted by it.  Nature itself tends towards evil, and the environment of Valt is a harsh one.  Sentient races cannot co-exist with the land here, they must conquer it.

Fear of the unknown- The residents of Valt fear what they don’t understand.  New ideas are regarded with suspicion, and ‘outside’ people or ideas are immediately suspect.  Which leads to…

Tradition- The people of Valt tend to take a ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ attitude, which means that bad problems usually get worse, and spiral out of control before anyone does anything about it.

No respite- Very few deities offer any kind of happy afterlife.  Generally, death is something to be feared and avoided.  This makes most people even more jaded and bitter the older they get, and has a particularly nasty effect on hero types, who are faced with the slow realization that they are doing a whole lot of good for very little reward.

Nothing is pure- There is no black and white in Valt.  Even the most upstanding and stalwart champion should have something in their past they feel horrendously guilty about.  Heroes are going to sometimes do bad things, and villains are going to sometimes do good things.  Many adventures in Valt revolve around ‘moral gray areas.’

These are the key themes in Valt.  Some of them I like to use in any game (especially the last one).  Some of these are unique to Valt.  I hope they help to clarify a little of why I do what I do.