September 17, 1984

When The Transformers cartoon series hit the airwaves in America, I (Eric Bloat) was six years old and in the first grade. I remember coming home after school, turning on the TV expecting to see my favorite cartoon, He-Man and the Master of the Universe, only to be devastated to learn that He-Man had been bumped to an earlier time slot and replaced by a new cartoon. Reluctantly, I settled in to watch this new cartoon and that's when I first heard that magical Theme Song with crazy rock guitars and a robotic voices explaining everything I needed to know before watching this first episode . . . "Transformers, Robots in Disguise. Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of The Decepticons." I was hooked!

Transformers toys replaced everything on my Christmas Wish List and I couldn't get enough. Even when Transformers were not on, I'd watch Gobots or any other Vehicle/Robot morphing cartoon. I loved it! My family never went the movies when I was young, but I begged my mother to take to see the 1986 Theatrical release of Transformers: The Movie, and she caved and took me. I had to be escorted out of the theatre in tears when my hero (and spoilers) Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots fell in battle. After I calmed I went back in and finished the film.

I tell you all of this because I want you to know: I LOVE THESE CARTOONS! As soon as I got into the RPG industry and began writing, designing and Publishing games, I knew that I had to do a Transformers-esque RPG game one day. When thinking of what kind of project I wanted to do for this year's Zinequest, it didn't take long before I decided on an RPG in zine with the theme being Vehicle-Shifting-Robots.

Once I had this figured out, I knew I couldn't do this by myself and reached out to my ultra-talented artist/friend, Phil Stone. I asked Phil, "Hey, do you like the Transformers?" And when he immediately responded with, "I'm in!" I knew I had reached out to the right person!

ABOUT THE SYSTEM:

Valor Knights is a complete RPG in a zine format. VK uses a hybrid combination of The Black Hack by David Black and The Blackest of Deaths Game System by Eric Bloat. Its fast, loose and a ton of fun to play; A perfect game to emulate the over the top 80s cartoon tropes and adventures that we remember and love.

Rules included:

• Core Mechanic

• Hindrance & Benefit

• Advantage & Disadvantage

• Attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma)

• Determining Attributes, Luck

• Hit Points, Hit Dice, Healing and Death

• Evade & Armor Points, Damage Points

• Leveling Up

• Everything in Turn, Initiative, Time & Turns

• Movement & Distances (Close, Near, Far, Distant)

• Shifting

• Character Creation

• Character Classes (Leader, Warrior, Support, Mini-Bot)

• Weapons & Equipment

• Valor Knights vs Chaos Lords