I have the above model and my refrigerator isn’t running. I watched some YouTube videos and figured out how to do the diagnostic tests and originally thought I had a bad circuit board but that didn’t fix the issue. I ran more tests and got a what I believe is a short in the freezer defrost circuit. Would this cause my refrigerator to not cool even if it’s only associated with the freezer?

I know I shouldn't get medical advice from reddit, I'm still seeing doctors. I just need to vent a little, but could use some insight as well.

I was dealing with a weird stubborn sore throat that seemed viral that wasn't COVID either. Got an autoimmune panel done, nothing unusual there (ANA, RF, SS-A, SS-B negative at this point). I was otherwise perfectly well.
A few days after the sore throat finally receded after some 3-4 weeks, one day I just woke up with a bunch of feverishness (chills, sweats, malaise, fatigue) with no actual fever, and obvious joint pains, just about everywhere, from toes, heels, ankle joints, knees, hips, lower back, fingers. Seems mostly asymmetric and randomly migrates.
Went to see a rheumatologist, took another bajillion blood tests, every antibody (anti-CCP, IgM, C3, C4, IgA, IgG) is negative, HLA-B27 negative, ESR was elevated, but everything else was fine.
Did an x-ray that showed "possible signs of early sacroiliitis".
No mobility issues or any morning stiffness I could identify.
Rheumatologist identified pinky toe on one side is visibly swollen and could indicate dactylitis.
She diagnosed me with some kind of very early spondyloarthritis/ankylosing spondylitis using the x-ray and the dactylitis, but pointed out it's also possible that I'm just dealing with a random viral infection, because the systemic symptoms seem unusual and excessive for an early spondyloarthritis, and the acute onset.
Was taking Arcoxia, a few days later (8 days since onset by now) I had a full blown 38.4C fever a few nights in a row (despite the NSAID), swollen lymph nodes in the neck, sweating more and more profusely. CRP and ESR spiked at this point to the 20s and 50s respectively.
Started a course of prednisolone that got rid of the chills, but still felt like ass.
A bunch of weird prostatitis symptoms started (I had a bout of prostatitis 5 years ago), it was tender and enlarged but not certain whether it's actually bacterial or not. Urologist thought it might be a small chronic infection coming back, even though urine tests are not conclusive. Empirically gave me some antibiotics ciprofloxacin to take for a month. Stopped pred.
Was sent to do a PET-CT scan to rule out lymphomas, identified inflammation in heart instead. This PET scan also did not light up in the lower back like you might expect if there's any active sacroiliitis. Sent to a cardiologist who found reduced heart function but nothing else, thought everything was consistent with viral myocarditis.
With the actual fever, lymph node swelling in the neck, heart stuff, and my ESCRP dropping back to normal, the diagnosis now shifted entirely to "some kind of viral illness" and a "reactive arthritis". Rheumatologist reiterated that spondyloarthritis shouldn't present with acute onset, nor should it cause systemic illness, especially not fevers. I was inclined to agree and on board at this point.
Sent to an infectious diseases specialist, who agreed with the viral illness at least for those symptoms, with a bunch of lingering post-viral stuff. He thinks the systemic inflammation also restarted my prostatitis but that's actually just tense muscles/damaged nerves and not an active infection.
By this time I was getting better overall, told to sit it out and wait, since more blood tests would probably not find much, and even if they did they do not change the management for the most part.
Weeks 4-6: Symptoms actually went down, I was completely symptom free for basically 2 weeks. Went to the gym and all that good stuff, felt great. Rheumatologist said that there's no way I've got a true autoimmune disease now because it's self-limited without treatment, and that the waxing and waning of disease progression is much closer to a viral infection and would be highly unusual for autoimmune.
Weeks 6-8: Symptoms came back, before I even completed the course of antibiotics. Now I feel just as shitty as I did before, feeling feverish without any actual fevers. The pain itself is actually not that bad, but the fatigue and chills and malaise is enough to bowl me over.

My next appointment with the ID doc and the rheumatologist and the urologist are all only in 7 days time. Based on all my reading up, if things have lasted for more than 4-6 weeks it's increasingly unlikely it's viral. It does read like some people get fevers with SpA flares but it also seems quite rare and disproportionate to my relatively mild joint pain so far. Lymph node swelling was only described in case studies.
I felt incredibly ill today and hopeless. I can't wrap my head around what could possibly be happening. I wonder if the week 2 crap was an actual unrelated virus distracting us from the whole thing. The hope is that everything is still part of a viral illness that is lingering long beyond its usual due.

We are Firebreathing Kittens, a podcast that records ourselves playing a different tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) every week. This week we have a free actual play podcast of Alaria Valor And Company. This two hour long recording, called “Roots Of Corruption”, demonstrates players and a Game Master actually playing so you can listen to what it’s like and maybe try it yourself.
About Alaria Valor And Company:
In its own words, "Alaria: Valor & Company is a Table Top RPG that offers a fresh take on the traditional TTRPG experience. It features Alaria, an original adventure setting introduced through a brand new RPG system named Valor & Company. The project has been in development for 5 years as an indie passion project, and its finally ready for a prototype release. Alaria: Valor and Company is a sandbox style TTRPG set in the fantasy renaissance world of Alaria. It can facilitate both traditional RPG play with a GM hosting a session for a group of players or a player vs player mode. It comes with several prebuilt modules for different adventures, but may easily be expanded to custom scenarios and long term campaigns."
Link: https://unreasonableimp.itch.io/alaria-valor-company
Firebreathing Kittens discussion on how to play:

Oneshot recorded game session, Roots Of Corruption:
FBK is hired to protect two children as they undergo a pilgrimage. What no one yet realizes is the true danger spreading in the blessed grove. Join Bill, Qigiq, and Armando as they seek a sense of justice and work to become true heroes in this actual play podcast of Alaria Valor and Company.

About us, Firebreathing Kittens podcast:
Firebreathing Kittens plays a different TTRPG every week. Four of the rotation of cast members will bring you a story that has a beginning and end. Every episode is a standalone plot in the season long anthology. There’s no need to catch up on past adventures or listen to every single release; hop in to any tale that sounds fun. Join as they explore the world, solve mysteries, attempt comedic banter, and enjoy friendship.
If you’d like to play with us, please visit FirebreathingKittensPodcast dot com and read the new members tab.
If you’d like us to play a completed tabletop roleplaying game you designed, please email us at FirebreathingKittensPodcast at gmail dot com. We reply to all emails within three days, so if we haven’t replied, then we haven’t seen your email, send it again.
Our reviews of Alaria Valor And Company after playing it:
Review 1:
“Alaria: valor and company. I think the system is simple in its execution, but overwhelming in choices. Character creation is difficult to understand at first, and very complex for a first time player. If I hadn't had help, I would not have engaged with the system”
Review 2:
“Alaria: Valor and Company was a little intimidating at first, but so was Dungeons and Dragons 5e when I picked it up. Character creation went well but I was unsure about how to exercise all the moves until partway through the game, and even then I feel it would take a couple sessions to really nail it down. The card aspect versus dice was different and positive in the sense that it offered a different challenge to the way the game is played.”
Review 3:
“Alaria: Valor and Company has a pretty unique design to it. Being diceless using playing cards is a fun twist, but the no cards or dice with combat is very unique. I found playing that the combat was almost mechanical. The system is designed to just compare stats for different parts of the character, their talents, the armor they are wearing and a host of other attributes. It gives the impression of being a 'crunchy' system. It tries to emulate some real world type effects and consequences of the physicality and capabilities of equipment. This is pretty well thought out, BUT, the actual play the combat felt to me mechanical and so less fluid, that the roleplaying and skill check tasks were superior to the combat and felt more rewarding as we got to pull cards and even the fails lent to the story. The combat, was simply an exercise in planning, and didnt feel 'cinematic' in anyway. I would consider trying to bring some random element into the combat. I think even the opposed check mechanics using deflection and aim could potentially be a lot of fun. As a side nit, the book uses the Term Identify as both a core capability and the verb, to the point it can get confusing. Suggest naming everything that can be a 'skill or trait' be named so as to not coincide with language used in descriptions. There were interchanges we didnt have a natural solution and granted the GM just makes a ruling, but you want the game accessible to new and older players, gotta cover them holes.”
Review 4:
“Alaria Valor and Company is one of the rare game systems that doesn't have any randomization in combat. When attacking, characters have an aim number, and that aim number determines the things they can hit. Characters have a lower and upper deflection threshold for defending against incoming attacks. An attack with an incoming aim that meets or beats the lower deflection threshold hits and deals normal wound damage. An attack with an incoming aim that meets or beats the upper deflection threshold deals a critical hit. Critical hits deal twice the normal wound damage and also one extra pushback of force. Because there's no randomization or rolling during combat, it goes really fast, with the major variables being what you choose to do on your turn and how you choose to attack and defend. Some examples of standard action choices you can make are: you can double swing, which deals two weapon hits. Or you can aimed strike, which increases your aim but only does one weapon hit. Or you can advance, which lets you move your movement again but only does one weapon hit. You can also react to take actions on the enemy faction's turn by spending focus points, that refresh at the start of your turn. Some example reactions you can choose to do on your opponent's turn include ducking and covering to increase your deflection against ranged attacks, dodging, blocking, relocating, or playing dead. The skill checks in Alaria Valor and Company use a deck of cards and are fun and different. You name a suit and then draw as many cards as you have in the skill. For example, if you have three in a skill you'd name clubs and draw three cards and hope you drew a clubs card. That concludes my quick overview of the mechanics. Here are my thoughts about Alaria Valor and Company from a big picture perspective. First I'll make an analogy. There's a saying that I've heard said about Magic the Gathering, which is that part of the reason it is so popular is because the land mana system lets people have a tangible excuse for why they lost other than their own lack of skill. They can say to themselves, "I lost because I didn't get the land I needed." Or "No worries, opponent, you did great, if only you'd gotten the land you needed you would have been really strong against me. Good game." Without the land mana system, Magic the Gathering would be a lot less random, and probably a lot less popular. It turns out that randomization is good for making a person feel like it's okay to make mistakes. In Alaria Valor and Company, I felt tempted to optimize, and I let that slip out in what I said out loud. I regretted advising people on things they could do that would be better than what they had thought of during combat. After the session I thought to myself, "Oh, d'oh, you're doing ttrpgs wrong if you're suggesting how people play, whoops, don't do that." But in a game with no randomization, it's a lot clearer what the "best" moves would be. It was too easy for me to say advice like, "You can hit that enemy if you use the advance action this turn." Which takes away all their personal choice and player agency. It is not fun to play in a game where one person is telling the other people what the ideal action for them to do would be. I've definitely been in that situation before, and now I avoid it. So I cringed about giving optimization advice afterwards and wondered why I said it. I normally don't have that temptation with other ttrpg systems. I think it happened because, and I agree with the other reviewer, all the randomization is stripped away and it changes your mentality to trying to solve a puzzle instead of trying to play a team sport. Alaria Valor and Company is like chess or the video game Fire Emblem, where there is definitely a right and a wrong thing to do, and if you take a less than optimal path it's purely from your lack of skill, there are no other excuses. I guess that's true about all tabletop roleplaying games, but like the land mana system in Magic the Gathering, randomization lets us mentally excuse ourselves for our less than optimal plays. I'm not trying to be fancy. I guess at the end of the day playing ttrpgs could be called basically playing Barbie with one another for the roleplay aspect and playing chess with one another for the combat aspect, sure, but there's a difference in mentality for how you approach a problem when you're solving a puzzle versus when you're playing a game. When I solve a puzzle I want to redo it to see if I could complete it more optimally, in fewer steps. When I play a game, I want the emotional ups and downs of like, a sports team scoring a goal or the star kicker missing. They're different ways to have fun. Overall, the combat in Alaria Valor and Company felt more to me like puzzle solving, like how in Fire Emblem there's an optimum way to clear the level, than other ttrpgs, because there was no illusion of randomization. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure, and I want to play this game again to explore it more, definitely. Anyway. Here is my comment about Alaria Valor and Company's rulebook. The game is currently in beta testing and the rulebook could benefit from some polishing before the system's actual release. Here are some examples. Below the armor table there's a list of terms defined. For example, what the words "duelist" and "heavy" mean when they appear on armor. It would be helpful if instead of the game creator writing "Heavy: as per the weapon feature", they instead wrote the definition out. For heavy, that's "When the weapon is used to attack or block, it costs 1 more focus to use. The penalty from using multiple Heavy objects does not stack." If the creator is going to refer the reader to a previous page, please tell us what that page number is, page 89. It was not enjoyable to search the rulebook for the weapon feature Heavy to find what page it was on. The rule book could also benefit from adding a dictionary at the end of the book, too, that defined all the terms, and an index, which is when every page the term appears on is included in its dictionary entry. It is also useful for players to have a one or two page turn action reference sheet at the end of the book that lists all the different standard actions, swift actions, bonus actions, and reactions they can choose to do on their turn. Also, the rulebook says the aimed strike is plus one aim on page twenty seven, and plus two aim on page thirty three. The rule book could benefit from better clustering of its ideas and a writing editor. If the combat action and reactions were more clearly explained with more examples then first time players could pick this up better. The two page quick reference I made really helped me. Thus ends my thoughts on the rulebook. Overall, I really enjoyed Alaria Valor and Company and genuinely would play this system again once it's finished and the rulebook has been polished, especially if the author included a solo play option. Solo play would be a great thing to add to Alaria Valor and Company. For the author, I suggest checking out Thousand Year Old Vampire as an example of a fun solo play format. You advance forwards and backwards on spaces where each space is a story prompt. If there was a solo play option, then I'd absolutely love the puzzle solving aspect of Alaria Valor and Company, and redoing levels to optimize them like I do with Fire Emblem would be really fun. ”
Plot Summary of Roots Of Corruption:
The adventure began in the Guild Hall. Armando, Bill, and Qigiq were hanging out, looking at the job board. They were looking for work. Soon, Noona Khatun comes in with Nulisag they were discussing rates for hiring some fire-breathing kittens for the simple job of escorting some children a few days away and then back again.
The three heroes accompany Noona to her apartment. And they meet the children. The children take a little bit of coaxing to get to come as both Armando and Qigiq make some efforts to ease their tension, resulting in them feeling at ease about coming along.
The group traveled through the forest, during which Armando, Bill, and Qigiq got to know each other. They talked about some of their individual goals and had a discussion over murder vice vengeance. On the second day of travel, Qigiq found signs of others in the forest and the group took more care travelling.
They came upon a clearing with a statue of William the Great with flowers growing at the bottom and an Inscription reading, “When hope is buried deep, death can never conquer” but no other significant signs. It is while investigating this that someone from the tree line attacked and wounded Armando quite severely yelling he was “Émile Safioso”. At the same time, some hounds made of blood rose up from the ground near the statue. Bill was engaged with the hounds. Armando was stuck in the middle of the clearing, taking evasive action. And Qigiq was with Fluff, his Chocobo, and the children off to the side. Bill saw the would-be assassin and pointed the Archer out to the other Heroes. He proceeded to splat one of the Dogs. Armando rushed the Archer. His attack netted nothing but informed Qigiq on the best way to hurt the archer.
Qigiq took aim and let loose with an arrow at short range, piercing the attacker. The attacker had eyes tinged purple, and that purple drained away as the attacker was wounded and some purple goo was noted leaking from the antagonist. She ran off to the woods after blinding everyone around. Bill shook off the blindness killing another blood dog, and the third dog melted into the ground. The Tree that was touched by the puple goo, was infected and was burned by the adventurers before it could infect more trees.
The group continued to explore cautiously, realizing most of the buildings had been destroyed long ago. They found a large building, a small building, and a second statue of William the Great with the inscription, “For teaching us that sacred hope sprouts from deep roots.” Upon investigation, the large building was being tended to by a nameless Elven monk who is the children's mentor for their visit. The smaller building was being tended by a human male, Émile Safiosa. The monk mentored the children and taught them how these trees are all one organism and interconnected by their roots below.
It is revealed Émile made many enemies in his life, and later found his way to peace, and returned to Bumblehenge to start making amends.
Émile came to Armondo on their second day saying something is wrong out in the forest. The whole party responded and found a defined patch of the forest corrupted with the purple slime. The heroes and Émile were infected and hallucinated a phantasm of an enemy. The party after clearing themselves of infection, safely burnt the infected area and then brought the children back to their aunt.

We are Firebreathing Kittens, a podcast that records ourselves playing a different tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) every week. This week we have a free actual play podcast of Alaria Valor And Company. This two hour long recording, called “Roots Of Corruption”, demonstrates players and a Game Master actually playing so you can listen to what it’s like and maybe try it yourself.
About Alaria Valor And Company:
In its own words, "Alaria: Valor & Company is a Table Top RPG that offers a fresh take on the traditional TTRPG experience. It features Alaria, an original adventure setting introduced through a brand new RPG system named Valor & Company. The project has been in development for 5 years as an indie passion project, and its finally ready for a prototype release. Alaria: Valor and Company is a sandbox style TTRPG set in the fantasy renaissance world of Alaria. It can facilitate both traditional RPG play with a GM hosting a session for a group of players or a player vs player mode. It comes with several prebuilt modules for different adventures, but may easily be expanded to custom scenarios and long term campaigns."
Link: https://unreasonableimp.itch.io/alaria-valor-company
Firebreathing Kittens discussion on how to play:

Oneshot recorded game session, Roots Of Corruption:
FBK is hired to protect two children as they undergo a pilgrimage. What no one yet realizes is the true danger spreading in the blessed grove. Join Bill, Qigiq, and Armando as they seek a sense of justice and work to become true heroes in this actual play podcast of Alaria Valor and Company.

About us, Firebreathing Kittens podcast:
Firebreathing Kittens plays a different TTRPG every week. Four of the rotation of cast members will bring you a story that has a beginning and end. Every episode is a standalone plot in the season long anthology. There’s no need to catch up on past adventures or listen to every single release; hop in to any tale that sounds fun. Join as they explore the world, solve mysteries, attempt comedic banter, and enjoy friendship.
If you’d like to play with us, please visit FirebreathingKittensPodcast dot com and read the new members tab.
If you’d like us to play a completed tabletop roleplaying game you designed, please email us at FirebreathingKittensPodcast at gmail dot com. We reply to all emails within three days, so if we haven’t replied, then we haven’t seen your email, send it again.
Our reviews of Alaria Valor And Company after playing it:
Review 1:
“Alaria: valor and company. I think the system is simple in its execution, but overwhelming in choices. Character creation is difficult to understand at first, and very complex for a first time player. If I hadn't had help, I would not have engaged with the system”
Review 2:
“Alaria: Valor and Company was a little intimidating at first, but so was Dungeons and Dragons 5e when I picked it up. Character creation went well but I was unsure about how to exercise all the moves until partway through the game, and even then I feel it would take a couple sessions to really nail it down. The card aspect versus dice was different and positive in the sense that it offered a different challenge to the way the game is played.”
Review 3:
“Alaria: Valor and Company has a pretty unique design to it. Being diceless using playing cards is a fun twist, but the no cards or dice with combat is very unique. I found playing that the combat was almost mechanical. The system is designed to just compare stats for different parts of the character, their talents, the armor they are wearing and a host of other attributes. It gives the impression of being a 'crunchy' system. It tries to emulate some real world type effects and consequences of the physicality and capabilities of equipment. This is pretty well thought out, BUT, the actual play the combat felt to me mechanical and so less fluid, that the roleplaying and skill check tasks were superior to the combat and felt more rewarding as we got to pull cards and even the fails lent to the story. The combat, was simply an exercise in planning, and didnt feel 'cinematic' in anyway. I would consider trying to bring some random element into the combat. I think even the opposed check mechanics using deflection and aim could potentially be a lot of fun. As a side nit, the book uses the Term Identify as both a core capability and the verb, to the point it can get confusing. Suggest naming everything that can be a 'skill or trait' be named so as to not coincide with language used in descriptions. There were interchanges we didnt have a natural solution and granted the GM just makes a ruling, but you want the game accessible to new and older players, gotta cover them holes.”
Review 4:
“Alaria Valor and Company is one of the rare game systems that doesn't have any randomization in combat. When attacking, characters have an aim number, and that aim number determines the things they can hit. Characters have a lower and upper deflection threshold for defending against incoming attacks. An attack with an incoming aim that meets or beats the lower deflection threshold hits and deals normal wound damage. An attack with an incoming aim that meets or beats the upper deflection threshold deals a critical hit. Critical hits deal twice the normal wound damage and also one extra pushback of force. Because there's no randomization or rolling during combat, it goes really fast, with the major variables being what you choose to do on your turn and how you choose to attack and defend. Some examples of standard action choices you can make are: you can double swing, which deals two weapon hits. Or you can aimed strike, which increases your aim but only does one weapon hit. Or you can advance, which lets you move your movement again but only does one weapon hit. You can also react to take actions on the enemy faction's turn by spending focus points, that refresh at the start of your turn. Some example reactions you can choose to do on your opponent's turn include ducking and covering to increase your deflection against ranged attacks, dodging, blocking, relocating, or playing dead. The skill checks in Alaria Valor and Company use a deck of cards and are fun and different. You name a suit and then draw as many cards as you have in the skill. For example, if you have three in a skill you'd name clubs and draw three cards and hope you drew a clubs card. That concludes my quick overview of the mechanics. Here are my thoughts about Alaria Valor and Company from a big picture perspective. First I'll make an analogy. There's a saying that I've heard said about Magic the Gathering, which is that part of the reason it is so popular is because the land mana system lets people have a tangible excuse for why they lost other than their own lack of skill. They can say to themselves, "I lost because I didn't get the land I needed." Or "No worries, opponent, you did great, if only you'd gotten the land you needed you would have been really strong against me. Good game." Without the land mana system, Magic the Gathering would be a lot less random, and probably a lot less popular. It turns out that randomization is good for making a person feel like it's okay to make mistakes. In Alaria Valor and Company, I felt tempted to optimize, and I let that slip out in what I said out loud. I regretted advising people on things they could do that would be better than what they had thought of during combat. After the session I thought to myself, "Oh, d'oh, you're doing ttrpgs wrong if you're suggesting how people play, whoops, don't do that." But in a game with no randomization, it's a lot clearer what the "best" moves would be. It was too easy for me to say advice like, "You can hit that enemy if you use the advance action this turn." Which takes away all their personal choice and player agency. It is not fun to play in a game where one person is telling the other people what the ideal action for them to do would be. I've definitely been in that situation before, and now I avoid it. So I cringed about giving optimization advice afterwards and wondered why I said it. I normally don't have that temptation with other ttrpg systems. I think it happened because, and I agree with the other reviewer, all the randomization is stripped away and it changes your mentality to trying to solve a puzzle instead of trying to play a team sport. Alaria Valor and Company is like chess or the video game Fire Emblem, where there is definitely a right and a wrong thing to do, and if you take a less than optimal path it's purely from your lack of skill, there are no other excuses. I guess that's true about all tabletop roleplaying games, but like the land mana system in Magic the Gathering, randomization lets us mentally excuse ourselves for our less than optimal plays. I'm not trying to be fancy. I guess at the end of the day playing ttrpgs could be called basically playing Barbie with one another for the roleplay aspect and playing chess with one another for the combat aspect, sure, but there's a difference in mentality for how you approach a problem when you're solving a puzzle versus when you're playing a game. When I solve a puzzle I want to redo it to see if I could complete it more optimally, in fewer steps. When I play a game, I want the emotional ups and downs of like, a sports team scoring a goal or the star kicker missing. They're different ways to have fun. Overall, the combat in Alaria Valor and Company felt more to me like puzzle solving, like how in Fire Emblem there's an optimum way to clear the level, than other ttrpgs, because there was no illusion of randomization. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure, and I want to play this game again to explore it more, definitely. Anyway. Here is my comment about Alaria Valor and Company's rulebook. The game is currently in beta testing and the rulebook could benefit from some polishing before the system's actual release. Here are some examples. Below the armor table there's a list of terms defined. For example, what the words "duelist" and "heavy" mean when they appear on armor. It would be helpful if instead of the game creator writing "Heavy: as per the weapon feature", they instead wrote the definition out. For heavy, that's "When the weapon is used to attack or block, it costs 1 more focus to use. The penalty from using multiple Heavy objects does not stack." If the creator is going to refer the reader to a previous page, please tell us what that page number is, page 89. It was not enjoyable to search the rulebook for the weapon feature Heavy to find what page it was on. The rule book could also benefit from adding a dictionary at the end of the book, too, that defined all the terms, and an index, which is when every page the term appears on is included in its dictionary entry. It is also useful for players to have a one or two page turn action reference sheet at the end of the book that lists all the different standard actions, swift actions, bonus actions, and reactions they can choose to do on their turn. Also, the rulebook says the aimed strike is plus one aim on page twenty seven, and plus two aim on page thirty three. The rule book could benefit from better clustering of its ideas and a writing editor. If the combat action and reactions were more clearly explained with more examples then first time players could pick this up better. The two page quick reference I made really helped me. Thus ends my thoughts on the rulebook. Overall, I really enjoyed Alaria Valor and Company and genuinely would play this system again once it's finished and the rulebook has been polished, especially if the author included a solo play option. Solo play would be a great thing to add to Alaria Valor and Company. For the author, I suggest checking out Thousand Year Old Vampire as an example of a fun solo play format. You advance forwards and backwards on spaces where each space is a story prompt. If there was a solo play option, then I'd absolutely love the puzzle solving aspect of Alaria Valor and Company, and redoing levels to optimize them like I do with Fire Emblem would be really fun. ”
Plot Summary of Roots Of Corruption:
The adventure began in the Guild Hall. Armando, Bill, and Qigiq were hanging out, looking at the job board. They were looking for work. Soon, Noona Khatun comes in with Nulisag they were discussing rates for hiring some fire-breathing kittens for the simple job of escorting some children a few days away and then back again.
The three heroes accompany Noona to her apartment. And they meet the children. The children take a little bit of coaxing to get to come as both Armando and Qigiq make some efforts to ease their tension, resulting in them feeling at ease about coming along.
The group traveled through the forest, during which Armando, Bill, and Qigiq got to know each other. They talked about some of their individual goals and had a discussion over murder vice vengeance. On the second day of travel, Qigiq found signs of others in the forest and the group took more care travelling.
They came upon a clearing with a statue of William the Great with flowers growing at the bottom and an Inscription reading, “When hope is buried deep, death can never conquer” but no other significant signs. It is while investigating this that someone from the tree line attacked and wounded Armando quite severely yelling he was “Émile Safioso”. At the same time, some hounds made of blood rose up from the ground near the statue. Bill was engaged with the hounds. Armando was stuck in the middle of the clearing, taking evasive action. And Qigiq was with Fluff, his Chocobo, and the children off to the side. Bill saw the would-be assassin and pointed the Archer out to the other Heroes. He proceeded to splat one of the Dogs. Armando rushed the Archer. His attack netted nothing but informed Qigiq on the best way to hurt the archer.
Qigiq took aim and let loose with an arrow at short range, piercing the attacker. The attacker had eyes tinged purple, and that purple drained away as the attacker was wounded and some purple goo was noted leaking from the antagonist. She ran off to the woods after blinding everyone around. Bill shook off the blindness killing another blood dog, and the third dog melted into the ground. The Tree that was touched by the puple goo, was infected and was burned by the adventurers before it could infect more trees.
The group continued to explore cautiously, realizing most of the buildings had been destroyed long ago. They found a large building, a small building, and a second statue of William the Great with the inscription, “For teaching us that sacred hope sprouts from deep roots.” Upon investigation, the large building was being tended to by a nameless Elven monk who is the children's mentor for their visit. The smaller building was being tended by a human male, Émile Safiosa. The monk mentored the children and taught them how these trees are all one organism and interconnected by their roots below.
It is revealed Émile made many enemies in his life, and later found his way to peace, and returned to Bumblehenge to start making amends.
Émile came to Armondo on their second day saying something is wrong out in the forest. The whole party responded and found a defined patch of the forest corrupted with the purple slime. The heroes and Émile were infected and hallucinated a phantasm of an enemy. The party after clearing themselves of infection, safely burnt the infected area and then brought the children back to their aunt.

We are Firebreathing Kittens, a podcast that records ourselves playing a different tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) every week. This week we have a free actual play podcast of Alaria Valor And Company. This two hour long recording, called “Roots Of Corruption”, demonstrates players and a Game Master actually playing so you can listen to what it’s like and maybe try it yourself.
About Alaria Valor And Company:
In its own words, "Alaria: Valor & Company is a Table Top RPG that offers a fresh take on the traditional TTRPG experience. It features Alaria, an original adventure setting introduced through a brand new RPG system named Valor & Company. The project has been in development for 5 years as an indie passion project, and its finally ready for a prototype release. Alaria: Valor and Company is a sandbox style TTRPG set in the fantasy renaissance world of Alaria. It can facilitate both traditional RPG play with a GM hosting a session for a group of players or a player vs player mode. It comes with several prebuilt modules for different adventures, but may easily be expanded to custom scenarios and long term campaigns."
Link: https://unreasonableimp.itch.io/alaria-valor-company
Firebreathing Kittens discussion on how to play:

Oneshot recorded game session, Roots Of Corruption:
FBK is hired to protect two children as they undergo a pilgrimage. What no one yet realizes is the true danger spreading in the blessed grove. Join Bill, Qigiq, and Armando as they seek a sense of justice and work to become true heroes in this actual play podcast of Alaria Valor and Company.

About us, Firebreathing Kittens podcast:
Firebreathing Kittens plays a different TTRPG every week. Four of the rotation of cast members will bring you a story that has a beginning and end. Every episode is a standalone plot in the season long anthology. There’s no need to catch up on past adventures or listen to every single release; hop in to any tale that sounds fun. Join as they explore the world, solve mysteries, attempt comedic banter, and enjoy friendship.
If you’d like to play with us, please visit FirebreathingKittensPodcast dot com and read the new members tab.
If you’d like us to play a completed tabletop roleplaying game you designed, please email us at FirebreathingKittensPodcast at gmail dot com. We reply to all emails within three days, so if we haven’t replied, then we haven’t seen your email, send it again.
Our reviews of Alaria Valor And Company after playing it:
Review 1:
“Alaria: valor and company. I think the system is simple in its execution, but overwhelming in choices. Character creation is difficult to understand at first, and very complex for a first time player. If I hadn't had help, I would not have engaged with the system”
Review 2:
“Alaria: Valor and Company was a little intimidating at first, but so was Dungeons and Dragons 5e when I picked it up. Character creation went well but I was unsure about how to exercise all the moves until partway through the game, and even then I feel it would take a couple sessions to really nail it down. The card aspect versus dice was different and positive in the sense that it offered a different challenge to the way the game is played.”
Review 3:
“Alaria: Valor and Company has a pretty unique design to it. Being diceless using playing cards is a fun twist, but the no cards or dice with combat is very unique. I found playing that the combat was almost mechanical. The system is designed to just compare stats for different parts of the character, their talents, the armor they are wearing and a host of other attributes. It gives the impression of being a 'crunchy' system. It tries to emulate some real world type effects and consequences of the physicality and capabilities of equipment. This is pretty well thought out, BUT, the actual play the combat felt to me mechanical and so less fluid, that the roleplaying and skill check tasks were superior to the combat and felt more rewarding as we got to pull cards and even the fails lent to the story. The combat, was simply an exercise in planning, and didnt feel 'cinematic' in anyway. I would consider trying to bring some random element into the combat. I think even the opposed check mechanics using deflection and aim could potentially be a lot of fun. As a side nit, the book uses the Term Identify as both a core capability and the verb, to the point it can get confusing. Suggest naming everything that can be a 'skill or trait' be named so as to not coincide with language used in descriptions. There were interchanges we didnt have a natural solution and granted the GM just makes a ruling, but you want the game accessible to new and older players, gotta cover them holes.”
Review 4:
“Alaria Valor and Company is one of the rare game systems that doesn't have any randomization in combat. When attacking, characters have an aim number, and that aim number determines the things they can hit. Characters have a lower and upper deflection threshold for defending against incoming attacks. An attack with an incoming aim that meets or beats the lower deflection threshold hits and deals normal wound damage. An attack with an incoming aim that meets or beats the upper deflection threshold deals a critical hit. Critical hits deal twice the normal wound damage and also one extra pushback of force. Because there's no randomization or rolling during combat, it goes really fast, with the major variables being what you choose to do on your turn and how you choose to attack and defend. Some examples of standard action choices you can make are: you can double swing, which deals two weapon hits. Or you can aimed strike, which increases your aim but only does one weapon hit. Or you can advance, which lets you move your movement again but only does one weapon hit. You can also react to take actions on the enemy faction's turn by spending focus points, that refresh at the start of your turn. Some example reactions you can choose to do on your opponent's turn include ducking and covering to increase your deflection against ranged attacks, dodging, blocking, relocating, or playing dead. The skill checks in Alaria Valor and Company use a deck of cards and are fun and different. You name a suit and then draw as many cards as you have in the skill. For example, if you have three in a skill you'd name clubs and draw three cards and hope you drew a clubs card. That concludes my quick overview of the mechanics. Here are my thoughts about Alaria Valor and Company from a big picture perspective. First I'll make an analogy. There's a saying that I've heard said about Magic the Gathering, which is that part of the reason it is so popular is because the land mana system lets people have a tangible excuse for why they lost other than their own lack of skill. They can say to themselves, "I lost because I didn't get the land I needed." Or "No worries, opponent, you did great, if only you'd gotten the land you needed you would have been really strong against me. Good game." Without the land mana system, Magic the Gathering would be a lot less random, and probably a lot less popular. It turns out that randomization is good for making a person feel like it's okay to make mistakes. In Alaria Valor and Company, I felt tempted to optimize, and I let that slip out in what I said out loud. I regretted advising people on things they could do that would be better than what they had thought of during combat. After the session I thought to myself, "Oh, d'oh, you're doing ttrpgs wrong if you're suggesting how people play, whoops, don't do that." But in a game with no randomization, it's a lot clearer what the "best" moves would be. It was too easy for me to say advice like, "You can hit that enemy if you use the advance action this turn." Which takes away all their personal choice and player agency. It is not fun to play in a game where one person is telling the other people what the ideal action for them to do would be. I've definitely been in that situation before, and now I avoid it. So I cringed about giving optimization advice afterwards and wondered why I said it. I normally don't have that temptation with other ttrpg systems. I think it happened because, and I agree with the other reviewer, all the randomization is stripped away and it changes your mentality to trying to solve a puzzle instead of trying to play a team sport. Alaria Valor and Company is like chess or the video game Fire Emblem, where there is definitely a right and a wrong thing to do, and if you take a less than optimal path it's purely from your lack of skill, there are no other excuses. I guess that's true about all tabletop roleplaying games, but like the land mana system in Magic the Gathering, randomization lets us mentally excuse ourselves for our less than optimal plays. I'm not trying to be fancy. I guess at the end of the day playing ttrpgs could be called basically playing Barbie with one another for the roleplay aspect and playing chess with one another for the combat aspect, sure, but there's a difference in mentality for how you approach a problem when you're solving a puzzle versus when you're playing a game. When I solve a puzzle I want to redo it to see if I could complete it more optimally, in fewer steps. When I play a game, I want the emotional ups and downs of like, a sports team scoring a goal or the star kicker missing. They're different ways to have fun. Overall, the combat in Alaria Valor and Company felt more to me like puzzle solving, like how in Fire Emblem there's an optimum way to clear the level, than other ttrpgs, because there was no illusion of randomization. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure, and I want to play this game again to explore it more, definitely. Anyway. Here is my comment about Alaria Valor and Company's rulebook. The game is currently in beta testing and the rulebook could benefit from some polishing before the system's actual release. Here are some examples. Below the armor table there's a list of terms defined. For example, what the words "duelist" and "heavy" mean when they appear on armor. It would be helpful if instead of the game creator writing "Heavy: as per the weapon feature", they instead wrote the definition out. For heavy, that's "When the weapon is used to attack or block, it costs 1 more focus to use. The penalty from using multiple Heavy objects does not stack." If the creator is going to refer the reader to a previous page, please tell us what that page number is, page 89. It was not enjoyable to search the rulebook for the weapon feature Heavy to find what page it was on. The rule book could also benefit from adding a dictionary at the end of the book, too, that defined all the terms, and an index, which is when every page the term appears on is included in its dictionary entry. It is also useful for players to have a one or two page turn action reference sheet at the end of the book that lists all the different standard actions, swift actions, bonus actions, and reactions they can choose to do on their turn. Also, the rulebook says the aimed strike is plus one aim on page twenty seven, and plus two aim on page thirty three. The rule book could benefit from better clustering of its ideas and a writing editor. If the combat action and reactions were more clearly explained with more examples then first time players could pick this up better. The two page quick reference I made really helped me. Thus ends my thoughts on the rulebook. Overall, I really enjoyed Alaria Valor and Company and genuinely would play this system again once it's finished and the rulebook has been polished, especially if the author included a solo play option. Solo play would be a great thing to add to Alaria Valor and Company. For the author, I suggest checking out Thousand Year Old Vampire as an example of a fun solo play format. You advance forwards and backwards on spaces where each space is a story prompt. If there was a solo play option, then I'd absolutely love the puzzle solving aspect of Alaria Valor and Company, and redoing levels to optimize them like I do with Fire Emblem would be really fun. ”
Plot Summary of Roots Of Corruption:
The adventure began in the Guild Hall. Armando, Bill, and Qigiq were hanging out, looking at the job board. They were looking for work. Soon, Noona Khatun comes in with Nulisag they were discussing rates for hiring some fire-breathing kittens for the simple job of escorting some children a few days away and then back again.
The three heroes accompany Noona to her apartment. And they meet the children. The children take a little bit of coaxing to get to come as both Armando and Qigiq make some efforts to ease their tension, resulting in them feeling at ease about coming along.
The group traveled through the forest, during which Armando, Bill, and Qigiq got to know each other. They talked about some of their individual goals and had a discussion over murder vice vengeance. On the second day of travel, Qigiq found signs of others in the forest and the group took more care travelling.
They came upon a clearing with a statue of William the Great with flowers growing at the bottom and an Inscription reading, “When hope is buried deep, death can never conquer” but no other significant signs. It is while investigating this that someone from the tree line attacked and wounded Armando quite severely yelling he was “Émile Safioso”. At the same time, some hounds made of blood rose up from the ground near the statue. Bill was engaged with the hounds. Armando was stuck in the middle of the clearing, taking evasive action. And Qigiq was with Fluff, his Chocobo, and the children off to the side. Bill saw the would-be assassin and pointed the Archer out to the other Heroes. He proceeded to splat one of the Dogs. Armando rushed the Archer. His attack netted nothing but informed Qigiq on the best way to hurt the archer.
Qigiq took aim and let loose with an arrow at short range, piercing the attacker. The attacker had eyes tinged purple, and that purple drained away as the attacker was wounded and some purple goo was noted leaking from the antagonist. She ran off to the woods after blinding everyone around. Bill shook off the blindness killing another blood dog, and the third dog melted into the ground. The Tree that was touched by the purple goo, was infected and was burned by the adventurers before it could infect more trees.
The group continued to explore cautiously, realizing most of the buildings had been destroyed long ago. They found a large building, a small building, and a second statue of William the Great with the inscription, “For teaching us that sacred hope sprouts from deep roots.” Upon investigation, the large building was being tended to by a nameless Elven monk who is the children's mentor for their visit. The smaller building was being tended by a human male, Émile Safiosa. The monk mentored the children and taught them how these trees are all one organism and interconnected by their roots below.
It is revealed Émile made many enemies in his life, and later found his way to peace, and returned to Bumblehenge to start making amends.
Émile came to Armondo on their second day saying something is wrong out in the forest. The whole party responded and found a defined patch of the forest corrupted with the purple slime. The heroes and Émile were infected and hallucinated a phantasm of an enemy. The party after clearing themselves of infection, safely burnt the infected area and then brought the children back to their aunt.