Black Flag So What's In Kobold Press' BLACK FLAG First Playtest?

Black Flag, the codename for Kobold Press' new open TTRPG, announced during the height of the recent OGL controversy as an open alternative to 5E, has put out the first playtest packet. It's 12-page document of character creation rules. So what's inside?

The introduction summarises character creation, defining 5E concepts like level, hit dice, and so on. It introduces the game as being backward-compatible with 5E.

Black Flag -- like Level Up: Advanced 5E, and Ancestry & Culture--divides the 5E concept of 'race' and 'subrace' into inherited and cultural elements. Black Flag goes with the terms Lineage and Heritage.

It goes on to present the Dwarf, Elf, and Human, along with a choice of two heritage traits for each--the heritage traits for dwarf, for example, are Fireforge and Stone. Elves get Cloud and Grove, while humans get Nomadic and Cosmopolitan. You can choose any heritage for your lineage, though. These are analogous to 5E's 'subraces', although the inherited/learned elements are separated out -- Cloud Elves are a lot like High Elves, and Grove Elves are a lot like Wood Elves, for example.

Following that are two backgrounds -- Scholar, and Soldier. They each give the usual array of proficiencies plus a 'talent'.

Magic, martial, and technical talents are essentially feats. You get a talent from your background, and can substitute an ability score increase for one.

The playtest feels to me much like a 5E written in their own words, but with 5E's 'race/subrace' structure replaced with 'lineage/heritage', the biggest thing being that the heritage (what was subrace in 5E) is cultural.

As a disclaimer, I do of course publish Level Up: Advanced 5E, which shares the exact same goal as Kobold Press' project (BTW, check out the new A5ESRD site!) It will be interesting to see how the approaches diverge; while both are backward-compatible, they already have different ways to handle what 5E calls race -- Level Up has you choose a heritage (your inherited species, basically), and any of 30+ cultures (learned stuff from where you grew up). Black Flag goes with lineage (again, your inherited species), and a choice of heritages for each lineage. And the bestselling 5E book Ancestry & Culture on DTRPG, uses those terms -- so there's plenty of options to choose your heritage/culture, lineage/heritage, or ancestry/culture!

Whatever happens, the future certainly contains a choice of open 5E alternatives!

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

That's the catch 22 of updating though. You can't have perfect compatibility and meaningful updates. For example, the bard is the only class with less than four subclass features. That makes subclasses for bards weaker in terms of providing meaningful options. Adding a fourth subclass feature to bards is practically a no brainier QoL update, but it breaks compatibility with every subclass currently out there. Will BF ignore the quality of life update of fixing the number of bard subclass features to keep compatibility or opt for some other fix?

I tentatively disagree, again based on lack of knowledge of what updates we're going to see. Adding another subclass progression level to a class is a fundamental enough change to impact compatibility. I don't see them doing something like that. I could see them maybe beefing up existing class or subclass features in order to contribute to the overall power of the build... something they've already alluded to in their hints at how to balance 5E characters to BF characters. I think they might have also alluded to something along the lines of having players choose feats at certain existing class levels in order to get even more options for your build.

A change like that would be both meaningful and still backwards compatible, and it would be pretty easy to align with if you were going with the traditional 5E route, along the lines of their "just add a feat at Xth level" advice.

 

[Marc Radle]

Hey everyone, just a quick comment on those typos in the first playtest packet ... we absolutely get what folks have said, and we agree! Those typos, etc. were unfortunate and we were as unhappy with them as some of you were!

There are a lot of moving parts to getting this playtest packet put together and we are constantly striving to correct and improve on issues as we work on them. Rest assured our editing team is on the job, making sure the final product will live up to the standards fans of Kobold Press have come to expect.

We have release an updated playtest packet that should address those typos on the Kobold Press website (just redownload the playtest):
https://koboldpress.com/playtest-packet-1-is-here-for-project-black-flag/

and on DriveThru if you prefer that platform
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2189/Kobold-Press/subcategory/4291_44719/Black-Flag-Playtest

A big thanks to everyone for the positive response so far AND for keeping us on our toes!!

 

[Dire Bare]

I wish they would make specie as important as the class for character building, from mundane biological features to being magical/fated paragons of your specie. Same with Background.

Not me!

Race/species and background is about where you came FROM . . . which is important . . . but not as important as where you are GOING, the choices you make as you adventure and interact with the world.

 

[Cadence]

I feel like I'm the only one who has always felt like 5e starting stats are too high once species ASI are added. I prefer the 'zero to hero' trope. Rather than 'hero to even better hero'.

Only being able to go down to 8 in point buy is another frustration which seems to be continuing across. Having a weak score of 6 or 7 makes for fun rp opportunities.

I don't think I'd ever stop a player from taking a lower score in something if they wanted. And I can imagine there might be something I'd let them take for balance's sake (but it wouldn't be higher stats elsewhere or something that was effectively that).

 

[Horacio]

Hey everyone, just a quick comment on those typos in the first playtest packet ... we absolutely get what folks have said, and we agree! Those typos, etc. were unfortunate and we were as unhappy with them as some of you were!

There are a lot of moving parts to getting this playtest packet put together and we are constantly striving to correct and improve on issues as we work on them. Rest assured our editing team is on the job, making sure the final product will live up to the standards fans of Kobold Press have come to expect.

We have release an updated playtest packet that should address those typos on the Kobold Press website (just redownload the playtest):
https://koboldpress.com/playtest-packet-1-is-here-for-project-black-flag/

and on DriveThru if you prefer that platform
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2189/Kobold-Press/subcategory/4291_44719/Black-Flag-Playtest

A big thanks to everyone for the positive response so far AND for keeping us on our toes!!

Thanks for the reactivity!

I've just downloaded it again, it seems that some typos like the level advancement chart:

 

[darjr]

Check out KOBOLD CHATS | DEEP MAGIC | BLACK FLAG with our Senior Designer CELESTE CONOWITCH!!! #opendnd #projectblackflag #dnd ⁦‪@KoboldPress‬⁩ #koboldpress

 

[darjr]

Next packet is Wizards.

 

[cbwjm]

Next packet is Wizards.

That's one I've been waiting for from wizards, looks like I'm going to see KP's take on wizards, I hope there's something innovative.

 

[tetrasodium]

Thanks for the reactivity!

I've just downloaded it again, it seems that some typos like the level advancement chart:
View attachment 275668

it went from 300/2700/6500/6500/14000 to 300/2700/2700/6500/14000. They have a lot of plates spinning right now & in the grand scheme of things this one is probably among the lowest of the low importance things for right now.

With that said I noticed something I overlooked previously, namely that the 4d6k3 makes sense with pointbuy going to 18. As a GM it's frustrating when players ask if they can roll only to pout & get salty in pushing to use pointbuy instead if they get less optimal attribs than they could have with pointbuy. With that said, capp9ing the floor on pointbuy at 8 is too generous & makes it too easy to make characters that don't have a weakness because -1 really doesn't matter much in the face of Alice saying "oh can I roll a d20 to test my luck on [bob's niche] too?".

If the pointbuy went down to 6 or even lower & a player who wanted to make the ultimate minmax like Minmax from goblinscomic those lower values would offset the Max with a visceral weakness that players would feel pressure to engage in reciprocity & push the spotlight towards their fellow players when it comes to those weak areas. Not only that it pushes the player to inform themselves & remember what the other PCs at the table can & can't do well so they can cover for each other & know where to aim the spotlight when their own weaknesses are coming up

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's one I've been waiting for from wizards, looks like I'm going to see KP's take on wizards, I hope there's something innovative.

Given that they're moving school specialization to a talent, that frees up a lot of space to do something different.