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!

 

[Zaukrie]

Combat Casting is way too good. A caster with a spell DC of 13, standard at level 1, needs to take 26 damage before they have to make a concentration roll. At level 5 it could be a DC of 15 or 16. That's 30 to 32 damage. How are martials supposed to force those rolls? Anyone without a big nova ability is SoL. Change the ability to be "damage less than their spell DC" instead of "a DC less than their spell DC" and it's at least in the right ballpark. Add on the two other bullet points and this becomes a guaranteed talent for anyone looking to cast spells.

that was my first reaction, and I didn't do the math.....which is why I want to read more before providing feedback

 

[jerryrice4949]

Because I'm a weirdo, thinking about making a PC mixing this material with OneD&D Class material.

That would be very interesting. If you do please share how it goes. I really want to see how all these 5e derivatives flow together to decide what I will be supporting when OneD&D comes out.

 

[Bolares]

Because I'm a weirdo, thinking about making a PC mixing this material with OneD&D Class material.

I think it would go well, because they have a lot in common right now.

 

[Tbiafore]

I am so liking what I am seeing thus far. I can see going all in on this one. Whooohoooo!

 

[Minigiant]

Here's a question that I hate to raise, but, whatever. Should Dwarvish and Elvish be languages? This isn't about "race" for me, it is about...would a lineage have a language? Again, I think this is something not going away, but I'd give some advice to DMs about how language could be more like regional......I mean, comprehend languages exists for a reason, if everyone speaks common, does it matter (like light)?

I've been waiting for a game grow the bravery to do a lingua franca for different regions (north South East West Central) and help DMs integrate them into a setting.

 

[Faolyn]

Stats: Personally, I'd kind of like it better if you didn't get a +1 until you hit 14 in a stat, but that's just me. Otherwise, I'd be fine decoupling the stats and mods altogether and just give people the mods. Do we really need a 12 or 13 in a stat when a +1 does the same thing?

Alignments: Are they really going to be used mechanically in the game, or are they just a holdover from traditional D&D? If they're just a holdover, I'd say ditch them, or limit them to supernatural beings.

Lineages: How will half-lineages be done? Because that's pretty important to a lot of people, and I for one would like the ability to choose what your halves are rather than be limited to half-elf/half-human and half-orc/half-human. Speaking of, I'd also like to see some interesting lineage options beyond the traditional (and overused) human-elf-dwarf-halfling-orc-gnome-extraplanar ones in the core book. Let's see some cool options here!

Heritages: This is gonna confuse me because Level Up uses heritage where this uses lineage. But anyway, I do like that they're something other than the typical D&D high elf and mountain dwarf thing.

Talents: Personally, I'd prefer if talents weren't just used as a option that can be chosen instead of an ASI. They should be more important, and maybe ASIs should be the option.

 

[Marc Radle]

All good feedback!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, please remember that Kobold Press isn't officially monitoring these threads for playtest feedback

Be sure to submit feedback via the playtest feedback form:
https://koboldpress.com/project-black-flag-playtest-packet-1-feedback/

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

View attachment 275480​

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.

None of these choices are surprising, given that one of the main goals, as I understand it, of PBF is to create a backwards-compatible SRD that WotC doesn't control. (Yes, yes, but this ball got rolling before the Creative Commons decision.)

Splitting up races this way is a good idea and, I would venture to guess, something WotC would have liked to have done, if they didn't feel it was one sacred cow too many killed off for an update that's not supposed to be a totally new edition.

 

[MNblockhead]

Great feedback! Please remember that Kobold Press isn't officially monitoring these threads for playtest feedback

Be sure to submit feedback via the playtest feedback form:
https://koboldpress.com/project-black-flag-playtest-packet-1-feedback/

Absolutely. But I find it helpful to discuss on the boards before giving feedback. I find others catch things I miss or help me consolidate my thoughts. So I hope people continue posting there thoughts here as well as completing the playtest form.

 

[Von Ether]

So far, I'm not seeing anything too much to set it apart from WotC's 5E. I know that's the point about making a compatible product, but at this stage, it's in the Creative Commons.
Let's go bold. Let's do something really unique.
The market doesn't need 5E with the serial numbers scratched out.

ALSO: I don't like the OneD&D Playtest style of this. AKA: We'll give you a couple pages to test out without seeing how any of it fits together.

On one hand I get the need to see something beyond vanilla fantasy. On the other hand, going too bold defeats the goal of the project, which is to appeal to a wide a set of customers as possible.