Black Flag Tales of the Valiant is out (in PDF)! What do people think?

[Micah Sweet]

It pains me that the goblin heritage and lineage on their site was just a website thing, and not a preview from the Players Guide.

It doesn't sound like TotV would be a good replacement game for WotC 5e, if it doesn't even have a similar amount of content to the WotC core 3. A5e, for example, doesn't feel light on content at all if used as the core game.

 

[fettpett]

It pains me that the goblin heritage and lineage on their site was just a website thing, and not a preview from the Players Guide.

It's still playable and that does remind me, they said that they will be releasing more Lineages/Heritages and possibly subclasses for playtesting on the Blog

 

[Weiley31]

As somebody who loves the Warlock and it's Pact Magic, I really like HOW they made it a Half-Caster while still giving us the Pact Magic we all know and love. The execution is interesting, although the level you get it at now for the ToV Warlock kinda sucks. (At least it caused me to do a sharp double take when I first read the PDF).

Especially since all you kids here say that the highest games ever go to is level 10 or that it's not worthwhile playing after level 8.

The Draconic Sorcerer subclass NOW gets bonus spells ala the latest WoTC 5E sorcerers, fixing one of the more common complaints about the class.

The Scythe is FINALLY added to the 5E weapon list. Giving us a 2D4 option for all us wannabe Farmers and Necromancers out there.

People really seem to dig the Lineage/Heritage rules for character races. I'm probably gonna be one of the crazy nuts out there who does a WoTC 5E/3PP race and slap a ToV heritage on top of it as well. Ya know, for the weird looks I get from Kobold Press when they tell me I can't do that.

 

[ART!]

I've been running a character using WOTC's 2024 playtest fighter, and the TotV fighter looks better. Things are just a little clearer, fit together a little better, and the features just make sense. The things fighters get at 1st level are things you just need to be good at if you're going to call yourself a fighter - and they're things that the 2014 fighter mostly lacks, and the 2024 playtest gets close to. Like WOTC's playtest fighter, the TotV fighter is more complicated than the 2014 fighter, but it's a thin layer of complexity and, as I said, a layer that just makes sense.

I might switch my 2024 playtest fighter to a TotV fighter. We'll see what my DM says!

 

[bedir than]

It pains me that the goblin heritage and lineage on their site was just a website thing, and not a preview from the Players Guide.

Yeah, the goblin and eonics were both excellent. They belong.
I rather like what Kobold is doing with their natures and nurtures (this is my way of nothing the various publishers that are putting out splits in species building).

 

[Marc Radle]

It pains me that the goblin heritage and lineage on their site was just a website thing, and not a preview from the Players Guide.

They are not in the Player’s Guide but that doesn’t mean they won’t appear in a future book!

 

[Marc Radle]

The BEST suggestion I've seen someone make is for KP to Kickstart a XGtE/TCoE style Player's supplement that's full of a revision of all of the many subclasses they've previously released in blogs, Warlock, Player's Guides, ToH, ect. Some more Lineage & Heritage, Backgrounds, and Talents won't hurt either.

That is an absolutely fantastic idea!

 

[Reynard]

The more I think about it, the more frustrated and disappointed I am that Kobold chose not to release this game fully under ORC, especially after all the talk of making it to ensure 5E is perpetually available no matter what WotC does.

Why publish Core Fantasy Roleplay rules?
...snip...

2. The SRD is incomplete. Anyone who has worked in publishing with the SRD knows that it is a fantastic baseline. We’ve been at it for 8 years—starting before 5E D&D even launched!

However, key elements are missing from the SRD. For example, the SRD includes only 1 feat and 1 cleric domain. A few monsters are conspicuously absent. Character generation has quirks and flaws. The power curve of challenge and encounter-building tools need improvement. Not to mention, it’s time to put a little dragonfire back in the combat engine.

I feel like Kobold has gone back on promises and abandoned its stated goal by putting out a worse-than-WotC SRD and not releasing the full game under ORC.

I'm just one potential consumer, but I won't be supporting ToV or Kobold based on this.

 

[Endrid_Wintersbane]

I've looked through it but I haven't played it.

I have mixed feelings about it. While I understand that you can't really make a "ORC compliant D&D5e" without pulling from the 5e SRD that was kind of what I was hoping for out of Tales of the Valiant. I was thinking that this was going to be a mechanically similar system but updated with modern TTRPG enhancements in mind.

I can't say that I hate Tales of the Valiant however. Mostly because, in a way, it gives us a lot of what we are asking for. We got a version of 5e that IS covered by the ORC and gives us a way to still make 5e content that doesn't push D&D and thus boost WotC and Hasbro. Now all of those 5e projects can easily pivot to "Tales of Valiant compatible" products without a massive tonal or mechanical shift.

So yeah, conclusion, TotV is a little bit less than what I expected but in a way I've got to give it credit for in a way still being what it arguably set out to be. Kobold Press really did pull a Bender and made their own version of 5e.

 

[Jadeite]

Most 5e 3PPs will rather release under CC-BY than the more demanding ORC. Many of them aren't interested in releasing Open Content and are afraid, that the ORC allows bigger publishers to steal their ideas, ignoring of course that Kobold Press won't be allowed to do that unless they release any supplement based on 3rd party stuff under the ORC as well.
But all those companies that just declared everything as Product Identity will just use CC-BY instead of the ORC which fixed that loophole.