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!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

However, beyond "argle-bargle WotC bad" I can't see enough of a reason to wholesale switch yet. At best, I might pick up some pieces of it to augment my 5e/1D&D games with (some of those feats, err, talents, look nice) but strictly comparing this packet to the WotC playtest packet of the same topics, I'm not exactly overwhelmed with [Core Fantasy Roleplaying] yet.

I don't think its primary job is to get anyone to switch. It's just to present a 5E SRD under their control. People using PBF books as their core will be a bonus.

That said, Kobold Press has a lot of experience with monsters and player-facing content like races, subclasses and spells. I'd wait to see what they offer there before writing them off. (I'm guessing we'll see a PHB equivalent with bearfolk in it, for instance.)

 

[deganawida]

I would humbly suggest adding two more bullet points to “Core Fantasy in a Nutshell”: Exploration, and Mystery.

EDIT: Leaving the first one here. Completely missed that you had exploration as a key characteristic. My bad! But, good on you for putting it and high up on the list.
Exploration is important because there is a whole world created via thought which has rules different than our world, where magic (as already mentioned) exists and plays a role. Encourage people to explore the world through the cooperative play of TTRPGs.

Mystery: Things are different. How do they work? People want to know, not just out of idle curiosity, but out of a way to play better.

Adding these two elements, I think, would help steer the project into ground not plowed by WotC, and help set Black Flack apart.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't think its primary job is to get anyone to switch. It's just to present a 5E SRD under their control. People using PBF books as their core will be a bonus.

That said, Kobold Press has a lot of experience with monsters and player-facing content like races, subclasses and spells. I'd wait to see what they offer there before writing them off. (I'm guessing we'll see a PHB equivalent with bearfolk in it, for instance.)

Which is actually my concern; we're going to see a bunch of vaguely compatible generic fantasy games all covering a lot of the same basic ground in slightly different ways for no other reason than to give every publisher their own heartbreaker home ruleset. That is a lot of redundancy, and it's wasted if everyone is going to be making their own "unique" fighter revamp that doesn't work with anyone elses subclasses.

I probably would be more interested in someone making an Arcana Evolved rather than Pathfinder; new ideas that are compatible with 5e without being just a tweaked versions of a "human" "fighter" "soldier". Something I can run alone or next to D&D rather than as a pure replacement.

Perhaps they will wow me yet. I do like the talents so far. But I'm more interested in what they do that isn't designed to replicate the PHB.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I don't really get why we are still doing Ability Score and Modifier separation. Sure, it's easier to do the rolling for stats with the 3-18 ability scores, but basicaly, for the rest of the game we use modifiers, not Scores. Wouldn't it make more sense to get rid of the ability scores and give you a reference table for rolling ability modifiers?
I like what I'm seeing in a preliminary read though, keep up the good work!

Shadows and other creatures drain ability points. These monsters would need to be redesigned.

 

[tetrasodium]

Shadows and other creatures drain ability points. These monsters would need to be redesigned.

5e has extremely few creatures that do statdrain & there is a critical detail of importance. In the past the distinction mattered because stat damage recovered verrryy slowwwly. in 5e nearly all of those creatures that deal stat damage have all of the damage erased after a long rest or worse long or short rest.

 

[Marc Radle]

And Core Fantasy Roleplaying is the least inspiring name out there.

Just a placeholder, have no fear!

 

[Reynard]

Just a placeholder, have no fear!

I think you should go with "Operationally Adequate d20 Based Role-Play Adventure Game Object System." It really drives home the intent, you know?

 

[Marc Radle]

I think you should go with "Operationally Adequate d20 Based Role-Play Adventure Game Object System." It really drives home the intent, you know?

Well, if nothing else, you sure know how to stay on your brand

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Which is actually my concern; we're going to see a bunch of vaguely compatible generic fantasy games all covering a lot of the same basic ground in slightly different ways for no other reason than to give every publisher their own heartbreaker home ruleset. That is a lot of redundancy, and it's wasted if everyone is going to be making their own "unique" fighter revamp that doesn't work with anyone elses subclasses.

I probably would be more interested in someone making an Arcana Evolved rather than Pathfinder; new ideas that are compatible with 5e without being just a tweaked versions of a "human" "fighter" "soldier". Something I can run alone or next to D&D rather than as a pure replacement.

Perhaps they will wow me yet. I do like the talents so far. But I'm more interested in what they do that isn't designed to replicate the PHB.

I have a hard time imagining successful publishers -- who are who we're talking about, for the most part -- not going the Arcana Unearthed route, since that would let people pick up their books as either new core books or as supplements. I would guess their new "core" players book will look a lot more like the Midgard Heroes Handbook than the PHB.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I've already fed back on the official site but I'm disappointed. I thought there was a real opportunity here to keep a game that feels like D&D but slaughters some of the sacred cows that aren't good design but stay with the game due to history (such as 3-18 ability scores, such as alignment, such as what abilities actually are). This just feels like 'lets keep it as close to D&D as we possibly can ruleswise'.

It feels timid.