OGL: Kobold Press 'Raising Our Flag' For New Open RPG

Kobold Press has announced its plans regarding the upcoming new OGL v1.1, which involves a new, open game codenamed Project Black Flag.

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Kobold Press has been and always will be committed to open gaming and the tabletop community. Our goal is to continue creating the best materials for players and game masters alike.

This means Kobold Press will release its current Kickstarter projects as planned, including Campaign Builder: Cities & Towns (already printed and on its way to backers this winter).

In particular, Deep Magic Volume 2 will remain fully compatible with the 5E rules. We are working with our VTT partners to maintain support for digital platforms.

As we look ahead, it becomes even more important for our actions to represent our values. While we wait to see what the future holds, we are moving forward with clear-eyed work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it—Code Name: Project Black Flag.

All Kobolds look forward to the continued evolution of tabletop gaming. We aim to play our part in making the game better for everyone. Rest assured, Kobold Press intends to maintain a strong presence in the tabletop RPG community. We are not going anywhere.

Raising Our Flag - Kobold Press

Kobold Press is committed to open gaming. We are moving forward with clear-eyed work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it—Code Name: Project Black Flag.

koboldpress.com

 

[reelo]

The idea is to remain 5E compatible but we also want to improve, expand, and innovate.

That's the crux of the matter. Some of us are not in the market for 5E. Not from HasBeen, nor from anyone else.
But that's fine. I'll let those who are interested help shape the game.

 

[Marc Radle]

That's the crux of the matter. Some of us are not in the market for 5E. Not from HasBeen, nor from anyone else.
But that's fine. I'll let those who are interested help shape the game.

Totally your prerogative, but you are still free, and encouraged, to take part in the playtest if you like - we really do want to hear everyone's opinions if they want to share them!

 

[tetrasodium]

There's a definite push towards players interacting with the world through their characters rather than personally using their character & talking to the other players collaboratively during character creation... this is good & moves away from one of the unreasonable sins of 5e.

ability score generation is improved but seems to have a typo?

Spoiler

To determine your starting ability scores, roll 7four d6s, add up
the highest 3 (discarding the low die) to get your total, then write it
down. Do this five more times until you have six totals between 3
and 18. Assign those six numbers to the ability scores you choose.
Add 2 to one score of your choice that is 16 or below and add 1 to
one score of your choice that is 17 or below, and you’re done!

from the italic bit describing the process it sounds like 4d6 keep three six times rather than 7x 3d6 & distribute six of those. The former is pretty much one of the default 5e options but the later underlined way. I think the later would make for more interesting option



I kinda like the talents along with how backgrounds give a choice of thematically appropriate talents. It's worth noting that by not explicitly stating that merely being offered the skill you don't plan on taking from two sources that it might matter more what skills a PC has available rather than the 5e standard of everyone having all the A & S tier skills like stealth perception arcana persuade etc so it might ultimately avoid every given skill check gets a chorus of "oh I'm proficient too 2 16 19 17" if that continues. Given the way talents are a thematically appropriate selection it seems like this too might be a deliberate shift with skills.

It's pretty short on crunch & not much to say yet in isolation.

 

[Marc Radle]

There's a definite push towards players interacting with the world through their characters rather than personally using their character & talking to the other players collaboratively during character creation... this is good & moves away from one of the unreasonable sins of 5e.

ability score generation is improved but seems to have a typo?

Spoiler

To determine your starting ability scores, roll 7four d6s, add up
the highest 3 (discarding the low die) to get your total, then write it
down. Do this five more times until you have six totals between 3
and 18. Assign those six numbers to the ability scores you choose.
Add 2 to one score of your choice that is 16 or below and add 1 to
one score of your choice that is 17 or below, and you’re done!

from the italic bit describing the process it sounds like 4d6 keep three six times rather than 7x 3d6 & distribute six of those. The former is pretty much one of the default 5e options but the later underlined way. I think the later would make for more interesting option



I kinda like the talents along with how backgrounds give a choice of thematically appropriate talents. It's worth noting that by not explicitly stating that merely being offered the skill you don't plan on taking from two sources that it might matter more what skills a PC has available rather than the 5e standard of everyone having all the A & S tier skills like stealth perception arcana persuade etc so it might ultimately avoid every given skill check gets a chorus of "oh I'm proficient too 2 16 19 17" if that continues. Given the way talents are a thematically appropriate selection it seems like this too might be a deliberate shift with skills.

It's pretty short on crunch & not much to say yet in isolation.

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

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This, other than how IMPOSSIBLE it is to support on VTTs right now.

Given how many VTTs are working with Black Flag and ORC, I think we're going to see some big moves in the next year or so.

 

[Reynard]

Given how many VTTs are working with Black Flag and ORC, I think we're going to see some big moves in the next year or so.

VTTs wouldn't even necessarily have to have a specific "Black Flag" version of 5e. They could just add a bunch of dials and switches for house rules, allowing you to replicate most of these variants pretty easily. That's what FG already does.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

So excited for this!

Loving the separation of species and culture. Makes character building so much more pleasant with more things to do with it. Fireforge makes a nice stand-in fire genasi!

I know I'm in the minority here, but I'm not a fan of getting more points at lvl 1. I always liked the 'zero to hero' aspect of tabletop and video games. So I've never liked characters having high stats at first level. I also like the potential of dump scores being able to start at 6 and 7 in character creation, so characters can have real weaknesses. Rather than things they're average at and things they're amazing at.

 

[Zaukrie]

Given how many VTTs are working with Black Flag and ORC, I think we're going to see some big moves in the next year or so.

I need one that somehow lets me mix and match, which is what we were discussing. It is pretty hard to have a Level Up game and 5e games and the impending Black Flag game all in one session (how would you build a character sheet, how would you mix and match things in a sheet?).

As I said, I'm 100% not worried about vanilla one system stuff, we know that will work. How will I use MCDM and KP and WotC and ENworld products all in one session? Heck, even on paper, how would I mix and match stuff on sheets?

This is off topic, sort of.....

 

[Parmandur]

I need one that somehow lets me mix and match, which is what we were discussing. It is pretty hard to have a Level Up game and 5e games and the impending Black Flag game all in one session (how would you build a character sheet, how would you mix and match things in a sheet?).

As I said, I'm 100% not worried about vanilla one system stuff, we know that will work. How will I use MCDM and KP and WotC and ENworld products all in one session? Heck, even on paper, how would I mix and match stuff on sheets?

This is off topic, sort of.....

On paper, mixing and matching is easy enough, seems to me.

 

[Reynard]

I need one that somehow lets me mix and match, which is what we were discussing. It is pretty hard to have a Level Up game and 5e games and the impending Black Flag game all in one session (how would you build a character sheet, how would you mix and match things in a sheet?).

As I said, I'm 100% not worried about vanilla one system stuff, we know that will work. How will I use MCDM and KP and WotC and ENworld products all in one session? Heck, even on paper, how would I mix and match stuff on sheets?

This is off topic, sort of.....

I think we will see modules for things like Black Flag as add ons for the 5e core system, at least in Fantasy Grounds.