ToV Other than "It's not made by WotC", what's the elevator pitch for Tales of the Valiant?

[Xenolith234]

I've been wanting to pick up the TotV DMG for a while, but for ideas and worldbuilding stuff. Level Up is the 5e I base my design work on. 5.5's iterations on 5.0 go in opposite directions from my preferences in many ways.

I think in combination with the 2014 DMG, the ToV one is great and the two add a lot of variant rules and tools that I desire.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not an elevator pitch, but ToV is the TTRPG that Kobold's Midgard World setting will be focused on moving forward. I'm a huge fan of Midgard and have run campaigns set in it with 3 different TTRPGs. And while I can homebrew to my heart's content with what I have, Kobold has consistently released a steady stream of constant for it over the past decade. So for me the World of Midgard is the main compulsion for owning and running ToV.

I use Kobold Press's Midgard material in my Level Up games. Its very easy to convert, if conversion is even necessary.

 

[prabe]

I've been wanting to pick up the TotV DMG for a while, but for ideas and worldbuilding stuff. Level Up is the 5e I base my design work on. 5.5's iterations on 5.0 go in opposite directions from my preferences in many ways.

I've bounced off of A5e every time I've tried to read any of it, so take my feelings on ToV with as much salt as you feel relevant--but I did find the ToV Game Master's Guide vastly superior to either of WotC's variants, especially the Revised.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's a better revision of 2014 than 2024 is, IMO, but nothing too radical. For me the weird part is that it appeared in the midst of the OGL Kerfuffle, but they have only released a limited SRD under various licenses. Not the whole books. This is in contrast to, say, Paizo, who continues to release core products under generous licenses.

Or ENPublishing, who pretty much cover their whole game in the SRD and online tools.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I've bounced off of A5e every time I've tried to read any of it, so take my feelings on ToV with as much salt as you feel relevant--but I did find the ToV Game Master's Guide vastly superior to either of WotC's variants, especially the Revised.

Like I said, I very much want the TotV DMG. I freely admit Level Up isn't for everyone, but it really works for me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Deep Magic spells are rather all over the place. Slither, for instance.

Sounds great for worldbuilding. Not every spell needs to be exactly the same efficiency for its level. That's not how research works.

 

[Xenolith234]

Sounds great for worldbuilding. Not every spell needs to be exactly the same efficiency for its level. That's not how research works.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some very cool spells in there - I’d overall just like to keep them for NPCs than deal with the ramifications of PC spellcasters having utterly broken spells for a whole campaign. Though if it happens, it happens.

 

[prabe]

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some very cool spells in there - I’d overall just like to keep them for NPCs than deal with the ramifications of PC spellcasters having utterly broken spells for a whole campaign. Though if it happens, it happens.

I would absolutely pick and choose the spells from Deep Magic I'd place in any game I was running. I have a whitelist and Deep Magic isn't (mostly) on it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some very cool spells in there - I’d overall just like to keep them for NPCs than deal with the ramifications of PC spellcasters having utterly broken spells for a whole campaign. Though if it happens, it happens.

Ah. I don't differentiate between abilities for PCs and NPCs, because the only difference between them is out of setting.

 

[ghenxx]

Deep Magic 2 is a better book, Deep Magic 1 does have some broken stuff in it. Both were made before ToV tho so they aren't exactly on topic.

Tome of Beasts 1,2,3 are also great I still use them in my ToV game.