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!

 

[Marc Radle]

Yeah but how would that really be compatible with 5E other than in the loosest sense? That would pretty much ensure I stop supporting KP. I am not sure my definition of backwards compatibility is what you or other designers have in mind.

Understood!
I guess the best thing I can say, especially at this early stage in the playtest is ... please have faith.

 

[mamba]

I did wonder how they would achieve compatibility, but I didn't think they would just copy the rules and just change some of the names. Sure the feats are different, but it's still just D&D with a different selection of options.

well, that was a given. I also think it is too early to really tell anything given that all we got were a few races. Classes will be more interesting to see

 

[JEB]

Most of this I like, but just as with One D&D, I have an instant aversion to ditching the largely RP-based background features and replacing them with level-1 power-ups (feats talents). Disappoints on a few levels. I'll ponder this a bit before giving feedback, though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Monsters are boring sacks of hit points that basically do the same thing with claw replacing sword and an attack.

Monsters are kind of their thing in 5E. I'm expecting them to pull out all the stops there.

 

[Greg K]

So with "5e but not WOTC", I figured that we'd be using 2023 5e as the model to build the skeleton and not 2020 5e.

What do you mean by 2023 5e?

 

[Parmandur]

I am curious what we are actually going to see in the form of publications. I'm sure when it looked like WotC was going to nuke the entire Open Gaming environment, Kobold planned a Core 3 and all. But now it might be an SRD and design ethos -- a tool with which to sell books and keep 5E alive, rather than sn honest go at a Pathfinder 5E.

We will have to wait and see.

Well, they've said theybare doing a Core Bestiary at least, with 400+ Monsters, covering more normal sorts of archetypes compared to their Tome of Beasts and such.

 

[tsadkiel]

The playtest packet mentions a Monster vault and a Game Master Guide, in addition to the book that we're presumably playtesting. So a full set of core rules.

(Honestly I'd prefer just one book, or a core book and a monster book, but it's not a dealbreaker.)

 

[Scribe]

I'll leave this in the feedback form too, but another important thing for Black Flag will be style. Even if they are a "generic core fantasy roleplaying game," there needs to be a certain style and momentum with the game to make it really stand apart IMO. If they try to do just the half-dark, half-wholesome feel of WotC Fantasy, they'll be fighting a forever losing battle. But if Black Flag is presented with any amount of fresh style, be that in prose, specific little narrative mechanics, art, and so on, they'll have their own unique identity.

 

[Zaukrie]

Monsters are kind of their thing in 5E. I'm expecting them to pull out all the stops there.

I have all their monster books. I was talking about WotC monsters..... That said, I'd like more creativity. An npc/ monster should be able to do anything. Imo

 

[Zardnaar]

Not really interested in yet another close tbh.

Kinda sick of 5E now its been 9 years.