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!

 

[Bolares]

I said that when 3E came out! 22 years later, here we are having the same conversation.

That’s when I heard about them (and RPGs) and had the same question, but no one to ask it to.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Interesting! I recently bought the two core books of A5E, and just now I bought the Ancestries & Cultures PDF...good recommendation from Morrus!

One niggle in the OP: the syntax would be clearer if this sentence read more like this:

"Black Flag (by Kobold Press) -- like Level Up: Advanced 5E (by EN Publishing), and Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e
(by Arcanist Press)--divides the 5E concept of 'race' and 'subrace' into inherited and cultural elements. Black Flag goes with the terms Lineage and Heritage."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My son was saying the other day, "Why even bother with darkvision? Light doesn't do anything in the game."

In other words, in three years of playing D&D, he'd never seen light come up. That made me sad.

Everyone needs to put grues in their monster books and teach the young folks the value of a lantern ... and sufficient lantern oil.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You really notice it when you play solasta (well, you notice you aren't hitting like you expect, then you remember to cast Light).

It's also key in Darkest Dungeon, when the shadows creeping in causes your party's already frayed nerves to completely go.

 

[Retreater]

There's lots of bold, unique games out there. Thousands!

I mean, yes, of course.
But I think it needs something to differentiate itself from regular 5e - especially now that it's Creative Commons.
Level Up is more advanced 5e.
Bugbears & Borderlands is more streamlined 5e.
5 Torches Deep is more resource management, Old School 5e.
Just having an "open 5e" won't cut it when the base version of 5e is an open 5e.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

RE: taking feats/talents vs ASIs

I've wondered a little while now if it would be better to just to dich level based ASIs in toto, and adjust proficiency bonus progression so that it tops out at +8.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Great feedback! Please remember that Kobold Press isn't officially monitoring these threads for playtest feedback

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

Feedback sent.

 

[Remathilis]

Cross posted from the OneD&D forum ..

I did a rudimentary look through, but I can't say I'm blown away.

At first blush, it looks like 5.25. not quite as bold in its changes as 1D&D is (and that's saying something considering how safe WotC's playing it), but definitely not a pure clone. It's got a Pathfinder 1e vibe to it for sure. 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 wait to see something that doesn't feel like they are retreading WotC's path and is unique to them. Luck points sound interesting, and I await new races, classes or subclasses that WotC hasn't already done.

 

[dave2008]

I wait to see something that doesn't feel like they are retreading WotC's path and is unique to them. Luck points sound interesting, and I await new races, classes or subclasses that WotC hasn't already done.

Again, for all who are interested in a simplified 5e, something different from: 5e, 1D&D, LevelUp, Blackflag, etc., you can pick up Bugbears and Borderlands for $1!

 

[Shardstone]

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.

Of course, as stated in the playtest, their goal is to be a somewhat heroic Fantasy game. You can stick to the 5E chassis for that while still branching out. I really hope things like the subclasses, magic items, additional mechanics, and so on make use of this theme as nuance or flavor instead of giving it minimal lip service.

And Core Fantasy Roleplaying is the least inspiring name out there. Dungeons & Dragons, imo, is able to reach mainstream because the name sounds fun and a little bit exciting. Project Black Flag sounds a lot better than Core Fantasy Roleplaying, even though it isn't really all that great of a name. I'm hoping the final name for the system avoids ampersands and also presents some stylish take on heroic fantasy that invokes the ideas of the game.