Steamforged Games Making the Tales of the Valiant Starter Set

Steamforged Games announced a deal with Kobold Press to produce the Tales from the Valiant Starter Set. From the announcement:

Steamforged Games and Kobold Press Write a New Chapter in Tabletop Roleplaying with Tales of the Valiant Starter Set

Two major players in the tabletop games industry, Kobold Press and Steamforged Games, are thrilled to announce a partnership for the creation of an exciting new tabletop roleplaying Starter Set for Tales of the Valiant. While full details will be revealed in the near future, both companies are eager to share their commitment to crafting something extraordinary for the tabletop roleplaying community, designed to be a true gateway for new players and redefine the beginner's experience.

Kobold Press, a prominent name in roleplaying for over 17 years and the leading creator of third-party Dungeons & Dragons content—that recently extended its legacy with the Black Flag Roleplaying rules and Tales of the Valiant roleplaying game—has joined forces with Steamforged Games, renowned for its Epic Encounters range and celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The partnership is built on a shared goal to further the growth and accessibility of tabletop roleplaying.

"Our goal is to teach fundamental roleplaying skills in a way that feels intuitive and enjoyable for beginners," said Mat Hart, Co-founder and Creative Director at Steamforged Games. “We’re creating an incremental experience that will scaffold players through the levels until they’re competent, confident, and having an excellent time in the process. As long-time fans of Kobold, and particularly of the Black Flag system, we’re over the moon to be working with them on such an exciting release.”

“Kobold Press is extremely excited to team up with Steamforged Games on the upcoming Starter Set for Tales of the Valiant,” said Wolfgang Baur, founder and CEO of Kobold Press. “This set is the perfect opportunity for new players to take their first steps into the hobby in a way that is easily accessible and fun. The Kobold team have always been fans of the beautiful products Steamforged Games has released and can’t wait to see the Starter Set that will help players begin their roleplaying journey.”

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Steamforged Games is best known for their licensed board games based on the popular video games Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, Horizon Zero Dawn, Resident Evil 3, and others, the Epic Encounters series of bundled miniatures and adventures for 5e, and the 5e RPG adaptation of Dark Souls which had a disastrous launch.

 

[aco175]

I do not know much about Steamforged Games (SfG) but have been liking what I seen on Tales of the Valliant (ToV) and will likely get the starter set if it is like the box sets from Wizards for 5e.

I wonder why they are outsourcing? I guess it is because they launch of both will happen at the same time and in-house designers are working on ToV and do not have the bandwidth to do both. SfG can work on the starter set and let Kobold focus on the main rules. Wizards did this as well with some of the early 5e stuff like the Tiamat adventure book if I am remembering right.

 

[Cergorach]

I wonder why they are outsourcing?

When I look at SFG, there might be plastic minis in the starter set... Or SFG just has a good distribution setup for North America and Europe.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

SFG's dark souls TTRPG does not inspire confidence that this will be a good product...

 

[Moonmover]

Steamforged's history tells me this will include some good-looking (but maybe a bit too tall) miniatures.

 

[Reynard]

SFG's dark souls TTRPG does not inspire confidence that this will be a good product...

SFG isn't designing anything here. They are putting together the package, which is ostensibly their strength.

 

[sevenbastard]

Always excited about starter sets.I probably don't need another version of 5e, but this is a good way to get me to check it out wrapping it in a box with fun goodies.

 

[kenmarable]

SFG's dark souls TTRPG does not inspire confidence that this will be a good product...

Dark Souls was definitely a low point, and I've found their other game development to be uneven but passable in quality (some is great, some just ok), however in this case they are taking Kobold Press's existing system and presenting it as a Starter Set. So this is much more about presenting KP's rules than it is on their own game dev skills. And one thing Steamforged excels at is presentation! I'd put them among the top in the industry for presentation, especially of boxed sets.

So this seems to me to be an excellent partnership the relies on the strengths of both companies! KP's game design work with Steamforged's presentation skills. With a Starter Set being basically a recruitment tool for the main game system, presentation is more important here than perhaps any other kind of RPG product.

 

[Marc Radle]

.... [Steamforged is] taking Kobold Press's existing system and presenting it as a Starter Set. So this is much more about presenting KP's rules than it is on their own game dev skills. And one thing Steamforged excels at is presentation! I'd put them among the top in the industry for presentation, especially of boxed sets.

So this seems to me to be an excellent partnership the relies on the strengths of both companies! KP's game design work with Steamforged's presentation skills. With a Starter Set being basically a recruitment tool for the main game system, presentation is more important here than perhaps any other kind of RPG product.

Seems like a VERY astute observation!

 

[timbannock]

SFG isn't designing anything here. They are putting together the package, which is ostensibly their strength.

Exactly. SFG are absolutely stellar with putting together great minis (and other doodads), and packaging them incredibly well.

I'm curious if they are indeed going with minis for this, or possibly going the route of pawns or something more flexible like D&D did with the static-cling stickers on pogs. I say this because I imagine a starter set would get pretty pricey if you have minis for anything other than a handful of pregerated PCs; if you want to capture any monsters, 5E rules suggest you're going to need about a dozen enemies for a decent one-shot, more if the adventure is any longer. That could be a lot of minis.

The Pathfinder 2E starter set with its Pathfinder Pawns was pretty much the ultimate starter set, in terms of content.