Tales of Xadia Public Playtest Coming Soon

The public playtest for the Dragon Prince-themed tabletop RPG, Tales of Xadia, launches on February 9th. To get access, you'll just need to sign up to their newsletter.

 PRESS RELEASE

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San Francisco, CA (February 4, 2021) – The official public playtest for Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game is set to debut on February 9, 2021. Fans can enjoy free access to the playtest by simply signing up to the Tales of Xadia newsletter at talesofxadia.com, with those who sign up before February 9th receiving early access. The tabletop roleplaying game – produced by Fandom in partnership with Wonderstorm, the studio behind The Dragon Prince – is set within Xadia, the rich and diverse fantasy world of the Emmy® Award-winning Netflix original series. Fans who access the playtest will be the first to play the game, which is still in development, and have the opportunity to provide feedback that can impact the final game, which will be released later in 2021.

“Our goal with Tales of Xadia is to authentically capture the unique feel, expansive world, and epic stakes of The Dragon Prince,” said Adam Bradford, Executive Producer and Vice President of Tabletop at Fandom. “As we enter the public playtesting phase, we’re excited for fans to see the game in action, experience a thrilling original story, and share their feedback that will help us finalize the game for the full release later this year.”

"We are excited for The Dragon Prince community to explore the world of Xadia in a totally new way as they test out Tales of Xadia with their friends and family," said Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, co-creators of The Dragon Prince. "This game has the same rich world-building and epic stories that fans of the show have come to know, but it’s all driven by you this time! We can't wait to hear about your own adventures and escapades through Xadia."

Based on the award-winning Cortex rules system, players’ stories come to life around the game table where they can forge alliances, uncover secrets, engage in mighty battles, and protect those they love from peril and prophecy. Players accomplish feats of might, mind, or magic that impact the story by rolling different types of dice depending on level of expertise with specific traits. Players can play as elves connected to the primal sources of magic or as a member of the Human Kingdoms, customize their traits and special abilities, define values that motivate their characters, and track everything with digital support during play.

Wonderstorm and Fandom were brought to the game table by Joe LeFavi at Genuine Entertainment, who manages the tabletop gaming rights for The Dragon Prince and serves as a managing producer on the Tales of Xadia game series.

The Dragon Prince premiered globally on Netflix in September 2018 and immediately topped popularity lists across Rotten Tomatoes, Fandom and Tumblr. It was quickly renewed for second and third seasons, which premiered in February 2019 and November 2019, respectively. Netflix recently renewed the series for four additional seasons. With this multi-season renewal, Netflix committed to fully realize the creators’ vision for the seven-season Saga. The Dragon Prince won the 2020 Emmy® Award for Outstanding Children’s Animated Series and has been a top-ten digital original for all of its season runs. Forbes named it one of the best fantasy shows on TV and all three seasons have a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fans can sign up for the Tales of Xadia newsletter at talesofxadia.com and receive early access to select playtest materials starting today. On February 9th, all fans can explore the full public playtest materials and preorder the Tales of Xadia Game Handbook, the core rulebook for the upcoming roleplaying game, set to release later this year.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Others will be able to get these rules soon enough, but... anyone have questions I might try to answer?

Sounds pretty clean implementation. I have never seen the show, but I like a couple of things you described (the way dice are used, the stress advancement, the adventure setup). Wonder if that matters...

 

[Aldarc]

Oh, and while this playtest doc does not get into character generation, it notes that in the game, you cannot make a human who can use rune magic, much less one like Callum, who seems to have access across multiple sources. Dark magic is available to humans, but it has consequences - see that "Corruption" stress. There are no dark magic pregenerated characters provided in the documents so far.

In the show, the human and elven kingdoms are strongly split. In the playtest materials, they work side-by-side, with perhaps some tension. No explanation of this is given - maybe the RPG takes place after the series, such that the relations have smoothed out some, or something.

The RPG takes place between Season 3 and the time jump that will precede Season 4.

 

[Umbran]

Sounds pretty clean implementation. I have never seen the show, but I like a couple of things you described (the way dice are used, the stress advancement, the adventure setup). Wonder if that matters...

Accepting that these are only playtest rules and adventure, obviously, so there's only so much we can pull out of it with confidence....

The adventure structure it seems to be built on isn't particular to Dragon Prince. It is the general TV show structure - TV shows and movies cut back and forth between different sub-groups of their characters, doing different, but related things.

I expect that if a GM creates adventures for, and the players adhere to, what I'd call traditional "don't split the party" style, it'll play... okay? In general, the system is not designed on the basis of tracking moment by moment tactical action and resource attrition as D&D is, so that'll be a habit of approach D&D GMs may need to break.

There's also a big note here about how this isn't a game about beating things up, look at the Stress types - one is Injury, another is Exhaustion. A third is Corruption. But then the other three, fully half of the ways that characters feel the consequences of failure, are emotional states - Anger, Anxiety, and Fear. The way I am reading it, btw, "Anxiety" may be approximated with "Self-doubt" to differentiate it from outright Fear.

Now, some folks may balk at that, in a "you can't tell me what my character feels!" way. For one thing, I expect appliation of stress can be negotiated some - "This situation seems like it would have been frustrating, so I'm thiking the Stress will manifest as Anger. How does that sound?" For another, as far as is seen in these rules, these Stresses don't change what your character can choose to do. You can be carrying a load of Fear Stress, but still stand up against a dragon like Sturm Brightblade, if you get my meaning. The Stress determines what, narratively, are the character's sore spots of the moment.

 

[Umbran]

The RPG takes place between Season 3 and the time jump that will precede Season 4.

I think that'll take some explaining in the book (and maybe Season 4 will make it more plain), as to how that animosity goes away.

 

[Stone Dog]

Spoiler

The Dragon Queen seems happy for everyone to get along. Having her be a driving force for peace even with a dead mate and a kidnapped child might help people get used to the idea.