While Dungeons & Dragons prepares for a new core book release next year other role playing game companies are hoping to take advantage of the shift. Whether called a new edition, a revised edition or what have you, there will always be those folks who are unhappy with the direction of the line. It’s a chance for other companies to sweep up new players looking for a change of scenery or a new way to flex their imagination.
Kobold Press was founded in 2012 and supported several other gamelines throughout its history including Pathfinder and Fifth Edition. It recently launched a Kickstarter to support Project Black Flag which it announced earlier this year. The project, Tales of the Valiant, has an official name and is currently on Kickstarer.
“We needed to find our way to a more robust expression of what Kobold Press loves about 5th Edition D&D, and how to make it shine,” said Wolfgang Baur, founder of Kobold Press. “That took months of ‘what-if’ and discussion, and putting forward some playtest ideas that we knew were strong, and others that we were, shall we say, divided amongst ourselves. Playtest feedback was the crucible, as it always has been at Kobold Press—playtest is what first led us to understand that the Monster Manual power curve was off, and helped us shape the Tome of Beasts for 5th Edition based on actual play. And it what is shaping the newer elements of the game right now, in the public playtest and in the private playtests, and soon at Gen Con.”
Tales of the Valiant offers a game inspired by Fifth Edition but also willing to push the boundaries of the system. The designers have been working on D&D through multiple editons with many former designers going on to work on Fifth Edition in an official capacity. One of the key points of the design is being instantly familiar to fans of D&D’s most recent edition.
“The big [elements] were retaining the core rules and mechanics, so anyone who knows how to play 5th Edition D&D can play Tales of the Valiant,” said Baur. “There’s a few bits of terminology changes, such as ‘lineages’ rather than ‘races’ for player characters, but the armor class, hit points, skill checks and so forth are all built right on the Creative Commons 5th Edition D&D. Compatibility is the huge element we want to retain. Any Tales of the Valiant character can be played in a game right next to a 5E D&D character, and a GM can use a 5E adventure with Tales of the Valiant characters—they click together beautifully and align on all the important elements, such as combat rules, challenge ratings, and so on.”
Kobold Press also wanted to look at the game with fresh eyes to improve the play experience. Backers will get a chance to be playtesters to tell the company which directions they want the designers to go. The process is an open book that should please the company and the fans alike.
“The Talent system takes the feats of 5E and organizes them in a new, simple way to enhance player choices—playtest feedback has been excellent,” said Baur. “Other small changes have proven themselves in playtest as well—many of the core monsters of 5E D&D are getting one extra twist, to make them more exciting, or at least to provide a second option besides their basic attack. We’re seeing a tremendous response to these expansions of the game—they won’t all survive playtest, but the audience seems eager for a richer experience that draws on 5E and goes beyond it. It’s also exciting because we’re not hiding our formulas or obscuring how to design for Tales of the Valiant. We’re sharing the underlying rules, and the core fantasy rules will be open for everyone to use under an irrevocable license. It’s a game built for a community to shape any way a GM wants.”
The process also takes advantage of Kobold Press’s smaller size. They have the ability to adjust to feedback quickly. It’s only been a month or two since the first playtest packets went out and they’ve already had an impact on the game.
“A few things always surprise us,” said Baur. “One of the designers was sure that no one was all that interested in random ability score generation, and we could drop it—wrong, it’s the most popular method. Another designer – ok, this was me – wanted to speed up combat by making flat damage for monsters the standard, rather than rolling monster damage dice—also wrong. It’s about two ‘feel-the-drama, dice-rolling GMs’ for every ‘speed-up-the-game, flat-damage GM’—different flavors! So we revised our thinking and are forging ahead. The other thing that has surprised us is just how much support there has been for the new systems like Luck and the new heritages for characters.”
Tales of the Valiant is on Kickstarter until June 23rd, 2023. Playtesting is ongoing. The books are slated for an April 2024 release.
“We’re seeing new groups seeing D&D with fresh eyes, playing cloud elves or fire forge dwarves,” said Baur. “and creating new stories based on new options. It’s been extremely satisfying to see some of the character and monster work meet with ‘oh, that’s fantastic!’”
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