Publisher: Kobold Press
Lead Designers: Celeste Conowitch, JB Little, and Sebastian Rombach
Artists: William O’Brien, Felipe Malini, Ian Perks, Roberto Pitturru, Kiki Moch Rizki, Bryan Syme, Egil Thompson, and Eva Widermann
Year: 2023
Genre: Alpha release of a fantasy roleplaying game built on the Creative Commons 5E D&D SRD
Pages: 176 pages
MSRP: $9.99 in PDF at DriveThruRPG
I share my thoughts about the alpha release of the Tales of the Valiant roleplaying game from Kobold Press. This fantasy RPG is built on the foundation of the Creative Commons 5E D&D SRD. Kobold Press has an extremely successful Kickstarter to fund a two volume RPG system but I have issues regarding what we’re seeing early on.
SUMMARY
While there certainly isn't anything structurally wrong with the alpha release of Tales of the Valiant, I highly doubt most people are expecting the game to be as similar to the Creative
Commons 5E SRD as it is. The changes from 5E are very, very minor and most are actually rumored to be things we'll see in the 2024 edition of D&D. My biggest issue though is
the fact Kobold Press is charging for the PDF of this playtest. Anytime a publisher is looking to pick the brains of gamers with a playtest, they better well be giving it away free of
charge. I normally dig Kobold Press releases but seeing 5E with some of the serial numbers filed off, and calling it its own game, isn't leaving me too enthusiastic for TotV.
Summary
While there certainly isn't anything structurally wrong with the alpha release of Tales of the Valiant, I highly doubt most people are expecting the game to be as similar to the Creative
Commons 5E SRD as it is. The changes from 5E are very, very minor and most are actually rumored to be things we'll see in the 2024 edition of D&D. My biggest issue though is
the fact Kobold Press is charging for the PDF of this playtest. Anytime a publisher is looking to pick the brains of gamers with a playtest, they better well be giving it away free of
charge. I normally dig Kobold Press releases but seeing 5E with some of the serial numbers filed off, and calling it its own game, isn't leaving me too enthusiastic for TotV.
Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...
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