So it's been a couple of months since Tales of the Valiant (ToV) came out for everyone to see. For those who don't know what it is, Tales of the Valiant is a 5e compatible TTRPG by Kobold Press. So far they've released the Player's Guide and the Monster Manual, but the Game Master's Guide is still on the way.
Now before I start rambling, let me say that I'm a little scatterbrained today. So I don't know whether this is going to come out sensibly.
You've been warned...
So what is ToV?
Tales of the Valiant is in some ways Kobold Press' response to WotC's OGL scandal. It is a system that appears built on D&D 5th Edition's foundation with a few variations in it. Though not the most accurate of comparisons, the best way I can think to describe it is when Paizo created Pathfinder as an answer to the frustrations players had with D&D at the time.
What does ToV's Players' Guide consist of?
ToV approached its introduction as though you've never played D&D. And so everything you can imagine in how to run a game and character creation and rules are in there. For those who know D&D, and 5e specifically, you'll see that the book holds everything you need to create a ToV character with a few minor rules differences or clarifications. Nothing that completely rocks the boat, yet enough changes to make ToV feel like it's own game.
I'll try to go into the differences in a bit more detail later or maybe in a later post... I dunno yet.
Compatibility with 5th Edition D&D.
What appealed to me of ToV was that, from the beginning, they stated that you'll be able to run 5e and ToV characters together and, from what I have read, they've kept to that. How would that work? Essentially for the GM, it will be important to tell your players that they can choose either a 5e character or a ToV character. They can't mix the two rulesets for their classes and whatnot. But you will be able to have a party that consists of characters from either set. The rules of ToV doesn't vary so much that there would be sticking points and they've even released a Conversion Document to assist.
It's all about the flavour...
Having read the Player's Guide, I think one will be both curious and a bit perplexed. As this is the initial release of Tales of the Valiant, I suspect the creators went for quality over quantity. As such, ToV doesn't have the same class versatility with respect to player options, but what it does have is flavour and that it has in spades.
Each class feels unique and, where D&D can sometimes feel like a melange of sameness, I think the way they approached the different classes is really intriguing. When creating a ToV character, you're not going to feel like this is a D&D clone. Sure the stats are similar, but when it comes to what each class does, how Talents work and even the heritages, there's a lot that makes you realise that, though they can eat at the same pasture, they're not the same kind of beast.
I would have liked to see more player options, but I also recognise that this is something they can build from. And that makes me curious to see what other things Kobold Press are going to come up with.
What I got stuck on...
The sharper tools in the shed would probably have found the magic concept in ToV easy to grasp. I've admittedly had difficulty. It's not impossible to understand, instead of separating the types of spells by class, it's done by 'source', such as Divine, Arcane, Primordial, to name but a few. In the class description, you'll learn which ones your character will utilize. It's when they overlap that I get confused. I think, for me at least, I'll need to create a couple of ToV characters before I'll adequately understand it. But I figured I'd be honest and mention that there was one hiccup in my reading.
(Dis)honourable mentions
Just a few things that I thought would be worth mentioning:
- Some magic items are listed in the book and they have suggested prices.
- Crafting of Mundane items are tackled but not magical ones. This is supposedly going to be addressed in the GM's Guide.
- Eldrich Blast is a Warlock ability in ToV and not a spell and thus can't be twinned if you have a sorcerer multiclass.
- ... Oh! They have multiclassing...
- The Luck mechanic is awesome. I've already started incorporating it in my games.
- Kobold Press says NO to generative AI
Final Thoughts
I've been very supportive of a lot of Kobold Press things and Tales of the Valiant is one product I feel I can get behind. I don't know if I'm going to buy their setting guide (I have my own setting to play in, afterall), but any books that build on the classes, ancestries, and heritages that has been established in this initial book will definitely be purchased and consumed.
I'm going to read through the Monster Manual now and (maybe) post about it too at some point. If not, I'll definitely have a post on the Game Master's Guide after I've read it. Can't wait for that to be released!
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