Tales of the Valiant’s Black Flag System—Changing the Game!
Amidst a rocky period for the world’s best known tabletop roleplaying game back in 2023, a new system rose from the ashes, promising open TTRPGs for all.
Kobold Press announced the brand new Black Flag System to the call of Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Valiant. What followed was a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign with over 10,000 backers, and the Tales of the Valiant RPG was brought into being.
Tales of the Valiant (ToV) is a Core Fantasy Roleplaying game that builds on the Creative Commons foundation of 5th Edition with Kobold Press’s own Black Blag System, a powerful new system with teeth!
Designed alongside the TTRPG community to work with your existing 5th edition materials, the Black Flag System improves on what already exists without invalidating those precious 5E tomes that sit pride of place on your shelf. The team at Kobold Press have created a familiar, easy to use system that makes the rules easier to understand and provides tools to reduce Game Master’s prep time.
They’ve also rebalanced a lot of existing content to make sure nothing is over or under powered, whilst providing great opportunities for players to make meaningful choices for their characters at higher levels, and make spell casting feel even more magical.
Tales of the Valiant and the Black Flag system offers a modern update to D&D gameplay at a time when tabletop roleplay games have never been so popular.
With its streamlined design, the Black Flag System is also a perfect entry point to tabletop roleplay games. This is where we come in. Working with Kobold Press, we’ve used the Black Flag system to create the Tales of the Valiant Starter Set. Beginning from absolute basics (like how to talk at the table), progressing all the way through your first session and beyond, with no experience necessary! This Starter Set is the introduction to roleplaying games.
“The Tales of the Valiant Starter Set is a perfect starting point for anyone looking to reignite their love of fantasy tabletop gaming, or anyone coming to tabletop gaming for the first time.”
— Wolfgang Baur, Founder and CEO at Kobold Press
We also wanted to share a few key changes you’ll notice in the Tales of the Valiant Starter Set, if you’re already a 5E veteran.
Character Creation
The Black Flag System allows players to choose their character’s lineage and heritage. Players now choose their character’s lineage, which grants biological features. Lineage traits include things like special senses, size, and movement speed. They also choose their character’s heritage, which grants learned features called heritage traits. Heritage traits include things like languages and equipment proficiencies.
The Tales of the Valiant Starter Set also comes with four stunning player character minis. We’ve produced a free downloadable character sheet for each of these eager heroes to help you get the hang of character creation and bring them to your table with ease.
Luck and Talent
Kobold have replaced Inspiration as you may know it with Luck. The luck system rewards players, whilst removing it as another task for the Game Master to manage. Players track and maintain their Luck without GM intervention, creating a low-maintenance reward system that helps every round of combat feel a little more fun.
Feats have been replaced with a new talent system. These become a core part of character creation and development. Every background grants a talent during character creation, with talents divided into three categories: Martial, Magic, and Technical.
Classes
The Black Flag System is packed with all the classes you know and love, but now they’re streamlined to make playing your epic hero easier than ever. You’ll find a few changes with every class, including updated proficiencies and exciting new features.
Improvement also replaces Ability Score Improvement. Improvement has you increase an ability score by one and then choose a talent from the new Martial Talent list. If you prefer simplicity, take the Mental Prowess talent. It lets you increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma ability score by one, replicating the current 2-point ability score increase in 5E.
Now you’ve got a taste for what's in store, and you’re ready to get rolling dice, the Tales of the Valiant Starter Set is available for pre-order right now.
With everything you need to get playing right away—including highly detailed player character miniatures representing iconic characters from the Tales of the Valiant universe (including familiar faces from the original Valiant Six!). Get your friends together and prepare for the adventure of a lifetime, no experience necessary!
Don't forget to join us and other TTRPG players on the Steamforged Discord.
