ToV PDF Thoughts, Part 1

A few thoughts on flipping through the ToV PDFs...

They need more backgrounds, lineages, and heritages. Level Up A5E has them beat here, and with all of the books, they can create many more types of characters. That said, I like ToV's fewer special powers per option. In this regard, LUA5E will overload you with specific abilities in a category, and the list of specials grows to an annoying length. LU's dozen or more specials after character creation felt great, but character after character, it got to be too much and annoying. Less is more, and ToV hits the sweet spot.

There are times in Level Up A5E that the designers overdo it.

Tales of the Valiant has a good amount of restraint in terms of design.

ToV's streamlining and simplicity win.

One notable aspect of ToV is its flexible luck mechanic. Unlike the rigid 'inspiration' concept, luck in ToV is a resource that can be easily house-ruled. With just 3 Luck, I could allow players to create a small narrative change in their favor. Alternatively, a 'GM intrusion' style mechanic can be adopted (like Cypher System), offering Luck to players in exchange for a negative consequence. This dynamic and empowering mechanic significantly improves the old 'inspiration' system.

Interestingly, the Facebook groups for ToV are small and quiet. While I initially expected more excitement there, the community has found other vibrant platforms for discussion. This discovery piques my curiosity and makes me eager to explore these different avenues of engagement.

Level Up is a crunchier, more old-school game that does things differently. ToV is a direct drop-in replacement for 5E at a CR+1 power level, but the monsters are balanced against that.

Machinist is a core class. I am 'meh' on Steampunk, but it is a part of Midgard, so I get it.

More cleric domains are needed.

Oh, paladins, sorcerers, and warlocks included. Barbarians are not renamed. Nice.

Some art is the new-school PC style but balanced with lovely classic-style pieces. Overall, the art direction is down the middle and doesn't overdo it with the colored hair, modern hairstyles, Tik-Tok selfies, and other distracting tropes many games have. My problem with those pieces is they feel like modern people cosplaying at a gaming convention instead of putting you in a fantasy world. It does the job and isn't distracting. LU has an excellent art style as well.

Immersion always beats modern-day-ism. I pay for immersion that puts me in the mood to play and live in that world, while I can get modern-day-ism "fan art" anywhere.

The bearded female dwarf was funny and a nod to a gaming meme. I laughed. It gets a pass from me.

The "characters floating on a page" art needs to go. It is too 2020s, and Pathfinder did it to the point of parody where people would float on every page looking high or bored. Give me a panel of them in the world any day, doing something, having an emotional reaction to something dramatic. Many of them show emotion and are doing something, but a few float and have a neutral expression, like a T-posed 3d model's blank stare.

Other than that, the art is excellent, with a few uninspired ones, but they are okay. I have no complaints, but I know what inspires me.

Multiclassing is optional, on or off for the whole campaign, or only for specific characters or NPCs. Thank you to whatever deity your cleric follows; this is a long-overdue change. Sanity comes to multiclassing, and you can finally turn the whole thing off if you like.

Multiclassing in D&D 5E reached the point where if someone did it, I instantly wondered, "What is the player up to?" It was never a valid character or story choice; it was always an exploit in the making. I called it out and people got pissed at me for denying their cheat builds. Keeping a ban list in your head for combos and exploits sucks, and the cheat builds in D&D 5E are worse than the ones they had in 3E.

My GM safety tool sheet lists "multiclassing" as something that triggers me as a referee. I'm sorry, but I turned it off because the concept upsets me.

White-skinned drow, like the old D&D Mystara shadow elves.

There is no alignment at all. It is shocking to see a game implement this. What does this mean for characters? They can be paragons of light one moment and murder hobos the next. Even the cleric domains say "encouraged to" instead of "must," which is a huge difference. Paladins follow an oath, and it isn't said if that is necessarily a good-aligned one. With no alignment, a referee must go the "hand of god" on consequences for player actions. The party acts like murder hobos, and word gets out - they will be hunted down and killed. It is all or nothing without alignment, which may turn some people off.

In games with alignment, players can hide behind it and pay lip service to it. I am a paladin, lawful good. I don't do X, Y, and Z. People see me as a paladin. They know I don't do X, Y, and Z. Alignment is a two-way street.

Without alignment?

Your reputation is your alignment. That paladin? How do townspeople know they can trust them?

They don't.

You could be a paladin of Asmodeus, as far as they know.

Same with the drow you encounter. They could be sadistic killers or mushroom-hugging hippy drow. Dragons, monsters, and even demons and devils. You can assume demons and devils are evil, but nothing says they are. A section in the monster book states that "demons are chaos, fiends are lawful," but those are not concepts written into the game. All are said to be evil, but again, evil is not a defined concept in the game - though "you know what evil is when you see it."

Part of me feels strange not having alignment, but a part of me sees this as opening the door to a harder line on party reputation, even the GM saying, "You did evil; you are now corrupted and heading down a fiendish path," and just old-schooling this as a GM ruling and handling it all in the story.

No alignment? Then, as the GM, I can call it as I see it.

Live with the consequences of your actions without those guardrails.

In trying to make a game more new-school, they inadvertently made it more old-school.

Hero Lab is invaluable. They keep going back and giving you tool proficiencies in character options. I am like, I already made my picks! Why do I need more? If I did this by hand, I would miss half of them and not care.

Pop-up healing is a thing, but at least they set you prone. Level Up does a better job here. I hope the GM's Guide has a hardcore option for damage, death, and pop-up healing. I could always pull in the ToV rule in and put a level of exhaustion for every drop below zero hit points, and I hope there is an option like that in the GM's Guide with guidance on balance.

ToV feels like a solid 5E replacement game.

I can play this and not feel guilty or bad about supporting a company that does not share my values.

It is also a fresh start, without 10 years of broken baggage the game needs to haul around.