Is ToV Perfect for Mystara?

While any game can run a Mystara campaign, and especially any version of B/X or the Rules Compendium, I have not returned to this world for a while, and it was my first campaign world to run, so I really have fond memories of the place. These days, most of the world's information is stored in the Vaults of Pandius, an excellent resource for maps and other information. The DM's Guild also has all the classic Gazetteers to buy.

If I were going to play Mystara today, my first feeling would be to go for an excellent OSR game, such as Old School Essentials. But, what about 5E? Can Tales of the Valiant handle this well and give you a meaningful play experience in this world?

Tales of the Valiant has a Basic D&D feeling. It may be the game's focus on new players and its organization that presents everything you need to know one step at a time. Where 2014 D&D felt like D&D 4, and it adopted that planar model of the world, ToV feels more grounded and down-to-earth for me. The focus of ToV is on the campaign world, where D&D's focus moves to the planes quickly.

However, I must return to the basic D&D feeling that ToV has. Even the fact that there are only two subclasses per class plays into this feeling that ToV is a starter game, and the more in-depth options shall come later. Myself? I am not having any problems with porting them in from wherever I want, so the subclass issue is a moot point. Even Shard VTT has a plethora of options to choose from. We are also receiving a comprehensive core book expansion for all classes very soon, with Player's Guide 2 (PG2).

Part of the joy of playing ToV is learning to forget most of D&D. It sounds like nonsense, but it is true. Something about ToV has that "new car smell" to it, and the way the books are written is infectious with their positivity and message of fun. Yes, I am still "playing 5E," but it feels new again.

That feeling of newness reminds me of the same sense of wonder when we explored Mystara for the first time. This is a Dwarven kingdom! This is where all the Elves live! This is a magic kingdom! This stuff was cool back then, fresh, unexplored, new, and it hooked us for life.

Now, I have been playing since the late 1970s. I have been down the road with D&D far longer than most. Your feelings may be different since 5E "was your first time" with a roleplaying game, and you still have those "new feelings" with that game.

I have seen D&D handed off to Wizards and have witnessed 25 years of them remaking the game six times (D&D 3E, 3.5E, 4E, 4E Essentials, 2014 5E, and 2024 5.5E). I have seen them try to pull back the OGL twice (the OGL scandal and GSL with 4E), and lived through the horrors of the TSR legal department days. I still have a submission guidelines letter from TSR. Wizards got a lot right with 5E; the nods to old-school design were in the correct direction, but it drifted off with Tasha's into a more generic system.

With ToV, I don't have to work with the 2014 book, plus the fixes from Tasha's and X, Y, and Z. I have one Player's Guide, with everything fixed and in one place. The best of 2014-2024 is presented in the book, in a base game form, with everything sorted out, better organized, and with the rules and rusty parts replaced and fixed.

Just like my Basic D&D books were fixed, easy to use, all in one place, and my one-stop shop for knowing what a rule was. D&D 2024 tries to do this, but they started to fundamentally change the game (weapon masteries, no humanoid monsters, bastions) to the point where core things in the original D&D game were left out or added on, increasing complexity.

D&D 2024 was written for system masters.

Tales of the Valiant is written for beginning players, just like Mystara. This is why I get that feeling.

Nothing is preventing ToV from driving the world of Mystara. The lineages in the core game, and even the supplement one, cover all the options, plus a few more, nicely. When Player's Guide 2 rolls around, we will have even more. We have Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, and Kobolds to cover Thar. Shadow Elves can be Elves, tweaked somewhat for their underground nature, or we could use the Drow from PG2.

The only odd choices are the Syderean lineage with the Celestial and Infernal choices, since basic D&D and Mystara avoided demons in the world due to the game being targeted at a younger audience. Include them if you want them, but don't feel forced to.

The classes adhere to all D&D standards, so there is no problem there. The mechanist is the only standout, but by the end stages of Mystara, they had introduced airships and all sorts of technology, so I don't see anything that would prevent them from feeling at home in the setting.

The monsters are just fine. The TSR product identity monsters never played a significant role in Mystara and were more standard for AD&D, Greyhawk, and the Realms. You have a fine collection in the Monster Vault as it is, covering all the D&D basics.

I am sitting here trying to find a problem, or even a "it doesn't feel right" issue with ToV and Mystara, but I can't find it. With the 2014 or 2024 D&D, I can see a few problems, like some of the Greyhawk and Realms lore and monsters creeping in. There are no mind flayers or other psionic creatures in Mystara. While ToV has demons and devils, you can omit them if you desire. The ToV monster selection feels closer to Basic D&D than 5E's, even without the beholder and a few of the others, which we always saw as "AD&D monsters."

If you ever wanted them, the 2014 Monster Manual is not that far away.

Also, multiclassing is an optional rule in ToV, and in Mystara, it was never a huge thing. That setting is turned off. It's not a big deal, but you can turn it on if you'd like. However, a more pronounced "race as class" dynamic was present in the setting. While ToV does not have that, the builds and characters in Mystara tended to be more straightforward than today's Frankenstein D&D multiclass builds.

Also, at this point, Mystara is so far gone from the D&D canon and support that ToV feels closer in spirit, while D&D feels like it is the Forgotten Realms' home system. Even Greyhawk at this point does not feel like a "5E world," and that feels closer to AD&D for me, truthfully. The plane-hopping gets both D&D 2014 and 2024 down, since they need to keep pushing that IP. Mystara had minimal planar travel and dimension-hopping plots, and it was a giant sandbox world that focused inward on itself.

One of the best parts about Mystara is that all the excellent B and X module series were set there, and if you were lucky enough to pick up the Goodman Games remasters, you have a lot of the classic adventures in this world. Even if you don't, you can still pick up the original adventures over on DM's Guild and convert them yourself by just swapping the monsters out for something similar.

I sit here and have a counter-argument in my head, "You know you can do all this in 2014 D&D?"

Yes, true, but what I am trying to find is whether the feeling of Mystara feels closer to ToV or 2014 D&D. I can't say it does for 2014 D&D, and 2024 feels even further off from the setting since the art is all wrong and introduces concepts that aren't in the setting. The 2024 Monster Manual gets rid of the humanoid monsters, which is a travesty, since they are a central part of the Mystara setting, especially with Thar. D&D 2024 does not do the classic setting justice.

So it comes down to 2014 D&D or Tales of the Valiant to take the crown of Mystara. Given that 2014 D&D is now living in the past, and it still has several issues that ToV fixed, ToV is the better game. It has that new-gamer feeling. It is different enough to compel investigation into new builds and synergies. The monsters hit hard, just like their B/X counterparts, but they don't have the piles of hit points that D&D 2014 or 2024 gives them, so the fights are faster and more exciting.

Feeling-wise, ToV feels closer in spirit to the original Mystara setting than does D&D 2014. easily convert from 3rd-party 2014 D&D books. That beginner-friendly vibe, the colors, the art, and the choices made in presentation just sing Mystara to me, far more than D&D 2014. ToV feels like a B/X version of 5E, just in its simplicity and construction. These days, with the new hardcovers we got, there is no problem with subclass choices, lineages, or heritages. You can convert from 3rd-party 2014 D&D books easily. It will get even better in January 2026 when Player's Guide 2 ships.

ToV is the better choice for how Mystara is presented and feels. To me, the setting feels alive again.

Tales of the Valiant: Long-Term Support 5E

I have no idea what is happening with D&D 2024 these days. All the top people are gone. They had this massive release, then nothing. Their former brand leaders all joined Daggerheart. People are getting laid off. It sucks, but then again, D&D 2024 did not fly off the shelves and sell out like Daggerheart did.

Was D&D being held up by the Daggerheart fans? Were they a few of the last holdouts? When MCDM RPG (Draw Steel) releases this year, will all the Matt Colville fans jump ship too? The old-school dungeon crawl fans have already left the building for Shadowdark or the OSR.

Will the last holdouts of D&D be the 2014 crowd that have a decade of characters and books they don't want to give up? That is where I am right now. If I did not have ToV, I would abandon the system. I don't like Wizards, and the support is mediocre at best, with many ho-hum releases and nothing to get excited about. I would have A5E, but they do not support their game as well as Kobold Press does theirs, with two new core books being crowd-funded just this year.

Level Up A5E is a solid version, but we need to throw our support behind the company with the best support and the chance to take a strong role. Daggerheart, Draw Steel, and Shadowdark are tough competitors, each with a claim to being the heart of D&D.

Playing ToV means I have a company out there curating the game, releasing new books, supporting it with adventures, and they are invested in keeping it going no matter what happens to D&D. I am not worried at all about the next 10 years of support. I can buy new core books. The game is in better shape, with a solid team of designers who are committed to their roles. The designers are not quitting anytime soon.

Tales of the Valiant is Long Term Support D&D.

D&D is rapidly heading towards its next edition with the soft sales and adoption of the 2024 books. I give it three years, if the entire IP isn't sold first. If a 6E is announced and the whole game goes "card-based," or the IP is sold, expect a massive influx of players to ToV. Currently, few have a reason to switch other than liking the ToV system better or its principles of open gaming.

The OGL thing that happened to Paizo and Pathfinder 2 will happen again. It just takes one week of bad WoTC news, and chances are, it is coming. People will likely opt for one of these systems, and for those who still want and like 5E, ToV will be the easy choice.

Shard Tabletop is the Best ToV VTT

I signed up for the Shard Tabletop VTT, and this has the best Tales of the Valiant support I have ever seen. The entire system is built around supporting 5E, so the VTT is highly focused on 5E and only 5E, ensuring that everything in the 5E system works perfectly. This one is worth dropping Roll20 over, since the development team has their act together regarding variant 5E versions and system support.

It is a little strange at first, but it becomes second nature once you learn the system. Don't let the sample starting adventure throw you; once you get everything set up, it looks just as good as Roll20, and the entire interface is more straightforward.

Tales of the Valiant Subscriptions

They have player and GM subscriptions to the entire ToV Kobold Press library. This is a great way to start, but it can get a little pricy. With all you could buy, this is the cheapest way to enjoy a lot of books, and find the ones you want to purchase and keep permanently on the system. Bite the bullet for a few months, subscribe, find all the books you want to use character and monster options from, and concentrate on collecting those first. Then draw down your subscriptions and focus on the best of the best.

With other VTTs? Forget it, buy the books up front, or you don't play. Roll20 is expensive in comparison, and it does not currently support Tales of the Valiant.

Source Tools!

In Shard VTT, you get access to the same editing tools the developers use. Want to turn a 5E race into a ToV Lineage? It's not hard, and you can simply port it in with about 30 minutes of work, allowing all the special features to automatically add themselves to the character sheet. Your changes and mods are tracked in a special "My Content" area so you can manage your changes easily. If you find an error in the data files, you can edit them - even in the books you purchased.

You can create spells, lineages, heritages, backgrounds, monsters, equipment, and anything else in the game with these tools and add them to your games. This is a level of power many VTTs will never let you have, yet Shard makes it easy to mod in and add your own content to your games.

For Tales of the Valiant, this is critical. While the Drow are not in the game until Player's Guide 2, I added my own custom lineage using an earlier Kobold Press book for 5E. When PG2 releases, I will simply delete my custom lineage and swap in the official Drow in each character. It was easy to add, and it will be easy to update. You can even choose the art!

You can easily port in your favorite non-ToV and third-party content into your games this way.

I am using Shard's Esper Genesis 5E system to run a Star Frontiers 5E campaign, and I can add that game's races as custom 5E races, with all the game's abilities programmed into each entry. This "custom content" stays with my Esper Genesis game selection, so I do not see it in my ToV characters. I can create and add 5E versions of the Star Frontiers monsters, robots, equipment, weapons, and aliens, too. If I want to pull in the 5E SRD or any other bestiary on Shard, and reskin those monsters, I can, too. There are videos available on how to import classes and utilize the conversion tool built into the VTT, so adding complete character classes, with all their tables and options, is not difficult.

I have the power.

Game System Switching

You can create custom game systems with your core books, and even create "starter set only" or "core book only" rule sets. If you have another version of 5E on the system, such as Esper Genesis, which is also supported as a rule system, you can switch to it, view your characters, and access all the books you want right there.

Also, you can edit the rule systems, so if there are duplicate entries or things you don't want, you can disable them, and they won't show up. You can enable or disable features on a book or even an individual item, so if you have a monster book you bought but don't want in a rule set, you can turn it all off with one checkbox. You can re-enable it at any time, too.

In my Esper Genesis Star Frontiers 5E game, I can turn off the Esper Genesis races and just have the core five Star Frontiers ones, if I want, and these will be the only allowed and displayed selections when you create a character. If I add races later on from the adventures, like the ones in the Volturnus series, I can make those and enable them as options.

I talk about Star Frontiers a lot, but this is a game without a 5E implementation, and the fact that I can hack that in and make it work speaks volumes. Tales of the Valiant has native Shard support, so hacking things in is even easier. If you have anything in 5E you want, adding it is easy once you watch a few videos and learn where things go.

Printable Character Sheets and PDF Exports?

Hero Lab is struggling to support anything more than the basic books for Tales of the Valiant and has gone months without releasing a new book on their store. Additionally, they have not yet implemented the printing or exporting to PDF functions in ToV. Custom content is not well supported. I like Hero Lab online, but their ToV implementation is struggling and needs more attention, as well as additional content to purchase.

In Shard VTT, I can print any 5E character sheet, including ToV. Using Windows' "print to PDF" option, I can export a Tales of the Valiant character to a PDF and have that for myself. All of the options from my owned or subscribed content export just fine.

Compared to Hero Lab, with Shard VTT, I have character creation tools, a full 5E VTT, mod-ability, a content store, custom content, characters that instantly import into games, and multiple game types supported, all in one place. I also have printing and PDF exports.

There is little comparison here in functionality, and the strength of a 5E-only VTT shines through. Even as a tool to support printing PDFs to play on the tabletop, Shard is superior to many character-sheet-only apps.

Downsides

The subscription fee and rental fees are downsides. The interface is not as intuitive as Roll 20, at least to start. The sample starting adventure is confusing and complex. There is a little more to learn with the custom content tools. I would like a few more character organization tools (or I have yet to find them), such as folders. There is a lot to buy (a good and bad thing, honestly). The system only supports 5E.

I am still on Roll20 for other games, but for 5E, Shard is my home virtual tabletop (VTT).

A Solid VTT that Allows You to Mod

If you are a Tales of the Valiant player with a lot of third-party 5E books, and you want to mod those options in and "have it all," Shard is the VTT for you. There will be some work involved, but it is not difficult and does not require programming. Since ToV is 5E adjacent, you can keep your physical library, and any books not on Shard yet, you can simply port in the best-of-the-best and have it.

If you solo-play ToV, Shard VTT is a dream come true. Even if all you do is print PDFs for your tabletop games, the tool is well worth your time and money.

If you run multiple 5E-style games, such as Esper Genesis, alongside ToV, this is also the perfect VTT for you. While other VTTs have EG as a ruleset, Shard lets you get in and hack and mod the system to create your own custom science fiction universe. You get much more than just the rules on Shard; you get the developer tools and can customize your rulesets to your heart's content.

The highest recommendation for ToV players and 5E rules hackers.

Tales of the Valiant is my 5E

Tales of the Valiant is my 5E. I know this will be around, as it is, for the next 10-20 years at least. D&D, I am not sure about, since D&D 2024 had a soft launch and an adoption rate; we are closer to D&D 6th Edition than any of us expected.

We have an Open SRD and license for Black Flag Roleplaying. This is being actively added to the Kobold Press, since new classes from the Player's Guide 2 are now in the process of being added once the Kickstarter ends. This isn't a "one and done" Creative Commons release; new classes will be added, and the SRD is a living document that will be continually updated.

Wizards have released two CC updates, but there is no new content for the past editions yet, nor have they promised that new content from expansions will be added. Kobold Press is outdoing them on the SRD and licensing front.

Third parties can play and make ToV and 5E content with this license. This is the best of all worlds for publishers, since they can just slap "ToV/5E compatible" on their books, use the Black Flag SRD as-is, and never worry about compatibility issues or licensing again.

Brand loyalty isn't enough, and concrete actions speak volumes.

Compatibility is the key. This is why ToV "did nothing new" since it is both a game and a publishing model for third parties to divorce themselves from the yoke of Wizards and all the industry drama and Wall Street shenanigans. I supported the original OGL creators, so I support a publishing model that allows the community to move forward and never be subject to such attacks again.

However, ToV introduces many new features, even within compatibility. They fixed all the 2014 classes and kept them as close to the originals as possible. Luck and Inspiration are interchangeable. The spells are balanced. The monsters are far better versions than the 2014 ones. The math is far better. Everything is upgraded and feels shiny and new.

The art is one of the few issues some have with, being above average to excellent, with many amazing pieces, but not universally perfect. There is a higher art bar, and while there are some odd choices and cartoony elements, they do not detract from the in-game experience. Some set a super high art bar, and the game is excellent, but people are spoiled by books filled with a 10/10 piece on every page. To me? The art is impressive and effectively conveys a fantasy game in various genres, ranging from family-friendly to edgy.

I like the art; it fits the tone, transitioning from serious to cartoony, and it's better than most games.

Additionally, there are third-party 5E books that can adjust realism and combat difficulty, completely compatible with ToV. Still, in general, ToV's monsters hit harder, and the combats are faster, addressing another common issue with 5E of the fights being too easy and the combats dragging on. The Kobold Press designers work hard at making the rules work well, fixing problems with individual monsters, spells, and classes, and making sure the game stays challenging and fun.

The Orcs, Goblins, and other humanoids are in the game as monsters. We are not being told to exclude them from our games as bad guys. They are also there as character options. We can make them bad guys, good guys, gray-zone guys, or edgy anti-heroes. The game lets us make our own minds up about these things, and that is a welcome and refreshing change from current-day this-and-that.

Thank you.

All my 2014-2024 5E books are supported as-is. Sure, I can use my 2014 D&D rulebooks, but what about new players after those go out of print? I want a game that a new player can buy and own today, and in ten years. Sure, there will always be used copies out there, and stocks that still won't sell, but going forward, I want a currently for-sale, well-supported system that people joining my group can pick up and be interested in without the 2014 or 2024 confusion.

Kobold Press is a ton more ethical than Wizards of the Coast. Why do I support someone who does not hold my values?

Everything feels patched, fixed, better working, cleaner, easier to understand, and better presented here. The Game Master's Guide is a 10/10 book, universally loved as one of the best refereeing books in this generation of games. The book is fantastic and outdoes both the 2014 and 2024 D&D DMGs combined. We get monster design rules, too! That was abandoned in 2024 D&D, and that is a massive loss for the game, as it allows people to create their own worlds and put their ideas into the game.

The Kobold Press store is impressive, easily equal in terms of a Paizo to Pathfinder. The support for this game is off the charts good. We have our second Kickstarter of the year for a core book. Supported? Better than 2024 D&D in many cases. We've got two new core books this year so far! D&D 2024 is still struggling with last year's releases, and there are things in the works, but not to this level.

And if you like 2024 D&D, all of this is cross-compatible, even the ToV classes, if you prefer them over D&D's attempts. I like ToV since the third-party support is far better, and the company is ethical and solid. The company's previous adventures, monster books, and expansions offer numerous options and content, which can easily lead to feeling overwhelmed.

The Labyrinth setting is far better than the Great Wheel, and far more open to more imaginative worlds and adventures. This sold me on planar adventures for the system, and I usually loathe those things since they ruin campaign worlds and turn them into bedroom communities. There are no "gods to hunt and kill" out there, since those exist in a space outside reality and are in a proper place thematically. The Labyrinth fixes all the D&D endgame problems and focuses the planar game more on adventure and exploration. Finally.

And I own my PDFs. They are not linked to a subscription service. This is huge.

Also, since the "D&D product identity" of the game is stripped out, my worlds are more my worlds than they are "my worlds but incorporating Wizard's licensed IP." Mind flayers, beholders, and displacer beasts were cool back in the 1980s when they were new, but they have become overused tropes these days. I am tired of them and want new monsters I have never seen before. The only reason they were cool back in the 80s is that they were new things we had never seen before! 

Now? Overplayed and overused for decades, it has been employed as a nostalgic tool of control by Wall Street to shape our imaginations. They need to be retired into the Monster Hall of Fame, and new ideas need to replace them. ToV and their monster books are so full of new ideas that it feels like the 1980s again, and I'm rediscovering things.

This is the best version of 5E, in terms of design, support, the number of core books being released, and ethics. I am not ashamed to play it or use it to play with my ten-year-old 5E third-party books that I still want to use. It is still compatible with 2014 and 2024. It is future-forward for third parties.

This is a game I love and support.

Tales of the Valiant is hands down better than D&D.

Hello!

 First post!