So, while a lot of what I own for 5E is compatible with Tales of the Valiant, I won't be using it all. So far, I have two crates of 5E books going into storage, and they are primarily in three areas. This is not to say these books are terrible, far from it; all of these are excellent books. I don't have much use for them right now; they will clutter my shelves, and I have similar options inside ToV that I want to focus on.
Character options I no longer need. I have tons of these for 5E, and while I could use them, I really don't want them in a pure ToV-style game. The above book, the Ainorian Companion, is a very cool resource packed with all sorts of race and class options, and it's worth adding to any 5E game. Right now, I have so much in ToV that I don't need "even more," and that is one of my criteria for the paring down of books.
If it duplicates character options I already have in ToV, or presents minor, alternate options I do not want to focus on, I will instead put it in storage and focus on a core set of books. I still have the PDF and can pull from that. Still, this is a great book completly full of fun options.
Is it nice? Yes. Do I need it for my game? Not really.
The Monster Manual Expanded books are fantastic! I love these books, but I already have 2,000+ monsters in the Kobold-verse, so I will put these away and focus on the monsters in the already jam-packed monster books for ToV and Kobold Press. Again, I have the PDFs; I want to focus on what ToV and KP bring to the table before I start pulling in new stuff. This is another one of those "presents more options that I already have" areas, and I am OK with storing them, as well as the original 5E monster manuals.
Yes! All this stuff works with 5E and ToV equally well! But I have too much. I need to seriously pare down my library and just focus on the best of the best. I have a glut of books from the Pandemic Era, and they are choking the fun game hiding inside there.
I have a lot of cool campaign settings for 5E, such as the Roman-themed Arcanis Campaign Setting. I am focusing on Midgard, so I will not need these and can put them into storage. While these fit on the Labyrinth nicely, I have the PDFs if I want to go that route. The campaign settings I want to focus on are in my Kobold-verse collection.
I can focus on these settings later, but I have so much to pare down to my core books and experience. This is a great setting, just not for me at this time. I will return to this one someday, as it looks cool. This is one I could see existing on the Labyrinth easily, given some love and attention.
But, if I have the room after paring my books down, the settings will be the first books to come back, since the Labyrinth is perfect for them. With Wizards-verse of Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Dark Sun? That is staying in the Wizards Multiverse and I am not revisiting them, nor will they be on my version of the Labyrinth. Why? Part of me says, "been there, done that." And another part of me knows these settings are heavy enough they would completely suck the focus of the game towards them and not these other imaginative and cool settings.
Old settings, make way for the new.
Would I want to revisit the 5E version of the Forgotten Realms, or spend that time in Arcanis? The answer is easy, lose the well-worn and tired Realms, and play with the new setting. We need a fresh injection of blood and energy into fantasy gaming, and the Wizards settings feel like bald tires now they have been so overused and made to be modern world fantasy stand-ins. They are not even how I remember them, and it feels like going back to a place you grew up in and discovered they put in a freeway, stadium, HOA community, state prison, industrial park, and Walmart.
The original charm is gone.
I have played in these 30+ years, I am ready for new experiences.
My Labyrinth is home to new worlds and adventures, not the old ones.
It sounds sad, but I am ready to move on, and the Wizards settings do not define fantasy to me anymore. There is no anger or hate in this choice, but a little sadness and bittersweet memories of places that once captured my imagination, but they have not felt fantastical at all in the last 10+ years. They were changed, abandoned, changed again, and they feel like the undead, brought back again for another go-round.
I have some nice add-on books for NPCs, but the NPC stats for ToV are in the Monster Vault 2 book. The ToV ones are more designed for ToV abilities, and while the above book is a great resource, I am not sure I will use it much in favor of the ones I already have. It is a nice-to-have; I am on the fence about it, but I already have NPC stats in ToV, so I am likely to store this.
There is a problem with higher-level D&D NPCs differing in powers and abilities from higher-level ToV characters. While it could be explained away as a "one-off NPC," I like to have the NPCs in the world reflect the core system they run on.
Spectacular Settlements? Here is a book I am keeping in my library. This is a system-neutral book with towns, tables, and descriptions that could easily fit into any world, including Midgard. This saves me work, does not repeat or overrule anything in ToV, and is not rules-incompatible with the game. There are no characters created with 5E, nor does it stat monsters; it is just an excellent book, complete with interesting locations, and this makes any world you add it to better. Highly recommended.
So we have a new criterion for including books: system-neutral tomes that make the world a better place and are time-saving for me. Setting books I want on the Labyrith. And books that enhance my experiences.
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