With the murmurs of D&D 6E coming sooner than expected, and the renewed "old school" push at Wizards, if I want to play D&D 2014 as-was, and still embrace that era and rules, Tales of the Valiant is still my go-to game. I have no faith that Wizards will keep the next version 5E compatible, and I would rather side-step all of the mess with a "Long Term Support" version of 5E like ToV.
Tales of the Valiant may not be D&D, but it is like a Linux distribution: stable and rock-solid. Many Linux distros come and go; many are filled with flash and unstable beta software, but a few are solid and trustworthy, delivering year after year. Sure, Mint or Ubuntu aren't the latest hot thing, but for the average person, they work, deliver a secure environment, and you can trust them not to blow up on good hardware. The average person can maintain and support them. They work. Some are boring, but boring is good for a computer that grandma will run every day, and I want to avoid being called daily for computer problems.
And unlike Windows, the OS is changing daily. An article could drop on D&D Beyond that changes the game every month. I don't want that, need that, and it is a net negative for supporting the game and maintaining a stable, predictable set of rules. With Windows and some bleeding-edge distros, I get called by grandma every day. With a rock-solid Linux install, I don't have to make tech-support calls.
The same with 5E. If I play with my 2014 or ToV books, I am not "chasing the new edition" or "worried about 6E releasing soon." The thousands of dollars I spent on 2014-2023 5E books are protected, work perfectly, and are supported for the next ten to twenty years.
I really don't care about the current Wizards "thing" with the Luke Gygax nostalgia roadshow. If I want old-school gaming, I've got the OSR, and a far more stable, supported, familiar, and better version of anything Wizards can ever deliver. And most anything in the OSR is true "old school" gaming, not a hybrid, mobile-game, support-model-needed, corporate delivery-and-support system they will try to tie you into.
Sorry, I am sure those involved in 6E are heartfelt and honest about their love of the game, but at this point, I have had better for years now, and with the new stuff in the OSR still going strong, such as OSRIC 3.0 or Adventures Dark & Deep, I have the best versions of 1E ever crafted at my fingertips.
If I want 2014 5E, I have ToV. This is clearly the best decade of the game, and it is well-supported and rock-solid. Tales of the Valiant takes D&D 2014, cleans it up, makes it beginner-friendly, and keeps the system moving forward. It is a clean, modern, and stable implementation of the full 5E rules. To some, it may seem boring and basic, but boring and basic are strong features in a world where a new Kickstarter could change everything overnight.
What I want from 5E I already have with 10 years of great books I've invested in on my shelves.
That game is Tales of the Valiant.
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