Tales of the Valiant, Roll20, and Shard Tabletop

You may or may not have heard that Roll20 had determined that they aren’t going to develop a character sheet for Tales of the Valiant. This may not seem like a big deal, but that means they aren’t going to support Tales of the Valiant in their character builder, and they aren’t going to create the new stat blocks to show up in a character sheet for the new monster stat blocks.

Effectively, nothing fully Tales of the Valiant will be coming to the platform. Yes, this would be disappointing if you want to use Roll20, but can’t you just adapt? First, if you’re like me, you’ve got seven products you backed on Kickstarter with Roll20 add-ons.

Now, that may sound back, but one of those Kickstarters is still in the process of being produced, so that’s only five products behind. All of that is pretty aggravating. But there are a few mitigating factors, which don’t have anything to do with Roll20.

Mitigating Factor Number 1

Shard Tabletop and KoboldPress offer a subscription service for access to Kobold Press’ library on the VTT. For someone like me, who is extremely invested in the Roll20 version of these products, this is a major thing, as we’ll get to in a moment.

• Kobold Press: Player’s Subscription
• Kobold Press” Game Master Subscription

Mitigating Factor Number 2

Kobold Press is allowing people to reassign their VTT options, translate their VTT add-ons to store credit or request a refund. None of this is Kobold Press’s fault, so please don’t take any of this frustration as being directed at them.

Roll20 and Implementations

It feels to me like Roll20 announced this quietly on their Discord, and then left it to Kobold Press to break the news to everyone, which sucks since Kobold Press wasn’t the entity that dropped the ball.

Roll20 has been slowly dropping the ball on many “near 5e” conversions over the last few years. They’ve failed to set up a separate compendium and specialized character sheet for Esper Genesis. They’ve failed to implement a sheet for multiple Essence20 games (G.I. Joe, Transformers) properly.They also wholly fumbled the rollout of the Everyday Heroes line of products. Yes, I know; in the meantime, the owner of that particular product line has set fire to as much goodwill as they could . . . however . . . that has nothing to do with the fact that Roll20 couldn’t deliver.

Roll20 recently announced their plans for Demiplane integration, which includes sharing content for some companies across what you own on Demiplane and what you own on Roll20, as well as creating a “crosswalk” that will allow users to use the character sheet from Demiplane on Roll20.

Demiplane’s character builder was designed to be more modular and agile when dealing with implementing various game elements. One of the games they’ve mentioned trying to work this crosswalk with is Marvel Multiverse RPG.

That’s good because the Demiplane version of the character sheet for Marvel Multiverse RPG is much better than the Roll20 version. The character builder is miles ahead, because it’s hard to understand why you have to make decisions on the Roll20 sheet, and it’s harder to modify existing sheets.

I say all of this not because I’m not highly annoyed at Roll20, but because I want to be fair and point out that they have a lot of irons in the fire. All that said, anything 5e adjacent would be sacrificed on the altar of getting the 2024 character sheet to work.

Personal Axes to Grind

It’s not the first time I’ve had something I backed get either nuked or delayed for multiple years because it was more important to chase big money than to fulfill a promise by an RPG-related company, and I guess that’s “normal” in capitalism, but its never fun to know you aren’t the priority.

Especially when you did spend a not insignificant amount of money on a project that may not make the company as much money as another project, but still cost you the same amount regardless of their return on investment. But I’m letting a wee bit of my annoyance at another situation to bleed in.

The last thing I wanted to touch on is my current investment. A few years back, I looked at Shard Tabletop, and even though I didn’t do a deep dive until recently, even back then, I was convinced a dedicated 5e SRD site was much better for running the game than an “everything” site.

Decision Points

From the time I looked at it then, to now, Shard has only gotten better at implementing how 5e games should run. I don’t expect that they will work for everyone, but for how my brain works and for how I play and run games, I’m much happier with how Shard works.

However, when I was ramping up to move my games online, one of the considerations I had to make was how all the material I wanted to use would interact. Despite liking the interface on Shard better, I opted for Roll20, because I couldn’t get official WotC material on Shard.

I could get more of my 5e 3rd party material to work natively with WotC D&D material, so I felt like, ultimately, I wanted to go with the less ideal interface for greater flexibility. So, even though I was tempted to go with Shard for my Kobold Press purchases, I didn’t.

My current campaign is a 2014 5e game set in Kobold Press’s Midgard setting, where most of the players have options from extended 3e WotC products, so it’s not like I haven’t benefited from having all of that working together on one site.

But, if Tales of the Valiant, despite being similar and compatible, is going to be a system that is only fully supported on another site, I want access to everything I can currently use with 5e. Thankfully, the Shard Tabletop Kobold Press subscription allows this.

On Digital “Ownership”

I would much rather “own” everything I “own” on the site where I use the material. I can’t count on Kobold Press or Shard infinitely offering the subscription model, and once it’s gone, that’s a lot of material that I don’t have access to anymore.

Insert [the risk of any particular digital platform closing and you loosing access to things you’ve purchased], I know, I know. But a subscription being discontinued feels like a more immediate concern than an entire site disappearing. The thing that crystallized my frustration at this situation was putting everything from Kobold Press that I own in Roll20 into a spreadsheet and seeing what it would cost me actually to own all of that material on Shard. That comes to almost $900. Ouch.

I know it’s a risk you take in the modern era, with so much content that exists “virtually” or as a service. I’m happy that Shard Tabletop and Kobold Press do offer the subscriptions they offer, so I can run games on the site with all of the things I’m used to using.

But wow, do I wish I could go back to me a few years ago, starting to ramp up my online game materials and tell past me, “no, you can’t keep everything on one platform, so you may as well go with the platform you enjoy using rather than the one with more options.”

#5eSRD #BlackFlagReferenceDocument #Demiplane #dnd #DungeonsDragons #DungeonsDragons2024 #gaming #KoboldPress #Roll20 #rpg #rpgs #ShardTabletop #TalesOfTheValiant #ttrpg #ttrpgs #VTTs

I’m pulling together some thoughts I was moved to post on social media regarding the standard D&D spellcasting classes. I don’t know if any of this is incredibly profound, but I’ve also learned that I can’t trust social media as a storage format for my thoughts, so here’s hoping you don’t mind me sharing.

Over the years, I’ve posted many articles about the philosophical differences between different spell casters in D&D, yet I’m still moved to take another run at it occasionally. Perhaps someday I’ll have as many posts about this as alignment or how to make traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws work better (which I guess I can retire now that D&D 2024 and Tales of the Valiant both jettisoned the concepts). 

Spellcaster Emphasis

This time, I was going for a very simple, very quickly summarized way to express how each class approaches spellcasting. I’m also only looking at spellcasters that derive their power from an outside source, which they had to take some action to access.

• Clerics believe one or more Truths must be recognized.
• Druids feel the flow of nature.
• Paladins know that something must be done.
• Rangers chase something in their soul.
• Warlocks need the ability to accomplish their goals.

The most challenging summary was probably the Ranger because it’s easy to assume “like druids, but less.” What led me to this idea that a Ranger has something in their soul that makes them restless to chase the feeling of being “in” the right spot with nature is that Rangers move. They roam. They hunt. All of that suggests chasing after a feeling, and the supernatural manifestation of chasing that feeling is their various powers.

To develop this concept, I also considered the philosophy of spellcasting and the idea that different editions have had means of shifting what spellcasting statistic classes use. I wanted to consider what having more than one spellcasting stat would mean and what additional one makes the most sense for each class.

I also added this disclaimer online–I’m not saying this is what you should do. I’m playing around with a thought process to see what it would mean if this were true. I’m sure some issues could arise from this, and I know this won’t “feel” right for some players.

Alternate Spellcasting Statistics by Class

• Artificer (Int or Wis)
• Bard (Cha or Wis)
• Cleric (Int or Wis)
• Druid (Cha or Wis)
• Paladin (Cha or Wis)
• Ranger (Int or Wis)
• Sorcerer (Cha or Wis)
• Warlock (Int or Cha)
• Wizard (Int or Wis)

It’s my blog, and I can’t help myself, so let’s look at each of the classes, and I’ll explain my logic for the additional spellcasting stat.

Artificer

The standard spellcasting stat for Artificers is Intelligence, which makes sense because they are effectively magical engineers. My logic for adding Wisdom of a secondary casting stat is that I can see Artificers that create things by rote. In other words, they don’t draw up their own plans, and they don’t vary the plans they use. They just adhere to what they have internalized and practiced over time.

Bard

I was very tempted to use Intelligence as the Bard’s secondary statistic. I could probably still be persuaded to do so. Still, I felt like there is a natural dichotomy between relating a story or an artistic piece with enough energy and emotion for people to internalize it or knowing the most important aspects of a story to emphasize and convey meaning to a specific audience. With all of that said, if you wanted to convince me that Bards would be the one class that could pick any stat from Int/Cha/Wis, thematically, I would have a hard time arguing against it.

Cleric

I added Intelligence as an alternate for Clerics based on the concept of religious scholars. I can picture Clerics versing themselves in scholarly works to reinforce the history of the religion and details of all of the church’s practices. You could argue for the Charismatic evangelist, but Paladins have the primary Charisma Divine caster role in the 5e SRD classes.

Druid

I can see Druids having Charisma as their secondary spellcasting statistic option because I can picture Druids that don’t contemplate their place in nature so much as they are imposing the will of “nature” on the world, assuming they are already right with the balance of nature. In some ways, it also dovetails with the roots of Bards and Druids and how, conceptually, they are essentially the same thing in some stories.

Paladin

It makes sense that Paladins can manifest their powers by Charisma, because they have a deeply held feeling that something must be done to effect a specific change in the world. They are a force of personality. Even with that understanding of the Paladin, though, I can picture the Paladin that still deeply feels what needs to be done. They are very proactive but may be introspective enough to want to contextualize their actions and choose between potential outcomes quickly.

Ranger

Wisdom represents the Ranger’s awareness of and perhaps even subconscious preparation for everything happening around them, especially in the environments they are most comfortable traversing. I don’t picture Charisma doing much to allow for an understanding and assessment of a situation. Still, I can see a more formalized approach to information gathering and threat assessment being something some Rangers may lean toward.

Sorcerer

I think the primary story of the Sorcerer is that they don’t learn their magic through scholarly study. They have a natural connection to the power they wield. While the default may be that Sorcerers can use the power they are connected to by force of personality, willing the world to change in accordance with their powers, I can also see Sorcerers having a deeper understanding and feeling for the depths of their power. They would still be using intrinsic power, but potentially with more intentionality.

Warlock

I picture Warlocks using Charisma to impose the power they have bargained for on the rules of reality. That’s looking at how Warlocks use their powers from the point of view of already having the power and then using it. I can also see Intelligence being a spellcasting statistic because the Warlock learns the forms and ways to communicate with otherworldly powers and measures the limits of different sources of power. Additionally, I just think the story of the Warlock leans away from assuming Wisdom, carefully considering repercussions, and avoiding unseen threats, so Wisdom isn’t the best fit for them, even with an expanded range of spellcasting statistics.

Gathering Information

I would love to get feedback on this post. I would love to know if those quick summaries of spellcaster approaches are helpful to people and if you have your own summaries that you think would work.When my “narrative” brain is going, it often pushes out my “rules” brain. I would also love to see if there is any issue with how the 5e SRD works compared to swapping out some of the spellcasting statistics, as I have conjectured above. 

But most of all, I just like talking to other people about games.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/10/17/grasping-power-playing-with-spellcasting-assumptions/

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