[Free RPG Day 2025] The Well of Shadows

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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The Well of Shadows is certainly not the weirdest item released for Free RPG Day 2025. That prize goes the Emergency D20! scratch card from Foam Brain Games, an idea so bizarre and superfluous it is barely worth consideration. That does not mean that The Well of Shadows is not weird. It is. Simply, it is not as weird as the Emergency D20! scratch card. No, The Well of Shadows is weird because of its format and the way that it is written. The Well of Shadows is an adventure for Tales of the Valiant, the alternative to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from Kobold Press. It designed to be played by a party of four Third Level Player Characters and it comes with a quick-start guide, the adventure itself, a wraparound map that hold the two together, and a band that holds them all together.

The Well of Shadows is also weird because of the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide. This is because the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide is not a quick-start in the traditional sense. A quick-start will explain the different aspects of a roleplaying game and how it is played. It will explain what a Player Character and what it looks like in the roleplaying game and it will provide advice for the Game Master on how to run the game and the included scenario in the quick-start. The Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide does some, but not all of this, radically de-emphasising the mechanical aspects of Tales of the Valiant. To be honest, it gets little beyond having to roll a twenty-sided die and get equal to, or above, a Difficulty Class, to achieve what a player and his character might want to do, with the other dice being rolled for damage and other effects. It does also include four pre-generated Player Characters at the end—an Elven Battle Mage, Human Cleric of Solana, Human Waysmith (Ranger), and a Minotaur Trooper (Fighter)—but it does not discuss them in any real detail. So, what then, does the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide actually include?

Really, the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide is an introduction to roleplaying games in general, in good play, and to the idea of playing Tales of the Valiant. It starts off by stating that Tales of the Valiant is gateway to other games. This is delightfully refreshing, since it is not trying to lock the reader into the one true way that is Tails of the Valiant from the start. Its introduction to roleplaying is multi-faceted, explain that it is a game, that it is a shared experience, that it is a conversation, and so on. Along with a lengthy example of play, it makes clear that the play is meant to be fun, and it explains the basic elements of the hobby, ones that we take for granted. It also explains the role of the Game Master and how to be good one, as well as how to be a good player. Whilst it does stress the useful nature of safety tools, telling the reader that their use can make everyone’s experience at the table both comfortable and safe, it acknowledges too, that some people might not need them and says that this is okay too. This is a nice way of handling an issue that some see as contentious when it really does not have to be and this approach supports that. Overall, the focus in the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide is very much on the player rather than the Game Master, though she is given good advice and should read through the rest of the introduction as well.

However, since the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide is not really a quick-start in the traditional sense, the Game Master is going to need to the full Tales of the Valiant rules to run the accompanying adventure, ‘The Well of Shadows’. This is designed as an introductory scenario for four to five Player Characters of Third Level. The ones included in the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide are suitable, though a Thief type might be useful. The setting for the scenario is the Labyrinth Worldbook for Tales of the Valiant in which the Player Characters are employed by the Concord of Stars to investigate the Fane of Mot, a shrine dedicated to Mot, the ancient god of death. The Concord of Stars previously sent agents—the two-headed Dragonborn Warlock, Daarzelyn and the Human Fighter, Verric Stormheart—to investigate and shut it down, but neither of them has returned or reported back. Some are not happy with the Concord of Stars hiring outsiders and a friend of Verric will confront the Player Characters before they set out to explore the shrine. This gives the opportunity for the players see the combat system in action as Verric’s friend is likely to want satisfaction from the best fighter amongst their number and see if they are worthy of the task. The fight though, is not to the death, and however it ends, the Player Characters will walk away with a little more information and perhaps better means of healing.

At the Fane of Mot, the Player Characters can learn some more information and perhaps purchase a magical scroll or potion, from a merchant (who though benign, is not quite what he seems) before entering. The Fane of Mot consists of seven locations, placed one after another, in a u-shape. What they find inside is a shrine to death that has long been abandoned, left to spread its blight to the immediate surrounds, but which is now occupied and guarded by Shadow Orcs. Further, it is being studied and perhaps in danger of being revived and returned to its original use. Ultimately, the Player Characters will need to clear the simple complex, defeat the guards, defeat the person they are guarding, and find a way of sealing the planar portal to the Dry Lands, home to Mot himself. There is advice through on staging and even on what might happen if one or more of the Player Characters ends up in the Dry Lands!

The plot to ‘The Well of Shadows’ is quite straightforward and the players should be able to work out what is going on relatively easily. There is the option to run it with miniatures as the wraparound cover to The Well of Shadows as a whole includes a map of the Fane of Mot on its inside. The scenario should take a single or so to play through.

Physically, The Well of Shadows is decently presented and well-written. The artwork is excellent and the map clear and easy to read.

The Well of Shadows is a disappointing in the sense that it is not really a quick-start in the true sense. A Game Master and her players will need The Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide at the least to run it. That said, ‘The Well of Shadows’ is solid scenario, suitable for a single session, whether as a demonstration or not, and the Tales of the Valiant Quick Start Guide is an engaging introduction to roleplaying in general, let alone Tales of the Valiant.

Another Alternative

Tales of the Valiant is a roleplaying game with a political history. Published by Kobold Press—best known for the Free City of Zobeck and Midgard settings—Tales of the Valiant was a response to the changes that Wizards of the Coast were rumoured to be making in January, 2023 which would have given the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition tighter control over third-party published content. Other responses included the development of the Open RPG Creative Licence, which included the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition (Remastered), but Tales of the Valiant is based on ‘Black Flag Roleplaying’, an alternative and open gaming system built from the sections of the Creative Commons licence related to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It is designed to be conversant with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but not beholden to it. The initial two volumes for Tales of the Valiant—the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide and the Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault—were published via a Kickstarter campaign.

Of course, Tales of the Valiant offers and supports Dungeons & Dragons-style play and that it is conversant with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, means that Dungeon Master and players of the latter can easily adapt to it. It is an action-orientated roleplaying game which takes place in the Labyrinth, a multiverse of infinite words connected by a maze of magic. What these worlds have in common each other and in common with Tales of the Valiant, is that they have magic, that adventurers are heroes and their adventures are heroic, that they are full of unusual places, peoples, and phenomena, that factions and organisations plot, and that conflict, in which heroes stand up against impossible odds and save the day through cunning, might, and magic, abounds. All of these are intended to foster good storytelling and good roleplaying, whether that is in a published setting or one of the Game Master’s own creation. Of course, whilst Tales of the Valiant is a Class and Level roleplaying game that offers Dungeons & Dragons-style play and there are plenty of similarities between Tales of the Valiant and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, there are plenty of differences too.

The Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide provides the core rules for the game plus descriptions of some monsters and magical items, so that from the one book, the Player Characters have something to fight and some treasure to find. The bulk of the book though is devoted to the thirteen core Classes in Tales of the Valiant. These are Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard—all classics of the roleplaying genre—and they are joined by a new Class, the Machinist. These all go up Twentieth Level and their descriptions include a suggested ‘Quick Build’ and an explanation as to why members of each Class become adventurers. They also have two Subclasses, except for the Cleric, which has three Domains--Life, Light, and War. So, for the Barbarian has Berserker and Wild Fury, the Druid has Shifter and Leaf, Fighter has Spell Blade and Weapon Master, and the Wizard has Battle Mage. Every Class also has two Heroic Boons to choose from at Tenth Level, so the Fighter has ‘Defiant’ which means that his player can choose to have his character succeed at a Saving Throw if he failed one, whilst ‘Unstoppable’ enables him to end the various conditions he is suffering from. For the Thief, ‘Escape Artist’ reduces any damage he receives when making a Saving Throw against to nothing if the Saving Throw made and by half if not, whilst ‘Jack-of-all-Trades’ enables him to choose Talents from any list. (Talents are organised into magical, martial, and technical lists.) Of course, in addition to the six classic attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, a Player Character will have a Lineage, Heritage, and Background. Since the Player Character is meant to be heroic, by default, these are rolled on four six-sided dice each and the lowest dropped, but other options are given. The Lineage represents a Player Character’s blood ties and hereditary traits, the equivalent of Race or Species in other roleplaying games; Heritage is a Player Character’s upbringing and cultural origins; and Background what a Player Character did before becoming an adventurer.

There is much that is familiar with the Classes of Tales of the Valiant, but of course, every Class has been tweaked and small adjustments made to it. For example, the Druid has ‘Nature’s Gift’, an innate Class ability that enables the Druid to heal a number of times equal to a Player Character’s Proficiency Bonus and since it is not a spellcasting ability, it can be whilst the Druid is transformed by the Wild Shape Class ability. Also, a Druid can ‘Draw Power’ from Wild Shape to recharge spells and with ‘Nature’s Grace’, a Druid ignores the need for food or water and cannot be magically aged.

All Classes gain a choice of Heroic Boon at Tenth Level and the Druid has the choice of ‘Rite of the Kingdom’ and the ability to communicate with any animal or ‘Rite of the Shaper’, which grants a use of Wild Shape prior to combat if the Druid has none. The Monk can not only deflect missiles, but if the damage they would do is reduced to zero, the Monk can catch them and throw them back—which is cool, whilst the Paladin can ‘Lay on Hands’ on himself as a bonus action, replaces ‘Fighting Styles’ with ‘Martial Action’—as does the Fighter, though that Class has more options, either ‘Guard’ with a shield or ‘Wind Up’ for a powerful attack, and has the ‘Divine Smite’ feature limited to once per turn. The Warlock has the ‘Eldritch Blast’ cantrip shifted to a Class feature, uses the Charisma bonus to attack rather than Strength or Dexterity with Pact of the Blade, casts a more powerful version of Find Familiar with Pact of the Chain and allows the familiar to attack without any of the Warlock’s actions, has a range of Invocations that either enhance ‘Eldritch Blast’, grant a spell-like effect, and more.

All of the Classes have a range of changes like this, but the wholly new Class in the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide is the Mechanist. It is intended as an inventor, maker, or engineer, but one that can also fight. ‘Eyes of the Maker’ enable the Mechanist to identify magical items, its properties, and how to use it, which is really powerful, whilst ‘Shard of Creation’, fashioned by the Mechanist, can be used to gain inspiration or be transformed into a useful object. ‘Augment’ enables the Mechanist to make an object adhesive, collapsible, enhance the user’s perception, empowered and thus magical, propulsive to increase its speed, and so on. The two Subclasses are the Metallurgist, which specialises in combat and engineered armaments, whilst the Spellwright is an enchanter, tinker, and crafter. This Class is both new and demanding in terms of the amount of effort that a player will need to invest in it to get the most out of it. The player of the Mechanist Class literally needs to be inventive in how he uses the features of the Class, rather than adhering to the more constrained and tightly defined features of the other Classes.

The Lineages consist of the Beastkin, Dwarf, Elf, Human, Kobold, Orc, Syderan, and Smallfolk. The Beastkin requires further definition by the player in terms of what animal features his character has, whilst the Syderan are plane-touched, whether through parentage or a magical upheaval, the choices being Celestial or Fiendish in nature. Lastly, the Smallfolk are either Gnomes or Halflings. The Heritages—some of which are recommended for particular Lineages—include Anointed, Cosmopolitan, Diaspora, Nomadic, Salvager, and Supplicant. The Backgrounds include Adherent, Artist, Criminal, Homesteader, Maker, Outcast, Rustic, and so on. The Lineages and Heritages provide some standard traits, whilst the Backgrounds provide further proficiencies, some equipment, a talent, and a reason to adventure. There is a good selection here, the Heritages and Backgrounds, in particular, enabling players and Game Master alike to mix and match and so create traditional or non-traditional fantasy characters as is their wont.

Spellcasting in Tales of the Valiant is drawn from four sources, Arcane, Divine, Primordial, and Wyrd. The Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizard draws from the Arcane; the Cleric and Paladin from the Divine; the Druid from the Primordial; and the Warlock the Wyrd. Spells are organised in Circles rather than Levels, but the various schools of magic remain as standard. In addition to cantrips and standard spells, casters also know rituals, spells take a minute or longer to cast. Classes who know rituals record which ones they can cast separate to their standard spells. For the most part, the spell list will look familiar to other fantasy roleplaying games, with the exception of a few new additions. For example, Gear Barrage, which conjures a burst of magically propelled gears!

The tweaks continue with the equipment. Weapons have ‘Options’ that provide extra effects beyond mere damage, such as ‘Bash’ for the club or ‘Hamstring’ for the scimitar. So, a successful ‘Bash’ causes the target to have disadvantage on its next attack whilst ‘Hamstring’ reduces the target’s movement. The other ‘Weapon Options’ are Disarm, Pinning Shot, Pull, Ricochet, and Trip, all of which give a player choices other than just damage and can make play that little bit more dynamic. Armour can have properties like ‘Cumbersome’ and ‘Natural Materials’, the latter meaning that the armour is immune to the types of effects that metal armour suffers from. The magical items include a new degree of rarity, that of ‘Fabled’. These only include a few items such as Blood Spike Armour, Book of Names, the Ring of the Flamekeeper, and Quickfinger Gloves. These are wondrous items, very rare, gained through the play of the story and the narrative, rather than through random events, which grow with a Player Character as he gains Levels. For example, the demonic Blood Spike Armour lets the wearer attack with its spikes as a bonus action, but attuned at Fifth Level, the spikes also inflict additional necrotic damage, at Ninth Level, there is a simple bonus to Armour Class and to hit and damage with the spikes, at Thirteenth level, the bonus increases and the wearer can make a nearby creature frightened, and lastly, at Seventeenth Level, the bonus increases again. Effectively, these ‘Fabled’ items—which unlike the other magical items listed, do not have a price attached, are designed to stay with a Player Character and become part of his story.

In terms of playing the game, relatively little is changed. The core mechanic still consists of rolling a twenty-sided die and adding the total of the attribute bonus and Proficiency Bonus when it applies, to beat a Difficulty Class. These range from ten or ‘Easy’ to twenty-five and higher for ‘Very Hard’. The Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic introduced in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, remains, but this is joined by a new mechanic, that of ‘Luck’. Luck is gained for failed attack rolls and Saving Throws, as a reward for clever, interesting play, and for surviving difficult encounters or achieving story goals. This is up to a maximum of five points. It can be spent on a one-for-one basis to improve rolls or at a cost of three Luck, a player can reroll the twenty-sided die in any check. The rules encourage a player to spend the Luck. If a Player Character has five already and more is earned, then the player has to roll a four-sided die and reset it to that new value. Also covered here are the rules and the guidance for social, exploration, and combat encounters, essentially the core of game play, whilst downtime activities take in carousing, crafting, researching, training, and working. In the case of crafting, researching, training, and working, these open up the opportunities for the Player Characters. Traditionally, Classes such as the Wizard would spend months on researching spells or creating potions and the like, whilst the other Classes had no similar options. Now they can research for information, earn money, craft non-magical items, and actually learn a new language or gain a proficiency in a new skill, tool, weapon, or armour. Of course, it takes both time—at least a year—and money to undertake this training, but it gives options for Player Characters who traditionally did not have anything to do whilst others were occupied in their projects.

Rounding out the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide is a set of three appendices. In turn these explain the roleplaying game’s Conditions that a Player Character or NPC or monster can suffer, entertainingly illustrated/demonstrated by Kobolds; detail the ‘Gods & Pantheons’ of not just the Labyrinthian Pantheon, but also some fantasy historical ones like the Egyptian, Greek, and Norse pantheons; and a selection of creatures. The latter is not extensive and does not include any intelligent humanoids. The main entries are to provide support for the various Classes, such as a mount for the Paladin and a familiar for the various spellcasting Classes. Although the ‘Gods & Pantheons’ are nicely detailed, they do include numerous Domains that are not listed for the Cleric Class, limiting their use straight out of the book. The appendix does include a disclaimer, stating that they will be detailed in future books, but their inclusion is tantalisingly frustrating at his point.

There are a couple of oddities in the book. Multiclassing is an optional rule, but is explained before the Classes, whilst the magical items are given at the end of the equipment chapter rather than in their own section. The ‘Playing the Game’ chapter is placed before the spellcasting section rather than perhaps at the end of the book where it could have been more easily accessed.

Physically, the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide is cleanly, tidily laid out. The artwork is excellent and in addition, throughout the book, there are sections of advice for the player which further explain the rules or make suggestions how to get the best out of Tales of the Valiant and its rules. For anyone new to the style of play that Tales of the Valiant offers, this is all very useful.

The Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide is a solid introduction to the first ‘Black Flag Roleplaying’ game. There are a lot of little tweaks and changes to how this plays compared to similar fantasy roleplaying games, but the fundamentals of that play remains unchanged, which only serves to make it all the more accessible. The overall effect of those changes in the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide is that Tales of the Valiant is a cleaner and perhaps leaner roleplaying game offering classic fantasy roleplaying.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Shards of the Spellforge

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Shards of the Spellforge is a scenario for Tales of the Valiant, the alternative to Dungeons & Dragons published by Kobold Press. It is designed to be played using four to five First Level Player Characters and using Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide and Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault, and can be played through in a single session. It involves a mystery concerning malfunctioning inventions and a missing inventor that will lead to an encounter with some of the secrets of the word buried deep underground!

The scenario is set in and around Fernhaven, an idyllic town that straddles of a trade route. Here the Player Characters are contacted by Serina Tass, a local herbalist and inn owner, who wants help in finding her husband, Feren. He left home in a hurry and she has no idea where he went. The Player Characters will need to talk to various townsfolk and friends of Feren Tass to learn about where he has gone. What she can tell the Player Characters is that Feren was concerned about Eglantine ‘Egg’ Tass, local inventor and the wife of his late sister. In particular, he was worried that Eglantine’s most recent inventions are dangerous, and Serina Tass has found that a stall in the inn’s stables has been severely blackened by fire. To determine where Feren has gone, the Player Characters will need to talk to other townsfolk who Eglantine has sold inventions to, and it is here that the scenario shines. Besides Serina, there are four other highly detailed NPCs that the Player Characters can talk to and learn what it was that Eglantine invented and sold them. They include a self-absorbed artist who does not want to give up the invention he purchased and Eglantine herself. Eglantine does not share her brother-in-law’s concerns, but will explain where she got the several shards of an ancient device she discovered deep in the caverns near the town.

Once the Player Characters learn where Eglantine ‘Egg’ Tass had been before creating her new and wondrous and possibly dangerous inventions, they can follow her route there and then into the caverns. These are broken down into six locations, mapped using the Map Tiles: Caves & Caverns also available from Kobold Press, though these are not obligatory to run Shards of the Spellforge. The dungeon locations are nicely detailed and one of the most fun is the traverse that the Player Characters have to make across an underground lake to get to the caves on the other side. Here, the Player Characters discover the source of the shards—a spellforge. This is a remnant of an ancient civilisation known as the Pthrull and it is guarded by the devolved descendants of the Pthrull. Once the creatures guarding the spellforge, the Player Characters can rescue Feren and get him back to the surface.

Physically, Shards of the Spellforge is decently presented. The artwork is excellent, and the scenario is well written. However, it could have been better organised so that it is easier to run to get the Player Characters into the scenario and then follow through on the hook so that they know what to do next and where to go.

Shards of the Spellforge is a short, solid scenario. It does leave the Player Characters and Game Master alike wanting when it comes to the Pthrull and their background, so it can at best be seen as a teaser to the full setting. It is strong though on interaction and the Game Master will have fun portraying the various NPCs.