D&D 5th edition will live on in Project Black Flag

Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast has promised that One D&D, the next iteration of the famous tabletop role-playing game, will be backwards compatible with its 5th edition. Trouble is, some folks just don’t believe it — especially after leaked documents showed that the iconic TTRPG could have gone in a very different direction. That’s why third-party publisher Kobold Press has a backup plan to keep the most popular version of D&D alive, and it’s bringing a sizeable group of freelance artists and writers along for the ride.

Project Black Flag is the codename for Kobold’s effort to “update, streamline, and publish a core fantasy RPG based on” the Systems Reference Document 5.1 — the version of D&D governed by the Open Gaming License (OGL). Wizards moved the document, which was a source of controversy, to Creative Commons in response to fan complaints. While that change in licensing means the existing system should remain open to act as the basis for new works, there’s no guarantee that core 5th edition rulebooks like the Player’s HandbookThen, there is the Dungeon Master’s GuideThe print version will continue to be available.

Kobold Press

Wolfgang Baur is the co-founder and CEO of Kobold Press. He says that eventually, 5th editions will be gone. Project Black Flag may replace the existing books.

“Somebody who’s in high school, a junior in 2024 wants to pick up the game,” Baur said in a recent interview with Polygon. “Where do they go? Well, they could go to One D&D. Many people are. But for everybody who’s been playing and loving 5th edition for coming on a decade here, why not keep [it]By releasing the main books in a gorgeous new hardcover, will it bring them to life? That’s Black Flag in a nutshell.”

Kobold Press is able to turn this idea into a successful business. Baur was awarded the Diana Jones prize in 2008 for Open Design, his patronage program. Before Kickstarter burst onto the scene, and before the launch of Patreon, Baur was using a similar system to fund his work writing supplements for D&D. Diana Jones Website:

Baur went to great lengths to discover a way of funding the game designs he wanted. He added some modern touches to this concept and then applied it. In Open Design — as he calls his system — Baur posts a number of ideas for potential projects and publicizes them along with a monetary threshold for each. The sponsors vote to determine which Baur project should be pursued. The funding threshold for a chosen project is reached when Baur starts working.

“If I’d been really smart, I would have founded a Kickstarter,” Baur said. “But I’m not that smart. We still continue to use the open-publishing model. But the big shift in the company’s fortunes came with 5th edition D&D.”

Early on in 5th edition’s lifecycle, Baur and the team at Kobold Press were brought on to draft some of its first published campaign books, including Hoard of Dragon QueenYou can also find out more about the following: Rise of Tiamat. Kobold performed similar work later in creating the popular anthology 5th edition. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Baur’s company has parlayed that success into a series of other popular books, including the Tome of Beasts series. It’s that momentum — both in steady sales, and in a steady pipeline of artists and authors familiar with the world and its ruleset — that Baur says will help Project Black Flag get off the ground.

“We’re gonna keep that 5th edition ruleset alive,” Baur said. “And because there are great big holes in it, we said, Let’s take those holes in the SRD and fill them with something awesome and new. The monsters that aren’t in the SRD? Well, let’s find other awesome monsters. Three Tome of Beasts are full of awesome monsters. I bet we could come up with something to fill in the blank where the beholder sits.”

In addition to these new books Kobold Press plans to release via crowdfunding later this year, there is a whole new generation of indie publishing companies that are taking on the challenge. The first to release a book based on Project Black Flag was Friday StroutThe Kickstarter campaign of. The Vineyard RPGCurrently, the project is seeking funds. It is at its heart a secret society which can be easily plugged into virtually any environment you can think of.

“The Vineyard operates through a series of debt-collection services,” Strout told Polygon in a recent interview. “They loan out money, [since]They have the monopoly over all rare jewels in our environment. This allows them leverage their political power to influence different people. The Vineyard, it’s sort of a slang term […]They were able cultivate the death of others into returns. If someone is to die while still owing a debt to the Vineyard, the Vineyard is still going to collect in one way or another.”

The Inside The Vineyard RPG, players will find nine richly detailed villains, each with pages of backstory, motivation, and plot hooks — far more than the page or two found in many similar books. The book includes not only the stats, but also dialogue samples that may be used for social encounters and combat at the gaming table. Strout explained that everything is designed to help busy Dungeon Masters run these colorful villains. It also features a stellar cast of talented writers like Gabe Hicks(Critical, Session Zero System), Kienna Shaw (TTRPG Safety Toolkit, Candlekeep MysteriesM. Ebel, the product’s co-creator (Icewind Dale Rime of The Frostmaiden). They even brought in YouTuber LegalKimchi — a real-life lawyer — to gin up the Vineyard’s nefarious contracts in detail.

“Initially, we were developing this for 5th edition,” Strout said, “before the OGL debacle happened in January. […]The decision was mine to make about whom we trusted with our future and with whom we wanted a partnership. Kobold Press is committed to an open, fair, and respectful system, which allows it to work with a variety of creators in the community. They also treat them with respect, pay them fairly, and allow them to flourish on their own. So, I thought it was a no-brainer for me to want to sort of shift our product over to Kobold Press’ Project Black Flag.”

Campaign for The Vineyard RPGThe contest runs until May 2. Physical copies are available for $50 and digital versions cost $40.