Tales of the Valiant: Labyrinth Worldbook & Labyrinth Adventures

This is a review that I’ve been sitting on for a little while now. Some time ago, I backed a Kickstarter from Kobold Press for an expansion to their Tales of the Valiant ruleset. The Kickstarter campaign was for “Labyrinth” – a set of books that would provide detail on the ToV multiverse model. You see, unlike the established Dungeons & Dragons multiverse which takes the form of either space travel (Spelljammer) or planar travel (Planescape), Kobold Press needed to come up with an entirely new concept for their 5E compatible rules. The end result was the “Labyrinth” concept that was briefly summarized in the Tales of the Valiant core rule books. Its inclusion in the core rules was merely glossed over. But now, this concept has been expanded and detailed in two separate releases; The Labyrinth Worldbook and Labyrinth Adventures.

The concept of the Labyrinth is best explained like this; Somewhere in the ether of the cosmos exists a vast and mysterious maze of corridors and doors. Often times, these doors are portals to other worlds and dimensions. In this way, travelers of the Labyrinth are able to move from one world to another. The Labyrinth connects to any realm the Game Master wishes. From Kobold Press’ official Midgard setting to countless homebrew worlds – everything connects to the Labyrinth.

The first book I’m going to talk about today is the Labyrinth Worldbook. This book serves as a guide that explains the Labyrinth concept and provides resources for Game Masters who wish to integrate it into their existing game. Along with detail of how the Labyrinth works and various locations found within it, the book also provides details on subclassess, magic, monsters, and items that originate in this new otherworldly realm.

As I noted above, I received this book a couple of months ago since I was one of the Kickstarter backers. So, I’ve had plenty of time to give it a thorough inspection. I regards to the book itself, the quality is equal to other recent Kobold Press releases. The binding is tight and sturdy, the pages are crisp, and the colors pop. (This is also true for the second book I’ll be talking about in this review, as well.)

The first section of the book details the concept of the Labyrinth itself. It also provides lore and mythology for the Labyrinth. Thus, making the Labyrinth a possible campaign setting. Entirely new concepts are introduced here. Things like “bottled cities” and “The Void” really jog the imagination and provide players and GMs with ideas that they’ve likely never considered. Personally, I appreciate this. It’s really a great tool for GMs to spring on players that think they’ve seen everything. I’ve personally introduced it into my home game and my players were very intrigued.

The second section of the book details a number of pre-designed worlds that connect to the Labyrinth. The presentation here is very similar to the Campaign Frames segment from the Daggerheart core rule book by Darrington Press. It’s just enough information to get a GM’s creative juices flowing.

The third part of the book really ties the first two sections together by introducing a number of factions that exist in the Labyrinth. It details how these factions fit in to the mythos at large and also sets up the next chapter of the book quite nicely…

Chapter four provides a slew of class and lineage options for players. Naturally, the majority of these options assume that players are going to be participating in a Labyrinth-based campaign. Some of the options here are things that D&D players may be familiar with already. For example, Derro (a cousin to Dwarves), or even the Dragonborn (a 5E staple that was absent from the ToV core rules). Other options include, Gearforged, Satyr, Minotaur, and even new variants for elves and dwarves. I found these options to be very nice fits for a true Labyrinth-based campaign, but they are certainly not going to fit in at just any table. Still, the inclusion of the Dragonborn is likely going to be a big temptation for many tables that have committed to the ToV ruleset.

The next two chapters detail new spells, magic items, and a pantheon for the Labyrinth campaign setting. All of these seem fairly solid when used in conjunction with a Labyrinth-based campaign.

The book ends with two final chapters that provide rules on a number of unique elements introduced earlier in the book (ie: dealing with the Void, portal mechanics, and faction-specific rules). There’s also stats for campaign-related monsters.

On its own, I found this book to be a high-level introduction to what is essentially a radical new multiverse campaign setting. It’s enough material to set a creative GM on the right track. But, it’s also obscure enough to leave some scratching their heads. This is where the second book, Labyrinth Adventures, comes in.

Labyrinth Adventures is a collection of adventure modules set in the Labyrinth. If played as a sequential campaign, it will take players from level one all the way to level 8. However, it’s pretty clear to me that the adventures were also written independently and the framework that ties them all together was added later as an afterthought. They pull from the various worlds and lore that are detailed in the Worldbook and they do so quite nicely.

On the whole, the adventures included in this work are very well done. If you’re familiar with Kobold Press’ previous adventure design, then you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. The only downside is the fact that it would be very difficult to adapt and run any of these adventures outside of a Labyrinth campaign.

When looked at as a collection, these two books make a solid foundation and entry point for a Labyrinth-based campaign. My only real complaint is that they lean very heavily on other Kobold Press releases. Many of the monsters referenced in these books are pulled from the Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex books. The Labyrinth Adventures book also features an item from the Vault of Magic as its main mcguffin.

For me, the big takeaway here is that even though Tales of the Valiant started as a project to preserve the existing 5E rules. It’s now obvious that Kobold Press intends to go the Pathfinder route and make ToV into its own ecosystem. This release is the first step in that direction. That being said, it is important to remember that everything in this book is fully compatible with 5E Dungeons and Dragons.

My final thoughts are this – These books are very niche. They are not essential in any way for the average 5E table. However, if you’re wanting to explore some new territory or if you’re fully invested in Tales of the Valiant, these books are a great addition to your library. Even so, they are not going to be as universally heralded as other splat books.