Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set—A Tabletop Reborn

I admit I may have cheered when the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG was announced last year. Finally, an official Final Fantasy tabletop roleplaying game—something that swathes of fans have wanted for years, or even taken upon themselves to create . Since tabletop RPGs inspired their video game counterparts back in the 80s, it’s fulfilling to see this relationship officially come full-circle.

Now that the game’s Starter Set, an introductory bundle to teach new players the ropes, has officially launched (and quickly sold out), we’ve had the chance to put this tabletop adaptation through its paces. Here are our impressions on the core experience of Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG , and how it might suit your own adventuring party, whether they meet in Eorzea or around your kitchen table.

A Strong Starter Box

The Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set comes with two rulebooks: a Player Book, containing the basic rules for absolute beginners, and a Gamemaster book, containing deeper information and 3 premade scenarios to run. There are also premade character sheets representing the basic classes Warrior, White Mage, Dragoon, and Black Mage; each class has three different iterations, at levels 30, 40, and 50, as well as an additional “Strategy” cheat sheet with a rules summary on the back.

(You can actually preview Free Versions of both books via Square Enix’s shop .)

There’s also 16 dice, 6d20s and 10d6s, colour-coded to participants’ roles, including clear and black dice for the GM, so no one needs to worry about bringing their own. GMs will find map sheets and a wealth of character tokens and ability markers—everything they’ll need to run the premade scenarios. (This may be observation bias, but we did start to question the integrity of the dice’s balance for the first time in our history of playing RPGs; maybe keep an extra few nearby just in case.)

Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG translates FFXIV ‘s core gameplay concept onto the tabletop remarkably well.

As intro boxes go, the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set covers all the bases pleasantly. There wasn’t really anything else I needed to run the game, aside from a notepad, and the abundance of rule references made it easy to double-check things in the heat of combat. At $59.99 USD, this is among the better values I’ve seen for an intro set, reminiscent of D&D ‘s own Fifth Edition Starter Set or Pathfinder 1.0’s Beginner Box.

(If I have any gripes, it’s that the physical box could stand to be a couple of millimetres wider and/or longer. It’s a perfect fit for the papers inside, which is nice for transport but a pain to actually retrieve from the box.)

A Realm Reinterpreted

The scenarios presented in the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set tie in nicely to key moments from the game itself, starting from A Realm Reborn . Players may quickly clue in to the bigger ramifications behind the first quest’s mystery, for example (spoiler alert: big fiery Primal ).

Ideally, this game would be played by one Game Master running the scenario and four players, mirroring the composition of a standard Light Party in FFXIV : one Tank, one Healer, and two DPS. The Tank’s goal is to draw enemy fire (or Enmity) toward themselves, the Healer keeps everyone’s health up, and the DPS deal big damage.

Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG translates this core gameplay concept onto the tabletop remarkably well. Enemy attacks utilize the included ability markers to paint the battlefield with the game’s signature AoE markers, indicating upcoming attacks. Each class has actions representing the various abilities of their MMORPG counterpart, like the Dragoon’s Feint or the White Mage’s Medica.

Yet, it doesn’t feel far removed from more classic RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons , either. Many of the same conventions and mechanics apply, and others vary subtly. To name a few…

• “Advantages” can stack in Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG , allowing a player to roll multiple d20s for ability checks instead of just rolling once and taking the higher number like in D&D .
• Abilities deal “base damage,” so if you roll an attack and fail, you still deal damage; if you succeed, you roll for damage, then add that to the base damage.
• Critical successes on ability checks double the dice used to determine damage/healing—which is big for abilities that already have more than one damage die.
• Hitting 0 HP doesn’t trigger “death saving throws” but rather inflicts the Knocked Out enfeeblement on the character, and a different chain of events is required to get them on their feet again.

In a way—and I mean this as positively as I can— Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG is almost like D&D 5E with a dash of 4E’s tendency to feel like a tabletop war game, all filtered through the lens of FFXIV . It’s a pleasant compromise between game systems, and could serve as a decent gateway RPG for people who haven’t played them before.

What’s the Audience?

I playtested Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG with my regular D&D party. We’ve been playing tabletop games for many years now, but I’m the most avid Final Fantasy fan; while two of my friends have dabbled in some FF s, our fourth member has no experience with the series.

As experienced D&D players, the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set’s base adventures started very simple to us—of course, aside from the inherent confusion and rule-checking that comes with learning a new game and/or RPG system. Once we had nailed down some of the unique terminology, like the finer points of combat timing compared to other games, everyone clicked into their roles and classes pretty seamlessly.

However, afterwards I was left wondering who would be the ideal audience for this game.

One downside my friends pointed out was that combat felt a little too prescribed at this lower-level point—the tools at their disposal were a little too limited by TTRPG standards, leaving less room for improv or creativity. While everyone enjoyed the system and wants to dig into it deeper, as a DM I’d also need to invest more energy into getting my party of non- FFXIV players into the world itself. References to the game sailed over their heads and the adventure, as written, does little to establish the context for the uninitiated; it almost assumes players have also played the video game.

On the flipside, experienced players of the video game will surely love digging into the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG and walking the streets of Ul’Dah, Gridania, and Limsa Lominsa (and anywhere in-between) as their own characters. Yet, will many veterans see the appeal of manually recreating the same kind of battles they’ve spent hundreds of hours enacting virtually?

(And yes, of course, the MMORPG has a huge community of dedicated in-game roleplayers, but that doesn’t mean the same people will adore a system like this. It’s not exactly a 1:1 transition from in-game acting to a “theatre of the mind” approach like a tabletop RPG uses.)

Where Do We Go From Here?

I’m very impressed with how Square Enix and Hobby Japan have distilled Final Fantasy XIV into an enjoyable RPG experience, one which could bridge the gap between tabletop and MMO. My biggest concern now is, where does this game go from here? After all, the Starter Set is just a large chunk of the game’s concept.

We have to wait for the Standard Rulebook and the Scenario & Gamemaster Guide to see how classes progress and develop through their adventures. The FAQs mention that “the concept of experience points does not exist in the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG ,” with characters’ levels “adjusted to match the recommended level of each scenario;” it’s assumed adventurers have appropriate weapons and armor, so those stats are factored in.

It’s unclear exactly how this will work with character creation, but taking away some of the freedom here will be both liberating for those who want to focus more on roleplay and less on math, and frustrating for those who enjoy having full control of these things. (Shopping is a thing, at least, as the adventures point out.)

The most interesting classes of FFXIV aren’t represented yet; will the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Standard Rulebook cover just the core classes seen in A Realm Reborn or expand into Heavensward (which features on the cover of the GM book)? Or will it go the full distance and include everything up to Endwalker and its level 90 cap? I’m eager to see how my beloved Dark Knight class translates, or Samurai and Gunbreakers for that matter.

A Promising Start

All my praise and concerns combined, is the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set worthwhile? I would say so, for most audiences.

Admittedly, any apprehension I have is tied up in the current uncertainty of how the full rules work, and the scope of the game over time. Plus, this doesn’t pack quite the same punch as some homebrew solutions that take FFXIV classes into D&D .

Nonetheless, Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG seems genuinely interesting and accessible to players of all stripes. If nothing else, the Starter Set is a solid value and a reasonable standalone investment to at least see if the core concepts click with you and your friends, whether they’re devout Warriors of Light or not. It could just be the thing you need to bring your D&D friends into FFXIV , or vice versa.

And if you’ve never played a tabletop RPG before, this is among the more beginner-friendly routes I’ve found. The Starter Set assumes no experience and explains the core tenants of running a game (up to and including “scheduling is the real boss”) in clear, concise fashion. Like traveling from the Source to the First, this could be the portal to an exciting new world for many players.

(The Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set, as of this writing, is sold out through Square Enix, with a second printing due in September. The Standard Rulebook and Scenario & Gamemaster Guide are listed as “coming soon.)