The Biggest RPG Story of the Year?

Green Ronin's Chris Pramas has offered some cryptic clues as to a product slated for Gen Con this year. "Our goal is to release Fantasy AGE in May. Then at the end of July we will release the game’s first setting book. This is our big GenCon release and part of something super exciting … that I can’t talk about yet. This will be the focus of our GenCon presence this year and perhaps the biggest RPG story of the year. Watch for an announcement in a few months." What could it be?

I mentioned Green Ronin's plans for 2015 a few days ago, including their whole product range. Fantasy AGE is the core rulebook of the system that drives Green Ronin's current Dragon Age roleplaying game. "This will be strictly a rule book with no attached setting. The core of the game will be well-familiar to Dragon Age fans but there are some differences, the biggest of which is the magic system. That of Dragon Age was meant to emulate how magic works in Thedas, so I am modifying it heavily for Fantasy AGE."

Is Steve Kenson writing it? Pramas says "Nothing we can talk about right now unfortunately, but stay tuned for some exciting announcements over the coming months. What has Steve Kenson been working on the last five months? Find out in April!" Steve Kenson is, of course, best known for superhero RPGs including Mutants & Masterminds and his own ICONS system.

So, a setting book for a fantasy RPG by Steve Kenson which might be the biggest RPG story of the year? I'm curious! What do you think it might be?

 

[M.L. Martin]

The end of that post suggests a possible design team member and announcement date: "What has Steve Kenson been working on the last five months? Find out in April!"

Lord of the Rings is licensed, Green Ronin already has Game of Thrones ... what else is big in fantasy? World of Warcraft?

 

[Mercurius]

So another d20-based fantasy RPG. OK.

As a setting junky, the setting release has me more excited.

 

[delericho]

Forgotten Realms? That would be huge.

Or Harry Potter.

(But the reason those would be such big stories is that they'll never happen, so...)

 

[Dahak]

Someone speculated Wheel of Time, although that is hardly an RPG Story of the Year contender. Unless it's Harry Potter (which seems unlikely), I doubt there is a bigger property that isn't already locked down.

 

[Dahak]

AGE is not d20-based in any way.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, my mind immediately goes to licensed settings; but then I try to think of the big fantasy settings that aren't already licensed, and the two biggest (Tolkien and GoT) both already are.

Then again, there's lots of other ones - far too many to list. Wasn't there talk of a Shannara TV show a while back? Or there's Wheel of Time.

 

[Dahak]

Shannara is a really good guess, Morrus. It wouldn't be my idea for Story of the Year, but it would be for a lot of people.

 

[BrockBallingdark]

Wheel of Time would interest two of my friends but I've never played of Fantasy AGE and maybe heard it mentioned a couple times through the years. The biggest RPG story has been 5E D&D in my opinion.
I would be interested if it was a Conan RPG.

 

[Morrus]

The biggest RPG story has been 5E D&D in my opinion.

Of 2014, definitely. This is about Summer 2015, though.