BLUE ROSE Returns, Championing Diversity & Inclusiveness

Back in 2005, Green Ronin published a roleplaying game called Blue Rose. It was designed by Jeremy Crawford (yep, him who works at WotC on D&D 5E), Steve "Mutants & Masterminds" Kenson (that's his actual middle name), Dawn Elliot, and John Snead, and was billed as a "romantic fantasy" game, of the genre for whom Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey, and Jacqueline Carey are known. It used the True20 System, which was a slimmed-down, modified version of the d20 System, and won multiple ENnies. And now it's back!

This time round, the game will be using the Adventure Game Engine, which powers the Dragon Age RPG, and will be funded via a Kickstarter launching in April. One of Green Ronin's reasons for bringing it back is that the game tackled a number of diversity and inclusiveness related issues, and those issues are very much the subject of intense - and often unpleasant - debate and conflict today.

You can click on the cover image below for the full announcement from Green Ronin's Chris Pramas.

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What's Romantic Fantasy? It's "a subgenre of fantasy fiction, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the romance genre". According to Wikipedia, the genre's focus is on social, political, and romantic relationships.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Is that the same Steve Kenson who wrote the re-boot Shadowrun trilogy, back in '05 ? Because if so, then I'm down for a pre-order.

 

[Nellisir]

I have the original Blue Rose. Glad to see it's coming back. I doubt I'll play it, but I'll happily pick up a copy and check it out anyways.

 

[Ace]

When Blue Rose first came out (seemingly) ages ago, I was really excited about a game with a system that made role-play as crunchy and interesting as combat.

Blue Rose is the game that convinced me just how terribly counter-productive that idea was.

I don't really care one way or another what setting the pitch for their game. I buy a game system for its mechanics, which rarely last more than 15 minutes before I'm changing those. Things as soft and fluffy as a setting don't stand a chance.

I've read almost everything that inspired True 20 and liked most it which is amusing considering how Conservative my politics can be. I never found it hard to tweak it a bit and to make Aldis a bit more like Valdemaar which is nowhere near as fluffy bunny as some people think . Its a bit off topic but Valedemar is Liberal and Tolerant but not Progressive which are two separate things . Heck the Green Rider series wasn't especially political only it had kind of psi-magic and some of the tropes as well. The writers of True 20 kind of conflated the two as does a good part of the Leftist Entriests we've seen creeping into gaming of late. This is a product of the political issues in the US right now more than anything and its unfortunate as I like my gaming like my Starbucks free of political BS unless I start it.

As for me I mostly bought the game for its awesome magic system. Of course I also like True 20 a lot and own most of the game save a few of the every newest as well. Its maybe my favorite D20.

However the D20 mechanics don't do well with social conflicts and from what I've seen neither does AGE. In reality it ends up an action game anyway with a somewhat prog setting if you use Aldis as written. My groups certainly don't need a values lesson any more than I need one with overpriced coffee. Not everything needs to be political.

However it is possible to make social conflict rules that work well, GURPS manages it with its social engineering supplement,. Its well supported with pyramid issues and other supplements playing off it. Its not for most groups though, my guys just want to stab demon cows with swords and detonate Shaper flying saucers and such like not RP every social encounter and romance, the alleged staple of Romantic Fantasy is right out. We're mostly Dudes, Bro.YMMV of course.

After all that I have to say gaming is pretty tolerant as a hobby and I'm proud of that. we've had gay characters in games I've been in forever Vanyel Ashkevron knockoffs , bi characters, women pretending to be men ,all sorts of races and creeds, nobody cares. We've had all manner of players with Satanists and Christians and Pagans and Hindus and many different races at the same table, playing, hanging out getting along. Sometimes I wish we could share that with others. I'm a grown up and I know we can't but now and than its great to be a geek.

 

[Ace]

Is that the same Steve Kenson who wrote the re-boot Shadowrun trilogy, back in '05 ? Because if so, then I'm down for a pre-order.

Yep I believe so . He also wrote Mutants and Masterminds too. Blue Rose is a great game as is True 20 and while the AGE system used in Dragon age is different , more structured and less free form its still pretty good from what I can tell and this release will add one of my favorite magic systems too it.

 

[dd.stevenson]

I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting mechanics, especially if they can be stolen for use in D&D.

EDIT: Finished reading Chris's post. I feel like maybe it's a bit heavy handed. (snip)

Chris Pramas has a really unfortunate habit of using the "if you disagree with me then #$%^ you" formula to make his points. Personally I find it rankles (a lot), even when I'm in full agreement with what he's saying.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Nice of them to let know they're making the game to push their social agenda. It's hard enough to make a fun game when making a fun game is your main priority. Relegate that to second priority and your chances of coming up with a good game are remote. So pass, don't think I need to even give this one a look.

 

[Morrus]

Nice of them to let know they're making the game to push their social agenda. It's hard enough to make a fun game when making a fun game is your main priority. Relegate that to second priority and your chances of coming up with a good game are remote. So pass, don't think I need to even give this one a look.

There is nothing wrong with expressing yourself via the art you create. It's an ancient, ages-old thing, and perfectly acceptable. Disagree with what they're expressing if you wish, but implying that they're somehow wrong to express themselves via their art is just unfair, and phrases like "nice of them to let know they're making the game to push their social agenda" are just snotty. And make no mistake, game design is art, and one of the fundamental properties of art is expression. It is utterly appropriate that a game designer use that medium to express themself.

If you're not interested, that's fine. Go find a thing you are interested in! BUt for me, it would be a sad world in which people didn't express themselves through their art. Art is good when it says something.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Regarding the cynical comments about political agendas and, "But RPGs are already inclusive, no need to advertise it."

That's why we need it. That's why it needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

Because without Green Ronin setting the example, both in 2005 and now, D&D 5E and other games would not have progressed in the ways that they have regarding inclusivity.

 

[dm4hire]

I also hope this wasn't their big announcement for the AGE system. Blue Rose is a nice setting, but it doesn't seem like that big news. I own all the books and still run into several people that when they see the books in a store are unaware it has been around for awhile. It wasn't that big of a game when it first came out.

 

[pedr]

On Twitter earlier today, Jack Norris said "Big GreenRoninPub announcement coming. Note: this isn't the "possibly biggest of the year" one we talked about earlier. But its big."

So that's still on track to be my predicted Tabletop RPG show to use AGE announcement