It started with the groundbreaking Baron Munchausen, which helped change everyone's views of what gaming might entail. Then I realized it was time to show off the new Blue Rose, and there it was - Interesting and Different Week! These are all games that break some ground in some way, or at least defiantly step away from M1A1-standard issue gaming concepts. Don't get me wrong - I will always love the classic forms. Still, it's really nice to take a look at just how far and wide this hobby has wandered.
THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
One of the truly groundbreaking games of our hobby, this is the third presentation of James Wallis’ masterpiece of narrative storytelling game development that many argue heralded many current trends in RPG design. GM-less gaming? Diceless? Player-driven narrative? All within.
Baron Munchausen’s tales of his extraordinary adventures are legendary: riding cannonballs through the air, sailing to the Moon, meeting gods, escaping from the Turkish Army on half a horse, and many others.
Can you outdo the Baron? You can try!
Challenge your friends to tell the most extraordinary tale, interrupt to correct their boasts, and share your own amazing exploits in this renowned game of wit, riposte, and repartee, written in high style by the Baron himself. Expect no dice, counters, or pencils while playing, just fine wine and great merriment. Time to charge your glass and begin your tale!
This third edition of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen is massively expanded with new and revised material. Contained within is the original game along with Arabian style rules from Sinbad the Sailor, a simpler version for younger (or inebriated) players, and rules for online games. One of the Baron’s own descendants has also added twelve new variants of the game, allowing for stories where villains concoct dastardly schemes, ancient gods return from watery depths, heroic adventurers fight evil empires in outer space, and more!
BLUE ROSE (AGE)
Today, it’s another groundbreaking game that challenges the traditional tropes and conventions of tabletop RPGs. That’s not to say it challenges what fantasy means – not for those who truly understand what the fantasy genre means for storytelling. Inclusive, expansive, beautiful, Blue Rose brings romantic fantasy to life in ways few other games ever attempted. Now available in the highly-praised Adventure Game Engine (AGE), it’s time for a new generation to discover this gem.
A decade ago Blue Rose shook up the RPG scene with its vision of romantic fantasy and inclusive gaming. Now the world of Aldea returns in a new edition using the Adventure Game Engine (AGE), the popular rules that power the Fantasy AGE and Dragon Age RPGs. This beautiful, full-color book contains everything needed to create and tell stories of heroic envoys of the Sovereign’s Finest as they protect their homeland of Aldis from threats like the shadowy Kingdom of Kern and the fanatical Theocracy of Jarzon, as well as monsters and artifacts from the cruel reign of the Sorcerer Kings. Aided by the rhydan—their psychic animal allies—the champions of the Kingdom of the Blue Rose safeguard the light of the world against the power of Shadow.
Will you answer the Sovereign’s call?
THE KING IS DEAD: DHAMPIR
Continuing the theme of the week – the Interesting and Different – here’s the grand new release from that most excellent couple I am proud to call friends, Sean Tate Bircher and Robin English-Bircher. They go alt-history (complete with horror, fantasy, and magic), dealing with the 18th Century. Attention to historical detail and the social structure makes this one sing out pretty well, and it functions as a stand-alone adventure or the anchor point for an entire campaign.
In an 18th century that never was, the island nation of Malleus writhes under the thumb of an aristocracy of vampires. A coalition of secret societies fights from the shadows to drag theses oppressors burning into the light, but the alliance is young and in dire need of a weapon that can turn the tide against the vampires and their forces.
Word comes to a cabal of heroes that Lady Clarimonde yearns for freedom from the tyranny of her debauched and cruel father, the Baron Drachenholm. Thankfully for her, she possesses the means to pay for her freedom: the Sanguinem Maledicta, a cure for the curse of vampirism!
The heroes must dare the deadly labyrinth of Mallean high society to discretely win the lady her freedom – but can they trust Lady Clarimonde herself? She is, after all, no human gentlewoman but rather the child of mortal and undead – a DHAMPIR!
The King is Dead: DHAMPIR requires the Savage Worlds rules to play.
RADIANCE EXPANSION KIT
Continuing with the Interesting and Different theme of the week, we now look to the Tesla-inspired “electrotech” fantasy gaming material from Radiance House. While the core Players Guide is just straight-up free, they’ve come out with this major expansion that’s got a lot of fans very excited. They’re calling it “d20-lite,” which means it’s meant to run on the D&D engine via OGL. There’s a focus on late 19th and early 20th Century, but the material is meant to expand to multiple genres… and today’s Pick is especially driven by that goal.
Blast off to new adventures!
This supplement for Radiance RPG is a trove of options for any age: ancient, medieval, industrial, or science fantasy. Play a batfolk dragoon, cyborg spriggan, elan technomancer, ghost samurai, sha’ir magus, or vodron rocketeer. New classes, races, and themes yield over 8,000 options.
Inside, you will discover 262 pages of crunchy goodness:
This supplement requires the Radiance Players Guide, available for free here at DriveThruRPG.
MISTS OF AKUMA
“Eastern Fantasy Noir Steampunk?” Yeah, I think this one is a fitting finale to my Interesting and Different Week. I’ll let the cover and the sales text do the rest of the talking (while I see if I can find someone to run this for me).
Almost two centuries ago the lightning-powered ships of Ceramia pierced the skies of Soburin heralding an age of oppression that still marks the lands with the resources stripped from the countryside. Ripped away from a long age of peace and broken by soldiers wielding scientifically advanced weaponry, the warriors of the prefectures were drafted into a distant conflict across the edge of the world and ancient traditions of violence have reawakened a thirst for blood in those few that survive in the decaying world. Emperor Hitoshi’s rebellion a decade ago threw down foreign rule but an ancient danger has reappeared to push society to the brink of collapse: the Mists of Akuma.
The corrupting fog transforms those within it into bloodthirsty adeddo-oni, monsters that seek only the rending of flesh and the taste of living meat. Nobles have retreated to the cities dotting the countryside leaving the common folk to face the supernatural haze alone, adding to the undead horde. Nature itself has been perilously wounded and the technology that might save the prefectures is shunned and feared by the Masuto Dynasty and Emperor Hitoshi’s subjects.
Mists of Akuma is an eastern fantasy noir steampunk campaign setting for use with the newest edition of the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game. Using new mechanics steeped in eastern lore, the book focuses on providing in-depth urban settings and a diverse array of character options to make truly unique parties of adventurers perfectly suited to survive the decay and desperation in Soburin. Bengoshi (governmental agents) empowered to deputize individuals in service of the Masuto Dynasty are attempting to hold the apocalypse at bay but intrigue and graft are as common and deadly as the corrupting fog, and the ancient threat’s influence is spread all the further by the despair of Emperor Hitoshi’s subjects.
In the 275 page Mists of Akuma rulebook you’ll find…
-----
And there's the week's Picks, with their special focus on the stuff that goes a bit afield from "elves, swords, fireballs, and dungeons." New styles of play, new genres in which to play, and all the rest - sure signs that we've evolved as a medium and as an art form.
Tonight, I am playing in David Forby's Prowlers & Paragons campaign, NeoDenver 3030. It features the new rules (the Ultimate Edition), which I've been working with Len Pimentel on for a bit now. We're still looking at releasing it (along with my Modern Gods setting book) later this year. Check my Patreon link if you're interested in following along.
Tomorrow, it's a "ship meeting" for my crew for the HMS Reliant, as part of the Royal Manticoran Navy. That's sort of my "LARP jam" these days. Tomorrow evening, Carinn and I am playing as a "guest star" in David Waters' Pathfinder game. David is a great guy facing a terrible fate, and we're all coming together in the Denver area to help his family face the aftermath.
Sunday, I'll be putting a lot more work into my Freedom Squadron stuff, a Savage Worlds setting based on VENOM Assault; again, see my Patreon for more info. I am running the first session for my Monday Night Savages group.
Here's a cool image to whet your appetite, if you've not seen anything yet:
As always,
The Adventure Continues!
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
One of the truly groundbreaking games of our hobby, this is the third presentation of James Wallis’ masterpiece of narrative storytelling game development that many argue heralded many current trends in RPG design. GM-less gaming? Diceless? Player-driven narrative? All within.
Baron Munchausen’s tales of his extraordinary adventures are legendary: riding cannonballs through the air, sailing to the Moon, meeting gods, escaping from the Turkish Army on half a horse, and many others.
Can you outdo the Baron? You can try!
Challenge your friends to tell the most extraordinary tale, interrupt to correct their boasts, and share your own amazing exploits in this renowned game of wit, riposte, and repartee, written in high style by the Baron himself. Expect no dice, counters, or pencils while playing, just fine wine and great merriment. Time to charge your glass and begin your tale!
This third edition of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen is massively expanded with new and revised material. Contained within is the original game along with Arabian style rules from Sinbad the Sailor, a simpler version for younger (or inebriated) players, and rules for online games. One of the Baron’s own descendants has also added twelve new variants of the game, allowing for stories where villains concoct dastardly schemes, ancient gods return from watery depths, heroic adventurers fight evil empires in outer space, and more!
BLUE ROSE (AGE)
Today, it’s another groundbreaking game that challenges the traditional tropes and conventions of tabletop RPGs. That’s not to say it challenges what fantasy means – not for those who truly understand what the fantasy genre means for storytelling. Inclusive, expansive, beautiful, Blue Rose brings romantic fantasy to life in ways few other games ever attempted. Now available in the highly-praised Adventure Game Engine (AGE), it’s time for a new generation to discover this gem.
A decade ago Blue Rose shook up the RPG scene with its vision of romantic fantasy and inclusive gaming. Now the world of Aldea returns in a new edition using the Adventure Game Engine (AGE), the popular rules that power the Fantasy AGE and Dragon Age RPGs. This beautiful, full-color book contains everything needed to create and tell stories of heroic envoys of the Sovereign’s Finest as they protect their homeland of Aldis from threats like the shadowy Kingdom of Kern and the fanatical Theocracy of Jarzon, as well as monsters and artifacts from the cruel reign of the Sorcerer Kings. Aided by the rhydan—their psychic animal allies—the champions of the Kingdom of the Blue Rose safeguard the light of the world against the power of Shadow.
Will you answer the Sovereign’s call?
THE KING IS DEAD: DHAMPIR
Continuing the theme of the week – the Interesting and Different – here’s the grand new release from that most excellent couple I am proud to call friends, Sean Tate Bircher and Robin English-Bircher. They go alt-history (complete with horror, fantasy, and magic), dealing with the 18th Century. Attention to historical detail and the social structure makes this one sing out pretty well, and it functions as a stand-alone adventure or the anchor point for an entire campaign.
In an 18th century that never was, the island nation of Malleus writhes under the thumb of an aristocracy of vampires. A coalition of secret societies fights from the shadows to drag theses oppressors burning into the light, but the alliance is young and in dire need of a weapon that can turn the tide against the vampires and their forces.
Word comes to a cabal of heroes that Lady Clarimonde yearns for freedom from the tyranny of her debauched and cruel father, the Baron Drachenholm. Thankfully for her, she possesses the means to pay for her freedom: the Sanguinem Maledicta, a cure for the curse of vampirism!
The heroes must dare the deadly labyrinth of Mallean high society to discretely win the lady her freedom – but can they trust Lady Clarimonde herself? She is, after all, no human gentlewoman but rather the child of mortal and undead – a DHAMPIR!
- New Hindrances!
- New Edges!
- New Equipment!
- A modular adventure that can be resolved in one session or expanded into a mini-campaign!
The King is Dead: DHAMPIR requires the Savage Worlds rules to play.
RADIANCE EXPANSION KIT
Continuing with the Interesting and Different theme of the week, we now look to the Tesla-inspired “electrotech” fantasy gaming material from Radiance House. While the core Players Guide is just straight-up free, they’ve come out with this major expansion that’s got a lot of fans very excited. They’re calling it “d20-lite,” which means it’s meant to run on the D&D engine via OGL. There’s a focus on late 19th and early 20th Century, but the material is meant to expand to multiple genres… and today’s Pick is especially driven by that goal.
Blast off to new adventures!
This supplement for Radiance RPG is a trove of options for any age: ancient, medieval, industrial, or science fantasy. Play a batfolk dragoon, cyborg spriggan, elan technomancer, ghost samurai, sha’ir magus, or vodron rocketeer. New classes, races, and themes yield over 8,000 options.
Inside, you will discover 262 pages of crunchy goodness:
- Classic and strange races such as elans and woodlings.
- 21 new classes like the alchemist, chronomancer, and voidmage.
- Add impactful downtime between adventures with 48 1-level kits.
- Play an angel, devil, ghost, werewolf, or other immortal.
- 36 new themes from adept and assassin to totemist and voidmain.
- Occult spirit binding, mass combat, magic items, businesses, space-age magitech, and voidcraft.
- 24 new deities, 100 townies, and more…
- Radiance RPG blends the best of editions of the world’s most popular role-playing game. It lets you focus on a fantasia of the late-19th century. Yet it is meaty and flexible to support any campaign setting you may imagine.
This supplement requires the Radiance Players Guide, available for free here at DriveThruRPG.
MISTS OF AKUMA
“Eastern Fantasy Noir Steampunk?” Yeah, I think this one is a fitting finale to my Interesting and Different Week. I’ll let the cover and the sales text do the rest of the talking (while I see if I can find someone to run this for me).
Almost two centuries ago the lightning-powered ships of Ceramia pierced the skies of Soburin heralding an age of oppression that still marks the lands with the resources stripped from the countryside. Ripped away from a long age of peace and broken by soldiers wielding scientifically advanced weaponry, the warriors of the prefectures were drafted into a distant conflict across the edge of the world and ancient traditions of violence have reawakened a thirst for blood in those few that survive in the decaying world. Emperor Hitoshi’s rebellion a decade ago threw down foreign rule but an ancient danger has reappeared to push society to the brink of collapse: the Mists of Akuma.
The corrupting fog transforms those within it into bloodthirsty adeddo-oni, monsters that seek only the rending of flesh and the taste of living meat. Nobles have retreated to the cities dotting the countryside leaving the common folk to face the supernatural haze alone, adding to the undead horde. Nature itself has been perilously wounded and the technology that might save the prefectures is shunned and feared by the Masuto Dynasty and Emperor Hitoshi’s subjects.
Mists of Akuma is an eastern fantasy noir steampunk campaign setting for use with the newest edition of the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game. Using new mechanics steeped in eastern lore, the book focuses on providing in-depth urban settings and a diverse array of character options to make truly unique parties of adventurers perfectly suited to survive the decay and desperation in Soburin. Bengoshi (governmental agents) empowered to deputize individuals in service of the Masuto Dynasty are attempting to hold the apocalypse at bay but intrigue and graft are as common and deadly as the corrupting fog, and the ancient threat’s influence is spread all the further by the despair of Emperor Hitoshi’s subjects.
In the 275 page Mists of Akuma rulebook you’ll find…
- An overview of the recent history of Soburin and basic information about the world including the dangerous Mists of Akuma, rules for traveling the prefectures, and what rigors maddened explorers must overcome to visit the apocalypse that has become of the other continents.
- Over 100 NPCs and monsters ranging from foreign generals to eastern dragons, powerful bengoshi and underlings from each of the 24 unique clans, and more than two dozen kami, oni, and tsukumogami!
- Cultural practices and traditions for Soburin inspired by and drawn from eastern lore.
- Gorgeous cover artwork by Claudio Pozas, interior scene illustrations by Indi Martin and Sara Shijo, and character illustrations by Jacob Blackmon and Nathanael Batchelor!
- A chapter each detailing three different cities: the capital of the Imperial Prefecture, Sanbaoshi, the advanced mechanical metropolis of Kyofu, and the traditionalist magic-steeped settlement of Nagabuki.
- Short stories with gorgeous half page illustrations at the start of each chapter to firmly posit the desperation and diversity inherent to adventuring in Soburin!
- Details on each of the two dozen clans of the prefectures, including the bengoshi that negotiate on the behalf of each ruling family’s lady or lord and how the Kengen Occupation affected each region of Soburin.
- 7 new character backgrounds and guidelines for adapting existing character backgrounds when playing in Soburin as well as new conditions, the Culture skill, and 6 maps for the continent and its settlements by cartographers Michael McCarthy, Mike Myler, and Tommi Salama!
- 19 different archetypes that provide exciting theme-appropriate character options for every class! Take the paladin samurai oath or the fell pact of the warlock wu-jen, grab some ninja rogue levels, or even become a bardic gun priest!
- 14 new races to breathe life into Soburin, making it an exotic and unique world that is eager to shrug off the shackles of western imperialism: a trio of human subraces, bakemono goblins, ape folk enjin. 11 different kinds of hengeyokai, kappa turtle folk, gigantic mutants, undead necroji, corrupted oni-touched, psionic psonorous, frog-like pyon, hobgoblin shikome, automaton steametics, wily tanuki, soaring tengu, and the umibo water people!
- 32 new character feats, over 10 pages of equipment that ranges from new armor and weapons to steampunk prostheses and vehicles, and 22 new eastern-themed spells!
- Revenge of the Pale Master, an epic 25 page mystery adventure set in the industrialized city of Kizaki beneath the shadow of an ancient, evil necromancer that has the settlement firmly within his ethereal grasp.
-----
And there's the week's Picks, with their special focus on the stuff that goes a bit afield from "elves, swords, fireballs, and dungeons." New styles of play, new genres in which to play, and all the rest - sure signs that we've evolved as a medium and as an art form.
Tonight, I am playing in David Forby's Prowlers & Paragons campaign, NeoDenver 3030. It features the new rules (the Ultimate Edition), which I've been working with Len Pimentel on for a bit now. We're still looking at releasing it (along with my Modern Gods setting book) later this year. Check my Patreon link if you're interested in following along.
Tomorrow, it's a "ship meeting" for my crew for the HMS Reliant, as part of the Royal Manticoran Navy. That's sort of my "LARP jam" these days. Tomorrow evening, Carinn and I am playing as a "guest star" in David Waters' Pathfinder game. David is a great guy facing a terrible fate, and we're all coming together in the Denver area to help his family face the aftermath.
Sunday, I'll be putting a lot more work into my Freedom Squadron stuff, a Savage Worlds setting based on VENOM Assault; again, see my Patreon for more info. I am running the first session for my Monday Night Savages group.
Here's a cool image to whet your appetite, if you've not seen anything yet:
As always,
The Adventure Continues!
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
