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.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

While I personally would have preferred them go outside their own house systems for this one and decided to use something more like Cortex Plus Drama as that system is one entirely built around the ideas of relationships being central go your characters and determines a lot about what drives your characters... I am glad this is getting a new edition.

I am honestly surprised by a lot of the anti-Blue Rose comments that have been stated on this thread though. Its a game that focuses on a different genre of fantasy than most fantasy games, a sub-genre that I think most people might not even have heard much about and definitely lacking in the roleplaying space still.

I'm excited for it.

 

[Wolvercote]

As someone who doesn't care about feeling self-righteous, I will go out on a limb here and say, I'll probably never see this played. It will vanish in the sea of all the other RPGs that don't get played.

 

[Umbran]

As someone who doesn't care about feeling self-righteous, I will go out on a limb here and say, I'll probably never see this played.

Yes, but then, it is important to realize that each of us, individually, probably don't see most of the games that are published in play. There are a *lot* of systems out there, after all.

The important thing is that the system exists for those who would like the sort of game it is designed to produce.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

As someone who doesn't care about feeling self-righteous, I will go out on a limb here and say, I'll probably never see this played. It will vanish in the sea of all the other RPGs that don't get played.

I still find it amazing... and I know I shouldn't find it amazing... that in this hobby of a gaming medium where we have the ability and potential capacity to use our imaginations to create and play in all kinds of different kinds of worlds, be them fantasy, sci-fi, post apocalyptic, etc, etc... that there is still this very narrow minded attitude towards a sub-genre of fantasy that is different than the norm that this kind of negative attitude towards it still persists.

It's really a shame.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

That's not your or anyone else's call really, People need simple neutral, apolitical facts in areas are interested in, not an assumed leftism is correct slant The assumptions you are going by are called entryim and wholly unnecessary and in fact bad for the hobby

That assumes that "apolitical" is something that is actually common in RPGs. Most RPG settings have underlying political influences and assumptions. Not being aware of these assumptions does not mean they not exist.

 

[Mikaze]

I'm excited about it. After years upon years of fantasy and gaming being drowned in cynicism and grimdark, it'll honestly be a relief to get some hopeful idealism in the place. I've really missed romantic fantasy, and if this helps give that genre a much needed boost I'm more than 100% behind it.


Truth be told, my first PCs would have been more at home in Blue Rose than constantly banging their heads against the ugly expectations my early D&D experiences were saddled with. I say bring it on.


And quite frankly, with all the reactionary Gamergate-ish crap flying around the gaming communities these days, it'll also be nice to have a shining counterpoint to it.


(and keep the Vata! I want to make my "drow" fey knight unicorn-rider in a game where he'll work!)

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

My apologies for getting a little riled up last night.

I do want to say this (with apologies to the mods if it crosses a line).

People are not a political issue or an agenda. There is more to expression and publishing than the almighty dollar. Sometimes a company wants to make a statement, regardless of the financial fallout.

And sometimes abuse needs to be called out for what it is. That's not censorship, its human decency.

Freedom of speech gives you the right to say whatever you like; it doesn't give you the right to an audience; it doesn't give you the right to a venue other than some random street corner.

 

[nightspaladin]

P 121. Inspiration. Basically, if your GM thinks you roleplayed your character well you get an Inspiration. You can use that Inspiration to reward other players' roleplaying, or you use it yourself by gaining advantage to any d20 roll .

If I do say so myself, this single mechanic handles "social, poltical, and romantic relationships" just fine as it encourages role-play.

This! My wife's half orc barbarian has the flaw hopeless romantic. It has feuled a lot of our social, poltical and romantic relationships, and inspiration has been the driver.

Alot of this should be narrative game play. Crunchy rules should be used to define things that have clearer delineated event(hit/and or miss, etc) It's ok to have rules to guide you through how npcs will interact, but if we hard code social activites we end up with the worst end of skill challenges(a good idea, that often played out as a roll and see if i win social engagement).

This stuff should be handled loosely at best. It's what makes the game an RPG, not a boardgame with a Romance/Social Phase...

 

[TaiChara]

There seems to be some confusion over what "romantic fantasy" means. The genre doesn't have the laser-like focus on specifically romantic-as-in-non-platonic-relationships being assumed -- the definition is somewhat different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_fantasy

So while, yes, there's a certain element of romance-romance at times, that's not the be all and end all of what is meant by the "romantic fantasy" genre. No, I don't think it's a particularly accurate label at times either ;3

 

[Blue]

I'm not taking a swap at 5e - I started with that I greatly enjoy it. I'm just saying that RPGs with other mechanical focus can also find a niche.

Let me go the the extreme for a moment. Let's say someone enjoys a wide variety of different RPGs. The type of campaign that the GM and players want to run will have combat say once every 6-8 sessions. Is 5e your first choice for a system, or perhaps a system that gives more mechanical focus to the non-combat parts of play, such as FATE with it's aspects?

5e is a great system, and it fits well for the type of game I normally run. But I can say that other games with a different focus can handle their particular niche well without putting 5e down.