Let's Talk Blue Rose

[Ranger REG]

It is, IMO, a real crying pity that these rules are presented in a 'romantic fantasy' package. The New Agey, neo-pagan, flakey elements of that genre fill me with nausea. If only the rules had been presented separately from the campaign setting.

Oh well. :\

FWIW, at least they stopped short of putting Barbie and Fabio on the cover.

Hasbro's rival Mattel would have a fit if they saw that ... Barbie I mean, not Fabio.

Granted, I'm not Marion Zimmer Bradley fan (forgive the spelling), but I think this would help bring those fans into our hobby.

 

[Skywalker]

Also, how easy would it be to use standard 3E adventures, etc. with these rules?

Having answered this question elsewhere, I will just say that BR would do wonders for Middle Earth. All you would need to do is add Favoured Feats and Skills to the Middle Earth races and maybe get rid of Psychic Arcana. Otherwise, BR would run like a dream IMO.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

And, conversely, I consider it a crying pity that gamers are proving so dismissive and close-minded of a setting that doesn't pander to the tropes of what they consider "standard" fantasy.

There are already dozens, if not hundreds of games and settings that fit the "social interactions + orc killing" mold - it's a strength of Blue Rose, and a credit to its designers that they didn't just default to that mold like so many other games do.

Romantic fantasy is a huge market, and it's about time there was a major company that acknowledged that the game industry has never bothered trying to serve that audience's interests.

Patrick Y.

 

[Psion]

I might point out that some of what might be termed "romantic fantasy" is actually quite gritty by the terms of those who are looking for more low fantasy style games.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

You'd hgave to for instance create the orc as there are no orcs in the book.

The Night People are pretty darn close, and the Vata could be tweaked into Elves without to much work.

 

[Crothian]

The Night People are pretty darn close, and the Vata could be tweaked into Elves without to much work.

that is true, but it also depensds on what the orcs and elves the person wants are going to be like. they do vary some from setting to setting.

 

[Nomad4life]

FWIW, at least they stopped short of putting Barbie and Fabio on the cover.

Wow. What an interesting game THAT would have been…



Fabio: I roll to believe that it’s not butter…

GM: You got a “1”. Looks like you failed…

Fabio: Nooo! I can’t believe that it’s not butter!!!

Barbie: Good thing. Real butter would KILL my CHA modifier…

 

[Kesh]

I'll say this much: the thread here has convinced me to pick up the Blue Rose PDF, and buy some Mercedes Lackey novels off eReader when the next paycheck comes. 8)

Romantic fantasy does seem a bit too close to the so-called "fluffy pagan" trope I've come to know, but it'll be interesting to see how it really reads. And the RPG itself sounds like half the ideas I was working on for my homebrew world anyway.

 

[Crothian]

Mercedes Lackey is the only romantic fantasy author I have really read but I really don't mind her books. THe ones were she writes with whats his name are very simplistic but some of her solo Valdemar ones can actually be quite fun.

 

[Skywalker]

I'll say this much: the thread here has convinced me to pick up the Blue Rose PDF, and buy some Mercedes Lackey novels off eReader when the next paycheck comes. 8)

Though Mercedes Lackey is very successful in the realm of romantic fantasy, I recommend Robin McKinley (Blue Sword and Hero & the Crown) or Greg Keyes (Briar King and Charnel House) over the Valdemar series. Some of the later Valdemar stuff is quite good but the first trilogy is not that great and aimed for a young female audience.