Let's Talk Blue Rose

[Benben]

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.

The Heralds of Valdemar trilogy is one of her better ones, and is available on ereader. If you're looking for print books too I recommend her Vows and Honor trilogy. It's mostly a collection of short stories, and has the romantic fantasy equivalent of Fahrd and the Grey Mouser.

 

[Akrasia]

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.

I have nothing against a company trying to crack into the 'romantic fantasy' market. All the more power to them. It is not a product that I would ever want, but I certainly do not begrudge the fact that there are plenty of people out there who might want some neo-pagan/New Age style setting.

I was just expressing my dismay that in order to get to something that is of interest to me -- an interesting 'rules light' version of d20 fantasy -- I have to dig through a bunch of 'packaging' and setting info that I actively loathe.

If the rules had been sold separately from the setting, I would almost certainly pick this up. As it is, I am not so sure.

 

[Crothian]

I have nothing against a company trying to crack into the 'romantic fantasy' market. All the more power to them. It is not a product that I would ever want, but I certainly do not begrudge the fact that there are plenty of people out there who might want some neo-pagan/New Age style setting.

I was just expressing my dismay that in order to get to something that is of interest to me -- an interesting 'rules light' version of d20 fantasy -- I have to dig through a bunch of 'packaging' and setting info that I actively loathe.

If the rules had been sold separately from the setting, I would almost certainly pick this up. As it is, I am not so sure.

But really, don't we have to do this most products? I bought Complete Arcana and I have all this Wu Jen stuff, the class most of its seppls are unique to it. There is alway stuff in books I'd perfer not to see. Few books I've liked most or everything in the book. And as setting goes, so many people use their own favorite setting that people are pretty used to gettign setting books to steal from.

 

[Benben]

If the rules had been sold separately from the setting, I would almost certainly pick this up. As it is, I am not so sure.

Akrasia if you ignore everything before page 52 of the $14 pdf you'll be able to ignore 99% of the setting and flavour text. Sure you might have to close your eyes to the generally gorgeous art, but the setting is entirely ignorable for for most of the book.

And, I have to ask, is your icon Buffy? If it is I'm finding your disgust at the romantic fantasy confusing since Buffy: The Vampire Slayer was really a romantic horror/comedy.

 

[Akrasia]

... And, I have to ask, is your icon Buffy? If it is I'm finding your disgust at the romantic fantasy confusing since Buffy: The Vampire Slayer was really a romantic horror/comedy.

Wow. It is amazing how two people can interpret the same thing in such radically different ways.

Indeed, I am hard pressed to think of a writer further away from the likes of Mercedes Lackey than Joss Whedon.


If Joss Whedon ever wrote a 'romantic fantasy' novel, I am sure that it would be dripping with irony, self-deprecation, and a sense of irreverent self-awareness completely alien to overly eager neo-pagan, tarot card-reading, crunchy New Age types that love the novels of ML, et al.

Sure Buffy tVS has a Wicca lesbian witch, etc. But the tone of BtVS is fundamentally subversive and mocking. As far as I can tell, the genre of 'romantic fantasy' utterly lacks this feature.

At least that's my suspicion.

Sorry for the tangent. Back to BLUE ROSE ...

 

[Turanil]

I was just expressing my dismay that in order to get to something that is of interest to me -- an interesting 'rules light' version of d20 fantasy -- I have to dig through a bunch of 'packaging' and setting info that I actively loathe.

If the rules had been sold separately from the setting, I would almost certainly pick this up. As it is, I am not so sure.

Well, there still is Castle & Crusade, isn't it?

 

[Akrasia]

Well, there still is Castle & Crusade, isn't it?

Oh most definitely!

My campaign is going very well.

I am curious about Blue Rose in case I want to try out a more 'Tolkienesque' campaign in the future.

 

[BryonD]

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.
Patrick Y.

I don't see how it is fair or accurate to decribe being disinterested in a specific setting as being closed-minded. It may have more to do with what it is than what it is not.

I'm interested in the magic system. But a lot of other things described above do not interest me. This includes but is not limited to the setting material. I am quite satisfied with my current game, so I'm not sufficiently motivated to buy a whole book for a magic system. So ultimately, I am in fact dismissing this product. But no moreso than any other of the 50-odd products I didn't buy in the past few months.

As far as the setting goes, I have very little experience with romantic fantasy. I read the first (?) Mercedes Lackey series 15 or so years ago (Arrows of the Queen, etc...). I really enjoyed it despite rolling my eyes multiple times at the political correctness. I readily purchased the first book in the next series based on my enjoyment of the prior series. To me, somewhere between the first and second series the focus shifted from a good story with PC elements to a PC message machine with a story built in. I assumed she had clicked with a niche market and was serving that market. Good for her, I hope she makes a million bucks. But in the mean time, there are tons of books that I want to read and I just do not have time to read them all. I have no choice but to skip something, so I'm going to stack the deck in my favor and start skipping Lackey. I prejudge those books as not aimed at me and not entertaining to me. Maybe I'm wrong. And if I ever run out of books to read I'll readily give her another chance. But as my backlog grows every year, I don't see that happening. There is no malice or contempt to it. I just prefer to be entertained.

Same with game stuff. Theres got to be something I don't buy. I'm going to stack the deck in my favor.

I'd like to buy the magic system as a stand alone. If they do not publish it that way, then it is no loss to me. If they ever decide to do so, then it will be a bonus to me.

 

[Brad Hindman]

I'd like to buy the magic system as a stand alone. If they do not publish it that way, then it is no loss to me. If they ever decide to do so, then it will be a bonus to me.

Without doing a side-by-side comparison, it appears to me that the magic system is pretty much a slight reworking of the Psychic's Handbook where the fatigue mechanic has been altered to swap out the hit point system in favor of the damage saves used in Blue Rose. In addition, there has been some tweaking and name changing so that the magic system matches the genre more closely. Has anyone else noticed major changes between the Blue Rose magic system and the Psychic's Handbook?

 

[Mallus]

Question: could you do Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover with Blue Rose? It sounds like it would be a good fit.

I've a big fan of the early-ish Darkover novels, up through The Heritage of Hastur.