Let's Talk Blue Rose

[BryonD]

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.

Thanks. That is very good to know.
I do very much like the Psychic's Handbook.

 

[Benben]

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 ...

I wasn't even thinking of Willow, what I was thinking about what that the whole series was relationship driven. Sure it had the occasional easily identifiable evil monster to kill, but at its core it was about Buffy and crew growing up. Buffy hits a lot of the tropes of a a romantic fantasy. The reason it doesn't feel like a Lackey novel is because Whedon is a better writer.

And since there is no such thing as game police, I'm going to happily have sarcasm, shades of grey, and political intrigue in the Blue Rose setting. It easily supports it and also hands me easily identifiable evil creatures for the players to occasionally have fights with.

 

[drnuncheon]

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.

Thinking that all romantic fantasy is like Lackey is rather like thinking that all epic quest fantasy is like David Eddings. While Lackey may be one of the best known authors, that doesn't mean she's one of the best. You might consider some other authors who aren't nearly so twee:

Jane Lindskold's "Wolf" series features intelligent dire animals, subtle, mind-affecting sorcery, and political machinations.

Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint is all about politics and betrayal.

While her first three books (starting with Luck in the Shadows) may leave a Lackey-like aftertaste in your mouth despite being better written, Lynn Flewelling's The Bone Doll's Twin and sequel The Hidden Warrior are nothing short of excellent - probably the creepiest romantic fantasy I've read.

Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice series is another example of "good" romantic fiction - and as the title suggests, it's not all sweetness and light and happy talking animals.

 

[WayneLigon]

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.

I think so, though you'd cut out most of the races and Arcana. Without the book in front of me, I don't think there is a mechanism for combining the abilities of a number of Adepts. It would be a simple thing to add and then you could get up to the power levels of the Tower people where they were mining by telekinetically ripping metals out of the ground. The simple mind speaking and emotion reading abilities are already in there.

 

[Crothian]

so, now that many people have seen Blue Rose: what is the one thing you'd like to see next for the setting?

 

[Skywalker]

so, now that many people have seen Blue Rose: what is the one thing you'd like to see next for the setting?

I really like the supplements that are planned. I am always a big fan of a gazette that covers the entire setting and a seperate book of rules options and additions.

Aldea was presented in a very clear and concise way. I am interested to see how World of Aldea expands on this.

Beyond those two I would personally like to see an adventure and Live Action rules. Despite the common trend, I find official adventures to be very useful. As for live action, I can see a real potential and would love to see someone attempt a live action rule set for a fantasy/d20 setting.

 

[Ace]

so, now that many people have seen Blue Rose: what is the one thing you'd like to see next for the setting?

After the next 2 supplements are done I want a Faerie setting --

A '17th century" tech upgrade for Swashbuckling would be cool too

 

[Nahat Anoj]

so, now that many people have seen Blue Rose: what is the one thing you'd like to see next for the setting?

The Blue Rose version of the Book of Vile Darkness ...

Jon

 

[Crothian]

The Blue Rose version of the Book of Vile Darkness ...

Jon

now that would be odd yet it actually would fit the setting with the shadow guys being about that evil.....

 

[Afrodyte]

A Narrators' toolkit that helps adapt the Blue Rose system to other romantic fantasy settings other than Aldea. Here is an idea of what I'd like to try. Too bad nobody's picked up on it.