Let's Talk Blue Rose

[WayneLigon]

Ok, here's another question. If I take 3 levels of adept and 3 levels of warrior, is my PC "broken" like some might consider it in D&D? You know - the old complaint about multiclassing casters being a poor choice...

It doesn't seem as crippling, no. Many of the Arcane feats use your character level rather than your Adept level. You'd be missing the opportunity to gain more Arcane feats and thus open up more talents. You could use Arcane Training on your 'off' levels to gain more Arcana in talents you already have, though.

 

[Emiricol]

And another - what are these cards for "destiny"? It says you can pick or draw, but I can't find any correlation to a real deck of cards. Is that just faux flavor?

D'oh! Tarot cards! Thanks guys. That makes much more sense now

 

[Nomad4life]

Blue Rose RPG

I’ve just looked over the Blue Rose roleplaying game and wanted to share a few thoughts. I can pretty much sum up all of my sentiments towards this game in one sentence:



“Never in fifteen years of gaming have I seen such an aesthetically brilliant system of mechanics paired with such an awkward setting.”





Rules-wise the Blue Rose RPG is a “masterwork” of the D20 system. Table-top has been polluted with Playstation-esque “roll playing” for far too long. This system encourages a refreshing return to dramatic social interaction and character development. When the time comes to dispense with formalities and get to the kicking of posterior ends, this is also handled with gratifying sublime beauty. Almost all of the “clunky” conventions of standard D20 products have been replaced by slick, cinematic, enjoyable alternatives (much like the Mutants & Masterminds gameline.) For example, I never realized how much I hated ‘attacks of opportunity’ until now. Although I cannot express how happy I am to finally see conventions such as level-based defense modifiers, reputation scores, and semi-custom classes, I was somewhat astonished to learn that there was no traditional system for gaining experience points in TBRRPG. The players simply express that they believe their character has developed enough to obtain the next level, and the gamemaster (narrator) either agrees, or explains that more playing is required. It will be interesting to see how this concept works out. On one hand, I worry about the potential for abuse from bad players or inexperienced gamemasters. On the other hand, I will shed no tears to see all those CR charts and calculators go.



Unfortunately, all this is offset by the romantic fantasy setting. Just as I feared, The Blue Rose RPG might as well have been entitled “Liberal Propaganda: The Role Playing Game.” Personally, I wish that Green Ronin had handled the distribution of this gameline differently. It would have been nice to buy the game mechanics as a separate “core” system, and then sold settings as supplementary material. However, this is a purely subjective matter, and I find it phenomenal that the ONLY thing I can really find “wrong” with this game comes down to personal taste. That says a lot in itself.



If you share my personal tastes in this matter, then I’m afraid you’re still stuck in your current dellema: Should you buy the game only for the system mechanics for use in an alternate setting?



The answer comes down to economics- If you have the extra money, DO IT NOW. It is really worth it, and the default setting is not in any way an integral part of the design- From what I can tell, even a moderately experienced gamemaster would have no trouble lifting the parts that they like (and there is a great deal to like) and incorporating them into any other published or homebrew D20 game. However, if you’re tight on money, I would say wait. A system this inspired is destined to find its way somewhere else… Eventually.

 

[whydirt]

Can someone cite specifics of what about the setting is turning people off? I'd be willing to bet if Blue Rose didn't have the word "romantic" in the title that most of these complaints wouldn't exist. Everything I've read about the setting seems to make it pretty standard fantasy stuff.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Can someone cite specifics of what about the setting is turning people off? I'd be willing to bet if Blue Rose didn't have the word "romantic" in the title that most of these complaints wouldn't exist. Everything I've read about the setting seems to make it pretty standard fantasy stuff.

It attempts to fulfill the interests and desires of an audience most rpg games don't bother to acknowledge, and adopts the conceits of a popular genre of fantasy that most games and gamers like to pretend doesn't exist.

Which, if you haven't guessed by now, I consider to be a great feature of the game.

Patrick Y.

 

[Nomad4life]

Can someone cite specifics of what about the setting is turning people off? I'd be willing to bet if Blue Rose didn't have the word "romantic" in the title that most of these complaints wouldn't exist. Everything I've read about the setting seems to make it pretty standard fantasy stuff.

What got me in the end wasn’t any one specific thing, it was the overall flavor of the game:



You basically have a perfect “open minded” utopian community threatened by thinly disguised right-wing conservatives. The goal in adventuring is to either “open the eyes” of these villains, or do away with them in the name of progressive thinking. All this while trying to save the environment with the aid of friendly talking animals



Now, I did NOT vote for our current U.S. president, but even I found the whole thing disruptively odd. Or, I guess to be more honest about it, I would feel somewhat goofy presenting such a game world to my current role playing circle. Again, this is just a matter of personal style and taste.



The “romance” aspect of the game didn’t bother me at all. If anything, the section on “emotional roleplaying” was well done and made me realize how odd it was that most systems didn’t devote a section of the rulebook to such considerations. After all, humans are motivated by their emotions above all else, and playing them as such should be rewarded.

 

[Darkness]

Nomad4life, welcome to the boards.

By the way, let's be careful not get too much into modern-day real-world politics. Which wouldn't be appropriate for EN World (for reference, the EN World rules.).
Thus, phrasing comments relating to such is best done with great care.

This goes for everyone, in case it needs to be said.

Thanks.

If anyone has questions, e-mail me.

 

[Turanil]

The Blue Rose setting as described on previews looked bland, archetypal black'n'white, common fantasy setting to me. But as described by Nomad4life, it would make me reconsider buying this book... In any case, there would still be the option of creating an Earthsea homebrew for it. In fact I don't know why, but Earthsea (that I did read so long ago) strikes me as THE setting that would be cool with Blue Rose (except you would need to add in some naval / sea rules).

Anyway, for me the real question is that not only the d20 market is overflooded, but that my gaming shelf too is overcrowded. Until now most d20 books are compatible the ones with the others; but this Blue Rose is in fact almost a new kind of game, which is just similar to d20 so you don't need much effort to learn it. Well, two years ago (when I had yet to buy 3.5 and most of my d20 books) I would have bought it. But now it's to late for me. It's not a question of money, but of time available to play so many stuff!

 

[Nomad4life]

The Blue Rose setting as described on previews looked bland, archetypal black'n'white, common fantasy setting to me. But as described by Nomad4life, it would make me reconsider buying this book... In any case, there would still be the option of creating an Earthsea homebrew for it. In fact I don't know why, but Earthsea (that I did read so long ago) strikes me as THE setting that would be cool with Blue Rose (except you would need to add in some naval / sea rules).

Anyway, for me the real question is that not only the d20 market is overflooded, but that my gaming shelf too is overcrowded. Until now most d20 books are compatible the ones with the others; but this Blue Rose is in fact almost a new kind of game, which is just similar to d20 so you don't need much effort to learn it. Well, two years ago (when I had yet to buy 3.5 and most of my d20 books) I would have bought it. But now it's to late for me. It's not a question of money, but of time available to play so many stuff!

Easy: Buy another shelf.


Anyway, remember that I’m not a fan of the genre, so I’m probably interpreting the overall setting wrong. Actually, every time I look through it, I do find some pretty interesting ideas… I just don’t know that I’m equipped to run the game the way you’re supposed to.

 

[Ranger REG]

Rules-wise the Blue Rose RPG is a “masterwork” of the D20 system.

I thought C&C is the masterwork d20 System.

I can only go so far as to say that Blue Rose ruleset, derived from MnM ruleset, is a second-generation (or 2Gen) d20 System engine.