Tell me about Blue Rose

[Ranger REG]

Ya, it is a shame since gamers at first seem to open to new ideas and new things a little more then most people, but when it comes down to it most are as close minded as the rest of humanity.

You sound surprised. I've been in this community far too long to know that even in a group of geeks, you can still be an outsider looking in.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

You sound surprised. I've been in this community far too long to know that even in a group of geeks, you can still be an outsider looking in.

"Even"?

Any time you're dealing with rabid... ahem, dedicated... fans, you're far more likely to find yourself an outsider. And most dedicated fans not involved with a sporting event - and some who are - fall into some subset of geekdom.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yeah, but when I was young, I never thought there were several social classes of geekdom. Oh, to be so young and naive.

 

[Unseelie]

Yeah, BR can work for any setting where your primary objective is rules lite d20.
I'm working on adding some Space Opera stuff to make it more like "Vacuum Roses"

For those of you not convinced yet. . . BR as a ruleset is as tied to the Romantic Fantasy setting presented in the rule book as 3.0 is tied to the Greyhawk setting. (although there is a *much* higher page count regarding the actual setting in BR)

Perks up

Vacuum Flowers? Oh, Vacuum Roses... nevermind.

 

[Celebrim]

I'm impressed by alot of what I've heard about the 'Crunch' in Blue Rose and would consider adapting stuff in it for my own campaign.

My major influences are Brother's Grimm + HP Lovecraft + JRR Tolkein, and over the years I've had as many female players as male. I like story/character driven RPG's, broken up with small dungeon crawls and cinematic combat. While my fluff is too gritty and my horror to black for what I've seen of Blue Rose, it looks like there is alot of meat underneath the too sweet mint sauce of that dish.

But I haven't personally seen the book and I've got some serious reservations about whether anything in it would actually help me. Notably, I think the calling system sounds really cool, and sounds like an improvement on one of the few mechanics from White Wolf's Vampire games that I really like (namely the Demeanor/Willpower system) . But in practice I fear that the mechanic is too fluffy and would basically boil down to the Storyteller being required to give out Conviction points based on no more guidance than he just felt like it?

Has anyone played the game? How did the Calling/Conviction system work out? Has anyone had an argument with a PC yet about whether or not his action actually met the requirements of his calling? How easy is it to ajudicate whether an action is say 'Exacting' or 'Petty' (two natures I heard mentioned)? Did in your opinion the calling system encourage roleplaying, or did it encourage the player's to start power gaming thier player's social interactions and such?

 

[WayneLigon]

Our own Teflon Billy has written a review of the game here; Celebrim, you might find it useful in making a decision.

Conviction points come back at the rate of one per day regardless. Other times, it's a GM call. There are notes about how to adjudicate that gain and about following either Nature, but it's still mainly a GM call. I don't see a way around that for either the Calling system or for any other personal interaction stuff. Since it's a GM call as to when you gain a level, get used to their being a lot of give and take between GM and players.

Adjudicating an action is going to be just the same as keeping track of alignment; it's a personal issue and, again, I don't see a way around that. One GM is going to have a different idea about what is 'petty' than another. I will say that there is a lot more in-book support for the GM on how to run personal interaction.

If you don't want to blow the bucks for the print edition, remember that there is a perfectly good PDF version available from RPGNow.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

What interested me:

The fiction in the book either involved homosexual male characters in a feminised role or unsexual powerful women. Lesbian love is mentioned and one picture is shown, but gay pictures are through it (Though tasteful) and more gay males are mentioned. The sample adventure shows a gay male. Only one incident of lesbianism is briefly mentioned amongst the gods. Males are noted several times to wear skirts, while there seems to be no direct masculine clothing attributed only to men apart from tights. (Pants being equal.) Despite the convention of most fantasy artwork, we have amazingly clothed women in powerful or enlightened positions more than anything. Can't remember a single man in a powerful position that wasn't evil or feminised. The only heterosexual male in the game that I can recall is...

One of the gods. And he's universally seen to be outranked by his wife, excepting one race of bigoted idiots.

The picture of the GM was a girl. If thats not a motivator for girls, what is?


Don't say that male geeks are bigoted. The fluff in this book is written for a geek feminine base. Thats the HP or LOTR slash-loving fanfiction Authoress with an open fascination with the male body and a jealous affliction to any other woman other than themselves in those positions. If marketed properly, this book could get more geek girls roleplaying than anything else, especially gender neutral players handbooks run by overweight nerds giggling at breast jokes.


The crunch is good, the evil sorcerers finally allowed to be more powerful with the more evil they are. The fluff is interesting, but not to my taste. Thats why I'm giving it to my GF, who I predict will either love or loathe it.

Blue Rose is D+D for girls. That doesn't mean it's bad. It means I'll try it and see.

 

[SWBaxter]

Not really. There really are no movies that really capture the feel of Blue Rose well. IT has action and good guys and bad guys as well as an adiditonal level of emotion. I think they would be more dramas then action films.

From the sounds of it, "Ladyhawke" would be an example of a Blue Rose-type film. That seem like a fair comparison?

And FWIW, Ladyhawke is my favourite fantasy movie made by somebody not named Peter Jackson. I kinda wish GR had gone with separate books for mechanics and setting, so they could put out several setting books for different aspects of the genre. But I guess they weren't sure if they'd have a big enough customer base to warrant such a split.

 

[Crothian]

From the sounds of it, "Ladyhawke" would be an example of a Blue Rose-type film. That seem like a fair comparison?

And FWIW, Ladyhawke is my favourite fantasy movie made by somebody not named Peter Jackson. I kinda wish GR had gone with separate books for mechanics and setting, so they could put out several setting books for different aspects of the genre. But I guess they weren't sure if they'd have a big enough customer base to warrant such a split.

I have heard other people make the comparison, but truth be told it has been so long since I've seen that movie I really couldn't say.

 

[WayneLigon]

... Only one incident of lesbianism is briefly mentioned amongst the gods. Males are noted several times to wear skirts, while there seems to be no direct masculine clothing attributed only to men apart from tights. ...The only heterosexual male in the game that I can recall is...

One of the gods. And he's universally seen to be outranked by his wife, excepting one race of bigoted idiots....

Actually any of the gods can appear as either male or female aspects, or neither. The oldest gods, the Gods of Twilight, are more apt to just choose a gender as they will. Many of them are bisexual, as probably befits a group of beings to whom gender is a bookmark more than anything else.

Two men are mentioned on the soveriegn council and neither is feminized or evil.

I certainly can find no reference to the men of Aldis wearing skirts. All of the pictures show them in pants. Where do you see this? Maybe the PDF search thing ain't working like it should.