Tempted to Run Blue Rose backwards

[S'mon]

I'd say have Jarzon as a benevolent society with strong religious values derived from The Good Book...

...Also I would call your game Red Rose.

(Am I seriously the first to notice, thanks to Nisarg, that the very Blueness of this game's title _reeks_ of its political agenda...?!?!)

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

There's a bit more real-world parallel involved, but I don't see how running Blue Rose backwards would be an more creative or pleasurable than running a Greyhawk game with PCs who worship Hextor, or a game of Star Wars about what your good-aligned Storm Troopers do when a group of evil, militant radicals come out of no where and bomb your barracks.

I would so be all over this. I'd play it as a serious campaign, too.

When the PHB came out, I don't remember anyone chomping at the bit to take Hextor's side against Heironeous or a group of Orcs defending their lands from intolerant elvish invaders. Obviously, it's the idea that it's the society that most resembles modern religion being the bad guy that rubs people the wrong way. But the idea is that the people of Jarzon think Jarzon is good, but that a society that commits attrocities in the name of the greater good has still commited attrocities.

Actually, I've always wanted to play a Hextor vs. Vecna campaign where the PCs were mostly hobgoblins, only Hextor and Boccob of all the gods realized what was going on, and the "good" races and their gods were being manipulated by Vecna. This one would probably be more of a one-shot, since I'm not a big Greyhawk fan, but it could make for an interesting campaign.

The funny part is that Jarzon reminds me of the way I always hear people want to play Paladins, as upstanding servants of their religion who unblinkingly smite anything that blips on their evildar. That paladin is more manly than the wussy, wishy-washy paladin who wants to bring criminals in to stand trial. When this is extrapolated into practice, it's suddenly propoganda.

My problem is portraying the paladins as the bad guys. Aside from not allowing detect evil, that's how I expect my players to play and they would soon suffer for their folly if they did otherwise.

Actually, my gripe with Blue Rose is that it portrays what I consider the realistic part of its world as a source of evil. D&D is almost as bad - excising realistic nations entirely - but that's somehow less offensive.

There doesn't seem to be any fun in changing the circumstance. It seems almost like buying a cd from a band you don't like, playing it on random, and then calling the artist and saying "I'm familiar with your new CD, but not in the order you want me to be familiar with it." Like you're really trying to show GR a lesson about how much you hate Romantic Fantasy by giving them $20 and perverting their ideas for the 10 people in your gaming group. It just doesn't mke any sense to me.

I assume it's intended for either humorous purposes or reverse propaganda. I'm not sure which Nisarg meant, but I would enjoy it for a laugh.

 

[barsoomcore]

Like you're really trying to show GR a lesson about how much you hate Romantic Fantasy by giving them $20 and perverting their ideas for the 10 people in your gaming group. It just doesn't mke any sense to me.

Did anyone in this thread suggest that they're trying to teach Green Ronin a lesson? I see people putting forth campaign ideas and saying, "I think this would be fun." You seem to be reading lots of motivation into all this that I don't think the post content supports.

I mean, how can it NOT make sense if the 10 people in my gaming group think it's FUN?

 

[Desdichado]

I mean, how can it NOT make sense if the 10 people in my gaming group think it's FUN?

Exactly. I don't think anyone's proposing, "let's teach Green Ronin a lesson!" although knowing Nisarg, maybe he is.

Rather, people in general are looking at a ruleset that they really like that's coupled with a setting that has a political agenda tattooed on it's forehead in neon green letters and are turned off by it. So they're thinking of alternate ways of running the game and bouncing the ideas off other gamers here. No big deal.

 

[Crothian]

Its odd that this setting has really hit a nerve with so many people. I mean you didn't see people saying they wanted to run campaigns from evil gods view in Midnight. It just amuses me to no end to see people react to the setting of Blue Rose. It is almost like with this game you have to play it not just as written, but even more so. Like there is some huge overforce telling people how they must run this game and people are rebeling against that.

 

[the Jester]

What exactly is Blue Rose? I may have missed it, but what I've gathered so far:

-it's a Green Ronin setting.
-it's got cool mechanics.
-seems like it's got an agenda of some kind?

Is it a game system in its own right? Is it d20? What's the agenda supposed to be (or will that go into political discussion?)

 

[Desdichado]

Its odd that this setting has really hit a nerve with so many people. I mean you didn't see people saying they wanted to run campaigns from evil gods view in Midnight. It just amuses me to no end to see people react to the setting of Blue Rose. It is almost like with this game you have to play it not just as written, but even more so. Like there is some huge overforce telling people how they must run this game and people are rebeling against that.

It's not really that interesting, Midnight (and most other settings) don't have such overt political agendas written into their very assumptions.

 

[Desdichado]

Is it a game system in its own right? Is it d20? What's the agenda supposed to be (or will that go into political discussion?)

It's an OGL game (technically not d20) similar to a fantasy version of Mutants & Masterminds in its system. It's based on "romantic fantasy" which is broadly interpreted as that type of fantasy novel that is aggressively pro-feminist, neo-pagan, anti-organized religion and very liberal.

 

[Crothian]

What exactly is Blue Rose? I may have missed it, but what I've gathered so far:

-it's a Green Ronin setting.
-it's got cool mechanics.
-seems like it's got an agenda of some kind?

Is it a game system in its own right? Is it d20? What's the agenda supposed to be (or will that go into political discussion?)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=119935

that one is a genreal talking about thread

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=120064

that's a review I did.

Basically it is a rules light system in a romantic fantasy setting. Romantic fantasy deals more with role playing emotions, relationships, then the standard D&D game does. It is low magic and will offer less combat. Some of the races are psionic animals.

 

[Crothian]

It's not really that interesting, Midnight (and most other settings) don't have such overt political agendas written into their very assumptions.

And as we learned my my Agenda thread people really only see agendas when they disagree with them. And it is really not that overt in the book. It is there but it is not the cornerstone by any means.