Ronin Round Table: Titansgrave Details, Writing Team, and More

Last week we were finally able to reveal our role in Wil Wheaton’s upcoming RPG Show, Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana. We’ve been working hard on this project for many months and were delighted and relieved for the news to go public. Nicole and I were in Burbank all last week for the filming, so we got to watch the reaction to the news from the set. Quite gratifying after months of secrecy!

Last year, when Wil and I were first talking over the project, I noted that the schedule was aggressive. I may have even said “ridiculously aggressive.” Wil paused and asked, “Do you think we shouldn’t try to do it?” And I said, “We absolutely should. This could be the best thing to happen to RPGs since the publication of the D&D red box in 1983.” That may sound like hyperbole to you but I meant it then and I believe it even more after the filming. No one has done a show like Titansgrave before. We’re going to show a huge number of people how awesome roleplaying games are and what it’s like to play in a campaign. I think it’s going to be an amazing boost for the entire roleplaying hobby and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

The show debuts on Geek & Sundry on June 2 and runs for ten episodes. At GenCon Green Ronin will release two books together: the Fantasy AGE RPG and Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana world and adventure book. Fantasy AGE is the next development of the Adventure Game Engine, the rules system I designed for the Dragon Age RPG. This is a core rulebook for the system and you can use it with a huge variety of settings. Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana is a book that features world information and supporting rules, and the adventures that are featured on the show. This means you can play your own version of the campaign the cast got to experience. Since each episode will be roughly 45-60 minutes, the book will include plenty of encounters new to viewers, as well as options for customizing the story for your group.

If creating a book like that in a short time sounds like a lot of work, it is! That’s why we recruited a crack team of designers to put the adventures together. These folks had short deadlines and limited world information when they started, so they deserve huge kudos for doing a great job in challenging circumstances. So who are these intrepid writers? Let me introduce them:

Keith Baker (Eberron, Gloom)

Leonard Balsera (Fate Core, Dresden Files RPG)

Logan Bonner (Pathfinder RPG Unchained, The Slaying Stone, Refuge in Audacity)

Will Hindmarch (Eternal Lies and Odyssey: Journey and Change)

Jackson Lanzing (Hacktivist, Freakshow)

Nicole Lindroos (Vampire: The Masquerade, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying)

Robert J. Schwalb (Shadow of the Demon Lord, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying)

Mike Selinker (Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, The Maze of Games)

Clark Valentine (Dresden Files RPG, Fate Accelerated)

Ray Winninger (DC Heroes, Dungeoncraft)

We also recruited cartographer supreme Andy Law (whose work you can see in the new Freeport: City of Adventure book) to do the maps and he did a stellar job on short notice.

All in all, a great team and we could not have done this without them. I’ve been developing the adventures, and working on world and story stuff with Ryan Wheaton, Nicole, and Wil.

Now that the shoot is over, it’s full steam ahead to finish the two books and get everything off to print in time for GenCon. We’ll have much more to share with you about Fantasy AGE and Titansgrave as the clock ticks down to their debut. Watch this space and our social media, and we hope to see you at GenCon!

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin Publishing