Update: A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying

Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Quick-Start RulesOrigins, our first big convention of the summer, is over and it’s time to give you all an update on A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. On June 21 Green Ronin participated in Free RPG Day and we gave away thousands of copies of a Quick-Start to introduce people to the new game. More were given away at Origins the following weekend. Today we are happy to announce that a PDF of the Ice and Fire Quick-Start is available for free on our website. Now those of you who weren’t able to get a physical copy can check it out.
The game itself is finished and entered layout a couple of weeks back. However, we are revising the release date to October. We had really hoped to debut the game at GenCon, but things always get more complicated when licenses are involved. As fans of the series already know, George R.R. Martin has been hard at work on the next volume, A Dance with Dragons. Basically, there was no way we were going to get in the way of George finishing the book. That, of course, must be his priority. So, we’re going to take a couple of extra months to polish the game and make it look truly spectacular. Then we’ll launch it in grand style. We may release the PDF version of the game earlier, but the printed game will come out in October.
This does not mean that George R.R. Martin fans will leave GenCon empty-handed, however. We will be debuting the Wild Cards campaign setting for Mutants & Masterminds there. We’ll also be giving away the remaining few hundred copies of the Ice and Fire Quick-Start there, so if you want a hard copy get to our booth early in the con.
We’ll be continuing our series of design journals for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying over the next few months, as well as preview the art and layout. Thanks for your patience. We know it will be worth the wait.
SIFRP Quick-Start Rules
A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying

Hobby Games: The 100 Best Wins Origins Award

Hobby Games: The 100 BestOur crew at Origins Game Fair reports in that Hobby Games: The 100 Best has won the Origins Award for Publication, Non-Fiction.
Thanks to everyone who voted and anyone who has enjoyed reading Hobby Games 100 even half as much as we did, and congratulations to all the winners and runners-up.

Freeport Blog: Using the Pirate’s Guide with 4E

Today on the Freeport Blog, Chris Pramas discusses how to use the Pirate’s Guide to Freeport with Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition.
Using the Pirate’s Guide with 4E

Using the Pirate’s Guide with 4E

Unless you’ve been detained illegally in a black site prison, you probably know that Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition came out this month. Many folks are giving it a try and I’ve heard a lot of GMs lament the fact that there aren’t any ready-made 4E settings available yet. Even WotC won’t have their new Forgotten Realms campaign setting book out until August. This is the beauty of the Pirate’s Guide to Freeport. It is a pure setting book that can be used with any fantasy RPG. It has no game stats at all, so you can just pick your game, add Freeport, and enjoy. If you are looking for a campaign setting for your new 4E game, you can start with Freeport right away.
The city can be used on its own or you can drop into any other campaign setting you like. You could even start a campaign in Freeport now, leave the rest of the world vague, and decide on the details of the larger campaign setting later. If you do want a full campaign setting right away, the Pirate’s Guide includes an optional chapter on the World of Freeport. This details “the Continent” in some detail and provides a ready backdrop for all kinds of adventures.
To complement the Pirate’s Guide, we have been doing a series of rules companions over the past year, which provide mechanical support for various game systems. We’ve done True20, d20, and Savage Worlds so far, with Castles & Crusades coming up next. We may do a Fourth Edition Freeport Companion if we can figure out how to do so under the terms of the new Game System License. In the interim, however, here are a few ideas on how to adapt Freeport to the 4E rules.
Levels: The Pirate’s Guide notates each NPC as being an apprentice, journeyman, or master. This translates easily into 4E, since characters now have a level range of 1-30. Apprentice characters are heroic tier (1-10), journeymen are paragon tier (11-20), and masters are epic tier (21-30). Now Freeport is a lot grittier than the new D&D, so you might consider making max level 15. In that case, apprentices would be levels 1-5, journeymen level 6-10, and masters level 11-15.
Races: Dragonborn are a new race of draconic humanoids and they have not featured in Freeport products before. However, Freeport is known as the Crossroads of the World and all sorts of strange folk make their way to there. Adding a few dragonborn to the mix is easy enough, particularly as the PHB paints them as wanderers without a home. They may even have come from another plane of existence.
Another sort of new race is the eladrin. They are basically high elves, which makes them the best match for most of the elves that appear in Freeport. The PHB’s elves would be the World of Freeport’s wood elves and they’d mostly be found in Rolland.
Freeport does have gnomes, and although they are not an option in the PHB there are rules for them in the Monster Manual. Those looking to make villains out of gnomes need look no further than the World of Freeport’s Autocracy of Iovan.
Classes: All the classes in the PHB can be found in Freeport. Pirates are best modeled by rogues, though fighters and rangers can also work pretty easily. Warlocks work well with the Lovecraftian elements of the Cit of Adventure. A warlock with a star pact with the Unspeakable One would make a quite suitable cultist.
Points of Light: WotC is pushing the idea of “points of light” campaign settings. The basic idea is similar to that of Warhammer’s Old World. There are villages, towns and cities that are pockets of civilization but between them are large areas of untamed wilderness that are by no means safe. At Green Ronin we like to offer many different models for campaign play, but if points of light is your thing the Ivory Ports is probably the best area of the World of Freeport for that. A border area of Hexworth could also work, with adventures focused in the Bone Lands.
These are just a few ideas on how to use Freeport with 4th edition. If you have more, come on over to the Campaign Settings message board on GreenRonin.com and share them with your fellow gamers.

SIFRP Design Journal: The Hand of Destiny

Today we present the fourth of Rob Schwalb’s Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying design journals, wherein he reveals just what destiny has in store for your SIFRP character, or in actual fact, what one can achieve by either spending or burning Destiny Points in the game.
SIFRP: The Hand of Destiny

Free RPG Day

Free RPG DayThis Saturday is Free RPG Day, and we’re taking part in a big way with the Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Quickstart. This free book contains enough rules to get you started playing, pregenerated characters, and an adventure.
We think it’s always a great idea to check in with your local stores to see what’s new, and this Saturday you’ve got some extra incentive, since you can also go home with tons of cool free stuff from your favorite RPG publishers. Check it out!

Crooks!, Second Edition PDF

Crooks! Second EditionWe are pleased to announce the release of a little project we’ve been working on, namely Crooks!, Second Edition. This wildly popular villain sourcebook has been sold out for ages, but now it is finally updated for the second edition of Mutants & Masterminds, and is now available in PDF format for your purchase and download.
To celebrate Crooks!, Second Edition, and his own birthday, Steve Kenson has also posted an interview with Darren “Mancerbear” Bulmer, who did the second edition conversions of the nefarious n’er-do-wells in Crooks!
Crooks! 2e Design Journal
Crooks!, Second Edition PDF

SIFRP Design Journal: Nuts and Bolts

This morning we’ve posted a third design journal by Rob Schwalb, for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. Previously he has written about the game design process and the use of dice in the game. This installment details the abilities each character in the game uses to perform actions, from riding a horse to winning a throne.
SIFRP: Nuts and Bolts

Mutants & Masterminds Annual #2 PDF

Mutants & Masterminds Annual #2Previously only available in a limited print run to our Freelancer Fundraiser donors, the Mutants & Masterminds Annual #2 is now available in PDF format from our Green Ronin Online Store. It will not be reprinted, but if you weren’t able to pick it up the first time around, you can now have it in electronic format.
Mutants & Masterminds Annual #2

Buccaneers of Freeport PDF Preview

Buccaneers of FreeportWe have posted a preview directly from the pages of Buccaneers of Freeport. “Among those pirates of whom legends are sung and drunken tavern-tales told, few are as infamous, or spoken of with such awe, as Scevola Hest, captain of the Black Contessa.” Read all about this spiteful spirit of a sea captain, and get a taste of Buccaneers of Freeport.
Buccaneers of Freeport PDF Preview: Scevola Hest