Fantasy AGE Bestiary: Pre-Order, PDF, and Preview

Fantasy AGE Bestiary

We are pleased to open up pre-ordering for the Fantasy AGE Bestiary. As with all our Green Ronin Pre-Order Plus products, when you pre-order the print book through our Green Ronin Online Store or through a participating Pre-Order Plus retailer, you’ll be able to get the PDF for just $5.

Fantasy AGE Bestiary:

What does every fantasy RPG campaign need? Monsters! Monsters! Monsters! The Fantasy AGE Bestiary gives Game Masters a plethora of new foes to challenge their players, from classics like the basilisk and minotaur to new monsters like the eldritch crown and shard lord. Each creature is fully detailed, with background information, adventure hooks, game stats, and variants. This beautiful, full-color hardback is the first sourcebook for the Fantasy AGE RPG and an indispensable resource for Game Masters.

PDF Preview: Gatorkin

Like to try before you buy? Check out this free PDF preview of the Gatorkin.

Pre-Order the Fantasy AGE Bestiary today!

(Or buy the PDF for $16.95, if you prefer pixels to paper.)

Return to Freeport, Part Two: The Abyssinial Chain (Pathfinder Adventure PDF)

Return to Freeport Part Two: The Abyssinial Chain (PDF)

Return to Freeport Part Two: The Abyssinial Chain (PDF)

Freeport and Pathfinder fans, it’s time for the second part of Return to Freeport, The Abyssinial Chain

Return to Freeport
Freeport is known for its adventures, from Death in Freeport (the one that started it all!) to the mega-adventure Black Sails Over Freeport. Now the City of Adventure goes back to its roots with Return to Freeport! This six-part adventure series for the Pathfinder RPG is a new way to begin your Freeport adventures.

Part Two: The Abyssinial Chain
A silent threat grows in Freeport’s streets, even as the city’s newest heroes bring the terror of the Brine Witch to an end. One of the pirate city’s own leaders brings Freeport ever closer to war, lining his traitorous pockets even as he plans to open the city to foreign invasion.

Ronin Round Table: The Price of Success

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” — Cersei Lannister

praying-to-old-godsSpoiler Warning: This article references material from Season 6 of Game of Thrones and contains spoilers for viewers who have not watched through at least the fifth episode of the sixth season of the show.

Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire—and players of the roleplaying game—know full well that success often comes at a cost, and it can be a very high cost indeed. Part of the way the Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game manages this cost is through the use of Destiny Points, which players can spend or “burn” (permanently expend) in order to influence the narrative of the game, helping move things towards a particular outcome at a cost. This is detailed on pages 71–72 of the Game of Thrones edition. Similarly, the rules for injuries and wounds in battle, frustration in intrigues, and yielding in both (see Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 of SIFRP) reflect the notion that success is often achieved through sacrifice and setbacks of various sorts.

What about combining these two elements? If you want to emphasize the notion that success comes at a cost in your Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying chronicles, consider the following options: Read more

Ronin Round Table: How to Get the Most Out of Hero High by Catalyst

p36Hi, I’m Reena Sarin, but in my superheroic identity I go by the name Catalyst! I’m probably the coolest member of the Next-Gen with my tech skills, innate mutie powers, and home-made control rod. I’m like the poster child for girls in STEM! (That’s science, technology, engineering, and math, in case you weren’t aware.)

Anyway, with the new Hero High book on the way, the folks at Green Ronin recruited me to talk to you about making the most out of your time at Claremont Academy. The book is packed with pretty much everything you’d want to know about the school and offers a lot of options for setting the school in different places, like in the middle of a huge city (fun!), in a rural area (yawn!), in a specific neighborhood in a larger city (cozy!), in a mobile game where everyone is on the run from something or someone (exciting!), in a satellite so you can travel the world (cool!), in a spaceship traveling through space (spaaaaace!), or as part of a dimension-hopping team that gets to see new worlds all the time (awesome!)! I don’t know what sort of game you’re into, but you can pretty much do anything you want with the advice offered in the book and a little imagination.

Geez, there’s so much in this book about customizing the school to fit how you want to use it that it’s hard to pick something else to talk about. I mean, seriously, there’s bits on the sorts of classes the school offers, suggestions to help you come up with personalities for teachers, the sorts of adventures that can arise from kids in a school. There’s information on changing the school from being run as a private school to being part of a government program or making it a totally secret facility—probably to keep the kids safe from the outside world … but also to keep the kids from, like, blowing up the neighborhood, too. There’s even ideas to help players figure out how their heroes ended up coming to the school. I thought that part was pretty cool and gave me some interesting ideas.

I feel like I’m going on and on about all this stuff. Rather than listening to me babble, here’s the section on running a Hero High series (I totally lifted this right from the book):

 

SERIES OPTIONS

There’s a few givens about a series set at Claremont Academy. The first is the series likely involves elements like coming of age, interactions with their peers, and the excruciating climb to maturity through love, friendship, and heartache. Drama is a major cog in school-centric games, and while it’s not necessary to run that style of game, those elements are often crucial.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t additional options to a Claremont Academy series, however. And, it doesn’t mean these options have to last longer than a school year, taking the heroes on an extended story arc that starts in fall and ends by the spring. The next year, a new story-arc or series begins.

EXPLORERS OF THE UNKNOWN

Duncan Summers, with help from heroes capable of ex­ploring other dimensions, is still probing nearby dimen­sions, looking for powered teens in need of sanctuary. Whenever he (or his allies) locates one, he requires help in rescuing them and finding a new place for them to live (it may not always be Earth-Prime). For this, he might require the heroes because of their particular talents or because no one else is available and the mission should be an in­teresting field trip. In addition to the schoolwork, their ex­tra-curricular activities, their friends, and the adventures they find themselves in, Summers’ dimension-hopping allies may “borrow” the heroes to rescue someone in need.

POLLUTED HISTORY

Duncan Summers has always managed to keep Clare­mont Academy’s history a secret, but the fact is, there was a reason why the property got turned from a failing estate into a private school, and why the private school eventually failed (as mentioned in History). Now, Claremont Academy’s secrets are once again rising up to bring misery to a new generation of inhabitants, unless the heroes can somehow break the cycle once and for all.

SHADOW FALL

The school has been home to beings capable of traveling to other worlds for years. Their repeated travel to and from Earth-Prime from the school’s grounds has breached the dimensional membrane over the years, leaving behind micro-cracks between this reality and other worlds. Now, creatures that live in the interstitial buffer between di­mensions are seeping into the Academy and wreaking havoc. Sometimes they manifest as deadly, horrible crea­tures, and sometimes they inhabit and mutate the living (plants, animals, people). This results in a monster-of-the-week scenario where, in addition to managing their lives, the heroes encounter emanations of these creatures. Meanwhile, they have to discover where these creatures are coming from and how to seal the breach (possibly at the point of a major incursion).

SHADOW OVER CLAREMONT

One of the new students at the academy is not who she appears to be. She is a recruiter for a villainous organi­zation, sowing dissent among the students, coercing teens into joining her organization (such as SHADOW or the Elysian Academy in Emerald City or one of the other Shadow Academies), and eliminating anyone who sus­pects her. She may be running her operation as an under­current in conjunction with another story arc, meaning she’s in position to feed her masters information and warn them of potential raids and attacks.

X-ISLE MARKS THE SPOT

The living city X-Isle (see Freedom City) has managed to snake its tendrils into the school, creating tunnels beneath Claremont Academy. Now, students are finding these tunnels and disappearing. They’re ending up in another version of their school that X-Isle created and are won­dering where everyone went. Can the heroes find these tunnels and the mirror school? And if they do, can they help rescue everyone and make their way back home?

Cool ideas, huh? Like I said, you can totally make your game however you want it. I mean, the default setting has the Claremont Academy being like a nice, private school near Freedom City. It’s got a bunch of super-powered kids, some of whom (like me!) who are training to be superheroes someday and some of whom are just learning to use their powers so they can get on with their lives … and a few who might not have the best of intentions. High school is full of drama. You know how it is.

I don’t know what else to say, so I’ll show off some of the art from the book. Check it out and I hope you come visit the school!

 

p102 p70 p89 p30

Rogues Gallery: Spectrum

Rogues Gallery: Spectrum (PDF)

Rogues Gallery: Spectrum (PDF)

We have a new Rogues Gallery issue this week: Spectrum!

The son of the Silver Age villainess known as the Color Queen, Spectrum is a self-righteous art critic turned super villain thanks to his mother’s exposure to the alien artifact she wielded for years. Now Spectrum tries to raise the public’s attitudes toward art—or at least the art he feels is worthy!

Get Spectrum today, for just $1.95!

Ronin Round Table: Heroes of Freeport: Tovarik Gertensen

Heroes of Freeport present the backstory of some of the characters depicted in art (and sometimes text) in Freeport: City of Adventure, and the Return to Freeport adventure path. They serve as examples of the kinds of characters that may be found in the City of Freeport, and be used as inspiration for PCs or as NPC backgrounds for the GM to draw from.


“Curse me, revile me, it makes no matter. I cleave to the Necromantic Censure, and it is my sacred duty to destroy those blasphemous creations of the necromancers, to bring to justice all those who dabble in the dark arts. It is thankless work, but I know that for each black wizard I burn, I am doing my part in thwarting the ancient Necro-Kings from rising once more.”

—Tovarik Gertensen, Witch Hunter (Freeport: City of Adventure, 398)

The Gertensen family name goes back 200 years in Freeport… and can be traced back no further anywhere. Erhilt may have taken a new name to ensure her defense of the fledgling pirate haven would not cause trouble for any family left on the mainland; or perhaps the previous Gertensen scions had simp

P370_pick-up

Art by Bryan Syme

ly been too boring to have their names remembered. The first mention of the name is Erhilt Gertensen, an inquisitor of the Church of Retribution during the time of Captain Drac and the foundation of modern Freeport. Erhilt was no pirate, instead dedicating her life to the hunt for and extermination of demonic forces, but somehow her twin loyalties to the gods of Justice and Retribution lead to her bloodying her sword in defense of the pirate have of Freeport. Perhaps some captain of a Continental naval ship dared to call upon demons to destroy Freeport. Perhaps Erhilt saw that the people of Freeport desired self-rule, and felt the demands of Justice required her to help them claim it.

Whatever the case, Sea Lord Drac came to understand that while the inquisitor would not aid him in his darker dealings, she would fight to protect Freeport from fiends, mortal and infernal. When the Church of Retribution sent forces to face a demonic invasion on the island of Devil’s Cry, Erhilt was left to protect the city in their wake. When no inquisitor returned from that campaign, Erhilt was one of the faithful who kept the Church limping along, and she took a husband and bore four children to ensure that duty would be maintained for generations to come. Her husband’s name is lost to history, in part because Erhilt saw to it her offspring were also named Gertensen. Two daughters and two sons took the name, and each joined the Church of Retribution and kept its doors open and its principles active.

The generations have not been kind to the four lines of the Gertensen family. One line migrated to Hexworth decades ago, where rumor claims they have taken up the study of darker arts. A second line died out just before the Church of Retribution finally closed its doors, every surviving member found gutted in their house on the same night. The third line left the Church before its final days, and actively supports the Swords of the Edict. These Gertensens are the most numerous… and the most presumptive. They believe only the Swords can save Freeport from itself, and spend as much time hunting down corrupt guards as true evils, and even more time preaching to common folk about the errors of their ways.

The fourth line, born of the single son of the Erhilt’s youngest daughter, and never numerous, saw the door of the Church of Retribution shuttered, but joined no other group. Each of these Gertensen lines taught a single child the ways of the old inquisition, swore them to the Necromantic Censure, and tasked that child with keeping the old ways strong, and passing their knowledge on to a single heir who was to pick up the torch should their parent falter.

And thus, 42 years ago, Tovarik Gertensen was born to Trute Gertensen and raised to be the last true inquisitor of the Church of Retribution. He trained hard under his mother’s tutelage, learning to speak the languages of fiends and to find truth in the words of madmen. A dozen evils had been faced and overcome by his line, but Trute taught her son that the greatest of all evils were not the demons who whispered in men’s ears, not the serpent folk who took human form. It was men themselves, most notably those who sought out necromancy, witchcraft, diabolatry, and the thousand other vile ways mortals can use dark arts to gain power.

When Tovarik came of age at 18, Trute told her son she believed some remnant of the inquisitors who had served the Church of Retribution might still exist near the island of Devil’s Cry. One of the war priests of that expedition had used an image of a morningstar with bearclaw spikes as a personal sigil, and rumor claimed that crates marked with such a sigil had begun to trickle into the Freeport docks, though none could say from what ships. As Tovarik was old enough to uphold the family duty Trute chartered a small ship to scout the area around the island, to see if the suggestion there were survivors was true. She never returned.

Young, alone, and driven to uphold the holy trust he had been given, Tovarik scoured the city in hopes of finding the source of the rumors that had led his mother to undertake her final voyage. More often than not, he found likely candidates were truly nothing more than rumor mongers and smugglers spreading false tales to earn a coin or distract the guard. These were not the evils Tovarik sought, but when he found the occasional slaver or kidnapper, his blade was quick to dispatch them. Slowly, word spread that Tovarik was an honest man, if not a friendly one, and someone who could be trusted to aid the downtrodden if no other aid was available.

Tovarik found himself besieged with minor horrors and family tragedies by hopeful, but often poor residents of Freeport, especially in the Eastern District. Mindful that common crime could be used to hide darker deeds, Tovarik spent years tracking down missing children, rousting illegal drug dens, and opposing fledgling gangs. From time to time he found a minor necromancer or mad alchemist, and filled with righteous fury, struck true and injured imps and minor demons no other blade would harm. Though many he aided could not afford to pay more than a few silver for his help, they offered what gratitude they could. When he saved the youngest niece of a shopkeeper named Assad for example, he was offered permanent room and board at Assad’s Smoke Shop, living beneath the common room in a small basement apartment, his presence not generally known, and voices from even hushed conversations above often drifting down to him.

When a rash of missing halfling children in the eastern District could not be solved by the guard, Tovarik was once again asked to investigate. His inquiries soon led him to the Hellhound Social Club, a stark building with little sign of being social, and the stern enforcers also called “Hellhounds” who operated from it to keep the peace in the Eastern District. Dunbar, the leader of the Hellhounds, dismissed Tovarik’s concerns, and even allowed the inquisitor to search the building. Finding nothing, Tovarik set about the boring work of watching the building night and day. After a week, he witnessed a Hellhound leaving the club late at night, only to be met by a tall and lean man who whispered to the Hellhound, and then lead him away into an alley.

Tovarik followed, moving with skilled silence and trusting his dark clothing to conceal him. Deep in the ally, the lean man gave the Hellhound instructions on how many halfling children to kidnap and bring to the lean man that night. The Hellhound replied only in monotones. Tovarik realized the enforcer was under some vile charm, and leapt to attack the tall man. His attack forced the man to leap back, dropping his cloak and revealing himself to be inhumanly tall and lean, with gray skin, and no face.

Tovarik and the Faceless Man battled, and Tovarik screamed and yelled. His cries brought other Hellhounds from the nearby club, who then restrained their fellow enforcer and helped Tovarik drive off the Faceless Man. Tovarik gave chase, tracking the figure only to lose him in a nearly empty street. A single bent elderly woman claimed to have seen the figure flee down an ally and Tovarik was about to follow… when he realized the old woman was bleeding. Upon seizing her, she revealed herself to be the Faceless Man, and Tovarik fought and slew her.

When the Hellhounds caught up, led by Dunbar, Tovarik explained that at least one of their number had been kidnapping the halfling children all along, under the influence of enchantment magic. Tovarik also reasoned that anything involving so many children would need space, and the Faceless Man likely fled toward his lair. Dunbar ordered the Hellhounds to roust every resident on the street, and search every room. By dawn, a dozen halfling children were found bound in a hidden basement beneath a dilapidated candy shop. No sign was ever found of six more who’d been missing, though all assumed the worst.

Dunbar offered Tovarik a place among the Hellhounds, which the inquisitor refused. But the two did form an uneasy alliance. From time to time Tovarik assists when the Hellhounds believe they have found a hint of the unholy in a disturbance in the eastern District. In return, the Hellhounds mostly have a hands-off policy in regards to Tovarik, and they keep their eyes and ears open for any sign of the bearclaw-morningstar sigil. However, Dunbar hasn’t mentioned that the Faceless Man’s lair included two crates with those markings. That information he is saving for a rainy day.

Errata: Dragon Age GM’s Screen

Dragon Age GM's Kit, Revised (Pre-Order)

We messed up. When we made the Dragon Age GM’s Kit, Revised Edition, we inadvertently printed the screen with the spellcasting block from the Fantasy AGE GM’s Screen, which we created at the same time. Please accept our apologies.

We have created a PDF of the corrected spellcasting block, which you can print on a sticker and apply to your Dragon Age screen:

Dragon Age Spellcasting Sticker

The area on the screen to be covered by the sticker is 1.25″ x 3.25″, so you might want to print on a bigger sticker and trim it to that size.

Rogues Gallery: Explodo the Great, Master of Blowing Things Up

Rogues Gallery: Explodo the Great

Rogues Gallery: Explodo the Great

Extroverted, egotistical, reckless, and interested in having a good time, Explodo the Great is a villain because he can be! He steals because it’s easy, blows things up because it looks cool, and terrorizes the population to show off. He typically warns people when the explosions are about to start, so it’s hardly his fault if they don’t run fast enough! Explodo is part fun, part crazy, and a whole lot of trouble!

Get Explodo today, for just $1.95!

Ronin Roundtable: Dragonpowder in SIFRP

Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 10.33.23 PMDisclaimer: This article discusses the concept of gunpowder in the setting of A Song of Ice and Fire, for the sole application of the roleplaying game A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. To be clear, the existence of gunpowder is wholly non-canon for the book series, and this article is written from a great big “What If?” perspective.

Recently, we at Green Ronin Publishing released a new PDF sourcebook for the Chronicle System, Spark to Powder. This PDF takes a look at pre-modern types of gunpowder technologies, and how to use them in a Chronicle System campaign.

But since the Chronicle System is the “engine” that powers our A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, even I couldn’t help but imagine what gunpowder introduced to Westeros might look like and how it might change the setting in some capacity. We’re calling it dragonpowder, not just for the flame it births so easily, but also for the devastating effect is has the potential to bring to warfare in Westeros.

So, without further ado, we look at the first hurdle to jump in such a scenario: Where does gunpowder come from? We offer three different answers for the Narrator to use in their campaign, perhaps even mixing and matching from elements as they like. Enjoy! Read more