Ronin Roundtable: GenCon GMing for Green Ronin

GR-Gameroom1If you are a publisher, you of course want people to have the opportunity to play your games at GenCon. You can run demos at your booth but the exhibit hall is no place for long form RPG adventures (it’s super loud and booth space is limited). Those are better handled as scheduled events. Finding good and reliable game masters for your RPGs can be challenging though. In past years we’ve had mixed success with our GenCon events. What I really wanted was a dedicated area filled with Green Ronin games. To get that, you have to have a certain number of events. Coordinating that is a job in itself.

Enter Donna Prior, Green Ronin’s events manager. I told her what I wanted and wow, did she deliver. We had over 90 scheduled events this year and GenCon gave us a dedicated room for them on the second floor of the convention center. Going into that room and seeing tables full of gamers playing Fantasy AGE, Dragon Age, Mutants & Masterminds, and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying was amazing. Read more

Ronin Round Table: Unexpected Heroes

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to run a few games at GenCon. Since I have a novel, Sacred Band, releasing soon, I decided to create a Mutants & Masterminds scenario where the players played the characters who star in that novel. Gimmicky and self-serving, yes, but since creating my protagonists in the Mutants & Masterminds rules set was part of the character design I did as part of writing the novel, it seemed only fitting.

Now, part of my setting postulates occasional natural disaster-level phenomena referred to as “Echo Events.” These are always different, but almost always disastrous in some way. They are also where one of the three kinds of supers in my setting get their powers (these folks are called “Echoes,” for obvious reasons).

The scenario for the convention—titled “Sacred Band: The Indy Event”—has some of the heroes attending a certain gaming convention in the middle of an Indianapolis summer when one of these Echo Events hits. Crazy, unexpected phenomena arise: large metal structures being “floating” skyward, certain people find themselves the center of hive minds of dedicated drone-like followers, animals in the zoo nearby become super-strong and savage, and bodies of water all across the area begin to inexplicably rise. Read more

Rogues Gallery: Skyjacker (PDF)

Rogues Gallery: Skyjacker (PDF)

Rogues Gallery: Skyjacker (PDF)

The Skyjacker is a thrill seeker and professional risk taker. He wasn’t built for everyday life and at the first opportunity, he stole an experimental aircraft, kidnapped its inventor, and began his career as a buccaneer for hire along with his crew of Sky Pirates! Now, as aerial pirates, he and his crew make their living stealing from others or selling their very specialized services.

Hire Skyjacker and his Sky Pirates today!

Pathfinder Short Cuts: Thanemages of Freeport (PDF)

Pathfinder Short Cuts: Thanemages of Freeport (PDF)

Pathfinder Short Cuts: Thanemages of Freeport (PDF)

Today we resume our Short Cuts series of Pathfinder-compatible PDFs. These are tightly-focused PDF products that look at a single topic relevant to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. All Short Cuts are appropriate for use with Freeport: The City of Adventure, but can also be easily used in any Pathfinder RPG-compatible campaign setting.

Short Cuts: Thanemages of Freeport is a 7-page pdf that presents a new base class designed to operate in Freeport, but appropriate for use in any Pathfinder Roleplaying Game-compatible campaign setting. Thanemages are warriors who also study arcane secrets, combining armed might with magical skill to sometimes devastating effect (especially against supernatural foes). They are combatants first and foremost, but have learned that against some foes magic is the only effective weapon. This flexible approach applies both to their spellcasting (requiring them to prepare spells in advance, but allowing them to choose from among all their prepared spells when deciding what to actually cast), and the supernatural powers they learn to turn against horrifying eldritch foes.

Get the Pathfinder Short Cuts: Thanemages of Freeport PDF today for just $2.95!

Rogues Gallery: Esquire (PDF)

Rogues Gallery: Esquire (PDF)

Rogues Gallery: Esquire (PDF)

It seems as if we got distracted by Gen Con and forgot to let you know that we released a new Rogues Gallery PDF for Mutants & Masterminds back on August 1. (Thank you to everybody who rolled a critical perception check and found Esquire already—we appreciate your support!)

Esquire is one of the world’s richest men. He was raised to be exceptional and he has embraced his high status wholeheartedly, even going so far as to hunt people for sport on their turf or, more likely, on his private island. His deadly skill with his specially-designed rifle makes him dangerous, but his money and lawyers make him almost impossible to stop.

Get Esquire today—just $1.95!

Press Release: Geek & Sundry and Green Ronin to Create Critical Role RPG Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GEEK & SUNDRY PARTNERS WITH GREEN RONIN TO CREATE RPG BOOKS BASED ON ITS GROUNDBREAKING SHOW – CRITICAL ROLE

New Line of Sourcebooks To Be Written By The Show’s Creator and Star Matthew Mercer

August 8, 2016—SEATTLE, WA: Green Ronin Publishing announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with Geek & Sundry to release roleplaying game sourcebooks based on Critical Role, the weekly web series in which eight renowned voice actors come together for an ongoing Dungeons & Dragons game. The books, which will be written by Critical Role creator and Game Master Matthew Mercer, will bring readers into his world of Exandria. The announcement was made by Chris Pramas, president of Green Ronin and Ryan Copple, General Manager of Geek & Sundry.

Critical Role has excited many new fans about the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Each week, the show attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers, who watch it both live and recorded. Overall, Critical Role has garnered over 50 million views since its launch in March 2015. The cast includes Mercer, Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson (Blindspot), Sam Riegel, Liam O’Brien, and Laura Bailey. Additionally, the show has attracted quite a few celebrities who have joined the cast as special guests including Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, and Phil Lamarr, to name a few.

“Watch even one episode of Critical Role and you can see that Matthew has developed a rich setting for his campaign,” said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. “We are delighted to be able to bring the world of Exandria to RPG fans and doubly so that he will be writing the books himself.”

“The request I get most often is if I’d be interested in releasing my world to everyone, allowing them to set their own home games in a detailed Exandria,” said Mercer. “I am so happy to be able to finally say yes! I’ve put so much of myself into Exandra and Tal’Dorei these past years, and am so excited and proud to be working with Green Ronin to bring Exandria to our community and the gaming community at large!”

Work has already begun on the first book, Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting, which explores the main featured continent of the world of Exandria. It is scheduled for release in Spring of 2017. All books in the series will use the Fifth Edition rules.

“Green Ronin Publishing has been an incredible collaborator with Geek & Sundry,” said Felicia Day, actress, writer, producer, and founder of Geek & Sundry. “Last year, we worked together to bring Wil and Ryan Wheaton’s world to life in both the series and adventure book of Titansgrave. With the growing demand for fans to explore the world of Critical Role we knew they were the perfect partner. With only one question left in our minds, to borrow from the Critter community, ‘Is it Spring Yet?’”

More information and previews for the Critical Role RPG sourcebooks will appear on www.greenronin.com in the coming months.

About Green Ronin Publishing

Green Ronin Publishing is a Seattle based company dedicated to the art of great games. Since the year 2000 Green Ronin has established a reputation for quality and innovation that is second to none, publishing such roleplaying game hits as Dragon Age, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, and Mutants & Masterminds, and winning over 40 awards for excellence. For an unprecedented three years running Green Ronin won the prestigious GenCon & EnWorld Award for Best Publisher.

About Geek & Sundry

Geek & Sundry is a digital entertainment company recognized for providing the best in award-winning Internet television content featuring leading voices in geek culture and lifestyle. Founded in 2012 by Felicia Day, the company offers a diverse content lineup of video games and tabletop gaming, such as Wil Wheaton’s TableTop, and explores the verticals of comics, music, literature, comedy and beyond. The network has also recently launched GnSLive on Twitch that provides of 30 hours of live content every week. Geek & Sundry is owned by Legendary Entertainment and is part of the Legendary Digital Networks which also includes Nerdist and Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls.