Happy New Year, gaming comrades! I hope you all had a good holiday, and got some quality gaming in with friends and family. As has become a tradition here at GR, I’m here to spill the beans on our plans for the coming year. Last year was a bit awkward because in January I could not yet announce Titansgrave or the fact that we were designing D&D books for Wizards of the Coast. This year will be much less cryptic! So what’s have we got in store for you? Rather a lot, actually!
As I write this, members of Team Ronin (Joseph Carriker, Donna Prior, and I) are finishing up the weekend in San Jose, CA, at GaymerX (or GX3). It’s our first time at the insurgent game convention, initially funded on Kickstarter to provide a dedicated space for LGBTQ gamers to do what we do: get together, geek out, and play games. It has since expanded to encompass this year’s theme, “Everyone Games,” welcoming all gamers to the table.
It has been a terrific con. I ran two games for the tabletop program: In “Shadows of the Singer and the Star,” for Blue Rose, a small group of Aldin envoys of the Sovereign’s Finest investigated the disappearance of two young men from a town and uncovers a far greater threat.
Donna’s Titansgrave players
In “Whatever Happened to Stonewall?” for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying, a team of randomly generated heroes (Lineage, Heavyweight, Insectoid, Insight, and Mantis) helped save the legendary lesbian hero Stonewall from the armored Invictus and protect some of New York City’s queer monuments from his destroyer robots. Both groups of players were enthusiastic and really threw themselves into the games.
It was my second time running Blue Rose using the Adventure Game Engine rules system at a convention, and it underlined just how well the system will work in the forthcoming edition. There were also games of Titansgrave and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying on-offer from Donna and Joe, along with a room of Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons tables.
Queer as a Three-Sided Die panel
GaymerX offered a robust panel and seminar selection. We were able to bring the popular “Queer as a Three-Sided Die” panel we started at GenCon a few years ago to this con, where it found an enthusiastic audience. “Queer Divinities” talked about real world and fantasy mythology and theology and even got quoted in online coverage of the con. Sunday morning, Joe Carriker, Paizo’s Wes Schneider, and I ran a three-hour workshop on game-mastering skills, tips, and techniques, covering a wide range of topics, fielding questions, and sharing experiences along with our audience. The time flew by! GaymerX has a YouTube channel where they plan to share recordings of many of the seminars and panels.
Tim Mottishaw runs Star Wars for the game guests
Of course, the con wasn’t all about work. Our host, tabletop coordinator Tim Mottishaw, treated us to a game of Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars: Force & Destiny RPG and there were parties galore, from a VIP get-together to the cosplay prom and a drag show. By all reports, tabletop events and offerings did well at GaymerX. I certainly hope so, as I’d like to see them continue to grow and remain part of the vibrant, inclusive, fun-loving, creative community where everyone has a place at the table.
Titansgrave is coming to Gen Con! Make sure to login to your Gen Con account and look for SEM1582558 to reserve your spot! Presented by Green Ronin Publishing and Geek and Sundry.
This year is going to be an exceptionally strange and exciting time for us at Gen Con. Not only is Team Ronin headed out in force, but we’re sharing space with Geek & Sundry, highlighting Fantasy Age and Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana! We’re so excited to have such great games for Gen Con.
Before I get into the fun things happening, I want to kindly let you know what our Customer Service & Sales responses will be slow, as we’ll be dependent on whatever internet we can find while traveling and while we’re all working the show. Online orders for in-stock items (or PDFs of course) will continue to go out on the usual schedule.
For those of you lucky enough to be attending Gen Con, stop on by and say hello at Booth #1509! We’ll be running demos of Walk the Plank, Love 2 Hate, Icons Superpowered Roleplaying, Dragon Age, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Mutants & Masterminds, Ork!, and of course, Fantasy Age and Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana. Geek & Sundry will be featuring a photo booth, along with some great merchandise and surprises!
We also have volunteers running games at Gen Con, and we have some Seminars you don’t want to miss. If you didn’t get into a game, be sure to bring Generic Tickets to see if a spot opens up! There are quite a few sessions of games run by various GMs & Gaming Groups, and we have a list of the officially submitted games run by myself or our Freebooter Volunteer GMs! For the Seminars, there are currently spaces, but you’ll definitely need to pick up free tickets to attend!
Thursday:
RPG1575877 Blood in the Streets – DC Adventures/Mutants & Masterminds
RPG1575473 An Arl’s Ransom – Dragon Age RPG (at ConTessa!)
RPG1573267 Hell Comes to Squishy Man Town! – Ork! 2.0 The Roleplaying Game
RPG1576447 Fate in Freeport; The 1000 Year Storm – Fate System
RPG1575933 Shadows of Tanglewood – Blue Rose/True 20
RPG1576439 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
RPG1576440 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
SEM1578318 News & Updates on Green Ronin Publishing’s AGE System
Friday:
RPG1575878 Blood in the Streets – DC Adventures/Mutants & Masterminds
RPG1573275 Hell Comes to Squishy Man Town! – Ork! 2.0 The Roleplaying Game
RPG1576446 The Truth of the Fifth Blight – Dragon Age RPG
RPG1576441 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
RPG1576442 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
RPG1578320 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
SEM1578319 What’s New With Green Ronin Publishing!
SEM1582558 Titansgrave Q&A with Wil!
Saturday:
RPG1575905 Operation: Zandia – DC Adventures/Mutants & Masterminds
RPG1573282 Hell Comes to Squishy Man – Town!Ork! 2.0
RPG1575934 Shadows of Tanglewood – Blue Rose/True 20
RPG1576443 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
RPG1576445 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
RPG1578321 Titansgrave: The Rust Wastes – Fantasy Age
Sunday:
RPG1575906 Operation: Zandia – DC Adventures/Mutants & Masterminds
Thank you for your support, and we hope to see you at Gen Con!
https://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/gencontitansgrave.png340340Donna Priorhttps://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RoninBanner_2022_72.pngDonna Prior2015-07-27 05:59:242015-07-27 14:25:49Ronin Round Table: Green Ronin at Gen Con 2015
If you have been waiting to back Blue Rose: The RPG of Romantic Fantasy on Kickstarter, you’re almost out of time. We’ve been knocking down stretch goals left and right, and there are only about six hours left as of this post. The next stretch goal, unlocked at $82,500, is a second side on the poster map, which we really hope we get to do.
Please back Blue Rose while you can. (And thank you so much if you already did!)
In other time-sensitive news, on Tuesday at Midnight (the very end of day on Tuesday, Seattle Time) the Dragon Age RPG Core Rulebook pre-order deal will end.
Note: After a very inconveniently-timed technical issue, the pre-order deals in our store (pre-order selected books, get a deal on the PDF version) are working again. We are sorry about the problems. If you pre-ordered and didn’t get the deal please write custserv@greenronin.com to report the problem. If you have already done so, we will get you sorted out as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience!
https://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/BlueRoseWallpaper1_tablet.jpg20482048Evan Sasshttps://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RoninBanner_2022_72.pngEvan Sass2015-07-20 13:09:272015-07-20 13:09:27Blue Rose Kickstarter and Dragon Age Pre-Order Both Ending
https://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/GRR6001_2001.jpg260200Evan Sasshttps://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RoninBanner_2022_72.pngEvan Sass2015-07-15 11:30:082015-07-15 22:52:45Now Pre-Ordering: Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook
Yesterday, Nicole launched the Kickstarter project, Blue Rose: The AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy. Not only were we fully funded the same day, but we have already surpassed some of our stretch goals! We have been so excited to see the response to Blue Rose AGE. And in our excitement, we forgot to write a news post for it. Truly, this is a labor of love for the whole company and all the fantastic folks involved with the project.
Our new edition of Blue Rose looks to match its fantastic world with the critically acclaimed Adventure Game Engine or “AGE” System used to power Green Ronin’s Dragon Age tabletop RPG adaptation, also seen in the Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook and Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana on Geek & Sundry’s web series of the same name. The new edition of Blue Rose will contain all of the rules you need to play the game, along with all of the key information about the world of Aldea, its nations, characters, and conflicts―everything you need to create your own stories and adventures.
Why Now?
So why Kickstart a new edition of Blue Rose now? When Green Ronin began the process of turning AGE into a stand-alone game system for supporting multiple settings, one of the first we thought of was Blue Rose, a fantasy world that had something different to offer, that could in turn expand the options available in the game system to include psychic powers and a focus on character motivations and inner struggles, among other things.
We also felt that we could improve Blue Rose. A lot has changed in gaming―and society―in the ten years since the original edition of the game was published. A new edition for the AGE system offers us a great opportunity to carry forward the setting’s ideas with the advantage of a decade of hindsight and new understanding, as well as player feedback.
Most important, we feel that games like Blue Rose are needed. Awareness of the importance of representation and inclusion in the hobby and the industry has grown in recent years. Now publishers need to follow-through on that increased awareness and deliver games that help to fulfill its promise. That’s what we’re looking to do with this Kickstarter so, if you agree, we would really appreciate your support.
Stretch Goal Details
The setting material our freelance designers have pitched to us is detailed on our Kickstarter Project page. Each one of these would be roughly 2000 words long, and expand the World of Aldea in a new way. The micro settings are regions reachable through shadow gates that can provide new places to explore. We would really love to break our $100,000 Stretch Goal, so we can produce a Fate Blue Rose Companion by Brian Engard and Clark Valentine, the authors of our popular Fate Freeport Companion.
Thanks to so many generous backers, we have hit the following stretch goals:
We are super close to unlocking the next stretch goal!
https://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/gamers.jpg14251988Donna Priorhttps://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RoninBanner_2022_72.pngDonna Prior2015-06-23 16:25:112015-06-23 16:26:21Blue Rose AGE is now on Kickstarter!
We’re extremely excited to announce our very first t-shirt contest, to help promote both the Blue Rose RPG and the forthcoming Blue Rose RPG Kickstarter campaign. Our community of players is made up of some extremely talented and skilled folks, and we’re always amazed by the artwork created by so many of them.
As Nicole mentioned in her Blue Rose Ronin Roundtable, we’re also super pumped to be bringing the game back with a fresh new system and new stories. Stories of inclusion, of representation of marginalized voices. Stories created by marginalized voices.
“Relationships and community, finding your own authenticity in the face of bigotry, presenting your best self and working for a better world? Those issues are in my news feed every day. Heroes fighting for the greater good are not the sole providence of comic books and they’re going to be taking their place in the new Blue Rose release. My abiding concern as we move ahead is to make sure we improve on our prior presentation. Happily, I can say that our working relationship with BioWare over the evolution of the Dragon Age property has been educational and inspiring and has definitely affected my attitude towards the Blue Rose reboot. The evolution from Dragon Age 2, where we saw trans characters as elven prostitutes played for laughs to Dragon Age: Inquisition where a significant NPC is revealed as transgender in a much more sensitive, and more importantly organic, manner was not only the right way to address a prior misstep but a deft handling of the issue that rippled through the development of the culture of the Qunari and resulted in a much richer background for the world of Thedas as a whole. That is what I hope to see from a Blue Rose reboot as well.”
Which brings us to our new t-shirt contest! We’re offering a chance for you to design our latest tshirt, specifically for the Blue Rose RPG. First place will receive $250 USD, along with a copy of the new Blue Rose RPG. And of course, will receive one Blue Rose RPG shirt, featuring the winning design! 2nd and 3rd place winners will also receive one free Blue Rose RPG t-shirt.
So, are you ready to enter? Of course, we have some rules for you. Whilst we would love to allow people of all ages and nations to enter, we cannot due to contest laws outside the USA. We are a super small company, and don’t have the resources to manage an international contest. We would also love for our younger fans to participate, but as you have to sign a legal agreement to enter & win, we can only accept entries for folks 18+.
Note: By submitting you agree to the rules, so you might as well read them. They’re not that long. Honest.
https://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BlueRoseCover.jpg390300Donna Priorhttps://greenronin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RoninBanner_2022_72.pngDonna Prior2015-06-19 16:42:532015-06-20 12:42:42Enter the Blue Rose T-Shirt Contest!
