After 22 years in business, the Green Ronin warehouse is looking a little crowded. With reprints and new products incoming, it’s time to make more space! These deals are for print products only. With limited stock and priced to clear some pallets, this is a screaming deal (75% off!) you don’t want to miss. With that, we offer you the LAST CHANCE WAREHOUSE SALE!
Please note the sale does not extend to shipping, and shipping fees are determined by the carrier.
The Green Ronin Convention Crew reports from Indianapolis that Gen Con is going well! Alex and Jonesy are running sold-out games, and some products are already sold out as well. Here is a view, care of Disembodied Troy, of what’s for sale at Booth 101.
Here’s a view from inside the dealer hall at Gen Con 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana, showing off all of the goodness available for sale this weekend at booth 101, right inside the hall entrance next to Paizo. If you’re at the show, stop by and see us!
New at Gen Con are Cyberpunk Slice and Five and Infinity for Modern AGE RPG, Danger Zones and Starhaven for Mutants & Masterminds, Six of Cups for the Blue Rose RPG, the 5e adventure A Shadow in the Downs for The Lost Citadel, and a novel for The Lost Citadel, A Song of Eagles! And, as you can see in the video, we have tons of other great game products, like Sentinels of Earth-Prime, The Expanse RPG, Freeport, and more. Plus, we are running awesome bundle deals at the show. Booth 101!
We’ve since sold out of some things, necessitating some revised bundle deals, which look like this:
It seemed like 2020 lasted for a decade but at last we are here in 2021. As is traditional, I’m going to tell you about some of our plans for the coming year. What is not traditional is that a global pandemic still rages and even with the vaccines rolling out things won’t be back to any kind of normal this year. We still face many challenges. Some game stores closed their doors permanently during this crisis, while others are operating at reduced capacity. Simply put, we aren’t selling as many print books through distribution as we did pre-Covid and it’s unclear when that trend might reverse. We’ve been adjusting to this in various ways, but it has impacted our schedule. Some planned projects were put on hold, others will be delivered in different formats or though different methods. It’s a juggling act and so far, we are getting by. If you’ve supported us this past year, thank you so much! Now let’s talk about what we’ve got planned for 2021. Rather than break this down by game line, I’m going to talk about the different approaches we’ll be taking to bring you games and fiction.
Traditional
Some titles we will still release in our standard way, which means a PDF release followed by a traditional print job. These books then go to game stores, the book trade, and our online store. We’ve just recently released the Time Traveler’s Codex for Mutants & Masterminds. The next book to go to print will be Ships of the Expanse, along with a reprint of game’s rulebook. Later in the year you can expect to see Modern AGE Mastery, the Fantasy AGE Core Rulebook, Book of Fiends, and Envoys to the Mount, an epic campaign for the Blue Rose RPG. We also have our continuing line of fiction through Nisaba Press. Tales from the Mount is a fiction anthology that ties into Envoys to the Mount. Our latest novel is Sacred Band by Joseph D. Carriker.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is nothing new for us and it’s a method we’ll continue to use in the future. Our next campaign will be for the Fifth Season RPG, based on N.K. Jemisin’s terrific novel trilogy. We also have several previous crowdfunding campaigns that are nearing completion. Q Workshop has manufactured The Expanse Dice Sets for us and they should be shipping over from Europe soon so we can begin fulfilment (Pre-order now for an Exclusive set of Protogen Dice before they’re gone!). The Book of Fiends—our gorgeous 5E monster books of demons, devils, and daemons—is in layout with art pouring in. Then Sentinels of Earth-Prime, a card game that combines the Sentinels of the Multiverse rules with our Mutants & Masterminds setting, is art complete and we’re sending it to print. All of these titles will be available through normal channels after the fact if you missed the crowdfunding campaigns.
Virtual Tabletops
I don’t know about you, but I’ve done a lot of online roleplaying during quarantine. While we have had Mutants & Masterminds available on Fantasy Grounds for years, we now have a team that’s working to bring more Green Ronin titles to various virtual tabletops, including Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry. We’re now working on getting some of our AGE games, including The Expanse, up for play. We’ll also be doing things like token and map packs.
Now available in Print On Demand at DrivethruRPG!
Print on Demand
Previously, we haven’t done much with print on demand books. In the early days I just didn’t think the quality was there, but this has improved vastly over where it was 10 years ago. We’re thus going to be offering more titles on DriveThruRPG with a print on demand option. Just last week we launched the Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide, which brings our world of Aldea to the 5E rules, with both POD and PDF options. The Sword Chronicle RPG that we launched last year also now has a POD option.
Electronic
We continue to release new fiction anthologies in epub/mobi/PDF. Recent titles include For Hart and Queen (Blue Rose), Powered Up! (Mutants & Masterminds), and Under a Black Flag (Freeport). Then we have RPG titles that are PDF only. These tend to be shorter releases like the Astonishing Adventures for Mutants & Masterminds. We have similar adventures in the works for Modern AGE and The Expanse. We also have our continuing series Danger Zones for Mutants & Masterminds.
Patreon
Another new avenue we are exploring is Patreon. We just launched a Mutants & Masterminds Patreon so check that out if you are a fan. It’s proving a convenient way to bring some older characters back in the Third Edition rules. Right now, we are just a few patrons away from unlock even more exclusive content. Once we reach that milestone, we will be adding location write-ups, with the top-tier patrons being included as shop owners or NPC characters in new monthly releases. That would be in addition to the weekly character stat blocks we release every Monday. If M&M goes well, we may explore Patreons for other games as well.
Streaming
You may have noticed that we’ve been ramping up our online presence thanks to Troy, with things like Mutants & Masterminds Monday with Crystal Frasier and Steve Kenson and the new ThursdAGE with Owen Stephens. Expect to see more of that in the future. We’re also interested in hearing from you if you are streaming our games. Do you host a stream or podcast that uses a Green Ronin title? Do you have a favorite streamer/podcaster we should know about? Send those cast social details and a short explainer to letsplay@greenronin.com.
Onward
That’s the story for 2021. Hopefully, we can get through this year without rains of frogs or plagues of locusts or the like! If you enjoy what we do, please consider supporting any or all of what I’ve talked about today. We’d love to see more of you on the M&M Patreon, for example, or reading our Nisaba Press fiction. Right now, we also have two offers going on the Bundle of Holding, one for Dragon Age/Fantasy AGE and one for The Expanse/Modern AGE. Those are great deals on the PDFs if you want to check those games out.
Thanks for all your support! We sincerely appreciate it. Stay safe out there and we hope to see you at cons again in 2022.
Happy holidays from all of us at Green Ronin! I don’t think 2020 was the year any of us hoped for but on the upside, it’s almost over! Right now, we’ve got our Year End Sale going on, which offers 20% off most of our titles through January 3. Get gifts for your friends and family, or just treat yourself. If you survived 2020, you deserve it! Two important notes. First, we do offer gift certificates in our online store, so if you don’t know what to get for the gamers in your life, that’s always an option. Second, shipping is particularly slow this year, so if you want things in time for Xmas, get your orders in early. If you aren’t sure what to get, I’ve put together a gift guide that may help. Let’s get to it!
As you may heard, 2020 was Green Ronin’s 20th anniversary. One way we celebrated that was with new editions of one of our earliest releases. I wrote Death in Freeport 20 years ago, and now it’s available in two formats: Fantasy AGE and 5th Edition. Pick your system and then set sale for Freeport, the City of Adventure! Fantasy AGE fans will also enjoy Lairs, another new book for this year that features a host of ready to use encounters. 5E fans should check out The Lost Citadel Roleplaying, where players are survivors of an undead apocalypse in the last city standing.
If you want a flexible RPG that can handle just about every sub-genre of action adventure, check out Modern AGE. It got its character/adversary book this year with Enemies & Allies. If you want a kickass setting, also check out Threefold. It got some adventure support with Five and Infinity, which we serialized over the course of the year. We also launched Modern AGE Missions for even more PDF adventure support. We’re certain you need 30-50 feral hogs in your Modern AGE campaign, so make sure to check that out!
Blue Rose, our Romantic Fantasy RPG, is also getting (and giving) a lot of love right now. If you’ve never checked it out before, there’s a new Quickstart that gives you a complete adventure with rules and pre-generated characters. For more experienced players, we’ve just put Envoys to the Mount up for pre-order. This is a complete campaign for Blue Rose that takes characters through all four tiers of play. There’s also a tie-in fiction anthology called Tales from the Mount that’s available now. You can get a bundle with both Envoys and Tales too!
Speaking of fiction, our imprint Nisaba Press has some great titles for holiday reading. Blue Rose fans will definitely want to check out Sovereigns of the Blue Rose, an anthology of stories about the fourteen rulers of Aldis. We’ve also just released Sacred Band, Joe Carriker’s critically-acclaimed LGBTQ+ superhero novel. Supers will also enjoy Roadtrip to Ruin, the latest Mutants & Masterminds novel. If short stories are your jam, we’ve released three anthologies this year: For Hart and Queen for Blue Rose, Powered Up for Mutants & Masterminds, and Under a Black Flag for Freeport.
Superhero fans should look no further than Mutants & Masterminds. If you haven’t tried it before, jump right in with the Basic Hero’s Handbook. We’ve just release the Time Traveler’s Codex (now available in print!), which is a whole book about timeline hopping shenanigans. If you’ve been wanting adventure support, we’ve really leaned into that this year with the Astonishing Adventures PDF series. These include stand-alone adventures and the five-part series NetherWar. Danger Zones is another new series. Each entry details a new location for superheroic action. And, by popular demand, we’ve also just released a deck of Condition Cards!
But what if you want to go to outer spaaaaccceeee? That’s where The Expanse RPG—based on the terrific novels by James S.A. Corey—comes in. There’s a free Quickstart if you haven’t dived in yet. This year we released Abzu’s Bounty, a series of six linked adventures for the game. Salvage Op offers a one shot for an evening or two of play. We’ve also just put Ships of the Expanse up for pre-order. This is the long-awaited book full of deck plans and details about the spaceships of the setting.
Last but by no means least, we launched the Sword Chronicle RPG this year. This takes the system we designed for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying and spins it off into as an independent fantasy system. This has been available as a PDF for several months but just this week we’ve made it available as a Print on Demand title on DriveThruRPG.
Happy holidays, everyone! See you in 2021!
In a previous Ronin Roundtable, we mentioned a little bit about the Character Hooks mechanic we developed for Envoys to the Mount. In this Ronin Roundtable, we’re going to introduce you to not only the Hooks themselves, but how players select and use them, along with a sample of one of them.
At the beginning of game play, the Narrator will pass around a sheet that summarizes the Hooks used in the campaign. Players choose these Hooks based on the summaries, allowing them to focus on the role they want to play within the chronicle. This is an example of the Vata Hook summary:
The arcane runs through your veins as surely as blood does. You might be one of the pale vata’an, graceful and ethereal. Or you might be one of the umbral vata’sha, whispered about by the ignorant and superstitious. Regardless, you are an inheritor of the ancient legacy of the lost vatazin people. You might have been born to entirely human parents, or perhaps one (or both) of your parents are vata themselves. No matter your origins, you have found a place among the Sovereign’s Finest.
Choose This Hook: If you want to play a vata character in this campaign, a character with a mystical heritage who will begin to uncover ancient secrets about their people.
Once all of the players have chosen their Hooks, the Narrator then gives each a handout which contains the following information. We have included the Handout for the Vata Hook here as well, so you can see what it all looks like.
Envoys to the Mount is available for pre-order now in our online store, and on DrivethruRPG!
Don’t forget, you can also pick up the Nisaba Press anthology Tales from the Mount along with your PDF (also available on Drivethru), or select the add-on offer with the print version of Envoys to the Mount, for just $5!
And did we mention there were free pre-generated characters for Envoys? Just in case you wanted to get playing right away! Shocking no one, they are on DrivethruRPG as well!
The existence of the Sovereign’s Finest in the nation of Aldis has, from the beginning, been almost entirely for the benefit of player characters. It exists to give player characters not just a reason to go out and do “adventurer” things, but to do so with royal approval and as national heroes.
Since this chronicle focuses on the players all as envoys of the Finest, we decided that we needed to spend some space talking about the Sovereign’s Finest. Not just how they fit into the setting (as the Blue Rose core rulebook does a fantastic job of doing). But what it is like to be an envoy. We take a look at ranking systems and roles within the Finest, introduce you to some of the movers and shakers among the envoys, and examine play at every level of the organization (as the organizational chart in this article suggests).
Moreover, we explore the mechanics of the Finest as well. New Specialties and Talents, unique items, new Titles, and even a system that puts player character envoys in charge of defensive structures, outposts, and other strongholds – all in the name of the Sovereign, of course.
This single appendix is chock full of information for players and Narrators alike for playing envoys of the Finest, and is sure to see lots of play at the table even after you have enjoyed the chronicle in the main part of the book.
Envoys to the Mount is available to Pre-Order right now! If you’d like to own both the print and PDF versions of the book, you’ll see an offer for the digital files at checkout for just $5! We’ll even throw in a copy of Tales from the Mount for just $5 as well! And don’t forget that we have a free PDF of 8 pre-gen characters for you to use if you’d like to get playing right away.
Be sure to check out our previous articles on the Ronin Rountable blog!
Designing a Envoys to the Mount
Mounting Anticipation
In the world of Blue Rose, the Kingdom of Aldis is normally where it’s at, but our newest releases, Envoys to the Mount and Tales from the Mount, are instead taking us on a journey to a very different destination, indeed: the Shadow Barrens, sorcery-defiled remnants of the once-thriving realm of Faenaria, where stands the quasi-mythical Mount Oritaun.
Envoys to the Mount is a campaign sourcebook for Blue Rose, spanning levels 2 to 17, which challenges a band of the Sovereign’s Finest to embrace their Destiny and defy Fate on an errand of mercy with repercussions to be felt throughout all of Aldea, now and for ages to come. While the quest begins innocuously enough—rendering aid to people in need across the kingdom—the adventure will lead these envoys to uncover ancient arcane secrets, pursue (and be pursued by!) deadly enemies, walk the streets of a metropolis long ago lost to Shadow, and ultimately stand against the earthly champion of the Exarchs in a battle both for the future of a lost people and for the soul of the world.
However, Envoys to the Mount is so much more than just a campaign. It also serves as a guide to the Sovereign’s Finest, outlining organization, operations, ranks and responsibilities, and all the other information needed to understand the inner workings of this revered Aldin fellowship. Within, you’ll learn what’s expected of an envoy, as well as the privileges and obligations of those who ascend the rank, and both a brief history of the Finest and a “who’s who” of its current leadership. Further, Envoys to the Mount explores the terrifying Shadow Barrens in detail—its vistas and many hazards, along with various points of interest for the bold… or the foolhardy—and provides new mechanics for use in this or any other Blue Rose campaign, such as the corrupt Shadow Dancer Talent and the exciting new system for challenge tests (a kind of advanced test with the potential for consequences every step of the way).
Of course, what’s a Blue Rose campaign without compelling player characters? Thus, we’re also releasing a free set of eight pregenerated 2nd level characters uniquely suited to the events of Envoys to the Mount, with built-in plot hooks intended to draw them directly into the action. While not necessary to enjoy Envoys to the Mount, these characters can jumpstart your adventure and get you right into the thick of things!
Last, but certainly not least, is Tales from the Mount, a nine-story anthology of nearly 300 pages of Blue Rose fiction centered upon the events, themes, moods, and settings of Envoys to the Mount. These stories shed a light on the dreaded Shadow Barrens and the terrible things that lurk within, through the exploits of those who defy Shadow with love and courage. Within its pages, you will accompany not just those braving the Barrens from without, but also travel alongside those from within that nightmarish land, to see that hope can bloom in even the most unlikely earth. Tales of bravery and sacrifice, of darkest sorcery and bittersweet triumph, await you!
What stories will you tell of Mount Oritaun?
As we announced earlier this week, to celebrate the release of Sacred Band’s Nisaba edition, we are giving you the Mutants & Masterminds stats for the five members of the team, one per day. Today’s instalment is the elementalist Llorona !
Here’s the introduction to this series from Monday, just in case this is the first blog post you’ve found:
“My writing compatriots often joke with me that I write novels like a game designer: eighty thousand words into world building before I realize that I need a plot and some characters. In the case of Sacred Band, the joke is literal truth, though.
As part of my character design, I decided to turn to a familiar “language” for my development of Gauss, Deosil, Sentinel, Optic, and Llorona – the language of game mechanics. Specifically, the Mutants & Masterminds rule set. Building my protagonists in that system allowed me to make decisions on things like abilities and limitations as a structured undertaking.
Of course, when the story needed something that the rules didn’t or couldn’t account for, the story won out, but having that starting line to apply my creativity to in the first place made the process much easier than just writing into a blank space entirely.”
Echoing during the Houston Event in the mid-80s, Llorona has seen much of superhero history first-hand. Named for a tragic figure from Mexican folklore, Llorona’s power is sonic in origin, a terrifying wail that she can use to make herself ghostly and intangible for as long as she can maintain the shriek. She works for the Golden Cross, a superpowered organization that helps with natural and man-made disasters the world over, which puts her in a position to sometimes see the worst humanity has to offer…but to then also do something about it!
You can download the character sheet for Llorona right here!
Sacred Band is now on sale in the Green Ronin Online Store (in print or in ebook) and on Amazon (in print or for Kindle). It’s even available in ebook on DrivethruRPG. Look for it at your local retailer as well!
Monday’s Sacred Band character sheet for Gauss
Tuesday’s Sacred Band character sheet for Deosil
Wednesday’s Sacred Band character sheet for Sentinel
Thursday’s Sacred Band character sheet for Optic
We hope you’ve enjoyed these character sheets for the cast of Sacred Band. Be sure to let us know if your group uses them in your games of Mutants & Masterminds!
As we announced earlier this week, to celebrate the release of Sacred Band’s Nisaba edition, we are giving you the Mutants & Masterminds stats for the five members of the team, one per day. Today’s instalment is the elementalist Optic!
Here’s the introduction to this series from Monday, just in case this is the first blog post you’ve found:
“My writing compatriots often joke with me that I write novels like a game designer: eighty thousand words into world building before I realize that I need a plot and some characters. In the case of Sacred Band, the joke is literal truth, though.
As part of my character design, I decided to turn to a familiar “language” for my development of Gauss, Deosil, Sentinel, Optic, and Llorona – the language of game mechanics. Specifically, the Mutants & Masterminds rule set. Building my protagonists in that system allowed me to make decisions on things like abilities and limitations as a structured undertaking.
Of course, when the story needed something that the rules didn’t or couldn’t account for, the story won out, but having that starting line to apply my creativity to in the first place made the process much easier than just writing into a blank space entirely.”
Today’s member of Sacred Band is Optic, the photoassumptive former military man capable of turning his body into a coherent field of light! Though he served with the superpowered Air Force unit known as the Seraphim with honor and dignity, he was the first super ever drummed out of the military under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and was influential in the repeal of that law. Since then, he’s done well for himself as a Hollywood action star, but he’s secretly itching to be back in uniform doing good work!
You can download the character sheet for Optic right here!
Sacred Band is now on sale in the Green Ronin Online Store (in print or in ebook) and on Amazon (in print or for Kindle). It’s even available in ebook on DrivethruRPG. Look for it at your local retailer as well!
Monday’s Sacred Band character sheet for Gauss
As we announced earlier this week, to celebrate the release of Sacred Band’s Nisaba edition, we are giving you the Mutants & Masterminds stats for the five members of the team, one per day. Today’s instalment is the elementalist Sentinel!
Here’s the introduction to this series from Monday, just in case this is the first blog post you’ve found:
“My writing compatriots often joke with me that I write novels like a game designer: eighty thousand words into world building before I realize that I need a plot and some characters. In the case of Sacred Band, the joke is literal truth, though.
As part of my character design, I decided to turn to a familiar “language” for my development of Gauss, Deosil, Sentinel, Optic, and Llorona – the language of game mechanics. Specifically, the Mutants & Masterminds rule set. Building my protagonists in that system allowed me to make decisions on things like abilities and limitations as a structured undertaking.
Of course, when the story needed something that the rules didn’t or couldn’t account for, the story won out, but having that starting line to apply my creativity to in the first place made the process much easier than just writing into a blank space entirely.”
Sentinel is in today’s spotlight, and rightly so! One of the Original superheroes of the setting, Sentinel is an iconic figure in the world’s mind. When anyone thinks of superheroes, they think of this high-flying, super-strong powerhouse, though he’s known just as much for his good nature and sense of right and wrong. A terrible scandal forced him out of the public eye, but just the right situation might bring him out of that retirement.
You can download the Character Sheet for Sentinel right here!
Sacred Band is now on sale in the Green Ronin Online Store (in print or in ebook) and on Amazon (in print or for Kindle). It’s even available in ebook on DrivethruRPG. Look for it at your local retailer as well!