Mags,
Have you found a rpg yet that might interest SD? Alot of the suggestions have been mini based games which may not be up SD alley. The other day I came across a game that might take the cake for SD and you.



The premise behind this game is Romantic Fanasty settting. Now before you dissmiss this idea think about it. Its geared for those that like the ideas behind fanasty but shy away from the hack and slash of old school rpgs. Authors that have inspired this game are Mercedes Lackey, Diane Duane and Tamora Pierce. Yes I have read most of these authors work, and for the most part I liked/loved the ideas and worlds they had created.

I have here a copy of that the game's designer had to say about the ideas behind Blue Rose


# Simplicity: Our first goal was to simplify many of the elements of the d20 System for use with Blue Rose. Much of the core system focuses on tactical and combat elements. We wanted Blue Rose to have a more freewheeling style. So a great many of those elements were stripped out of the game. You won't find attacks of opportunity, for example. There are only three main character classes (called roles) and the skill list has been consolidated and pared down. The goal was provide a simple and streamlined system for fantasy roleplaying.

One important element to simplifying and speeding up play in Blue Rose was to adapt the Damage saving throw system from Mutants & Masterminds, eliminating the need to track hit points or make separate damage rolls. It also allowed us to base Blue Rose entirely off a single twenty-sided die, no other dice required!

# Familiarity: While we modified and adapted the d20 System rules, we also kept many familiar elements, including character class and level, essential skills, ability scores, feats, and many of the basic mechanics. Players of other d20 System games can pick up the essentials of Blue Rose very quickly, and there are enough familiar elements in place that you can even import material from other d20 System products! With the use of some short and simple guidelines in the Appendix of the core rulebook, you can port over things like creatures, equipment, and other resources from your existing library of d20 fantasy sourcebooks.

# Consistency: Blue Rose presents both a game system and a setting (the fantasy world of Aldea), so we made sure the rules are consistent with that setting. Among other things, Blue Rose presents an entire new system of magic, called arcana, based on feats and arcane skills rather than the spellcasting of other d20 games. The arcana system helps capture the style of mystical powers from the source fiction and fits into the way people in Aldea see and use magic. Although there are many different sorts of arcane specialists (seers, healers, shapers, psychics, and so forth), they all use the same game rules, and their powers can all interact. The same is true of sorcerers, the corrupt magic-wielders of the setting, who start out the same as other adepts of the arcane arts, but find themselves seduced by the power of Shadow.

# Romance: Blue Rose could hardly be called "the roleplaying game of romantic fantasy" without the romance! So we made sure to expand information on the use of interaction skills and provide Narrators with plenty of advice on running games in the style and tone of romantic fantasy fiction.

# Completeness: While some players of Blue Rose will no doubt be experienced gamers, we also hope Blue Rose will be some people's first exposure to roleplaying games. So we wanted to make sure the core rulebook had everything you need to play the game. That's why Blue Rose is being published under the Open Game License, allowing us to include material on creating your own heroes and advancing them as well. The rulebook has everything from hero creation to action resolution to guidelines for the Narrator, a bestiary of foes, and an introductory adventure. All you need is a d20 and some friends to start playing!


Yes it is based on the D20 system but it has made it more D20lite or as they (the followers of Blue Rose) like to call it True20. Now from the fourm at Green Ronin the game looks quite cool, for it has the feel of D&D but with out the added baggage of the "new and improved" system.

Yes I will by this game (most likly as a PDF - love the pdf system) and yes I will try it out on my wife. The other cool factor is that the system is not genre locked, meaning that you could do nearly anything with it and keep the rules-lite feel.

Hope this helps.

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

Ah, Lord Abbadon - my hobby horse!

I'm expecting guests after which I shall consult my extensive archive. Most startling, it began even way before the Magsman's celebrated nativity: in 1950! - A British comic paper that was way, way ahead of the field in every area: glossy paper, fine full-colour art work by the most gifted illustrators; probably one of the first real Space Operas plus many other stories and strips of a high narrative quality.

I may be gone a while, but be prepared for a mighty waffle! Denny should be warned over the possibilty of one of the most unadulterated off-thread trespasses the forum has ever seen....

(OK, not that bad perhaps. I'll practice real self-discipline and keep my neck hauled in But I'll give you some gen. I feel certain that anyone interested in the matters covered by this forum would be very interested in The Eagle. During a time when Superman, etc, was poorly printed on bad paper-stock, The Eagle was truely awesome.

MAGSMAN


Lord Abb: -

Your last post seems to have ported-in an instant before my last!

Blue Rose sounds utterly fascinating! Thanks indeed

As I mentioned to Aleph13 earlier, over the next week I will be trying to summarise some of the many things I've learned in the short time I've enjoyed this forum. Its been a steep and rapid learning curve for me as I've been totally ignorant of almost everything to do with contemporary rpgs. I've been fascinated by the huge depth of mythic knowledge, narrative, product - all the related items - to such an extent I feel slightly dizzy with it all. In the final analysis I think I'll be dipping my toe in a few quite different areas, then trying to absorb them sufficiently to make some sort of judgement relative to rpgs, me and SD.

I haven't mentioned any of this to SD yet. Its will be difficult for me, going it alone, as it were, drawing in rules and information that most of you have gathered over the years. I'm already finding niggling grey areas in some rules, the sort of thing you would discuss with your mates and DMs. As a would-be personal mini-DM relative to SD I'm going to have to walk a canny path. One thing I don't want is for me to be digging into rule books resulting in substantial periods of boredom while she taps her fingers, wondering what the hell this is all about! I must appear confident enough to carry the thing in magical, almost seductive manner. I do so want it to be magical! Something to invoke the sweet, imaginative, life-afirming girl she was...

This going to be hard. as I mentioned in an earlier post: "something of a Quest in itself...

Meanwhile, I'm terminating some of the other forums I've been involved in. In retrospect, some haven't been very happy experiences. I don't like to be either critical or judgemental, but I think you might know what I mean when I say I don't like cliques, little bunches of 'in the know' guys for whom its a private club in which newbies are merely tolerated. Not that I've been faultless. I can be too pushy with an acerbity of wit which some people find hard to take! I've found the opposite on this board. A huge generosity of spirit.

I look forward to examining Blue Rose in depth. It really does seem to have something special about it: I can do Romantic! And one D20? - that can't be bad.

I've got to go for tonight. Unusually, we have unexpected guests: nice, though

Regarding the esteemed Colonel Dare, I'll borrow Arnie's much abused catch-phrase: "I'll be back!" - although perhaps not till monday. A hectic social life! That's a first for SD and I!

Thanks for your efforts. Truely appreciated.

MAGSMAN


Lord Abb:-

PS: Before powering-down my computer I couldn't help but open the link! Even the page itself spells promise. Rather Art Nouveau in the Mucha style. SD loves all that. If the art-work continues in a like vein, and that is indicative of the narrative style, this may be the very thing ...

PS: You aren't into "The Field" and the JZ Knight stuff by any chance? Just a thought?

MAGSMAN


PPPS: Lord Abb:-

(My guests are champing at the bit, their stomachs rumbling and throats parched through lack of alcohol...)

Something about the book grabs me. I think this one might have to be hard copy. The price is reasonable enough but I know from experience that the shipping costs from the states will be lethal! I'll try and see if its available in the UK first. Somehow this feels right. And if she likes looking at the pictures, half the battle will be won! -

MAGSMAN

The Field is a bit of a hobby for me, as is most things that was once thought of as "a bit left hand".
I would love to get Blue Rose as a hardcopy, and is slated for me at my local but I think that it might come in around $55Aud. I can get it and print it off then bind it for around $26Aud, and then I will have a copy for the computer. I usually print off with either cardstock 200gsm or if it is very black picture heavy (All Flesh Must Be Eaten)at 90gsm, I have Savage Worlds printed on 200gsm - very clean and eye-catching text. My print copy of AFMBE is on 90gsm that was put into landscape mode and two pages were printed upon the one sheet - then double sided. As my collection of RPG and all things good (read Hirst Molds and WWG structures) gets bigger and bigger and with no perment digs (renting in the innercity) I have to look at thinks like pdfs.

Also I love the ritual of printing and binding the books - self empowerment at its best.

And I do enjoy having the books on the screen and running Find functions through it. Being able to print one page or a passage.

I still might get the Hardcopy even with the pdf - but not at the moment.

As for the style of Art Nouveau which is Romantic in its purest form, my first and only pack of Tarot Cards were Art Nouveau. I have every intention of scanning some images for use in-game.


I hope your guests didn't suffer too long at the hands of a "Bad" Host

Catch up later.

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I might as well plug one of my under rated favorites - - to quote the game - 7th Sea is a roleplaying game of swashbuckling and sorcery, piracy and adventure, diplomacy and intrigue, archeology and exploration. It's a world of musketeers, pirates and privateers, ancient sorcery and lost civilizations, horrors that hide in the shadows and horrors that hide in plain sight.

It is a game that is well suited for a single player, or small groups. The largest group I ever ran was for 12 people. Only the major villains are allowed to kill heroes, and there are rules for such things as leaping away from explosions. The system rewardes drama as well as action, if you are leaping out of a window to escape a jealous spouse, pausing to kiss the frail before leaping, you will gain more benefit than if you simply ran the husband through.

Like Storyteller the game uses D10s exclusively, you roll a number of dice equal an attribute and an applicable skill, keeping a number of dice equal to the attribute (I recommend swapping this, keep the skill in dice, otherwise attributes become far too important). However 10s 'explode', you get to roll the die and add the result to the previous 10, if that is also a 10 then it keeps exploding. No matter how many times a die explodes it still counts as a single die, I have seen one that reached more than 40.

Rather than just the GM setting difficulties there are 'raises', where a player decdes to raise the target number for a more spectacular result. For example the, the lowest rank of NPC is the 'Brute squad' (as in 'I'm in the Brute squad' 'You are the Brute squad' - the writers acknowledge The Princess Bride in their biblioggraphy) For every 5 points the player raises the target number another brute goes down with a single roll.

To aid and abet in this there are what are called 'Drama Dice', which are added to the die result when the player feels the need, after all the other dice are rolled. You get more Drama Dice for behaving in a dramatic fashion, for example kissing the lady before you leap...

So let us say that the adventurer Jean-Paul duLac has kissed the wife of the major villain, with whom he has been playing court, he speaks dramatically, sweeps the girl into a swift embrace, then leaps... and fails in his roll, heading straight for the pavement rather than his waiting horse. So he spends a Drama Die bringing the total up to his target... and because he was dramatic he gets another Drama Die to use later. You are supposed to go through them like water.

The game never forgets the romance. For swashbuckling the game is fast, easy to learn, and after a while transparent, since a lot of the things normally decided by the GM are decided by the players instead. While I like the D20 version I vastly prefer the original. It has a system that fits what you are trying to do.

Another, now sadly out of print, game is The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen - The Game of Drinking, Gambling, and Competitive Lying. Character generation consists of writing down the character's name on a placecard. You play nobles drinking around the table at a bar (the game recommends playing in a real bar), swapping lies in turn. No dice are used, but you keep a pile of coins in front of you, yes, real coins, this is a gambling RPG.

At any point during a player's story you can add a complication by sliding a coin toward him, and saying something along the lines of 'wasn't that where you met the budgerigar cannibals?'.

At this point the player has a choice, he can keep the coin and add your complication, or he can add a coin to the one you gave him and slide it toward you again, responding with something like 'Oh no, no, no, you are thinking of my sojourn in the Canary Isles.'. You (or anyother player for that matter) can add yet another coin to the pile and slide it back to storyteller, with suitable commentary, this keeps going until somebody decides that the pile is big enough, and the story continues.

The only complications that you cannot add is calling the storyteller a liar, So saying 'didn't you die?' as a complication is an implied lie, since he is here to tell the tale. in which case you immediately fight a duel. Or if you lack the moral stamina of a good swordfight then you can settle it with Rock, Scissors, Paper, but where's the fun in that? (In the group that I played in the players all belonged to the SCA, so they did in fact duel.) If you lose then you are dead and can no longer participate in the game, your coins all go to the victor of the duel.

You can pass your turn by buying a round of drinks for all the other players.

At the end of the game you push the your pile of coins to the person who's tale was the best, winner buys the drinks. By tradition the tab always exceeds the pot.

It is one of the few roleplaying games where there really is a winner.

The Auld Grump

[quote=

One thing, though. Has anyone looked at the Rackham game: Hybrid? It looks very good to me: beautiful figs, tiles, cards, etc. Interesting...[/quote]

Just wanted to say hi and welcome. Sorry...I'm an infrequent poster as I am deployable military and I have a baby on the way...so kinda busy. Rackham Hybrid is a beautiful game as far as the components go. It's worth it for that alone. The rules are unique and a bit on the complex side though. Especially if you are trying to entice a group of non gamer friends to play with you. It's really not for a casual gamer crowd. If you want a fairly good site for game reviews take a look at www.gameboardgeek.com . All this said, I love the atmosphere and look of hybrid.

Zipdaddy