Where We've Come From, and Where We're Going

by Steve Kenson

Greetings, heroes of Aldea! Things have been busy here at Green Ronin Publishing, and it's time to update you on all things Blue Rose. So let's take some time to see how far we've come and take a look at where we're going in the rest of the year.

Blue Rose Now Available in Stores

Blue Rose: the RPG of Romantic Fantasy, is now available in stores! The print edition of Blue Rose is arriving in fine game and hobby stores across the country and around the world. Fans as far away as Australia have received their copies of the game, and we've heard reports of it showing up on game store shelves everywhere. If your favorite local game store doesn't have Blue Rose (or other Green Ronin products) in stock, ask them to place an order for you!

In addition to the lovely print edition, Blue Rose is also available in electronic format as a PDF on RPGNow.com, where it has been a top seller for the past few months. The PDF edition is bookmarked and searchable, allowing you to quickly find whatever you're looking for, and provides a handy reference for those times when you don't have your book at hand. It's also a less expensive way of trying out Blue Rose (after our free Fast-Play Rules, of course).

So now that Blue Rose is out there, what's next? We've got two other Blue Rose books in the works for publication later this year: one focusing on expansions to the game system and more hero creation options, the other expanding the fantasy world of Aldea for your stories and adventures.

Every Hero Needs a Companion

The Blue Rose Companion is planned for release early this summer. It offers expanded game systems and options, giving you even more ideas for Blue Rose heroes. The book is broken down into three main sections:

Part I: Heroes looks at heroic roles, skills, and feats. It provides detailed paths for each of the three heroic roles, taking the initial paths offered in Blue Rose and expanding them. Each path comes with a detailed description of that type of hero and a progression of feats from 1st level all the way up to 20th level, making it easier than ever to choose a path for your hero to follow.

The skills section looks at additional things your heroes can do with their skills, including various tricks and stunts, and how to turn those into knacks for your hero, giving every character options for distinctive "signature" moves.

The Companion also gives you over fifty new feats for your romantic fantasy heroes, from acquiring followers and palatial estates to advanced mastery of the arcane arts and even more maneuvers and options for heroic combat.

Part II: The Arcane Arts provides advanced applications of some basic arcana from Blue Rose, such as extending psychic shields, deathblocks, psychic grappling, mental eavesdropping and tracking, and other techniques. It includes new arcana, like Dreaming and Shadow Shaping, as well as advanced arcane feats, from Weather Shaping to Self-Shaping.

With Arcane Rituals, adepts can perform rites to gather the energy they call élan to expand and strengthen the power of their arcana. Sorcerers perform profane rituals calling upon the power of Shadow to grant them powers no mortal should wield. The gifted struggle to control wellsprings and places of power, and heroes seek to purify those places tainted by the touch of Shadow.

With rites of summoning, heroes call upon the manifest spirits of nature to aid them, while sorcerers call up darkfiends from the depths of Shadow, and sell themselves in service to the Exarchs in exchange for power and knowledge.

Finally, arcane adepts and crafters imbue items with power, allowing heroes to bond them and wield their magical might. The chapter describes three types of items: tools, raiment, and structures, each imbued with the powers of Art, Skill, or War. From the Chalice of Invocation and the Healer's Amulet, to the Envoy's Colors, Bane-blades, and the Table of Accords, it presents numerous examples of imbued items for use in your own adventures.

Part III: The Bestiary expands on the selection of foes for your Blue Rose adventures. It includes new types of creatures like constructs and vermin, along with templates and how to use them to create new creatures. It presents dozens of new creature descriptions, from animals to aberrations, shadowspawn, and the unliving.

Exploring the World of Aldea

Following the Blue Rose Companion in the late summer is the World of Aldea. This sourcebook expands on the setting material from Blue Rose, describing the lands and peoples of Aldea in greater depth, and offering more settings and adventures for your Blue Rose games.

Each of the nations described in Blue Rose receives a chapter of its own: from Aldis to Jarzon, Kern, and Rezea. Each chapter looks at the history, culture, and geography of the nation, provides guidelines on running stories set there, and offers some adventure ideas and outlines for your use.

Additionally, there is a chapter on the Roamers and their former homeland, now the haunted ruin known as the Shadow Barrens. Learn what became of the nation of Faenaria and how the greatest visionaries of the Faenari, the people who would become the Roamers, foresaw their land's doom. You can explore the dangers and mysteries of the Shadow Barrens, and seek the light still rumored to shine in their darkest depths.

Leave the shores of Aldis and set sail for the Matriarchy of Lar'tya, the exotic island alliance and trading partner of Aldis. Its caste society is ruled by women, at odds with Aldis' egalitarian ways. Maintaining friendly relations is the work of diplomatic envoys of the Sovereign.

If you dare, sail beyond the islands to seek the distant and mysterious lands to the west, across the vast ocean. The World of Aldea offers ideas on adding other setting sourcebooks from Green Ronin to the greater world of Blue Rose.