Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - Now Pre-Ordering! Freeport: The City of Adventure

From the Green Ronin Website

Freeport: The City of Adventure for the Pathfinder RPG is on its way to print, and that means it's now available for pre-order! When you pre-order this massive Freeport tome, you can get the PDF version of the book for just $5! In our online store you'll be offered the PDF at checkout when you have the pre-order in your basket; participating retailers will be able to get you a coupon code for our online store that will provide the same deal on the PDF when you pre-order the hardback through them.

Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - Now Pre-Ordering: The Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG

From the Green Ronin Publishing Website

The Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG is on its way to print, and that means it's now available for pre-order! When you pre-order the Advanced Bestiary, you can get the PDF version of the book for just $5! In our online store you'll be offered the PDF at checkout when you have the pre-order in your basket; participating retailers will be able to get you a coupon code for our online store that will provide the same deal on the PDF when you pre-order the hardback through them.

Pre-Order the Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG today!

Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - RPG Designer Tryouts

From the Green Ronin Website

We are looking for new freelance design talent at Green Ronin. Have you always dreamed of writing for RPGs? This could be your opportunity! Below you will find documents for each of our major game lines (Dragon Age/AGE, Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder, and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying/Chronicle System). These documents are from our line developers and they tell you how to submit for each game. Follow the instructions carefully! This is a key skill for freelancers to have. If we ask for a sample monster and you send an adventure, don't expect an email back.

Tryouts are open until August 31. We look forward to your submissions!

After Action Report – Free RPG Day @ Comic Quest, June 21, 2014

I had heard about Free RPG Day a few weeks ago.  This is supposed to be a day that is effectively a combination of Free Comic Book Day and International Tabletop Day.  The idea behind it is to give the participants a feel for role playing games by providing them with starters to game systems and provide their first exposure to the games through introductory adventures.

I decided that I would go to this event for two reasons.  The first was that it was a weekend where I did not have another event that I would normally attend happening so I was looking for something to do with my Saturday morning/afternoon.  The other reason was that I wanted to give Pathfinder a try. 

Happy 40th Anniversary to Dungeons & Dragons

On or about this date 40 years ago Dungeons and Dragons was first published by TSR.  Even though I do not play the current incarnation of the game, this is the game that launched me into the gaming hobby so many years ago.

I remember getting my Basic D & D set for Christmas in 1980 and playing Keep on the Borderlands with my friends for weeks afterwards.  I still have my original box set almost 34 years later.  It is a little worse for wear but still in usable condition.  We then started playing our own home brewed adventures whenever we could after that.  Whenever I could put together $5 - $10, I would pick up a module at the local store. (The good old days when a published module only cost $5 - $7 to purchase.

Love it or hate if it were not for Dungeons and Dragons, tabletop gaming would not be what it is today because many of the game designers that we know and love today may not have gotten involved in game design without it whether they are currently creating board, card, miniature, or even video games.  So take a moment to reflect on what Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax and the peopl in their Blackmoor and World of Greyhawk campaigns brought us and celebrate by playing your favorite game whether it is Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Magic: The Gathering, Legend of the Five Rings, Ticket to Ride or any onthe rof your favorite games and reflect on what the game that started modern tabletop gaming 40 years ago.

Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - Green Ronin in 2014

From the Green Ronin Website

Welcome to the New Year, everyone! We hope you had a good holiday season and got in some fun gaming with your friends and family. Now that we've moved into 2014, it's time for my annual overview of where Green Ronin is at and where we are going this year. We ended 2013 on a high note, with the Advanced Bestiary Kickstarter raising over $55,000. Let's take a look at what's happening next!

Mutants & Masterminds
Mutants & Masterminds, now in its 3rd edition, has been a bedrock game for GR since its debut in 2002 and that shows no signs of changing. Right now the long-awaited Emerald City sourcebook at at print and should be in stores next month. This 336-page full color hardback gives you everything you need to set a campaign in Emerald City, including a full length adventure. You've seen bits of this background before in Threat Report, but now the city is revealed in all its glory.

Long time fans will be happy to know that Emerald City does not replace Freedom City, but enhances it.

Emerald City is in the same setting (Earth-Prime) but on the opposite coast from Freedom City. It thus expands the game's original setting. And what if you are newer to the game and don't have the previous Freedom City books? Well, good news, Freedom City is getting its own big hardback this year! Steve Kenson is revisiting and expanding his classic setting for 3rd edition and this will be our big GenCon release.

We will also be expanding the wider setting of Emerald City and Freedom City with a new PDF series, the Atlas of Earth-Prime. Each entry in this series will provide an overview of a different part of the world and developer Jon Leitheusser is trying to work with freelancers from those parts of the real world where we can, so we don't up with characters like English Tea Time (beware his dreaded cuppa attack!), Kangaroo Boomerang, or other such nonsense. As with previous PDF series, we will collect these up for a print book next year. Last year's PDF series, Gadget Guides, will see its print release this year.

We are rounding out the year with two more sourcebooks, The Cosmic Handbook and Hero High Revisited. The Cosmic Handbook is a book people have requested for years. It provides rules, advice, and support for campaigns beyond Earth-Prime. Hero High Revisited is an updated and expanded version of Lucien Soulban's stellar book for 2nd edition about playing teenage heroes. We're happy to bring this book back and Lucien is already at work adding new material.

Love 2 Hate
This year we are branching out in a couple of different ways. The first is a new card game called Love 2 Hate by designer Colm Lundberg. Love 2 Hate is a party game of finishing sentences and (poor?) judgment. In each round of the game, one player acts as the judge and plays one Starter card. These are cards with nouns on them like Clowns or Lawyers. The judge can say "I love the way..." or "I hate the way..." Each player then plays a Finisher card face down to complete the sentence (for example, "I hate the way clowns subsist entirely on my fear!"). The judge decides who had the best answer and awards the Starter card to that player. Get enough Starter cards and you win!

We have playtested this game many times at GR HQ and it's a blast. We did a big game at the Green Ronin Summit back in October and after that we all agreed that we had to publish it. The judging mechanic is similar to that of other party games, so it's easy to pick up. If you happen to be in Ireland later this month for WarpCon, Colm and I will both be there with demo decks in hand, so you can check it out for yourself. Love 2 Hate is currently scheduled for a June release.

Dragon Age and AGE
The burning question is, of course, where the %#&#@ is Set 3 for Dragon Age? Here's the skinny. The Player's Guide is heading into layout. When it's finished, we're going to release it as a PDF ahead of the full set, which is slightly unusual but warranted in this case because I know people are beyond eager for this material. When the Game Master's Guide is finished a few weeks later, we'll release the full set and put it up for pre-order. Printer willing, we should have the finished sets towards the end of March.

That same month we've also got a fun surprise: Dragon Age dice! We've partnered up with Q Workshop, whose awesome dice are almost certainly known to you. Each box of dice will come with two full sets for the RPG. That's six dice total, four with the Circle and Templar emblems on them and two with the Grey Warden emblem and the Blood Dragon (the "Dragon Die" for the RPG).



While I am putting Set 3 to bed,  Jack Norris is busy with a lot more support. He's developing the adventures from The Deep Roads adventure anthology right now. We'll be releasing the adventures individually as PDFs as we finish them and then collecting them up later this year for a print release. As previously discussed, we'll also be doing two other PDF series, Faces of Thedas and Encounters in Thedas.

Our AGE Bestiary series will also continue. AGE, short for the Adventure Game Engine, is the system that powers the Dragon Age RPG. AGE products uses the system but not the setting of Dragon Age. We are, as I've discussed before, working on another game using the Adventure Game Engine, but we had to make the hard decision to schedule that for 2015. We could not devote the attention it deserved this year and I am not going to rush it out just to have it out.

As many of you know, BioWare has been working on the third video game of the franchise, Dragon Age: Inquisition. We are working with them to determine the best way to support that with the RPG, but that's all I can say about it right now. We'll have more news about that later this year.

Pathfinder
In 2013 we hired Owen Stephens to be our Pathfinder developer. The first two books you'll see out of this are Freeport: The City of Adventure and the Advanced Bestiary, both of which were the subjects of successful Kickstarters last year and both of which should come out this summer. Those are two mighty tomes (520 and 288 pages respectively) so that's keeping Owen quite busy in the short term. If you missed the Kickstarters, never fear. You'll be able to buy both books when they are done and they'll be available in stores just like any other of our print books.

We have been discusing what comes next for Pathfinder. We have two overal goals. First, we want to do a mix of brand new material and updates to our classic d20 material. Second, we want to really develop the world of Freeport. Our future material will follow from these goals.

SIFRP and the Chronicle System
A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying is our game based on George R.R. Martin novel series fo the same name (also the source of HBO's Game of Thrones TV show). The next book for the game is Dragon's Hoard, a 160-page adventure that should keep chronicles going for some time. The text for that is in for approval right now and we're hoping to have it out before summer. Once that has a firm release, we'll talk more about our future plans for the line.

The Chronicle System is the rules engine that powers SIFRP. We released the first in a series of Chronicle System PDFs, Woodland Beasts, last year and will follow it up with more this year. Developer Joe Carriker has been working on several follow ups, including Out of Strife, Prosperity and Chronicle of Sorcery. The latter is just what it sounds like--a magic system! This is something SIFRP lacks due to the nature of the books, but Chronicle of Sorcery aims to fill that gap.

The Freebooter Program
Last year we hired Donna Prior to be our Events Manager. Her biggest job is running our demo program, the Freebooters. These are folks who demo our games in stores and at conventions. We've got a good crew but we need more Freebooters! If you want to run games at GenCon, Origins, or other cons, check out the program info and contact Donna. It's a life of adventure in the Freebooters!

More to Come!
I've shared some highlights of what's coming up but it is by no means everything. We have several projects in the works that we'll be announcing later in the year. One of them is the subject of our next Kickstarter! We hope you stay with us for another year of great games and good fun. Here's to a fruitful 2014!

Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - Kickstarter Update: Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG

From the Green Ronin Website

We are into the last 7 hours of our current Kickstarter campaign, and we've almost unlocked the $50,000 stretch goal! If you've been putting off backing the project, or are just now learning about it, now's the time to get in on the action.

We have added another stretch goal, $55,000. If we reach this level of funding, we will produce a 32-page book of monster encounters, and provide it in PDF format to all backers! You can read all about it and the other stretch goals we've already unlocked, as well as cool add-ons, when you head to the Kickstarter page to back us or up the level of your existing pledge.

Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - Kickstarter: Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG

From the Green Ronin Website

Yesterday morning we launched a new Kickstarter campaign, to revamp our classic d20 title the Advanced Bestiary as a Pathfinder product. It would seem some Pathfinder fans were waiting for just this, as by this morning we were already over 75% funded! We are incredibly grateful to all our backers and future backers. Let's make this happen!

Green Ronin Publishing - Owen K.C. Stephens Joins Green Ronin as Pathfinder Developer!

From the Green Ronin Publishing Website

We are happy to announce that game industry veteran Owen K.C. Stephens is joining Green Ronin Publishing as our Pathfinder RPG Developer. Owen's experience with the d20 System and its descendants goes back to the early 2000s, when he worked at Wizards of the Coast with GR's own Chris Pramas during the development of Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition.

 

Owen's design credits include the Star Wars Saga RPG, The Wheel of Time RPG, Dragon Magic, Inner Sea Magic, and The Guide to Absalom. His extensive freelance work with Green Ronin includes Thieves' World, The Black Company, The Advanced Gamemaster's Guide, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Campaign Guide, and one of our favorite books from the d20 era, Bastards & Bloodlines. Owen is also the Lead Developer for Super Genius Games.

 

Owen will be taking over and expanding our Freeport line. He will also develop a new edition of a book well-familiar to Pathfinder fans: The Advanced Bestiary! And that's just for starters. 

 

Please welcome Owen aboard! We are delighted to have him on Team Ronin. 

Hook, Line, and Sinker – Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts, Oh My

It is October, the month when you see horror stories everywhere.  As a Gamemaster you may feel yourself drawn in to the spirit of the season and want to run a horror story for your group.

It is tempting to just use one of the standard favorites as the main villain in your horror story, but it can be a letdown for both you and your players if they figure out what the creature is and unavoidably metagame how to kill it within fifteen minutes of the start of the adventure.

I have put together three adventure ideas that you can use to make your players believe that the monster they are chasing is one thing when it is actually something else entirely.

Idea #1 – Werewolf

Hook – A representative from a local noble contacts the party saying that the noble needs their help to hunt down a creature.

Line – The party is asked to take care of what is believed to be a problem with a large wolf.  There have been a number of peasants mauled and killed when travelling at night.  Witnesses speak of a large beast that is definitely not a bear having made the attacks.  No normal weapon seems to hurt the beast and it appears only around the full moon.

Sinker – The monster is actually a creature that is owned and trained by another local noble.  It is outfitted in a set of armor which it why normal weapons do not appear to work on it and the shape of the armor distorts it silhouette so it does not look like a normal animal.  The other noble releases it on the full moon on the other noble’s land to scare the peasants so they lose faith in their lord and ask him to step in to help.  Once he stops the attacks he plans to petition the king to be given the lands because the other noble cannot control them.

Idea # 2 – Vampire

Hook – During a night on the town the players come across a dead body.  The city guard happens by at the same time.  The players are stopped and questioned about it.

Line – While the players convince the city guard that they are not the ones who killed the person, they hear that the victim was drained of blood and the only visible wounds on the body are two puncture marks on the neck.  The head of the guard asks the party of their help to find the killer.

Sinker – The perpetrators of the crime of is a evil cult of blood drinkers.  In order to do their sacrifices they use a tool that makes marks similar to that of a vampire and drain the blood from their victim and drink it.  They believe that the blood gives them power.  It is up to the players to find the cult and put an end to their crimes.

Idea # 3 – Ghost

Hook – The party is invited to stay at the remote estate of a friendly noble to participate in a hunt.

Line – During the night after the party gets to the estate, one of the other guests is killed mysteriously.  The death has all of the hallmarks of an attack by a poltergeist.  Each night thereafter someone is killed.  Will the characters be able to find the murderer before one of them is killed?

Sinker – The cause of the death is a very powerful psionicist.  The person has a natural talent that is out of their control.  As they figure out that they murders are being cause by them, it warps their mind more and more until they become evil, twisted, and willing participants in the crimes.

This are only a few ways that you can twist what seem to be flat out signs of the participation of a specific supernatural monster in an adventure into something else.  Just remember what appears to be  obvious does not have to be.

After Action Report – Game Day @ Brookhurst Hobbies, October 5, 2013

Game Day at Brookhurst Hobbies was lightly attended as most events over the last couple of weeks have been.  15 – 20 players attended the event with 3 – 4 games being played at any one time.  It was a windy day so the Pathfinder players that normally play their game outside were moved indoors so the game room was very crowded even though there were not as many board gamers there.

I was able to play two games at the event.

The first game that I played was Circus Train.  The theme of Circus Train is the players are owners of circuses in the 1920s.  They are traveling the Northeast and Midwest o the United States by train trying to put on shows and hire additional talent to improve future shows.  Every time a player’s circus performs, the players score the show based on the demand of the show.  If the score is better than their previous best show, they will receive a bonus in their payment for the performance.  Victory points are scored at the end of each month for the top three performances and who has the most of a certain type of performer.

The players move around the board using a set of eight cards that allow movement and actions to be performed.  The players may only play a certain card once until all of eight of their cards are used.  They may then start reusing them.

We were playing this game because one of my friends asked me to show him how to play his copy of the game after he found out that I had played it once.  Unfortunately the one time I had played was over a month ago and my recollection of the game was getting spotty.

I gave the players a haphazard explanation of the rules and we started to play.  I started isolated from the other players and was able to start out with a pretty good first performance, which got me into the lead early in the game.  The other player started to target me by stealing my performers when they could and my shows later in the game suffered, but I was still able to maintain my lead and was able to win the game.

The second game I played was Empire Builder.  It is a game of rail building and goods transportation in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.  The players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.

The unique feature of the Empire Builder family of games is the free form building of track that it allows.  The player uses special crayons that are included with the game to draw their track on the board.  Between games the marking from the previous game are erased from the game so that in the next play of the game the players start with a fresh board.

My game this time in Empire Builder was almost as rough as the last game I played.  I was not able to get a decent set of cards beyond the first set in the entire game.  I was able to get two good cards at best.  Ad this was even with discarding a number of times throughout the game.  Add to that getting hit by two derailments back to back and my fate was sealed.  I managed to come in third out of three people in the game.

My stats for the event are:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Avg.
Circus Train	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-		1.00
Empire Builder	1	-	-	1	-	-	-			3.00
Totals	2	1	-	1	-	-	-		-	2.00

If You Want to Get the Games Mentioned Here:

                    

Hook, Line & Sinker – Fun with Fantasy RPGs

Sometimes you and your gaming group need a break from the main story of the campaign you are running.  This can be especially true after a really heavy part of the story happens.  Even the darkest and gloomiest shows on television have an occasional funny episode or they wind up being the fodder for angst ridden teenagers.   This is not a successful model unless you are writing a series for the CW.

This week I will present some light hearted plot ideas for a game master to use to break up the heavier stories of their campaigns.  They can also be use as part of a campaign that is lighter in tone.  Of course just because a story starts out light does not mean it does not have a darker end as you will see.

I had framed them around a fantasy theme but with some adjustment they should be usable in other types of games.

Idea #1

Hook – A young girl approaches the party and asks them if they will help her find her dog, Fluffy.

Line – The dog ran into an abandon mansion that the girl is not allowed to go into.  The girl is a daughter of a noble that the party has been trying to get something from.  Use this to leverage the players in to the story if they are not so inclined to help the girl when she asks for their help.

Sinker – The mansion is a base for a smuggling ring. The dog is a small terrier and should be able to get itself into and around things that make it difficult for the party member follow it.  Use the dog to lead the party through the building to the smugglers den by the most precarious route.  Things like rotten floors should give way under the characters after the dog goes across the area and the characters should at times be able to hear the dog but not see the dog.  Once the party defeats the smugglers, the dog should lovingly jump into the arms of one of the characters with its tail wagging.  Give them the impression that the dog’s goal was to have them take care of the smuggling operation the entire time.

Idea # 2

 Hook – The party is hunting down a group of evil cultist that has been terrorizing the area.

Line – The party is hired by the local authorities to take out the powerful evil cult.

Sinker – The cult is not actually all that powerful.  During the party’s search portray their actions as bumbling bordering on incompetent.  The party should become skeptical that the cult is the source of the problems that are happening.  The party finds them at the end of a ritual summoning that is supposed to bring forth a demon o f unimaginable power and an imp appears and promptly flies off.  One of the councilmen that hired the party is actually an evil cleric that is trying to get rid of the competition.  His existence should be revealed when a pack of hell hound join the fight toward the end to make sure that none of the cultist survive.  To make matters worse, the imp decides he likes the party and starts to follow them.  Unfortunately he gets bored a lot and will play pranks on the party members.

Idea #3

Hook – The party is traveling through the forest to the next town when they hear what sounds like a large group of people approaching.

Line- The party is swarmed by an large group of orcs that passes by them at full speed without even stopping when they see the party.  If any of the characters understand orcish, they hear phrases like “Is it still following us?” “We’ve got to get out of here!”  A minute after the orcs pass, a young boy emerges from the woods and asks the party if they will be his friends.

Sinker – The boy is actually a polymorphed dragon that is out to have fun with the locals before killing them.  It tells the party that he got separated for his parents and believes that they are over that way, pointing in the direction he is going.  If the party decided to help search of his parents, the “boy” will lead them around the forest and eventually to his lair before revealing himself as the dragon.  If he is attacked before then he will fight the party, but would prefer to wait because he does not want to have to lug all of their cool stuff back home by himself.