Currently Smoking: Larks' Tongues in Aspic + Starless and Bible Black

This is a review of Blue Rose, in its original edition as a "True20" game, published in 2005.  Blue Rose is billed as "The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy", and in its Introduction, it explains not only the concept of a roleplaying game but also Romantic Fantasy, which it defines very specifically in terms of a literary sub-genre of Fantasy from the mid-1980s, pioneered mostly by female authors such as Diane Duane and Mercedes Lackey.  In comparison to "Swords and Sorcery" fantasy where heroes are loners driven by ambition and survival needs, Romantic Fantasy protagonists are often defined by their relationships and need to find a community where they can belong.  The genre is also defined by a lot of cultural assumptions generally aligned with the political "left," including advocacy of environmentalism.  This tends to shape the authors' approach to Fantasy.  For instance, rather than magic being something learned as a scholarly discipline, it is more of an intutive learning identified with psychic powers.  Those who do learn overt magics for the sake of gaining power, or control over others, are the villains of the stories.

The game was the first to use the "True20" variant of D20, although it is only referred to as such in the title page.  It is that much more stripped-down than Mutants & Masterminds' early editions, in that not only does it only use a roll-high D20 for all task resolution (including damage resolution) but defines abilities like Strength strictly by their die modifier rather than a separate number with an associated modifier- thus where D&D since 3rd Edition says that an 18 Strength adds +4 to Strength-based rolls (same with 18 Intelligence, etc.), True20 games simply say that the character has a +4 in the stat.  This is not only simpler, it acknowledges how the recent iterations of D&D/D20 games have already streamlined the system so that all attributes work the same way for the things that they affect.  (Of course, Mutants & Masterminds adopted this approach by 3rd Edition.)  

So after a brief but effective summary of premises and system, the book discusses the game setting in Chapter I: The World of Aldea.  As with a lot of other settings, creation starts with the first generation of gods, or Primordials, emerging from the void to create the planet and the various spirits who would become humans and other races.  The four Primordials eventually identified with the four seasons and the four elements.  However, Anwaren, the god of Autumn and Earth, desired more power and authority, and so he searched beyond the void and touched the "Shadow", which ensnared him with negative emotions, causing him to spawn seven Exarchs (each representing one of the Deadly Sins, oddly enough).  When the exarchs came to destroy creation, the remaining three Primordials created the seven Gods of Light to fight them alongside the other spirits.  However, the damage that Shadow had done to the world required the Primordials, or Gods of Twilight, to bind the spirits in mortal bodies in a cycle of reincarnation to make sure they would not be lost.  Even then, an exarch managed to corrupt the cycle, so that the state of undeath became possible.  Interestingly, the Primordials found Anwaren and decided to cure him of his madness rather than kill or punish him.  But now, the four original gods are somewhat removed from creation as the Gods of Light respond to mortals and contain the exarchs.

The history of the world after its mythic period is rather sparse.  Civilization centered around the city of Aldis, which in turn became the center of the first Kingdom of Aldis, home to various human peoples as well as the rhydan (psychic animals) and vatazin (apparently similar to elves).  The "Old Kingdom" was an Atlantis-like realm of vast learning and development, including the development of psychic powers (arcana) and artifacts.  However, many adepts became corrupted, and developed Shadow arcana, or sorcery.  In the seventh century of the Old Kingdom (about 800 years before the present-time of the setting), a sorceress and her cabal overthrew the government, and after her untimely death, her lieutenants and other sorcerers became the "Sorcerer Kings," fighting each other for position in what came to be known as the Shadow Wars.  During the overthrow of the Old Kingdom and subsequent wars, the vatazin and many rhydan were exterminated as a threat to the rulers, and the Shadow Wars despoiled much of the land with arcane super-weaponry.  However, the infighting between tyrants also weakened them enough to where the people of Aldea were able to strike out.  350 years ago (in setting) humans and the surviving rhydan staged the Great Rebellion against the Sorcerer Kings, aided by the Golden Hart, an unknown rhydan who was immune to sorcery and could confer that immunity upon its companions.  However even after almost all of the Sorcerer Kings had been overthrown, the loss of life and the damage to the land meant that civilization was slow to recover.  At length, the less-damaged provinces decided to become the nucleus of a new kingdom that would go back to the ideals of Aldis.  Supported by the rhydan and the Hart, the new Kingdom of Aldis has had 14 sovereigns thus far.

The chapter focuses mainly on the Kingdom of Aldis (notably starting with its nonhuman residents).  It welcomes all manner of beings, and in its tolerance, is a prosperous center of learning.  However it is certainly not a democracy.  As part of the new Kingdom's foundation, the first monarch was given the blessing of the Golden Hart and presented with the magical Blue Rose Scepter by the rhydan.  The Hart can and has chosen monarchs from all walks of life, including commoners.  Using the Scepter, the monarch chooses new members of the nobility.  Titles are not hereditary, and although many nobles are raised for their position, the education system allows anyone to take tests for public service.  But if a monarch asks a prospective noble to touch the Scepter and the item does not respond (with a blue glow) the candidate cannot become a noble, either because his desire to serve is not sincere or because he is not aligned with the Light.  It is possible for those chosen by such "divine" means to become corrupted.  In the rare case of a monarch turning evil or mad (twice in history) the Hart appears and magically scars the ruler, choosing a replacement.  And while all other nobles must start out Light-aligned, they do not necessarily stay that way.  Perhaps the game designers realized they needed a little bit of intrigue in their ideal government.

This aspect of Blue Rose is probably the most ridiculed by its critics.  It also has a certain amount of precedent, namely the magical choosing of King Arthur.  In fact, most myths assume that a rightful government is blessed and therefore a government that is no longer righteous loses that blessing (even though, as with the Old Testament stories and the Chinese Mandate of Heaven, this is usually a retroactive explanation for why a nation's affairs go sour).  Frankly, that's what fairy tales are like.  Everything is either perfect or completely awful.  And I am not too concerned that producers of a "Romantic Fantasy" setting would resort to fairy-tale concepts of government in that context.  I am a lot more concerned that such themes keep coming up in "progressive" Science Fiction like Dune.

Tellingly, the book says "Aldis' justice system is primarily concerned with restoring the social harmony that a crime disrupts, not punishing the guilty." It's mentioned that psychic adepts are used by judges in interviewing witnesses and in counseling convicted criminals.  It's also stressed that "Adepts don't brainwash people into becoming good citizens."  If a criminal proves incorrigible or unreformable, he or she may be fitted with a "peace torc" or necklace imbued with the Calm arcanum, which allows him to defend himself but not initiate violence.  (I mention this because in RPGPundit's numerous criticisms of Blue Rose and its setting, the concept of Aldis as a realm of PC Thought Police keeps coming up, and this is the strongest evidence I can find for it.)  This subject touches on the related matter of psychic ethics, which is stressed in Aldis given that at least one in ten Aldins is supposed to have psychic abilities.  (It is not clear whether that includes the rhydan, who are all psychic, but it probably does.)  While psychic powers have a potential for abuse, the fact that they are that common in the population means that psychics serve as a check on each other.  Etiquette and common sense also apply, such that Aldin merchants are discouraged from using telepathy on their rivals, as they may get caught and endanger their company's deals.  

While it is possible to have a troupe of PCs engaging in "typical" fantasy adventuring in and around Aldis, the designers of Blue Rose, with their communitarian ethic, point towards membership in a government service as a character path.  Specifically, Aldis has a small standing army called The Sovereign's Guard, and smaller forces known as The Knights of the Blue Rose and The Sovereign's Finest.  The former are soldiers trained as troubleshooters and advance forces against Shadow threats, while the Finest are a variety of trained individuals who wander the countryside and provide assistance to the local folk where needed.  This is frequently done while escorting a noble, as one of the principles of Aldin government is that a noble is never assigned to administer his native province and is frequently sent traveling to administer justice, since Aldis is still a large and sparsely populated country.  

Which raises the question of exactly what heroes would be fighting against.  Even though the Old Kingdom was described as controlling "now-forgotten lands far across the seas" the setting map in Blue Rose is rather minimal.  To the northwest of Aldis is Rezea, which is not a nation so much as a culture of horseclans (similar to North American Plains Indians) who have allegiance to a single priestess with little direct political power.  To the southeast of Aldis, separated by an anti-magical swamp (the result of a Sorcerer King's catastrophe) is "the Theocracy of Jarzon", a territory that suffered much devastation and loss of life due to the Shadow Wars and as a result is a resource-poor land, with a culture obsessed with "traditional" values like hard work, raising large families and female submission to patriarchy.  Most of this is because the main god of the region is Leonoth, Light god of the hearth and marriage, whose cult was the main source of resistance to the Sorcerer Kings during their rule.  (The irony being that the cult is a subset of the world's main religion, in which Leonoth is the junior consort to Maurenna, Twilight goddess of Summer and Fire.)  Jarzon is presented as a direct contrast to Aldis in that priests (the only people other than licensed healers who are allowed to practice arcana) actually DO monitor the population and use their powers to "re-educate" nonconformists.  Relations between the two nations are effectively in cold war because Aldis harbors beings that Jarzon theology considers monstrous, such as Night People, rhydan and homosexuals.  Even so, Jarzon is not a truly evil nation, simply a realm whose perspective radically differs from that of Aldis.  The real "Evil Empire" of the setting is Kern, last of the Sorcerer Kingdoms, which survived and continues to survive mainly because of its geographic isolation in the eastern mountains, which also makes it difficult for Kern to fulfill any schemes of conquest.  
That's basically it as far as serious opposition is concerned.  There is at least one organized crime syndicate, bandit and pirate gangs and unscrupulous (as opposed to outright Shadow aligned) merchants.  And the fact that the Blue Rose scepter works only once in testing a person's alignment means that it is possible for nobles (and others, of course) to become corrupted and serve Shadow, and some of these cultists become agents of Kern.  But overall, the tight focus of the setting and the emphasis on The Sovereign's Finest means that a typical Blue Rose campaign group would probably focus on agents of the Finest, traveling the extent of the Kingdom, exploring and righting wrongs where they see them.  In this, the premise is not unlike Star Trek in its first two iterations, and as others have pointed out, the similarities don't end there.


Chapter II: Creating Your Hero is a lot more straightforward, although it also reveals how Blue Rose and the True20 system differed from other games, at least at the time of release.  Characters are not rolled.  Characters have the familiar six abilities from D&D, but humanoid characters have 6 points to arrange between them.  (Remember, this is on a scale where the average person is at a 0 in any ability, equivalent to 10 or 11 in D&D, and every +1 above that is what would be +2 to a stat in D&D.)  One can choose to have a negative stat to add more points, but you cannot have less than -5 or more than +5 in an ability at this stage, before counting racial modifiers.  While there is a specific Aldin ethnicity (similar to Mediterreanean stock), Aldis is home to a wide variety of humans, including Jarzon refugees, Rezeans and "Roamers" (Romani-type travelers).  Each of these ethnic groups has Favored Skills and Favored Feats that they can take regardless of their class/role – for instance, Jarzoni have access to Sense Motive skill and the feat Favored Foe (heretics or shadowspawn).  Non-humans include "vata" (part-human descendants of the vatazin, including a dark-skinned variety created by the Sorcerer Kings, both types having access to one arcane talent for free), Sea Folk (amphibious beings, frequently described as androgynous), and Night People (technically shadowspawn, but possessed of free will, strong but not too smart, basically the hobgoblins or half-orcs of the setting).  Rhydan get strong bonuses to their abilities but only get 4 "free" points to arrange between their stats as opposed to 6.  They all have Psychic Talent.  But while they are sentient and able to communicate with their powers, they are still animals with no power of speech or manipulatory limbs.  PC rhydan include dolphins, rhy-cats (similar to a Siamese cat the size of a leopard), rhy-horses (companions of the Rezeans) and rhy-wolves.  Technically, unicorns and griffons are also rhydan, but they are not available as PCs.  

Roles – the equivalent to what previous games called classes – are even more stripped down.  There are only three of them: Adept (an intellectual/mystic who specializes in arcana), Warrior (self-explanatory) and Expert ( 'Experts essentially handle everything adepts and warriors do not').  The overall generic nature of the roles means that they are used as bases for a wide variety of concepts – for instance, Experts include not only nobles and thieves but the "Spirit Dancer" who is basically the setting's closest equivalent to a Monk, employing physical training and inner power to achieve amazing feats of combat and body control.  

In addition to the standard D20 Base Attack bonus and save bonuses for Fortitude, Reflex and Will, Blue Rose also has the M&M style figures for Toughness save (to reflect how much damage a character actually takes when hit) and Defense bonus (which fits a game of swashbuckler-type combatants who don't have a lot of magic items or heavy armor).
 There are also the unique elements of Conviction (hero points, basically) and Reputation.  Reputation is a bonus depending on exactly how widespread the character's fame is, and if the GM rolls d20 + the NPC's Intelligence bonus + the Reputation modifier and beats a Difficulty of 25, the Reputation affects certain Charisma-based skills with a +4 modifier (or -4, if the reputation is infamous).  In addition to all this, the book uses its equivalent of the Tarot to help define a character's "calling" or overall goal in relation to his Light and Shadow natures, which affect alignment play and the regaining of Conviction for following one's goals.  In this case, the Major Arcana card (either chosen or drawn) refers to the character's calling or main goal in life (The Hanged Man, for example, is defined as 'inner peace') while a minor card is used to define one's nature in terms of both a Light trait and its Shadow opposite (e.g. Ace of Swords is 'Courageous' vs. 'Cowardly').  It is mentioned that a character doesn't necessarily have the same card for both Light and Shadow nature, but even heroes have their "dark sides."  It's also possible to play a neutral/Twilight character (either in the sense of having a 'True Neutral' balance or in the sense of being too conflicted to choose Light over Shadow).

Chapter III: Skills should be pretty familiar to anybody who's played d20 games.  The main difference is that the skill points you get at 1st level are the actual number of skills you get.  Like Pathfinder but unlike D&D 3.0, there are no "skill points" although the system is jiggered to work in similar fashion.  "Favored Skills" for one's role have a skill bonus of level + 3 (so that a 1st level character has +4 in a favored skill, similar to 3rd Edition).  "Normal Skills" not favored by one's role are at half this figure, rounded down, so that if a 4th level character has +7 in a favored skill, he would have +3 in a normal skill.  Characters generally do not get new skills after 1st level except by becoming mixed-role (in which case you get either two new skills or turn a normal skill into a favored skill) or by taking the Skill Training feat.

Chapter IV: Feats is likewise similar to how feats work in other d20 games, however there is a much greater emphasis on them.  Each role gets four feats at 1st level, not even counting a Human's extra feat.  Furthermore, regardless of role, each character gets 1 feat per additional level.  Part of this is that feats are the basis for the magic/psychic "arcana" system described below.  But generally, feats fall into one of four categories: Arcane, Expert, General and Warrior.  Each role gets two favored categories of feat, one General and one based on role.  Mixed-role characters choose their feat based on the role they chose for that level (e.g., a 2nd-level Warrior who takes his 3rd level in Adept chooses his feat for that level as either Arcane or General).

Chapter V: Arcana is where we have the signature element of the game's mechanics.  This is (roughly) how the arcana system works: Having a psychic power is a type of Arcane feat called a Talent.  For instance, Psychic Talent is an Arcane feat.  Having this particular Talent allows one to use certain arcana (Mind Touch, Psychic Shield and Second Sight) untrained.  It also allows one to train in these and other powers with the "Psychic" descriptor by taking the Arcane Talent feat, which allows one to use two arcana with a training bonus (usually adept level +3).  Arcane Talent can be taken more than once, which is what Adepts need to do to continue developing their powers.  It is also possible for some non-adepts (like Scouts or Spirit Dancers) to learn a General feat called Arcanum which grants training in a single arcanum without the corresponding abilities or the need to take an Adept level.  

In operation, arcana are fairly low-powered and fairly similar to Force powers in the early editions of the West End Star Wars RPG, and like some magic systems, are also fatiguing if you use them too many times in a short period.  For example, Fire Shaping allows you to start a fire or increase the size of an existing fire, but not throw fireballs.  Some powerful feats allow you to do things like conjure elementals, but these require prerequisites.  Also like Star Wars, the capacity to turn to the "dark side" is there with the use of Sorcery.  Not only are certain powers and feats automatically considered Sorcery (like the Imbue Unlife Arcane feat), some of them, like the Heart Shaping arcanum, will cause a Corruption check if used to "shape" emotions other than hope and friendship.  Or as they say in Aldis, "Sorcery is a matter of intent."  Other acts, like rape or the murder of a bonded companion, can cause a Corruption check, but sorcery is the most likely means of gaining Corruption, using a Fortitude save on a DC based on 10 + plus half the rank of the arcanum used.  Failure on this save earns one Corruption point.  One's total Corruption score is applied as a penalty to both Constitution and Wisdom as the character suffers both physically and mentally.  If a character's Wisdom is debilitated (down to below -5) he goes mad in accordance with his Shadow nature, while a character whose Con is debilitated dies and rises as a Shadow undead.  The only means of avoiding such a fate are to seek redemption (by eliminating one Corruption point every time one is eligible to gain Conviction from Light-aligned actions, by forfeiting that Conviction point to reduce Corruption) or to actively embrace Corruption by becoming Shadow-aligned (if one wasn't already) which means that the character uses his Corruption score as the ability score for using arcana and eliminates the ability score penalties.  It also means that he can no longer be healed by a non-corrupt adept and can no longer gain Conviction from his Light nature, making redemption all but impossible.

Chapter VI: Wealth and Equipment uses a system that is abstracted like many of the other rules.  Characters have a Wealth score, similar to an ability score, that starts at +5 plus the hero's Charisma score.  Rhydan, who generally have no use for human possessions, have a Wealth of 0.  Characters can also increase Wealth by +3 each time they take the Wealthy (General) feat.  Purchases are made by making a d20 + Wealth check vs. the assigned Difficulty of the purchase, which is a game measure of its price.  In character terms, +5 to +10 Wealth is middle class, and +11 or higher is varying levels of affluence.  If you successfully buy something with a Wealth rating greater than your Wealth score, or if you make a purchase with Wealth rating of 1 or higher regardless, your Wealth goes down 1 to 3 points depending on the difference between your Wealth bonus and the price rating.  Wealth can go up when a character makes level, depending on the profession check he makes on his relevant skill (for instance, a professional diplomat would roll on Diplomacy skill).

The rest of the chapter details the actual equipment in terms mostly familiar from D20 games, like what constitutes a "light" weapon, a weapon's critical hit range, and so on.  Notably, in this system, the damage of a weapon is a set bonus rather than a die roll, given the game's use of the M&M-style combat system.  The chapter also details the very few magic items available in the system; most enchanted items are legacies of the Old Kingdom and not reproducible, but it is still possible to imbue arcane weapons (which cancel the damage reduction of magical creatures) and other minor items like elixirs and arcane stones.  Some of these simply duplicate the effects of arcana, while others allow a greater chance of recovering from fatigue (very useful for adepts) and the memory stone allows a psychic to store about a week's worth of memory in the stone, becoming something of a "data storage" device.  

Chapter VII: Playing the Game shows both players and GMs important rules for using skills, and also includes the combat system.  As one might figure, Blue Rose goes into extra detail on the use of interaction skills, not only Charisma-based ones, but Gather Information as well.  Interestingly given the pansexual environment, they still say that using Bluff to seduce someone of a different sexual persuasion is a +20 bonus to the subject's opposed check.

Again, combat is based on D20, and most of the elements should be familiar to players by now. (Also, the D20 combat conditions are efficiently summarized in a large box on page 160.) However, the True20 system, at least in this incarnation, takes the same approach as Mutants & Masterminds in its second edition, in that taking damage actually involves a "Toughness" saving throw (derived but distinct from the Fortitude save) against a DC of 15 + the damage bonus of a successful attack.  Also like M&M 2, there is a distinction made between Nonlethal and Lethal attacks.  In both cases, failing the Toughness save causes a -1 to each subsequent save, and failing by a margin of 5, 10, or 15 causes a box to be marked which goes to the next higher level if that level of injury is inflicted again.  However, Nonlethal damage simply causes one to go unconscious after 3 "boxes" or failing by 15, whereas Lethal damage means the character is dying.  Also, Lethal damage conditions impose more severe effects than Nonlethal damage.  Recovery from damage is a simple Con check with DC 10, which "erases the damage condition"- presumably fully- but can only be attempted so many times depending on how severe the damage is.  Conviction can also be spent to get an instant check or to automatically succeed on a check.  
Otherwise the chapter discusses other conditions of the setting, such as environmental hazards and survival issues.  Fatigue is also important given that the more powerful arcana are fatiguing; there are three progressive fatigue levels up to exhaustion, and if an exhausted character suffers additional fatigue, he or she goes unconscious.  Recovery from fatigue is a DC 10 Con check for each level of fatigue- otherwise a full ten hours of rest will automatically recover fatigue conditions.

Chapter VIII: Narrating Blue Rose is the chapter for the GM, or as the game tellingly calls them, the Narrator.  It starts with advice on how to adjudicate rolls.  The book seems to be at pains to advise the GM to say Yes to players rather than no.  If a player wants to do something that would otherwise be outlandish, the GM is advised not to say no, but to reflect a greater level of difficulty, either by adjusting Difficulty numbers directly, setting a relevant bonus or penalty, requiring Conviction to perform the task or requiring extra effort (a 'push' that boosts the character at the cost of fatigue).  Probably the most useful advice in this section is that if a GM is unsure of a rule or the rules don't apply to a situation, "feel free to fake it and make something up."

A similar approach is taken with the concept of character advancement.  The game does not have random magic/treasure tables.  Again, it's assumed the characters are provided for materially as members of the Sovereign's Finest.  Arcane or rare items are supposed to be provided mainly in terms of how they fit in the story- for instance, if a PC lost his sword in battle, he might come across or be awarded an arcane weapon.  Likewise there are no experience points or tables.  The GM is told to advance characters an experience level roughly once every one or two adventures (of course an adventure is not necessarily concluded in one week).  

Pages 176-177 have a set of 100 adventure ideas, similar to some other books.  These are always good in that you can just roll percentile dice to get a quick concept for the week's game, and it's doubtful you'll use them all up.

The section of this chapter on Blue Rose's setting ties into the following section on romantic relationships.  The book says "Blue Rose is a game where heroes are both expected and encouraged to have emotional attachments."  It is also advised that before getting into "emotion-focused roleplaying" that Narrators talk with their players about the inclusion of emotional subject matter.  Included in this is a need to discuss if certain subjects are uncomfortable for the players.  It's said: "This is even more important with deeply personal issues like sexuality, religion, and family.  Narrators should always respect players' feelings on these topics."  Which is actually good advice, it's just seems odd given that anybody playing this game is probably not going to have problems with controversial opinions on religion and sexuality.

Relationships between PCs and the world at large are brought up in that the device of having characters belong to the Sovereign's Finest means that there will usually be an NPC patron or superior that they report to.  This relationship can also be a plot device in that the patron may be manipulated or blackmailed such that their relationship to the team changes, and the group has to figure out what's going on.  That is just one example of the game's use of relationships, in a style that de-emphasizes overt violence (although there is room for that, mainly against Shadow forces).  Another bit of direct advice is: "You should consider designing adventures that can be resolved without any violence at all."  Examples of such that are considered appropriate to the setting would be diplomatic missions, survival scenarios and rescuing villagers from natural disasters.  So there is another similarity to Star Trek, especially The Next Generation.

Given the focus of the game, there's some attention paid to romantic relationships, of three types: Between PCs, between a PC and a "Narrator character" (NPC), and between NPCs.
Romance between characters can be important even when they are both Narrator characters because the relationship between two NPCs might be an element that their enemies may wish to undermine for the sake of their own goals.

This leads to the chapter's final subject of intrigue within a game.  In this setting, conspirators are most likely to be merely self-centered types like merchants and nobles seeking power for themselves, not necessarily obvious villains like Jarzoni or Shadow cultists.  It's even mentioned that some conspirators can be Light-aligned, or willing to manipulate things for what they see as the greater good.  
Of course the authors mention the possibility of players using arcana to navigate mysteries and intrigue.  As mentioned in Chaper I, Aldis, like certain superhero settings, has a legal code that accounts for the existence of psychic powers and therefore regulates them, which among other things means that evidence gathered by telepathy can't normally be used in court.  This helps to address the dilemma of having a psychic character involved in a mystery scenario- you may magically learn who the culprit is, but that doesn't mean you can prove it.  

Chapter IX: Bestiary gives a fairly short list of monsters in the system.  Fantastic beings are generally limited in scope.  The closest thing to the Fae are rhydan, who are classed as Animals.  Traditional evil monsters like Ogres are classed as Shadowspawn, since in this setting they were created by sorcery.  Undead are here called "Unliving" but are suprisingly similar to their D&D counterparts.  And what D&D would call evil outsiders (demons, devils) are here called Darkfiends, the direct servants of Shadow.  

After the official chapters, there is an introductory adventure called The Curse of Harmony.  In this piece, beginning-level members of the Finest are called to travel to the village of Harmony, which is of course ironically named.  Said village is populated by Jarzoni refugees who fled the tyranny of the Theocracy but are still far more conservative than most Aldins.  In addition to that culture clash, the PCs must investigate a Roamer clan held by the village on suspicion of causing supernatural activity, a wounded rhy-cat, a sorcerer agent of Kern, and a local boy who is trying to conceal both his homosexuality and his budding arcane power.  So it's a pretty good introduction to the setting, insofar as one's reaction to the themes will probably be one's reaction to the game as a whole.

After that, and before the Index, there's a quick conversion system of True20 rules to D&D 3rd Edition style rules, which among other things allow a GM to use D&D monsters that aren't listed in the Bestiary chapter here.  

SUMMARY

As a True20 game, Blue Rose is a quick-to-grasp version of "the world's most popular role-playing game" and thus its fundamental mechanic is sound and easily adapted to a Fantasy setting that, apart from its psychic powers, is not much different from D&D-style worlds.  (The upcoming new edition of the game is based on Green Ronin's Fantasy Age system, and will probably work along similar lines.)

What is more, shall we say, problematic is that Blue Rose not only plays to the left-wing themes in much "Romantic" and feminist fantasy but also seems to advocate for a certain politicized viewpoint in which anyone who doesn't agree with the agenda is morally suspect.  The original configuration of the game, as presented here, is actually a bit more nuanced than that, although apparently the designers have felt the need to  be more specific about their intent since announcing the new edition.  It is mentioned, even in the text of this edition, that some of the themes can be edited for the gaming group (the boy in the 'Harmony' scenario could be in love with a girl, for instance) but not using the society of the game is a bit like playing Legend of the Five Rings without class inequality and inescapable duty.  It sort of defeats the point.

Unlike some people here, I liked Blue Rose.  It was unabashedly "speculative fiction" in the sense of presenting a society with genuinely different mores, as opposed to an Americanized but somewhat center-right fantasy (like many takes on D&D, and yes, Star Trek) or "realistic" fantasy that is actually more of a Crapsack World than reality (ranging from the World of Darkness to Game of Thrones).
It was one of the first games to explore an alternate mode of thinking, not just in terms of sexuality, but a generally "neo-pagan" culture, which I found fascinating.  It was something I hadn't gotten to see much of before.  Frankly, the idea of interacting with people who were not much like myself was one of the things that attracted me to RPG.net, at least before they decided to answer the question, "what if Dolores Umbridge was a campus administrator at UC Berkeley?"

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with such premises, any more than there's anything inherently wrong with a game explicitly based on evangelical Christian themes (which some people have attempted, of course).  But as with evangelical Christians, sometimes proselytizing turns people off.  Apparently that's what happened with some people and Blue Rose.  I think the game could work with an open mind.  And if you don't like the premises but still want to have an RPG with alternative sexuality, you could do worse.  You could look for the Book of Erotic Fantasy.

Thanks for the thorough review. There's some really interesting stuff going on in there. I like how they ditched the old ability scores in favor of just using the modifiers. I wonder if that would be doable in 5e.

I have no problems with the writers' political views, but I would have to change one or two things to create more sources of conflict (or maybe not, I'd have to try running it).

The magical hart makes me think of Princess Mononoke, actually... Some potential there...

Excellent review*, thanks for putting in the effort.


*At least I think so, not read Blue Rose myself.

On the whole I think your review is very well written, though we differ in opinion on a few points. But this part:

Quote from: James Gillen;859136Unlike some people here, I liked Blue Rose.  It was unabashedly "speculative fiction" in the sense of presenting a society with genuinely different mores, as opposed to an Americanized but somewhat center-right fantasy

What?!  Dude, Blue Rose doesn't present some unique culture. It presents a way MORE Americanized culture than most medieval fantasy rpg settings do.

Blue Rose makes no sense at all outside of American culture, and its political bullshit. It just happens to not be center-right Wisconsin fake-medieval American land; it's far-left Seattle Fake-medieval American Land.

There's NOTHING about this book that isn't about the USA and it's culture wars.

Quote from: RPGPundit;859432On the whole I think your review is very well written, though we differ in opinion on a few points. But this part:



What?!  Dude, Blue Rose doesn't present some unique culture. It presents a way MORE Americanized culture than most medieval fantasy rpg settings do.

Blue Rose makes no sense at all outside of American culture, and its political bullshit. It just happens to not be center-right Wisconsin fake-medieval American land; it's far-left Seattle Fake-medieval American Land.

There's NOTHING about this book that isn't about the USA and it's culture wars.

There's the issue.  The game was deliberately trying to create a culture where (for instance) homosexuality was a norm (although they don't explain WHY that would be the case, whereas the traditionalism of Jarzon can be explained as a survival culture).  It's just that "far-left fake-medieval Seattle" wasn't as represented as center-right Wisconsin land.  
Of course I consider myself right-wing because I've never denied that the far left is operating on fantasy.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;859136(The upcoming new edition of the game is based on Green Ronin's Fantasy Age system, and will probably work along similar lines.)

I have run the newer version for one of the Kickstarter backers.  It works pretty much just as you describe.