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I’ve heard it said that you like people because of their good qualities, and love them despite their faults. Blue Rose is a game that I love, but is not without it’s faults.
I’d like to preface this review by admitting that I am a huge fan of the Romantic Fantasy genre, and have been looking forward to this game for some time. As a big fan of Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds, I was favorably pre-disposed to the game going in. However, I think I can give a pretty objective review, so here it goes.
How does the Setting work?
First off, Blue Rose has it’s own setting and background, which is rich, detailed, and well thought out. However none of the game mechanics are specifically setting dependent, so if you want to port the game system in order to play in another specific setting or your own creation, it would fully support this.
The fist official chapter is “The World of Aldea”. This is an in depth look at the default setting of the game. At 51 pages it provides a great deal of detail. While some of the material may be somewhat indulgent, such as some of the Aldea creation myth and the detailed description of the Gods and Holy days. However, most of this chapter gives solid, useful information that allows the Narrator to bring the game world to life, as well as provide the players opportunities to create characters with solid back stories and interesting descriptions. It also indirectly provides numerous hooks and starts for your game. (Later on the book provides some pretty direct hooks, but that’s to come.) I really enjoyed this section. It was entertaining to read, without any of the stigma associated with “game fiction”. As an aside, there is game fiction in the book, and I rather enjoyed it, it did a great deal to help with setting the mood. However, it is not for the most part, intrusive, but exists in a variation of sidebars. Beyond a brief introduction piece, it’s all easily glossed over for those who just don’t care for that sort of thing. Still, I highly recommend it.
How does Character Creation Work?
Character creation uses all the familiar D20 conventions, but there are some significant differences in their application that are worth discussion. You still have 6 ability scores which define your physical and mental characteristics. This is one of the first big differences between most all other D20 games and Blue Rose. You do not have the typical score between 3 and 18. You have only bonuses and penalties. The standard score in each is “0”, and you have 6 points to divide between them. So you can have +1 in all six, or +3 in two and 0 in the other four.
Backgrounds, are Blue Rose’s version of race. These are really nothing like your traditional fantasy races. Mostly they are simply variations on human culture based on nationality or region. However, there are non-human options. There are Night People, bestial creatures who turn out to be gentle giants. Perfect for the “Ugly on the outside, beautiful on the inside” character. There are Rhydan, your intelligent cats, wolves, horses, dolphins, etc. There are Sea-Folk, amphibious humans who still live among the rest of humanity. Finally, there are the Vata, heirs to an ancient, arcane heritage, for those who absolutely, positively have to play an Elf. Primarily, different backgrounds give you bonus Favored Feats and Skills, which are not the same as bonus Feats and Skills, but this is going to be covered in a minute, so hold on.
Roles, are a lot like classes. There are only 3, but you’ll see that that is really enough. There is Adept, magic using guy. There’s Expert, skill using guy. And finally there’s Warrior, smackin’ people with a sword guy. OK, I’m being flippant. The truth is that with 4 or 5 feats you can customize these 3 roles into pretty much any kind of character you like, and each role section has several examples for you to use. But of course, by the time you get to this point, you’ve already had a couple of dozen buzzing around in your mind. There’s the rounding out section where the game reminds you that your character should have a name and appearance, and then it goes into the details of Calling, Alignment, and Nature. This is a mechanic that is either going to really appeal to people, or make them roll their eyes. These are basically personality traits, and can be as important or not in the game as you choose. The part that may generate a bit of an eye role is that these are all based on Tarot cards. But don’t worry, they put together in a list, so you don’t have to run out and get a deck of tarot cards to finish character creation, you can just pick from the list. Alignments are Light, Shadow, and Twilight, and you can probably pretty much guess how these fall out. Finally, everyone has one Light aligned and one Shadow aligned nature. This is adds an interesting dimension to character creation. It’s not, I suppose, strictly necessary to game play, but it does such a wonderful job of converting a book genera “style” into a game mechanic that, in my opinion to underplay it is to cheat yourself of much of the games appeal.
How Do Skills, Feats, and Magic work?
I’ve lumped these three together because they are so intertwined in the game that I really can’t talk about one with out bouncing back and forth between the others. Here is where the games greatest strengths and real weakness resides. The way Blue Rose makes use of Skills, Feats, and especially Magic is the games great treasure and a real rewarding experience. And like any reward, it is only acquired by struggling through great hardship. Well, maybe not that bad. However, during character creation, I found myself flipping back and forth, trying to grab hints and clues from various sections to answer my questions. Oh it’s all there all right, and it’s not even very well hidden. It’s simply that many of the significant changes to what would be standard D20 mechanics are kind of casually tossed into the text. For instance, if you want to find out how you get more skills when you advance, you would expect to find that under level advancement, instead it’s in the skills chapter. (that could be because it’s a feat you take, instead of a measure of level advancement.) The Magic section is worse, and from what I’ve read on the web sight, I’m not the only person who found this confusing. Briefly, Magic is referred to as Arcana. There are general categories referred to as Arcanum, not to be confused with the feat named Arcanum. Within the Arcanum, are various effects referred to as Arcana. An Adept selects Talent feats allowing them to use certain Arcane untrained, and through the use of the Arcane Training feat to use other Arcana within an Arcanum trained. Non adepts can take the Arcanum Feat which gives them access to individual Arcana, but not all within the Arcana’s Arcanum. It made me desperate for someone to use the word “spell”.
That being said, once it’s all worked out, the system is wonderful, and for me personaly, the magic system is everything I’ve been looking for and hadn’t found till now. Intuitive and flexible, it’s available to anyone in one form or another. It allows for a wide variety of effects, without being an overwhelming force at any level. As far as feats go, you get a lot. This does a wonderful job of allowing for very tailored and personal characters without any of the pitfalls of a standard point buy system. I was surprised at the fairly low number of skills, as it seemed to run counter to the genera, but the Expert role gives you quite a bit, and many of the feats simulate skills.
How Does Combat Work?
If you’re familiar with Mutants and Masterminds, it works very similarly. I think this is the second most wonderful innovation the game uses. Instead of a pool of hit points that damage subtracts from, till you reach 0 or below, the game uses a system which imposes cumulative penalties that eventually leaves an opponents helpless. It’s a terrific system that eliminates the necessity to kill everyone you fight. It makes capturing an opponent practical. Also, the deteriorating condition that accompanies the damage makes for a great cinematic style of combat and encourages a more storytelling description of the action.
How does the rest of it work?
Blue Rose does a wonderful job of emulating game play within it’s chosen genera. The last couple of chapters provides good, practical suggestions, such as how to handle social interaction, a list of plot hooks, and a sample adventure. There’s a Bestiary which is not very large, but adequate. Some basics of running a game, and a system for converting other D20 things to Blue Rose. Also, it includes a thing so valuable, I’m amazed more games don’t have them. The game has an index. Blessed, blessed Index.
How did I feel about it?
I thought this was a wonderful game, well worth the purchase price. While it remains true to the genera from which it gets it’s inspiration, it does not presuppose a style of play for it’s audience. It has several wonderful and innovative changes to a familier and tested system, and only stumbles a little in it’s organization. I highly recommend this game.
