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The Blue Rose RPG has caused quite a stir in the role-playing community, mostly for the game mechanics it introduces - the True20 system, a simplified version of the d20 rules set. The opinions about the included setting of Aldea, on the other hand, seem to fall into two camps - most people either seem to love it or hate it. I was intrigued enough by all of this that I borrowed a copy of the book from a friend. And here is what I found...
The Setting
The history of the setting is pretty standard fantasy fare, in my opinion. The oldest gods, the "Gods of Twilight", created the world, the evil "Exarchs of Shadow" (representing the Seven Deadly Sins) sprang from one of them when he got too vain, and to counter them, the oldest gods created the "Gods of Light" to fight them. Moving on to human history, there used to be a Golden Age where the magical arts flourished and everyone lived happily, but it eventually fell thanks to the pride of its rulers and internal corruption.
Where it gets interesting is the modern kingdom of Aldis, which is painted with a very positive light - not perfect, but full of people who give their best effort. In this, they are helped by an unusual system of governance. After the death (or disgrace) of the last ruler, the new king or queen is selected by the Golden Hart, a magical animal that apparently senses the potential of humans to be a just and capable ruler of the kingdom. Of course, this potential isn't always fulfilled - the rulers have free will, after all, and can change over the years, and two of them have become insane or cruel over the years (whereupon they were eventually deposed again by the Hart). But at least initially, they were presumably good people. A similar principle also extends to the ruling nobility - before they are accepted as nobles, they have to pass a series of tests in literacy, history, ethics, and law and pass the approval of the Noble Council. After this, they have to touch the so-called "Blue Rose Sceptre", an artifact that serves as the badge of office of the current king or queen. It dims if the person who touches it isn't a good person at heart and committed to serving the kingdom, thus disqualifying him to be a noble. It only works once for each person, so people who aren't sure of their commitment probably won't make the attempt. Nobles are then assigned to specific jobs or territories by the Noble Council.
This certainly makes for a change from the standard fantasy setting, where the usual system for determining the ruler is: "My ancestor killed off all competitors." In fact, it reminded me a lot of the anime series "Juuni Kokki" (or "Twelve Kingdoms"), where the rulers of the kingdoms are likewise chosen by magical beasts (kirins, in this case). The series shows perfectly that while the chosen have the potential to be good and effective rulers, they can easily fall prey to their own doubts, mistakes, and insecurities - and therein lies potential for drama and conflict (the current Queen of Aldis in Blue Rose has been in office for eight years, can be fairly stubborn, and supports a number of controversial policies. She is also young and single, presumably so that one of the PCs can get romantically involved with her.)
And the nobility of Aldis also reminded me of the political ruling classes of the USA (minus the "must be of good heart and genuinely wanting to serve the country", of course...). While in theory anyone can join the ruling classes with enough intelligence and will, in practice most of them seem to belong to old, established noble families. This makes sense - after all, nobles know best what is required to become a noble, and thus have an easier time steering their children in the right direction (not to mention supporting them financially during their studies, or arranging for support in the Noble Council during the approval process), while would-be nobles born to farmers or fishers must balance learning for the tests with supporting themselves and their families through work.
Personally, I prefer settings where rulers can be corrupt right from the start, but this obviously cannot happen here - the nobles at least start out good. On the other hand, stories about evil nobles will always be about that person's Tragic Fall From Grace instead of How He Backstabbed His Way To Power - which, I suspect, is the whole point.
Also of note are several organizations in service to the kingdom – the Sovereign's Finest (trouble shooters at large), the Sovereign's Guard (the small standing army of the kingdom), and the Knights of the Blue Rose (an elite order of knights within the army). Membership in one of these organizations is the default assumption for PCs, though by no means mandatory.
As for the kingdom itself, it tends to be very welcoming of all immigrants and all sorts of thinking creatures - apart from humans, it counts night people (basically orcs created in ages past by corrupt magic users), rhydan (magical, intelligent animals with psychic powers), sea-folk (aquatic humanoids) and even stranger people among its citizens (all are available as player characters. Playing a large psychic cat is rather unusual, but could make for a nice change of pace. Playing a dolphin would only work with a limited number of campaign frames, however...). This open door policy causes a lot of friction - both with the kingdom's neighbors, and between the various ethnic, religious, and racial groups within the kingdoms. Nobles assigned to a region with mixed populations should have their hands full with trying to prevent frictions.
The various regions of the kingdoms have fairly short write-ups (a page or less each), which serve as a very basic introduction to the culture and lifestyles prevalent in these regions. While they suffice for that, I wished they had provided some sort of example adventure hooks for those, as well as more details on cities other than the capital of the country. The section on the other countries and cultures beyond Aldis is even briefer - there is a strongly theocratic country with poor resources that would invade Aldis if it weren't seperated from it by a vast swamp, a northern region inhabited by tribal nomads, an ethic group of, essentially, gypsies, and an oppressed land under the thrall of a Dark Lord (a now undead survivor of the corrupt mages of the Old Kingdom). This last country, called "Kern", is unfortunately the weakest part - apart from the fact that the land apparently has an abundance of a certain type of magical crystals, it strikes me as yet another unoriginal Modor knockoff, and the Dark Lord in question has little to distinguish himself from the numerous others of his kind that have been published over the years in both fiction and role-playing games. This is unfortunate, as he is the obvious Main Bad Guy of the setting, and some more added depth on him and his realm would have been greatly appreciated. There is also mention of another country, a matriarchy in the far South with which Aldis trades by ship, but there is no further detail given on it - a shame, for having more "neutral" countries is very useful for creating diplomacy and intrigue-based plots (the theocracy of Jarzon tends to be not very subtle, the nomads barely qualify as a "country", and Kern is too hostile to everyone else).
All in all, while the setting has some intriguing elements, they weren't enough to make me truly interested in running it or playing in it. We get a good sense of what the world is like, but not enough about what player characters are supposed to do. I've read numerous complaints on RPGNet that many RPG settings are over-developed and don't leave enough open to GM interpretation. If you believe that as well, then it might be of interest to you, but for someone as obsessed with setting details as me, it is sadly insufficient.
That Issue
Many people have made a big issue out of the game's frequent mention of homosexuality - indeed, in Aldis homosexuality and homosexual marriage are accepted and rather common. While this is unusual for fantasy settings (since it implies that society has a way of taking care of the elderly that doesn't involve having enough offspring that can support their parents in old age), it's not exactly uncommon in RPG settings as a whole. Heavy Gear comes to mind, which has several prominent homosexual couples, or Transhuman Space, where marriage in most jurisdictions is "whatever all participants can agree upon", and many people change their sex on a frequent basis.
But the game goes further, explicitly mentioning the possibilities of playing someone with a different sexual orientation, or even a transgendered person. Is this too blatant, and too much?
Frankly, while I think that these mentions are a bit odd, I don't really see what all the fuss is about. After reading through the Transhuman Space line, which has no less than ten different types of sex bioroids (including some built as SM models) as viable player characters (not to mention “pleasure variants” of the Astropus-series uplifted celaphopods) and biomods such as Andro-Wombs, Venus Flytraps, or Lactonarcotic Bioreactors, I'm not really fazed by this at all, and in fact, found it all rather harmless. Your Mileage May Vary.
The Rules
This is the part of Blue Rose that has received the most critical acclaim, and for good reason. It is a stripped down and rebuilt version of the d20 rules, similar in a way to Mutants & Masterminds (and in fact, a couple of rules changes from Mutants & Masterminds have made it over to True20). Attributes no longer exist on a 3-18 scale - instead, the old attribute modifiers now serve as attribute values, and starting human characters can have values from -5 to +5. Character classes still exist, but there are only three of them now: Adepts (magic users), Experts (skill users), and Warriors (guess). Each differs in the number of skills it can get, as well as its Attack and Defense bonuses and saving throws. Each class also has a number of "Paths" - combinations of skills and feats - that serve as sample "professions" within these classes, such as Animist, Thief, or Clan Warrior. It is also possible to multi-class to gain more versatility at the cost of effectivity in a single field. All in all, it covers most of the basics, and shows that a d20 variant can have classes and still be very flexible.
A new addition to the rules is Conviction, which serve a similar function as the Hero Points of Mutants & Masterminds (or Willpower points from the Storyteller sytems) - you can reroll a bad die roll with them, recover instantly from injuries, or give yourself some other small boost. How many you get depends on your character level, and you recover one point each day, as well as if you follow the call of one of your Natures. Your Natures are basically one-word personality traits, such as "Humble", "Optimistic", "Cruel, "Slothful", and so on, and each character selects two - one positive, and one negative, and you regain a point if you act significantly in a way according to either of them. In general, I don't like any sort of "personality mechanics" (the "Spiritual Attributes" in Fading Suns are a frequent source of irritation for me), but these are simple enough to be enjoyable.
The skill list is similar to that of D&D, but simplified – several skills have merged into each other ("Move Silently" and "Hide" have become the "Sneak" skill, for example). Unlike D&D, you don't have to track individual skill points, however. Depending on your class, you have a fixed number of "favored skills" (where your skill rank is equal to your level+3), and a certain number of "known skills" (where your skill rank is half that value) based on your Intelligence and class. You can also get additional skills later on through certain feats. While this system simplifies things a lot, it can strain suspension of disbelief when a high-level character knows nothing about a certain skill, and then learns it and suddenly becomes a world expert.
Most feats are pretty much the same as in D&D, though there are no longer any attribute prerequisites for them. A number of feats also model D&D class abilities, such as the backstabbing abilities of rogues, or the Trackless Step of druids. Since characters get a lot of feats under this system (4 for 1st level, plus one additional feat for each additional level), lots of customization is possible.
The magic systems represents one of the larger divergences from D&D. First, you need to buy a feat to have a basic talent in one of the six fields of magic (Animism, Healing, Meditative, Psychic, Shaping, and Visionary). Then you need to buy one or more skills that cover smaller categories within these fields (Visionary magic, for example, has the skills "Enhance Senses", "Object Reading", "Scrying", and "Vision"). When you want to use it, you usually need to roll with that skill - and the better your skill roll, the more powerful will the result be. On the other hand, the usage of many magical skills is fatiguing, which means that you need to roll afterwards whether or not you become exhausted from using it. Skilled mages can use these powers at a lower effective skill to reduce the chance that they become exhausted.
All in all, I like this system. While the magic doesn't get as powerful as in D&D, it is not weak, either - and the fatiguing effects limit the amount of spellcasting that can be done without requiring the extensive bookkeeping of high-level D&D spellcasters. There is an additional complication in the form of Socery: If you use certain unwholesome powers (such as direct mental domination of thinking creatures), or by committing evil deeds in corrupted places, you gain Corruption points, which substract from your Wisdom and Constitution as dark forces gain power over you. But you also can chose to embrace Corruption, whereupon you gain a big bonus to your spellcasting while your soul falls into Shadow. In fact, the bonus can get rather large with particularly evil creatures who have been practicing their foul deeds for a long time; I would suggest limiting the bonus to a value equal to their character level to avoid making them all-powerful.
The Wealth and Equipment chapter uses the Wealth system from d20 Modern, of which I am not a fan. Basically, you have a Wealth score, and you can buy anything that has a cost equal or lower than that score. If it costs more, you must make a Wealth check to see if you can afford it right now, and you will loose points from your Wealth score depending on how much it costs you even if you succeed. I suppose this system is sufficient for those who don't want to deal with the details of shopping (and the books points out that the default character types - members of one of the above-mentioned organizations - get their equipment from the government and have little need for accumulating wealth), but some of its quirks just rub me the wrong way - even Filthy Rich people will soon be bankrupt if they buy 40 long bows or so. Still, it is easy enough to use the money system from D&D, since the equipment list is mostly identical.
The combat system is very similar to that of D&D, if a bit simpler – Attacks of Opportunities and Full-Round Attacks have been eliminated, to name just two examples. The major difference lies in the way damage works - it uses a slightly different variant of the Damage Save system from Mutants & Masterminds. Each character gets a Toughness Save bonus depending on his class, level, and Constitution score, and rolls against a Target Number equal to 15 + the damage bonus of the attack (basic weapon damage + Str bonus in the case of melee attacks. If he fails, he gets hit, and future Toughness Saves become harder. If he fails badly, he might end up unconscious or even dead. A simple and smooth system, with the problem that high-level characters - especially warriors - can become near-invulnerable to damage from normal weapons.
Also noteworthy is that characters get a "Defense Bonus" depending on their class, level, and Dexterity score. This makes them harder to hit, and armor can be worn to improve it – but armor, especially heavy armor, limits the maximum bonus they can get from other sources. This has the strange effect that low-level characters will wear the best armor they can get, while high-level characters will be safest when they wear no armor at all. This is possibly in genre with the source material (I wouldn't know), but it still strikes me as odd (but to be fair, armor does help when a character is caught unaware by an attack).
There is a serviceable chapter on Game Mastering advice, and a chapter with a variety of sample creatures - some old D&D monsters, and some original. Fortunately, there is an appendix with conversion rules for standard D&D monsters, which means that it will be hard to run out of new monsters to throw at the players. A short introductory adventure provides some insight into the frictions that can appear within Aldis, but at only seven pages, its plot does not go too deep or involved.
In Summary
If you have an active interest in the genre of "Romantic Fantasy", you might wish to take a look at Blue Rose for the setting alone. If not, you should read through it first before buying it - while it does have a few interesting elements, it is rather skimpy on details and doesn't present too many new ideas. Fortunately (?), the setting only occupies 40 of the book's 224 pages, although there is some additional setting information scattered through the rules section.
If you are interested in a rules-light version of d20, you should definitely take a look at it - or at the setting-less version of True20 which is now available at RPGNow. But be aware that there are some differences between the two versions - for example, the new version doesn't have the escalating Toughness saves for high-level characters, and armor there adds to the Toughness save instead of Defense. While I would consider these to be improvements, Blue Rose also has a few things the other version is missing - the mechanics for Corruption and a large number of sample player character races.
Of course, if you have the money, you can always buy both.
