Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Green Ronin 2016




Green Ronin posted their plans for the year on their site and it looks like a pretty good projection for some games I like. Link to the article is here. My thoughts are below. In general though I am a fan of GR, both what they have done and how they have done it since Freeport and Mutants and Masterminds were first released.


  • First up: Fantasy Age is something I know little about - I have not played Dragon Age, I haven't watched the Titansgrave web show, and I'm not really interested in Blue Rose. My standard attitude is "I have plenty of fantasy RPG's already." That said it seems to be doing pretty well for them and that's a good thing and having quality alternatives to D&D & Pathfinder out there is a good thing too, even if I never play them.
  • The meat of it for me: Mutants and Masterminds!
    • Cosmic Handbook Print Edition - I think the PDF has been out for a while but I like hardcopies for this game and I am interested. Don't know how often it will come up but it's a handy book for a GM to have even if your team never leaves the earth.
    • Revised GM Kit - well I have the original and it's not like I need another screen but reference cards and a combat tracker sound interesting. 
    • Hero High - I can confidently say I will never run a supers campaign based in a high school but the teen hero thing is a huge part of the genre, it's good to have options even if it's mainly for character background, and the original is one of the more highly regarded 2E books so let's see what comes from a new edition and 5+ years of thinking about it.
    • The biggest single item for me: Freedom City 3E. It's an update of my favorite super-setting book in 30+ years of playing them. The 1E book was good, the 2E book took it to a new level, and my hopes for 3E are very high. With just the previous book and the 2E core book you could run a superhero campaign for years. Hopefully the new one does the same.
    • Atlas of Earth Prime, once collected, will make a nice supplement for Freedom City but it's not the main attraction for me. Rogues Gallery is more of something I do not need more of. I went for their first two "supplement a week" programs with Threat Report and Power Profiles only to see them collected at the end of the year so I've waited on these for the full set. As much as I want to support M&M I'm not as much of a fan of the way these are produced as I used to be.
  • Freeport for Pathfinder is getting a campaign, a bestiary, and some small encounter support - that sounds solid. I can't use it right now but if I return to d20 piracy and high seas adventure these will be on my list for a look.
  • Song of Ice and Fire continues to get support which is cool. This one falls into the "It's not my thing but I'm glad someone is doing" category. If a group of players ever hits me up to run something like that,well,  I know where to go.
Looks like a busy year for them and a nice growth year for M&M in particular. I just hope I can run through enough of my on-again-off-again M&M Freedom City campaign to justify moving it all over to 3E when the time comes. 

1 comment:

thekelvingreen said...

What I like most about Green Ronin is that even though they grew out of the d20 boom they don't just stick to d20 stuff. The AGE system is quite fun and I've enjoyed the few times I've played their Song of Ice and Fire rpg.