Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Green Ronin Shows how a Real Game Company Announces its 2015 Game Lineup (but...)


Green Ronin apparently also made an announcement for its 2015 book lineup, In this listing we have some very robust entries, including:

The AGE System gets:

A new Dragon Age Core Rulebook comprising the contents (revised) of the three boxed sets

An Inquisition sourcebook and revised GM's Toolkit

Faces of Thedas (formerly a PDF line) gets its own book

A may release of the long-awaited Fantasy AGE engine with a Gencon-release setting book

Mutants & Masterminds gets:

The Cosmic Sourcebook so you can have faux Guardians of the Galaxy Adventures

Freedom City revised book

Atlas of Earth Prime continues with an eventual print release

Other Stuff:

A Return to Freeport book for Pathfinder

Two Song of Ice and Fire releases for people who are into that (I have only ever read the novels. Seriously. We don't get Cable so no HBO, and until they show up on Netflix I am not going to see it)

Some card game called Love2Hate

Ork! the beer-and-pretzels RPG gets a re-release! This is kinda cool.

Now THAT is a proper game line-up. Of course, there is that giant BUT......

And if you know Green Ronin, you know what the BUT is: they are ambitious, determined, and produce fantastic books, but they are also notorious for slipping deadlines, sometimes by a year or two. So when it comes to much of their planned schedule (especially and chiefly for their licensed IP) I suggest adding 6 months to a year minimum to the release dates. I could be wrong.....I seriously hope I am wrong!.....but it's just how it's been for a long time now.

However, the good news is Fantasy AGE is not tied to any IP, and the rules are functionally out there now, so we just need the "IP-free" edition and we're good. My post yesterday mentioning to Paizo that we need a competitive "lite" edition of their game to go up against D&D 5E with more product support? Yeah, forget that.....I think Green Ronin may have this one handled just fine.


As a complete aside: I really need to look at Mutants & Masterminds seriously. I don't know why I am not playing this game (at all). I loved 1st edition, liked (but did not run) 2nd edition, and own all of 3rd.... 3rd edition appears to be amazingly well done, actually, and the DC Heroes books, despite being pre New-52, are also great resources. I don't know why I'm not doing something with this, need to investigate.



3 comments:

  1. The DC Adventures books aren't great resources "despite being pre-New52", but rather because they're pre-New52.

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    1. Hmmm....to clarify: the issue I have isn't with the content being Pre-New-52 (in fact that stuff is great) it's that no content post New-52 is in the books. That is, I understand, up for debate by the pro and anti New-52 crowd, but I consider myself a very old DC fan who discovered DC post-Crisis in 1986 and stayed loyal for two decades, then became disenfranchised with their universe over a period of several years in the 00's. The New-52 is what brought me back to not only DC but comics collecting, and while it is (like all efforts in multi-title comic universes) a mixed bag there's some very good stuff coming out of it. That said.....I like DC in all its forms, and have been very happy to have returned after a good ten year absence. If I were going to run a DC game today, New-52 would be the continuity I am most comfortable with at the moment, and that's why I happen to be disappointed that the timing of the RPG didn't allow for the addition of New-52 chronology and content.

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