Interest Check: Blue Rose/AGE

I was wondering if anyone would like to help me out. I've never actually run the Adventure Gaming Engine, which powers the Blue Rose role-playing game of romantic fantasy. Would there be any takers if I were to start a Blue Rose adventure?

I do love Blue Rose, and have run it here, so I might have a bunch of resources for you (character sheets, maybe stunt tables).

I would be interested in playing. I don't have any actual experience in the system either, but I have read the books.

I would appreciate anything you have to offer. Thank you!

Tell me more of this Blue Rose?

From the Blue Rose Core Rulebook, "What is Romantic Fantasy?"

Blue Rose is a role-playing game about romantic fantasy, but what is that, exactly? In the high fantasy quests of authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, or the larger-than-life swords and sorcery of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and others, heroic loners or small groups of rebels, outcasts, or eccentrics perform great deeds and go on quests to obtain power and glory or to protect the world from some dire threat.

In the mid-1980s, a generation of new fantasy authors—Diane Duane, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, and many others—wrote fantasy novels different from any that had come before. The main characters in their novels occasionally started out as loners and outcasts before finding their place in society, generally as members of some prominent group or official organization that goes on exciting adventures to protect ordinary people from danger. Developing a sense of belonging and finding comrades are central features of these stories. Most of these novels are in series, and by the end of the first book, the main character has usually discovered a community where they belong. Many of the character’s subsequent adventures involve either becoming a more fully integrated member of this group or protecting the group from harm.

Few of these novels contain elves, dwarves, or similar fantasy races, and many contain few or no other humanoid species at all. Instead, humans share their world with one or more types of intelligent or semi-intelligent animals, sometimes with a few magical human subspecies. Some of the intelligent animals are simply bright psychic pets, while others are free-willed, powerful spirits with animal bodies.

Romantic fantasy novels are often set in highly egalitarian societies, where people’s occupations and aspirations are not limited by fixed gender roles. In these books, cultures and individuals that are sexist or homophobic are either ignorant and see the error of their ways somewhere in the series, or they are enemies who are eventually vanquished.

The heroes of romantic fantasy novels are usually environmentally conscious. Protecting wilderness areas and animals from depredation is a common plot element. In all romantic fantasy worlds, nature is a positive magical force, and anyone who protects it is on the side of good. Attitudes about magic also differ from other fantasy novels. Instead of the scholastic magic of some stories—magic as a rare and powerful discipline involving complex rituals and arcane lore—many characters have innate psychic or arcane powers as natural to them as sight
and hearing. Heroic characters can often manipulate the natural elements and use their powers with nothing more than concentration and intent. These powers are seen as both an innate and positive part of someone’s nature, and are only feared by the ignorant or evil.

More traditional magic does occasionally appear in these novels, but it’s usually only practiced by villains to bind others to their will, or to summon horrific creatures and spirits from other planes of existence. The only motives given for performing such magic are a hunger for power or a desire for revenge. This type of magic is unnatural, dangerous, and often corrupting.

Blue Rose takes these elements of romantic fantasy to create a world of adventure, where you can build your own heroes and forge your own stories.

The mechanics are fairly straightforward; roll 3d6 (one of a different color, the Drama Die)) and add your ability. When you roll doubles, you generate Stunt Points, which can be used to perform, well, stunts. You roll against a Target Number set by the Narrator, from 7 (Routine) to 21 (Nigh Impossible). The higher the number on your Drama Die, the better your level of success.

Stunts allow you to add a little extra panache to your actions. For example, for 2 Stunt Points, you can declare a knockdown and bring your opponent prone, or you might complete a test in half the time it would normally take.

This is the same system as used for the Dragon Age and Expanse RPGs (both of which have arguably more people IPs).

I am still unsure what this specific setting and campaign premise is like, even if it gives some idea of the genre overall.

That still leaves a lot of space for what kind of heroes these are. Based on that description, I can imagine:

• Noble dignitiaries trying to keep the polity running smoothly like a well-oiled machine in the face of external threats.
• Employees of an institute of justice, such as city guards, judges, advocates, and the like, pursuing and ensuring fairness rules in the heart of the polity.
• Generals striving to mount a defence against the aggressive neighbours.
• Heroic grunts within the defensive forces of said generals.
• Spies acting within Jarzon and Kern to foresee and sabotage their evil schemes.
• Counterintelligence operators in Aldis trying to root out Jarzon and Kern spies, while also struggling to not stare too much into the abyss in the process.

Those are just ideas based on the above descriptions, but even they open possibilities for very different campaigns. Thus I'm curious to know what kind of story is being proposed.

If it helps, here is the opening of the adventure...

The plains of Zea have never been particularly welcoming, but civilization requires space, and just over a year ago, it finally claimed the valley of Husqan. Shapers diverted a river and drained Lake Husqan, creating a crescent of fertile farmland arcing around a bog that was formerly the deepest part of the lake. Intending to create a breadbasket in the barrens, Zea officials offered anyone willing to settle in the Husqan Valley free land and the hope of a better life. The settlers received the promised land and founded the town of Lakesheart, but continue to wait for the better life to manifest. The birth rate in the area is abnormally low and, to make matters worse, the community’s precious few children are disappearing. Two days ago, Eric, the son of the town’s most successful farmer, vanished. Several of the townsfolk have taken the matter into their own hands, but they are in need of aid.

I may be misunderstanding something, but the adventure pitch looks like it's exactly the sort of story the genre is supposed to be contrasted against (i.e. the bit about small groups going to the fringes of civilisation and doing some great deeds to thwart some dire threat). Which isn't a knock against those who look forward to it, but to me it seems unclear how that is meant to play along with the selling points and innovations of Blue Rose compared to 'standard' fantasy (like Witcher, Forgotten Realms or Conan).

I apologise if the cause of the misunderstanding is me.