Green Ronin had to wait quite a while to make their presentation at GTS, being part of the Tuesday night dinner that included Wizard Entertainment, the Origins Awards nominations, and Games Workshop. But once Chris Pramas was finally able to take the podium, the GR gospel was spread.
Some copies of Freedom City, a campaign setting for Mutants & Masterminds,made it to GTS by the end of the convention, starting the game’s line of support products. Such products are an excellent idea, as shown by M&M being one of only two RPGs nominated for the Origins Game of the Year Award. A 64-page adventure called Time of Crisis will follow next month, and Crooks! will fill a Monster Manual type of role in May. GR also announced the licence of the Nocturnals for a sourcebook late this summer, rounding out the M&M products.
The city of Freeport will see two new products this year, one of them rather massive. Tales of Freeport, written by Graeme Davis, will present four new adventures within its 96 pages this April. Later this summer, the looming darkness of Black Sails over Freeport will arrive, an epic adventure of approximately 192 pages in length.
In the Master Class line, The Avatar’s Handbook has just hit stores, and its unwaivering goodness will need to be balanced out by something more sinister. That’s where The Unholy Warrior’s Handbook, due in June, comes in.
The Races of Renown series received the extra-length Plot & Poison just before GTS, detailing all things drow. Bastards & Bloodlines should be in stores by now as well, bringing life to such strange horrors as the half-dwarf/half-roper, which I don’t want to think about for too long. Fang & Fury, a vampire sourcebook that will provide balanced options for vampires as PCs, is due to arrive in May.
As you can probably tell from the new product line’s title, Mythic Vistas will expand the range of Green Ronin’s d20 products with new campaign settings. The series kicks off in April with Skull & Bones, a 192-page resource for pirates and voodoo that began its development at Adamant Entertainment, Gareth-Michael Skarka’s company. In May, GR will bring us Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era, a 224-page book which is appropriately being described as “part history, part mythology.” In June comes Monsters of the Mind, a 64-page creature book for July’s release, the Mindshadows psionic campaign setting (128 pages). During his presentation, Pramas pointed out that Mindshadows will be fully D&D 3.5 compatible.
With Ultramodern Firearms d20 soon to hit a second printing, GR will also be supporting the Modern gamers with a D20 Modern Player’s Guide written by the guys from The Game Mechanics. Speaking of which, GR will also be publishing some other Game Mechanics products in paper form, beginning with Artifacts of the Ages: Swords & Staves in July, which will combine the PDF products Swords of Our Fathers and Staves of Ascendance.
Other various products were mentioned toward the end of the presentation. As if to show that the legions below are never far from their thoughts, Green Ronin will publish a third volume of the Legions of Hell monster supplements, Hordes of Gehenna (Daemons). Todd Gamble’s Cartographica will provide 64 pages of maps of professional quality maps in late April/early May, which will certainly provide fuel for many a GM’s imagination. Of course, Mike already reported the news of GR’s Torches & Pitchforks non-collectible card game (2-5 players, 200 b&w cards) coming in June.
Finally, as I mentioned, Green Ronin received some Origins Awards nominations just before gaining control of the podium. The five noms they received were:
- Game of the Year: Mutants & Masterminds
- Best Role-playing Game: Mutants & Masterminds
- Best Graphic Presentation of the Book Product: Mutants & Masterminds
- Best Role-playing Supplement: Freeport: The City of Adventure
- Best Game Accessory: Pocket Grimoires
Much of what we see this year in adventure gaming products will have a distinctly green tinge. From where I sit, there’s nothing wrong with that.