Blue Rose, and my issues with it

[taichara]

Okie. So. Blue Rose.

This is a long and honestly probably pointless post literally years in the offing -- mostly because while Blue Rose annoys the shit out of me it doesn't annoy the shit out of me enough to actually be willing to spend a lot of energy elaborating on why. I have limited energy, other things to write/doodle/play, and it's over there. *gestures*

That said, it does annoy me and has always annoyed me. Not for the same reason(s) that certain ridiculous branches of the OSR have tilted at the floral windmill, though; Blue Rose got my goat because when it was announced -- Valdemar pastiche! romantic fantasy rpg! yay! -- I was really looking forward to it, goddamnit, and then I got ... well, I got Blue Rose.

It's been some years now. I don't own 1e BR any more, and my 2e core is inaccessible atm, but I have enough in the old skull to be able to hit on my most salient problems and even with a specific example or two or so. But I do want to put on the table that I don't have a pile of the books immediately to hand and can't quote page numbers or the like.

Why am I finally mustering the energy now? A couple reasons, in no particular order:

- I've been plagued by an itch (so far unacted-on for other reasons, mostly lack of energy/drive) to tinker up an appropriate Lindwyrm class or two, or adapt the sly-wink job I wrote for Crack!, or both
- there's a Valdemar bundle on HumbleBundle right now and it reminded me
- there's a new Blue Rose crowdfund running and it also reminded me
- I want to write something and creative block is real so fuckit
- If I finally write this out maybe I can kill at least some of the annoyance, or something

So, here we go.

Also, let me get one element out of the way first:

( The goddamn deer is fine, okay. )

Also, in the interest of brevity and sense, before we go any further I'd like to introduce the excellent look at romantic fantasy in the OSR to be found over on Against The Wicked City, which helpfully also includes some nice defining of the genre so I don't have to make this thing even longer than it is:
- On Romantic Fantasy And OSR D&D
- Romantic Fantasy Revisited: [1], [2], [3], [4]

All that out of the way, it's rambling time. Again, in no particular order:


( Why Is There A Dark Lord In My Valdemar Pastiche: basic theme issues )

Which brings me to


( What in the actual fuck is this alignment system: and also corruption can fuck itself today )

Now, if it was just the above, Blue Rose would sit snugly in Just Not For Me and all would be well in the land of lone knights, or multicoloured cats, or whatever bad joke about myself I can make today. It's more Tolkien high fantasy with a set in stone tangible good-evil and some handwaving at Valdemar trappings than romantic fantasy, but I could live with my personal disappointment.

Alas, it is not just the above.

This has been a lot of fucking words and these two following parts might come out shorter because of it, but also because hell no I'm just getting to the point of this fuckery. No need to invoke general or specific romantic fantasy tropes here.


( Inclusion for me but not for thee )

So, yeah. Someone had and has some clear biases and they are not great let me tell you.

But wait, there's more!


( What The ACTUAL FUCK Did I Just Read: Lar'tya )

So yeah. Yeah.

This is the game that's supposed to be so much better and more progressive, folks.


( Murder, arson and jaywalking: some parting deep-sigh but inconsequential comparisons with inspirational material )

So there you have it; my major sticking points with Blue Rose. I'm sure I'd be reminded of more if I had the books in front of me, but it would probably also devolve into deep pixelbitching of details and I needed to stay on point of the important points.

Blue Rose is a shit "romantic fantasy" rpg if you ask me. If you want the kind of setting it is selling, it should work fine. I can't overlook the non-genre issues though, sorry -- getting some things right and inclusive doesn't excuse the rest.


Honestly, if you asked me right now to name an rpg better suited, I don't think there's a specific perfect one you could just use an old D&D-type easily enough, though, AtWC demonstrates that nicely in all those posts *lol* but I have two suggestions:

- Perils & Princesses feels pretty good to me

- the best example, though? Dungeons & Kittens. no, trust me. this game and setting and how characters interact and can interact is practically purrrfect.

I don't have a conclusion beyond this or a punchline. If you made it this far, congrats; no, seriously.

Sudden onset offended bodies of any stripe will get promptly bitbucketed.