Over 20 years ago, Green Ronin Publishing first brought gamers to the world of Aldea with Blue Rose: The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy. Now it’s time to step into the world of Blue Rose again, and explore the Commonwealth of Aldis as young heroes.
The Commonwealth of Aldis is surrounded by threats, and not just from enemy armies or would-be servants of darkness, but the stresses of a society that is idealistic but imperfect, and whose freedoms make it susceptible to those who would use them against the very people they’re designed to protect. Much of the country is wild, either from time immemorial or after the Empire of Thorns, when the Great Rebellion left cities and grand magical artifacts in overgrown, haunted ruin. Even now, centuries later, Aldis has yet to be fully resettled. There’s much to do—but who will do it?
Five years ago, Queen Jaellin revived the Order of Wardens. Veteran agents of the Queen, known as Envoys, screened youth from across Aldis and subjected them to intense training. Once trained, the led Warden crews along their Wardways: roads built in ancient times, once used by the Wardens of the Old Kingdom, which reigned before the Empire of Thorns. Walking these routes, they helped where they could, mediating disputes, investigating local dangers—and sometimes, raiding the odd barn.
You belong to the sixth cohort of the revived Order of Wardens—the first to go without supervising Envoys. You’re a young adult; you just graduated from training. Now you’re ready to walk Aldis with your crew and a fresh purpose. Are you eager for the road, hoping to leave a former life behind, or taking it as a last chance to fine something for yourself in life? Can you immerse yourself in the work and survive the dangers? Do you know how to raise a barn?
Wardens of the Blue Rose is a roleplaying game that takes place in the Kingdom of Aldis, the default setting for previous games and fiction under the Blue Rose banner. Unlike previous Blue Rose games, Wardens of the Blue Rose is designed as a GM-optional, solo-friendly roleplaying game focused on the adventures of young heroes as they try to make their home, Aldis, a better place. It’s about showing up to do the hard things that help everyone. It’s about meeting new people and discovering common compassion as a thread that binds diverse people.
Built on the version of the Adventure Game Engine we've dubbed SAGE(the Simple Adventure Game Engine), it’s a lighter roleplaying system that takes minutes to learn and puts the focus on the character’s values.
What else?
It features slice of life stories as well as more traditional adventures. While the Shadow and other evils threaten the peace of Aldis, your sessions are as likely to resolve a feud between turnip farmers as shake the balance between good and evil.
It’s about Bonds developed through relationships and memories. Wardways are paths you can take many times. As you build a history of your travels, you’ll find friends, enemies, rivals, and lovers on the road. These are more than diary entries, though. Bonds are also a game mechanic, and calling upon them can dramatically influence your actions.
It’s about coming of age and academic drama. You aren’t the only wardens around. There are multiple ward crews, and a warden usually serves a five-year term, so the first Warden Commander graduates (that is, fellow youths) have only just taken the field, replacing the Envoys who previously handled such duties. Ward crews can develop rivalries and given that these are a bunch of young people, tumultuous romances, too.
It's a hexcrawl where story generation tools not only tell you what's up ahead, but might progress you along broader stories you trigger, too, via the Arc Meter system.
At its simplest, Wardens might be asked to pull in crops, dig ditches, or train locals in an ability they possess. If they see broken bridges and other problems, along the way they’ll fix it if they can, hiring local help if necessary. However, they might also be asked to deal with attacks from dangerous creatures, act as a neutral voice in a fractious community dispute or even investigate potential danger from enemies of Aldis.
Wardens are helpers first, not adventurers. While some of them have self-defense abilities, they’re not empowered to make arrests, much less use lethal force. As an information network, Wardens might carry messages of critical import to the Commonwealth, or investigate alarming and fascinating rumors, even if they lead to secret invasion forces, backwoods sorcery, artifacts of the Empire of Thorns, and all the other challenges Aldis has to offer.
Designer Malcolm Sheppard has put together a sample of the game that you can download. This PDF gives you everything you need to play an intro game of Wardens of the Blue Rose, including pre-generated characters!
Wardens of the Blue Rose is a full-color 192-page roleplaying game in a portable 6"×9" book format. When you open it up, you’ll find:
The SAGE System: An ultralight tabletop roleplaying engine that revolves around semi-freeform Abilities that determine your character’s skills, Bonds that measure their beliefs and commitments, and Fortune, which measures their privileges as protagonists—their “main character energy.”
Wardway Journeys: A full adventure generation system that you can use for solo play, GMless group play, or traditional roleplaying. Every Aldis is unique, as you use random generators and easy choices to build locations—and ongoing “metaplots” via the Arc Meter system.
The Commonwealth of Aldis: A nation born from a revolution against unspeakable evil, Aldis was founded on the principles of compassion and justice—and the struggle continues, with Wardens leading the way by example. Aldis isn’t perfect, but it’s genuinely good, and that means as a society it has a love of diversity and inclusion.
Becoming a Warden: Create a competent young adult hero, ready to help the people of Aldis. The heart of your character are their abilities and Bonds. You might be human, or you might belong to one of the other peoples of Aldis, such as the mystic vata, the mighty Night People, the aquatic Sea Folk or the psychic animals called rhydan.
The Warden’s Charge: “What do you do?” is the perennial question people ask about TTRPGs. In Wardens of the Blue Rose, the answer is easy. You travel Wardways, the ancient roads of Aldis, you help anyone who needs help, and you report your experiences to the Crown. Along the way you might speak out against religious zealots spreading intolerance, root out dark cults serving the Shadow, and explore ruins from the Empire of Thorns—but you’ll also dig ditches and raise barns, enjoy a slice of life in Aldis, or even fall in love.
The Mystic Arcana: In the world of Wardens of the Blue Rose, magic is an intuitive, psychic art—it responds to feelings over words, passion over forms. This is a freeform magic system, but within risks corruption, when an adept uses the arcana to harm or dominate.
Caverns of the Cult of the Shadow: While Wardens of the Blue Rose doesn’t require premade locations and scenarios, it can still use them, so we’re giving you a fully fleshed out location to challenge your Wardens.
Your support can help us unlock these great expansions to the Wardens of the Blue Rose base game!
At $25,000 we’ll produce a 24-page guide to the people and creatures you might meet on the road, expanding the possibilities in the core rulebook. Some might be called “monsters,” but you’re not there to fight—you’re there to meet!
At $35,000 we’ll create a 32-page anthology of short adventures and scenes to spark and enhance a Narrator’s imagination and open new stories for Wardens, whether in the middle of a generated campaign or through traditional adventures.
At $50,000 we’ll create Deluxe version of the map, either in cloth or as a foldable trail map. Format will be decided by a poll of backers and included with all pledge levels that include a physical reward.
At $65,000 we’ll send your Wardens into real danger! Only a few Wardens are called to travel to the Theocracy of Jarzon, a land of strict tradition bound to religious zeal. Where Wardens travel Aldis openly, they crawl through Jarzon by stealth, rendering aid in secret. Discover new story generation tools and arcs, as well as an overview of this land beyond Aldis in this 56-page supplement.
Katherine Schuttler was born in 1990, and began tabletop gaming at the age of 11. Now, she is a freelance game writer that specializes in science and fantasy tabletop RPGs. Her credits include work for Green Ronin and Onyx Path, as well as World of Trash. Katherine lives with her partner of 14 years, two cats, and many spoiled chickens.
Katherine Schuttler
Ambivalently gendered polymath Sian Ingham is the writer of the Bram Stoker Award-nominated book We Don't Go Back: A Watcher's Guide to Folk Horror (2018), along with Cult Cinema (2021), Atlantis Through Time (2026) and others. They have contributed to several TTRPG publications over the years, including, for Green Ronin, Modern Age, Threefold and Cthulhu Awakens. They live in Wales with their teenaged son and a sentient fox, and when they're not writing surprising things, they spend their time creating safe homes for disabled people across the UK.
Sian Ingham
Steve Kenson (he/him) joined Green Ronin Publishing in 2003 and his first official project was the first edition of Blue Rose Romantic Fantasy Roleplaying. Since then he has worked as a developer for games like Mutants & Masterminds, True20, Icons Superpowered Roleplaying, The Expanse, and others and as staff designer, including on products like DC Adventures, Emerald City, Freedom City, A Song of Ice & Fire Roleplaying, and many others. Steve has over 200 game product credits to his name as an author, designer, and developer over the past thirty years. He helped launch the “Queer as a Three-Sided Die” seminar series at Gen Con. Steve lives in southern New Hampshire with his partners, Adam and Christopher, and maintains a personal website at stevekenson.com where you can find out more about him and his work.
Steve Kenson
Malcolm Sheppard is co-designer of SAGE and his writing, design, and development credits include Green Ronin's Modern AGE, Fantasy AGE, Cthulhu Awakens, Ork!, The Fifth Season, and other works for World of Darkness, Exalted, Shadowrun, and 5e compatible games. He returns to the world of Blue Rose after 10 years--his first work for Green Ronin was an adventure set in Aldis. He's a father, even a grandfather, and teaches swordplay on the side from Ontario, Canada.
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