Green Ronin Publishing

Green Ronin Publishing
PredecessorRonin Publishing
FoundersChris Pramas and Nicole Lindroos
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationSeattle, Washington
DistributionDiamond Book Distributors[1]
Publication typesrole-playing games
Owner(s)Chris Pramas and Nicole Lindroos
No. of employees12
Official websitegreenronin.com

Green Ronin Publishing is an American company based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Chris Pramas and Nicole Lindroos, they have published several role-playing game–related products. They won several awards for their games including multiple Origins, ENnie, Pen & Paper, and Inquest Fan Awards.

History

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In early 1996, Chris Pramas secured the rights to The Whispering Vault from Mike Nystul as he was leaving the game industry, and together with his brother Jason Pramas and their friend Neal Darcy, the three of them founded the company Ronin Publishing. This initial company published two role playing game supplements, The Book of Hunts (1997) for The Whispering Vault and Blood of the Valiant for Feng Shui. Ronin Publishing came to an end when Chris Pramas went to work for Wizards of the Coast in 1998.[2]: 369 

Pramas founded Green Ronin Publishing with his wife Nicole Lindroos in 2000.[2]: 370  The first publication from Green Ronin published was Ork! in July 2000.[2]: 370  His association with Wizards of the Coast gave promise Pramas had inside information on the d20 license, so Green Ronin's first d20 publication Death in Freeport was released on August 10, 2000, on the same day as the D&D third edition Player's Handbook.[2]: 370  Green Ronin moved beyond adventures for Freeport in 2001 and into publishing sourcebooks and other d20 material.[2]: 371  Pramas was laid off from Wizards of the Coast in March 2002 so he went full-time with Green Ronin, doubling company production that year.[2]: 371  The first new role-playing game published by Green Ronin was Spaceship Zero (2002); Toren Atkinson of the rock band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets had some of his artwork published in Ork! and Death in Freeport and asked Pramas to publish a game based on the band's album Spaceship Zero Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2000).[2]: 371  The other role-playing game published by Green Ronin that year was Mutants & Masterminds (2002), created by Steve Kenson who Pramas had asked to design a new d20-based superhero game because of his previous freelance work on superhero role-playing games.[2]: 371  In 2003, former Pinnacle Entertainment Group graphic designer, art director and Deadlands RPG brand manager Hal Mangold joined as partner, and the company formally established itself as an LLC. Mangold was Green Ronin's primary graphic designer and art director on a freelance basis since soon after the company's founding, doing the layout and design for the majority of the company's print output. (Ork!, laid out by Nicole Lindroos, and the Mutants & Masterminds game line, handled by the Super Unicorn design studio, were notable exceptions.)

On May 12, 2010, Green Ronin Publishing announced a third edition of the superhero role-playing game Mutants & Masterminds would debut in the fall.[3] This announcement came just nine days after the publisher announced that it would debut a new DC Adventures game in August, based upon Mutants & Masterminds.[4] According to Green Ronin President Chris Pramas, the two new games will "share a common ruleset."[3]

In 2013, Green Ronin Publishing used crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to redesign and enlarge the Freeport campaign setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.[5]

Games and products

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Green Ronin wrote the second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which was published by Black Industries. Other notable products include Freeport: The City of Adventure, "Green Ronin’s signature city setting" and "home to thousands of RPG campaigns since its launch in 2000",[6] Thieves' World, and The Black Company d20 settings, Mutants & Masterminds, Blue Rose, and True20. Licensed products include the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game, the Dragon Age roleplaying game, and DC Adventures, a licensed roleplaying game based on the characters and setting found in DC Comics.

The Spirosblaak (2005) setting from Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas series was supported by Misfit Studios.[2]: 372  They also created Fantasy AGE using the 'Adventure Game Engine' (source: [6])

Reception

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Green Ronin Publishing won the 2003 Silver Ennie Award for "Best Publisher",[7] and again in 2004,[8] and the Gold for "Best Publisher" and Silver for "Fan's Choice for Best Publisher" in 2005,[9] and Gold for "Fan's Choice for Best Publisher" in 2006.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "Our Publishers". Archived from the original on 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  3. ^ a b Green Ronin Web Team (2010-05-12). "Green Ronin to Release Mutants & Masterminds Third Edition". Green Ronin Publishing. Archived from the original on 2010-05-16. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  4. ^ Green Ronin Web Team (2010-05-03). "Green Ronin to Release DC Adventures RPG Books". Green Ronin Publishing. Archived from the original on 2010-05-06. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  5. ^ Bonanno, Janelle (28 March 2013). "Put More Pirates in Your Pathfinder With Freeport". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 25 January 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Freeport: The City of Adventure". greenronin.com. Green Ronin Publishing. 31 October 2017.
  7. ^ "The ENnie Awards -- 2003 Awards". www.ennie-awards.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  8. ^ "The ENnie Awards -- 2004 Awards". www.ennie-awards.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  9. ^ "The ENnie Awards -- 2005 Awards". www.ennie-awards.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  10. ^ "The ENnie Awards -- 2006 Awards". www.ennie-awards.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2022.

6. https://books.google.com/books/about/Fantasy_Age_Basic_Rulebook.html?id=5O6xAQAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description

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