New Century City?

[Warchild]

So what happened to this city? Why did it get booted from the "golden child" spotlight. Did it not renew it's superhero license? Did some Supervillain blow it up, so that you had to go to Freedom City?

I smell a cover up! Did Freedom City 'pad' the proposal a bit, hmmm? Just how far does this corruption go up the Green Ronin ladder!? Inquiring minds want to know!

[Steve Kenson]

So what happened to this city? Why did it get booted from the "golden child" spotlight. Did it not renew it's superhero license? Did some Supervillain blow it up, so that you had to go to Freedom City?

I smell a cover up!

Naw, Green Ronin is all about full disclosure

Here's the story:

Some years ago (five, to be exact), I was hired to write a superhero city sourcebook entitled New Century City for Gold Rush Games, then licensed to produce sourcebooks for Champions (their "San Angelo: City of Heroes" line). New Century City was originally intended to be the east coast "sister city" of San Angelo (which is a remarkable book, by the way. If you haven't yet checked it out, you should).

For various reasons, the project was never published. Gold Rush later sold their San Angelo line to Hero Games, which was itself sold to DOJ, Inc. (the folked currerntly running Hero Games). They set about doing a new edition of Champions, complete with a new campaign setting, so they had no interest in publishing anything further for the San Angelo setting.

I had continued to tinker with and expand New Century City for my own amusement (and use as a campaign setting) in my spare time. Over the course of a few years, the city developed and changed well beyond the original parameters of the project. It was no longer set in the San Angelo universe (although it could be, if one wanted, without any major modifications) and it had a rich history and backstory of its own.

When Chris Pramas and I talked about doing Mutants & Masterminds, I pointed out that I had a full-fledged setting book pratically ready to go, needing only some editing and stats for the new game. Originally, we were going to call the book New Century City (pretty much the last vestige of the original book I'd been hired to write). That was the title mentioned in the very first press release.

Then Mark Arsenault from Gold Rush Games contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to change the name of the book, so that Gold Rush could still use it in case the San Angelo line was ever revived. I agreed and chose the name "Freedom City," which I actually think suits the book and the setting (and Green Ronin) much better. The fact that it's similar to "Freeport" is also a pleasant coincidence

So that's the history of the evolution of Freedom City in a nutshell. It's a project that has been a LONG time in coming (in fact, the longest I've ever worked on from conception to publication), so I'm really looking forward to opening it up to visitors after all these years.

You'll get a bit of a preview of Freedom City in the Mutants & Masterminds book (the intro adventure is set there, and features some of the major characters in the city). Then the Freedom City book should follow not too long after in December. I know having a copy will be one of MY favorite holiday presents this year!

[Warchild]

Thats cool. I was just wondering if it had anything to do with Palladium's Century City. It would be confusing to some to have two different city supplements from two different companies, with the same name. Although Palladium is not THAT far away from D20.....
ssshh...don't tell them i said that, they get kinda ansey if you mention Palladium and D20 in the same sentence.

[Steve Kenson]

Thats cool. I was just wondering if it had anything to do with Palladium's Century City. It would be confusing to some to have two different city supplements from two different companies, with the same name.

Yup, another reason why I'm glad we decided to go with Freedom City instead. The funny thing is that I started working on New Century City some time before Palladium published Bill Coffin's Century Station (which I assume is the one you're referring to). Even still, I'm glad we won't have to worry about the similarity in names.

[Squirrel Nutkin]

The fact that it's similar to "Freeport" is also a pleasant coincidence

Now see, here I thought you'd done that on purpose!

[The Human Pest]

I realize it's very premature, but if M&M & Freedom City both show reasonably good sales, what kinds of things would most likely be in store after that?

Adventure supps?

Character supps?

Genre Supps (Tech/magic/etc)?

Or would you let it go the way of Aberrant and just keep producing the basic books?

Any chance in heck that G.R. could someday make a play for licensed property, such as DC? Or is Green Ronin pretty committed to keeping the setting entirely in-house?

Or is this all confidential?

[Warchild]

Yup, another reason why I'm glad we decided to go with Freedom City instead. The funny thing is that I started working on New Century City some time before Palladium published Bill Coffin's Century Station (which I assume is the one you're referring to). Even still, I'm glad we won't have to worry about the similarity in names.

Ah-hah. Century Station, thats it. I was close.
Yeah, Bill Coffin did a great job on that sup.

[Teflon Billy]

When I saw San Angelo: City of Heroes, I thought it looked great, really well done.

I was also astonished that Astro City's creator didn't sue them senseless for intelletual property violations.

[marvelman]

When I saw San Angelo: City of Heroes, I thought it looked great, really well done.

I was also astonished that Astro City's creator didn't sue them senseless for intelletual property violations.

Well, San Angelo came out a year or so before Astro City was published by Homage/Image comics. I actually remember the launch of San Angelo and getting CHamps 4th to play it. God I loved Champs 4th, crappy layout and all.

Jason

[Teflon Billy]

When I saw San Angelo: City of Heroes, I thought it looked great, really well done.

I was also astonished that Astro City's creator didn't sue them senseless for intelletual property violations.

Well, San Angelo came out a year or so before Astro City was published by Homage/Image comics. I actually remember the launch of San Angelo and getting CHamps 4th to play it. God I loved Champs 4th, crappy layout and all.

Jason

I'm almost certain that's not true man. I was right into Astro City when I first got the San Angelo preview from GoldRush Games.

Not only wasn't it a year early, I don't even think it was close. If Memory serves, Astro City was in the Confessor/Enelsian invasion arc when San Angelo first appeared. One of the Gold Rush Games guys even commented on the similarity when I mentioned it on rec.games.frp.super-heroes.

So I think you may have your dates mixed up a bit.

[Steve Kenson]

When I saw San Angelo: City of Heroes, I thought it looked great, really well done.

I was also astonished that Astro City's creator didn't sue them senseless for intelletual property violations.

Actually, Gold Rush Games went out of their way to send the San Angelo manuscript to Kurt Busiek (the creator of Astro City) for him to review and even got his endorsement for it (check out the back cover copy and the ad for Astro City in the back of the book). Pretty nice of them, considering that a certain number of similarities between comic book cities based on the history of modern comics are pretty much inevitable.

[Teflon Billy]

Well, if they had to use something for inspiration, they could've definitely chosen wore than Astro City

[marvelman]

Astro CIty did rock and will be back sometime now that Busiek's workload has lessened a good deal. I can't wait. I think he even has a new artist.

Guess I was mistaken on San Angelo, but I could sware I read a review of it before I bought the Astro City miniseries.

Jason

[Teflon Billy]

Astro CIty did rock and will be back sometime now that Busiek's workload has lessened a good deal. I can't wait. I think he even has a new artist...

Man, that's kid of sad. I quite liked the guy they were using. I'd love if they got Steve Dillon though.

And I hope Alex Ross still does the covers.