It’s Ian here again with your monthly update! Everything is coming along well. Art continues to come in, and each piece looks better than the last. Some of the pieces are truly stunning and really capture the look and feel of The Expanse setting.
One of my favorite aspects of The Expanse: Transport Union Edition is that we get to delve into some of the characters from the later books. I really enjoyed working with the artists to create portraits for each of these characters that are as accurate to the books as possible. There was a lot of good collaboration, and we even tweaked some of the originals to make them a little more “book accurate”. Each of the characters not only has a portrait, but a bio and stats based on books 5-6 of The Expanse series. The stats for Avasarala and the Roci crew have also been updated for that timeframe.
The original core rulebook featured Chrisjen Avasarala and the crew of the Rocinante: James Holden, Amos Burton, Alex Kamal, Bobbie Draper, and Naomi Nagata. We have new art for each of these, and we’ve added a roster of new characters including: Fred Johnson (Head Administrator of Tycho Station), Winston Duarte (Martian traitor and future First Consul of Laconia), Michio Pa (Free Navy pirate who becomes the first (second?) president of the Transport Union) Clarissa “Peaches” Mao (Julie Mao’s sister), Camina Drummer (Chief of Security for Tycho Station and later president of the Transport Union).
While we’re on the subject, here are the final portraits for all of the new characters:. I hope you love them as much as I do!
Fred Johnson by Andrey Vasilchenko
Winston Duarte by Andrey Vasilchenko
Michio Pa by Andrey Vasilchenko
Clarissa Mao by Andrey Vasilchenko
Camina Drummer by Andrey Vasilchenko
2025 marks Green Ronin’s 25th anniversary, and we’ll be having a lot of special events going on at Gen Con this year. You can find us at booth 101. (If you stop by, make sure to compliment Hal on the new Green Ronin logo.)
Sadly, I won’t be there this year, but there will be Expanse games being run by Green Ronin staff. I believe they are currently sold out, but there are often no shows. Or, if you ask nicely, they might be able to squeeze in another player. You can find the complete list here
Ian here again! Let's start with a status update: I’m pleased to announce that as of this week all four of the books that were part of the Campaign (The Expanse RPG: Transport Union Edition, Crew Companion, Daemon’s Gambit, and Free Navy Conflict) are out of the development pipeline and either in editing or production. Things are moving along nicely.
The books are going well, “But what about all the other cool stuff?” you may be asking. Well, good news! We've received the first sample of the miniatures sprues, and here they are in all their glory.
I don’t know about you all, but I’m sure excited to get my hands on these and use them during in-person sessions of The Expanse. I’ll definitely be bringing these along to conventions to use when I run Expanse demos. Speaking of running games, I really haven’t had the chance to run much of The Expanse outside conventions and online events for quite some time. Recently, that changed, and I had a blast running the first adventure in Abzu’s Bounty. When you’re buried in the development of a game, you sometimes forget how much fun the thing you’re working on is to play. This was a welcome reminder and looks to be turning into an ongoing campaign.
Before I go, here’s another sneak peek at the new art for The Expanse RPG: Transport Union Edition — a trio of large freighters in orbit around an alien world.
See you next month, and in the meantime, watch out for pirates.
Ian here! I don’t have a lot to report his month other than that things are coming along on The Expanse RPG: Transport Union Edition crowdfunder. The pieces and parts are coming together like a new ship at Tycho Shipyards. If you want to pick my brain and ask me questions about the upcoming game books or just chat about anything Expanse or Green Ronin-related, I’ll be live on ThursdAGE today, Thursday, May 29th, along with disembodied Troy at 5:00 PM Eastern and 2:00 PM Pacific. Fear not, if you miss this one, I expect I’ll be on ThursdAGE a few more times in the near future. You can also check it out on demand on YouTube after the livestream.
Also, if you’re going to Origins Game Fair in Columbus Ohio, you can catch me there at the Green Ronin booth or aimlessly wandering the halls. We'll be in booth 201, come say hello!
Since we’ve got another fairly news-light month, I have something very special for you — the final cover for The Expanse RPG: Transport Union Edition core rulebook. We decided to go with a triptych that reflects the cover of the original edition of the core but update for the Transport Union Era. From left to right, instead of Avasarala speaking to the UN, we have Michio Pa speaking to the Transport Union assembly. Instead of Bobby piloting a ship near the Ring Station (aka the Hub), we have a Void ship passing through a ring gate. And finally, replacing Martian Marines on the surface of Mars, we have explorers on one of the 1300 new worlds beyond the ring. I love this cover so much! Just looking at it gets me excited to jump in and play The Expanse RPG again.
Quick note here: sorry this update is a little bit late. It was meant to be published last week, but your friendly neighborhood admin is on another continent at the moment and time zone differences are confusing enough without calendar reminders getting rearranged. Apologies for the lateness, but here's Ian with April's update.
Hoy, again Captains!
It's Ian here again with your monthly update on The Expanse RPG: Transport Union Edition crowdfunder on Backerkit. It’s been hectic but smooth sailing for all of us working on The Expanse. The core rulebook, Free Navy Conflict, and Daemon’s Gambit are all with production. I’m making my final pass on Crew Companion, and it should be in production by the next update. Art is steadily flowing in, and I must say, there are some amazing pieces of work. Opening up the setting to include the Transport Union era has allowed us to explore a lot more of the Expanse universe—colony worlds, new characters from the novels, new ships, and much more.
Since this is a fairly short update, here are a few of the pieces that are currently works in progress. The final pieces may be a bit different (and more polished), but I thought you all might enjoy seeing the progression. Included here are a few general pieces and portraits of Amos, Clarissa Mao, Michio Pa, and Bobbie. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Stay tuned for completed pieces in a future update.
Sorry for the surprise update so late in the day, but we received a product sample for one of the Norse Foundry Dice this last weekend, and since the pledge manager is closing this week, we thought maybe you would like to check these out in case you were still on the fence about adding a set to your order.
Here's Hal, showing off the dice!
We only have the sample for the Transport Union faction, but this should give you a pretty good idea of the quality of the aluminum, and the format for the box.
And on that note, we'll be sending out the 48 hour warning email on Wednesday morning for the end of the pledge manager. The Final deadline will be Friday morning, and pledges will lock down automatically (you should probably make sure you're all set before that). We will also be charging cards for late pledges, add-ons and shipping at that time (Friday). If you have exceptional circumstances, please feel free to get in touch with us at [email protected], and we will do what we can to work with you.
If you want to double check your survey but don't have the original link/email, you can request a new link RIGHT HERE!
And finally, a quick reminder that we don't receive reliable notifications of comments left here, so email is best if you have questions or concerns.
