Game of Thrones RPG

[Tenalpia]

Ok - I'll probably told that this should be in the games section but I thought that I'd get the best answer from the GRRM fans! I've just been on His website in the news section, searching for the scavenger hunt (failed!), when I found reference to the Game of Thrones roleplaying game. Does anyone know much about this? I assume it is not yet available but have there been any sneak previews? Do you think that it will be any good?

[Brys]

I hadn't heard about a Game of Thrones roleplaying game - I know there's a Game of Thrones board game, which I have, but that's strategy. It'd be interesting to find out more about this.

[MSBorba]

Yes, I have purchased the RPG game book, which will be personally signed by George himself. I was one of the first 500 to buy the book. Because of the lateness in getting the book to market as promised, Guardians of Order have provided for free a PDF cop of the entire book. What a treat! Being able to scan through an electronic copy of the book. By the way, it is fantastic, awesome art work and further descriptions of Martin's world. Of course Guardians of Order were allowed some liberties, but overall, they kept to Martin's script. Further books and adventures will be provided in order to enjoy the RPG further.

Those of you interested in getting a copy, you can still purchase an un-autographed limited edition copy which comes with the free PDF download by visiting the Guardians of Order website at http://www.agameofthronesrpg.com/

[Boaz]

So how is it? I imagine all the magic using classes are gone or changed substantially.

Have they just gone with a few classes with a ton of prestige classes?

But the real problem I see is that players know the direction of the story and will start to play to stay ahead of the storyline instead of playing their characters.

[Boaz]

I love the internet. I don't even remember life before I discovered online sports forums, literature (Tolkien and Martin... and Clavell) forums, miniature wargames forums, and high speed connection. Anyway...

The publisher of the ASOIAF RPG, Guardians of Order, went belly up in 2006. There was no sequel to their first book, the AGOT RPG. But it seems that last year, Green Ronin stepped in and purchased the rights to publish an ASOIAF RPG. I just found a blurb regarding their 2008 release on ICv2 news. You can read the link or read it below...




Green Ronin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire RPG'
To Debut at GenCon

January 29, 2008 Green Ronin's major release of 2008 will be the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, which is based on George R.R. Martin's popular series of fantasy novels. The new game will feature a unique gaming system custom crafted to reflect the conditions of the seven kingdoms in Martin's fantasy universe, which is notable for its colorful and highly detailed medieval setting.

Green Ronin plans to provide potential customers with a taste of the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG with a free short adventure, A Song of Ice and Fire Quick Play, which will be given away at game stores participating in Free RPG Day on June 21st. The actual game itself launches in August with a full color, 192-page hardcover core rulebook followed quickly by Peril at King's Landing, an adventure designed to help gamers initiate their campaigns. Later in the fall Green Ronin will release A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide, a 256-page full color hardcover, which will provide all the information necessary to create fascinating RPG campaigns and adventures set in any of the Seven Kingdoms.

A Song of Ice and Fire TV series has been announced by HBO (see "A Song of Ice and Fire on HBO"), though it has not yet been greenlit. Fantasy Flight Games has released A Game of Thrones CCG and A Game of Thrones strategy board game, both of which are based on the first novel in Martin's series as well as a deluxe The Art of the Song of Ice and Fire volume. The now defunct game company Guardians of Order created A Game of Thrones RPG, which utilized the d20 and Tri-Stat dX rule systems. Nine months after Guardians of Order told Martin in July 2006 that no further A Game of Thrones RPG products would be released, Green Ronin acquired the RPG rights to the property.



This is my third attempt to post this material. It just does not want to seem to post... hmmmm... I'm a Luddite.

Well, looks like my third edit did the trick.

FYI, here is a review of the original AGOT RPG.

[Overread]

Sounds interesting - I hope that we get the same quality of production that was raved about in the review - but even with that aside, the depth of the book sounds intreging.
Why is it that companies that produce quality stuff always go bad and die - whilst those that produce mediocre seem to be able to become monsters that never die?

[Werthead]

I have the RPG from GoO and it is excellent. The combat rules are superb and I know lots of people who have transferred them to standard D&D.

[Animusman]

I dont think an RPG of ASOIAF would been any good. If you want to play something like that just play AD&D Birthright.

[Werthead]

Birthright didn't work. It was a half-assed board game mixed with a standard D&D game. Nice idea, but no cigar.

[Qhorin Halfhand]

I've been running a game of this for months and my players love it. These are players who've been playing DnD for years and they say its one of the most enjoyable games they've played in. That said, I avoid combats where possible and really use the influence rules more as a guide than getting people to roll them often.

The plot is set after Robert's Rebellion. The players are members of either the Reach or Dorne and Jon Arryn has called for nobles from both regions to come to King's Landing to sort out the escalating border conflicts. It's a huge amount of fun and ASOIAF lends itself really well to a intrigue/politics based game. Combat isn't the only part of roleplaying, in fact I consider it the most unnecessary part of any story but the combat rules, especially rules for tournaments and stuff come in really handy and are a lot nicer than DnD combat, mostly because you don't have piles of magical items, cleric buffs, wizard spells and so on and so forth to take into account.

Some things are funny about it though. They give sample characters in the back and the two highest level characters are Maester Aemon and Syrio Forel. However, I noticed that in one of the books it said Donal Noye was the person who crafted Robert's Warhammer. I had a look at the Artisan Class and Donal Noye would have to be a level 19 Artisan at least to make his warhammer, not to mention he probably has some levels in some combat classes considering he killed Mag the Mighty. That means the only epic level character I can find evidence of is Donal Noye.