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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition

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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition
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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/16/2016 08:42:22

This revised version of the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying came about due to the increased popularity of George R.R. Martins' work brought about by the TV adaptation Game of Thrones. The core ruleset is unchanged, although errata have been applied. A short introductory adventure - the one from the Quick Start - and a longer one, Peril at King's Landing (also available as a separate book), are also included to get you off to a flying start. The artwork is even better than before, and overall presentation improved as well. The Introduction explains all this, as well as having the usual 'What is a role-playing game?' information.

Chapter 1: A Westeros Primer is concerned with the setting. It opens with notes from Maester Jesiah (looking almost as if he'd written them himself, illuminated manuscript style), which give an overview of the history, current affairs and geography of Westeros. Fascinating reading, followed by a set of notes on life in Westeros - the legal situation (mostly down to the whim of the local lordling although many take their responsibilities seriously), the current state of technology, religion, ending with knighthood and the role of the maester.

Next, Chapter 2: Game Rules covers the basics of how to play the game. The core game mechanic is based around fists-full of d6s, with bonuses and modifiers as appropriate. Put simply, to attempt a task you decide which ability applies and use that to decide how many dice to roll - these are your Test Dice. If you qualify for a bonus, you get to add more dice to your roll, but then select the highest ones to the number of Test Dice you have. Modifiers are numerical additions or subtractions from the result achieved with the Test Dice. The aim is you test your abilities against a Narrator-set difficulty for the task you are trying to perform. That's the basics, and there are plenty of examples and special cases to show you how it all works. It's more straightforward than it looks at first glance, and soon becomes second nature. This chapter ends with some character archetypes - use these as exemplars or even for your own character, or just as guidelines as you move on to Chapter 3: Character Creation.

The whole business of character creation is intended to be a communal effort, as the default mode of playing the game is for the characters to be all members of (or associated with) a single noble house. So in creating the character, you are also laying a lot of the groundwork towards designing a house (although that is covered in more detail in Chapter 6: Houses and Lands). Whilst Chapter 3 takes you through the process, Chapter 4: Abilities and Specialities and Chapter 5: Destiny and Qualities provide the fine detail of the choices that you need to make, and also explain how you use everything you pick to effect with the game mechanics. Well worth a good read through before you start off making your characters, a thorough understanding will aid you in creating potent characters which complement one another. Once you have done, Chapter 7: Equipment ensures your characters have everything that they need.

The next three chapters cover Intrigue, Combat and Warfare: the main occupations of the average noble house on Westeros. Each could be reduced to a series of die rolls, but of course - especially in the case of intrigue - there is plenty more scope than that, each of these activities has scope for ample role-playing with the dice merely adding the element of chance ito an uncertain world. It is the combination of players and Narrator that will bring the game to life with role-play, interactions and planning taking precedence over the fall of the dice.

Speaking of the Narrator, Chapter 11 is devoted to a masterclass in how to run the game with a wealth of material to aid you in designing and running adventures and campaigns. Ideas are presented in the way major characters in the novels embodied them, be it Lord Eddard Stark facing dilemmas, his wife Catelyn living up to expectations, Petyr Baylish's treachery or Ser Barristan Selmy showing the influence of history on the present... and there's more, of course. There's also detailed advice about making the rules work for your story, on managing play during sessions and so on.

The rest of the book contains the two adventures, being a Journey to King's Landing and Peril in King's Landing once you get there. They serve as a good introduction to Westeros and the game of thrones in general, and are good fun as the characters get involved in a tournament and all the intrigue going on around it. These will get your campaign off to a flying start, with plenty of scope for further development.

Set just before the time of the books (and TV show), make your own mark on Westeros. Perhaps it will be one of your characters that will sit on the Iron Throne - although be warned, it's said to be very uncomfortable!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
by Ken T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/15/2013 22:42:17

Bought this game because of the HBO series and the books. I enjoyed them both immensely.

The game looks pretty good though I have yet to run it. Give me a couple of weeks to pull together the group. Of course there is the combat system, but there is also the social intrigue system. Both play out pretty much using the same sort of mechanics.

The game uses a point buy system to build your character and the house you will play. Your character will not be able to do everything, but they can do some things well, even very well if you don't try to spread yourself out too thin.

Though I have not played in twenty years, I do GM games with a similar feel to this game. This is the first time I have even considered playing a character.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
by Devon K. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/13/2012 20:19:05

I picked this game up at the recommendation of a listener to the show. I'm so glad I did. The game rules are simple enough and very easy to understand. What I really like about the system is that, there are additional layers of complexity you can add on. If you want, I really don't see why you can't play with the basic rules. You'll still have a great game with full characters and some amazing times. That extra layer of complexity really gets me fired up to give this game a whirl.

One of the things I'm most impressed with is the House creation. All the details that are created by the group, all the points spent collaboratively to create an entity that will impact all the PCs is just wonderful. And the fact that the players can spend earned resources later in the game to make it even better just turns on all sorts of lights in my head. So many ideas and I don't know where to start!

Another thing I really love about the way this book is organized is that it provides numbered steps for combat, war, intrigue and pretty much anything you need or want to do in the game. The numbered steps really make it easy to step through the action while you're learning, so you can make sure you're doing things according to the rules. I imagine that, once you've got the rules down, you don't have to worry about the numbered steps and everything just happens the way it's supposed to.

The book is very well laid out and very attractive. The art is generally good and really adds to the text. I think the pieces are well placed and really evoke the feel the designers are going for in the sections of the book where they are added.

This game is not a simple fantasy game. You can use the rules to run a typical dungeon crawl, but I don't see why you would. With rules for Intrigue and with everyone having a House as backdrop for their character, there is so much potential for conflict and stories just by creating a character. I'm very excited to give this game a try. It's a little more crunchy than I typically enjoy, but the possibilities are extremely interesting!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
by Adrian S. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 04/28/2012 19:14:39

It should come as no surprise that with the success of HBO's adaptation of this series, we are now presented with the 'Game of Thrones Edition' of SIFRP. Having only looked at the quickstart rules previously, I don't have much of a comparison. However, after reading this tome a few times I'm left with the feeling that this is an incredibly comprehensive piece of work.

What should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the novels is that there is a need to focus on setting and character, and as such the story and gazetteer-style elements take up the most of the page count. In fact, I'd recommend that non-role-players consider picking this up simply as a companion to the novels. In no particular order the book provides:

  • An overview of Westeros, containing geographical, political, theological and historical information on each of the Seven Kingdoms. Reading through this section will give Narrators and players all the information they need (and is somewhat shorter than reading all of the novels).
  • A guide to all of the Houses, with histories of the families, notable characters and deeds and in-depth information about their holdings, powerbases and modus operandi.
  • Quite extensive guidance for the Narrator in terms of crafting stories for Westeros and how this is different from most other fantasy settings. There is a great section which takes a number of key characters and describes what actual role they had/have in the story and what their inclusion teaches us about storytelling. The main warning I'd level here is that there are serious spoilers if you haven't read the novels. This section has been updated to include the events in 'Dance of Dragons' (the latest novel at the time of writing this review) and makes no qualms about mentioning character deaths and other event-based spoilers.

From the mechanical side, the game is simple yet incredibly decisive and brutal. The entire system is based upon a D6-driven mechanic (you'll need a maximum of ten dice to play). You roll a number of dice determined by skills and add-in bonus dice for situational modifiers and specialisations. Interestingly, once the dice pool is rolled, you remove a number of dice equal to the bonus dice and then tally up the score. The heart of the system is rolling as many dice as possible and then keeping the best results. A Target Number needs to be beaten to succeed in most rolls.

Combat is a relatively simple affair, and this is the first system I've seen which directly calculates damage based on the skill level linked to the weapon. Basically the idea is that if you are better trained, you'll do more damage. After reading over the rules for damage, defending and armour, I feel confident that most combats will not last long. Life is cheap in the Seven Kingdoms, and the system really reflects that.

However, the mechanical side of the book also gives the reader

  • A workable system for Mass Combat
  • A complete guide to building your own Stronghold, Fiefdom or Country. There are statistics linked to almost every aspect of a holding which allows players to almost play a 'game within the game' for managing their assets. I'm actually thinking that these rules could be ported over into other campaigns as a method of record-keeping. This exercise is quite important as it is directly linked to the Mass Combat rules mentioned above.
  • There is also a very large module in the back of the book. 'Journey to King's Landing' was a free-to-download module with pre-generated characters and appears in very much the same format here. It leads to 'Peril at King's Landing' which is a much longer module. To be honest, I would have preferred Green Ronin to offer these as PDF material accessible with a purchase of the main rulebook for two reasons. One, it is a neat opportunity to offer the customer something that is perceived a 'free extra' with the book. Secondly, though is the question as to whether the page count on the modules in a core book is a good use of space. Weighing in at 81 pages (around a quarter of the total page count), one questions how much long-term value this would be to the reader. I make no argument that a module is needed for a game like this, even just as a way of showing the reader 'this is what a SIFRP module looks like', but think it could have been achieved better.

The layout makes the book very easy to read, with plenty of full-colour illustrations throughout. The art quality is very average, but does work for the book. Characters from the novels are shown in most of the illustrations, and those familiar with the story will have no difficulty in recognising them.

Overall, I was impressed with the quality and breadth of the content in this book. It felt to me as though Green Ronin has respected the customer enough to give them a self-contained game in one book. If I was to run a game, I can't think of any aspect which is wanting in the rulebook, especially for the first-time Narrator - which makes it a very sensible purchase for someone looking for a new game. There will surely be other titles forthcoming, but I wouldn't think them necessary to enjoy the game. Given the PDF price, I see it as excellent value for gamers and enthusiasts of the novels alike.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
by John S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/13/2012 18:56:44

What works for me, a D6 game system that dispenses with the need for attributes and goes straight to what your character uses, skills (i.e. abilities). The system is built around the setting, not simply another D20 cut and paste job (THANK YOU Green Ronin)! Not only is the system tailored to the setting but they actually got it right.

What doesn’t work for me, it is not a print friendly book and no attempt was made to make it so. This was not an issue for me as I bought this as backup for a copy I bought from a brick and mortar store. However, for those that are looking at this as an alternative to purchasing a physical copy it would be a BIG issue.

If you want a backup to your physical copy of this book, that allows you to search through it for key words in a flash, then I can recommend it.

If you are looking for a cheap alternative to the physical book, which you plan on printing out, then I would say you should pass on this product.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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