A "A Game of Thrones" Game

[Rusty]

I know quite a few people here enjoyed this quite good book, but I've never seen anyone mention the board game based on it. My brother's just started reading the book after I made him borrow it from me, and today he rang me up from a shop in London saying that he'd seen this game and its expansion (A Clash of Kings), and wondered whether I was interested in it. Since it's fairly pricey (the expansion is £30, presumably the original is the same or more), and there is no one else here who'd be interested in playing it, I declined. I did find a review though: read it here.

What do you think?

 

[Arch]

I'm not a fan of RPG. Yes, I tried playing it before.

 

[Rusty]

Despite the domain name of the link, this is a war/strategy game, not an RPG.

 

[Arch]

Oh yes, it's not RPG. I took a second look at it and it looks interesting. Is that a map of the British Isle (or part of it)?

 

[rahvin]

Is that a map of the British Isle (or part of it)?

nope.


i'm afraid of disappointment, considering how much i like the series, so i don't think i'll want to look it up. it's certainly a nice idea for your average fan, though.

 

[Kovenant84]

It's actually a pretty fun game, almost Risk-like. My cousin got it for me for Christmas last year. I do say though, it's only really fun if you're a fan of the books.

~kov.

 

[Hitori]

ah my book had it advertised on the back... for some reason I thought it was a card game like Magic
I'd buy it only I wouldn't have anyone to play it with, except maybe my younger brother and his friends... maybe I should just manipulate them into buying it

 

[Rusty]

@Rahvin: Wimp. All the comments by readers of the review seem to be positive at any rate, and the design/complexity of the books seems to be well reflected in the game:

Greyjoy attacking Lannister in the first turn has happened in all but one of the five games I've played, and in all those games, it ends up hurting Greyjoy more than it helps them. It almost seems to have been a deliberate design choice to make it a very attractive but in the long run counterproductive move (from my experience, Stark has been impossible to stop if Greyjoy and Lannister are fighting each other).

There's some book support for this as well -- Theon suggests to his father that they attack Lannister early in the second book, but Balon says no.

Based on what I've played of the board game and the CCG, it seems they *really* paid attention to the books.

@Kov: have you seen/played the expansion too?

 

[Kovenant84]

Not much, no. The expansion is what I got, my brother got the original. You actually need (if I"m not mistaken) the oringal to play the expansion. I'll have to double check.

~kov.

 

[TheFourthHorseman]

They have it in Fantasiapelit at Joensuu. I should make my friend buy it...we would have three guys playing it as soon as another friend reads all the books. It's certainly interesting, but I'm still not so sure if it'll come to any fruitition.
I'll just get to reading A Feast For Crows, for now.

 

[Rusty]

Since Kov has it, he should invent a text-based version and bump the Game thread with it.

I'm really annoyed that the paperback version of A Feast for Crows doesn't come out until May, but at the same time amused that Amazon is already offering A Dance with Dragons.

 

[Magrathean]

I'm too lazy to look it up with the new "search" function, but anyway i believe there isn't anything wrong with me posting this here:

Since a lot of people still post in UM (at least compared to Infoceptor and Hollow Life, the other two boards where i've online-role-played), how about making an online rpg? Could be fantasy, scifi, realistic, whatever. Tell me what you think.

 

[Kovenant84]

@Undo: As off-topic, thanks for the compliments in other threads. I think you've definitely won us 'old timers' here over (waits for the 'old war stories' from the times before this board ). You're a good guy, and I hope you hang around for a while

I've actually raised that idea before. I used to (still sometimes do, but was an obsession for a while) RP'ed on www.rpol.net, and I'd probably be up for anything of the sort in the future. It has the advantage of not needing a huge block of time (though I'd probably devote it anyway) to actually 'accomplish' something. Anyway, if you want to start something up, or have me start something, or even get my bro to finally register here to introduce himself and then have him start something... you get the idea

~kov.

 

[Magrathean]

Kov: Thanks for that. I hope i don't disappoint any of you in any way. My plan is to stay around for some time. UM has revived my long-dead liking for online forums.

On-topic: Well, i'd go there and roleplay (or, even better, play an rpg on my computer), but i think it would be nice to have an rpg for and by metalheads like us. Plus maybe we could get rahvin to sticky it so it doesn't get lost among a sea of posts.

You make the call on who starts something. If you have an idea, go ahead and make a thread, or tell me about it and we could discuss it and polish it and then make a thread. Or i could start something. But definitely get your brother to register and take part in this.

[Undo]

 

[Kovenant84]

Ah, I see what you mean

Something like that happened once or twice here, I believe they were named the Round Robin threads, if the oh-so-wonderful search function up there can actually find them for you p), then you can catch a glimpse of what we've tried before.

I usually like to participate in such threads, but I find that they take off quite quickly and I'm left at the end of the day with 5 pages of new posts to read

In any case, my bro is a lazy bum, and I have to get him to register. He'll make a liar of me yet, hehe.

~kov.

 

[Magrathean]

Nah, i got 14 pages of thread titles, and some weren't too nice to read. Anywho, i say let's try it and see what happens. If it takes off too quickly then it'll also die quickly, and barely any harm will be done.

What do you say?

 

[Rusty]

Wasn't there once a plan to have an online D&D style RP as well? I seem to remember Rahvin making a couple of inquiries into it - nothing much - but it fizzled out.

 

[Magrathean]

Well, this is the chance to turn those inquiries into something real. What do you guys say? Would it only be Kov and me or would we have a good group of people to play with?

 

[Kovenant84]

Wasn't there once a plan to have an online D&D style RP as well? I seem to remember Rahvin making a couple of inquiries into it - nothing much - but it fizzled out.

Actually it was I looking into them, and Rahvin was the only one who expressed any interest in it.

And Undo - I'd love to right now, but I'm crazy busy - I haven't even been able to dedicate much time to WoW recently

Hopefully things will get better over winter break...

~kov.

 

[Magrathean]

Sure. IM me whenever you have time to do this.