Back to the Well
by jachilli
If you know about this, you’re probably jazzed (since my last remarks about the George R.R. Martin series seemed to provoke such earnest response). If you don’t know about it, now you do.
Justin Achilli
If you know about this, you’re probably jazzed (since my last remarks about the George R.R. Martin series seemed to provoke such earnest response). If you don’t know about it, now you do.
Hmmm…
Personally, (and I know I will get a lot of stick for this) there are too many “medieval fantasy” rpg’s out there and not enough postmodern fantasy/horror. I don’t care how innovative it is, how can a player be expected to buy/play any more of these games? All the classics have already been done, and I think it would have to be pretty groundbreaking to attract much attention. That’s just my opinion, feel free to disagree.
I’m very curious to see how Guardians of Order approaches this product. GRRM’s Westeros is a rich environment, but it differs from the “typical” fantasty rpg setting in several important waysthe least of which being that magic is, while not non-existent, rare to the point of being legendary. In 3,000 pages we’ve seen what in d20 terms are probably 3rd-5th level divine spells and a handful of cantrips. Now, I’m a slobbering low-fantasy fan whose happier with deep character developmnt than enchanted swords (and if I see one more paperback fantasy novel about a young innocent girl who is about to come into her magical inheritance to save the kingdom, I’m gonna throw the hell up), but the trend in fantasy rpgs seems distinctly toward the high-fantasy end of the genre–the more spells, magic items, and monsters the better. There are exceptions, of course, but I doubt that they are as commercially viable as their high-powered cousins. But maybe there’s enough crossover between ASoIaF readers and fantasy rpg customers to make the game a healthy seller.
I’m also curious to know why GRRM changed his mind about licensing an rpg based on the Song of Fire and Ice series: two years ago, he rejected the idea in favor of Fantasy Flight’s CCG, claiming that he believed an rpg probably couldn’t do justice to the novels. What’s changed?