Wondering if anyone has tried gaming in Westeros as a setting.
Did you use the Song of Ice and Fire RPG by Green Ronin?

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Or some other system? Gurps strikes me as an obvious choice. Maybe Mongoose Traveller with a few hacks.
I've never tried running a game set in Westeros, but if I did, it would be a generation before the movies/novels.

What do you want to do in Westeros?

That really has to drive your choice of system.

The A Song of Ice and Fire game is written with the idea in mind that players will all play members of the same (minor) house, with their primary goal being advancing their house.  It assumes the party will be split between characters who are good at combat and characters who specialise in political intrigue (or a mix of the two).  It also has an interesting social combat intrigue system, which means you can have set pieces focused on intrigue as much (or more) than combat.
If that interests you then you might light to look at the system.  If it doesn't than use something else.  The system has good ideas but unfortunately it is clear that it was never playtested and has some fundamental mathematical flaws that are not easily fixed (mostly to do with the fact that defences - both social and combat - are far outstripped by offence).

I like the idea of what the game is trying to do - but, I think I would hack together something else to do the same thing.  I'd probably use a white wolf game as basis - and steal the social mechanics from exalted 3 for intrigue.  I'd then throw in a simplified version of the Riddle of Steel combat system on top* (this is the best system for duels - and I'd imagine that 90% of combats in a Game of Thrones game would probably be 1 vs 1 duels or tournaments and the like.  I might steal the company rules form Reign as well for Noble Houses.

*This is relatively easily done as both are d10 dice pool systems.

I own the game, but it doesn't seem very well suited to actually 'playing' the Game of Thrones. If I'm doing GoT I don't really want to play or GM a minor house squabbling with the minor house next door, I want to be playing the big cheeses, the major houses and the monarchy. Star Wars RPGs work because it's a big galaxy and your PCs can still do major stuff in the same universe as Luke Skywalker. It's a lot trickier in GoT and I haven't seen a great solution yet.

I guess a good approach might be: the PCs are from a junior branch of one of the major houses, and need to take it over when the canon characters are wiped out; so you more or less preserve the canon timeline up until a clear point of departure, then put them in an immediate crisis. This way the PCs get to interact with the canon NPCs and are not stuck in some bog in the Riverlands dealing with drainage in the lower field (which seems to be the kind of level the minor houses in Chronicle Starter are pitched at).

PCs could also be from several different major houses, which would give them each their individual stories running in parrallel with the official one, then a gradual divergence. In this case the GM would need to work with the players to ensure ties between the PCs.

One good thing is that the TV series cuts out so many characters, it is easy to take the TV series as your starting point then add back in characters as PCs! The TV series also shows how you can start with the books then deviate.

Who would want to? Its such a stupid setting. Hell I'd rather play in freaking Forgotten Realms than Westeros! ugh!

Quote from: Omega;1104392Who would want to? Its such a stupid setting. Hell I'd rather play in freaking Forgotten Realms than Westeros! ugh!

I used to really like that show, up until season 5/6. Still bought the last 2 seasons to see how it ended *sigh*

(But Forgotten Realms is way more playable)

Quote from: Aglondir;1104365Or some other system? Gurps strikes me as an obvious choice. Maybe Mongoose Traveller with a few hacks.
I've never tried running a game set in Westeros, but if I did, it would be a generation before the movies/novels.

I have considered the possibility of running ASoIaF in GURPS before, but then I always loop back around to the thought of "well... why bother? GURPS is pretty much tuned to that style of game by default, plus I prefer (and know more about) my homebrew campaign world that's been growing organically for the last 15 years anyway."

I guess that while I enjoyed the first 3-4 seasons of the GoT show, I can't see what I would gain by running it as a game. Particularly as it seems the interesting story and characters have already been utilized. It's sort of the "Star Wars" problem in that you have to go off the beaten path far enough that you can't see any primary plot points or characters from the movies themselves at least without squinting; the difference being that Star Wars has such a huge breadth of alternate material to draw from largely thanks to WEG's SW d6 game books as well as the Extended Universe stuff. GoT/ASoIaF doesn't have that benefit; largely, anything outside of the characters direct experiences is mostly not expounded upon, made up of mostly conjecture, gray areas and blind spots. There's just not a whole lot of extra interesting stuff to use from the property IMO that isn't glorified fan conjecture.

Then again, I feel the same way about most pre-existing fictional settings. I generally feel they're better for inspiration than straight use unless they're either *very* open and forgiving towards modification, or so insanely specific that running a "ripoff" of it would defeat the purpose.

As far as the ASoIaF RPG itself, I have not read it. The most frequent commentary on it that I have personally read online is that it has some good ideas (like house creation) but poor implementation (mainly the math being off; I have seen people state that even starting characters will be able to out-diplomacy Littlefinger, out-fight Gregor Clegane, etc. almost immediately among other things).

It's totally playable as an RPG setting. You just ignore the books as metaplot and keep the highlights.

I've used some of their rules for my other games to help build a House in the Realms in fact (using Fantasy Craft!). It's pretty solid. I've never run in Westeros - but I easily could. By ignoring the metaplot of the novels, you can *EASILY* fashion the players'  House as a "Great House" and simply play as you would any sandbox. Picking the elements from the novels that you want to use and when you want to use it.

Hell you can ignore Westeros altogether - go to Pentosh, or the Old World. It'd feel much like the Graybox Realms - but spread out over a wider area.

When I run Star Wars - I ignore *ALL* of the modern Skywalker shit. The movies are totally irrelevant except for the big setpieces: Republic, Empire, Hutts, Bounty Hunter Syndicates, Corporations etc. in descending order of taxonomy of tiered play. I'd do the same thing for GoT, Dune, or any other such setting from books.

My son ran 4 sessions of the game and we loved it. Intrigue system is very good.

Quote from: tenbones;1104429It's totally playable as an RPG setting. You just ignore the books as metaplot and keep the highlights.

Yeah, I guess that's fair. It's a taste thing, but I just don't really feel like it's an appealing/unique enough setting, in and of itself, to warrant filing the edges down (whereas Star Wars IMO is a very specific and unique blend of otherwise disparate elements). To me the appeal of ASoIaF is mostly with the characters and the way the story unfolds, although the setting of course complements them very well. I could definitely see ripping off the House building elements and similar tools from the RPG for my own campaign world though as the setting and sensibilities of ASoIaF are grounded and plausible enough for that stuff to translate easily to other settings.

I'm gearing up for a 'GoT' campaign shortly with my group.

We'll be using Mythras, which is more than capable of handling the grit, combat, and social intrigue of Westeros right out of the gate. I'll be using the basic starting point of the books/HBO show as the campaign starting point, but I'm expecting the plot to deviate pretty quickly. This will be 'our' Game of Thrones, rather than GRRM's or HBO's.

I have Green Ronin's ASoI&F game, and we've used the House creation rules already to establish the House the characters belong to. It was a huge amount of fun. We handled it cooperatively, so each player contributed to the generation and resource allocation processes. We had some good rolls, and as a result have established a Great House to rival the others (or, at least, is angling to rival the others), but is currently loyal to House Arryn. The cooperative nature of House creation means that the four player characters have already agreed their positions within the family (twin first borns, a legitimate second born, and a second born bastard), and the military and political influence the House enjoys is solidly defined. We immediately have a sense of place, purpose and intrigue to help inform the campaign.

There are clear benefits to a campaign in Westeros:

• Everyone's seen the TV series (although only I've read the books), so everyone is immediately familiar with the tropes, themes, atmosphere and established characters
• The story arc is so wide ranging it actually allows for a lot of freedom in designing a campaign with certain events as touch points
• Because there are so many minor houses that aren't given much detail in the show, it's easy to create original plots and adventures around them
• The chance to rewrite the show is always fun
• Magic in Westeros is at a level everyone in my group is comfortable with. The occasional hint of Lord of Light theism with some high personal costs sits well with my players

I'm really looking forward to the campaign. Creating the House was a blast, and has already got me thinking of how to develop its own local story for quite a few sessions before we even start to involve the plots of the real saga. Character creation, having a very clearly defined starting point, is going to be even more fun. Can't wait to get stuck into this.

I am with Loz, I don't see any special issue using Westeros and its known characters compared any other comparable setting.  The issues are the same with any that involve players playing character with high social status. And that only if you decide to operate at the point of the view the books and show does.

Westeros is painted in a fair amount of detail. Enough that you can have focused campaigns ranging from being part of the Night's Watch, to living out the low life in King's Landing or Oldtown. There been several interesting theories about different elements of GoT like the maesters that could be incorporate to make the campaign different than the books or the shows.

You could shift time periods for even more variety.

The only thing I would add to what Loz said is that the if you own Crusader Kings II the GoT mod is an excellent source of low level details on minor houses and characters.

Quote from: Antiquation!;1104436Yeah, I guess that's fair. It's a taste thing, but I just don't really feel like it's an appealing/unique enough setting, in and of itself, to warrant filing the edges down (whereas Star Wars IMO is a very specific and unique blend of otherwise disparate elements).

Yeah I get it. There's some wiggle room here tho. Because if you step back from the primary locale of the Seven Kingdoms... the world of GoT is pretty kitchen-sink. Especially if you go to the trade-hub city-states like Lys, Pentosh etc. And frankly there's a LOT of room to create your own stuff in-between. It only matters if you care enough about the setting of course.

I mean Star Wars is largely implied if you stick to the movies. When you go into the EU - that's when you get all kinds of cool stuff (and crap) to sift through. In the end, you're still going to make it yours. Personally I think GoT in the Seven Kingdoms would be fun to play under Targaryen rule with the dragons and everything. (but then I'd be more tempted to play in the world of Elric during the height of Melnibone's power and just make it all up!)

Quote from: Antiquation!;1104436To me the appeal of ASoIaF is mostly with the characters and the way the story unfolds, although the setting of course complements them very well. I could definitely see ripping off the House building elements and similar tools from the RPG for my own campaign world though as the setting and sensibilities of ASoIaF are grounded and plausible enough for that stuff to translate easily to other settings.

Yeah!! That's the good stuff. Let the characters drive it once you know what set-pieces you want in play. Establish the backdrop, motivations for the various immediate NPC's, create the House with your players and establish their PC's - then let'er rip.

Trying to be gentle on other people's publications but I am having a few problems with ASOIAF RPG:

• The weapon stats (and particular prices) don't always make sense. A Greatsword costs 800ss, a Dextrier 1000ss - a Longbow costs a whopping 900ss??? :eek:
• Chargen lends itself to minmaxing.
• Social combat can very easily devolve into ROLLplaying.

Quote from: tenbones;1104476Yeah I get it. There's some wiggle room here tho. Because if you step back from the primary locale of the Seven Kingdoms... the world of GoT is pretty kitchen-sink. Especially if you go to the trade-hub city-states like Lys, Pentosh etc. And frankly there's a LOT of room to create your own stuff in-between. It only matters if you care enough about the setting of course.

Oh absolutely, the setting in general has a ton of variety in locales, cultures and all sorts of other stuff. I mean, the variants of mysticism and magic alone run the gamut. I think it would be really cool if some sort of a Westerosi Gazetteer existed. Or something similar to a ASoIaF Silmarillion. That would make me feel more capable/well-equipped to running a full-on campaign.

Quote from: tenbones;1104476I mean Star Wars is largely implied if you stick to the movies. When you go into the EU - that's when you get all kinds of cool stuff (and crap) to sift through.

100%. The movies are vague as hell as far as worldbuilding, particularly the original trilogy. I would have no idea where to start if only the 3 original movies existed and never spawned an EU or the WEG books.

Quote from: tenbones;1104476Personally I think GoT in the Seven Kingdoms would be fun to play under Targaryen rule with the dragons and everything. (but then I'd be more tempted to play in the world of Elric during the height of Melnibone's power and just make it all up!)

That would be an interesting campaign. I think if I were to run a GoT campaign I would do something really small-scale honestly, like estar's aforementioned campaign based totally around the Wall and the Night Watch. Then again, the House idea is really cool and it's something you don't usually center a campaign around (and I love that type of thing). I think I would definitely want to do either a divergent timeline and burn the sacred cows of the canon story and characters, or set it during a different time period though. As you say, tear all the Skywalker shit out.

Quote from: tenbones;1104476Yeah!! That's the good stuff. Let the characters drive it once you know what set-pieces you want in play. Establish the backdrop, motivations for the various immediate NPC's, create the House with your players and establish their PC's - then let'er rip.

Hmm. Yeah. With Star Wars I can immediately think of all the shit to get rid of or include/ignore. I would have to ponder more seriously on what I would need to change to feel comfortable running a GoT campaign, now my gears are turning...

Quote from: S'mon;1104376...Star Wars RPGs work because it's a big galaxy and your PCs can still do major stuff in the same universe as Luke Skywalker. It's a lot trickier in GoT and I haven't seen a great solution yet.
...The TV series also shows how you can start with the books then deviate.

My rule for established settings is that cannon is not written in stone.

In my current star wars game set during the original trilogy,  I have more or less set it up so that as PC's interact with the setting they have opportunities to "break" the story cannon.

With force using players it is even easier; as I have set it up so that Yoda & Co. are not putting all their eggs in the Skywalker basket...

Cannon is not sacrosanct. Rule #1.