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Paladineyddi
2010-10-20, 05:34 PM
Iīm a long standing fan of the Song of ice and fire series and in my nerdiness i am tempted to buy that RPG that they gave out.
before i do so i would like to hear some feedback from the playground
does the system work?
and some general notes you have on it

cheers!

gdiddy
2010-10-20, 05:56 PM
Which version?

I've only had experience with Guardians of Order's version.

It inspired quite a number of homebrew of my friend's 3.5 game and sits alongside the PHB and DMG on his table, proudly.

Paladineyddi
2010-10-20, 06:22 PM
Which version?

I've only had experience with Guardians of Order's version.

It inspired quite a number of homebrew of my friend's 3.5 game and sits alongside the PHB and DMG on his table, proudly.

I had no idea there was more then one
then i would assume its the newest one

http://www.greenronin.com/sifrp/

this one

Dimers
2010-10-21, 11:05 AM
I had no idea there was more then one
then i would assume its the newest one

http://www.greenronin.com/sifrp/

this one

Green Ronin? And the author is Robert J. Schwalb ... how 'bout that. Well, I don't know anything about the book itself, but I can tell you something about the publisher and author. They did a d20 book for my own favorite fictional world (Black Company series). Most of the mechanics they made up aren't very well thought-out and the copy-editing is weak, but the flavor is perfect, and one mechanic is tight enough that I'd want to use it in almost any 3.5 game.

Diarmuid
2010-10-21, 11:08 AM
As a lover of the BC books, I'm curious what mechanic they nailed perfectly.

I havent bought it as I assumed, much like the Wheel of Time d20 book, that it would be a simple one-off without enough support to really be worth trying to run a campaign around.

Dimers
2010-10-21, 02:07 PM
As a lover of the BC books, I'm curious what mechanic they nailed perfectly.

I havent bought it as I assumed, much like the Wheel of Time d20 book, that it would be a simple one-off without enough support to really be worth trying to run a campaign around.

Well, there aren't races in BC; everybody's human. So to differentiate characters from each other, everyone gets a "background", which restricts the extra-feat and extra-skill-point choices, makes four skills be Always Class Skills for that character, and gives a useful special ability or quality, all unified by one theme. A background as a mage's underling gives you magic-related stuff; a background as a street urchin might make stealth and pickpocketing easier ... As a supporter of More Things Being Class Skills, I think backgrounds should be applied to other races in most game settings. Instead of restricting the "extra" skills and feat, they'd affect those chosen at first level. Same difference.

The Black Company worldbook is, as you surmise, not enough to run a campaign off of by itself. It'll give you some good ideas on ways to maintain the tone of the novels within a loose d20 framework, but it needs a whole lot of polish.

Godless_Paladin
2010-10-21, 02:17 PM
Iīm a long standing fan of the Song of ice and fire series and in my nerdiness i am tempted to buy that RPG that they gave out.
before i do so i would like to hear some feedback from the playground
does the system work?
and some general notes you have on it

cheers!

The novels? Love 'em to death. I am a fanatic :smallsmile:

The system? Eh, not so much. I would not play it. It makes me sad.

Diarmuid
2010-10-21, 02:44 PM
Well, there aren't races in BC; everybody's human. So to differentiate characters from each other, everyone gets a "background", which restricts the extra-feat and extra-skill-point choices, makes four skills be Always Class Skills for that character, and gives a useful special ability or quality, all unified by one theme. A background as a mage's underling gives you magic-related stuff; a background as a street urchin might make stealth and pickpocketing easier ... As a supporter of More Things Being Class Skills, I think backgrounds should be applied to other races in most game settings. Instead of restricting the "extra" skills and feat, they'd affect those chosen at first level. Same difference.

The Black Company worldbook is, as you surmise, not enough to run a campaign off of by itself. It'll give you some good ideas on ways to maintain the tone of the novels within a loose d20 framework, but it needs a whole lot of polish.

Background stuff sounds very similar to how they are treated in the Wheel of Time system where again, playable races are restricted to humans, except Ogier. I also like that it adds more class skills but with a nod towards the characters origins, not simply picking extras that help you fill PrC prereqs. Do the FR backgrounds/homelands grant bonus class skills?

PopcornMage
2010-10-21, 02:56 PM
and some general notes you have on it


The first book was a wonderful resource on the World of the stories. The second...not so much. Rulewise...meh. And I do recall some copy-editing problems in the second.

Blackfang108
2010-10-21, 03:05 PM
Green Ronin? And the author is Robert J. Schwalb ... how 'bout that. Well, I don't know anything about the book itself, but I can tell you something about the publisher and author. They did a d20 book for my own favorite fictional world (Black Company series). Most of the mechanics they made up aren't very well thought-out and the copy-editing is weak, but the flavor is perfect, and one mechanic is tight enough that I'd want to use it in almost any 3.5 game.

Schwalb also gives bad 4e advice in Dragon magazine. (He's the one who wrote the reviled Tactical Warlord advice article (dragon 381), which was full of bad advice piled on worse. He's written many other articles of varying quality, mostly low to average).

I have little respect for Schwalb when it comes to mechanics and advice. Flavor's about the only thing I would trust him with.

Edit: Black Company is awesome. I need to find more of the books.

Satyr
2010-10-21, 03:39 PM
I personally like the novels, but my impression of the Green Ronin game was... not that positive. I think that the game is pretty average and bland as a game in itself, and a very bad take on the setting. The way it deals with social conflicts and social status uses almost the same system as a combat, and that's just..bland and overtly mechanical and stiff. The game also does not capture the moot of the setting at all (with stuff like life-saving fate points or just stupid mechanisms like "this is a really good weapon. And therefore it is more difficult to use it in combat").


The background book is mostly system-neutral, if I remember correctly, and as such much more useful than the core book.

The setting is strong and interesting enough to carry a roleplaying campaign or two; the system however is not up to the task.

(by the way: the current "Pakistan Flood Relief" download bundle on drivethru includes the Harnmaster Corebook; which is a way better system for the setting, especially when combined with the Harnmanor expansion.)

Greenish
2010-10-21, 05:17 PM
Huh? "Life-saving fate points" in Song of Ice and Fire?

…

:furious:

Jessicat
2010-10-21, 05:19 PM
I enjoyed the book. Heck, I enjoy the boardgame and I'll probably fall in love with the HBO series.

However, I'm a bit leery to try out an RPG system. Not sure why. I just think maybe they're milking. And I happen to think Milk is gross and that my logic is sound.

So!

:D

Eldan
2010-10-21, 05:23 PM
Huh? "Life-saving fate points" in Song of Ice and Fire?

…

:furious:

From time to time characters do survive in unlikely situations. Falling from a tower is not that survivable. Arya just seems to survive anything unharmed. John Snow also seems a pretty lucky bastard from time to time.

Urpriest
2010-10-21, 06:42 PM
From time to time characters do survive in unlikely situations. Falling from a tower is not that survivable. Arya just seems to survive anything unharmed. John Snow also seems a pretty lucky bastard from time to time.

Yeah, but well...everyone else...is kinda a counterexample.

Emmerask
2010-10-21, 06:54 PM
I enjoyed the book. Heck, I enjoy the boardgame and I'll probably fall in love with the HBO series.


While I still have some hope that there will be an actually good fantasy series based on a book series it is very small ^^

Look what they did with the sword of truth series :smallfurious:
Yes the books are not even near the same league as song of ice and fire but still what they did was cruel, I watched the pilot and aside from the names nothing was correct ^^

Anyway lets hope this series will be good... PLEASE :smallwink:

On topic:
Itīs not very good,
I would use rolemaster (the older versions) or harnmaster for a song of ice and fire campaign.

Reynard
2010-10-21, 06:58 PM
Yeah, but well...everyone else...is kinda a counterexample.

Jamie lives through a lot of stuff. Gregor too, for a while. And Dany.

And of course, there's the sonova who organized the Red Wedding.

ryuteki
2010-10-21, 07:02 PM
Arya just seems to survive anything unharmed.

Rumor has it Arya is not allowed to die because she is Parris McBride's favorite character. :P

Reynard
2010-10-21, 07:11 PM
Rumor has it Arya is not allowed to die because she is Parris McBride's favorite character. :P

Arya is a freaking badass. I jolted at the end of her last chapter of the last book she's been in so far.

And Arya will die eventually. :smallwink:

Dienekes
2010-10-21, 07:12 PM
While I still have some hope that there will be an actually good fantasy series based on a book series it is very small ^^

Look what they did with the sword of truth series :smallfurious:


Well it is kind of hard to make that series good in any form.

My completely argumentative and only mildly related comment aside. The d20 ASOIAF system is kinda crap. Some of the rules are interesting, the increased lethality is always a plus, but the classes themselves are just terrible, repetitive, and often empty. The information it gives about the world is great though.

The GR I've never played but I heard it was pretty good. Nothing to write home about though.

Personally, when I play a game heavily influenced on aGoT (so... most of the ones I GM) I tend to use Riddle of Steel, which you probably won't be able to find, but the system is great so long as you just have NPCs use magic ASOIAF-y.

Barring that, if using a system that let's life saving tokens I would suggest they come with some kind of price. Such as an arm (Jaime), a nose (Tyrion), a spine (Bran), or sanity (Arya, dear sweet Seven Arya).

Also, good news everyone. GRRM says only 5 chapters left for next book. Maybe it'll come out within the next 3-5 years!

PopcornMage
2010-10-21, 07:20 PM
Well it is kind of hard to make that series good in any form.

Print it on the right paper and it's quite good!


Also, good news everyone. GRRM says only 5 chapters left for next book. Maybe it'll come out within the next 3-5 years!

One can only hope!

Dienekes
2010-10-21, 07:32 PM
Print it on the right paper and it's quite good!

Sorry can't take Terry Goodkind (Not writing fantasy my eye), nor his work (Evil chicken? Are you high? I thought this was a serious work.) seriously, and it remains the only fantasy series I even stopped reading half way through in disgust. If you like it, I don't feel less of you (not that you should give half a wit about my opinion of you anyways), but ugh I hate those books.


One can only hope!

Here we can agree on, cheers. Though I was being (slightly) sarcastic about the 3-5 years thing.

PopcornMage
2010-10-21, 07:37 PM
If you like it, I don't feel less of you (not that you should give half a wit about my opinion of you anyways), but ugh I hate those books.

Not on a nice soft paper you wouldn't! No chafing!

Ok, so I sorta liked them for the first few books, I got disinterested by the 3rd time something totally came out of nowhere to be a major plot point.

And you know the worst thing about the next GRRM book to come out? The one to come after!

Greenish
2010-10-21, 07:38 PM
Though I was being (slightly) optimistic about the 3-5 years thing.Fixed that for you. :smallwink:

Emmerask
2010-10-21, 07:43 PM
Well it is kind of hard to make that series good in any form.

The books arenīt that bad especially the first two are actually good, sure they are not in the same league as warded man, the name of the wind (somehow I loved that one ^^), Drenai Tales or song of ice and fire but still I was entertained reading the first books after that it was more or less my wish to know the end even if it became repetitive that kept me going :smallwink:



Also, good news everyone. GRRM says only 5 chapters left for next book. Maybe it'll come out within the next 3-5 years!

If memory serves me right the last one came out about 5 years ago? ^^

/edit for quote failing :smallwink:

PopcornMage
2010-10-21, 07:44 PM
If memory serves me right the last one came out about 5 years ago? ^^

And it was very plot not-advancing.

Emmerask
2010-10-21, 07:46 PM
And it was very plot not-advancing.

After Wheel of time such "not advancing plot" canīt stop me :smallbiggrin:

Greenish
2010-10-21, 07:49 PM
After Wheel of time such "not advancing plot" canīt stop me :smallbiggrin:Wheel of Time had a plot?

Dienekes
2010-10-21, 08:10 PM
The books arenīt that bad especially the first two are actually good, sure they are not in the same league as warded man, the name of the wind (somehow I loved that one ^^), Drenai Tales or song of ice and fire but still I was entertained reading the first books after that it was more or less my wish to know the end even if it became repetitive that kept me going :smallwink:

The first book I liked. The second book I have absolutely no memories about liking it or disliking it at all, which is possibly one of the worst things you can say about a piece of entertainment.
I kept reading until the anti-communist rant book though. It wasn't the topic that bothered me (don't want to go into politics but I like some good anti-commy books. Animal Farm was great) but jeez that book was abysmally heavy handed and not even entertaining. After that I just dropped the series and haven't looked back since.


And it was very plot not-advancing.

I actually liked Feast, though I see it as setting the stage for the next big uproar. We've already had the conclusion of the War of Five Kings more or less, but we see tension building (mostly because Cersei is a moron) for the next section where we get the conclusion of Varys, Littlefinger, and Dany's plots.

Paladineyddi
2010-10-22, 09:13 AM
Thanks everyone