Based on nominations for June, story points (SP) were awarded to Ethos and Tancred for their contributions to the game. Experience points (XP) were also awarded to Aurana, Dagur, Janden, Reyna, and Sirona for their contributions over the previous month.

For more information concerning the system, see +HELP SP and +HELP XP. For information about how to use story points or experience points you’ve earned, see +HELP ADVANCEMENT and SYSTEM ADVANCEMENT

+Rumors has seen several modifications, following recent feedback.

* Botched investigations will now only return PCs from the area of play as possible sources. Currently, the code does not check for connection time, so some of the results may remain implausible (from an OOC perspective). We will evaluate whether checking for connection time is also desirable.

* Rumors with an obfuscation of 2 or higher (ratings run from -4 to 4) were previously impossible to discover the source of. This how now been changed somewhat. 4’s remain impossible to discover under any circumstances—the person who has started the rumor has simply covered their tracks too well. However, if your investigation roll is superior to the obfuscation value of a rumor, its obfuscation rating will fall by one point. This means that a rumor with an obfuscation of 3 will, after two superior roles, be reduced to a rating of 1 which would then mean a subsequent successful investigation will discover the source.

Finally, each time the source of a rumor is successfully discovered, the obfuscation rating is dropped by 3 points. This means that when it hits -4 (the lowest value), +rumors/view will show the source of the rumor to all people.

Some of these changes are, again, experiments in an attempt to find the perfect balance for the system. Please take that into consideration when using the system and providing us feedback.

The guidelines for the Rumor system have been expanded on and, we hope, clarified. The following addition was made:

For targetted rumors it is important that the contents of the rumor actually constitute a positive or a negative rumor that realistically would affect someones Influence or Renown. This means that although targetted rumors still can be false, they need be believable. Players who feel that a targetted rumor fails in adhering to these standards should report this to the Admin via +jobs (+HELP JOBS).

Since the system is seeing a lot of usage now, make sure you have read the whole Rumor Guidelines file and make sure to direct any questions to Admin as soon as possible.

Valyrian Steel has released a photo of the final prototype for Needle, their replica of Arya Stark’s small bravo’s sword. Having received GRRM’s go-ahead to mass produce the second weapon in their A Song of Ice and Fire replica series, pre-ordering should be opened sometime in the week.

George R.R. Martin has shared some optimistic news, stating that the last six weeks have been the most productive on A Dance with Dragons in a year. He has completed three chapters to his satisfaction, and is guardedly hopeful that the forward progress will continue. He also hints that the situation in Meereen is a central problem that he has had difficulty with since 2005.

On his official site, George R.R. Martin has posted a new excerpt from Wild Cards XX: Suicide Kings. Featuring the Ace known as Rustbelt, the excerpt is set in Africa. Also featured on the excerpt page is the prospective cover art by Michael Komarck.

The nomination code has now been overhauled to be a general nomination code as supposed to just nominations for SP. Players can now submit 5 general nominations per month, and the Admin will base their decision on what to reward on the reason given in the nomination. Options include SP, XP, Influence and Renown (not yet). Please see +HELP ADVANCEMENT for the new in-game helpfiles for the code and SYSTEM ADVANCEMENT for the helpfiles on the web which discuss other aspects of the system.

According to George R.R. Martin at his news page, Cyanide first approached him five years ago for the rights to his bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series. While no initial agreement was made, GRRM is pleased to announce that an agreement has now been struck for RTS and RPG rights to be developed for next-generation consoles and computers. Cyanide will begin development immediately with an eye towards releasing the first game in the summer of 2011.

Subterranean Press has published Lucius Shepard’s contribution to the George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois-edited anthology, Songs of the Dying Earth. As with the other works in the anthology, Shepard’s ” Sylgarmo’s Proclamation” is set in Jack Vance and his Dying Earth setting featuring a far-future earth where magic reigns as the last civilizations of the dying Earth lead decadent, strange lives beneath the great red glow of the expiring sun. Illustrated by Tom Kidd, the volume contains contributions from Neil Gaiman, Robert Silverberg, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, Tad Williams, George R. R. Martin, and many more notable authors.

We have been tweaking a few things about the in-game boards. Most of the boards now have a longer timeout, and we are also adding more detailed descriptions of the board to help players see what they can be used for. To see the timeout and the description (as well as some other information) about a board, simply type +bbinfo

.

The most significant change so far has been to establish the Plots board. We are hoping to use this board as an easy overview of on-going plots that guests and new players can be pointed to. Players are welcome to post plots to the board as well, just make sure to follow the established format.

If there are any suggestions for boards to add (or drop), please let us know. The current list of boards can be seen with +bblist.

As a further step to making influence more useful, we have now instituted code that will automatically increase or decrease current influence levels at the beginning of each month. Influence points available to be used shall be raised or lowered each month, depending on whether they are presently above or below their current base level, and by what margin. Players who are significantly below or above their base influence will automatically gain or lose influence at a higher-than-normal rate.

We have reset everyone to their base influence, as a first step to furthering the use of influence on the game. In the process of doing this, we discovered various minor errors which failed to give people the correct entries in their status field (for example, many knights did not get the benefits of taking Knight). Furthermore, after further consideration, we have modified the process by which influence is derived. Many players will find that their influence is somewhat lower than it was previously, to better reflect the strong negative impacts that negative modifiers can have on status.

-There is currently (at the time that this message is posted; for up-to-date information, see +CDB/QUOTA) 6 slots for tier III characters and 4 slots for tier II characters available. As some of these slots just opened up, there will be a 5 day request period from the date of this announcement. If the slots are not taken within 5 days, they will remain open and available on a first come, first serve basis. Please see the quota helpfile for further information about how this works.

According to reports from fans of the series, such as the one here, casting is currently being carried out for Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Robb Stark. It seems that fresh faces are being sought for these particular roles which feature the younger characters, and the casting process may take a number of weeks before any actors are selected.

The Wiki of Ice and Fire is presently the largest English-language wiki dedicated to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, with hundreds of articles in some stage of development. There is, however, room for much more work! To help facilitate making it as useful as possible, we’ve returned to trying to stay on top of the MediaWiki release cycle by upgrading to the latest stable release (1.14). We have also enabled uploading of images, although these must be (at this time) under terms compatible with the GFDL license (this means images must be fair use, public domain, or explicitly licensed for any and all use, including commercial use; traditionally copyright-protected images are not valid).

As Wikipedia has recently determined it will be shifting to the Creative Commons license, we will be examining doing the same to ease migration of articles from Wikipedia to the wiki. We’re also examining keeping texts as GFDL/Creative Commons but allowing more scope for images that aren’t licensed for commercial use to be a part of the wiki. Finally, we’re examining available Mediawiki extensions to make the wiki more useful. Should fans of the series be interested in contributing to the wiki, all they need is a membership at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. If you’ve ideas, suggestions, prior experience with wikis (especially template creation and management), or just some time and interest in helping provide and edit content, we’ll be happy to have you as a member of the community!

Green Ronin has now published their Narrator’s Kit for their A Song of Ice and Fire roleplaying game. The kit includes a full color poster map of the Seven Kingdoms, as well as other useful aids for narrators who run gaming sessions.

The issue with CG and XP has now been corrected. CG and XP expenditure is once again available to players.

A major bug in CG and XP was discovered today, which has caused some significant problems in relation to advancement. For the time being, CG and XP spending via the practice command are closed.

George R. R. Martin’s official website has been been updated with news concerning Songs of the Dying Earth—the Jack Vance tribute anthology he and Gardner Dozois have edited, with many notable authors contributing stories—being sent to the printers. New works have been included in the Signed Books page as well.

Valyrian Steel has a new update. They discuss the fact that their prototype for Needle, Arya Stark’s sword, is currently being reviewed for approval by George R.R. Martin. Once they secure his approval, they’ll be able to go into production. They also note that they are extending their sale of their replica of Jon Snow’s sword, Longclaw, that was introduced in the first novel in the series, A Game of Thrones. The price of Longclaw has been reduced by $40 while extra stock remains.

The following is the official press release from Cyanide concerning the acquisition of the A Song of Ice and Fire PC and video game license. We hope to have some more information soon.

George R. R. Martin’s official website has been been updated with news items concerning the republication of the first three books in the Wild Cards series (including an extended Wild Cards with three additional stories) and the release of Wild Cards and A Song of Ice and Fire RPG material from Green Ronin. In addition, GRRM has posted on his Not a Blog about a new entry in the Wild Cards series, titled Fort Freak.

Via an official press release, Cyanide announces that they have acquired the PC and console rights to developing a video game based on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series. There is no other information concerning what genre the game will be a part of at this time.

Over at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, Dan Weiss and David Benioff surface to remark on the recent announcement concerning Peter Dinklage and Tom McCarthy joining the production. They note that McCarthy was their very first choice for director, and that Dinklage was always their first choice for Tyrion. They ask members of the forum to continue discussing casting suggestions, with a new caveat: given the production’s location in Northern Ireland, almost all roles are likely to be filled with actors from the U.K.

The A Song of Ice and Fire forum was brought down earlier today by what we suspect is a flood of spam PM messages; certainly, the crash of the board seems to closely coincide with the sending out of these messages. We have contacted our server admin about it, but it may be some time before she’ll be free to get things up and running again. If the spam flood is the cause, I have to offer an apology, as I’ve delayed putting in a patch to prevent PM spam flooding out of some laziness on my part (my eternal failing). We’ll see about getting that in place when we’ve a bit of time to figure out how to do so.

The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Peter Dinklage has been cast as Tyrion Lannister for HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot going into production this autumn. A well-regarded actor, Dinklage may be most recognized for his part as Trumpkin in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspain. Also announced, Thomas McCarthy has been selected as the director of the pilot. Although primarily an actor, the two previous films he has directed are the well-received indie film The Station Agent in which Dinklage had his first leading role, and the recent film The Visitor, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director. He has also won awards at Sundance and other prestigious indepenent film festivals.

Based on nominations for April, no story points (SP) will be awarded this month. However, we’ve determined to award XP to Aurana, Ethos, and Janden for their contributions to the game over the previous month.

For more information concerning the system, see +HELP SP and +HELP XP. For information about how to use story points or experience points you’ve earned, see Advancement helpfiles.

Following the recent news of the expansion of the Wild Cards consortium of writers, GRRM has now shared with fans that the first three volumes of the storied superhero series will be reprinted by Tor. In all likelihood, they’ll be released in hardcover, and possibly with brand new covers by Michael Komarck to be consistent with the latest Wild Cards novels published by Tor. Furthermore, the first book that started it all, Wild Cards, will include three new, never before published stories that fit into the book’s chronological survey of the early history of the Wild Card virus.

In related news, Green Ronin has published a set of adventures for their Wild Cards campaign setting, All-In.

The board is now back up, with a major dent put into the total post count thanks to purges. I didn’t get as far as I wanted, but 12 hours of babysitting the purge was more than enough. Sparks also ran some upgrades which will hopefully further improve things.

At his “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has announced several new alumni in the Wild Cards author team for future projects to be announced in the near future. The new additions are David Levine, Cherie Priest, Mary Anne Mohanraj, David Anthony Durham, and Paul Cornell.