The Hopeless Gamer blog, which has provided some excellent scoops on Fantasy Flight Games‘s new “Battles of Westeros” board game, is holding a contest to win an FFG print signed by George R.R. Martin if the blog reaches the 100 follower mark by Sunday, February 28th.
All that’s needed to be entered is to follow the blog and send an e-mail indicating the username you’re following with. They promise to have some other prize available if they do not hit the 100 follower mark by the 28th.
Fantasy Flight Games has launched their official page regarding their new Battles of Westeros tactical board game. As part of the festivities, they’ve set a firm date on the “Days of Ice and Fire” event we’ve previously mentioned: November 12-14, with GRRM promising a Q&A session and several signings, with the possibility of a reading and an interview as well.
Also in time for the site, an interview with Christian Petersen, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games, where he reveals that in fact they’re using a brand new rules system for this game, and that the use of “BattleLore” is purely for branding purposes. This is, to say the least, somewhat controversial for BattleLore fans.
It seems that Fantasy Flight Games‘s new Battles of Westeros board game is a greater departure from the BattleLore system then some suspected, according to this report on the Heroscapers forum.
Over at the Hopeless Gamer, they’ve released some more package images, including depictions of the hero figures for the Lannister and Stark sides.
In honor of George Washington’s birthday, George R.R. Martin is holding a special sale on 24 copies of first edition hardcovers of Inside Straight. These have been signed by Martin, Carrie Vaughn, Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Caroline Spector, Daniel Abraham, and Ian Tregillis. Usually sold at $27 a copy, GRRM will sell these books for $22 (book-rate shipping included in the U.S.) while supplies last.
At his Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin announced that he had signed contracts to have the first three Wild Cards volumes translated and published in Italy for the first time. RCS Libri will be the publisher.
Fantasy Flight Games has unveiled a brand new A Song of Ice and Fire board game yesterday at the opening of the grand opening of their new event center. The game, titled Battles of Westeros, is a BattleLore-system based tactical war game using hexagonal grids, plastic miniature army units (these would be unpainted, as far as I know; besides generic units, it will likely have ‘hero’ units representing the likes of Eddard, Catelyn, Edmure, and more), and a card system for orders and special tactics.
The BattleLore system and its publishing history is summarized at Wikipedia. At BoardGameGeek’s entry, my eye was caught by the fact that there are two different ways of playing the game on-line using either Vassal (as seen here) or ZunTzu, which should be a significant boon once players virtualize any new rules, cards, and units for these systems.
The initial news flash came by way of The Hopeless Gamer, who also provided a photo of the contents list on the back of the box. One notable detail that gamers have pointed out: the explicit reference to this being the “Core Set” on the front cover, showing FFG has long-term expansion plans for this game system. In fact, posts at BoardGameGeek note that this appears to focus on House Stark versus House Lannister, certainly leaving room for expansions which introduce the rest of the great houses of the Seven Kingdoms.
Finally, an additional note: it seems that some time in November, FFG will host a “Days of Ice and Fire” event at their Event Center in Roseville, Minessota, in which George R.R. Martin will be a guest. More details when we have them.
Would you like to pay a visit to Westeros and take part in a pivotal historical event?
This weekend (Saturday 20th at 11 Central Time & Sunday 21st at 10 Central Time) the climax of king Daeron’s Conquest of Dorne will play out on Blood of Dragons MUSH. If you would like to join in, there is still time, as we have a selection of ready-made characters to get new players started almost instantly.
According to this interview with Jason Momoa, Momoa expects that he’ll be returning to Morocco as well as Northern Ireland to shoot the Game of Thrones series in late June. Despite the way it’s written—as if it’s a foregone conclusion—we suspect that in fact Momoa was speaking speculatively. The actors have been informed of the prospective schedule if the show goes forward, so that they can plan their professional engagements accordingly with that possibility in mind.
(Thanks to Maxlongstreet at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum for pointing this one out.)
Over at the SFF Chronicles Network forum, a user by the name of the Imp shares an e-mail his nephew sent to GRRM regaling him with the sad, sad (and improbable) tale of his many illnesses and mishaps before asking for the manuscript for A Dance with Dragons due to his circumstances. A funny e-mail in and of itself, but the response it inspires in GRRM is of the same order.
Green Ronin has announced a pre-order special for their A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplay Campaign Guide, the table of contents of which have been previewed recently. Those who pre-order the hardcover guide via the Green Ronin store will automatically get a free PDF document of the guide. The PDF seems to be available for direct order as well, for $20.
According to reports on Green Ronin’s own forums, the Campaign Guide does not seem to contain any notable new information on the setting, but it does contain significant amounts of statted characters from the novels.
George R.R. Martin provides a brief update at “Not a Blog”, sharing this views on the new The Wolfman film (he gives it a C) and then mentions that a new producer has come on board Mike the Pike Production’s Skin Trade adaption as reported in this press release.
As to A Dance with Dragons, Meereen still presents problems despite the progress GRRM has been making: “Can I just drop a hydrogen bomb on the damn place?” It seems the Meereenese Knot remains a concern.
We’ve been covering HBO’s series of trademark applications for Game of Thrones pretty closely, and decided to follow-up on two points.
First, as we noted in our earlier articles, initially HBO applied for trademarks using the title A Game of Thrones. Last week, however, the A Game of Thrones mark applications have been officially amended to just Game of Thrones, without the article.
Second, the question has come up on occasion regarding just how HBO exercises these marks, as they’re not a manufacturer. The answer is that these trademarks are licensed to those who do produce such content. Case in point, the smash-hit True Blood, which has led the licensing charge at HBO. At Toy Fair 2010, DC Direct exhibited character busts and a neon bar sign for the show. Of course, DC Direct and HBO are both under the Time Warner umbrella, so it’s no great surprise DC Direct would land these particular licenses.
If Game of Thrones goes forward and proves to be a success for HBO, fans can expect the same sort of licensing treatment.
It’s been around for awhile, but we just had to share these hilarious webpage mockups for various houses, organizations, and individuals in the A Song of Ice and Fire series:
Thanks to Daena the Defiant at the forum for pointing out guad’s clever, amusing creations.
George R.R. Martin’s recent series of small updates concerning progress on A Dance with Dragons has caught the eye of the Guardian’s book blog, discussing the level of anticipation there is for the fifth novel in the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series. The lead image is a spoof political advertisment created by regular forum contributor and moderator, Adam Whitehead of The Wertzone.
The Brotherhood without Banners, an unofficial (or maybe semi-official) fan club for George R.R. Martin, is running a survey regarding a t-shirt they’re proposing to produce to raise funds for the BwB’s general fund. The survey detailing the shirt idea can be found
at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. Registration is required to post.