george r.r. martin characters

[SpiderMonkey]

Greetings all!

I just finished reading the first three books of the song of ice and fire series, and i heard that dragon magazine covered grr martin a few months ago. Can anyone give me an idea of what exactly was covered? Were any of the characters given stats?

Any bits of info you could spare would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[DanMcS]

Minor spoilers for those who haven't read the books:




I haven't read the third book, so I only skimmed the article. Dragon 308, was it? There were stats provided for several characters. They seemed overdone- what's his name, Ser Gregor Clegane, the brother of the Hound, was a 16th level fighter I think. Danaerys was listed as having levels in sorceror, though up to the end of the second book I've not seen her cast any spells really, save the dragon thing. At the end of that book she's what, 15? She should be 1st level if anything. It's like they just went through and powered up a bunch of the characters to make them more D&D-like.

The big fold-out map was pretty good, since I have the books in paperback you feel like you're squinting to read the small map inside the first couple pages.

The article was actually a couple of sections, one on playing a normal adventuring-type game in the setting, and where you could do that (beyond the Wall, adventuring around the 7 kingdoms, that kind of thing). The other had stuff about playing in the politics of the setting, that kind of game would take place at King's Landing, pick a time period, before or after Robert's death, that kind of thing. The setting struck me as actually a good place for a Birthright type game with ruling kingdoms and such.

 

[Apok]

I think the reason why their stats were so out of whack is because you really can't translate these characters into D&D terms properly, especially in terms of magic. Gregor Clegane is a 16th level fighter because he is a damn good warrior, but not much else. This doesn't translate well because a 16th level Fighter in D&D should be good at alot more than just hacking things to pieces with a weapon.

Danaerys is definitely not a sorcerer, more like a Noble with some special powers granted to her by her bloodline. I can already hear the cries of, "But isn't that just what a Sorcerer is?!" and no, she's no Sorc. She doesn't go around flinging fireballs or charm spells. She's got a strong sense of presence and she's a leader, so maybe give her at least 6 levels plus the Leadership feat.

As for her being only 15, that's about on par with a few of the main characters. Jon Snow isn't much older, and Brandon, Senza and Arya are far younger. The Song of Ice and Fire books don't make modern assumptions regarding age, ability, and responsability. D&D does.

 

[Razuur]

There have been 2 martin entries in Dragon of Late.

A short story from the next book, a feast of crows, and the Dragon article on running ASOFAI.

If I had to get one, i'd go for the short story about the iron isles, and the Greyjoys.

The conversion, well, the best part was the map. they rest... well.. Lets just say that it is a perfect example of bending a setting to fit D20 vs bending D20 to fit the setting. So I suppose it depends on which camp you are from.

I am from the "Bend D20 to fit the setting" camp. thus I hated the conversions, and found myself shaking my head and saying nope through most of the articles. The best part was robably the notes about the Wall, and the Crow prestige class, but that there was nothign really new there.

Guardians of Order has gottent he rights to the campaign setting from martin, and plans on releasing a core book and supplements later this year. I would probably sit back and wait for that ! I know I am. I can't wait.

Razuur.

P.S. Paizo publishing sells back issues, and is more than willing to send them out to you. So if you need these issues, check out their website and email 'em! their good people!

 

[TiQuinn]

You really need a sourcebook for A Song of Fire and Ice and build rules to fit the setting in order for this to really work. There's nothing wrong with taking the basic setting and premises and ramping it up into a D&D style campaign, but you can't expect it to model the books. You'd really need a different set of rules for any setting, unless the book was written with D&D in mind.