Westeros and Iron Heroes - Ideas?

[Uzzy]

Hello everyone.

I've recently read the Song and Ice of Fire books, by George R R Martin. Devoured them all in about two months, they were that good. Anyway, I think they would make a pretty good setting for a campaign, and I've a feeling that others have as well. My first idea was to use the Iron Heroes rules for the setting, as they would appear to work very well for any very low magic world. I don't actually have those rule books yet though. I do have the copy of Dragon Magazine with Westeros in it, though.

Anyway.. has anyone here tried running a Westeros campaign? What sort of system did you use for it, and what experiences did you have of it? Any tips, advice about running a campaign set in that world would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Arkhandus]

Just to note, there IS a Game of Thrones d20 game out there, though IIRC it's gone out of print, since it was made by Guardians of Order (which went out of business or somesuch thing). I seem to recall it getting fair praise for its handling of the setting and rules, but I don't remember anything specific.

I imagine it'd work fine, though, to use Iron Heroes. Just keep in mind that Westeros does have a few magic items around, though, like the Valarian steel blades in use by some nobles. I dunno how GoTd20 handles it, but I'd just equate Valarian steel (or whatever it was called) to being like Adamantine in D&D, at a guess. And most likely, any weapon forged of it is almost certainly enchanted a bit, so probably a +1 or so enhancement bonus on such weapons.

 

[Uzzy]

Yeah, I was thinking that Valyrian Steel Blades would be special cases. I was going to have any blades of that nature ignore damage resistance, along with other bonuses. I'll have to get Iron Heroes first before deciding on that though!

This game that's already out there does sound interesting. Shame it's OOP though. Grrh. I'll look into that as well.

 

[Cutty Sark]

Being out of print isn't your biggest worry - I've seen it at several shops, you could probably find it if you wanted it. The real problem is that it's bigger than any encyclopedia volume I've ever seen and retails for $50.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

In addition you can purchase the PDF or Print version of Dragon Magazine #307, which has approximately 22 pages of info that you can use for a D20 Westeros game. There is alos a map which you may find useful.

 

[Uzzy]

$50? Ouch. That's a fair bit.. even if I could find one.

And I've got that Dragon Magazine, Frukathka, but thanks for the link.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

$50? Ouch. That's a fair bit.. even if I could find one.

You'll be hard pressed to find it at that price anyway. There are 15 on amazon right now; ranging from $70 to $149.95.

 

[Uzzy]

Double ouch. Even with the dollar being so week against the pound, that's still a lot of cash for it. It may be a really good product, but that's still a lot. Might just be best to stick to doing it myself.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Uzzy, drop me an email.

frukathka [at] yahoo [dot] com

 

[Arcturion]

Welcome to the Brotherhood Without Banners fold aka ASOIAF fan club. I just finished up the last book A Feast For Crows myself in about a week just this last week and eagerly awaiting A Dance With Dragons (I believe it should come out in either Spring or Summer 2008). A friend of mine tried to turn me on to the books for a while now and I just got around to starting the series this summer. I'm glad I did as it's one of the best fantasy novels I've read (replacing my former favorite series the Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind).

Anyway, my friend also happened to pick up the AGOT d20 rules book while it was still around in print and lent it to me. It goes into very fine detail, particularly with its descriptions of its noble houses and how important its reputation system fits into everything. With reputation and honor, you can call in favors and keep in the loop as far as information gathering and political workings of all the houses. Descriptions of the novels' characters are also detailed too.

It's pretty in depth and more than a little daunting, particularly if you've read the later novels (the rules book doesn't go much beyond AGOT or so, maybe a ACOK since I've only skimmed so far). If I were to run a game in it, I'd probably concentrate on the lesser explored places like the Wall and the northern reaches, or across the Narrow Sea in one of the lesser established regions for fear of treading upon the canon of the novels.

Iron Heroes works well since Westeros is such a low magic setting (at least in the sense that you don't see wizards walking around with wands flinging fireballs here and there). But yea, there's a lot of meat to chew in the book and a DM might be overwhelmed by it all so it might be best to start things simple and work from there.