Sunday, July 17, 2011

Reading A Dance with Dragons and thinking of the Game of Thrones

Now that the world has now learn about the Game of Thrones, I wonder how best to play it as an RPG or as an RPG with some wargaming aspect. GURPS has some answers, but alone it does not suffice. HARN has the verisimilitude that comes closest (and the deepest respect for economics, historical precedent, and realistic limitations) to AGoT.

I tried learning HARN, but I find GURPS more elegant and easily tweaked to how I interpret what I observe or learn. If one can Convert Harn Character Creation into GURPS abilities (so you remove the Point based Creations and go with the Harn method of chance) but have such a setting for AGoT.

To have AGoT done up by Kelestia with such detailed maps of villages which they did for HARN. Such detail will allow for Harn's Manor System (which is basically a method of creating a Manor Income Statement) to be applied in.

And that just reminds about all the Spreadsheet projects and Books I planned to write in my free time... "What free time!?".

Too Damn Busy I'm considering a Career Change. I'm so damn busy at work, if I'm not working I'm being a dad. I've not been out with my team on milsim, not able to maintain my guns, write game material, or achieve any of my hobby goals.

All those "Time in Motion" studies helped me figure out my free time, and I have about 3 hours made up of small 30-45 minutes.

I'm cheap, my hobby is mostly cheap, but I was very productive and could find some time to write. Getting back to reading AGoT got me wishing I could write my own Philippine Historical Epic set in the 19th century when Spanish Elite Sensibilities Ruled this Farflung colony.

Side Note: The Phils was a colony that did not provide any significant strategic advantage but one of the few places a western power can chance to tap the massive and falling Chinese market of about +300M. Every other "benefit" seems like a "sunk cost effect" or "self fulfilling prophecy" or "ownership bias" for having such a colony. It has been very clear in the economic records that the Phils was always a net loss and a prestige colony to be held. Even the US found it a net loss when we moved from steam to diesel. (the only Power that would net the Phils as an asset with a net profit is Imperial Japan, but as a soft target and a future platform for continued imperial expansion)

Because of how tropical civilizations began very late (9C CE) because of the many environmental challenges despite how they can produce an awesome amount of food (rice is x2-3 more productive per acre and can be harvested x2 per year, more frequently even if the river seasonally floods) it is a matter of chance who happens to bother to get these islands (and spain and its overzealous expansionism had the best chances).




2 comments:

Bevin Flannery said...

I've not played it myself, but I've been told that Green Ronin's Song of Ice and Fire -- based on Westeros -- does a good job of capturing the setting.

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

justin aquino said...

I actually have the book. as a GURPS player i just bought it for the setting, but I also have the d20 one and having tasted Harn level of detail its hard to go back.