GURPS Banestorm: "Game Of Thrones" style campaign?

[hughborg]

Just a thought I wanted to pass by everyone, and see what other ideas might crop up from it...

Having watched the HBO series "Game Of Thrones" (and having also read about 2/3 of the way through "Storm of Swords"), I was wondering about running a campaign in the style of that story on Yrth, specifically in Caithness. After all, there are a LOT of similarities...

1. You have an ongoing civil war, with both "good" and "bad" guys on both sides. (Wind the clock back a bit on King Conall, and you could play him like Robb Stark...)

2. You have a low-magic setting (as Caithness is a low-mana area on Yrth), but you still have the option of bringing in fantastic elements as you choose.

3. You have the threat(s) from outside (in GoT, it's the "Others" from the North, and a possible invasion by Daenerys Targaryen. In Caithness, it's the threat of Orcs from the Orclands and a possible invasion from Megalos if the civil war makes Caithness ripe for the picking).

So, what do you all think of this idea? Also, what kind of changes/tweeks would you make in the background to make something like this work?

Some of the tweeks I thought of:

- Make the Sterling rebels wealthier than the Royalists, but give the Royalists the better strategists and warriors. Currently, the war is at a stalemate, and has settled into a "cold war"... perhaps the campaign starts with the trigger that turns it "hot" again.

- Don't get rid of Defiant Castle, but use it as a sort of "first line of defense", like the Black Brothers at The Wall in GoT. Perhaps even create something based on the Night Watch that mans the Castle.

Those were just off the top of my head, of course, but I'd love to hear any ideas others may have, or just thoughts on whether this would work or not. What do you think?

[combatmedic]

Caithness is the way to go on this, yes. The Caithness rebellion/civil war is good story fodder. I like the idea of Conall as the boy king. Set the game in the 1980s, so he really is still a teenager.


Give the rebels control of gold or silver mines.

Turn up the grimness in Caithness- it's not jolly old SCA-land anymore.

I'd look at using both Orcslayer and Harkwood.


I'd simply rule that gunpowder, steam engines, and so on just don't work on Yrth. The laws of nature not the same as on Earth- obviously so, as magic works.
Ditch all the Luddite wizards vs Underground Engineeer stuff.


Maybe you should play up the cultural differences between Caithness and Megalos. I'd consider adding stronger Greek elements to Megalos. If you want a "medieval Roman empire"...why not base it on the real medieval Roman Empire with its capital at Constantinople? Swap out some of the Latin for Greek and give the Megalan Church some Eastern elements, and you are good to go. Stephen Megalos might have been an East Roman citizen. The Empire is big, so there's plenty of room for diversity. Some provinces are more 'Western' in character. Megalan Common might be Anglic with a lot of Greek and some Arabic loanwords.

[Mailanka]

This would actually make me very interested in Banestorm...

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

This would actually make me very interested in Banestorm...

Cool beans. Maybe we can get Hughborg to run it here, in PbP format. I think Play By Post is the way to go with a game of Thrones style campaign.

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