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Don't purchase it or at the very least wait for the second printing. Green Ronin essentially screwed up and instead of including the errata they put into the pocket edition used the 2009 non-erratad edition along with the adventure "Peril at King's Landing". Why bother buying the same book with the same errors a second time for 50$ even with better production values.
Thanks for that information. How do we get a hold of the errata? Couldn't find anything on their website.
The e-edition is being rapidly revised as we speak, apparently, and the 'proper' version will be reissued 'soon'. There should be some mechanism for people who've already bought the incorrect version to be upgraded to the proper version (you may want to double-check on the Green Ronin forums before handing over any money though). The hard copy book has already gone to the press, though, so it will be a lot longer before that's fixed.
I don't know what their proofreading process is for that line, but it needs to change.
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As I said in another simuliar thread. Green ronin has takeon on too many projects too quickly with not enough resources. It's starting to show in more recent products. While mistakes happen given the populairty of both the TV shows and novels they should have pulled out all the stops for this one. Instead from what I read on the GR site they tossed a developer into the project at the last minute who tried to do his best. The line did not even have a full time devloper which imo is inexucsable.
It's a hard one to assign a full-time developer too, since you have to pay them for all that time that they're waiting for GRRM to approve texts. Their budget is pretty tight, adding/assigning someone full-time to a product line that is having deadline issues is a dangerous move.
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So is throwing a developer into a project at the last minute very close to the release date like GR did with the song of fire and ice rpg. I get that not every company does not have as much resources as every other company. Yet this is a big screw up on GR part. Why would they not do what is becoming standard in the industry of releasing PDF first to find errors then release the print version. It's not like they had to worry about the TV show being cancelled. It's way to popular and has at least 3 more seasons to go. Word of mouth has gone around that the latest version of the core book has not only errors but the same errors from 1E. I don't know many gamers who want to buy a 50$ book with the same errors in it twice for the sake of a small amount of new material. If sales are low then we won't see a corrected second printing.
Green Ronin really missed the bus on this one. The TV show has been on its way for the past 3 years - I actually read part of the GR core rulebook from the original release whilst at a Belfast hotel whilst they were filming the pilot in November 2009 - and it was clearly going to be big (maybe not this big, but certainly a reasonably major deal). They had plenty of time to prepare a new edition and cash in (for lack of a nobler term) on the TV show. Instead they seem to have thrown this together at the last minute once the TV show had started airing and had become a big hit.
This is unfortunate as the ASoIaF merchandising has had some really bad knocks in the past from GRRM licensing the rights to companies who weren't fully competent (such as Cyanide and Dabel Brothers) or were about to go bust (like Guardians of Order). Green Ronin should have been a really safe pair of hands to develop the licence, but instead they've messed up. Really unfortunate.
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I work in publishing, and though it is true that I don't know the inner workings of GR and how things went on with this book, I can imagine of some things that may have happened.
Why would they not do what is becoming standard in the industry of releasing PDF first to find errors then release the print version.
Lack of time, perhaps? I have worked with licenses in which the contract told me that the finished product had to hit the streets by a specific date or the company would lose the license. I don't know if this is the case, and considering licensing contracts fall under ND terms I doubt they can say this is what happened, but I wouldn't discard it.
Word of mouth has gone around that the latest version of the core book has not only errors but the same errors from 1E.
It has some of the same errors from 1E. Some of the errata has been applied, some hasn't, and some chapters were better corrected than others. This is not a straight copy of the first edition book, the problem was that they used that version as the basis for this one and tried to work the corrections in. They didn't quite do it right.
So is throwing a developer into a project at the last minute very close to the release date like GR did with the song of fire and ice rpg. I get that not every company does not have as much resources as every other company. Yet this is a big screw up on GR part. Why would they not do what is becoming standard in the industry of releasing PDF first to find errors then release the print version. It's not like they had to worry about the TV show being cancelled. It's way to popular and has at least 3 more seasons to go. Word of mouth has gone around that the latest version of the core book has not only errors but the same errors from 1E. I don't know many gamers who want to buy a 50$ book with the same errors in it twice for the sake of a small amount of new material. If sales are low then we won't see a corrected second printing.
I'm not saying you're wrong. What I'm saying is that due to GR's resources and the circumstances surrounding the license, it was not feasible to assign/hire a full time developer for the line.
We can wish for more support for the product line, but it's not going to happen. Now, I don't think they really did much to market the game and drive sales up as well as they have with some of their other stuff and that has hurt them too. But at this point, I'm pretty sure that SIFRP is far behind Dragon Age and M&M in terms of sales, so they aren't going to devote more resources to it. It's a vicious circle.
From what little I've pieced together, the license is pretty strict, they don't have any room to make up new content and have to hew really close to the books. Plus, several products have sat on GRRM's desk waiting for approval for months at a time. That has killed sales as well, because they released the game, but all the follow up stuff took forever. Not because they didn't have a writer/developer, but because GRRM didn't approve it for 3-4 months.
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I'm not saying you're wrong. What I'm saying is that due to GR's resources and the circumstances surrounding the license, it was not feasible to assign/hire a full time developer for the line.We can wish for more support for the product line, but it's not going to happen. Now, I don't think they really did much to market the game and drive sales up as well as they have with some of their other stuff and that has hurt them too. But at this point, I'm pretty sure that SIFRP is far behind Dragon Age and M&M in terms of sales, so they aren't going to devote more resources to it. It's a vicious circle.
From what little I've pieced together, the license is pretty strict, they don't have any room to make up new content and have to hew really close to the books. Plus, several products have sat on GRRM's desk waiting for approval for months at a time. That has killed sales as well, because they released the game, but all the follow up stuff took forever. Not because they didn't have a writer/developer, but because GRRM didn't approve it for 3-4 months.
I could go on a rant about GRRM and his taking forever to write the novles let alone review other material for it but won't. All I will say I'm not impressed with the man. Respect yes but not impressed in the least.
Irontruth I think others and myself are being so harsh on GR this time around is because while you are correct GR does not have the resources and the license is not an easy one to publish for it's not the first attempt on this book. Nor the second but the third attempt. Speaking for myself I can give a free pass to a rpg publisher once twice not three times. That and the overall feeling of GR rushing the product out to take advantage of the series. Unless they signed a contract saying they were forced to do so it's not something they had to do. The series to my knowledge is popular and doing well. With no signs at least for the moment of being cancelled. So why the rush. It's something that may have hurt the the rpg line as a whole. Maybe even permantly.
Ony so many times the fanbase is willing to excuse your mistakes before they get fed up and don't buy your products anymore. I know that unless GR releases a second printing I'm not buying this book. I like GR yet this is happeing too often lately. It's not just the core book from what I have read online. Even the campaign guide has some small amounts of errors. While I respect and I'm glad that they are issuing a corrected PDF they also seem at least to me unable to understadn why it's a big issue. Yes GR has a PDF ywt to get a corrected version I would either have to buy the PDF. Buy both the core and the PDF or wait for a second printing. Either way it ends up being more work and costing more for the consumer.
That being said I may buy a used copy of the latest core book. Yet GR needs to get their act toghther because where I would buy a book from them without hesitation I will take wait and see approach.
I'm not excusing the lack of proof-reading. I'm just saying that there's a lot of reasons for why this is par for the course. While I love the source material and like some aspects of the game, I do not have high hopes overall. Barring a large influx of resources and more consistent attention from GRRM, it wont succeed. Which is too bad.
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Irontruth I know your not happy with the situation if I implied otherwise I apologize. Just that a large part of the frustration is because of GRRM and also with GR in that at this point the number of attmepts to do a core book they should have nailed a perfect core book or at least as perfec as can be with their eyes closed. I would cut them slack if they were a new companies it's no longer the case imo.
I'm also not impressed with how they are handling the situation now. Yes they implement a solution except it's heavily slanted in their favor. To get a corrected print version I'm required to buy the PDF and the print version. a purchase that at first was supposed to cost me 50$ is now going to cost me 70$ (50$ core book 20$ PDF). I could purchase the PDF yet it's one of those core books that is not just useful yet also a beautiful book. A PDF version in this case just does not do it justice imo. I posted a simialr post on their site with an added suggestion of including a free PDF of the errata (not including any new rules) to the fanbase. It would go a long way to win some of the fanbase confidence back. As it stands GR curren solution comes across as the company wanting to get their cake and eat it too.
Don't purchase it or at the very least wait for the second printing. Green Ronin essentially screwed up and instead of including the errata they put into the pocket edition used the 2009 non-erratad edition along with the adventure "Peril at King's Landing". Why bother buying the same book with the same errors a second time for 50$ even with better production values.
I really like the rules for managing the PCs' house and lands, and the army combat rules have enough detail to add excitement without becoming Advanced Squad Leader with swords.
The remainder of the rules are reasonable. It definitely has a High Middle Ages feel, very limited magic, gritty details. There is not a lot of upward mobility for characters. Think the original Traveller or the West End Games version of Star Wars. The bonus die idea is an interesting mechanic -- you roll extra dice and take the highest of the pool, including the bonus dice.
If you ran it far, far removed from the events in the books, it could be fun, but I imagine that folks would like to run this because they liked the books or HBO series.
I am just imagining the players excitement when Rob Stark invites the PCs to his wedding or they have a chance to fight the famous "Mountain.". The excitement would be palpable when they had to roll against contracting the gray scales while shipping to the cities on the coast. The table would hum with excitement if the party was sent to find Daenrys and convince her to stop ruling slaves and go back home.
In other words, the game is fine, the HBO series is very well done, and the books are full of interesting ideas and scenes. That said, the canonical Martinian setting is a tough sell for the average fantasy group I've run over the past 38 years. Honor results in death and shame, e.g., Ned Stark at King's Landing and the fate of the honorable knight in the trial by combat at the Aerie. Disease is random, and death waits at every turn.
You could import many of the rules into a less depressing and dire world.
In service,