Everyone’s favourite fantasy drama is back on screen – but there’s even more backstabbing, plotting and fantasy to be had with the game first released in 2003

When you play the Game of Thrones, as Cersei Lannister famously observed, you win or you die. And at this particular moment, my chances for survival didn’t look too good.

I’d set out from my home on Dragonstone intent on raiding the Lannister lands on the eastern shores of Westeros. With a strong force of cavalry, infantry and ships, I’d planned a succession of lightning attacks that would culminate in my seizing the city of King’s Landing and establishing House Baratheon as the rightful holders of the Iron Throne.

Things hadn’t gone quite as I had intended.

My forces had been battered back, and now I found myself beleaguered and cowering in my own stronghold, waiting for the inevitable Lannister counterattack. Only a timely intervention from the Stark armies marching from the North – and controlled by my wife – could save me.

I looked her in the eye with a pitiful, pleading expression – my spouse and best friend and partner of almost a decade. She couldn’t meet my gaze, and in that cold and lingering instant I knew that help wasn’t coming.

That’s just the sort of situation that A Game of Thrones: the Board Game is precision engineered to create. First published in 2003, long before HBO’s screen adaptation made the series a household name, it takes the betrayal, bloodshed and intrigue of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels and deposits them on to your living room table.

A Game of Thrones: the Board Game hands players command of forces on land and at sea. Photograph: Owen Duffy

Gaming’s connection with science fiction and fantasy is long-standing. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga alone has spawned countless official board, card and video game adaptations in the decades since its publication, and its influence is clearly visible in other products like the iconic Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and the massively money-spinning Warhammer miniature battle system.

Tabletop gamers have also benefited from adaptations of Marvel and DC comics, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the cosmic horror fiction of prolific author H.P. Lovecraft.

But the Song of Ice and Fire Series may be a better candidate for a gaming makeover than any of its predecessors. Its creator is himself an avid gamer. In a 2011 interview with MTV (available only to US audiences) he spoke of his enjoyment of tabletop roleplaying.

Fittingly enough for a tabletop adaptation of Martin’s notoriously chunky novels, A Game of Thrones is a big beast. It takes up to six hours to play, its rulebook is 30 pages long and it comes with a bewildering collection of more than 500 cards, chips, pawns and tokens. Played on a detailed map of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, it’s a heavy, taxing and unashamedly complex exercise in strategy.

But in spite of its steep learning curve, the game has proven popular. Paul McLachlan, owner of specialist games shop Spellbound Games, said it had consistently sold well ever since its release.

“People buy it because they’re fans of the show, but also because it’s genuinely just a really good game,” he said.

“The components and artwork and production values are great, but more importantly it does a really great job of capturing the spirit of the series. You see a lot of licensed games that just have a theme tacked on - the publishers just want to capitalise on a popular intellectual property. But A Game of Thrones really feels just like the books.”



The game struck a balance between military conflict and diplomacy, he said.

“The first time I played it we got about 45 minutes in before we realised that to win the game, you really need someone to stab in the back. There’s all of this political manoeuvring. You make deals with other players, butter people up, form alliances of convenience and then betray one another.

“The battles are a big part of the game, but they’re not the only part. It’s like the series in that respect - it’s really a political drama with added fighting.”



There’s no such thing as friendship in the Game of Thrones



That sense of intrigue is deeply embedded in the game’s core. On every round, players issue secret orders to the units under their control by placing tokens face-down on the board. You might choose to move troops between territories, lay siege to a rival’s castle or shore up your defences against an expected attack.

Crucially, though, players can also support one side or another in battles between their opponents, making alliances between players a critical element of the game.



“You have to band together,” said McLachlan. “But alliances are ultimately about what you get out of them. Eventually someone is going to end up being betrayed.

“You can really lose friends over it. At the end of the day it’s a game and you shouldn’t take it seriously, but it’s such a long game and you put so much time and effort into positioning your troops and securing the resources you need, when an ally turns on you you just ask: how could you do that to me?”

Also: a lightweight card game, and a role-playing game

If this all seems like a lot of effort, or you’re worried about irreparably damaging your relationships with fellow players, it’s not your only option for gaming in the Seven Kingdoms.

A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, also published by Fantasy Flight, takes about an hour and a half to play, seats up to four players and boasts a large collection of add-on chapter packs, adding new characters and elements to the game. Like its bigger board game sibling, it’s based on the original novels rather than the HBO adaptation, so Kit Harington’s floppy hair, puppy dog eyes and washboard abs are regrettably absent. And with a second edition of the game in the works, it might be worth waiting for the release of the revised version.

Game of Thrones: Westeros Intrigue is far simpler and quicker. It’s also released under licence for the TV series, so it bears suitably impressive pictures of Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Sophie Turner and their cast-mates. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty blatant example of a popular theme being tacked on to a completely unrelated game. It’s supposed to be all about building a network of conspirators in order to claim ultimate power, but in reality it’s just a reasonably engaging five minute puzzle game about stacking coloured cards in the right order.

If you’re looking for something more engaging, though, and with a far more credible sense of immersion in the lore of Westeros, you could try A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying from Green Ronin Games.

A tabletop roleplaying game, it casts players as characters in a shared story set in the Game of Thrones universe. One player serves as a combination of referee and narrator, describing scenes and laying down challenges to be overcome. The others take on the roles of knights, knaves, squires and schemers working to advance their own ends and those of their House. The whole experience is something like a very intimate form of live, improvisational theatre.

A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying puts you in the shoes of a character in George R. R. Martin’s fantasy world - if that’s somewhere you’re sure you’d like to be. Photograph: Green Ronin Publishing

If you’ve ever played Dungeons & Dragons, it’s a very similar concept – but with added lashings of seduction and gore.

Before your first game you’ll generate the House to which the characters belong. You’ll inject this new faction into the Game of Thrones timeline, allowing players to witness – or completely alter – key points in the narrative. If you’ve always wished Ned Stark could have kept his head on his shoulders, this is your chance to make it happen.

And here’s three more popular from-screen-to-cardboard franchises

Game of Thrones isn’t the only TV hit to get the tabletop treatment. Recent years have seen a number of series spawn licensed board games.

Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery combines the politicking and bloodshed of the STARZ series. Photograph: Gale Force 9 Games

Based on the STARZ series, Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery sees players become the heads of the leading families of ancient Rome. To rise above your rivals, you’ll have to become adept at the brutal art of the arena as well as the equally deadly disciplines of politicking and intrigue.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Battlestar Galactica board game sees unknown players adopt the role of Cylons - robotic enemies out to betray their comrades. Photograph: NBCUPHOTOBANK / Rex Features

Battlestar Galactica - based on the 2004 reworking rather than the 1978 original series - tasks players with working together to defend humanity’s last survivors in the face of a ruthless onslaught by the robotic Cylons. But the players have traitors in their midst - one or more of their number will be secretly working to destroy them, and working out who to trust means the difference between life and death.

In Firefly: the Game, players become free-booting spaceship captains carrying out legal and not-so-legal missions. Photograph: Gale Force 9 Games

In Firefly the Game, players take on the role of spaceship captains in Joss Whedon’s much-loved and inexplicably cancelled space-western hybrid series. You’ll recruit crew members, upgrade your ship and complete jobs for anyone who’s willing to pay - all the while trying to evade the long arm of the ruling Alliance and escape death at the hands of the savage Reavers.

