3/11 - Brian
Beginning of December 2001, a Monday: we'd had a very mild start to winter, but that was changing. The temperature was finally falling into the teens, and it was supposed to really start snowing later in the day. My weekend was over, I had to rant and had nothing to rant about, and the weather promised to become truly nasty. I was feeling grim, and for whatever reason my thoughts wandered to George R. R. Martin's books, and the words of house Stark in the north: "Winter is Coming." So I tossed the words onto my rant. Seemed appropriate.

Well, later that day I get an email from Don, a big fan of the company who runs all sorts of great stuff at the Compleat Strategist for us. He saw the Winter is Coming in my rant and thought that it was some kind of a hint that we had the rights to the series and were going to be making games set in Westeros. I laughed and told him no.

At lunch I related this story to Chris, who also laughed, but then looked kind of thoughtful and said, "Do you think those books would make a good board game?" Hell yes! So he asked me to look into it, and a few months later here we are.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about both the board game and the CCG. I've been reading the series since the first hardcover, went to meet George Martin when he was at a signing in town, and have recruited numberous fans to the series. If you haven't read them, you should. The first book is called A Game of Thrones. One of the greatest things about these books is the complete lack of script immunity. When you're reading and one of the main characters is in a tight spot or a big fight, you never know whether he'll live through it. You sit there, gripping the book, worried, knowing that this author is just crazy enough to do it - he'll kill anyone. It's one of the only books I've read where I'm genuinely worried about the characters before the end.

The CCG will be released at GenCon, and the board game later in the fall. There aren't any true web pages up for the games yet, but I've put a working page up for the CCG here where we'll post updates and soon have the open call for playtesters. I also made a little banner ad that won't get used for a while, so I'll attach it below. Just click on the logo to start it. It's cool. I like the snow.

Roseville, Minnesota
March 11, 2002

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce the acquisition of board and collectible card game rights to George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novel series. The first novel of the six-book series, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996. Since then two more titles, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords have been published, with book four, A Feast for Crows to appear on shelves in early 2003. The series has sold over a million books and has been translated into seven languages.

Both games being produced by Fantasy Flight Games will be published under the title, “A Game of Thrones.” The collectible card game is scheduled for release at GenCon 2002 and the board game is scheduled for release in Fall of 2002.

FFG CEO Christian Petersen commented, "George Martin's books are some of the best fantasy novels ever written, and I'm thrilled to be able to set our games in his magnificent world. I'm sure thousands of other fans are as eager as I am to see his characters brought to life in the cards and play the game of thrones themselves."

Said George Martin, "Ever since A Game of Thrones first hit the bookstands, I have been getting letters and emails from readers asking if a game was in the works.

"I'm no stranger to gaming. I grew up playing Monopoly, Risk, and Diplomacy, was captain of the chess team in high school and college, and became addicted to role-playing when I moved to New Mexico. The idea of a game based on my epic fantasy series appealed to me from the first.... but I wasn't willing to entrust my world and characters to just anyone. If there was going to be a game, I wanted it to be one that was true to the books, and captured some of their flavor.

"Fantasy Flight impressed the hell out of me with their games, especially those based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Design, production, artwork... everything they did was top quality, and I knew these were the guys that I wanted to bring the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and its quarrelsome inhabitants alive for gamers around the world.

"I'm delighted to be in business with them, and I hope that all my readers will enjoy the Ice & Fire board game and collectible card game as much as I expect to."

Fantasy Flight, Inc., a corporation with offices in Roseville, Minnesota, and Copenhagen, Denmark, is a leading U.S. hobby market producer of boardgames, roleplaying games, card games, and customizable disk games. FFG’s products include the Lord of the Rings boardgame, the Twilight Imperium boardgame, the Blue Planet v2 roleplaying game, and the Legends & Lairs and Dragonstar lines for the d20 System.

George R. R. Martin is the award-winning author of eight novels, including Fevre Dream and The Armegeddon Rag. He received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1970, graduating summa ***** laude. In 1986 he signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS, in 1987 he became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast, and by 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. George Martin has won numberous awards for his novels, novellas, and short stories, and his A Song of Ice and Fire series has captured the imagination of fans across the world. George currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

For further information contact:

Fantasy Flight, Inc.
1975 W. County Rd. B2
Roseville, MN 55113
Phone: 651.639.1905
Fax: 651.639.1764
Email: brianw@fantasyflightgames.com