The Game of Game of Thrones

When I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones on the insistence of my friends, I thought "This show is everything that is wrong with humanity. It is gratuitous, gruesome, trying to shock- it's horrible and I'm never watching it again"

Now I love it and I gobble it up like so many cakes. What does that say about my iron will and sticking to my guns, eh? Doesn't matter, because we're not here to talk about that.

I have made a board game based on Game of Thrones, and quite wittily (*rolls eyes*) called it the Game of Game of Thrones.

I made it for my brother, who celebrated his 20^th birthday a few days ago. Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake loves Game of Thrones more than me and more than you, and he also likes board games. We have spent many the night playing Uno for too long, or replaying 30 Seconds with our friends over and over. One summer, Jake and I sat down and recreated the Game of Life, with harder objectives and dirty jokes. So I thought this present was only fitting.

Here's how I did it.

Step 1: Supplies

It would have been much cheaper to just buy him a bloody board game. But where's the fun in that, heh? The fact is I am anal retentive, and enjoyed immensely putting all the bits together.

The most important thing to find was an old board game to suit my needs. I found one in my local second hand shop (a DVD board game missing the DVD) and began by recovering the board (excuse the crappy photo quality, I got a new camera in the middle of this project...)

I just stuck white paper on top, because I was planning on layering later.

I scoured pound shops, art shops and a baking supply shop, until I had found all I needed.

Step 2: The Cards

I decided that each player should pick a character card, and so I set about making Top Trumps of sorts. I downloaded 12 pictures of characters from online, then cut out cards from watercolour paper. (Watercolour paper is your best friend for this game- it is relatively cheap compared to card, easy to cut out and paint on, and it's nice and sturdy with a lovely finish). When I'd filled in the details, I covered them in sticky-back plastic so they might stand the test of time.

The character card was made using gold paint, and a free label template I found on Pinterest. Each character is given points, for Fighting Skills (FS) and Honour Points (HP). They each also have a Special Skill and a Weakness. As you go through the game, these effect your progress. You get into fights with people bigger and smaller than you; your FS determines whether you win the fight and proceed, or whether you lose and must relinquish some of your gold or your HP...

The next type of card I made were the Partner Cards. You pick these up after a short time, and they tell you who will be accompanying you on your journey. Your partner can be a help or a hindrance. For example, if your partner is Melisandre, then you gain a little FS, lose some gold, but you also get to take half the gold of whoever is playing as Stannis Baratheon! Fun.

Finally, I made a Pet Card, for the craic. You spend some gold to buy a pet, but then they also improve your FS, which is nice. Also, there's Ser Pounce, who is of no benefit to you, but who is just lovely.

Step 3: GOLD

I went to the pound shop and bought three games of Connect Four. Then I threw everything away bar the chips and painted them all gold. Stephen, my boyfriend, helped me with this and Thank God, because it took forever.  At first I put them all into a pot, squirted in a big blob of gold paint and mixed it all around. Despite making my hands look more awesome than they ever have before...

  

... It did not in fact cover all the coins in gold and so Stephen helped me to paint them by hand.

I like the finished effect though!

I originally wanted to use poker chips, and paint them gold, but they were nowhere to be found. I'm sure there's an easier way to do this, proabably gold coins in a toy shop somewhere... Keep your eyes peeled, beacuse one day you'll find a bag of gold coins and say "... I must make a Game of Thrones board game"

Step : The Board

This was obviously the very hardest part. I wanted to recreate the map as accurately as I could, but in a playable way, where you didn't have to keep revisiting the same places. So I eventually decided that....

- You start in Winterfell

- You go to Castle Black, over and Beyond the Wall

- Back over the Wall and towards the King's Road

- Across the Narrow Sea, and to the Dothraki Sea

- Through the Red Waste, and then to Braavos

- Back across the Narrow Sea, and up towards the Eyrie and the Vale

- Down again, with the option of visiting Dorne

- Through Highgarden, and ending at King's Landing

Next step was to draw on the squares, paint them grey (like a stone path, I guess?) and fill them in. (Look how I just threw that in there -"fill them in"- !! In reality, I spent hours chewing my pen and trying to think of fun and interesting things to put in each square to impact each players game. "Fill them in" indeed!)

Then, the decorating of the rest!

The Narrow Sea was easiest, because I very lazily just painted it blue with watercolours.

For Winterfell and the Wall, I mushed up cotton wool and PVA glue and slathered it around the path, to create snow. The finished effect was nice and lumpy and still a bit soft.

For Essos, I cut sandpaper to fit around the path, glued it on and painted it shades of yellow, in an attempt to make it look like a coarse, unforgiving desert.

Then Highgarden, Dorne, the Eyrie and King's Landing were all the same because they were so close together. I had a sheet of fake grass that my brother had used for a model-making project back in school. I glued that down, and my God does it make a huge mess. That stuff sheds like crazy.

Waste not want not; I gathered up the shedding bits and mixed them into a greeny-brown paint, and used it for the King's Road. I was pretty pleased with the finished thing.

Step 5: The Throne!

This was surplus to requirements, but be quiet, I HAD to make a little Iron Throne.

I bought some clay, silver paint and spear-shaped toothpicks (couldn't find those little sword ones anywhere!) and set to work.

The Iron Throne sits in King's Landing, as the prize for winning the game!

Step 6: HODOR

I decided to add something extra to this tactical game of blood and guts- charades!

If you land on a square that says HODOR then you must chose a charade from the bag, get up and act it out! (Fun Fact: If your character is Jon Snow, then your Weakness is that 'you know nothing', and you cannot partake in the Hodor game. I had a little laugh to myself when I thought of that one.) The actor and the guesser both win a gold coin, so hooray!

Step 7: Embellishments

I hadn't originally planned on this step, but once the rest was all done I felt it lacked something. So I decided to create little images of the locations you visit around the board, and have them propped up in their places. I just did some quick pen and watercolour drawings and stood them up using card (see the photo below)

I felt they added that last touch the game needed.

And that was that! I covered the old board game box in white paper, splattered some red paint on it, and stuck on the logo (I also covered it with that sticky-back plastic stuff to keep it from getting scratched etc)

I wrapped it up, and gave it to my brother who loved it (as you can see from his ridiculous face)

We played it last night, with some ale and crisps (cos we didn't have roast boar), and thank goodness, it's actually playable. 

Each character ended up with completely different points at the end, which was determined by the choices they made, the battles they fought and the skills they began with. 

Whoever reaches the Iron Throne first gets a load of extra points, but all the characters who follow after must add up their points and the player with the most seizes the Throne!

Success!!

(post script: I know there is already a Game of Thrones board game available to buy. 
Be quiet.)