[Writing Prompt] Turns out Game of Thrones is derived from the World’s Longest D&D Game
The True Inspiration For Game Of Thrones
The shop floor of “Fantasy Central” was absolute chaos. For more than a decade the Song of Ice and Fire gang had been playing the most epic D&D game ever.
From the beginning they were a big group of 8 friends, but things remained manageable enough. George was an imaginative and thorough DM and each player took the game seriously, and viewed their character through a complex and multi-faceted lens.
In those early years, they would play for hours at a time, often from opening to closing. The stories they crafted together were harrowing and layered and always heartfelt.
Eventually, the game itself became a draw for “Fantasy Central” customers, the owners even going so far as to advertise play hours. This was cool at first – George was a bit of a diva and liked to have an audience, and the energy in the room really pushed the players to take risks.
But eventually people started to ask if they could join in, and that’s where things started to fall apart. George would incorporate anyone who asked – people creating obscure characters from the far corners of the map. Every time George let someone enter the game, his completionist nature would compel him to expand the story to include them.
At first it wasn’t so disruptive. Jim and Tom wanted to join from the perspective of the Iron Islands, and came in with a couple of the local character, and George just whipped them up a story-line and things moved pretty much apace.
But soon every other person who passed through the store wanted to play and George, bless his heart, just couldn’t deny them – it wasn’t in his nature.
Cut to the store right now. The whole place is packed to the gills with players, nearly forty of them, each sitting in random spots in the store, hardly within earshot of each other, often blocking the aisles.
There were so many people that it took weeks to get everyone into the same room, which was lucky for the owners, who absolutely despised the game sessions now because no one could even walk through the store.
Still, George tried to move things forward, he really did.
“Everyone. Everyone please focus. Everybody!” George yelled, and everyone went silent. Flustered, George composed himself. “We need to continue, so let’s try to keep up the pace today. Mark we’re gonna start in Dorne with you, OK?”
Mark, who entered the game with a super niche character he named Areo Hotah, nodded from half way across the room behind a shelf of DC figurines, a small folding table teetering in front of him.
George cleared his throat and started. “You are in the Grand Palace in the Dornish Capital. You are tasked with guarding Prince Martell. The Prince is speaking to a dangerous looking man armed with a sword.”
Mark thinks for a second. “I take a look around the room.”
George obliges him. “The palace antechamber is very large and spacious. The desert is visible out the many windows and red, silken draperies flutter in the warm, dry wind.”
Mark nods for awhile. “I’d like to examine the silk.”
“What?”
“Actually,” mark picks up his dice, “I’d like to roll perception on the red silk.”
The entire room groans audibly. George just shakes his head in a pained way. “OK.”
Mark rolls a 22. George blinks, pointedly. “You see that the red silk is of very fine quality. You see nothing else of any interest about the silk.”
This appeases Mark for only a second before he seems to come up with another marvelous idea. Everyone braces for impact.
“I’d like to try to detect traps on the silk.”
More groans. George puts his face in his hands. At this rate he’d be dead before this damn game ended.
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