GoT Geekery

Facebook has a new Game of Thrones game and of course I had to start playing it. It has some kinks that need to be worked out and it slows down sometimes, but overall, I like it a lot. It's a basic script game, but there are some advancements. In the spirit of 'choose your own adventure' books, each possible quest has various options, most of which lead you towards certain alignments. You build crap too and upgrade it, but that is kind of dependent a lot on how you are structuring your character. And, to me, that is the best part. You truly get to structure this character.

Everyone has the same basic setup. You are a recently widowed person who has managed to rise to minor nobility. You have at least two children (the oldest being an annoying daughter named Jayne) and have been awarded a small holding because you helped to chase out some slavers. Everything you do past that point is up to you.

My character is named Lady Blackwood, a former Whisperer (spy). She is very devoted to her family, follows the Old Ways, but does so in a very cunning manner. In any given situation, she will always put her family first, even brat daughter Jayne. It is her strongest motivation for everything she does. So if one of my three options has something to do with family, that is what is chosen.  Family will also include anyone who is in her inner circle, such as close advisers.

She will always opt for a cunning solution over a truthful one. Lady Blackwood doesn't feel the truth gets you very far, because no one else in Westeros is telling the truth anyway. She will also follow the Old Ways because in the books, the Blackwood family is still one of the families who do. So for her, following this path is still about following family tradition.

I have to say, having such a strongly defined code for the character makes it relaxing for me. Even if the options wouldn't be the one that I, personally, would take, I know how I've written up Lady Blackwood, so her choices are very clear. Her motives are very clear and why she does what she does is obvious to me. As much as I could never be someone in my own life who was limited by such a narrow code, I can understand its appeal.

So even if I totally screw the game up, I know I did so with motives true to this character. And, honestly, if she ends up with her head chopped off, that's actually in live with how the books go.