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Saturday, July 29, 2006

Guardians of Order - Closed

Well, I don't think that it is a surprise but it is still sad that it has come to pass. This is from George R.R. Martin's website. I think its a shame that the news didn't come from Mark officially, but it shouldn't be a big shock at this point.

I know that Mongoose has long been interested in Tri-Stat/BESM and that they have been talking to some of the Magnum Opus publishers. Only time will tell. For fans of BESM and the Tri-Stat systems, I hope that this will mean a happy ending.

News -- George R.R. Martin
I regret to announce that Guardians of Order, the Canadian games company that issued the GAME OF THRONES role-playing game last fall, is closing its doors and going out of business.

Although the GoO website remains open and there is some fan activity on the message boards there, it would appear that orders are no longer being fulfilled and emails to Guardians itself are going unaswered. The company's office has been vacated, and the company phone has been disconnected, When I finally reached GoO's owner and president Mark MacKinnon last week, he confirmed what many had come to suspect -- that he is shutting down operations. MacKinnon is presently attempting to place some of GoO's games with other companies.

I am not privy to all of the details of how and why Guardians is going under, but I do know the company's finances were very badly affected by the decline in the value of the American dollar against the Canadian dollar. Most of GoO's sales were in the United States, so a weaker dollar meant less money coming in. The massive and gorgeous GAME OF THRONES role-playing book, four years in the making, was finally released last November (for details, see the news stories in my archives) and appears to have sold quite well, but its success proved too little and too late to save Guardians of Order.

I am presently attempting to work out some sort of settlement with Guardians that would allow the RPG to continue with another company, but at this writing the future of the game (if any) remains unresolved.

Ironically, this announcement comes just as the GAME OF THRONES RPG has been nominated for four 'ENie' awards as one of the best games of 2005. The game has been nominated in the categories of Best Production Values, Best d20/ OGL Product, Best Product, and Best Game. If you're a fan of the game and would like to cast a ballot, voting is open until July 30 at http://www.enworld.org/ennies/voting.php


Blogs really aren't supposed to be edited (well, if you are in the Rebecca Blood school of blogging) but I decided to link to this thread on the Mongoose Publishing forums which may cast some light on who might end up with some of the pieces of Guardians of Order. Although if you haven't figured out who I'm talking about by now I would be greatly shocked and surprised.

I return you now to your regularly scheduled Dorkland!