Games should be a part of any fictional world, and George R.R. Martin worked at least one into A Song of Ice and Fire. Cyvasse is a strategy game introduced in book four of the series, A Feast for Crows. It seemingly originated in Dorne so we may see the game show up in the next season of Game of Thrones. According to Westeros.org, Martin says the game was inspired by, “a bit of chess, a bit of Blitzkrieg, and a bit of Stratego.” The rules aren’t explicitly described in the books, but fans have taken it upon themselves to set rules and devise ideas for the board and pieces. Michael Le Page took it a step further and 3D printed a playable version of the game.
Le Page has been discussing potential guidelines with fellow Song of Ice and Fire fans since 2012. He took the scant information about Cyvasse from the books and designed the board; he told CNET, “There’s not a lot in the books to go off — GRRM himself never tried to define the rules.”
Le Page eventually came to a set of rules for moving the Rabble, Mountain, Light Horse, Heavy Horse, Spears, Elephants, Crossbows, Trebuchets, King, Dragon, and Fortress (whoa). When he decided to bring Cyvasse into reality, 3D printing all those pieces and the board was the most affordable option.
This video goes through the basics:
Le Page has made the cyvasse available for purchase on Shapeways; the set will run you $304 plus shipping. It’s a pretty penny and you can’t turn to the Iron Bank of Braavos for a loan, but keep in mind this set is about as custom and specialized as it gets.
Is this a game you’d be interested in playing? Let us know in the comments.
HT: CNET
So many ways for GoT fans to interpret Cyvasse! I remember seeing another 3D printable version featured on the Thingiverse last year – made it to the front page of Reddit, if memory serves. So different, but obviously both versions were created with as much respect to GRRM as possible. 3D printers were made for this kind of niche game creation. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:92172
Hi Amy, Thanks for the write up!
Those of us who have been playing have had a lot of fun with it 🙂 It’s about as complicated as chess (and like chess, you wouldn’t expect to learn the rules in a 4 minute video haha).
Unfortunately GRRM has made it fairly clear that he doesn’t intend to endorse any particular version of the rules, just because games with the gravitas of chess don’t come around very often. I like to think I’ve eliminated all arbitrary-ness from the game and all the piece strengths/moves have a nice balance to them, but only time will tell.
I’ve thought about sending a copy to GRRM actually, but I hope to see it do reasonably well first 🙂 I have a deluxe model that I’d like to make for the show because it would be more like what I imagined when I read the books (twice as big – 56cm across! – with a solid board. It looks a bit more ornate and less like it came out of a 3D printer, and would cost about $1500), but I can’t justify doing that until this version of the set proves itself. We’ll see 😉
Thanks guys, hope you like it!
yeah, just send to GRRM get some clarification or help, then, MAKE IT!!! then… sell it then…we all can play and chris hardwick can play with some ppl on the youtube show table top and we all can live peacefully ish ever after 😀
I want to buy this, this year.
he should send one to GRRM