Saturday, July 29, 2006

Guardians of Order RIP

This time the reports of GoO's death do not seem to be exaggerated. From George R.R. Martin's website:
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.
I first heard this news from RPGpundit and Dorkland. Dorkland also linked to this thread at the Mongoose boards discussing the fate of some GoO properties.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:29 PM

    I think we're all posting this story today, Jeff. It's big, sad, totally expected news. It feels like we've sorts been waiting for the other show to drop for a while, doesn't it?

    I tremble for the fate of Amber.

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  2. It is a bit sad considering that GoO started out of the back of Mark's car, selling copies of the BESM grey book at whatever anime con he could drive to.

    I really hope that the system finds a good home that will treat it well. Heck, considering Mongoose's track record they may even OGL Tri-Stat/BESM (if they get it) and make it even easier to do support for it.

    As a small publisher, I hope that the people who invested in Magnum Opus are somehow able to get (at least) some of their money back. I hope that things go for the best.

    I just can't help thinking, though, that it would never have gone this way if Mark had just been a bit more communicative.

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