Narratives and Databases in Game of Thrones - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 150

battles between characters from the television series. Each character has certain
attributes—character abilities that let him or her attack and defend in certain
ways. In addition, characters can use up to three types of attacks—military, power,
or intrigue. Players take turns using their characters to battle in one or more of
these types of attacks. If these battles are won, players can earn power tokens,
with iteen power tokens winning the game. Everything in the HBO Card Game
is revealed through speciic serialized gameplay mechanics that rely on the
individual actions of both the players and the characters. he HBO Card Game
relies on a highly structured turn-taking system, comprising seven sequences:
Plot, Draw, Marshall, Challenge, Dominance, Stand, Taxation. Turn-taking in this
ritualized manner highlights the serialized nature of Game of hrones itself. his
order parallels the television program's focus on narrative serialization in the
progression of the episodes as well as the chronological exposition of the show:
as a serialized drama, each episode of the show develops the larger narrative,
rather than simply beginning and ending one episodic narrative. 30
Additionally, as previously mentioned, the HBO Card Game is actually based
on a more complex card game, the Fantasy Flight Card Game , which allows
four people to play and features multiple card expansion packs that feed a
continuing commercial enterprise. hese expansion packs also generate interest
in individual players who might want to mirror the anticipation of the release
of a new volume in the novel series or television show. he HBO Card Game is
not expandable—or, at least, expansions have not been created for it as of this
writing—meaning that the economic structure of the game does not precisely
mirror the serialization of the television show, even if the game play does. his
is strange as most card games of this sort are speciically designed to be “living”
card games—to be ever-expandable.
Each player of the HBO Card Game controls one of two of the Great Houses of
Westeros—House Stark or House Lannister—and thus “sits at the center of his or
her own personal community.” 31 While part of a House, the player controls each
character individually. he HBO Card Game concentrates more on the serialized
nature of the characters' growth and development, what Baym identiies as a
“networked individualism” in which individuals form the central node of his
or her own personal community. 32 Networked individualism highlights a more
personalized understanding of social networks: we see ourselves as the center
of our own social networks. Networked individualism shits the focus from
group collectivity to the person: “people connect, communicate, and exchange
information … at the autonomous center” of their networks, seeing themselves