So I am a longtime Fan of ASOIF. I also have the excellent GoO Campaign Book. And I have the luck to be one of the Playesters for the GR version of the game.I am under NDA so I will not go into any details.I also have only seen some parts of the whole game.That said, I think GR do a fantastic job. The mechanics I have seen so far are easy and intuitive. They capture the grim and gritty world of ASOIF perfectly. Combat for example is deadly and lost limbs can happen easily.The intrigue rules blend role playing and dice rolls. I hope D&D 4th edition will have something like this for social interaction (Diplomacy etc.).The basic mass combat rules are easy. They resemble are very intuitive. If you like the wargame aspect of ASOIAF there are enough additional rules that you can use complicated tactics that will have a mechanical effect (ie help our hinder you).So from what I have seen so far I am giving it 5 out of 5 points.
Ok some updates from the playtest infos I have.First and foremost: Kudos to Robert Schwalb!Sometimes it seems that he does not sleep at all and is somehow night and day on his computer, working on SOIF and other projects. When I finish my readthrough and send him my comments and suggestions I get the updated and revised document sometimes the same day.Now to the game and rules. Again I try not to go against my NDA. So all information is only be from my subjective perspective. And some things may change as all rules are still in their draft versions.The game is certainly very different to D&D in respect to the advancement. I do not have the rules for advancement yet, but from the other mechanics I can make an educated guess. Levelling up like in D&D from Scum to World saving hero is not what SOIF is about. To me it seems that the story the PCs are in is the main focus. You certainly can an will get better at things you do, but there is an upper cap at how good a mortal can be. All in all, I think that the PCs will stay Humans albeit very good at the things they do. But not so good that a Horde of Peasants won't be able to hurt them badly (I am speaking of very dedicated Peasants who will loose quite a few of their numbers).Like in D&D higher is better. The higher you roll the dice, the better the result will be. This is true for combat as for using skills.Combat: Has seen a lot of revisions and refinements. As DM (is called different in the game) and Fan of SOIF I am happy with how it works. Combat is fast paced and very deadly. You really don't want to be a Peasant facing off against an armored Knight on a Horse.Compared to D&D it will go really fast because the modifiers are much easier to add up. But you will have the same if not more tactical options in personal combat. Grapple, Trip, Bull Rush, all will be there. You will be able to use two weapons, but it has a drawback. Defensive Weapons like armor and shields are important. You will have to make the choice between fighting Black Viper or The Mountain style. So you are either lightly armored and fast or heavy armored and slow. Both are good and playable options and both have their qualities and drawbacks.The "Hit Point" mechanics in Combat is very different from D&D and even the words “Hit Points” are misleading. Combat is dangerous! There are as dangerous as fights in the Black Company Campaign Setting. You want to be sure to have the surprise and more men to overwhelm your opponent as fast as possible. PCs in ASOIF campaign will not take on fight after fight. After a few fights or even after one fight you get tired are hurt and possibly have injuries. It is easy to get injuries. You shrug off a few bruises and a twisted ankle after a good rest. Even a broken leg or a deep cut in the arm that will heal eventually. By the way, make sure you have someone around who has knowledge of the healing arts. Otherwise a wound can get infected and you get worse instead of better.Oh, of course you can always meet the Brave Companions and get you sword hand chopped off (as a certain swordsman). No magic healing in Westeros. You will have to learn to live with it.Mass Combat: Works almost like personal Combat therefore very intuitive. It has some elements from Black Company Campaign Setting mass combat and from Skip Williams' mass Combat system in Advanced Players Handbook (or Malhavoc's Cry Havoc). But it is both easier and faster. There are some neat optional ideas and advanced rules for the wargame tacticians who like to add depth using formations and combat manoeuvres.Social Combat I termed this social combat because I don't know if I can reveals the name they gave this chapter. These rules were revised and updated too. Encounters are first and foremost done by roleplaying. But to make the life of DM and PCs easier, these rules help if two or more parties try to sway the other party to their view of things. This can be as easy as to get the tavern wench between your sheets or as complex as trying to influence a mayor Noble to help you in your conspiracy against the King. Rules are fast and incorporate role playing into the mechanics.Skills and use of Skills These are actually two chapters. Using skills is easy and almost like in D&D. You have a certain degree of competence in a skill and test it against a DC set by the DM. There are also opposed tests. In difference to D&D there seem to be kind of passive and active opposed tests. For example: you try to bypass a guard unseen. If the guard does not suspect anything, you test against a fixed DC, set by the Guard’s ability to spot or detect. On the other hand, if he is warned and alert you do an opposed test against him (as in D&D: your competence in sneak and hide + dice versus. his competence in spot and detect + dice. Very good idea!There are a lot of skills but there is a twist in the rules to use them. So you will be able to use most of the skills, but be good at less and very good only at a few. So there won't be the D&D fighter who can only ride and climb but nothing else. So far I found no redundant skills. Trust me when I say that the skill system is intuitive and fast.I have no information yet on character generation, classes and advancement.To sum it up: I really think that SOIF will be a blast to play! I even think that some groups will adapt it to their own homebrew Grim an Gritty campaigns and use it instead of D&D.