Game of Thrones and Gloom parody card game has a higher body count – and more laughs – than the Red Wedding

Gloom is lampooning the brutal, bloody world of Game of Thrones in an upcoming unofficial crossover between Keith Baker’s macabre card game and George R.R. Martin’s unforgiving fantasy series.

Gloom of Thrones replaces Gloom’s doomed families – whom players must try to dispatch in a variety of miserable ways to score maximum points – with parodies of the houses and inhabitants of Westeros, as well as the innumerable ways in which characters have been offed through the TV show and books.

You might subject ‘Trywin Bannister’ to being ‘seduced by a sibling’ (in a nod to the, erm, ‘close’ brother-sister relationship between Tywin Lannister’s children Jaime and Cersei in Game of Thrones, of course) or ‘tumbled from a tower’ – the less-than-successful fate Jaime ascribes to Bran Stark at the beginning of Martin’s epic. 

As with the original Gloom, Gloom of Thrones’ plastic cards will be partially transparent, letting players see the full extent of the suffering they inflict before finally giving the characters the reprieve of death.

The more tragedy that befalls the people of the ‘Umpteen Kingdoms of Eastereg’ before they depart the mortal coil, the more that player scores – but opponents can undo their hard work by giving characters moments of happiness to raise their self-worth. Don’t expect weddings to be on that list.

Described both as an expansion for Gloom and a standalone game, Gloom of Thrones includes a new gameplay mechanic named after the ‘Porcelain Throne’ – an obvious reference to Game of Thrones’ Iron Throne. 

Gloom of Thrones is headed to Kickstarter on April 2nd – meaning that it’s no April Fools’ joke – where it’ll include a deluxe edition with upgraded components. A standard edition of the game is due for release in shops this November.