Generally speaking I'm not a fan of licenced RPGs, even when I really like the product licensed. My problem comes from the fact that there's too little wiggle room on the story to fit in something suitably epic yet doesn't break the canon of the setting.

However, followers of my blog will no that when I read SIFRP I just had to play it. Hence I've developed an advanced timeline for the setting to allow my players to play in a world without the bagage that goes along with the events in the novels.

Here it is, should anyone be interested:

A Song of Ice and Fire: The New Winter
An alternative setting for the Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game, set 250 years after the end of the novels.

Beginning with speculation…
To be able to get to the future the present needs to be resolved. Here’s my guesses as to what will happen. I’m keeping it vague in many aspects as the New Winter setting is so far in the future that such events will have limited effect on its outcome.

How it all Ends
Danerys returns and reclaims her kingdom with the support of the Martells, her dragons and her army. Firstly she recaptures King’s Landing, easily defeating the Lannister remnants, executing all remaining Lannisters and stripping them of their lands. When they see the tide turning against them the Tyrells switch allegiances again and Danerys allows them to keep their lands. Next she turns her attention to Euron and defeats his fleet. When Melissandre realises her mistake in thinking Stannis is the King indicated by the comet she abandons him and joins Danerys, leading Stannis to rethink his position and chooses to submit himself to Danerys’s judgement. She makes him take the black, but on hearing what Melisandre has done in Stannis’s name she executes the witch and declares the religion of Rhlor an evil that should not be tolerated. Peter Baylish holds out in the Eyrie trying to claim non-involvement but Danerys want his blood, she sends an assassin she picked up in the Free Cities, Arya (unaware of her past) to kill Peter. Arya finds Sansa and brings her back to King’s Landing.

Meanwhile, Bran and his companions (by now including Tyrion) have uncovered some great supernatural threat heading towards the Seven Kingdoms. They manage to warn Jon and the Nightwatch (now including Stannis) but they are too weak to face the onslaught. Danerys comes to the rescue with her dragons, but in the heat of battle they start to follow Jon’s commands (fulfilling the prophecy from Danerys’s dream where her brother Rhegys tells her of his son whose “is the song of ice and fire”). After the battle the Reeds reveal that Jon is Lyanna Stark and Rhegys’s son and Danerys realises that if this makes Jon the true heir to the Targaryen line and threatens the legitimacy of her rule. However, she has grown close to Jon during this time and decides to marry him and rule the kingdoms together.

The Reign of Jon and Danerys Targaryen (0-50 years on)
There follows fifty years of peace and prosperity under the new King and Queen: “The Longest Summer”. Whilst Jon is joint ruler of the Seven Kingdoms Danerys remains empress of the lands she conquered before returning to Westeros. After Jon’s death, Danerys retreats into a long period of morning, and whilst she remains well loved in Westeros, her imperial territories begin to make mutterings of breaking away.

The House of Ice and Fire (50-180 years on)
Jon and Danerys begat a dynasty that ruled for a further 130 years. Below are the details of their descendants’ reigns.

Eddard I (50-57 years on)
Despite a happy marriage, Jon and Danerys only produced one child, Eddard. Eddard was already an old man when his mother finally died and he became king. Eddard married his cousin Lyara Stark, whom he loved greatly. Their union was, however, childless. When he became king he was encouraged to seek a new wife. Lyara was divorced and he took a young Martell as his new wife. His rule only lasted a few short years before he died, although he did leave behind a sole male heir, Jaehaerys.

Jaehaerys III (57-98 years on)
Jaehaerys’s rule was characterised by religious turmoil. The church of Rhlor had been growing in strength throughout the empire, calling for freedom and much of Jaehaerys’s reign is spent dealing with this turmoil. As a child King his rule was badly advised as the connections within the empire were attempted to be shored up with marriage to Kanra (Queen 58-68 years on) the daughter of a powerful family within the imperial holdings, the Jogo family. He also legitimises the Church of Rhlor in Westeros, coverts and marries in a Rhlor ceremony. However, this merely legitimises the Jogo’s hold over the eastern territories and they begin to secretly establish their own rule. In addition, the Staks in the north reject the Church of Rhlor and declare their independence. Once again there is a King in the north, and one that has strong family ties to the Iron Throne. When he comes of age Jaehaerys begins to realise the mistake he made in marrying a Jogo and converting to Rhlor. He dissolves the church of Rhlor and marries Serah Tyrell (Queen 68-79 years on), divorcing Kanra (now an old woman), but retaining her and her daughter, Raeyana as hostage. Serah Tyrell provides him with a daughter, Bethan, but is then caught up in a treason plot led by her father and is executed. Finally, Jaehaerys marries Raychel Stark (Queen 82-97 years on), seeking to gain an alliance with the King in the North. His marriage to Raychel seems to be a happy one, and they have a son together, Eddard. When Raychel dies, during the delivery of a still born son, Jaehaerys is overcome with grief and dies soon after, leaving the young Eddard as king. With his death, Kanra’s brother, Kono, declares himself emperor of the eastern domains, finally splitting the empire apart.

Eddard II (98-103 years on)
The child king, Eddard II hunts down the Church of Rhlor with a zeal, and bolsters the defences in Dorne to protect against a Jogo led invasion. However, in his zeal, he also has his dragons destroyed, believing them to be servants of Rhlor. King at eight, Eddard was dead before he turned fourteen and never married.

Raeyana (103-112 years on)
Also known as “Red Raey”, Queen Raeyana’s rule was unpopular and tyrannical, as she forcibly converted her population to the worship of Rhlor, killing those who refused to give up their worship of the Seven. She married her cousin, Kono II, reuniting Westeros with the empire, but their union was childless. Dorne and the Iron Islands ceded from the seven kingdoms during her rule. Eventually she was poisoned, but no one was brought to trial for her murder as Bethan was swept to power with popular support.

Bethan I (112-180 years on)
Also known as the Old Queen, Bethan’s rule was prosperous and peaceful, but began with blood. She assumed the throne with great popular support from both the nobles and the smallfolk of the four kingdoms remaining under her rule. However, when the Emperor sent a massive fleet to invade, she raised a ragtag fleet of her own and defeated the easterners. Following this her greatest threat seemed to come from the North. The kingdoms of the North and the Iron Islands were at war for much of Bethan’s reign, but when the North won the victory, but at the cost of their King, Jon IV, they crowned his niece Kara, who had been warded to the Jogo dynasty in the east. As a devout worshipper of Rhlor, and the next in line to the iron throne, she worried Bethan’s advisor’s greatly. She was also unpopular in the North, where she was an absentee monarch. Her son Jon, though was brought up in the North away from her influence. As Bethan grew old, a plot was hatched to capture Kara and try her for treason, to ensure that Jon would succeed Bethan rather than Kara. There are rumours that Bethan tried to stop the plot, but eventually Kara was executed for treason in King’s Landing. Bethan lived for a further twenty years, however, during a time of great peace, but one that ended the House of Ice and Fire

House Stark (180-212 years on)
With the death or Bethan I came the end of the rule of House of Ice and Fire, with eth Starks now gaining prominence, reuniting six of the seven kingdoms.

Jon II (180-202 years on)
Jon came to the throne after great anticipation. He was already King in the North and well versed in politicking. The empire was again growing interested in Westeros and began to send spies, saboteurs and assassins to the Six Kingdoms and Dorne to make way for an invasion. However, Jon managed to root out enough of the threat to defeat the infiltrators, but the same could not be said for Dorne, which succumbed to the Empire early in Jon’s reign. Jon’s reign is considered the autumn period following the summer of Bethan’s rule. Jon died leaving two sons, one became his heir and the other the lord of Winterfell, taking the name Winstark.

Rickard I (202-221 years on)
Jon’s eldest son, Rickard, was a decadent king who eventually plunged the nation into war, pitting brother against brother. Rickard never had much time for the Seven or the Old Ways, but he liked money and his lavish lifestyle. When he found his coffers running dry after too many lavish parties he put a tax on the church, which proved a greatly unpopular move, with many smallfolk and religious zealots forming ragtag armies to fight him. Under normal circumstances Rickard might have been able to easily crush this uprising, but with no money in his coffers many in his own army began to rebel and some ambitious noble families saw an opportunity. The result was Chaos, only ended when Rickard was captured and executed by the Zealots.

The Kingless Winter (221-224 years on)
With the kingdoms in chaos following the execution of Rickard I, Jon Winstark rallied much of the kingdom’s noble families against the Zealots and recaptured the iron throne. Rickard’s son, also named Rickard, had been warded at Winterfell when the troubles began, and when he came of age Jon led his rally under the Banner of Rickard II and restored his nephew to the throne.

Rickard II (224-242 years on)
Rickard II shared a sense of the grandiose with his father, but tempered this with the solid Stark sense of commitment and responsibility. He was extravagant but had a flair for dealing with smallfolk and was a much loved. Whilst some prosperity developed during his reign, the whole seven kingdoms were stricken by a great plague during this period. During a particularly hot summer towards the end of Rickard’s rule a series of wildfires swept the kingdoms, killing many, but purging the plague from the kingdoms. The plague also allowed Bors Yronwood to rebel against the Imperial rule in Dorne and crown himself Prince of Dorne.

Bethan II (242 years on – start of campaign)
The Purging had a great effect on a young Bethan, who had been diagnosed as suffering from the plague. She was cured by a Rhlor priest, who she has retained to this day as her advisor. She saw the wildfires as a divine gift from Rhlor and converted. Her rule has been unpopular, as she seeks to convert the Six Kingdoms to the worship of Rhlor. Whilst previous monarchs who worshipped Rhlor had been tied to the Empire in the east, during this time the Empire is weak and factional, with the Church of Rhlor weaker still. Bethan’s own version of Rhlor worship is different from that in the Empire.

Now
With Bethan’s rule plunging the kingdoms into a dark and dismal winter period, many nobles are secretly plotting to overthrow her, but lack an heir. The closest they have is Bethan’s sister, Danerys, who has married Bors Yronwood in Dorne, but many of these nobles fear putting their lot in with an unknown foreign power, the history of Dorne as part of the Seven Kingdoms long forgotten.

I guess you can see some of the influences from history. They're not as well mucked about with as in GRRM's storyline, but then I guess he's got more talent.

Cheerio,

Ben