Guardians of Order

Infobox Defunct company
company_name = Guardians of Order
company_
company_type = Private (defunct)
industry = Role-playing game publisher
foundation = 1996
defunct = 2006 August 1
fate = BankruptcyFact|date=August 2008
location = Guelph, Ontario
key_people = Mark C. MacKinnon, David L. Pulver
products = "Big Eyes, Small Mouth", "Silver Age Sentinels", Tri-Stat system
homepage = [http://guardiansorder.com/ http://guardiansorder.com/] (defunct)

Guardians of Order was a Canadian company founded in 1996 by Mark C. MacKinnon based out of Guelph, Ontario in the business of creating role-playing games (RPGs). Their first and perhaps most famous game is the anime inspired game "Big Eyes, Small Mouth". In 2006 Guardians of Order ceased operations due to overwhelming debt.

The "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" game used the "Tri-Stat System". The "Tri-Stat System" would later be modified for use in other games and be more generally named the "Tri-Stat dX" system. Most of Guardians of Order's game use some form of the "Tri-Stat dX" system.

After "Big Eyes, Small Mouth", Guardians of Order would go on to achieve significant success with the "Sailor Moon Role-playing Game and Resource Book". The game was built on "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" but featured an extensive reference to the "Sailor Moon" universe. Guardians of Order acquired licenses and published "Big Eyes, Small Mouth"-based RPGs for a number of other anime series including "Dominion Tank Police", "Demon City Shinjuku", and "Tenchi Muyo". After "El Hazard", the last such game, the company's strategy with licensed anime series changed and it began issuing "Ultimate Fan Guides" which served the same purpose while avoiding the need to reprint the same "BESM"-based mechanics. All of these books included game statistics for characters in the series as well as extensive episode guides and character summaries.

Guardians of Order expanded beyond anime based games when the "Tri-Stat dX" system was adopted for the superhero game "Silver Age Sentinels".

Guardians of Order later acquired the rights to publish the "Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game" from Phage Press. cite web|url=http://www.guardiansorder.com/company/press/2005-01-04.html |title=Guardians Of Order's New Year's Message|accessdate= 2006-07-11] cite web|url=http://www.phagepress.com/ |title=Phage Press| accessdate= 2006-07-11] Guardians of Order licensed the rights to produce role-playing games set in existing fictional works. These include games based on "The Authority", "Tékumel", and "A Song of Ice and Fire".

Between 2006-02-14 and 2006-08-01 there were no official updates to the Guardians of Order website. There was speculation on the official forums that the company was out of business. On 2006-07-28 a post to George R. R. Martin's official web site announced that Guardians of Order was out of business.cite web| url=http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html| title= Guardians Of Order Out of Business|publisher=George R. R. Martin's official web site |date=2006-07-28| accessdate= 2006-07-29] In response, on 2006-08-01 Mark MacKinnon posted confirmation that Guardians of Order "ceased operations."cite web |url=http://www.guardiansorder.com/ |title=Guardians Of Order Announcement|author=Mark MacKinnon|date=2006-08-01 |accessdate=2006-08-01] According to MacKinnon the company had too much debt. MacKinnon is attempting to place Guardians of Orders games with other companies. He promised that existing orders would be filled.

On 2006-09-09 ArtHaus Games, whose titles are published by White Wolf Publishing, announced that it has acquired the "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" RPG. The announcement stated the company was "extremely confident" that a release date of January 2007 would be met and confirmed that those who pre-ordered and prepaid for the book would be "in good hands," though it was also said that they have not taken on Guardians of Order's liabilities. [cite web| url=http://www.white-wolf.com/index.php?line=news&articleid=586 |title=ArtHaus Acquires Big Eyes, Small Mouth RPG| date=2006-09-09| accessdate=2006-09-09]

On 2007-03-07 George R. R. Martin wrote that he had regained control of his intellectual property rights and was "all square" with Guardians of Order. [cite web | title=grrm:ICE & FIRE role playing game | publisher=grrm.livejournal.com | url=http://grrm.livejournal.com/13374.html | date=2007-03-07 | accessdate=2007-05-01] As part of their settlement, Mr. Martin received all remaining stock of the limited edition version of the RPG. No further information regarding the settlement was revealed, nor the status of other creditors' claims on the property.

History

Guardians of Order was founded by Mark C. MacKinnon in 1996. In 1998Guardians of Order hired David Pulver. In 1999, Jeff Mackintosh washired. 2000 brought Liz Fulda and Lucien Soulban.In 2002, Guardians of Order launched their "Magnum Opus" program, licensing the company's intellectual property to third parties to create new games.

By 2005, Guardians of Order downsized to just Mark C. MacKinnon.In early 2006, the company ran out of capital, and closed their doors on August 1, 2006. The third edition of "BESM" is acquired by ArtHaus Games on September 9, 2006.

Products

Original properties

* "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" - Guardians of Order's original game had four revisions before the company went out of business, with the third edition being in development and published by another company.
** Core rules
*** "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" (1997) - 94 black and white pages.
*** "Big Eyes, Small Mouth Second Edition" (2000) - 280 full color pages
*** "BESM d20" (2003) - Similar to the original BESM, this replaced the Tri-Stat rules with d20 System rules.
*** "BESM d20 Revised Edition" (2004)
** Expansions
*** "Big Robots, Cool Starships" (1999) - Rules for science fiction anime-inspired games, especially those featuring mecha.
*** "BESM Game Master's Screen" (2000)
*** "Cute & Fuzzy Seizure Monsters" (2000) - Rebranding of "Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters". Rules for pet monster battling style games, inspired by cartoons like "Pokémon".
*** "Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies" (2000) - Rules for modern day action adventure anime-inspired games.
*** "Centauri Knights" (2001) - Science fiction setting
*** "Mecha d20" (2003)
*** "BESM Dungeon" (2003) - Additions to "BESM" for running more fantasy oriented anime-inspired games.
*** "Cold Hands, Dark Hearts" (2003) - Rules for playing supernatural monsters in a gothic horror setting.
* "Silver Age Sentinels" (2002) - Superhero role-playing game. Based on modified "BESM" rules using ten-sided dice instead of six-sided dice.
* "Tri-Stat dX" (2003) - a small generic role-playing system based on "BESM".
* "Ex Machina" (2004) - Cyberpunk role-playing game using the Tri-Stat rules.
* "Dreaming Cities" (2005) - Urban fantasy role-playing game
* "Reality Storm" (in conjunction with Hero Games)

Licensed products

Guardians of Order licensed the rights to a variety of titles to convert them into role-playing games. The majority were based on "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" and licensed from anime series. The books also served as resource guides, summarizing the episodes in the series and the characters.

; Standalone RPGs
* "Sailor Moon RPG and Resource Book" (1998)
* "Dominion Tank Police RPG And Resource Book" (1999)
* "Demon City Shinjuku RPG And Resource Book" (2000)
* "Tenchi Muyo RPG And Resource Book" (2000)
* "El-Hazard RPG And Resource Book" (2001)
* " RPG and Resource Book" (2001) - Based on a live-action movie
* "A Game of Thrones" (2005) - Uses the d20 System and based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels. Published in conjunction with Sword and Sorcery Studios.
* "The Authority RPG And Resource Book" (2004) - Based on a comic book. Uses "Silver Age Sentinels" as a base.
* "Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game" - This would have been the second published RPG based on the The Chronicles of Amber novels. However, while the rights were acquired in 2004, a new version was never published.
* "Nobilis" (2002) - Original role-playing game in which players portray abstract concepts or classes of things like "time". Originally published by Pharos Press, then Hogshead Press.
* "Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne" (2005) - Fantasy role-playing based on the novels of M. A. R. Barker. This would be the fourth published RPG based on "Tékumel".

; Resource books requiring "BESM"
* "BESM Hellsing Ultimate Fan Guides": "#1" (2002), "#2" (2003). - Not a self-contained RPG, relied on "BESM". "#1" covered episodes 1-6, while "#2" covered 7-13.
* "The Slayers d20 Role-Playing Game" (2004) - Based on the "BESM d20" rules instead of the original BESM Tri-Stat rules. Only covered the first 26 episodes. The remaining episodes were covered in later resource books: "BESM: The Slayers: Next" (2004, Episodes 27-52), "BESM: The Slayers: Try" (2004, Episodes 53-78)
* "BESM: Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Rose Collection" (2004) - Covers episodes 1 through 13.

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http%3A//www.guardiansorder.com/ Archive of the Guardians of Order Website] - At archive.org
* [http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showpublisher&publisherid=9 Publication list on Pen & Paper]
* [http://guardiansorder.livejournal.com BESM 3 Blog] (formerly "GoO Blog")