Guardians of Order

Guardians of Order was a Canadian company founded in 1996 by Mark C. Mackinnon based out of Guelph, Ontario in the business of creating roleplaying games. 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 RPG 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. Guardians of Order licensed the rights to produce role-playing games set in existing fictional works. These include games based on The Authority, Tekumel, and A Song of Ice and Fire.

Between February 14 2006 and August 1 2006 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 July 28 2006 a post to George R. R. Martin's official web site announced that Guardians of Order was out of business. In response, on August 1 2006 Mark MacKinnon posted confirmation that Guardians of Order "ceased operations." 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 September 9 2006, 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.

On March 7 2007, George R. R. Martin wrote that he had regained control of his intellectual property rights and was "all square" with Guardians of Order. 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

 * 1996
 * Founded
 * 1997
 * New Product: Big Eyes, Small Mouth - (BESM) Generic role-playing system for anime inspired games.
 * 1998
 * Employee: David Pulver Joins
 * New Product: Sailor Moon RPG and Resource Book - Based on the anime of the same name.  Uses the BESM rules.
 * 1999
 * New Employee: Jeff Mackintosh
 * New Product: Dominion Tank Police RPG And Resource Book - Based on the anime of the same name.  Uses the BESM rules.
 * New Product: Big Robots, Cool Starships - Rules for science fiction anime inspired games, especially those featuring mecha.
 * 2000
 * New Employees: Liz Fulda, Lucien Soulban
 * New Product: Big Eyes, Small Mouth Second Edition - Revised and expanded rules. 280 full color pages compared to the previous editions 94 black and white pages.
 * New Product: BESM Game Master's Screen
 * New Product: Demon City Shinjuku RPG And Resource Book - Based on the anime of the same name.  Uses the BESM rules.
 * New Product: Tenchi Muyo RPG And Resource Book - Based on the anime of the same name. Uses the BESM rules.
 * New Product: Cute & Fuzzy Seizure Monsters - Rebranding of "Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters". Rules for pet monster battling style games, inspired by cartoons like Pokémon
 * New Product: Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies - Rules for modern day action adventure anime inspired games.
 * 2001
 * New Product: El-Hazard RPG And Resource Book - Based on the anime of the same name.  Uses the BESM rules.
 * New Product: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai RPG and Resource Book - Based on the film of the same name. Uses the BESM rules.
 * New Product: Centauri Knights - Science fiction setting
 * 2002
 * Misc.: Magnum Opus program launched
 * New Product: Nobilis - Roleplaying game in which players portray abstract concepts or classes of things like "time".  Originally published by Pharos Press, then Hogshead Press.
 * New Product: Silver Age Sentinels - Superhero roleplaying game. Based on modified BESM rules using ten-sided dice instead of six-sided dice.
 * New Product: BESM Hellsing Ultimate Fan Guide #1 - Resource guide and BESM reference for the Hellsing anime series. Covers episodes 1 through 6.
 * 2003
 * New Product: BESM d20 - Modified version of the d20 System to support anime inspired games.
 * New Product: Mecha d20
 * New Product: Tri-Stat dX - a small generic role-playing system based on BESM.
 * New Product: BESM Dungeon - Additions to BESM for running more fantasy oriented anime inspired games.
 * New Product: Cold Hands, Dark Hearts - Rules for playing supernatural monsters in a gothic horror setting.
 * New Product: BESM Hellsing Ultimate Fan Guide #2 - Resource guide and BESM reference for the Hellsing anime series. Covers episodes 7 through 13.
 * 2004
 * New Product: The Authority RPG And Resource Book - Superhero roleplaying game based on Silver Age Sentinels. Based on the comic of the same name.
 * New Product: Reality Storm (in conjunction with Hero Games)
 * New Product: Ex Machina - Roleplaying in a cyberpunk world.
 * Misc.: Acquired rights to publish Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game
 * New Product: BESM d20 Revised Edition - Update to first edition
 * New Product: BESM: Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Rose Collection - First BESM episode guide and resource book for the Revolutionary Girl Utena anime series.   Covers episodes 1 through 13.
 * New Product: BESM: The Slayers: Next - Second BESM episode guide and resource book for The Slayers anime series. Covers episodes 27 through 52.
 * New Product: BESM: The Slayers: Try - Third BESM episode guide and resource book for The Slayers anime series. Covers episodes 53 through 78.
 * New Product: The Slayers D20 Role-Playing Game - Role-playing game set in the world of the Slayers anime series. Includes brief episode summaries.
 * 2005
 * Misc.: Guardians of Order downsizes to just Mark C. Mackinnon after a hard season.
 * New Product: Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne - Fantasy role-playing based on the novels of M. A. R. Barker. This would be the fourth published RPG based on Tekumel.
 * New Product: A Game of Thrones: D20-Based Open Gaming RPG - Based on the fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire written by George R. R. Martin. Published in conjunction with Sword & Sorcery.
 * New Product: Dreaming Cities - urban fantasy role-playing game
 * 2006
 * Misc.: Guardians of Order last website update on 2/14. Sources indicate that the company ran out of capital in early 2006.
 * Misc.: Guardians of Order effectively closes its doors on August 1. Efforts are underway to pay off creditors, place GoO's game lines with other publishers, and ship or refund all outstanding orders.  GoO's webstore immediately ceases taking orders.  GoO products (both paper and PDF) are still available through other channels.
 * Misc.: ArtHaus Games announces their acquisition of BESM 3rd edition on September 9.