“I am not Robb the Boy, that you should speak to me so. I am the Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke, King of Salt and Rock, Son of the Sea Wind, and no man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price. I will take my crown, as Urron Redhand did five thousand years ago.”
–Balon Greyjoy, A Clash of Kings

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of On Dangerous Grounds, the third Chapter Pack from the A Tale of Champions cycle of expansions!

Filled with tourney grounds and cards that provide incentives for winning challenges early and calling upon the services of unique characters, On Dangerous Grounds further reinforces the melee mechanic introduced in A Tale of Champions.

The design team for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game offers additional insight into On Dangerous Grounds:

A mother protects

One of the major themes running through House Greyjoy card mechanics is cancellation. With cards like To Be a Kraken (Sacred Bonds, 47) and Maester Murenmure (Called by the Conclave, 48), Greyjoy has a bit of a leg up, but other Houses gain their own cancellation with Paper Shield (Queen of Dragons, 46) and The Hand's Judgement (The Tower of the Hand, 59), events that can foil your best laid plans.

Enter Alannys Greyjoy (On Dangerous Grounds, 48). Her cancellation of triggered effects allows you to protect your most valuable card or strategy from being easily disrupted, but her qualifier makes you work a little before gaining access to her ability.

But at what price?

One of the scenes that cemented in our minds the character of the Ironborn was Balon's “conversation” with Theon when he went back to the Iron Islands. The idea of the Gold Price and the Iron Price delineated the culture of those who reap versus those who sow more clearly than a thousand lesser words could have. Prospering from warfare is nothing new, but finding a representative way to express this in A Game of Thrones under House Greyjoy was an interesting challenge.

As mentioned in the designer journal, “Sing a Song of Champions, Part One,” we wanted to make some cards that were Melee focused–cards that forced or broke alliances. After several different iterations, The Iron Price (On Dangerous Grounds, 50) came into form. This card paints a VERY large and VERY tempting target on the back of one player. As players all attempt to take advantage of that free power, especially with high claim challenges, Greyjoy’s ability to stealth past or intimidate potential blockers puts them in a unique position to profit from these challenges. Additionally, this card presents an interesting synergy with Greyjoy’s ability to save characters. And if you are not the person to kill characters for claim against the player whose House card bears this attachment, you still have rivals who knelt characters and suffered deaths, leaving fewer characters to defend against your other challenges. Win. Win. Win.

Alannys Greyjoy and The Iron Price are just two of the new cards coming in On Dangerous Grounds. Prepare to respond to challenges in exciting new ways when this Chapter Pack releases in the Fourth Quarter of 2011!