In 2015, over 40 of the concept artists working on HBO's Game of Thrones got together and decided to put on an exhibition, aimed at illustrating the wider world and history of George R. R. Martin's universe.

Playing A Game of Thrones: The Board Game was one of the most intense experiences of my life - it remains the only board game I've ever stormed away from out of anger, sorry family. But if I thought that was an extreme Game of Thrones experience, I too know nothing, Jon Snow. Because there's a new Song of Ice and Fire fan-created game that's so massive, you need 33 players (and four referees) to make it happen. The best part? It's totally free.

Fall’s going to be lasting a little bit longer.

Welcome to the Gaming Shelf, our new roundup of tabletop gaming news, releases, updates and interesting Kickstarter campaigns — focusing on sci-fi and fantasy games, with the occasional exception of course (Machi Koro is too cute to ignore!).

Seeing as we’re on the heels of GenCon, board game companies have been showing off some of their best and brightest stuff over the past few weeks. Even as we head into mid-August, there’s still a lot of great scoops and news. Here’s a few of the highlights we spotted for this week.

George R.R. Martin is no stranger to killing off beloved characters. HBO’s Game of Thrones, and his A Song of Ice and Fire series that inspired it, are littered with the corpses of heroes, villains, and everyone in between. How did Martin become so comfortable with shocking his audience? Because when he was a kid, J.R.R. Tolkien did it to him.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is delving into the realm of myths and monsters with his new Netflix series, Disenchantment. While it might be tempting to do what he did with the Futurama fantasy parody Bender’s Game, and make it a nonstop string of references, Groening said this new series will be a world all its own.

Actors are starting to wrap filming their parts on the final, long-awaited, and still a long ways off final season of Game of Thrones. Actors often post on social media commemorating those sorts of endings, but I've not seen anything quite like Maise Williams' tribute to her time as Arya.

There's a new Star Wars out, have you seen it yet? It's more likely than ever that the answer is "no." Solo: A Star Wars Story, the origin tale of everyone's favourite stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder, has been struggling hard at the box office since its release.

As much as we all like to fancy ourselves as self-sufficient islands, it's impossible to really get through life while also enjoying yourself if you don't have people in your corner who want to see you succeed.

Narratively, this week's best new comics have little in common other than the fact that they're a testament to the fact that everybody needs a little help to make it through hard times - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

While we've seen some concept art from the last series of Game of Thrones, tonight I thought it'd be cool to look at some of the VFX work done on season 7.

This is Ginny Di and Going Postale with a very convincing Game of Thrones sister act.

Photographer Jason Laboy recently captured this Game of Thrones cosplay jamboree in New York's Central Park, and not only did it feature a whole lot of swords, but a ring as well.

As they have many times before, German studio Karakter were employed by HBO to help out on the latest series of Game of Thrones, to work on not just VFX and general concept stuff, but also to design locations such as Dragonstone as well.

Cersei Lannister. Ilyn Payne. Melisandre. Uh, Robert from London, age 25?

It's a song of ice and mathematics.

While Game of Thrones relies heavily on CG effects, it also uses a ton of real-world locations to bring places such as King's Landing to life.

You see a lot of Daenerys cosplay around, but most of it tends to focus on her earlier appearances in Game of Thrones. So it's nice to see someone focus on something a bit more recent.

Game of Thrones is a cultural wrecking ball, but despite being around for seven years now (or 21 counting the books), it hasn't left much of a mark on video games. There might be a very good reason for that.

Here's Kevin Von Close and Jon Snow Cosplay at Twitchcon over the weekend, looking like they'd just finished up some bullshit adventure to try and catch a zombie.