Maester's Path

The Maester's Path is an alternate reality game serving as part of the marketing for Game of Thrones '  first season. It was officially launched on 28 February 2011.

Premise
The Maester's Path is based around a website which allows fans to play a series of puzzles to unlock rewards, including previews of scenes from the TV series. The puzzles need to be solved using clues provided by HBO to the media, which are then posted on various websites, including TV review blogs and Song of Ice and Fire fan sites.

The Maester's Path site places an emphasis on cooperation, with players encouraged to use social media websites like Facebook and Twitter to 'recruit' helpers and followers, with the ability to report progress along the Path to social media accounts.

First puzzle
On 24 February 2011 a number of prominent bloggers, critics and fan sites, including Westeros.org and Winter is Coming, received a package from HBO containing a map of Westeros, scrolls and scent jars. Initially this appeared to be an elaborate way of providing backstory and information to reviewers unfamiliar with the books. However, eagle-eyed fans spotted references to the 'Maester's Path' and noted than an unfinished website of that name was registered to HBO. Fans also noted that the scrolls differed from reviewer to reviewer, and contained different symbols.

The first puzzle went live on 28 February 2011. A codewheel was revealed, containing the same symbols as on the scrolls in the promo package. Using screenshots of the scrolls as provided by those fansites, fans were able to 'unlock' the first reward by lining up those symbols referring to Winterfell, the seat of House Stark. The first reward was a two-minute scene from the first episode, depicting Jon Snow giving the sword Needle to his half-sister Arya Stark, an iconic moment from the books.

Second puzzle
The second puzzle will go live on 7 March 2011.

Third puzzle
The third puzzle will go live on 14 March 2011.

Fourth puzzle
The fourth puzzle will go live on 21 March 2011.

Fifth puzzle
The fifth puzzle will go live on 28 March 2011.