Rating: Summary: Pretty good - better than I'd feared Review: I picked this up at my local gaming store yesterday, and I've taken the time to read it through since. There are some disappointing lacks and ommissions, particularly the lack of differentiation between Amadicia and the rest of the Midlands and the lack of information on the Seanchan.The channeling system, despite my intial reaction to it (weave slots, only so many weaves per day? No way!) actually looks good. Weave slots aren't absolute limits, they're upper *safe* limits. Your channeler can exceed them if needed, but it's a risk. Affinites and talents are handled gracefully as well, though you have to read the One Power chapter carefully. Some thing are ommitted or simplified, but considering the size of the game and the easy availablity of the source novels (and that RJ himself's writing the Prophecies of the Dragon advanture book), this is understandable. All the major elements are included, and even a starting adventure (which I haven't read, not being a GM). So although it's expensive, it's worth it I think. And one final note: The cover art is by Darrell K. Sweet, and it appears somebody sat on him until he got things mostly right instead of vastly wrong.
Rating: Summary: Now that is prestige Review: I really enjoyed the flavor of this campaign setting. I am a fan of the books, even if they do drag on a bit later in the series. I have little intention of playing in robert Jordan's world, but the ideas this book presents make it a valuble addition to my library. The two best ideas in the book are charater creation and presitge classes. The Prestige classes are not just a collection of powers, they form sociteies which dominate the world. This is what these classes should be. That said some are unnessarly difficult to get into (4 ranks in balance ???) but they are essential to society and most characters will aim to join these elite groups. The character creation process is lovely, requiring the human's free starting feat to be dependant on the area of the world where they grew up. Additionally each reason has favored skills that are treated as class skills. These add real impact to a charaters personality. The game uses new classes well designed to fit with the setting, nobles who have bard like inspiration and favors to call in. Both trained and wild channlers and wanderers instead of thieves. The world itself lends to low magic campaigns, with any magic item (i.e. ter'angreal & angreal) being very rare and monsters so rare they are considered imaginary. The book lists the main charaters stats of course, which make intresting reading. The city and country descriptions are well detailed and full of flavor. The channeling magic system is complex and limited at the same time, and while it works well with the books I am uncertain how it would play. My primary irritation with the book is the amount of reprinted material from the core rule books, such as feats, skills and combat rules. While low magic is stressed the PC's could become movers and shakers of the world's politics. If I was to run a campaign it would avoid the dragon reborn, mabey by 300 years, and the book gives a few guidelines for playing in other times. The channeling magic system is complex and limited at the same time, and while it works well with the flavor of the books I am uncertain how it would play. A comprensive list of each weaves would have been nice. There are 52 total, 15 are lost (only known by forsaken or dragon reborn) Overall The Wheel of Time is a good source book for ideas and methods, but has the flaws of any game based on a book.
Rating: Summary: A good premise, A little too D&D for my tastes. Review: I was pleased to see how they treated the One Power especially in regards to Overchannelling (something I have wished for since forever in D&D). I guess if you are familiar with other d20 games (especially D&D and Star Wars) you will find ALL of the classes at least familiar. The main saving grace is with the One Power and how Talents, Affinities, and Weave Levels are treated. I have basically decided that my group should adopt this system even for D&D. I am a huge fan of the novel series, and have tried to think out how to convert the series into a gaming system, but this did do better that I think I could have. On the whole, I'm looking forward to gaming it.
Rating: Summary: Best Book-Game Conversion Review: I went out and bought the Wheel of Time rpg today. What is the Wheel of Time you ask? It's a series of books(they're up to book 9) written by Robert Jordan. If you've never read them, I highly reccomned it. The series is incredibly addicting. I've re-read the series at least 4 times already and thinking about re-reading it again (Eye of the World-Bk 1). After my first read through I must say that I am impressed. The people at Wizards of the Coast did an incredibly good job at capturing the flavor of Robert Jordan's world. All the classes, skills and such match perfectly with the books. Being a d20 product, everything runs pretty much like Dungeons and Dragons (no surprise there). The major diference between this and DnD is how they dealt with using the One Power (magic). Again, I'm impressed. The use of the One Power would have had to be, in my opinion, the toughest thing about translating the books into a game but they did a great job. The rules in general seem a little daunting at first but after reading them a couple of times, it makes total sense. A possible complaint people might have with the rpg book (besides the cover) is the price. I agree it's a hefty price tag for 300+ pages; however, I can honestly tell you that even though it's pricey, you defenitely get an extremely well made game system. This is one of, if not the best, book-game conversion I have ever seen and if you've ever read the Wheel of Time series, you know that is no easy task.
Rating: Summary: worth the cost, especially if you buy through Amazon Review: I worried this adaptation of Robert Jordan's vast and colorful Wheel of Time Setting would be a disaster. I need not have bothered. Source material-wise, the book is densely packed. It certainly has information gaps, but I did not reasonably expect one roleplaying sourcebook to exhaustively give the setting for a 7000+ page novel series. For roleplaying material, the book is superb. The jump from 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons to Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game should take less than a day for the GM and maybe two hours for a player. Complete newbies may need more time, but new players need a longer learning period for any roleplaying game. The adaptation of the magic items and spellcasting system are spectacular. I had been terrified that a handful of DnD spells would be renamed and one or two ill-considered dreamwalking spells would be inserted. Instead, small aspects of the DnD mage and sorceror class have been taken and tweaked with a lot of new material. Channelling, shielding, linking, sa'angreal, and saidin's taint are covered and covered well. Dreamwalking also earned its own section. There are few elaborate adventure hooks but a number of short ones and numerous hints and suggestions. I say, get it and go nuts. (...)
Rating: Summary: Begging for an Expansion Review: Let's just say I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't a system for handling chronic upper respiratory infections. This is the d20 system role-playing game for the Wheel of Time system, at least for the first six novels...the character stats given are as of the end of Lord of Chaos. It offers a more-or-less complete game system that's surprisingly good. Included are entirely new core (i.e. 20-level classes) and prestige classes, such as the algai'd'siswai (Aiel spear-fighter), armsman, wanderer, woodsman, noble, initiate, and wilder, which are more appropriate to the world than those listed in the D&D PHB. They use the standard skill and feat system. There are two playable races, humans and Ogier (the big guy on the cover); humans get an extra skill point and an extra background feat, in a fashion similar to the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Feats are mostly standard, but include the various channeling feats and Lost Feats, which are limited by the need to take a precursor feat before taking the real feat, which should keep them rare. Equipment is mostly normal, with mention of power-wrought swords and other wondrous items, such as masterpiece weapons and armor (like masterwork, but better). Channeling...ah, channeling. As others have mentioned, it's put in as a spell slot system, but the available slots represent a safe limit. You can overchannel all you want, but sooner or later it'll cost you. The weaves listed have variable effects based on the slot used, which is nice. They have a decent way of handling linking and angreal and sa'angreal, but I'll get more into that later. And, for male channelers, there's the joy of the Madness mechanic. Included are character descriptions for most of the major hero characters (Rand, Mat, Thom, Lan, Moiraine, etc.), as well as MM-style descriptions of the various beasts and exotic animals found in the setting. Sadly, no Forsaken are depicted, yet. One will also find standard rules, some setting information, and advice on running the game. On the whole, I'm quite impressed. It's a nice and coherent system, and works better than I thought. I can't find much to complain about, other than some minor quibbles...such as some of the character write-ups being wrong (some people not having abilities that they demonstrated in the novels, or equipment, etc.). What I'd like, of course, is an expansion or two...obviously, they'll have to do one the farther the storyline goes. I think that short prestige classes for each of the Ajahs might be nice, and lists of where Portal Stones and the Ogier Ways are would be very helpful (aside from GM fiat). But, what I'd really like is an Age of Legends expansion...with all sorts of lost weaves and feats for item creation. Gosh, that'd be cool.
Rating: Summary: Better than expected Review: Many of us who have been waiting for this book for a while have been wary about finally opening it up. While there are some things missing (no Seanchan stats, no Shadar Logoth that I can find), overall the spirit and feel of the world seems to be handled well over all. There are certainly some of the errors we have come to expect recently (the heal skill refers to a nonexistent chart), but this book was obviously edited much more than other recent Wizards releases. My biggest gripe is that there are many important rules tucked in the middle of an apparently background paragraph. It makes some of these things difficult to find. If you like the series, this is a must-buy, and it truly seems a fun game in the spirit of the Wheel, which is the most important thing.
Rating: Summary: This book is great Review: My group has been running a 2nd ED. D&D champaign in the Wheel of Time world for over 5 years. We resisted the urge to convert to 3rd Ed. and I'm glad we waited. This book has everything you need to run a campaign in the Wheel of Time world. The magic system is easy to understand and the character class are good at protraying the characters from the book. The artwork is beautiful, and the book is laid out in an easy to follow format. My group and I are all ready to play, except we now have to worry about tougher Fades and Trollocs.
Rating: Summary: Pretty Cool Review: Never played a dice RPG before, but this was pretty fun.
Rating: Summary: Great supplement Review: The authors did an excellent job of meshing the d20 system with Mr. Jordan's world. This book allows you to bring your favorite characters to life and to build new ones remarkably faithful to the world.
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