Wheel of Time RPG review

I’m a big fan of the Wheel of Time book series by Robert Jordan so when the role playing game came out for this series I decided to buy it. If you haven’t read the series it’s really enjoyable but heavy. There are 14 books totalling 11,916 pages or 4,410,036 words. The series gets a little bad around book 6 but then picks up from there. (I think this is when the author started to get ill.) Sadly James Oliver Rigney Jr. (Pen name Robert Jordan) passed away prior to completing the series but left extensive notes allowing Brandon Sanderson to complete the final three books.

For the game itself: the rules follow 3^rd edition D20 rules which are really clunky and difficult to follow but the book does get channelling right. For those not familiar with RPGs this means you will also need to get a set of dice to play. The D code means however many sides the dice has, D20 means a 20 sided die. Your set will have a D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. Typically the D10 is used in a pair to determine percentages with one die being the first digit the second die of another colour being another digit. example: 00 being 100. The 20 sided die is used for combat encounters to determine success of attacking, dodging or blocking attacks.

In the role playing game you select a background, such as Midlander, Borderlander, Aiel, Ogier etc. After that you select a character class such as Wilder, Initiate, Armsman, Woodsman etc. You may multiclass a character as well meaning you can have more than one class however your character doesn’t advance as quickly in ability as someone who took a single class.

There are prestige classes in the series that are available after certain prerequisites are met. Examples are Asha’man, Aes Sedai, Blademaster, Warder etc. These prestige classes can add abilities and round out your role playing experience. These classes also give players something to aspire to and objectives to work towards allowing a gamemaster to come up with more story fodder along the way.

To complete making a character there are skills and feats. Many of these are typical RPG abilities but there are a number that reflect abilities found in the books. These abilities really make a character feel like they could jump into a Wheel of Time story. There is also a small weapons and equipment section offering standard RPG wares with a Wheel of time twist.

The game is fun if you know the series and you can get friends who are fanboys or fangirls of the series to join in a campaign. This can be difficult as it is a niche series. The rule book does contain some story information that is not true to canon of the books. For hardcore fans this is disappointing but you can ignore the rule book and play according to the novels.

Another problem is that there was only one follow up adventure book and the series stopped receiving support. So if you really want to play the game you will need a hardcore gamemaster who is willing to put in the time to draft adventures from scratch. It is out of print but there are copies with booksellers as well as on Amazon.

Having mentioned all of the problems I still believe this is a fun game. I really enjoy getting to make a character along the lines of a series I've read several times over (I started over at the beginning each time a new novel came out). Now that the series is completed and I'm finally reading the last book I'm really in the mood to get a campaign going.

Something else this book has going is the beautiful artwork and maps. The cover is by Darrell K Sweet who does the covers on the books giving the game a distinctly WoT feel. Likewise the maps are done by Ellissa Mitchell who provided the maps in the books. There is a list of artists who provided the interior full colour artwork in order to spark your gaming imagination.

To sum up: even with it's shortcomings such as lack of support and deviations from the novels this is a fun gaming experience. This RPG book does have a tonne of information so you do really only need the core book in order to get into playing in the world of Wheel of time. To really get into the game it helps to be a fan of the series. If you like fantasy series such as Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings you really should give Wheel of Time a try. The author is certainly more verbose and his style does differ substantially from the other series but I really love the story and think you should too. Now that the series has been completed I am hoping someone else will pick up the RPG line for Wheel of Time for a new age of role-playing with the Dragon reborn.