I’m running a WoT d20 campaign, and a couple of my players wanted to know if there was a gaming forum somewhere that discusses this system. We’ve already done the usual net search routines and didn’t come up with anything really usable, so I figured I would ask the link finder detectives here for their help.
Or maybe I should start one here? So, anybody out there play WoT d20? Let’s talk.
Try here: http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/index.php
Not specific to WoT, but you should be able to find a topic about it.
I play D&D 3e, so I can’t help you.
Somewhere on www.wizards.com there are forums where people discuss the various games. I’d give you a link but they keep changing where the forums are.
They’re also a good resource for people looking for interminable holy wars regarding the alignment system or for alternative spellings for the word “Rogue”.
Haven’t played it, probably not gonna, but we’ve been getting endless yuks out of the “good good” / “bad evil” thing.
They have links to their forum and offical bonus material for the game on their website. The forum isn’t exactly the most lively of places.
I just recently got the WoT game for my birthday. I think it is ok but it is in dire need of sourcebooks. I do like the magic system though.
Marc
I just started my game in the WOT world, though I’ve read the series three times and tried to run a game in the world before, with the 3E rules and some custom magic system that I worked out.
The only real problem is there aren’t the myrad of monsters in WOT as there are in 3E or Faerun. However, they’re still only at 3rd level, and working their way to Cairhein, so once they get there, they’ll have actual people to deal with, instead of a brief glance at an Aes Sedai and her warder.
However, I’d like to swap ideas on what to do to the adventurers. They’re in the… Mil Plain or something like that - the area between Tear and Cairhein, near the spine of the world. They had just found a large group of trollacs (complete with Mydraal) mining in the mountains, and are now running away from them. On their way to see what was going on, they found an old mine which caved in and dropped them into a storage and living space from the Age of Legends.
I’m planning on them having some problems in the city proper, as they’re from a tiny tiny village, and don’t know much about large cities. Also, they’re going to have to go back to the area eventually, as they need to figure out how they trollacs got there (can you say ‘The Ways’? I knew you could…)
Any suggestions on encounters they should have? What kind of encounters are you having with your characters? Also, what time are you set in? I’m set a little bit before the first book, but time will be going forward, and I’m going to try to finagle them over to seeing Logain right before he’s captured.
Can you tell WOT is one of my favorite worlds work with?
John
So that you tie in the little module the rulebook has in the back? That’ll save some work. 
I started the players off at 5th level, so that they could be prestige classes or close to it. The first lot of characters came out to be Wilder/Asha’man, Armsman/Wolfbrother, Woodsman, and Noble. Another player joined later as an Aiel Desert Warrior (I’m not even going to attempt to spell the Aiel term), then the noble left, and then an Aes Sedai joined. Yes, she and the Asha’man DO fight like cats and dogs.
I’m kind of vague about the time setting. I told the players “Some time between the establishment of the Black Tower and the end of the current book.”
You’re right about the dearth of monsters. You have to create some new ones or modify existing Monster Manual critters. For the first campaign leg, I used the Lycanthrope rules from Monster Manual and made up various classes of were-snakes.
I made up a town in Shienar (Blight border country) called Vismer, and made it to where the nobility class was actually in league with a society of were-snake Shadowspawn. The were-snakes were created by Baalzamon in a past age, but were put aside and eventually forgotten. So, they made their own secret society and kept underground for a thousand or so years, then started migrating to the surface world. In order to coexist undetected, they began to offer immortality to some of the more influential petty nobles and dwell in Vismer as nobles themselves. Eventually, the were-snakes had both their underground lair and the rule of an important mountain outpost.
For the were-snakes, I used WoT classes and applied Lycanthropy rules to them. Since magic weapons are extremely rare in WoT, I allowed masterpiece and masterwork weapons to harm the snake people. I also wrote up a Dark Naga and had her casting weaves instead of spells. I also modified the conditions for lycanthropy to where you became a snake person after either by getting bitten, or by taking a drink of snake venom, then undergoing a ritual pledging your soul to the Dark One.
There were also “good guy” snakes who didn’t want to follow the Dark One anymore. This confused the Wolfbrother when he would see an actual snake person but not smell the dark taint on it. The whole scenario was a lot of fun, as the paranoia of snakes became prevalent.
For following scenarios, I downloaded the Treehouse module from WotC’s website. In it, a bunch of harpies take over a theives guild’s treehouse. I replaced the harpies with a Seanchan and her Raken mounts. Currently, the party is attempting to get safely through Kinslayer’s Dagger while being attacked by Shaido. Aiel can run FAST and their ability to Spring Attack is highly effective. After this pans out, I plan to have them get involved in a Game of Houses scenario in Cairhien.
Mainly, your monsters are NPCs. Also, you can take monsters out of the MM that look Wheel of Timeish and modify them to suit the magic system. When need be, I take the capsulated NPCs out of the DM’s Guide and use them as their WoT counterparts. Fighter = Armsman, Ranger = Woodsman, etc. Not entirely accurate, given rules like racial defense bonus, but it’ll do in a pinch.
One thing I’ve found out is channelers are REALLY powerful. One tactic the party has been using is to cast harden Air around an enemy, then have the melees finish it off with coup de grace. At least the healing rules are scaled back to keep PCs from becoming insta hit point machines, so I’ve been to instill the fear of death into them. Hey, i can dream…
Since you’re basing your campaign before 1st book, you can always have your party run afoul of Aiel, as they were considered dangerous savages before Rand Al’Thor forced everybody to accept them. Also, you can have the players encounter White Cloaks, and have the WCs interpret everything the party says or does as Darkfriend related. It sounds like you’re setting up some good paranoia, with the party looking for Trollocs behind every corner.
Well, I’m not going to have the trollocs used too much, yet. They’re where they were for a reason, which they’ll hopefully find out much later.
I actually hadn’t read that module in the back of the book, guess I’ll have to look over it and make sure I don’t use too much from it. I don’t want them to think they know what to expect.
However, I do plan on using little things from the book that’re hard to remember. They had met the Aes Sedia while she was hiding her identity, but they were spotted by Mydraal, so she instantly dropped her cover to help her warder. She had them go to Cairhein for her, as she was going to stay and hold off the trollocs with her warder and escape later.
What they don’t know is that there were more Mydraal there, 13 to be exact… So, next time they meet that Aes Sedai, she’ll be a bit different.
My only problem is I want to do suble things to their characters that they might not notice what is going on. Like, channeling sickness - I’d like someone to be a wilder, coming up soon, put them in an impossible situation, and a large explosion saves them. Then, a week later, one of the characters gets really sick. However, my players have read WOT enough to probably recognize that.
I don’t think they’ll easilly remember that 13 Mydraal can turn an Aes Sedai however.
Also, I’ll pull some fantastical creatures, even golems from the MM, and just say they’re from the Age of Legends. Also, I’m thinking of having them come across one of the Forsaken’s stash, before they’re fully released into the world. It won’t be bad enough that Moggy will come down on them, but enough that she gets annoyed and sends a few agents to get her stuff back. all the while, they’ll be wondering what the hell to do with this stick that makes mood reading fabric.
Only thing I don’t want to do is have them against the Aiel yet. When they finally fight the Aiel, they’re going to find that they really are as deadly as written in the book. Maybe come across one or two that could wipe out the party, if they play it wrong. Basically, my Aiel are going to be all level 10+ since they fight since birth. Should make them wary of them.
John
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About the only class I didn’t like was the Wolfbrother prestige class. I thought all the wolf abilities should simply be feats like Sniffer, Old Blood, and Dreamwalking.
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I kind of like having a lack of monsters. Unlike your standard D&D game you’ll be dealing with a lot more human foes in WoT. And when the PCs do go against monters like Trollocs, Gray Men, or Myrddraal it’ll be that much more memorable. And if you want to throw a few curves you can always claim that some monsters are simply from the age of legends. I’d be careful though because some monsters just won’t fit the WoT setting.
Of course something else I hadn’t previously considered was the Blight. There are all sorts of creatures in the Blight that probably never made it into the book. I think in the Eye of the World they see part of a monster surface on a lake in the Blight. All I remember is that it had many tentacles that ended in human hands.
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Personally I’d simply make it so regular weapons could affect them. The most dangerous creature in the book is the Gholam and he can be hit by regular weapons. Of course he’s got a 5/+1 damage reduction and immunity to the One Power.
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There’s no real reason to coup de grace with Harden Air. You can simply make the weave cover the head and the victim will suffocate to death. But yeah channelers are pretty powerful. And from what I recall it doesn’t take that long to meet the requirements for Aes Sedai and Asha’Man prestige class. I actually like the magic system a lot better then I do regular D&D. It is far more flexible and I think flexibility is a good thing.
I do think the game is in dire need of a sourcebook. I’d like to see more weaves, more NPCs, more creatures, and more of everything.
Marc
Do you guys think the magic system is faithful to the novels? I haven’t played the game, but my friend has it and he doesn’t like the magic rules.
I think they did about as good a job as they could within the D20 system. Men and women have different strengths in the One Power, male channelers face insanity, wilders have mental blocks, and all channelers can choose to overchannel but they must face the consequences. My biggest gripe is that the book is the low number of weaves available.
Marc
Muahahhahahhahaa! Very nicely done! Hats off to you!
I wish I could discuss what I plan to do, but one of my players caught wind of this thread.
Oh they’ve been using the suffocate tactic too. On each other.
As regards the Magic system, I have a couple of questions:
I don’t have the rules with me right now, so i don’t remember the name of this weave. It’s a weave of Air which allows the chaneller to pick up an object and elevate it or throw it. The Aes Sedai used it on an NPC. The weave description said “Saving throw: None”, but my thinking was that it applies to inanimate objects which weren’t trying to resist the weave. I allowed the NPC a save.
Also, in Immolate, IIRC the higher level the weave gets cast, the more damage it does. However, it takes several rounds to activate the fire. Does no damage occur until several rounds later, or does damage occur the first round? My thinking was that during the first round, damage is the same as the 1st level version, then 2nd round is 2nd level damage, etc.
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Arms of Air. At 3rd level it becomes powerful enough to throw your average unarmored man. It doesn’t require a saving throw because it really doesn’t do any damage. If you pick up an NPC and throw him he will only take 1d6 points of damage. Unless you happen to throw him off a cliff or something. If you want to throw an object at him you have to make a to hit roll using your base attack bonus + your intelligence modifier. Of course an 800 pound boulder will do 32D6 points of damage. Wow! That’s only a 5th level weave. Of course if you don’t have suitable objects to throw you won’t be doing that much damage with it.
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Immolate doesn’t have a brew time it is instantaneous. But to be cast on a medium sized humanoid it is a 6th level weave. Of course a 9th level Wilder casting the weave would end up doing 9d6 points of damage to said humanoid. Hot damn, channelers are a lot tougher then I realized.
There are a few weaves with brew times but the fire one I suspect you’re thinking of is create fire. The bigger the flame the longer it takes to build up.
Marc
The channeler’s intention was to raise the victom 20 ft in the air. Next round, another 20 ft. And so on until the fall can do some serious damage. And if her concentration is broken, oh well, she dropped him.
Yeah, that’s it! So would there be damage in the rounds it takes to brew?
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Maybe there’s an errata. It should have a reflex save at least.
Yes. So long as someone’s around to be burned.
Marc