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Title: The Wheel of Time: Prophecies of the Dragon by Aaron Acevedo, Evan Jamieson, Michelle Lyons, James Maliszewski, Charles Ryan, Paul Sudlow ISBN: 0-7869-2664-3 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 27 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Ambitious idea, mixed results
Comment: What this is: an epic adventure. It would be imappropriate to review the WOT series when speaking of the Prophesies of the Dragon book; it's also not really a supplement akin to, say, The Monster Manual for D&D--the only extra skills, feats, backgrounds, etc are those directly related to NPCs in the campaign. What Prophecies is designed to do is take a party of characters through their first six levels of adventuring, which correspond roughly to the first six books of the series of novels. The players are allowed to play a key behind the scenes roll in the story of the novels and cameos have been scripted for many of the book's key characters. It's a really ambitious undertaking; players have to be given a compelling storyline, feel like they're making a difference in a campaign that covers over a year of game time, without letting them change what happens in the novels.
Does it work? I am currently GMing this adventure. On paper, it looks really good. Some of the scenes, especially in the later parts of the story, look exciting, moving even. Faile's cameo is perfect, for example. In practice, though, it's been an extremely frustrating experience. First, the early encounters (as pointed out by another reviewer) are unnecessarily difficult and add nothing to the plot. As things progress, the authors presume too much on the goals and motivations of the players. There is one chapter, for example, where the introduction says something along the lines of, "Upon entering the city, the players will want to find (a certain NPC) as soon as posible and will definitely want to investigate the actions of (another NPC)." The players in my campaign knew they wanted to talk to one of these guys eventually, but the other one was off their radar completely. Throughout, I've had to improvise ways to keep them approximating the plot line of the campaign and by chapter 3, they're feeling very manipulated.
The campaign assumes the party wants to do nothing more than hunt down dark friends and expose evil plots and will take great personal risk and go through great hardship (including, at one point, a monthlong trek through a winter wilderness without adequate provisions) on the chance of thwarting same. Characters with any other motivations (say, a character modeled after Mat or Nynaeve in the books) will feel forced into situations unnaturally. There has been more than one point where one of the players saying, "I *think* this is where the plot wants us to go."
So, in conclusion, while this adventure is excellent in its dreams and scope--and it's definitely better than something I could have designed myself--but it will fail often fail as a game. If you are intending to run a WOT campaign, buy this adventure, read it so that you thoroughly understand its scope BEFORE you even let your players make up characters. The characters need to be in the philosophy of the story or the story won't work.
Rating: 2
Summary: One of the poorest adventures I've yet seen!
Comment: It's not a supplement. That'd've been useful. It's a big adventure set. That could've been useful.
Then we met the Demon-Bear.
Allow me to explain. In d20, animals don't get feats. One of the early mini-adventures has a BIG bear that has lots of bonus feats...and a party of first and second-level PCs is supposed to defeat it. When it can kill a PC with one swipe of its paw. Right.
That's emblematic of the problems with this adventure set. It's written with little attention to rules or game balance, or even party survival. Some adventures throw opponent after opponent at the PCs, but with such poor healing capability, you'll inevitably have PC casualties. While those aren't necessarily bad, having the odds stacked so heavily against you isn't fun.
Another flaw is that, in many instances, PC decisions don't matter. You are, in fact, on rails in a good many adventures, and that's BAD. The adventure in Falme, in particular, comes to mind.
It could've been good. Really. Almost anything would've been better than the ... introductory adventure included with the main book (1st-level PCs...against 3rd-level trollocs that outnumber you, and, oh yes, have high strength and high-crit-range weapons!)...save this.
If you're intending to GM Wheel of Time d20 adventures, save your money and look elsewhere. You can come up with stuff that's easily better.
Rating: 1
Summary: When authors are paid by the pound.
Comment: The Wheel of Time saga is an uninspired, hardly original, badly written pile of junk. It is difficult to see a plan into its development, and the story sounds like a free association of words at the psychanalist's office. If The Lord of the Rings had not been around may be the Wheel of Time would have had a shot...but, to be honest, if the Rings had never been written, Robert Jordan would have had nothing to (badly) copy.
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Title: The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game : Roleplaying Game by Charles Ryan, Ross Isaacs, Christian Moore, Owen K.C. Stephens, Rateliff, Steven Long ISBN: 0786919965 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 23 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Teresa Patterson ISBN: 0312862199 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 13 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Dungeon Master's Guide: Core Rulebook II (Dungeon & Dragons, Edition 3.5) ISBN: 0786928891 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 18 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Crossroads of Twilight (Wheel of Time, Book 10) by Robert Jordan ISBN: 0812571339 Publisher: Tor Fantasy Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: New Spring (A Wheel of Time Prequel Novel) by Robert Jordan ISBN: 0765306298 Publisher: Tor Fantasy Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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