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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008737" data-attributes="member: 18387">The Wheel of Time is, in my opinion, a complex masterwork of a novel series.  It also happens to have all the elements of a good campaign: a well-built and intriguing world, a clever and well-thought plot, and lots of well-developed characters.I was excited when I found out last year that WotC had acquired the license to develop the series.  I'd begun playing and enjoying 3E, and I felt that I could trust Wizards to do a thorough job of it.The waiting period (and all the speculation and fears that went with it) aside, I think the game came out fairly well.I picked the book up when it first came out, and was... um... impressed by the price.  It's hefty at $40, with 317 pages.  The production values are high, however.  It's in all color, with high-quality paper and good binding--although I've noticed with my book, as well as others, that the front cover tends to warp outward a bit.  The cover art is by Darrell K. Sweet, who did the artwork for all of Robert Jordan's novels, and is laid out to resemble a novel.  Inside, the artwork was better-than-average overall.  The majority of the pieces are well-thought-out and nicely executed.  One artist's work is slightly cartoony; another did an Aes Sedai, a woodsman, a Two Rivers man, and a Whitecloak Questioner who all appear identical; the rest is superb (if you're keeping score, look at the picture of Moiraine Sedai in the Major NPCs section).I won't go into a great deal of detail about the way d20 was adapted to the Wheel of Time, except to say that d20 was adapted to the setting, not the other way around.  The classes work well, and multiclassing is encouraged.  My only big gripe is that the Wanderer class is a D&D rogue with a severely hampered sneak attack--but that's because I like rogues.  The Background system (a la Forgotten Realms 3E) is an excellent way to differentiate cultures without building new races.  Combat is d20 standard, streamlined slightly and explained a bit better than in the D&D Player's Handbook.  There are a few new feats, which work well in the setting.  The magic system, about which much of the pre=release debate centered, is very good.  I have a LOT of respect for the designers, who took Robert Jordan's descriptions of the way the One Power works and turned it into a flexible, intuitive. balanced RPG magic system.The book has a lot of satisfying crunchy bits in it, for gamers and fans of the series alike.  However, there are a few problems.Wizards didn't do a very good edit on the book.  There are typos all over the place--although not as many as I've seen in some other d20 products--as well as other, more glaring errors.  The description of the Heal skill references "the table below", which doesn't exist.  Egwene (one of the major novel characters) has a feat which she doesn't have the prerequisites for.  The D&D shortspear is called an Aiel spear in the Equipment section, but Aiel warrior characters (Algai d'siswai class) get Weapon Focus with the shortspear.  Et cetera, et cetera.In addition, there are some inconsistencies with the novels that the designers should have caught.  As an example, the Bond Warder weave directly contradicts two or three situations that occur in the books.None of these problems are crippling to the system.  Some of them have been corrected in errata, and others can be easily fixed by the GM.If not for the inconsistencies, I'd be willing to give the Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game a 5--it really is superb.  The campaign I'm currently playing in (the reason I waited so long to review) is on its fourth week, and it *feels* like the Wheel of Time.  The problems with the book itself drop it down a point, for an overall score of 4.I'd recommend the book to anyone who has any interest in playing a setting where magic is rare and powerful, and where adventurers battle not hungry monsters but human bandits, warring armies, and scheming merchants.For fans of the Wheel of Time who aren't gamers (although none of them will ever read this), I'd recommend picking it up as a novelty, and maybe looking around your local college for a game starting up soon.For gamers who are WoT fans, what are you doing still sitting there?  Go buy the book.</blockquote>

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