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View Full Version : The Fourth Age (The Wheel of Time)



Daracaex
2015-11-13, 04:00 PM
I've had an idea recently to make/play a game using The Wheel of Time series as setting and system (there are a couple d20 systems for the series, I believe). The idea is entirely based on a foretelling from book 6 (In my opinion, vague enough to dodge most spoiler territory):

"The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the return, and the guardians balance the servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade." --Lord of Chaos, by Robert Jordan

The idea is to set an RPG campaign after the events of the series, either directly after or some number of years later, since the world even then is ripe for exciting new stories. There's just one massive problem: this series and world is so massive and detailed that I feel there may be no way to do it justice or make it both cohesive and entertaining while maintaining themes from the series.

Any other fans of the series here who might have some suggestions in actually pulling off such an undertaking?

Fizban
2015-11-16, 02:18 AM
I imagine the first big issue would be what happens next with the Seanchan, and reconstruction after the massive death toll of the Last Battle. I'd also be interested to see what happens with the Black Tower. I've only run pre-made modules since I don't trust my creativity with original plots, but this (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37995/roleplaying-games/game-structure-party-planningurl) blog has lots of good advice, including that particular article on setting up intrigue. I wouldn't be to worried about themes, it's entirely possible to have a completely different type of story going on in the same world. Just go with your gut and try to make something you like. Trying to basically write "the next book" while also leaving it open to player choice isn't likely to end well.

Douglas
2015-11-16, 02:38 AM
I imagine the first big issue would be what happens next with the Seanchan
Robert Jordan had plans to write some sequels covering Mat and Fortuona going back to the Seanchan mainland to reunite it, which in light of the situation there at the end of the series would have to involve a lot of both political intrigue and military conquest. They'd have to take a large portion of the Seanchan army on the mainland back with them or no one would take them seriously. Setting your campaign there would give you a huge amount of conflict to interact with and tons of freedom in customizing the areas and plots the players deal with, but at the cost of being cut off from the bulk of the familiar parts of the setting.

Fizban
2015-11-16, 07:35 AM
Now that I know about that I'm even sadder it was not to be :smallfrown:

XianTheCoder
2015-11-18, 03:58 PM
Good Riddance to the Seanchan.. that's what I say... Hated them so much!

As for Post-TG, don't forget about the Aviendha visions during her second trip to Rhuidian. You could make an entire plot around the players being given a mission to prevent the fall of the White Tower or the poor decisions of the Aiel that eventually leads to their extermination. You could have them play Aiel peace-keepers as the power-vaccum from all the death turns the world on it's head and countries try and redraw borders. You could have them play a political intrigue game where they need to force Cadsuane to take the stole of the White Tower. Personally, I've always wondered what happens to Moghedien while in captivity to the Seanchan... you could make a plot around her trying to escape.

There are just so many directions to potentially take.. I love WoT!

Douglas
2015-11-18, 04:07 PM
As I understand it, the Seanchan-dominated future of Aviendha's vision depended entirely on Aiel misbehavior as the pebble that started the avalanche. Anyone and everyone else, White Tower included, got involved only when the Aiel convinced them to step in. And the Aiel misbehavior depended on Aiel being left unbound by the Dragon's Peace - which they already changed specifically to prevent that.

Aiel peacekeepers would work well as a campaign foundation, though.

Calen
2015-11-19, 05:49 PM
As for Post-TG, don't forget about the Aviendha visions during her second trip to Rhuidian. You could make an entire plot around the players being given a mission to prevent the fall of the White Tower or the poor decisions of the Aiel that eventually leads to their extermination. You could have them play Aiel peace-keepers as the power-vaccum from all the death turns the world on it's head and countries try and redraw borders. You could have them play a political intrigue game where they need to force Cadsuane to take the stole of the White Tower.

As Douglas pointed out the future was changed (most likely anyway) however the technology that Aviendha saw would be a thing probably.

XianTheCoder
2015-11-23, 08:29 AM
As I understand it, the Seanchan-dominated future of Aviendha's vision depended entirely on Aiel misbehavior as the pebble that started the avalanche. Anyone and everyone else, White Tower included, got involved only when the Aiel convinced them to step in. And the Aiel misbehavior depended on Aiel being left unbound by the Dragon's Peace - which they already changed specifically to prevent that.


As Douglas pointed out the future was changed (most likely anyway) however the technology that Aviendha saw would be a thing probably.

Not technically correct. First, Aviendha's vision wasn't a one and done situation, the future Wise Women will go and have visions to help shape the Aiel as well, so you can always use that as a starting point for any campaign. Specific to Aviendha's vision though, the Seanchan still make moves to conquer the continent and still come to war with the White Tower (this was discussed by Sanderson at one point, but I don't have the link handy), the continent just happens to be more unified in the real timeline since the Aiel keep the nations from fracturing and breaking the peace treaty. While the Aiel as a people don't follow the same progression as the vision, there are plenty of interesting nuggets in the visions that still happen and can be used to generate plots (just think about the very interesting qualities of the 4 siblings, there's a ton of plots you could work with around those). So while I agree that you can't take the visions and cut and paste a plot (which was never what I intended to convey in my last post) they do provide a great number of ideas to draw from for creating Fourth Age plots.