Wheel Of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire

[Aurore]

Robert Jordan's epic series offers huge potential and the amount of detail is such that it would be both easy and challenging to produce an RPG based on it.

Now it has already been done (badly) by wizards of the coast but a very long time ago and they have dropped the product. However it is still an extremely popular series and if Mongoose can get the rights, then I'm sure a game based on this would be a sure fire seller. The number of good netbooks out there for it would probably help too.

In fact I think the license is available, as on the wizards site:

http://ww2.wizards.com/Company/Misc/Index.aspx?doc=misc_wheeloftime

it says the contract period has ended. So presumably Wizards no longer have the rights and they now belong to Jordan's wife (since Jordan himseld died last year).

Now George Martins song of ice and fire was published as an RPG, and a damn hefty book it was too. However the company which owns the rights went bust and nothing more has been done with the license. Another great setting and a popular one too.

 

[DigitalMage]

Now George Martins song of ice and fire was published as an RPG, and a damn hefty book it was too. However the company which owns the rights went bust and nothing more has been done with the license. Another great setting and a popular one too.

I am unfamiliar with any of the books you are talking about, but I do know that Green Ronin are producing a Song of Ice and Fire RPG. Teh website is: http://greenronin.com/sifrp/

A free PDF of the quick start rules is available - the full RPG is noted as "Coming Soon".

 

[Da Boss]

Zero interest in Wheel of Time - did not like the books -

but very interested in Song of Ice and Fire - whohc Green Ronin are doing but I think its quite heavily delayed..............

like Dance of Dragons - I need to know what happens to Dany!

 

[Aurore]

***
Zero interest in Wheel of Time - did not like the books -
***

The books are not that well written and character development is poor, as well as taking far too long to move the plot along.

However the setting is great and the magic system is very interesting. I've enjoyed playing characters in it, though I would want to decapitate Rand al'Thor if I ever met him and half the female characters too.

There were exceptions though and he got better as the books went on, especiallyw ith characters like Matt Cauthon. I didn't like any of the female characters, he seems to see all women as mother figures or something and the relationships between the male and female characters are out of a childrens cartoon or something. But the setting, the cultures, the ideas, the way the magick works and the scope are all impressive and interesting.

 

[SnowDog]

As far as I know Green Ronin is only waiting for the approval of Mr. Martin. The game is otherwise ready...

 

[Aurore]

Does the game bear any relation to the previous game from guardians of order?





ps: hmm promoted to a Shrew.... not sure I like that idea. Hope no one tries to tame me, for their sake

 

[SnowDog]

I don't know the GoO version, but GR version is heavily into house politics, pretty much like Pendragon, I believe. I have understood that you can put all PCs to the same house or play inter-house politics. Still, there are no reason why you can't play a sellsword or a band of mercenaries.

Rules are tailor made for the setting, so no d20 or Tri-Stat rules here.

 

[Alexander Cecil]

I have been playing with a homebrew set of rules for a Song of Ice and Fire campaign using Traveller as my base. Since Traveller is tech-level flexible and uses a fairly dangerous combat system, the connection seems perfect.

Rules alterations include more in-depth melee combat (since that would be the primary form of violent conflict resolution), a greater variety of weapons (allowing for better smiths to make better weapons), and some reclassification of skills. I am also changing the effects of some skills to reflect the lower tech-level of the society.

Aging starts earlier and is more brutal, but characters also begin at 14 years of age. Social standing is of course a big deal, but it is also much harder to change social standing in character creation.

I like the idea of being able to have a party made up of a variety of ages and skill levels, allowing for the PCs to play all the various roles we see in the stories.

I do not know much about the new Song of Fire and Ice game that is supposedly forthcoming. If it dies before creation, however, I would love to see a supplement for the setting using the Traveller rules.

 

[Londo-X]

Does the game bear any relation to the previous game from guardians of order?





ps: hmm promoted to a Shrew.... not sure I like that idea. Hope no one tries to tame me, for their sake

No. The green ronin one is based on d6 pools and has no stats but rather an abilities list, a bit closer to d6 meets falkenstein from what I have seen, the original GoO was d20 with a promise of a tri stat port that was only realized as add in rules in the back of the deluxe edition which I am luck enough to own and intend to keep

 

[decker423]

I thought that the WOTC did a good job for the most part in doing their game conversion of the world. The magic system, IMHO, is superior and I'll explain why:

Most RPG magic systems are on one scale- on one end is traditional D&D (rules, numbers, limitations, etc.- basically it amounts to number crunching in a defined set of situations). On the other end of the spectrum is Mage: The Acension (or the other Mage games out by White Wolf). With Mage, you just have a very brief description of what each "level" of sphere CAN do, otherwise you need a good intelligence and imagination to come up with whatever magickal ability/outcome you desire.

Now, the Wheel of Time magic system is on the D&D end of the spectrum but it actually moves toward the Mage system in a few small steps. You have more flexibility and the PC gets to choose how powerful the effect is AND can choose to channel (and risk) more of the One Power than he/she can normally handle.

The potential for supplemental books is OUTSTANDING. You have different regions (the northern frontier/border kingdoms; the midlands; the southern kingdoms; the western kingdoms); you have different races with pros and cons (VERY similar to Conan); you have different organizations (magickal and martial); you have the Darkspawn which can be their own supplement book. You have the Aiel and the invanding Seanchan Empire.

Lots of potential for supplemental books and expansions on a well written, covered fantasy setting.

There are lots of Wheel of Time fans (I'm a fan AND a gamer, many are just fans) who would buy these supplements for the artwork and new/different insights into their favorite fantasy setting. You just need to market it well and hit the fan base, the fan base, like I said, is more of a reader fan base and not a gamer fan base as much.

For the record, I ran a Wheel of Time campaign, my group loved it and it made 1 player who never heard of it start reading the series and fall in love with it.

My 2 cents.

 

[decker423]

Another plug for the Wheel of Time but the series is nearing an end. Two more books left to publish.
In my mind there are several supplemental books that can easily be made for the game system:
1. The Artur Hawkwing Era (time setting).
2. The White Tower (and their Warders, weaves, etc.)
3. A book for Wilders (their weaves and lifestyle).
4. The Black Tower (with info on the darkfriends).
5. A book on the various mercenary forces and warriors throughout the land.
6. A sourcebook for the Seanchan Empire.
7. A sourcebook for the Aiel.
8. Sourcebook for Darkfriends (the Black Ajah, darkfriends in the Black Tower, etc.)
9. Sourcebook on the One Power.
10. Sourcebooks on regions or nations.
11. The main RPG book itself.
12. Book on monsters, foes, etc.

It was published in the 3.0 D&D system but I don't see why (unless there are license issues) Mongoose couldn't just take this game setting and run with it.

 

[shotgun-toting chipmunk]

I would certainly be interested in Mongoose's take on Wheel of Time. I bought the WotC book for my wife not knowing they had dropped the property. Unfortunately it became too hard to do anything with since it was hard to even find character sheets.

There are definitely some character ideas that intrigue me...

 

[Jotenbjorn]

Didn't care for the Wheel of Time, it actually bored the hell out of me.

Sorry to hear about GR's plans for A Song of Ice and Fire. The d6 with no attributes sounds dreadful to me, even worse than the lame d20 version. I don't need for half of a rule book to be explaining what happened in the books I've already read. The level adjustments for nobility was just plain stupid. How is being Prince so-and-so going to help you when a wildling wants to put his axe in your head, bet you wish you were a commoner with 3 more levels then don't you?

To be honest I don't really care if Mongoose acquires any more licenses at this point. They've abandoned D20 and I really don't have an interest in running out and buying RQ. If they go back to making d20 products I might care again.

 

[Randalthor66]

As someone who loves the WoT series, I second (hoperfully, 2,000th) that Mongoose pick up the license for The Wheel of Time. And, as someone who has worked on creating a Channeling system for multiple game systems (d20, AD&D, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Hero System, Rolemaster, HARP, Unique, etc..) I believe that I am the perfect person to help with the creation of a Mongoose Wheel of Time RPG.

We need a good one, because, as was said, the only one out there is bad.