With The Wheel of Time debuting on Prime on November 19th, there is bound to be interest in bringing this setting to tabletop RPGs. The only official The Wheel of Time RPG is from Last Unicorn Games and was published twenty years ago, in 2001. Since that’s what is available for tabletop, I’m going to dig up my copies of The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game, The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game: Prophecies of the Dragon, and the 2001 Dragon Magazine Annual #6/d20 Special issue featuring The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game and write a few words about the game.
In 2019, I attended JordanCon, a celebration of all things Robert Jordan and The Wheel of Time novel series. One of my goals for the show was getting into a game of The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game, a d20 take on the setting produced by Last Unicorn Games. This book was published in 2001 during the d20 boom. This RPG uses Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition mechanics to simulate Jordan’s world. As I wrote for d20 Radio, I missed out on that game. However, a few weeks after JordanCon, I happened upon the core rulebook and the Dragon Magazine with two articles about the WoT RPG. Later, I picked up the Prophecies of the Dragon to complete my set.
Side note, in 2001, there was some promotional material and digital content available via the web. However, this content is no longer actively available from Wizards of the Coast; though, I’m sure it is archived elsewhere on the web.
Let’s give this project some context and take a trip in the way back machine to 2001 and 2002 between Robert Jordan’s Winter’s Heart (book nine in The Wheel of Time cycle) and Crossroads of Twilight. During that time, Last Unicorn Games, an eventual subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, picked up The Wheel of Time RPG license. These books came out well before the end of the novels so they are a look at the world of the wheel mid-story. What you’ll find is an attempt to meld 3e and Jordan’s fantasy into a product that has some great art, nice concepts and executions, but some aspects of it fail to realize all this could have been.
The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game
This is the core rulebook with everything you need to play the game. It has all of the 3e rules modified to fit the setting. To be clear, these are 3e rules so it’s not a perfect fit. For example, The One Power is broken when bolted onto the 3e ruleset. Beyond that, there’s some non-canon lore in the book. But, setting those bits aside, if you know D&D and you know The Wheel of Time, this book gives you everything you’ll need to have a fun campaign. You’ll need to avoid some pit traps or you’ll have some OP characters, but the book has a lot to offer. There’s character creation, feats, combat, some monsters and adversaries, and more. Best of all, the artwork is up to the standards of many of The Wheel of Time products; each image is fantastic. 3e does not get the love of original, AD&D 1e, or 3.5e for its Pathfinder compatibility, but that does not lessen the importance of this book. It’s one of the more interesting and worthwhile products from a largely bypassed era of Dungeons & Dragons.
2001 Dragon Magazine Annual #6/d20 Special
This issue features two articles providing content for The Wheel of Time RPG. The first, by Owen K.C. Stephens, features several hero templates with enough info to serve as NPCs. They’re nice entries, but the win is the artwork by Scott Schomburg. Each template has a full figure illustration with it. These are outstanding works of art. The second article covers the animals of the world, giving enough info to bring the simple creatures into the game. The article is by the same creative team as the first, however, they added a pair of paragraphs by Robert Jordan. It’s nice to get a little more of his work into this project.
Lastly, or firstly, let’s talk about the magazine’s cover illustration by Darrell K. Sweet of Perrin Aybara. It’s a masterpiece of a cover, mixing the feel of The Wheel of Time covers with great D&D artwork. All in all, for two articles and a cover, it’s a good chunk of content for WoT.
The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game: Prophecies of the Dragon
This is the only full supplement for The Wheel of Time RPG. It’s a campaign that lets your PCs play adventures during the same timeframe as the novels without messing up their continuity. Mostly. This adventure does feature additional material that is non-canonical. Despite that, using the core rules and this, you can take your table into Jordan’s world and that’s bound to be epic.
Robert Jordan’s Thoughts
But how did Robert Jordan feel about the RPG? On Robert Jordan’s blog (October 4th, 2006), he answered a question about the RPG [Taken from the A Wheel of Time Wiki]:
“For Infested Templar, I had little to do with the RPG. Mainly my role was limited to telling them that they could not have paladins, ninjas, clerics, shuriken etc. I had to put so much time into that fighting that I washed my hands of the rest, I’m afraid. I could see that trying to make them actually adapt to the books was going to be Valmy Ridge all over again. At least I managed to stop them from putting in a ter’angreal that could bring on the Last Battle in some unspecified manner and also some other really terrible ideas. I wish I had been able to do more, but I had a book to write.”
That’s a 15-year-old quote from an individual who can’t be asked to clarify it, so, with that in mind, it appears that this project was not to the liking of Robert Jordan, the author of The Wheel of Time series. Which is a shame because it has some good parts, though it’s not a perfect adaptation. It’s a further shame that there isn’t another WoT RPG coming that could benefit from having access to the complete source material.
In The End
For me, this project is well-timed considering the TV is close to hand. The RPG was written for an older edition of D&D, but it could be brought up to whatever edition you’d like with some reconfiguring. While the game is fun, the two decades since it was published leave me with two questions about The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game.
- This game was at the beginning of its life cycle. Were there any other books planned, outlined, or started? Are there any hidden gems lost to time? I’d love to know.
- Who will pick up The Wheel of Time license and bring this property back to tabletop?
Should you look for The Wheel of Time RPG? It’s a solid pair of books and a magazine. You can find copies of these RPGs at second hand dealers including Noble Knight Games (The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game and The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game: Prophecies of the Dragon) or Amazon to see the issue of Dragon Magazine. If you’re a fan of D&D 3e, The Wheel of Time, or just want something to tie into the upcoming streaming series on Amazon Prime, it’s worth the effort to track these books down.
UPDATE 2021-11-21: After I posted this, Ben Dowell of Epic Level NPC shared an interesting caveat about The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game. When the core book was originally released by Wizards of the Coast, there was an autographed version signed by Robert Jordan available as a promotion. Ben’s recollection of 2001 puts the cost at $80. Here’s the recollection from Ben [shared with permission]:
“When it first launched, WotC had the autographed books up on their site as part of a promotion. I was able to snag one up even though at the time I couldn’t really afford it. With Jordan’s death, I’m really glad I got it when I could.
It was direct from WotC. I was working at a bank with Internet access. There was a limited number of them available so I kept waiting for them to go live, I was refreshing the page between customers. Eventually it went live and I bought it while a customer waited. I *think* they were selling at $80 each? That would be double cover price, so that sounds kinda right.“
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