Heya.

Im planning on starting a WoT campaign with my friends in a couple weeks. Since its my first turn as GM, I was hoping to get a bit of advice on how to go about creating a continuing story from either the Trolloc Wars OR possibly during the breaking of the world/time of madness.

Any help would be appriciated.

Don't involve your players in any major incidents until they are high levels. It just doesn't make sense and it seems kinda stale.
Heroes can lose.
Avoid the Power and the DO like the plague unless absolutely necessary. Nothing seems more lame than finding out these are the reasons for something when more mundane ones are available.

The Shadow Made Flesh

The above link has information for a campaign set during the Trolloc Wars. You may find information that you could use if you choose that setting.

What about the time of madness? How easy do you think it would be to set a campaign in this time period?

I'm working on a campaign setting for the Breaking of the World right now, its not finished, but you can find the workings of it at Diynen'd'ma'purvene, linked below.

Is it easy? Well, its probably as easy or as hard as you choose to make it for yourself. There are definately background and class changes that need to happen, but feasibly you could argue that technology has already regressed so far at that point from the age of legends that other aspects of the Wheel of Time core rulebook would probably work.

Hmm ok here's my two copper pennies...

First, a lot of this depends on the type of roleplayers in your game. Are we talking hack-n-slash dungeon crawl folks or political intreague, espionage, character interaction types?

If you're players are the dungeon crawler type that's great, it certainly can make your job simpler, though possibly not easier Set up a fairly well thought out game plan, develop your major plot points, major encounters, major NPCs and most of these players will be quite happy to be lead about by the nose through the story you want to tell them.

If you're players are the political type that makes things a bit different. First, dont develop the minutia of your story line to far ahead, your players have a 95% chance of NOT following your lead. I have found with these players my job is made easier and more challenging. I dont have do as much detail work because most likely whatever detail work i do they players are not going to give me much chance to use. On the flip side it gives me ample opportunity to paint with broad grand strokes a story, and allow the players to find a place inside it. It allows me to develop the general direction I'd like the campaign to run and nudge the players quietly in that direction and it allows me the fun of developing NPC personalities on the fly when my players decide to get a wild hair up their tailfeathers and go looking for the local high ranking noble with no prompting on my part... lol... it's a blast

As far as whether the trolloc wars and the time of madness are good potential campaign settings...YES absolutely! My next campaign will most likely be during the Trolloc Wars, most especially because a lot of the detail work on backgrounds has already been done (see above post). The only concern I would have about the time of madness is that you would be left to develop an entirely new set of backgrounds and possibly classes. Aiel dont exist during the breaking, or not as they do during the time of the dragon reborn. Aes Sedai are completely different, no oaths, and much more powerful. And most of the weapons of the Age of Legends are most likely still able to be found though they would grow more and more rare as time went by. Also, if memory serves (and please someone tell me if i'm off my rocker on this) the breaking lasted about 1000 years from start to finish.

So the breaking is a LOOONG period of time and you have a lot of different possibilities... for example will your campaign be before the ogier find the stedding again? will ogier be dying from the longing? How long ago did the Dark One get sealed in his prison again? Its definitly a lot to play with. AND a lot of work. Worth it if you're ready for a project that size but if you're not stick with something more well developed.

Anyway that's my two coppers

~llewin

well, I am working on a timeline for this whole timeperiod, and most sources, though they do conflict, list the breaking of the world as lasting somewhere between 250-300+ years. Factor that in with the 100+ years of the collapse and the 10+ years of the War of Power, my figuring makes it about 500 years of play from the point that the bore is drilled to when things become at least somewhat more civilized again. I still have to consult the BoBA to be certain though, something I plan on doing at my first opportunity.

EMOTE: Climbs back on his rocker

Thanks for the correction!

Ive decided to go with the Trolloc War as a backdrop for my campaign. As its still in the planning phases, I hope you guys can continue to help me out.

Questions -

1) The ways were still untainted and in use during this time, correct? Would it be too easy for players to have access to these modes of semi instant travel?

2) Is Malkier still thriving during this time? I noticed that it isnt included on the world guide's ten nations map. Is it part of the compact, or is it a seperate power?

3) Were the Aes Sedi bound to their oaths by the oath rod by this point?

4) Are there any other netbooks out there that deal with the Trolloc Wars besides SMF?

smf?

Er... "Shadow Made Flesh". That netbook Sharn was talking about.

Come to think of it, you might be able to use Gamma World as a sort of idea book for a game during the Breaking. Alot of differences but we can see enough paralells that it could help.

Gamma World?

One good thing in setting a campaign in a time where you haven't actually seen in the books, only heard about, is that if one of your PC's has been reading the books and comes accross someone mentioning something that contradicts them you can just say that they (the caracter from the book) had it wrong as they wern't there and even if they were they could allways be lying. This is an easy way of enforcing what can be a really inportant rule that isn't mentioned in the rule book - the GM (or DM if you prefer) is allways right.

Also there isn't as much risk of them doing things that change what happens in the books as a lot can be forgotten over time. Just don't give them too many oppertunities to do annything too big such as saving Manetheron if you want it book accurate.

Ok here's some answers to some of your questions:

1) The ways slowly grew tainted during the third age. I am not sure if there is an exact time mentioned that says when they were finally un-usable. If there isnt then you are free to allow them to be used by your players.

2) Malkier was part of another kingdom just as shienar and the other borderland kindoms were. None of the kingdoms of the books 'here and now' existed in the trolloc wars.

3)I'm working off of memory not book quotes on this third one, but as i recall the aes sedai did not make the three oaths part of their dogma until after Artur Hawkwing's death

4) I dont know.

Ah... just checked out wotmania.com. Malkier was founded after the time of Artur Hawkwing.

Yep. All of the nations which exist today were formed after the time of the Hawkwing.

The only nations that existed during the trolloc wars was the compact of 10

Ok, I was thinking of starting this campaign at the begining of the trolloc wars, but what if the players get a valiant streak and try to put an end to the invading forces? The wars wont be ending even in their grandchildren's time.

you have decide if you want them to follow plotline or if you want them to be able to do whatever they shall.

If your players put an end to the Invading Forcess, thats ok. Trollocs breed like rabits anyways, so they destroy one entire wave, the human nations feel good and think the trolloc s are done for, only to have another wave come in 10, 20 or even 50 years later. In fact wouldn't it be ausome if your players did take out "wave one of the trolloc invasion" your stint as DM was then over and the next time you DM its 13 years after the initial attack and they have to re-group to deal with the new wave, andprotect their spouses and children while their at it too