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> New member with some questions, What are your houserules?
NorthSaber
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 07:37 AM
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Greetings fellow WoT fans! I just got the WoT rpg book yesterday and have been thinking and reading a lot.

One thing on my mind is that I'd really like if I could just carry around this single book (and dice, of course) and be all set to play/DM. With DnD, I've ended up carrying the PHB, the DMG, a bunch of print-outs and photocopies of FAQs and erratas and whatnot, plus a CD with a bunch of the splatbooks our group uses on a frequent basis... and although it's a good workout carrying all that around, it does get old.

So the question is: in your experience, does the WoT rpg run pretty well as written, or are there major flaws I should know of before I try to run a campaign? I downloaded the UtDB pdf and noticed there's a variant of almost every class and prestige class - are these really necessary?

Also, are there obvious rules-problems I should know of (I saw some in the FAQ, such as channelers being able to heal themselves)? Rules are something I'm good at, so even though I'm not the most knowledgeable fan of WoT, hopefully I'll be able to bring some of my rules-lawyering skills into the community.

(Edit: Ooh, also, do you recommend that I get Prophecies of the Dragon? I'd rather stick with a single book, but are there essential additional rules and materials there you think I should get?)

This post has been edited by NorthSaber on Mar 1 2004, 08:41 AM


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KSBsnowowl
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 12:50 PM
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Concerning PotD, really it wasn't all that exceptional. The major thing in it is an appendix that included rules for multiclassing initiate/wilders, a Seanchan background, and a few weaves that should've been included in the main book (such as a cleansing weave that gets rid of poisons, Shadar Logoth taint, etc.) but for some nefarious reason were not. IMO, WotC should've made that stuff a part of the web enhancement, but hey, they had to have some reason to make the fans buy their craptastic adventure.

If you don't mind doing a huge rewrite/overhaul of the adventure then it could be useful, but straight out of the box the adventure has plot holes and the encouters are not appropriately balanced for the proposed level of the PC's. Someone started a thread a while back concerning rewriting all the crap sections/encounter of PotD, but I don't know what has become of it.

This post has been edited by KSBsnowowl on Mar 1 2004, 10:03 PM


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Two Rivers Wolfbrother
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 05:40 PM
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To answer your other questions.
I've found that you can play with just the core rulebook by itself, yes. However, many of the houserules are cool and make sense, but as a game by itself, you can use just the core book.
No, the class/prestige class variants aren't necessary, but they are often really good. If you're the GM you should just decide which ones you wanna use, and which you don't. If you wanna keep things simple and to the book, the book'll do just fine.
Everyone but me hates Prophecies of the Dragon, so I wouldn't recommend it.


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LuciusT
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 06:06 PM
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You can run a very good campaign with just the core rules. I would recommend looking through the FAQ and errata. There is a table that got left out of the Heal skill concerning making Healer's Balms more effective. That's good to have. Otherwise the core rules are fine as written.

PotD is a bust, IMO. It does contain some additional rules that are helpful. However, they aren't essential and IMO anyone with a reasonable understanding of the d20 system and the WoT setting can come up with them on their own.

Concerning house rules, you will find volumes of them. Myself, I have re-written the rules to such a degree that I almost never use the core rulebook. I think Equipment is the only chapter I haven't rewritten to one degree or another and that only because I haven't gotten around to it. smile.gif

Is that necessary to run a good WoT game? No. Absolutely not. So why did I do it? Why are there so many house rules? Because everyone has their own vision of Robert Jordan's world and how that world should be reflected in the game. We change the rules to bring the game closer to that vision... to make it Right... but since we all have our own vision of what is Right we all come up with different rules.
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Rigil Kent
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 06:32 PM
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QUOTE (Two Rivers Wolfbrother @ Mar 1 2004, 05:40 AM)
Everyone but me hates Prophecies of the Dragon, so I wouldn't recommend it.

I don't hate PotD; I'm just disappointed at how poorly it was done. For example (no spoilers), I'm not sure if there is a single NPC in the book that is done correctly - I started running the game some time back (and have since moved on to something else) and had to recreate every single NPC that the PCs encountered or fought.

If you've got the cash, I'd say go ahead and get PotD, at least for some ideas and the like.


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drothgery
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 08:04 PM
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QUOTE (Rigil Kent @ Mar 1 2004, 04:32 AM)
QUOTE (Two Rivers Wolfbrother @ Mar 1 2004, 05:40 AM)
Everyone but me hates Prophecies of the Dragon, so I wouldn't recommend it.

I don't hate PotD; I'm just disappointed at how poorly it was done. For example (no spoilers), I'm not sure if there is a single NPC in the book that is done correctly - I started running the game some time back (and have since moved on to something else) and had to recreate every single NPC that the PCs encountered or fought.

While this is true, it hasn't affected my game much. Mostly, this is because I was redoing the 'stock' enemies anyway (to match my relatively large party of higher-level-than-the-module-expects PCs, and my concept of what's approriate for normal soldiers), and I just don't care if a mid-level NPC (someone who's around for only one or two encounters, and has a name, but isn't in the novels and isn't a recurring ally or enemy) has a few errors in his stat block.


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Two Rivers Wolfbrother
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 08:58 PM
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Well, I didn't mean literally everybody, but the general feeling I get is that most people hate it and pretty much everyone's disappointed in it.
But getting back to the topic, I think that LuciusT (which I'm pretty sure stands for Turnip) has a good point. Totally check out the errata and all the online stuff. Even if you don't end up using it, it'll maybe help inspire some ideas.


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MagusRogue
Posted: Mar 1 2004, 11:46 PM
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yes, the core rules are just fine. In fact, more often than not better than fine. Is there things that could have been done differently, and better? Yes. I have so many house rules to make the rules match the setting that it blows your mind. then again, i also have 10 years of dnd experience, 4-5 of those with DnD 3rd.
And i love PotD. Very nice book, just needed some npc adjustments.


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NorthSaber
Posted: Mar 2 2004, 09:41 AM
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Well thanks for the input. I'm also a notorious house-ruler, and I just know that if I implement even a single house-rule, I'll figure "well since I already have one, another one won't hurt"... and soon I'll be like LuciusT and have my very own WoT 1.5. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just figured that since WoT is the first single-book RPG that I've had in a looong time that doesn't immediately cry out for house-rules, variants and changes, I'd like to keep it that way if possible.

I recently joined TarValon.net (hope you guys aren't mortal enemies or anything) in hopes of getting more Wheel of Time inside my head, so to speak. I figure that if I know the setting, the weaves, etc like the back of my hand, I can make up rulings on the spot without resorting to pre-written house-rules and such.


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Timetwister
Posted: Mar 2 2004, 06:27 PM
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well, only thing I can say is you don't get the real feel for the setting unless you read the books.....problem is when you dont read em, its just another campaign setting with some alternate rules. The thing that makes (imo) WoT stand out is the tremendous feel of detail within the world ur playing in, and this is mainly due to having read the books. If u haven't read them yet, I can only stress that you will not be sorry for it a magnificient read, and strongly enhances your WoT RPG gaming experience


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Axel
Posted: Mar 2 2004, 08:22 PM
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personally I don't really play WoT, I bought the core book 'cause I love the books and then I found this site by accident. But my D&D buddies (well, 1 at least) think that the WoT 3.5 classes (you can find them on the site) are better than anything in 3e or 3.5.
Anyway, this whole site is devoted to little more than houserules of one sort or another. UtdB is really just a huge compilation of 'em.
As for my house rules, I'm working on a total rewrite of the D&D class system, with most of the good ideas stolen from WoT. I'm cautiously naming it D&D 2.5, waddya think? The other name was AD&D 3, but that seemed a little presumptious.


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Mantyluoto
Posted: Mar 2 2004, 08:36 PM
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i will only be using WoT classes from now on (though with a few modified classes from D&D such as the priest). since i run a homebrew world its easier for me to steal stuff.

QUOTE
Anyway, this whole site is devoted to little more than houserules of one sort or another. UtdB is really just a huge compilation of 'em.


Why do you think that? personally i think this site has great potential. I am planning on putting together an Adventure idea with core info for people to work with and there has been a lot of work with Backgrounds primarily by Sa_sara and Two Rivers Wolfbrother.

Yes we do ask for a lot of rules clarification but then find me a message board where that doesn't happen.

Manty


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Axel
Posted: Mar 2 2004, 08:39 PM
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It was more an exageration than a literal statement. What I meant was that alot of what we do on this board is share our own homebrew rules, or fixes to rules. Almost everyone has their own PrC, and there's at least 4 different channeling systems.


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Mantyluoto
Posted: Mar 2 2004, 08:42 PM
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i'm glad you said "Almost everyone." biggrin.gif

my player and i are scraping threw the new rules of 3E Wot of time, being long time 1st ed players and while we are enjoying it we haven't found the need to revamp anything as it all seems ok.

Manty


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Jenlain
Posted: Mar 3 2004, 01:15 AM
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Our group of players is like Mantyloto. We didn't find the need to change many rules. With two exceptions : hit points are dropped for a wound based system and channelers use the rule for weawe slots in UtdB.
If I were to start a new campaign, I'll certainly use the 3.5 classes found on this site. They're really better done.

I disagree with most people about PoD. The campaign is very well done and a lot of fun to play, either as player or as gm. I did both. But when I'm the gm I don't care much about npcs' stats. For me they're just numbers set on a papersheet to give information about their power.
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alohahaha
Posted: Mar 3 2004, 05:09 AM
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I'm GMing a pbem with a friend of mine who's an old-school D&Der, so he's had some problems with some of the classes in WoT. Like everybody else, I've done my own 3.5 versions of the WoT game. Basically, I give the classes more things, such as the Wanderer getting more Sneak Attacks more often, and I've upped the algai'd'siswai by adding Bonus Feats at later levels. I don't know about any other "weave" system, but since i'm lazy, this is just a game, and what's in the book is what we already know, it would be too much trouble to adapt one. I've checked the updated classes on Call of the Horn, and I don't like them too much - they're too D&D for me, and I've never played a D&D game.


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NorthSaber
Posted: Mar 3 2004, 06:46 AM
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I'm sure many of the house-rules and variants are improvements from the status quo (why else make them?), but as long as you guys don't consider them essential, I think I can live without them. At least for a while. tongue.gif

PS: I have actually read the first 9 books, but I finished number 9 like 2 years ago, and I started the whole set gosh almost ten years ago I guess. So I've forgotten a LOT, and some subtleties (like all of the different cities and nationalities and foreign names and words) I never got in the firstplace. However, my local 2nd hand book store is having a sale later this week and I'm going to buy all of the paperback Wheel of Time books they have, as well as a copy of the "Big White Book" (don't know its real name).


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LuciusT
Posted: Mar 3 2004, 04:41 PM
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QUOTE (NorthSaber @ Mar 3 2004, 12:46 AM)
However, my local 2nd hand book store is having a sale later this week and I'm going to buy all of the paperback Wheel of Time books they have, as well as a copy of the "Big White Book" (don't know its real name).

The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time... more popularly known as the Big Book of Bad Art.

IMO, you will find that it is your best sourcebook for the setting. I bought the hardcover when it came out and used it to build my own WoT rules using the GURPS system years before d20 Wheel of Time. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to run a WoT game. smile.gif
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