@seraphim73 said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):
Agreed on all points, although I would add one more option to the timeline: a decade or two before the books. The Aiel War would be interesting, as would some of the False Dragons that pop up in the years before Rand. In many ways, running a WoT MU has the exact same problems as running a Star Wars MU: you need something familiar to get people readily involved, which means close to the media timelines, but the feature characters have the absolute potential to overwhelm all possible PC actions.
The only problem I have with an almost-but-not-quite Rand era is how hard it is to detach it from the books. All those Prophecies won't fulfill themselves, and if you're waiting for the Dragon to rise (or even to be born) then it's easy to end up with a stagnant setting. The Aiel can't find a Car'a'carn, their shame can't be exposed, Wise Ones can't be outted for what they are, and there is no one forcing them to interact with wetlanders in semi-friendly terms,
Also, the male channelers thing is really limiting IMHO, for the reasons you mention. I think most games would benefit from allowing all kinds of channelers to be playable.
@dontpanda said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):
Actually, I'll extend it: Limit darkfriends of all stripes. Have some active and sneaky ones, and that's way more effective than operating with the general understanding you're likely to hit one if you threw a rock in a room full of people.
One way you could have darkfriends is to allow someone to take over them after the War is over. After all they didn't all die or become exposed, there were many who simply didn't even take part in the physical war - and they are nothing if not opportunistic, or lacking in resources.
Having a secretive group of nefarious people in control of caches of knowledge, resources and of course items as part of your game strikes me as a good idea. Should they be limited? I mean, maybe... it depends on the kind of game you want to run though. I don't think a single approach will fit all takes.
If nothing else, and in my experience, the Black Ajah was super limited in what they could do in a during-the-books setting since if they got exposed it was over for them. Your character could just survive the experience, relocate and be as successful as she liked, but that wouldn't do you - the player - much good since your roleplaying days as a Sister accounted for the grand majority of your scenes, and those were over.