Posts made by gryphter

There are many ways that Jordan designed the setting to be self-balancing. Aes Sedai are powerful but limited by the Oaths, and by suspicion of Tar Valon witches. Men who channel are powerful but will go mad, and have to hide their abilities or face persecution. Folks who can't channel may not have the One Power, but they have an altogether different power, the ability to politic and act and function openly and without any of those restrictions. Does that bring it all to perfect balance? No, perhaps not, but it's close and ideas like prolific availability of ter'angreal could close the gap.

I think the critical thing to not do if you're going to have male channelers is go with a cleansed Saidin. It unbalances the whole thing, such that with no Oaths and no consequence to channeling the One Power, what stops these guys from taking over everything? Pretty much just the writer's pen. I suppose you could go with Aes Sedai who are also freed of the Oaths, and hand out ter'angreal like penny candy to people that don't channel, if you wanted to go with a wildly high-powered setting.

I think you're right here that a successful game wouldn't be one with Rand al'Thor and company doing all the amazing things that they do. There isn't a lot of room in there for other characters to do much that's meaningful or impactful on the setting. It would be better to play out an alternate timeline and let events happen however they happen organically. While it would be fun and interesting to play out what happens after A Memory of Light and beyond, I don't think that Harriet and Jordan's estate appreciate that sort of thing at all.