War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time® – Telling Your Tale

 

War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time^® is now live on Kickstarter! Today, we’re looking at the underlying epic and how the iconic story is told on your table!

From Page to Table

The Wheel of Time^® is a massive, epic tale. With fourteen books’ (and more!) worth of adventure, it’s packed with favorite characters, memorable events, and heroic moments. This makes it a treasure trove for story-based game pieces — so much so that War of the Dragon needed multiple ways to show them off!

War of the Dragon starts with the adventure already underway, in a pastiche of Book 4, The Shadow Rising. The Stone of Tear has fallen, while the heroes look toward the Aiel Waste, the Two Rivers, and Tanchico for their next missions. This sets the table for the global conflict that the game represents. But even so, we still wanted to include memorable moments from earlier in the story, so that players can see and experience some of their favorites, whenever they may have occurred in the books.

Depending on the draws, some moments might happen a little later than in the books.

Major plot events primarily appear on missions, which are used in both game modes, and events, which are exclusive to Epic Mode. So where might your favorite moment appear? Let’s take a look!

Memories that Become Legend

In War of the Dragon, missions are the more visible and more impactful of the two story-based card types. In each Chapter of the game, two missions are available for both players to contest, for a total of six per game in Hero Mode or eight in Epic Mode. The missions in the first Chapter are lower stakes and focus on events from early in the series, while the missions in the final Chapter of Epic Mode represent the final moves for each side to prepare for The Last Battle.

During play, the two missions are distinguished from each other by a “Snake” and “Fox” symbol.

Since missions are fought over by the players, only one player can prove victorious and gain the advantages it offers. That victory might represent months of careful in-universe planning, or an instant of vital success that changes the arc of the story permanently. These moments may not play out the way you remember reading about them; in the turning of the Wheel in your game, the results can be very different.

In Epic Mode, missions can even put lives on the line – changing the weave of the Pattern forever. (Or at least for this play of the game!)

This Place, This Day

The second story-based card type is events, which are only used in Epic Mode. Each player gets their own deck of event cards, full of story elements that are specific to their side. These are often smaller beats, representing that side’s plans or sudden opportunities that can’t be directly thwarted by the other player. Event cards will still often interact with your opponent on the game board, but usually because of the eventual consequences of that moment.

You complete your event cards on your own through taking the appropriate action, growing your Pattern, or fulfilling specific conditions.

In addition to recalling moments from the saga, events provide additional goals to pursue during the game, giving you one more objective to manage — because winning the War of the Dragon takes strategic flexibility, and picking your spots! You can only hold three event cards at a time, so you’ll want to fulfill them when you find the opportunity; otherwise, your plans may fall to ruin while your opponent takes over the Westlands!

The Weave of a Life

We recently looked at how the Light can level up their heroes in Epic Mode. Missions and events are a major part of that mechanic, because the moments that lead the heroes to rise up and seize their destinies are the exact moments that we want to show off on these cards!

Mat, Perrin, Nynaeve, and Egwene each have multiple event cards in the Light event deck that can earn them a level, tracing some of the critical moments and new abilities that help shape that character throughout the series. There’s also one mission for each hero that offers a bonus chance at a level — even for Rand. These missions represent some of the most critical challenges that the heroes face, fighting for their lives, their futures, and their sanity.

Although winning The Last Battle is the ultimate goal for the players, a character may find that their most critical moment comes earlier — and can set the tone for that character’s role in the rest of the game.

A Story Worth Telling

On top of missions and events, War of the Dragon also tells the story of The Wheel of Time by the movement of the characters through the world, the strengths that the players cultivate, and, of course, the final result. Each game is a new turn of the Wheel, with new critical moments and vital turning points. The story from the novels is here, but open to be directed by your imagination and strategy. How will your story end?

War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time is available now on Kickstarter!