For the purposes of full disclosure, I received one of the free copies of The Wheel of the Year given out to the first ten interested parties. With that out of the way, here is my review.
Facts:
Wheel of the Year takes nine holidays or observances from the real world and translates them into a form usable by a standard fantasy setting, dedicating about a page of content to each one. The write up of each holiday is divided into four parts: an overview of the holiday, a section about related deities, a mystic resonance, and a ritual. The overview is the largest portion and describes timing and celebration. The deities section is only a sentence describing what nature of deities best suit the holiday and could be its patron. Mystic resonance is a larger piece devoted to how magic is impacted by the event, typically represented by minor adjustments to how existing magic functions. Lastly, the ritual section gives a single custom spell for each holiday which only functions during the holiday, but is encouraged to be freely handed out to players.
Analysis:
While I was a little skeptical of Wheel of the Year choosing to use real world holidays, it wisely eschews modern holidays and their trappings in favor of older observances and traditions that fit much more interestingly with a fantasy world, drawing heavily from Celtic observances such as Beltane and Samhain.
The meat of Wheel of the Year is the description of the holidays is both useful and interesting. The overview succinctly relays the theme and nature of each observance and then outlines the actual celebration of each holiday, detailing each festival in a way that is helpful to a GM adding it to their setting, and giving enough interest to catch a player or character’s attention. The miniature deities section is useful as well, but narrow in more ways than one; not only is it very light in word count, but it doesn’t really address much more than the typical polytheistic pantheons of fantasy settings. If it was going to be so small, why not fold it into the overview section? Or if it is something of interest, why not expand it into a religious section in general that could cover all of its potential spiritual connections?
Mystic resonance is a promising idea, but ultimately it ends up being my least favorite section of each holiday. While the idea of certain yearly events having impact on magic is really neat, the implementation is bland and cookie cutter. Certain themes of magic get an advantage during the holiday, typically one use of free metamagic, while other themes of magic get a disadvantage, namely they need a concentration check to successfully cast. The advantage unimaginative, and the disadvantage is irritating. Neither of these things do much more than add one more minor status effect to keep track of. There are a couple of pieces that show hints of something better or that deviate from the pattern, but nothing really rises above the standard problems of the section.
On the other hand, I am quite fond of the introduced rituals. Each ritual is tailored to fit the celebration or themes of one of the holidays, demonstrating the creativity and uniqueness that the mystic resonance sections were missing. While the rituals are limited in their efficacy (only functioning during the holiday they are themed to), they are also encouraged to be provided free for players; it provides something that a spellcasting player can painlessly implement and experiment with during the holiday, adding a little something unusual and different that will help the festival stand out from the rest of their adventures. It doesn’t entirely escape criticism though, because of one word: “spellcaster.” Rituals are designed as standard spells and are used as standard spells, meaning that only spellcasters really get to play around with this fun mechanic. I would have loved to see a more universal mechanic, something that any character could experiment with and enjoy, or at least a wider array of options.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, I like Wheel of the Year. The holidays are enjoyable, and while the mystic resonances are disappointing, the rituals look like they’d be fun to introduce and use. Four out of five, because its great, but has room for improvement.
Short but flavorful, Wheel of the Year isn’t enough to be a meal on its own, but it's a great bit of spice to add to a game to help make a memorable experience.
