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Jonathan Picklesimer
01-08-1997, 05:33 PM
On Tue, 7 Jan 1997 drith@icon.co.za wrote:

> I'm new to this list ... amf I have never seen any Birthright rules only the
> pictures the setting.
>
> Can any of you tell me more about the setting, how the rules differ from the
> other settings/AD&D. I have played Ravenloft and FR, but DM Dark Sun. And as
> DS is the only setting that I own,and has been stopped by dear TSR, I was
> thinking of getting into another setting...
>

Well now, I thought that I would post my thoughts on Birthright to the
list so that everybody can add their 2GBs worth, too.

Birthright is a setting where you can do almost anything. If you want to
run some straight forward typical D&D type adventures in this world, you
can find tons of things for "ordinary" adenturers to pursue. There are
plenty of powerful people and enough conflicting intrests to keep this
type of group happy for a LONG time.

However, the real strenght of Birthright lies in its emphasis on
statecraft. This setting is designed to allow PCs to be far more than an
"ordinary" adventurer. The rules of the game are intended to allow
characters to become involved with the shaping of their contry's,
temple's, guild's, or continent's future. The game provides rules which
allow you to simulate the powers, both implicit or explicit that a ruler
has in political, economic, and religious matters. Cerillia, the
continent which the Birthright setting focuses on, is a complex web of
power and influence that only the bravest leaders dare to navigate, and
only the smart, strong, sly, cunning, and devious survive!

The rulers on Cerillia, collectively refered to as regents, derive their
power and abilities to rule from the old gods who destroyed themselves in
a titanic, continent encompassing battle of good versus evil. The
remaining essence of these gods were fused into the blood of the people
at the battle and some gained a divine bloodline which gives them the
birthright for and often to leadership. The powers of the old gods often
manifest themselves in powerful, and often subtle, ways which grant the
scions of the bloodline extra abilities to help them rule. In return,
theses scions use this power, in theory, to rule their land with wisdom,
and honor to promote the development of a powerful realm.

Not everyone at Desimaar received a bloodline from the gods.
Unfortunately, some one say, those that did gain a bloodline were not
always kindly blessed. Some inherited bloodlines from the evil god
Azrai. Those with exceedingly powerful bloodlines were transformed into
awnsheighlen. Awnsheigh is an elven word meaning, basically, "bad
blood." These evil creatures exhibit power and abilities beyond
comprehension to most and weild an incredible amount of political,
economic, and sometimes religious influence. Do not take these evil
regents lightly, for those who do, wind up dead - or worse.

Well, that is about all I have to say in way of introduction to the world.

Jonathan

Neil Barnes
10-06-1997, 03:46 PM
> While the concept is good, and is what the Wizard character in my
> campaign has been looking for, it seems a little powerful. Rain of
> Magic Missiles can be cast as a first level spell and requires no
> components! It seems like this spell would be much more powerful than
> say, fireball, a third level spell. Plus a Wizard could cast many more
> of them, then he could fireballs. This seems a little odd.

Doesn't War Magic require d4+1 GB worth of componants for each spell? And
several assistants?

neil

Mark A Vandermeulen
11-03-1999, 07:13 PM
On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Nigel Sellman wrote:

> I am relativly new to game and I am having a problem with GB - I dont
> have enough of them. Does anyone have any ideas about the best way to
> aquite them quickly. I have a small 2 porvince domain a level 5 and a
> level 2 and I am a Wizard regent.

Hi Nigel,

One complication that limits my ability to answer your question is whether
you're playing the Birthright computer game (The Gorgon's Alliance), or
whether you're playing in a table top (face-to-face) game, or a PBeM (Play
by e-mail) game. That answers are all slightly different for each.

Philosophically, I believe that the Wizard was made poor on purpose. If
the wizard were able to support himself and his magical lifestyle
perfectly well on his own, there would be little reason for him to operate
together with other people. That would be pretty boring (and difficult for
the DM to deal with) in a politically-centered game like BR. This
perennial lack of fund is designed to drive the Wizard regent into acting
together with others. As a wizard, you can offer a valuable skill to
others, so you can potentially convince (or coerce) your neighbors into
giving you a certain amount of money each turn in return for your magical
protection against their enemies, support during times of war, etc.
Non-province holding regents usually do this for one realm, becomming in
effect the "court wizard" for that realm, but it sounds like you're
already a province holder of 2 provinces (although I could be confusing
what you meant to describe as Source holdings as provinces). If you are
a province ruler, your best bet is to hire troops as police force in your
provinces and raise the tax level to severe for a few seasons. Plus make
any law claims you can if you hold law holdings. If you don't have law
holdings, you should. And, there's nothing saying that wizards can possess
guild holdings, which are the fastest source of GB around, just that they
can't gain RP's from them.
However, the fastest way to gain them GB's is to find someone willing
to pay for your services. And as long as you're not of good alignment,
there's nothing that says you can't play both ends of the game on that
score, if you're careful.
Of course, if you're actually talking about the computer game, most of
this isn't going to work. You'll have to rely on taxation and aquiring
guild holdings (and subsequent trade routes) then.

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu
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