PC`s

[WhiteCore]

Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to have a birthright Charecter
that is like a normal AD&D charecter? Like you would just use him on normal
adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with the
bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses as
possible would be much appreciated! Thanks

[James Ruhland]

Sure, I see no reason why not. You can use the relatively better developed
backround n nations as the backdrop to adventures easily. In fact, the
published BR adventures are somewhat more condusive to this (being
scattered, by nature, all over Cerilia; non-regents have more time to make
extensive journeys.)
>
> Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to have a birthright
Charecter
> that is like a normal AD&D charecter? Like you would just use him on
normal
> adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with the
> bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses as
> possible would be much appreciated! Thanks
>> To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the
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> 'unsubscribe birthright' as the body of the message.

[Michael Andrew Cullingha]

> Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to have a birthright Charecter
> that is like a normal AD&D charecter? Like you would just use him on normal
> adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with the
> bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses as
> possible would be much appreciated! Thanks

Most definitely yes! In fact that's what I'm doing right now.
I have five characters, of which 1 wants to rule, and he wants
to adventure first. And it works great! Cerilia's history,
geography, cultures, and mood makes it a fantastic place to run
"normal" AD&D games in.

Mike
- --
***********************************
Michael Cullingham
macullin@acs.ucalgary.ca
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~macullin/
***********************************

[prtr02@scorpion.nspco.co]

Use Birthright as a campaign setting without the politics and wars?
yup.
More and more my players seem to be leaning toward this. *sigh* Guess my
dirty NPC politics are just too much for 'em.

Go for it WhiteCore. Cerilia makes a great setting, even if you don't use the
realm rules. I think it might grow on you though. The idea of running a
country or two that is. Gives your characters more to live for than bashing
down door x, killing monster y and getting treasure z.

Randax

[John Ewan]

At 15:46 1/13/98 EST, you wrote:
>Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to have a birthright Charecter
>that is like a normal AD&D charecter? Like you would just use him on normal
>adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with the
>bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses as
>possible would be much appreciated! Thanks
>************************************************** *************************

Sure, the first several campaigns we ran here were like that; at least one
character was in line for the throne of the country we were in. Not all of
them knew that, however! In one campaign, my character, a priest of Ela,
was going underground to benefit his country, but he did not want the ruler
to know of his assistance or even, existance! I ran a goblin campaign
where one character had a murky family tree, due to the longevity of his
forebears and another was a goblin magician who hoped to be able to change
the attitude of the king about magic and it's usefulness.

I tried to run a 'standard political' BR campaign and it was not working
out as well. I needed to rework how I viewed/handled the domain turns,
rather than the adventuring. Every time I went to 'adventure mode' the
game ran smoothly and was very cool. If I was doing a domain turn, it was
just numbers and I had difficulty translating that into fun, useful stuff
for the players. I also errored in trying to have the three PCs all go on
one 'adventuring trip' even though they had decent reasons to be there, it
was a bad decision. I should have run a solo adventure for each character,
then let them have a role-play session upon the return of the
traveler/ambassador to let them talk it all over.
John Ewan, Technical Support | Look for me online at MPG-Net
Multi-Player Games Network | as Gimli
http://www.mpgn.com | jwe@mpgn.com

[George Koch]

> Use Birthright as a campaign setting without the politics and wars?
> yup.
> More and more my players seem to be leaning toward this. *sigh* Guess my
> dirty NPC politics are just too much for 'em.
>
> Go for it WhiteCore. Cerilia makes a great setting, even if you don't use the
> realm rules. I think it might grow on you though. The idea of running a
> country or two that is. Gives your characters more to live for than bashing
> down door x, killing monster y and getting treasure z.
>
> Randax

Actually I did a about the same thing... When the group that I DM for first started in
the Birthright setting, we did just what the book recommended... Each player was a regent
(4 in all)... Within no time everyone was deeply embroiled in political conflict.. But it
all got overwhelming too quickly and the game became one huge bookkeeping session... Most
of the problem was we were still breaching the learning curve... but soon everyone said
it was just too much...
So we let it go for a while... but the campaign world itself was so well layed-out that I
began using it as a regular AD&D campaign setting...

A while ago we decided to give regency another shot (most everyone liked it but
wanted more adventuring mixed in).. I had everyone start new characters and do up their
bloodline strength etc. but they started as simple adventurers.. When they had gained
about 5th level, They had completed a quest that rewarded them with beginning domains (We
used the domain creation tables in the back of the rulebook.. All of them kept their
domains quite small and limited... Now they know exactly what they have a better idea of
what they have and what to do with it... every gaming session we do a part of a domain
turn then adventure... The last one involved stealing 2 wagons full of elven weapons
headed for a temple and diverting them elsewhere (into a country where it's illegal to
ship elven weapons) and blaming it all on a rival guildmaster... George...
QSilver.......

[Harri Kemppainen]

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, John Ewan wrote:

> At 15:46 1/13/98 EST, you wrote:
> >adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with the
> >bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses as
> >possible would be much appreciated! Thanks
> >************************************************** *************************
>
> Sure, the first several campaigns we ran here were like that; at least one
> character was in line for the throne of the country we were in. Not all of
> them knew that, however! In one campaign, my character, a priest of Ela,
...
> just numbers and I had difficulty translating that into fun, useful stuff
> for the players. I also errored in trying to have the three PCs all go on
> one 'adventuring trip' even though they had decent reasons to be there, it
> was a bad decision. I should have run a solo adventure for each character,
> then let them have a role-play session upon the return of the

In my group players sometimes seem more intrested in domain turns than
adventuring. Ruling realms is the main reason we play birthright or even
AD&D.
Anyway there are different aproaches to birthright gaming and it depends
on group and gm which to choose. As normal game Cerilia is well developed
and well balanced world. For bloodlines and ruling it gives lots of
chances for adventuring but for intrique, power strugle and good strong
antagonists.

- ---
Harri Kemppainen cshake@kastanja.uta.fi
Java-programmer Attila B288b
Information Studies, University of Tampere +358 3 215 7632

[c558382@showme.missouri.]

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, George Koch wrote:

> When the group that I DM for first started in the Birthright setting, we did
> just what the book recommended... Each player was a regent (4 in all)...
> Within no time everyone was deeply embroiled in political conflict.. But
> it all got overwhelming too quickly and the game became one huge bookkeeping
> session...

One solution to that problem which I really like is to save the game
sessions for role-play and adventure, and do all your realm actions via
e-mail. The first message to me from the Overthane of Baruk-Azhik was as
follows:

I have decided my course of action for this season. First I want build
up(rule) Land's Victory. I wish to make it a stronger province(spend 4 GB
and 4 RP to make it a level 4 province). At the same time I wish to
increase the strength of my law forces there (spend 1 GB and 4 RP to
increase law holding in Land's Victory when it increases in power). As I
stated before, Diirk has first crack at the guild holding there and if
Ruarch chooses not to increase his temple holding, I may build a small
temple to Dumathoin in honor of the minors. Announce this to the people as
their taxes at work. A stronger Dwarven kingdom for our children to
inherit.

I plan to adventure during mid season to recover my father's Great axe.
It should not be possessed by those filthy orogs. I will attend to other
kingdom matters when I return( I would have one domain action to use
before the season ended). If possible I would like the matters of the new
Marshal and my new lieutenants settled before my quest.

Albark- Begin preparations for the strengthening of Land's Victory.
Diirk- The guild opportunity is of course yours, keep up the excellent
reports.
Ruarch- Please inform soon if you will increase your temple holding in
Land's Victory.
Dalforok- make sure the appropriate funds are distributed for Land's
Victory.
Throvim- Keep me abreast of the mining situation.

To all- thank you for your time and may Moradin bless us all.

Council dismissed

- ---snip---
By taking care of all realm stuff over e-mail not only do you eliminate
the bookkeeping during game sessions, you don't have to do it with your
players. The a-synch nature of e-mail really helps. Also, and I really
like this, there is a record of everything you did and said. Also it
gives both player and DM the opportunity to wax literary. Some of the
discussions can go way beyond what works in game play.

Kenneth Gauck
c558382@showme.missouri.edu

[Druid]

WhiteCore wrote:

> Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to have a birthright
> Charecter
> that is like a normal AD&D charecter? Like you would just use him on
> normal
> adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with
> the
> bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses
> as
> possible would be much appreciated! Thanks

My BR campaign that has been going on for nearly 12 months now does not
include any of the domain actions at all. Diplomacy still has its
place, but the players are simple adventurers, who do
not have any regency, etc. They might aim for it one day, but for now,
they do not.

Regards.

[Bryan Ruther]

WhiteCore wrote:

> Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to have a birthright Charecter
> that is like a normal AD&D charecter? Like you would just use him on normal
> adventures. I ask this because I love the Birthright storyline with the
> bloodlines, but am not into the diplomatic stuff. As many responses as
> possible would be much appreciated! Thanks

Actually my first idea for a BR campaign was to use the Bloodlines/Blood
abilities in a campaign world I created some time ago, but never used. I decided
to use the preprepared material of the BR boxed sets and realm source books
mainly because they were good, and running the game was going to take a lot of
work anyway, so I decided to change the campaign into a "pure" BR camgaing, but I
still may run in the future the campaign I envisioned in the begining, which did
not include any real political or diplomatic stuff....

Bryan

Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation,
the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent
circumstance...
Thomas Paine, Common Sense

[Neil Barnes]

On Wed, 21 Jan 1998, Bryan Ruther wrote:
> Actually my first idea for a BR campaign was to use the Bloodlines/Blood
> abilities in a campaign world I created some time ago, but never used. I decided
> to use the preprepared material of the BR boxed sets and realm source books
> mainly because they were good, and running the game was going to take a lot of
> work anyway, so I decided to change the campaign into a "pure" BR camgaing, but I
> still may run in the future the campaign I envisioned in the begining, which did
> not include any real political or diplomatic stuff....

I've bee considering a campaig usig BR domain rules combined with Anime
style Giant Mecha & floating sky-ships [1]. One day...

neil

[1] If anyone's seen Visions of Escaflowne, that's the sort of thing I'm
thinking of..