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tduexx@students.aabc.d
05-27-1998, 10:15 AM
I feel that it should be possible to raise the bloodline strength (tainted
- -> minor, minor -> major etc) for a character (PC or NPC) but I don't really
have an idea to construct a rule on it.

I have thought about basing it on the Bloodline score, but that seems wrong.

Any ideas on this out there? Or is it a creazy idea altogether?


Thomas Due
tduexx@students.aabc.dk

Gary V. Foss
05-27-1998, 10:48 AM
tduexx@students.aabc.dk wrote:

> I feel that it should be possible to raise the bloodline strength (tainted
> -> minor, minor -> major etc) for a character (PC or NPC) but I don't really
> have an idea to construct a rule on it.
>
> I have thought about basing it on the Bloodline score, but that seems wrong.
>
> Any ideas on this out there? Or is it a creazy idea altogether?

Not crazy at all. In fact, this has been a source of a little debate around
here.... Personally, I like the idea of raising the bloodline strength as the
bloodline score goes up. There have been a couple of points of view on the
matter, but as far as I can tell the bloodline strength has very little effect
on anything after character generation, so you might as well allow it if it will
add to your's and your players' enjoyment of the campaign.

They way I handle it is that once a character raises his bloodline score to
something above the maximum possible for his original bloodline strength during
character generation his bloodline strength goes up. That is, the maximum score
of a character with a tainted bloodline at character generation is 4d4=16, so
his bloodline strength goes up to minor when the character's score reaches 17.
Minor (5d6) becomes major ar 31, major (8d6) becomes great at 49, and great
(8d8) becomes "true" at 65.

I put true in italics because of the definition of a true bloodline in the
Rulebook which says that such "bloodlines originate from only one source: the
chosen champion of one of the gods of Deismaar" (20.) The Rulebook also says
that a character "could possibly discover such a heritage later" without giving
any indication of how such a thing would happen, but what the heck? I say if a
character raises his bloodline score go ahead and give him a new bloodline
strength.

- -Gary

The Olesen`s
05-27-1998, 11:01 AM
tduexx@students.aabc.dk wrote:
>
> I feel that it should be possible to raise the bloodline strength (tainted
> -> minor, minor -> major etc) for a character (PC or NPC) but I don't really
> have an idea to construct a rule on it.
>
> I have thought about basing it on the Bloodline score, but that seems wrong.
>
> Any ideas on this out there? Or is it a creazy idea altogether?
>

We had dicussed this earlier and pretty much came up with the idea that
Minor/Major/Great had no real effect on a person's bloodline and was
just a symbol of what kind of bloodline thay came from.

A tained bloodline guy could rule well and kill lots of bad Azari guys
and eventually get his bloodline into the 50s. You might say that his
kid would have a Major bloodline (maybee even great)

At leat thats what I got from everyone, corect me if I am wrong

Ryan B. Caveney
05-27-1998, 11:39 AM
On Wed, 27 May 1998, Gary V. Foss wrote:

> tduexx@students.aabc.dk wrote:
>
> > I feel that it should be possible to raise the bloodline strength (tainted
> > -> minor, minor -> major etc) for a character (PC or NPC) but I don't really
> > have an idea to construct a rule on it.
>
> Personally, I like the idea of raising the bloodline strength as the
> bloodline score goes up.

So do I.

> as far as I can tell the bloodline strength has very little effect
> on anything after character generation

Extra blood abilities can be gained with bloodline point value
increases, and there presently is a blood ability available only to
certain bloodline strengths (major resistance to magic from Blood Enemies
is available only to those with great or true bloodlines).

> They way I handle it is that once a character raises his bloodline score
> to something above the maximum possible for his original bloodline
> strength during character generation his bloodline strength goes up.

Another method is to match the breakpoints to those provided for
blood ability acquisition (after applying Gary's test): i.e., tainted
goes to minor at 19, minor goes to major at 35, major goes to great at 51
and great goes to true at 81. This method makes upgrading somewhat
harder, and matches certain NPCs better (Avan, for instance, but not
Boeruine; Gary's formula would upgrade both. One could conceivably hunt
through all the published NPCs and make a table...)

> I put true in italics because of the definition of a true bloodline in
> the Rulebook which says that such "bloodlines originate from only one
> source: the chosen champion of one of the gods of Deismaar" (20.) The
> Rulebook also says that a character "could possibly discover such a
> heritage later" without giving any indication of how such a thing would
> happen, but what the heck?

My reasoning exactly. I also believe a bloodline should go down
in grade if it is seriously reduced: I don't care how great your ancestors
may have been, but if recently you have mismanaged things badly enough to
drop from a 60 to a 10, your family no longer deserves to be considered
anything more than a minor bloodline from now on. This has made me
consider toying with the bloodline rollup table (making great 8d4+32, for
example), but then I think I should probably alter the strength category
frequencies in order to maintain the same average bloodline score over the
whole blooded population...
Although perhaps the reverse of my desire is exactly what the
designers had in mind: in a setting where "Divine Right of Kings" is
literally true, emphasis on past glories is especially tempting for
members of families who have fallen very far, such as a hypothetical scion
of a "great" bloodline of strength 8.

- --Ryan

Keyplate72@aol.co
05-27-1998, 07:27 PM
I used to use a a scale to increase bloodstrength
(exe minor to major) based off of the table in the rule
book using blood score.

Now I think that is a major flaw in Birthright.
At least ever since I had a extremely evil PC who
decided ten wives and mistresses giving birth...
l little bloodtheft...
wham...
a few years to great bloodline strength!!

Now I separate strength and score a little more.

Gary V. Foss wrote:
>as far as I can tell the bloodline strength has very little effect
>on anything after character generation.

I see strength based more on heritage due to an ancesters
proximity to the release of the divine essence at Deismaar.

I believe it can only be increased by birth or investure
(bloodtheft).

(exe: to move from minor to major, one must invest
(bloodtheft) in a being of major bloodline.)

Bloodscore, on the other hand, represents power.
Thus its use to figure regency points.
(I know this is a bad way to put it, but it is all that
comes to mind.)

I can be increased by birth, bloodtheft, or a domain action.

How I handle this is by rolling in a fashion similar to the
way described in LoHK in the Ogre adventure.
This gives a chance for a stonger bloodline to overpower
a weaker, just like Azrai bloodline can overtake another,
creating Awnsheiglen (sp).

I do modify this roll giving an all to nothing approach,
therefore bloodlines do not decrease with bloodtheft.

This also limited the number of True and Great bloodlines
in Cerillia (sp). And help me maintain balance, since
it is doubtful any of my PC's will ever bloodtheft the Gorgon.

Just a few thoughts,
Brad Skinner.

Gary V. Foss
05-28-1998, 12:23 AM
Keyplate72@aol.com wrote:

> I used to use a a scale to increase bloodstrength
> (exe minor to major) based off of the table in the rule
> book using blood score.
>
> Now I think that is a major flaw in Birthright.
> At least ever since I had a extremely evil PC who
> decided ten wives and mistresses giving birth...
> l little bloodtheft...
> wham...
> a few years to great bloodline strength!!

> Now I separate strength and score a little more.

Well, this is a possibility given the rules of the game. I've often wondered
why the Gorgon didn't do something along those lines, though I think even he
might have trouble with doing it on such a scale.

I'd subject a character that had ten wives and/or mistresses to all the clichés
of marriage and relationships on an exponential level before a single child was
born for him to commit bloodtheft on. Want ten wives? Well, here's ten
mothers-in-law, baby! Ten mistresses? How about ten jealous boyfriends and
irate fathers, not to mention upset wives and rivals the likes of which would
make Hillary Clinton look like a cream puff. I'd have midwives squirreling the
newborns off a la "Willow" in an orchestrated cabal with the rulers enemies
(who would be many given his behavior) until his breeding pogrom turned on him.

Oh, I know a guy brutal enough to commit bloodtheft on his own children would
probably have no problem with axing all these folks, but if you go around
killing people that ruthlessly and do not have a power base the likes of which
would rival the Gorgon, then I think a ruler would be in for a lot of domestic
problems. Most Cerilian rulers just don't have that much control over their
domains. The Gorgon might. But I don't think even he has enough control over
the people in his domain to keep them from hiding his offspring or to keep the
mothers from escaping from time to time. After a few years of such actions he
would have illegitimate children running around like guests on the Jerry
Springer show, all with nasty "kill daddy because he abandoned me/raped
mommy/subjected me to the ravages of an Azrai bloodline" complexes, and I don't
think he would want that much competition.

The way I see the Gorgon doing it, however, is on a much more limited scale. I
mean, he's practically immortal. Why not take a wife once every generation,
have a single child and kill them both? Over the centuries that could amount
to quite a lot of bloodline strength.

> Gary V. Foss wrote:
> >as far as I can tell the bloodline strength has very little effect
> >on anything after character generation.
>
> I see strength based more on heritage due to an ancesters
> proximity to the release of the divine essence at Deismaar.

I think proximity is was it is based on, but I like the idea of it being
something that can be modified and increased along with bloodline score,
despite the fact that it has very little actual effect on play. It just gives
the player a sense of accomplishment, which is nice in a level based game
system. While this might not be true to the rules, the concept of a character
running around with a tainted bloodline strength who has raised his bloodline
score after years of campaigning to 50 just seems wrong to me.

> I believe it can only be increased by birth or investure
> (bloodtheft).
>
> (exe: to move from minor to major, one must invest
> (bloodtheft) in a being of major bloodline.)
>
> Bloodscore, on the other hand, represents power.
> Thus its use to figure regency points.
> (I know this is a bad way to put it, but it is all that
> comes to mind.)
>
> I can be increased by birth, bloodtheft, or a domain action.
>
> How I handle this is by rolling in a fashion similar to the
> way described in LoHK in the Ogre adventure.
> This gives a chance for a stonger bloodline to overpower
> a weaker, just like Azrai bloodline can overtake another,
> creating Awnsheiglen (sp).
>
> I do modify this roll giving an all to nothing approach,
> therefore bloodlines do not decrease with bloodtheft.
>
> This also limited the number of True and Great bloodlines
> in Cerillia (sp). And help me maintain balance, since
> it is doubtful any of my PC's will ever bloodtheft the Gorgon.

It occurs to me that I should mention that this is really an academic
discussion from my point of view. I mean, only a couple of times IMC has a
character raised his bloodline score enough to change his bloodline strength,
and I don't think anybody has raised it twice. Certainly no one has raised
their score high enough to become a "true" bloodline.

Part of the problem for me is the use of the word "true" in describing
bloodline strength. I think the only guys who should have a "true" bloodline
strength are people whose bloodline has been handed down directly from one of
the folks standing at ground zero of Deismaar. Close enough to get god
ectoplasm all over them. Just a tick or two farther away than the guys who
absorbed enough godjuice to become gods themselves.

But there is no word to describe bloodline strength after "great" than "true"
in the rules. Maybe I should make one up in the unlikely event it ever happens
IMC. "Grand" or "high." I don't know.

- -Gary

craig@finance.econ.usyd.
05-28-1998, 12:30 AM
At 12:15 PM 27/5/98 +0200, you wrote:
>I feel that it should be possible to raise the bloodline strength (tainted
>-> minor, minor -> major etc) for a character (PC or NPC) but I don't really
>have an idea to construct a rule on it.
>
>I have thought about basing it on the Bloodline score, but that seems wrong.
>
>Any ideas on this out there? Or is it a creazy idea altogether?
>
I agree it should be possible but in terms of the game mechanics it has no
effect. All that is important is how many blood points you have. Remember
that a bloodline strength is only a historical reflection of what was
inhereted by the characters ancestors at the demise of the gods and nothing
more.
Craig

Brett Lang
05-28-1998, 01:03 AM
I use the BL strength as a reference to the TYPE and NO# of BL-Powers that
his BL-Score will generally allow a character. If minor, then his powers
will be mostly (minor), if major (then he will have more major abilities),
if great, his powers will be exceptionally potent, AND if True, well.....
just check out the array of abilities as represented by those such as the
Manslayer and the Gorgon !


- -----Original Message-----
From: The Olesen's
To: birthright@MPGN.COM
Date: Wednesday, 27 May 1998 18:30
Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Bloodline strength enhancement?


>tduexx@students.aabc.dk wrote:
>>
>> I feel that it should be possible to raise the bloodline strength
(tainted
>> -> minor, minor -> major etc) for a character (PC or NPC) but I don't
really
>> have an idea to construct a rule on it.
>>
>> I have thought about basing it on the Bloodline score, but that seems
wrong.
>>
>> Any ideas on this out there? Or is it a creazy idea altogether?
>>
>
>We had dicussed this earlier and pretty much came up with the idea that
>Minor/Major/Great had no real effect on a person's bloodline and was
>just a symbol of what kind of bloodline thay came from.
>
>A tained bloodline guy could rule well and kill lots of bad Azari guys
>and eventually get his bloodline into the 50s. You might say that his
>kid would have a Major bloodline (maybee even great)
>
>At leat thats what I got from everyone, corect me if I am wrong
>************************************************** *************************
>>'unsubscribe birthright' as the body of the message.

Ryan B. Caveney
05-28-1998, 07:10 AM
Keyplate72@aol.com wrote:

> decided ten wives and mistresses giving birth...
> l little bloodtheft...
> wham...
> a few years to great bloodline strength!!

We've seen a roleplaying answer; now I'll toss in a
pseudoscientific one. In official rules, bloodstrength is heritable (100%
so: no environmental variance) and exhibits (again 100%!) regression
towards the mean (i.e., the average value of childrens' bloodstrength is
the average value of the parents'), as is characteristic of polygenic
traits. ("Polygenic" means controlled by more than one gene, like height
is. This is why height looks normally distributed: it's like flipping 20
coins, some of them two-headed or two-tailed.) Let's think about what
modelling it as one suggests.
What do I mean by this? For computer types, it means combination
of bloodline strengths is not by mathematical addition, but rather by
bitwise OR(see footnote). In less technical terms, imagine a card game
(standard poker deck) in which the point value of a hand is the number of
distinct face values it contains: e.g., 10 J Q K A evaluates to 5, but J J
J J Q Q Q evaluates to only 2. In this model, bloodline strength by name
(e.g, major) is the number of cards in your hand, and bloodline point
score is the value of your hand. I suddenly begin to like this idea more,
as I have just explained how "great, 8" is possible and even probable in
inbred families. Imagine this expanded to whatever number of bloodline
points you think it takes to make a god (a thousand? a million?), and put
that many distinct cards per derivation (suit) in your hypothetical deck.
When the gods exploded, their "cards" were scattered randomly between the
people close to them. Going back to "great, 8", this model can also be
easily extended to explain why there are rules for losing blood points for
bad actions, but not for gaining them by good ones: to lose a point, the
land, through the magical link that provides RPs, can simply erase one of
your existing cards; to gain one, you have to steal a new card from
somebody else's hand.
When you have children, they get copies of half your cards,
selected at random. When you kill a blooded scion, you get 1, 2, 1/5 or
1/2 of their cards, also chosen randomly. Thus, if you kill your own
child, you stand a fair chance of getting a copy of one of the cards you
already hold, and thus not getting an increase; indeed, if you kill a
child you had by a commoner, you are guaranteed to not get any new cards.
This model does not limit the number of people who can be blooded (there
can be arbitrarily many cards in the deck), but it does limit (albeit to
an operationally infinite number) the number of blood points (the number
of distinct types of cards in the deck) anyone can conceivably have.
How would one modify existing rules to use this model? Almost not
at all, except to say that killing your blood relatives gets you little or
nothing. It should also mean that there is a slight chance that
bloodtheft of anybody gets you nothing, but since even the strongest
bloodlines around today are much less than the total power of the original
gods, the chance of this is extremely small unless you are very closely
related to someone. On the other hand, it does provide (and justify) a
way to slow down the people at the top (e.g., the Gorgon) relative to
others: for example, you might choose to say that since the Gorgon has
killed so many scions of Anduiras that he has collected a fair portion of
the cards of that suit, he should gain only half as many bloodline points
from bloodtheft of one as he would from someone with the same strength but
different derivation.
Thank you for asking that question! I might never have thought of
this otherwise. Yay BR discussion list! Now I know how bloodstrength
works IMC, and what it is. =)

- --Ryan

Footnote: bitwise OR is not equivalent to the card analogy; it is,
however, exactly how true biological polygenic inheritance is thought to
work. (Which means the card model is not actually equivalent to polygenic
inheritance, but it is both easier to explain to a gaming crowd, and has a
couple of extra features that actually make it better for describing the
way bloodlines work.)

bloebick@juno.com (Benja
05-28-1998, 09:55 PM
On Thu, 28 May 1998 03:10:53 -0400 (EDT) "Ryan B. Caveney"
writes:
> We've seen a roleplaying answer; now I'll toss in a
>pseudoscientific one. In official rules, bloodstrength is heritable
>(100%
>so: no environmental variance) and exhibits (again 100%!) regression
>towards the mean (i.e., the average value of childrens' bloodstrength
>is
>the average value of the parents'), as is characteristic of polygenic
>traits. ("Polygenic" means controlled by more than one gene, like
>height
>is. This is why height looks normally distributed: it's like flipping
>20
>coins, some of them two-headed or two-tailed.) Let's think about what
>modelling it as one suggests.

OK. Now I've seen it all. I can die in peace. I have seen something
that completely boggled my mind and confused the hell out of me until I
read it the 9th time, and it was all about a ROLE-PLAYING GAME!!!!

Ryan, I would really hate to see your explanations and answers to
questions like "What should we do for welfare reform". I think I'd die
from the information overload. ;)

(that was all a joke, btw, not flame-bait).

Benjamin

__________________________________________________ ___________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
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Gary V. Foss
05-28-1998, 10:46 PM
Ryan B. Caveney wrote:

> We've seen a roleplaying answer; now I'll toss in a
> pseudoscientific one. In official rules, bloodstrength is heritable (100%
> so: no environmental variance) and exhibits (again 100%!) regression
> towards the mean (i.e., the average value of childrens' bloodstrength is
> the average value of the parents'), as is characteristic of polygenic
> traits. ("Polygenic" means controlled by more than one gene, like height
> is. This is why height looks normally distributed: it's like flipping 20
> coins, some of them two-headed or two-tailed.) Let's think about what
> modelling it as one suggests.
> What do I mean by this? For computer types, it means combination
> of bloodline strengths is not by mathematical addition, but rather by
> bitwise OR(see footnote). In less technical terms, imagine a card game
> (standard poker deck) in which the point value of a hand is the number of
> distinct face values it contains: e.g., 10 J Q K A evaluates to 5, but J J
> J J Q Q Q evaluates to only 2. In this model, bloodline strength by name
> (e.g, major) is the number of cards in your hand, and bloodline point
> score is the value of your hand. I suddenly begin to like this idea more,
> as I have just explained how "great, 8" is possible and even probable in
> inbred families. Imagine this expanded to whatever number of bloodline
> points you think it takes to make a god (a thousand? a million?), and put
> that many distinct cards per derivation (suit) in your hypothetical deck.
> When the gods exploded, their "cards" were scattered randomly between the
> people close to them. Going back to "great, 8", this model can also be
> easily extended to explain why there are rules for losing blood points for
> bad actions, but not for gaining them by good ones: to lose a point, the
> land, through the magical link that provides RPs, can simply erase one of
> your existing cards; to gain one, you have to steal a new card from
> somebody else's hand.
> When you have children, they get copies of half your cards,
> selected at random. When you kill a blooded scion, you get 1, 2, 1/5 or
> 1/2 of their cards, also chosen randomly. Thus, if you kill your own
> child, you stand a fair chance of getting a copy of one of the cards you
> already hold, and thus not getting an increase; indeed, if you kill a
> child you had by a commoner, you are guaranteed to not get any new cards.
> This model does not limit the number of people who can be blooded (there
> can be arbitrarily many cards in the deck), but it does limit (albeit to
> an operationally infinite number) the number of blood points (the number
> of distinct types of cards in the deck) anyone can conceivably have.
> How would one modify existing rules to use this model? Almost not
> at all, except to say that killing your blood relatives gets you little or
> nothing. It should also mean that there is a slight chance that
> bloodtheft of anybody gets you nothing, but since even the strongest
> bloodlines around today are much less than the total power of the original
> gods, the chance of this is extremely small unless you are very closely
> related to someone. On the other hand, it does provide (and justify) a
> way to slow down the people at the top (e.g., the Gorgon) relative to
> others: for example, you might choose to say that since the Gorgon has
> killed so many scions of Anduiras that he has collected a fair portion of
> the cards of that suit, he should gain only half as many bloodline points
> from bloodtheft of one as he would from someone with the same strength but
> different derivation.
> Thank you for asking that question! I might never have thought of
> this otherwise. Yay BR discussion list! Now I know how bloodstrength
> works IMC, and what it is. =)

Strangely, I was thinking about something like this as a response to the
problem with the Gorgon being able to commit bloodtheft on his children as a
way of increasing his own abilities. My answer was a bit less erudite. It
went more along the lines of, "Well, uh, maybe you can't do a bloodtheft on
your offspring, because, you know, it's the same stuff in the blood if it's
your kid, right? I mean, by half or whatever. It's less of the same stuff, so
it wouldn't be able to effect your bloodline, because your's is more, and less
can't effect more, right? Unless less is really secretly more, but it can't be
because it all came from the same more, so it has to be less... Er, can it?"
At this point in the argument I wander off and sit in the corner and play with
blocks.

The reason I decided against it, however, is because I liked the possibility of
a Caine/Able conflict in a family unit, especially if the transfer of actual
mystical power was involved. If one can commit bloodtheft on a relative it
makes for a much more villainous kind of person don't you think?

- -Gary

darkstar
05-29-1998, 01:46 AM
Ryan B. Caveney wrote:
>
> Keyplate72@aol.com wrote:
>
> > decided ten wives and mistresses giving birth...
> > l little bloodtheft...
> > wham...
> > a few years to great bloodline strength!!
>
Easy solution.
Just rule that a parent can not commit bloodtheft on their own children
and gain any bloodline points from it. The childs bloodline is too close
to the parents or something like that.

- --
Ian Hoskins

e-Mail: hoss@box.net.au
Homepage: http://darkstar.cyberserv.com
ICQ: 2938300

Mark A Vandermeulen
06-01-1998, 12:46 AM
On Wed, 27 May 1998 Keyplate72@aol.com wrote:

> I used to use a a scale to increase bloodstrength
> (exe minor to major) based off of the table in the rule
> book using blood score.
>
> Now I think that is a major flaw in Birthright.
> At least ever since I had a extremely evil PC who
> decided ten wives and mistresses giving birth...
> l little bloodtheft...
> wham...
> a few years to great bloodline strength!!
>
> Now I separate strength and score a little more.

I do essentially the same thing, only with a few modifiers to help derail
munchkinism. First, I rule that Bloodline scores develop over time as a
child grows. A baby has a bloodline score of zero, which increases slowly
as the child develops, reaching full fruition at the Age of Majority
(which is 13--a birthday which is a Big Deal for the children of nobles).
Also, I rule that the ability to increase in bloodline strength is not
automatic when a character reaches x bloodline points, rather it is a
rather expensive ceremony that much be conducted by the priest of one of
the gods, in which the PC (or NPC) gives up 10 bloodline points as well as
the GB and RP for the ceremony, and has a "100-Bloodline score" chance of
success--plus he must have behaved in a way pleasing to the god. This
makes it fairly easy to go from tained to minor, but pretty hard to go
from major to great, and almost impossible to go from Great to True (as it
should be: such an occasion would be almost the equivalent of a god
choosing a mortal champion). If the roll is a success, the bloodline
strength goes up. I don't do the same for downward turns, but I have
another way to keep the number of Great bloodlines from multipling: upon
marriage, although the derivation is transfered upon the offspring via the
greatest bloodline strength, the bloodline strength is conferred via the
parent with the highest bloodline score. Thus, a Great bloodline of
Masela with a strength of 9, married to a Minor bloodline of Vorynn with a
strength of 16, would produce offspring that were Minor bloodlines of
Masela, with strengths of 13.

Clear as mud?

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu

Alain Pouliot
06-01-1998, 03:39 AM
- ----------
> From: Mark A Vandermeulen
> To: birthright@MPGN.COM
> Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Bloodline strength enhancement?
> Date: 31 mai, 1998 20:46
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, 27 May 1998 Keyplate72@aol.com wrote:
>
> > I used to use a a scale to increase bloodstrength
> > (exe minor to major) based off of the table in the rule
> > book using blood score.
> >
> > Now I think that is a major flaw in Birthright.
> > At least ever since I had a extremely evil PC who
> > decided ten wives and mistresses giving birth...
> > l little bloodtheft...
> > wham...
> > a few years to great bloodline strength!!
> >
Greeting

I dont think bloodline strenght ans score it the same. They are not
related. The bloodline strenght is determine by your ancester. The high
marshall of each ancient god got True bloodline. The second in command got
great bloodline. That it. It immutable. When your roll the dice for your
bloodline score, you use the table 10 in the rulebook. I think this table
represent the average score of each bloodline strenght. Yes you could raise
your bloodline score after, and yes you could make a child with a bloodline
score of 60 but if you and his mother have a minor bloodline strenght he
have it too.

Am i right?

Snag
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Keyplate72@aol.co
06-01-1998, 09:44 PM
The main point I was trying to make, was as
PCs advance in level, it becomes easier to
commit Bloodtheft.

IMC, only four in the first two years, but there
has been 3 this year alone. I fear it will increase
dramatically as level increases.

(PCs have more hit points toward the end of
battle to gamble with a called shot)

I'd rather not let Birthright turn into a Forgotten
Realm "free-for-all."

I wouldn't allow a 7th level PC rival the Gorgan
in either Blood strength or score. (Given the
time he has had to 'accumulate."

Now, I admit my "baby killing" example was vial
and very less than perfect, but my point was
for my PCs to increase strength, say from
major to great, they must be invested by one
with that particular strength.

There is no honor (for lack of a better word)
in killing a lesser scion or some 2nd level
guild master, wizard, etc...just to gain those
additional points needed to increase to the
next strength level.

On the other hand, try and bloodtheft Rhobhe
and then escape thousands of fanatic elven
warriors, that is worth advancement. I believe
both are near imposibilities for mid-level
PCs.

Now I understand the Gorgan increased his
bloodline though the bloodtheft of many scions,
and i'm sure none even came close to being
his rival on the battlefield, but I believe that
only increased his bloodline score.

IMC I don't want it to be a race of "who can kill
the most low level scions," but, rather to increase
one's bloodline strength, as Ryan B. Caveney wrote:
>you have to steal a new card somebody else's hand.

IMC you would have to steal the entire "hand" of
someone who had a stronger "hand" in the first
place.

Possible complete rambling,
Brad S.