TSRRich@aol.co
06-27-1997, 03:51 AM
In a message dated 97-06-25 08:30:05 EDT, you write:
>Rich, was the wargame/Kings-as-PCs aspect of the game your idea or
>TSR's? If you were running Cerilia, Inc. and could do anything you
>wanted with the world...what would >you< like to see happen with it?
>Many of us have adopted Cerilia as the home for our campaigns, but
>this is your baby. If you could do it again, what would you do
>differently?
>
>
When we think of new product lines, we believe that we need to create worlds
with "hooks"--something unique, something special that says, "this isn't
Forgotten Realms, which isn't Dragonlance, which isn't Dark Sun, etc." So,
the hook for Birthright was, "This is the setting where we let the players
run kings." (This ought to be fairly obvious by now...) To my mind, our
ad/marketing campaign unduly stressed this aspect of the game, sometimes at
the expense of the "standard" AD&D adventure opportunities of the setting,
and I think that hurt us. Basically, I created the "wargame" elements to give
the DM and the players a way of measuring just how well they were doing at
running their various kingdoms and domains.
Were I to do Birthright over, I'd keep it pretty much the same, but I'd take
a look at thinning the Domain Rules some, and making a stronger effort to
craft an initial storyline or thread for DMs to use. BR ain't for the
faint-hearted Dungeon Master, and anything we could do to show the DM how to
craft kingdom-running, roleplaying, and classic AD&D high adventure into one
campaign might go a long way.
Rich Baker
Birthright Designer
>Rich, was the wargame/Kings-as-PCs aspect of the game your idea or
>TSR's? If you were running Cerilia, Inc. and could do anything you
>wanted with the world...what would >you< like to see happen with it?
>Many of us have adopted Cerilia as the home for our campaigns, but
>this is your baby. If you could do it again, what would you do
>differently?
>
>
When we think of new product lines, we believe that we need to create worlds
with "hooks"--something unique, something special that says, "this isn't
Forgotten Realms, which isn't Dragonlance, which isn't Dark Sun, etc." So,
the hook for Birthright was, "This is the setting where we let the players
run kings." (This ought to be fairly obvious by now...) To my mind, our
ad/marketing campaign unduly stressed this aspect of the game, sometimes at
the expense of the "standard" AD&D adventure opportunities of the setting,
and I think that hurt us. Basically, I created the "wargame" elements to give
the DM and the players a way of measuring just how well they were doing at
running their various kingdoms and domains.
Were I to do Birthright over, I'd keep it pretty much the same, but I'd take
a look at thinning the Domain Rules some, and making a stronger effort to
craft an initial storyline or thread for DMs to use. BR ain't for the
faint-hearted Dungeon Master, and anything we could do to show the DM how to
craft kingdom-running, roleplaying, and classic AD&D high adventure into one
campaign might go a long way.
Rich Baker
Birthright Designer