Pathfinder for Birthright

[bbeau22]

I was just thinking of this today. I have played through two of the adventure paths that were published by Paizo. They were both very well done and took characters from level 1 to 20. I know 4th edition will also do this type of publication from wizards and Paizo is creating their own adventure paths for their 3.75 edition.

What type of adventure path would be fun for Birthright? I think we could create some pretty fun stuff. Make it something that would introduce those that never seen Birthright and include all of the things that makes Birthright unique.

What type of things are unique to Birthright that would be included in this? Hoping to get some ideas from the board.

- What country in Anuire (most likely) would be a good country for the characters to ultimately have a chance to rule? I wouldn't include any country that already has a players secrets. I also wouldn't want to include any country that is too vital to the stability of the area. My thoughts would be either Alamie or Diemed. Both are fairly centralized and important but not overly so.

- Because this would be aimed at people that haven't played this campaign before, I think we would start them not blooded. Through some means during the adventures the characters can become blooded. Not sure how but it will be a very big event during the path.

- What other parts of Birthright are unique that the characters should be involved with? Here are my thoughts so far.

- Elves - Talk with or involve elves in one adventure.
- Awnshegh - Fight and defeat a weak Awnshegh.
- Shadow World - High level adventure into the Shadow World.
- Ruling a country - Beginning ruling a country or holding.
- War - War with another nation or goblins.
- Defeat or barter with a major Awnshegh - (Manslayer/Gorgan/The Spider)
- Sword and Crown - Adventure including this.


Any other ideas?

-BB

[hirumatogeru]

I always wanted to do a campaign based off of the Giantdowns, having the players start as low-level rangers or explorers, or even bandits and thieves. Then progress to setting up towns or villages within the Giantdowns once areas became safer and well protected.

Kinda like the Deadwood TV series, on the edge of the frontier.

[bbeau22]

I always wanted to do a campaign based off of the Giantdowns, having the players start as low-level rangers or explorers, or even bandits and thieves. Then progress to setting up towns or villages within the Giantdowns once areas became safer and well protected.

Kinda like the Deadwood TV series, on the edge of the frontier.

The only problem with that idea ... is it is already finished. It is called "King of the Giantdowns."

I agree it is a great situation to build up from scratch. It has plenty of bad guys to battle or deal with. Plenty of adventuring opportunities.

-BB

[kgauck]

Starting out unblooded they'd never have very much of a bloodline, unless you send them off on a killing spree.

[bbeau22]

Starting out unblooded they'd never have very much of a bloodline, unless you send them off on a killing spree.

Hmmmm. Yeah. There are a few ways to get a bloodline to some of the characters.

Invested of course. You receive the same bloodline score as the regent giving correct?

I have used in the past objects that contain bloodline scores. When the person wears the object or touches it, the bloodline score is past onto them. This could be part of the adventure.

[AndrewTall]

Starting out unblooded they'd never have very much of a bloodline, unless you send them off on a killing spree.

I don't know, proving yourself to the elderly ruler without an heir is always a popular approach to making the peasant boy king in stories - true bloodline strength comes from inheritance after all. Of course with PC's around heirs can vanish very rapidly...

[kgauck]

true bloodline strength comes from inheritance after all.

Only if you have no bloodline to start with, otherwise its treated like bloodtheft. If I have a tainted bloodline of 5, and the old regent invests me, I end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 20, while if I have no bloodline I end up with the full 30. That doesn't make any sense.

It seems to me that having a bloodline should always be better than not having a bloodline.

[Rey]

Does it have something to do with its derivation?

Like, if you are not blooded, you get a full 20 of Vorynn's derivation.
If you have tainted 5 of Anduiras, you get only 15.

I was always wondering what does it actually mean that Prince Fhileraene has "both the blood of Reynir and Azrai, but the blood of the old druid god runs slightly stronger."

In statistics section, he is Re, great, 55.

[kgauck]

Rhoubhe Manslayer is his grandfather. While derivation is normally ascribed to the stronger derivation of the parents, it makes sense, as mentioned in Fhileraene's description, that one actually has both derivations in some sense.

Some people have tracked the secondary derivation, so that if bloodtheft added more of the second derivation, it might become dominant. Or if one married into that derivation, it would be dominant in the children.

[AndrewTall]

It seems to me that having a bloodline should always be better than not having a bloodline.

I agree, my point, somewhat clumsily made, was that in a family the children will have similar bloodlines (2e average of the parents, 3.5e 3d6+family stuff) except for the one/two who inherit the bloodline of the parents who will have (possibly significantly) higher bloodline scores. As such the strongest bloodlines are those in the direct line of inheritance - which is of course not the same as the line of inheritance of titles and wealth.

[Rey]

So, what happens if one grandfather and grandmother have different bloodlines, and other grandmother and grandfathers have different bloodlines, too. What does that mean for a grandchild? Does she inherit the strongest or do they mix, in what order, which one gets dominance, and is it just the strongest one that is worth mentioning, but she has all of them?
And what if she has one that is not so strong and bloodthefts some more?
There was only one blood that was increased by bloodtheft, and that was the major one, the one from the statistics.

[irdeggman]

So, what happens if one grandfather and grandmother have different bloodlines, and other grandmother and grandfathers have different bloodlines, too. What does that mean for a grandchild? Does she inherit the strongest or do they mix, in what order, which one gets dominance, and is it just the strongest one that is worth mentioning, but she has all of them?
And what if she has one that is not so strong and bloodthefts some more?
There was only one blood that was increased by bloodtheft, and that was the major one, the one from the statistics.

For 2nd ed rules - check out the Book of Regency (pg 16 + ) for rules on increasing bloodline strength and how to determine the bloodline (including strength and score) for the child of two scions (including those of different bloodline derivations).

Basically it presents rules for how to increase the strength (and it doesn't say merely by wise rulership - how the score is increased is a moot point for the mechanic).

The mechanics presented in the BRCS (revised chapter 2) mirror those of the Book of Regency pretty closely.

[irdeggman]

Paizo just posted the free Pathfinder RPG Beta.

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/pathfinderRPG&source=mailing (http://paizo.com/pathfinder/pathfinderRPG&source=mailing)

[Mojczak]

That.Is.Fucking.Good.News.YEAH!

Where do we marry paizo?

[Green Knight]

This is really neat. I really like the work they've done to make classes more interesting - especially the fighter and the sorcerer. I'll keep reading :)

[kgauck]

The races are much more interesting too.

[Michael Romes]

Rhoubhe Manslayer is his grandfather. While derivation is normally ascribed to the stronger derivation of the parents, it makes sense, as mentioned in Fhileraene's description, that one actually has both derivations in some sense.

Some people have tracked the secondary derivation, so that if bloodtheft added more of the second derivation, it might become dominant. Or if one married into that derivation, it would be dominant in the children.

How old is Fhilereane?

If he was born before Deismaar then Rhuobhe may be his grandfather but that would have nothing to do with his own bloodline as Rhuobhe would then still have to gain a bloodline himself.

My own view was that all sidhelien were on the fence (is that the right idiom in english?) between Azrai and Reynir. First they were tricked into following Azrai and then changed sides in the midst of the final battle to betray Azrai and switch to follow the other human gods (of whom Reynir was the closest to them due to his nature portfolio).

And as bloodlines were granted to those closest to the gods (both physically and spiritually) the sidhelien received bloodlines of both Azrai and Reynir and some of them would have been very close to the getting the other derivation.

[kgauck]

It doesn't tell us. What it does say is that Rhoubhe is his great grandfather and that he has this Azrai taint to his Reynir bloodline. The easiest solution is that Rhoubhe had a child after Diesmaar who a parent to Ibelcoris. But its possible that Ibelcoris got a big Azrai taint from some other source.

[hazard]

This is good!!!!

[bbeau22]

I didn't realize people didn't know about the Paizo 3.75 rules. They might just be the answer for lots of people who don't want to move to 4th edition b ut like some of the ideas.

[Mojczak]

Couldn't we work a enhanced version of the bloodline system that would consider dominants and subervants bloodlines inside a same character? ie. improving the chances that one of those lines disapear, overceeded by the other.

Exemple: Our friend from Thuarhievel has a Reynir great 55, with an azrai subservant presence in his blood, when going for bloodtheft he has higher risks that the azrai stain takes on the leading role in his blood, putting his reynir into subservent and you can well imagine a whole system based on that simple exemple... an idea, like that...

[kgauck]

Typically there are two reasons for including this kind of information. 1) Story and 2) and obsessive concern with genealogy. Story doesn't need mechanics, and bothering with mechanics for genealogy presumes either heirs produced in game is common, or you think stuff that happened three generations ago is still meaningful.

As one begins to look at bloodlines, one also finds many references to particular family lines, and this is even mechanized in Blood History and Bloodmark. So we can speak of specific lines, not just derivations.

But having examined this issue for a long time, I find that what makes the most sense is that people are somewhat endogamous with regard to derivation. And they frequently avoid visiting the same derivation twice in a row. In most cases that alone would be sufficient to change a bloodline.

As someone who is obsessively concerned with genealogy, I prefer to maintain a chart of people's ancestors, and look to that as a guide. It can list not only strengths and derivations, but also what blood powers were manifest.