Newbie question

[Yair]

Hi all.

First, let me say THANKS to all you guys that did the conversion to d20. Me and my group will be using it to start a new campaign (we aren't through with the previous one, but birthright sounded so good we decided to skip ahead).

I am thinking on how to start the campaign. We decided to start as (effective) level 4 characters. All will be scions, and will have some holdings. I have a some questions on how to start them up. I'd appreciate any answers, basically I am hoping to get the opinions of those experienced in playing (or running) birthright campaigns.

How many holdings to give each? Should they be scattered or in one province? Should I replace characters from the BRCS (AD&D one, as the atlas is not yet ready in d20 form) with my PCs, so as to have all the politics already in place, or should I rip a little from several NPCs and let the characters be small fish in the big pond? How many domain-turns should we be making per adventure (on average)? What are the ramifications of that choice? How do you recommend linking adventures with the party? Is it worth it to look at the official adventures, and which of those (say, is the legends of the hero-kings book good? The giantdowns? etc.)? I was thinking on starting the PCs with 3*blooline RP, and with some 10 holdings and 5 or 10 GB (to buy anything from personal gear to fortifications), does that make any sense?

FYI, there will be 6 PCs (plues yours truly as DM). The crew includes:
A female cleric of the Sun Goddess (khinasi, minor bloodline of basaia)
A druid (male rjurik, greater bloodline)
A dwarf fighter (male dwarf, greater bloodline)
A brecht trader (male brecht rouge, major bloodline)
A paladin of Curiacain (Sp?) (anuirean male, minor bloodline)
A halfling wizard (male halfling, greater bloodline, rouge/wizard)
(speaking of which, how did halflings get bloodline?!)

I'd appreciate any tip you can give me towards making the campaign better.

Have fun now,
Yair

[Arjan]

I recently started a new campaign, all my PC's are blooded, but NONE of them have hlodings. Just let them earn them, make them work for it.

i also just obtained a copy of "king of the giant downs" its one of the better supplements to get your PC's started out of the blue, with as goal to become a regent.

Arjan

[Azrai]

The "legend of hero..." source book, I would only recommend, if you have some experience with the setting, because there are only some ideas (good ones) in it, not typical adventures.

For a good campaign the best inspirations for me were just the source books; a lot of adventure hooks are in there.

Welcome to the Birthright bug....

[CMonkey]

Plagiarise, plagiarise like the wind!

Seriously though, I'm new to birthright too and I found the best resource to be other campaign websites (particularly the campaign logs from Travis Doom's Roesone Site).

As to how to start them off, my group started as the heirs to the houses of Illien, Roesone, Meodere and Diemed.

The first session was run around the presentation banquet of the heir of Diemed with three of the group's Scions in attendance. The second was focused on the last scion with the other players participating as his "companions". And the third is all 4 as their scions attending a minor nobles wedding (the one from the Ruins of Empire).

So far only one, the heir to Roesone, has ascended to rule - but the last session ended with the assassination of Heirl Deim, so another one is coming soon.

Hope this helps, I know how daunting birthright is!

CM.