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  1. #1
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    Guys~

    Well, after owning the campaign for nearly 5 years, I finally played it with my group for the first time. *THE* first time. Needless to say, I was very anxious and excited. Actually, I had to trick 'em into thinking we were going to play a "regular" DnD adventure- you know, that one where you wander around with your sword and your shield and kill kobolds and goblins till you gain a level? Yup, but I put a twist on it. It went as follows:

    Me- "Okay Jer, your elf fighter is cool. Now roll for bloodline."

    Jer- "Wait- what's a bloodline?"

    Me- "Oh, its a Birthright thing. Basically, you role to see what kind of gods' blood you have in you and you get some neat powers."

    Jer- *eyes light up with newfound power* "Ok!"

    -we roll for his stuff (he got Azrai, btw)-

    Me- "Okay, great! Oh, and by the way, you've inherited this section of Cerilia to rule as king."

    Jer- "Um... okay. Why?"

    Me- *eyes light up with DM cunning* "Its a Birthright thing."

    And that was that. Two of the five elected to stay as regulars and act as the other regent's lieutenants but, after a couple of rounds of watching the kings battle it out, decided they wanted a bloodline and some sort of power. Anyway, I ran into a couple of problems and need some help!

    The setting- Southern Anuire, and its 2nd Ed. DnD

    Player:
    Raygolas, Elf King of the Erebannien

    Vorwyck Kindle, Dwarven Pro Temp King of Roesone

    Syane, High Mage

    Bran "The Brewmaster" Rumblebelly, High Halfling (is that an oxymoron?) Priest of the Impregnable Heart of Haelyn

    Vydej, Guildmistress of the Port of Call Exchange

    Questions:
    1. A racial question. Is it "Cerilian" (read: fit the campaign feel) to be a dwarven king of a human kingdom? The story is simple: Marlae Roesone had a daughter and, at the time of her death, invested her power into Vorwyck, her dwarven lieutenant, until her daughter comes of age. The other one, Bran the Halfling, was the dwarf's lieutenant until he wanted a place to fit in- had to make that one up in the fly (he changed gods from Moradin to Haelyn so his character fit, but he kept the brewmaster title). Just wondering.

    2. When the elf king moved into Aerenwe, he wanted it to be in his family for many, many generations to give him his elf kingdom close to the other players. I let this happen and don't regret it, cause he started a war with Roesone to take back what was "rightfully his"- Abbatuor, the last bit of the Erebannien. Was a great move, but my question is about the three provinces that weren't forest- what do I do then? Should I allow the elves to live there, in the plains, and raise the province level from 5/1 to 5/5 (ect.) to reflect this? Or should I turn it into forest? I don't know exactly how it'll change gameplay, so I'm presenting it to you. Which leads to....

    3. The High Mage insists that if, in fact, those WERE plains with 5/5 or 6/6 then she should have those source levels automatically. I think it would make her more powerful than she needs to be. My question- should I let her be the only one with control of sources after (if) I raise these? Or should I let the Swamp Mage or Second Swamp mage have some free sources to fill in the gaps?

    4. With the mage class, the High Mage decided she wanted to specialise (?) in Water Magic because she had Masela's bloodline. Is this also Cerilian? I figured it was because of the inherent natural property of arcane magic in BR but wanted a second opinion.

    All of that aside, we had a wonderful three days filled with BR fun and, sadly though I had to leave town again (spring break ended) they want to keep it alive via email. I'm able to change these before we start and told them I probably would. Constructive responses welcome! Also, if anyone's interested, I'm going to try and keep this up in another part of BR available to read for enjoyment and any help the BR experts out there can give me. There is a forum for that, right? Not too sure.

    Thanks!

    Charlie

  2. #2
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    Landen_Haesri wrote:

    >This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
    > You can view the entire thread at: http://www.birthright.net/read.php?TID=1585
    >
    > Landen_Haesri wrote:
    > Guys~
    >Well, after owning the campaign for nearly 5 years, I finally played it with my group for the first time. *THE* first time. Needless to say, I was very anxious and excited. Actually, I had to trick `em into thinking we were going to play a "regular" DnD adventure- you know, that one where you wander around with your sword and your shield and kill kobolds and goblins till you gain a level? Yup, but I put a twist on it. It went as follows:
    >Me- "Okay Jer, your elf fighter is cool. Now roll for bloodline."
    >Jer- "Wait- what`s a bloodline?"
    >Me- "Oh, its a Birthright thing. Basically, you role to see what kind of gods` blood you have in you and you get some neat powers."
    >Jer- *eyes light up with newfound power* "Ok!"
    >
    And this will not exist in a new system if scions are absolutely
    balanced with all classes and penalized with an ECL - he would instead
    think much more if some bloodabilitys are worth to lose some of his
    levels in his class. :-(

    >Questions:
    >1. A racial question. Is it "Cerilian" (read: fit the campaign feel) to be a dwarven king of a human kingdom? The story is simple: Marlae Roesone had a daughter and, at the time of her death, invested her power into Vorwyck, her dwarven lieutenant, until her daughter comes of age. The other one, Bran the Halfling, was the dwarf`s lieutenant until he wanted a place to fit in- had to make that one up in the fly (he changed gods from Moradin to Haelyn so his character fit, but he kept the brewmaster title). Just wondering.
    >
    No, it is not. Dwarves in Cerilia are very insular. One dwarven realm
    has completely shut it´s doors to the surface, the others have only the
    most necessary connections to their neighbours. With racial prejudices
    running amok in Cerilia, especially between Humans and Elves
    (Sidhelien), I can imagine that other races would have to work hard to
    be accepted as rulers of another races realm.
    bye
    Michael Romes

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  3. #3
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    Michael~

    Thanks. I felt that way as well and thought that it would create too many problems from within the kingdom to allow it to work right. I'll have to have a discussion with my BR group about their choice of race and hope that they will be up to altering their characters a bit. I hate to do it, though. Oh well, I'll figure something out.

    Charlie

  4. #4
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    Originally posted by Landen_Haesri
    I'll have to have a discussion with my BR group about their choice of race and hope that they will be up to altering their characters a bit. I hate to do it, though. Oh well, I'll figure something out.
    Why are you doing it if you don't want to? I understand that racial tension is rampant in cerilia, but the dwarves and humans have a mutulal undestanding of staying out of each others way. The dwarf in question is not really a king, but a Chancelor of sorts who is running the kingdom for a short time (or a long, how old is the child heir?). Regardless of the race, if the populace liked the former ruler they should respect the decision of that ruler as to who will be the gardian of the bloodline, realm and heir to the throne. No I don't think they'll like it, but most will agree that it's better than losing the bloodline completly and having to suffer a civil war to determine who has the right to rule the realm.

    The biggest chalenge will be in winning over and/or keeping in line the other blooded nobiles who could have won that war. ;)
    "May Avani smile upon your soul and warm your days with truth..."

  5. #5
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    I agree, the most important part is that you all have fun. If you want them to play humans, then by all means say that we told you 'it has to be so'. But if it is for the enjoyment of all then things can be worked out.

    E.g. Dwarven kingdoms are insular, dwarves need not be, also see above.

    Aerenwe: Well, provinces that aren't forests are obviously deforested. Keep them humans (since your elven kingdom here obviously is working well together with humans).
    This is actually the wierdest one, and the one that should be changed. Offer to make him a bastard half-elf with dominant elven blood instead. (A half-elf, but with no half-elven traits and all elven traits, in effect an elf). Unless you can persuade the player to become a human or half-elf, that is.

    Skip as many of the elves as possible, at least those on tha plains, they'll only bring you grief, from campaign and players alike.

    If you think water mage belongs, then it does, but it's wierd to see a land-based high mage with it. Maybe a sea wizard would be better for that.

    Well, good luck.

  6. #6
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    I disagree with the elf point Nikolai II.
    The elves once ruled all of cerilia, why wouldn't they want to start taking back the plains and coast? If the elves are starting to get aling with humans again then good for them!
    They obviously have an open minded leader (and that is saying alot for a cerilian elf). I see no reason why the plains can't be built up to 5/5. The real chalenge is when you start to mix the races in one provence. I would not give a provence of humans and elves the extra source, since the humans development of the land is what causes the lowering of the source, while the elves live as a part of the land and do not cause the source to drop.

    No, I dont beleve you should give the High Mage the source for free.
    :)
    "May Avani smile upon your soul and warm your days with truth..."

  7. #7
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    I noticed some posts that are making points on things that I don't think I made clear, so let me clarify them now.

    The elf king in Aerenwe hates humans. Absolutely. He's actually chosen the alignment Lawful Evil as a result (he thought that Rhoubhe was an awesome example, and he just wanted to be an evil king in general). We all decided that the kingdom of Aerenwe is and always has been populated with elves (like the Sielwode). Thats why I needed to know what to do with the plains... since elves have lived there the entire time, the province ratings were technically never reduced in the first place.

    Aside that, thanks for the input. darknightlost, your take on the dwarf as chancellor is 100% correct, as is with the people of the kingdom. The previous regent was loved and, when her choice was made for her most trusted lieutenant to take over the rule until her 5-yr old daughter came of age, everyone grumbled but nodded their heads because they respected her decision. I never thought of the other minor nobles' roles in this, though. I'll have to think that one over, maybe have it come about as a reoccuring random event.

    Nickolai II, I'm interested in your "land-based high mage" statement. The high mage in question rolled up a great bloodline score with Masela as her derivation, which is the only reason she decided to become an elementalist of water. She also chose the (now war-torn) province of Abbatuor as her home so she could be closer to the coastline of Anuire and have contact with the various magical underwater creatures. She also wants to try and make her own realm spells that include the ocean at some point. I thought that was cool.

    On the specialist mage POV, does anyone have suggestions on what should/should not be allowed? I have the Tome of Magic and Spells and Powers book and love the various mages; I think that the Alchemist-type mages are a good representation of how magical items in this world should be made, without the more permanent magical item creation (except for the most powerful wizards). And the dimensionalist is also cool, possibly pulling its magic from the Shadow World.

    Again, thanks for the posts! I'm putting together the campaign over the internet right now and its a great time to get information from fans and DMs outside my group.


    Charlie

  8. #8
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    Oh, a couple more things...

    Can regents share regency points for the same domain action if they're working in tandem? (read: espionage action)

    In the war cards, is there a limit to how many "units" can be in one square? I don't know for certain.

    ([_]

    Charlie

  9. #9
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    Nikolai II wrote:

    >This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
    > You can view the entire thread at: http://www.birthright.net/read.php?TID=1585
    >Nikolai II wrote:
    > I agree, the most important part is that you all have fun. If you want them to play humans, then by all means say that we told you `it has to be so`. But if it is for the enjoyment of all then things can be worked out.
    >E.g. Dwarven kingdoms are insular, dwarves need not be, also see above.
    >
    The problem is not only the race, but the gods. Most Anuireans follow
    Haelyn as the king of gods.
    A dwarf from a dwarven realm will only follow Moradin - where will he
    pray? Will a shrine to Moradin be tolerated by the priests of Haelyn?

    Remember the laws of Moradin´s children (from the Player´s Secrets of
    Baruk-Ahzik, closesest dwarven realm to Aerenwe):
    Torvald´s Law:
    All dwarves answer first and foremost to Moradin. Their lives must be
    dedicated to his laws and teachings.
    Mirvald´s Law
    The bonds of teh family must be regarded as sacred. No dwarf shall
    undertake any action that might tear a family asunder.
    Sivia´s Law
    Every dwarf of Baruk-Ahzik is of equal worth.
    No dwarf shall place himself or herself above another.
    Kalvia´s Law
    The safety of Baruk-Azhik´s lands and people must never be compromised.
    Zohra´s Law
    The dwarven lands are a gift from Moradin. Their resources and wealth
    must be treated with respect and used to their fullest potential. The
    lands treasures must not be squandered.
    Zahra´s Law
    Evil must never be allowed to triumph over good.
    Kalmirn´s Law
    Enslavement of a dwarf must never be tolerated.
    Kalgraf´s Law
    No dwarf in Baruk- Azhik shall want for food, shelter or companionship.
    Dwarves must care for their own kind, especially the aged and infirm.

    Torvalds Law would bring a dwarven regent (even if only regent until the
    heir reaches his age to take the crown himself) in direct conflict with
    the priests of Haelyn. Kalvias Law if known will let every human know
    that this dwarf will place the safety of Baruz-Ahzik over the interestes
    of Aerenwe if ever in doubt - who would want him as regent?
    Zohras Law will bring him into conflict with every guild...

    >Aerenwe: Well, provinces that aren`t forests are obviously deforested. Keep them humans (since your elven kingdom here obviously is working well together with humans).
    >This is actually the wierdest one, and the one that should be changed. Offer to make him a bastard half-elf with dominant elven blood instead. (A half-elf, but with no half-elven traits and all elven traits, in effect an elf). Unless you can persuade the player to become a human or half-elf, that is.
    >
    So that he will not be hated by the humans, but despised? ;-)
    bye
    Michael Romes

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  10. #10
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    Landen_Haesri wrote:

    >This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
    > You can view the entire thread at: http://www.birthright.net/read.php?TID=1585
    >Landen_Haesri wrote:
    > Oh, a couple more things...
    >Can regents share regency points for the same domain action if they`re working in tandem? (read: espionage action)
    >
    Normally no. Every regent has his own regency pool and can spend only
    from this pool. Some house rules require even an Investiture action or
    an oath of vassalage to give RP from one regent to another (instead of
    just granting them like gold).

    >In the war cards, is there a limit to how many "units" can be in one square? I don`t know for certain.
    >
    In the 2E rules, no you could stack your entire army into one square.
    For larger armys this was quite necesary as the batlefield with only 3X5
    squares is rather small.

    And it allowed you to combine the attack of archers with the anti-horse
    defence of pikemen.

    In the 3E draft as far as I understand the battlefield is still as small
    as in 2E (3X5) but now no stacking is allowed.
    This means every battle will be only a minor skirmish with most of the
    army in reserve when two large armies meet.
    In addition archers will be vulnerable and pikemen useless - archers
    can´t fire OVER pikemen as archers still can shoot only into the next
    square and pikemen can´t jump in front of the archers when the enemys
    cavalry charge arrives...

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