View Poll Results: What do you think should be done about the number of bloodline powers?

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  • More new powers should be added

    4 16.67%
  • Just include more variation with the current powers

    6 25.00%
  • There should be more powers AND more variation

    8 33.33%
  • The powers are fine as is, nothing should change

    6 25.00%
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  1. #1
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    This poll is about adding and adjusting bloodline powers. It was spawned off of the topic discussion "More Powers." Please feel free to comment or offer suggestions on this poll or the above mentioned thread. Thanks for your time.

  2. #2
    Birthright Developer irdeggman's Avatar
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    'Fine as is' doesn't mean "no tweaking".

    You do realize that Chap 2 of the BRCS-playtest is 20 pages as is with over half of that devoted to the blood abilities themselves. With a 200+ page document we could be looking at a pretty vast expansion.

    IMO the "core" rules should only have the minimum number of blood abilities presented (i.e, those from the Book of Regency) with guides for how to create (and level) new ones. If this is opened to adding new ones there is a Pandora's box occurence here. The "old" book of blood abilities on the BRnet had such a listing. What if someone out there doesn't want to use the "new" abilities, if they are included in the "core" rules this will cause an issue. It is far easier to have a minimal amount and have DMs increse those as they wish instead of having them have to 'delete' ones they don't like.
    Duane Eggert

  3. #3
    Site Moderator geeman's Avatar
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    3 +0200, irdeggman wrote:



    >What if someone out there doesn`t want to use the "new"

    >abilities, if they are included in the "core" rules this will

    >cause an issue. It is far easier to have a minimal amount and have DMs

    >increse those as they wish instead of having them have to `delete` ones

    >they don`t like.



    With the exception of a random blood ability table, it`s pretty easy to

    delete stuff.... Granted, it represents a potentially endless expansion of

    the core text, so it might be more appropriate as a web enhancement, but

    given that the conversion project itself could be seen as a sort of web

    enhancement taken to the Nth degree maybe throwing a few new blood

    abilities into the core document with a notation indicating which were

    brand new would be appropriate. That way there`d at least be some new

    blood abilities to serve as examples for the tweaking-inclined DM.



    Gary

  4. #4
    Senior Member RaspK_FOG's Avatar
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    I believe that new powers should be up to the individual DM... Any new powers, though, could be presented as suggestions (like the Witch variant class in the DMG, which, IMO, was awfully made) in either the core rulebook, or the site instead.

    Our efforts should be that all power levels (minor, major, great) are worked out for the various powers. Examples could be a nice idea to start with, but we shall see over time, shan't we?

  5. #5
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    For what it's worth, I think that only those blood abilities fromt the original BR books should be included. Those powers should of course be adjusted to fit the D20 rules. Other than that I think that the conversion should include guidelines for the DM to create his own blood abilities.
    Greetings From
    Thomas Due
    tdue@mail.dk

  6. #6
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    Basically, I think if any new powers are to be added, they should fulfill a few criteria. They should be appropriate to the bloodline and the setting. They should be different from existing powers. Primarily, I think if new powers are to be added, they should take these things into account, and also cover things that couldn't be represented well with the 2e rules, or possibly even cover problems created by the new ruleset. Also, some powers might do with some additional expansion to cover new mechanics created by the 3e rules.

    Apart from that, the addition of new blood abilities should be left to individual DMs, though it would probably be a good idea to include some guidelines for it, depending on what system is used to represent the abilities.
    Jan E. Juvstad.

  7. #7
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    > Apart from that, the addition of new blood abilities should be left to individual DMs, though it would probably be a good idea to include some guidelines for it, depending on what system is used to represent the abilities.



    While I don`t disregard the important role the GM has in customizing his

    campaign world to fit his players and games, I don`t think there`s any

    reason to just assume that individual DMs should do this work, anymore than

    saying we should leave it up to individual DMs to write their own conversion

    manuals. This kind of mentality goes against the whole creative process.



    I can understand why you`d want to keep the conversion manual as close to

    the original work as possible, but there`s no reason you couldn`t have

    additional blood abilities put into a different section or a different

    release altogether, so long as you started planning them now in the design

    process. I rather like the suggestion put forth earlier about adding new

    blood abilities and simply noting which ones are "added" and which ones are

    "core", perhaps by a different color of font in the title or some such.



    I can`t really think of any new blood abilities that I use in my campaigns

    that should go in the book, though. (I use them mostly for plot devices.)

    Are there any blood abilities that anyone specifically wants?



    Off hand, all I can think of is that it might be cool to have more

    elementally-based blood abilities for Reynir and perhaps some

    necromancy-like effects for Azrai.



    While I don`t want this to become the Netbook of Blood Abiltiies (but that

    would be helpful...), I think if we don`t make some new blood abilities for

    use with the core materials, whatever guidelines are written up to add blood

    abilities for use with core materials will be meaningless and untested.



    -Lord Rahvin
    NOTE: Messages posted by Birthright-L are automatically inserted posts originating from the mailing list linked to the forum.

  8. #8
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    What WOULD you all think about expanding all the efforts of the conversion

    process into their own independant projects? For example, coming out with a

    sort of Netbook of Blood Abilties, Netbook of Domain Actions, Netbook of

    Realm Spells, etc...



    It would have to be decided now, since the conversion manual would have to

    be written in such a way as to have any one chapter in it replaced by such a

    Netbook-type thing. Instead of being a sort of `core rulebook` to consult

    then, the conversion manual would sort of launchpad to introduce the ideas

    expanded by other projects.



    I kind of like the idea of adding, say, 25% more blood abilities to each

    derivation along with guidelines on making your own blood abilities and

    compiling any additional blood ability proposals into their own Netbook

    projects.



    -Lord Rahvin
    NOTE: Messages posted by Birthright-L are automatically inserted posts originating from the mailing list linked to the forum.

  9. #9
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    While I don`t disregard the important role the GM has in customizing his
    campaign world to fit his players and games, I don`t think there`s any
    reason to just assume that individual DMs should do this work, anymore than
    saying we should leave it up to individual DMs to write their own conversion
    manuals. This kind of mentality goes against the whole creative process.
    Personally, I'm not opposed to adding blood abilities at all - I just think there should be strong reasons for including them in the core document. One such reason is because some things weren't easy to do or represent mechanically in 2e, though they might have been highly appropriate otherwise.

    Off hand, all I can think of is that it might be cool to have more
    elementally-based blood abilities for Reynir and perhaps some
    necromancy-like effects for Azrai.
    I don't tend to think of Azrai as especially "necromantic" - he is supposed to be a fallen god of knowledge, so ultimately, I tend to think of effects like magic, trickery and deceit, fear and intimidation, and pure evil effects or poisonous and similar ignoble attack forms as his niche in blood abilities. Necromancy just isn't in generally in his "sphere" by my interpretation. Reynir might need some lovin', though.
    Jan E. Juvstad.

  10. #10
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    I was hoping more people would have voted by now, oh well. I like Birthright-L's suggestion of a seperate netbook of blood abilities as it caters to everyone equally well. The people who don't want to add to the powers can simply use the main set of rules, while those of us who do can download the supplement(s). Pretty slick idea B-L. What do you guys think?

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