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  1. #1
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    A wishlist of stuff that would make next iteration of BRCS more useful to me:

    RULES INDEPENDENT (or Rules-Light) DISCRIPTIONS OF CERILLIA
    Between changes in rules by Hasbro, and not wanting to change The Way The World Works in midgame, descriptions of culture and religion that are not rules-dependent are more useful to me than ones that rush to be framed in D&D version 3.7214 or whatever the rules of the day are.
    Likewise, domain rules that are not closely modeled and entangled on one system's individual combat mechanics (as the Behind The Scenes on page 102 on Domain Action Times helpfully revealed) would be more useful to me.

    DEMOGRAPHIC ASSUMPTIONS perhaps as several variants and their implications.

    Classic Birthright in Ruins of Empire and Players Secret state how many people with "character classes" and levels there are. In Roesone there are about a thousand or so low-level fighters and thieves out of a total population of 75,000, perhaps a hundred priests (one in 750) again mostly low level, and zero wizards (Aglondier and Aelies commute but have their homes outside the Barony).
    Boxed set mention about 100 wizards in the whole continent.
    In Anuire the resources of a major realm come up with a sixth level wizard for Mhoried where -- as a front line state this is life and death important, seventh for Boeruine and (with the anomaly of the Swamp Mages), 10th level wizards like Caine, the Eyeless One and the Wizard are centuries old.

    These are lower levels than I was using in my non-birthright (I did a thought experiment assuming 1 e.p. day was "normal" and tweaked from there), but not grotesquely so.

    I gather that 3e would assume as an "of course" that there were many more leveled characters, and that they would be higher level and more multiclasses than in 2e Classic Birthright.

    FLAG RULES THAT MAKE MAJOR CHANGES IN CHARACTERS POWER COMPARED TO WHAT THEY COULD DO WHEN BIRTHRIGHT WAS PUBLISHED. For instance Warding required a 5th level caster in Classic Birthright. Regien, Arlen Innis, Hermedhie, Caine, Torele, the Sword Mage, the centuries-old Wizard the higher-level-than-he-should-be Second Swamp mage could cast them. In BRCS it requires a 12th level caster.

    No Anuirean human wizard can cast these spells using BRCS rules, just Aelies, Isaelie and abomination because of this increase.

    Transport likewise went up from requiring a 3rd level caster to requiring an 8th level caster, putting it out of reach of Rogr, Khorien, Regien, Hermedhie and Arlen Innis.

    Part of this will depend on what goals the designers aim for. Personally I would like to tone down how much field-artillery affect wizards can have, limiting battle magic type spells and BOOM type of spells, but having wizards important on getting armies across rivers or over impassable ridges, but then the armies still need to slog it out. I always found Feather Fall more interesting than Magic Missile, Invisibility than Fireball, Polymorph than Ice Storm.

    REALM EFFECTIVENESS LEVEL?
    For Birthright I am far more concerned with how effective a ruler a character can be as a ruler than what in their combat prowess at tactical levels in a dungeon might be.
    For landed regents there is some advantage to being high level in leading troops better, administering with synergy bonus additions -- but a 2nd level fighter can still raise knights, build castles, and such.
    For wizards personal level is critically important. A fighter doesn't have to be 12th level to be able to build a castle, but a wizard in BRCS needs to be 12th level to cast warding. A guilder doesn't need to be 8th level to transport goods across realms and make money and rp with a trade route, but a wizard has to be 8th level to cast transport.

    Temples midway between the two extremes, where the high priest's power is important, but court can extend this some.


    The Behind the Curtain and Behind the Scenes notes were helpful at providing information for why the authors were doing things they were, and clarifying somewhat when different results were because of different ends as well as different means than what I would have chosen.


    This is amply long enough for now. I type fast but edit slow.

  2. #2
    Birthright Developer
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    I think you'll be pleased once the Atlas gets out, which may still be a while.

    I also have a personal interest in some of the issues you mention, so I've already done some preliminary research on them.
    Jan E. Juvstad.

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