Birthright Meets Oriental Adventures

[Osprey]

This summer I began work on an Asian continent that lay east of Cerilia, across the Sea of Dragons. Not having heard of Djapar, this was inspired as the original ancestral home of the Basarji. I thought a Mongolian kind of land worked well for the ancestral birthplace of the Basarji.

I got inspired to make an Oriental Adventures Birthright setting, and why not across the Sea of Dragons? At least the basic metaphysics of the world will remain the same. I think I'll start a new thread in the library to detail this one.

Bloodlines exist, but they are based on actual couplings between deities and mortals, who then birth children with divine power in their blood. Strengths and purities of the blood are based partly on the power of the deific parent, but more on how recent the coupling was, and how pure subsequent generations have remained. Divine heritage is a powerful part of Asian mythology, and I thought it was exciting to think of a land where bloodlines were still being made, not just a relic of some 5000-year-old cataclysm.

My own campaign focused on Nippon [mythical Japan], inspired by Japanese mythology, Shinto, and the game of Bushido [still one of the best RPG's ever made for a mythical setting in feudal Japan, IMO; they even credit it as a major inspiration in 3.0 Oriental Adventures].

Given that Nippon is the land of "100 million gods," I decided that bloodline derivations were an open-ended range of possibilities - leaving room for immense creativity and possibilites for DM's and players designing bloodlines. I detailed the major deities (the greater Kami) and the breakdown of other types of kami (spirits/gods) for general guidelines in designing bloodlines and their derivative powers. The tough part was deciding what exactly a first generation child of a god and mortal would be (blooded? half-celestial? both?!?).

I wanted to post this in the interest of expanding the Birthright world and its possible applications. And if folks are interested, I might be willing to start typing this stuff up in computer format (rather than its current form on paper).

-Osprey

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Osprey" <brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET>

Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 10:41 AM



> This summer I began work on an Asian continent that lay east of

> Cerilia, across the Sea of Dragons.



Very cool.



> I wanted to post this in the interest of expanding the Birthright world

> and its possible applications. And if folks are interested, I might be

> willing to start typing this stuff up in computer format (rather than its

> current form on paper).



I am interested in the possibilities of distant lands. I have the Rokugan

setting, and you seem to have drawn inspiration from different materials, so

what ever you post will be of particular interest. A few other here have

also been doing the OA/BR thing, so its a welcome direction.



Kenneth Gauck

kgauck@mchsi.com

[Prospero]

Cool stuff. I&#39;ve toyed with the thought of BR in a more Asian setting. Rather than using the bloodlines as you have, I changed them into the "Mandate of Heaven" and "Dragon&#39;s Blessings". So long as a province ruler rules well, they have the Mandate, with accompanying ability to gain/spend RP, and also probably some powers. Poor rulership causes the Mandate to weaken, opening the door for someone else to take over.

The Dragon&#39;s Blessings are more just powers awarded by various spirits, which the characters can use so long as they maintain the spirits&#39; favor.

I never really fleshed these out too well, just thought I&#39;d throw them out there for people&#39;s viewing pleasure.

[Raesene Andu]

This site may interest you...
http://www.angelfire.com/fl/switala/birthr...jadeempire.html

This was a similar project started up about a year or two ago intending to do much the same thing. I don&#39;t think they got very far, but there are a couple of maps around somewhere.
http://www.angelfire.com/fl/switala/images/testmap.jpg

Interestingly they placed the oriental realm is the same place you are proposing (i.e. not on Djapar as many might surpose, but a new land mass).

I&#39;d be interested in seeing this done, although I&#39;m a little busy to help out myself.

[Justinius_ExMortis]

Prospero, I very much like the idea of Dragon Blessings, some minor or even major power gifted to a mortal by a kami as part of a contract or even as a gift with few strings attached. As a side note, the classes used in the OA setting book are very appropriate for the Oriental Birthright game and I&#39;m a firm believer than anyone running such a game should discourage the use of regular classes/prestinge classes from Player&#39;s Guide and various other source material except in specific situations.

As the land of Nippon is a land of a 100 million gods creating a comprehensive list of Bloodlines is simply insane, but I think a modular system of some kind could work very well. Create a series of minor, major, and great tracks for aspects of gods and areas where a god would be known could work rather well and the PC and GM could simply sit down and figure what the three major areas of influence of a god would be and then select great, major, and minor bloodline ability tracks from those three area in order of importance.



Justinius_ExMortis
Entropy is my Master