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  1. #1
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    I am new to Birthrigth. Which i think look like a fantastic setting but have a few questions about this world!

    What makes this setting unique/better compered to Dragonlance or Forgotten realms!

    Is it high magic like FR!

    Do the players all have to be kings?

  2. #2
    Senior Member RaspK_FOG's Avatar
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    Welcome, Hubert, to the wonderful setting that is Birthright! First off, I suggest you download the Playtester document for the "upgrade" from AD&D 2e to D&D 3e (more things have been considered, especially now with 3.5e on the shelves).

    Now, on a quick note, Birthright is a setting of generally low magic, with few strokes of brilliantly majestic high magic concepts: +1 daggers are valuable family relics, and +5 vorpal bastard swords are more than legendary! Furthermore, on the note on regency, well, no, not all of us enjoy playing regents, other find it fascinating but too big a bite to swallow (spelling?), while others love playing regents!

  3. #3
    Birthright Developer irdeggman's Avatar
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    Another welcome.

    Actually Birthright is not a low magic campaign. It is a low-magic item campaign though, much like RaspK_Fog pointed out. There are, supposedly fewer magic items (unless you look at the 2nd ed adventures and published material which is inconsistent in this regard) - but the magic items tend to be more powerful than normal. There are few who can cast the powerful greater magic spells (in 2nd ed this was any arcane spell of greater than 2nd level except for illusion and divination spells), saince in order to process these power of these spells a character had to be blooded or have elven blood.

    The magic itself is extremely powerful. There is Realm level magic which affects entire provinces.

    Most players do tend to want to run kings or rulers of some kind, but there are different types of styles being run. There are some who play a standard adventure level game, those who play a predominantly domain level game (little to no adventuring - very common for PBEM type games) and those who play a mixture of both. Historically the most powerful regents were actually priests and thieves because priests controlled the motivation of the people and thieves (2nd ed, now rogues) controlled the economy. Most realm regents ended up having to court favor with the local guilder and priest in order to maintain control of the realm.

    The things that set Birthright apart mostly revolve around the death of the 'old gods' and their blood being spilt on those around. This was the basis for 'being blooded'. Being blooded granted scions (those who have been imbued with the blood of the old gods) blood abilities which are very similar to spell-like abilities, it also made them better rulers by being 'blessed' with the divine. There are other key factors that also set it apart - elves don't worship gods and hence are not clerics, but can cast greater magic without being blooded. Halflings come from the Shadow World, which is a very different place than the 'Real World', many features being the same, but many others being different - death and dread have taken over the Shadow World and now it is not a good place to be.
    Duane Eggert

  4. #4
    Site Moderator kgauck's Avatar
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    > Hubert wrote:

    > I am new to Birthrigth. Which i think look like a fantastic setting

    > but have a few questions about this world!What makes this setting

    > unique/better compered to Dragonlance or Forgotten realms;Is it high

    > magic like FR!Do the players all have to be kings?



    Birthright can be played either as noble rulers (kings, high priests, guild

    masters) or as the familiar adventurers who might take commissions from such

    figures. The pure adventure style ofplay works fine, its a well developed

    world, but its not a better ford than any other setting for this kind of game.

    The politically motivated adventure game uses strait adventurers, but the

    complex political machinations of the various rulers creates a background and

    context for the adventures the PC`s undertake. This might be considered a kind

    of three musketeers style of play, and the BR setting provides plenty of

    material around which to build intrigues and political changes that don`t rely

    on the PC`s as the mainspring. The third kind of play is the PC`s as rulers or

    nobles who are family of, friends of, or vassals of rulers who may or may not

    rise to the higest ranks themselves. I think its at this level of play where

    BR is really offering something that no other setting can touch. There are

    rules for handeling the special divine abilities so many RW cultures have

    associated with aristocrats. The list is broad and fantasy based, but its easy

    to be selective if you are focusing on your favorite nation or your own

    invention. Second, there are rules for governing provinces. Again they are

    best used to reflect the society you imagine in your minds eye and not used

    litterally as written, but its much easier to patch an innertube than make one

    from scratch.



    Birthright is generally a low frequency / high power magic world. Magic is

    rare, but its wielders can be especially potent. Wizards need to be decendents

    of the great heros to be able to cast true magic, so its rare. Those who also

    control the magical energies of several territories can cast magic more

    powerful than normal wizards by drawing on the magical energy of the land.



    Kenneth Gauck

    kgauck@mchsi.com

  5. #5
    Site Moderator geeman's Avatar
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    At 09:02 PM 12/27/2003 +0100, Hubert wrote:



    >What makes this setting unique/better compered to Dragonlance or Forgotten

    >realms?



    A couple of people have chimed in on this, but I`ll go ahead and add my take.



    THINGS THAT MAKE BIRTHRIGHT UNIQUE



    The Domain Level. BR is the only campaign setting with an articulated set

    of guidelines for running a realm comprised of population, legal systems,

    economy, religion and magical potential of the land itself. Rules

    occasionally come out for D20 products that do something similar, but IMO

    none has really approached the versatility and utility of the BR domain

    level, despite some of the vagaries and sometimes occasional shoddy editing

    of those original texts.



    Bloodlines. Bloodlines are unique to BR and are tied into the background

    of the setting. If you don`t already know, they are the remnant of the

    divine energies of the gods released by their sacrifice and embodied in the

    mortals (and a few others) present at the Battle of Deismaar. Those with a

    bloodline are called scions. 1,500 years after that battle, bloodlines

    continue to exist by being passed on to the progeny of those present, to

    those they willingly (in one way or another) transfer it, or by some rather

    poorly documented methods generally left up to DM fiat--the Land`s Choice

    or by a form of extreme bloodtheft. Bloodlines grant divine powers and

    allow the collection of regency, the mystical powers gained by the control

    of a realm that represents the energies of the collective hope,

    aspirations, respect, belief, power, etc. of the people and natural

    environment who make it up. Note that in the original 2e BR rules only

    those with a bloodline could control a realm while in the fan-produced, BR

    3e update anyone can be a regent (though they wouldn`t be as good at it as

    a scion because they couldn`t collect/spend regency on their domain actions.)



    Awnsheghlien/Ersheghlien. The iconic monsters of BR are unique to the

    setting and are in many ways different from any other monsters in any other

    setting. Where FR or DL might crank out a few dozen, hundred or even

    thousands of draconians (or other monsters) that make those settings

    "unique" the "unique" monsters of BR are themselves actually unique. It`s

    THE Spider, THE Gorgon, THE Magian that inhabit Cerilia.



    THINGS THAT MAKE BIRTHRIGHT BETTER

    (compared to FR and DL)



    This one is subjective to a certain extent, and I`m no doubt biased on this

    score. Having said that, I`ve played FR and DL as well as several other

    campaign settings, and here`s my opinion:



    BR has better demi-humans, humanoids and human cultures. The races of BR

    are more "realistically" and portrayed, and differ from standard D&D races

    in ways that are apt to the campaign setting. Athas did a pretty good job

    of changing the various demi-human and humanoid races to fit the campaign,

    but that is a very specific setting. When one plays in that world one

    knows what one is going to get. Most campaign settings have the standard

    D&D races plunked down into them with very few changes or changes that

    don`t necessarily have anything to do with the setting itself. The

    demi-human and humanoid races of BR all have demonstrable, significant yet

    subtle changes that interact with the campaign setting itself. BR goblins,

    for instance, are different from goblins in other settings. They are not

    physically larger, more intelligent, but because they control very large

    populations and trade with human neighbors, etc. they have a culture in a

    way that seems lacking in other campaigns. Orogs are more interesting than

    the cannon fodder of standard humanoid races in other settings. Similarly,

    the human races are culturally distinct, yet we see how human cultures are

    often intermingled in the various border nations of Cerilia. These

    examples don`t even touch upon the subtle, yet significant differences

    between BR elves and those of other campaign worlds.



    BR has better themes. Where FR and DL themes can be vast,

    continent-spanning and as significant as the basic conflict of good vs.

    evil, BR overshadows either of them in both scope and subtlety. In scope

    there`s just not much more significance that one can put into a setting

    than a cataclysmic battle of the gods that permeates the campaign

    world. Perhaps a setting based on something like the Norse Ragnorak would

    compare, but even that IMO fall short in that such a campaign is

    apocalyptic, where for BR it represents only the _beginning_ of

    things.... In subtlety, BR has the corrupting influence of Azrai`s

    bloodline influencing characters at the adventure level and exemplifying

    the addictive nature of evil as portrayed with all the complexity of

    personality and totemic monsters; the setting has all of the intrigue,

    diplomacy, wrangling and maneuvering of the political level of play at the

    domain level; the cosmological significance of the Shadow World cannot be

    overstated, nor can one ignore the pre-history of the setting that is much

    more closely akin to several real life mythologies--and gains all the deep

    rooted psychological benefits thereof. The conflicts of other campaign

    worlds are comparatively vulgar--in the sense that they lack development

    beyond very coarse or obvious oppositions, thus providing little

    opportunity to portray depth of character, conflict of choice or moral

    ambiguity available in just the shortest of BR`s texts, the Atlas of Cerilia.



    >Is it high magic like FR?



    It`s not high magic like FR, but it`s not really a low magic setting

    either, and in general I think there are things about BR that make it a

    much more high magic setting than any other campaign world. Sometimes

    described as "low magic" BR is unique in that magic items are comparatively

    rare, but there are vastly more powerful magics available (realm spells)

    that are generally reserved for DM fiat in other campaign worlds, in

    addition to the power of bloodlines already described and large amounts of

    magical energies available in controlling realms. BR battlespells are also

    significant magics in the setting (one that I personally think either need

    to be discarded or vastly reworked) that are very powerful. In many ways

    the magic available to low level BR characters can overshadow that of the

    epic level characters in other campaign worlds.



    >Do the players all have to be kings?



    Nope. By "kings" I assume you mean regents who control provinces or

    holdings, and in BR there are several flavors of them. Technically, at the

    domain level only 1/4 or so would be considered nobility in the traditional

    sense. Those regents who control temple, guild or source holdings may or

    may not have titles, but in general more regents are not "kings" (or

    amongst the landed aristocracy) than are.



    More to the point, however, campaigns need not be conducted at the domain

    level at all. BR can be played entirely at the traditional, D&D adventure

    level of play using only the background, terrain, cultures, languages, etc.

    of the setting as background for those adventures. I`ve personally played

    whole BR campaigns in which no one ever controlled a holding or a province

    other than NPCs, but the PCs actions did have domain level consequences in

    that they dealt with things ranging from domain level random events to

    carrying out the LT actions or participating in the delegation of duties

    that were part of a larger domain action being performed by their

    liege. When one sees the adventure level of play in such a context it adds

    considerably to the depth and gives a nice way of portraying the events the

    PCs engage in.



    Hope that`s informative,

    Gary

  6. #6
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    Thank you, for all the replies.

    I will start to read the d20 BRCS, and see what more can laern about Birthrigth.

  7. #7
    Birthright Developer irdeggman's Avatar
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    Make sure you download the revised Chap 2 info. Check the BRCS threads and look for the specific thread on it. It incorporates 3.5 and a lot of comments on that chapter. It is the bloodline/blood abilities chapter.
    Duane Eggert

  8. #8
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    ok! Thank you very much

  9. #9
    Site Moderator Fearless_Leader's Avatar
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    I usually consider BR to be low magic because of the lack of magical items and the relatively low number of arcane magic practitioners. As well, most arcane practitioners are of a relatively low level. The setting also lacks the near god-like casters from some settings (re: Elminster).

    Another aspect that I think hasn't yet been touched upon is the emphasis in the setting on religion. In most settings, temples and religion seem to have little effect on the world, whereas in BR, they are hugely influencial. As well, there aren't all-encompassing doctrines for each god or goddess. For each god, there are many many different interpretations of a god's place in the world, their stance on social issues, etc. So there is a great deal more potential for conflict.

    As well as the d20 BRCS which has been released, the d20 Atlas of Cerilia is under construction.

  10. #10
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    the more i read the BRCS, the better it sounds but Is there any place where i can find or see a map of cerillia or do i have to buy it as a ESD.

    I know that there is a map on Map of the Week from WOTC, but it dosnt have any names on it.

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