back on track

[RMoraza@aol.co]

I have been a subscriber to this mailing list for only a week now and I am
already tired of the endless debate over domain turns versus role-playing. I
can't imagine how the poor guy at TSR who has to read all our mail feels. I
think it is safe to say that we have made our point. Now it's time to move
on.

Look, we are all here because we love Birthright, we know it's in trouble,
and we want to help save it (at least, that's why I'm here - that and to
share information with other players on the many different ways we run our
campaigns and solve our problems).

The game did not sell well. The primary question here, IMHO, should be WHY?
Well, I used to work in a gaming store and I asked a lot of gamers about
Birthright before I bought it. Most of them told me that they had never been
interested in the game because they thought the idea of PC kings was
unworkable in a role-playing game. "Why would a king adventure?" I was asked
by more than one gamer. I bought the game anyway, never expecting to play it.
But when I started telling people about the game, explaining the concepts and
system to them, I suddenly had more players than I could realistically run in
a game. The problem, it would seem to me, was a misconception regarding the
nature of the game.

TSR appears to have marketed this game to reach a new audience. They did
that. Unfortunately, we are a very small audience. The product was never
marketed in a way that appealed to the average gamer. That's why they didn't
buy it.

Does Birthright need a revision? Probably. No system is perfect and you can't
please everybody no matter how hard you try. But a revision isn't going to
save the game. We can do our part by introducing the game to new players,
showing them what we love about this great world, convincing them to spend
their money buying the products. We can tell TSR/WoTC why we bought the game,
why our friends didn't, and what we want in the way of support products and
revisions. And TSR/WoTC can do their part by developing a marketing strategy
that will show off Cerilia in a way that will appeal to those who care
nothing for kings and crowns.

Those of us that play the game know the truth - Birthright is about more than
war, domain turns, and regents. It's about savage elves, parallel universes
of shadow and death, hideous unstoppable monsters born of greed and ambition
and blessed with the powers of Divine Evil, fallen empires and dreams of
saviors, and of course, the men and women with the blood of the gods in their
veins who struggle to survive in this amazing world.

Spread the word.

[AMagie666@aol.co]

At last, somebody willing to be truthful about the endless bickering over
domain turns! People need to accept them, because they're a central part of
the game. Also,
if adventuring in Cerilia is what you like, then run more campaigns! The
turns aren't
the primary action anyway, they just allow for an accounting of time and
political action.(I can do a good domain turn in 5 minutes, a good adventure
is a few hours)