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Thread: your mail

  1. #1
    Jonathan Picklesimer
    Guest

    your mail

    On Tue, 7 Jan 1997 drith@icon.co.za wrote:

    > I'm new to this list ... amf I have never seen any Birthright rules only the
    > pictures the setting.
    >
    > Can any of you tell me more about the setting, how the rules differ from the
    > other settings/AD&D. I have played Ravenloft and FR, but DM Dark Sun. And as
    > DS is the only setting that I own,and has been stopped by dear TSR, I was
    > thinking of getting into another setting...
    >

    Well now, I thought that I would post my thoughts on Birthright to the
    list so that everybody can add their 2GBs worth, too.

    Birthright is a setting where you can do almost anything. If you want to
    run some straight forward typical D&D type adventures in this world, you
    can find tons of things for "ordinary" adenturers to pursue. There are
    plenty of powerful people and enough conflicting intrests to keep this
    type of group happy for a LONG time.

    However, the real strenght of Birthright lies in its emphasis on
    statecraft. This setting is designed to allow PCs to be far more than an
    "ordinary" adventurer. The rules of the game are intended to allow
    characters to become involved with the shaping of their contry's,
    temple's, guild's, or continent's future. The game provides rules which
    allow you to simulate the powers, both implicit or explicit that a ruler
    has in political, economic, and religious matters. Cerillia, the
    continent which the Birthright setting focuses on, is a complex web of
    power and influence that only the bravest leaders dare to navigate, and
    only the smart, strong, sly, cunning, and devious survive!

    The rulers on Cerillia, collectively refered to as regents, derive their
    power and abilities to rule from the old gods who destroyed themselves in
    a titanic, continent encompassing battle of good versus evil. The
    remaining essence of these gods were fused into the blood of the people
    at the battle and some gained a divine bloodline which gives them the
    birthright for and often to leadership. The powers of the old gods often
    manifest themselves in powerful, and often subtle, ways which grant the
    scions of the bloodline extra abilities to help them rule. In return,
    theses scions use this power, in theory, to rule their land with wisdom,
    and honor to promote the development of a powerful realm.

    Not everyone at Desimaar received a bloodline from the gods.
    Unfortunately, some one say, those that did gain a bloodline were not
    always kindly blessed. Some inherited bloodlines from the evil god
    Azrai. Those with exceedingly powerful bloodlines were transformed into
    awnsheighlen. Awnsheigh is an elven word meaning, basically, "bad
    blood." These evil creatures exhibit power and abilities beyond
    comprehension to most and weild an incredible amount of political,
    economic, and sometimes religious influence. Do not take these evil
    regents lightly, for those who do, wind up dead - or worse.

    Well, that is about all I have to say in way of introduction to the world.

    Jonathan

  2. #2
    Neil Barnes
    Guest

    your mail

    > While the concept is good, and is what the Wizard character in my
    > campaign has been looking for, it seems a little powerful. Rain of
    > Magic Missiles can be cast as a first level spell and requires no
    > components! It seems like this spell would be much more powerful than
    > say, fireball, a third level spell. Plus a Wizard could cast many more
    > of them, then he could fireballs. This seems a little odd.

    Doesn't War Magic require d4+1 GB worth of componants for each spell? And
    several assistants?

    neil

  3. #3
    Mark A Vandermeulen
    Guest

    your mail

    On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Nigel Sellman wrote:

    > I am relativly new to game and I am having a problem with GB - I dont
    > have enough of them. Does anyone have any ideas about the best way to
    > aquite them quickly. I have a small 2 porvince domain a level 5 and a
    > level 2 and I am a Wizard regent.

    Hi Nigel,

    One complication that limits my ability to answer your question is whether
    you're playing the Birthright computer game (The Gorgon's Alliance), or
    whether you're playing in a table top (face-to-face) game, or a PBeM (Play
    by e-mail) game. That answers are all slightly different for each.

    Philosophically, I believe that the Wizard was made poor on purpose. If
    the wizard were able to support himself and his magical lifestyle
    perfectly well on his own, there would be little reason for him to operate
    together with other people. That would be pretty boring (and difficult for
    the DM to deal with) in a politically-centered game like BR. This
    perennial lack of fund is designed to drive the Wizard regent into acting
    together with others. As a wizard, you can offer a valuable skill to
    others, so you can potentially convince (or coerce) your neighbors into
    giving you a certain amount of money each turn in return for your magical
    protection against their enemies, support during times of war, etc.
    Non-province holding regents usually do this for one realm, becomming in
    effect the "court wizard" for that realm, but it sounds like you're
    already a province holder of 2 provinces (although I could be confusing
    what you meant to describe as Source holdings as provinces). If you are
    a province ruler, your best bet is to hire troops as police force in your
    provinces and raise the tax level to severe for a few seasons. Plus make
    any law claims you can if you hold law holdings. If you don't have law
    holdings, you should. And, there's nothing saying that wizards can possess
    guild holdings, which are the fastest source of GB around, just that they
    can't gain RP's from them.
    However, the fastest way to gain them GB's is to find someone willing
    to pay for your services. And as long as you're not of good alignment,
    there's nothing that says you can't play both ends of the game on that
    score, if you're careful.
    Of course, if you're actually talking about the computer game, most of
    this isn't going to work. You'll have to rely on taxation and aquiring
    guild holdings (and subsequent trade routes) then.

    Mark VanderMeulen
    vander+@pitt.edu
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