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Thread: Birthright: Regency points
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03-10-1998, 05:23 AM #1john gonzalezGuest
Birthright: Regency points
Greetings all,
here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
points in roleplaying terms.
for example lets take Prince Avan, and one of his vassels. In the
vassalge agreement, a tribute of 5GB and 10RP is agreed upon, now the GB
is easy,
' you pay me 10000gp every 3 months and I wont invade your grubby little
domain and kill you '
but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
any comments would be appreciated, thanks
wyntergryn
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03-10-1998, 05:45 AM #2Daniel McSorleyGuest
Birthright: Regency points
>here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
>points in roleplaying terms.
>but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
>is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
>blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
>unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
>any comments would be appreciated, thanks
>
>wyntergryn
Well, I've always kind of thought along these lines: In certain AD&D
worlds, the deities' status (demi-, lesser, greater, etc.)depends on their
numbers of worshippers, the number of people who believe them to have
authority. Since the BR regents have this divine blood, they too are
affected by the beliefs of the masses. Well, when you can push around
another regent to the point that he is going to pay you tribute, his status
will fall, and yours will rise, expressed in game terms in RP. How's that
sound?
Daniel McSorley
mcsorley.1@osu.edu
ICQ:5299865
AIM:DanMcS
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03-10-1998, 06:08 AM #3Bret W. DavenportGuest
Birthright: Regency points
Actually, I am not sure about anyone else, but I have never used Regency
Points as part of a Tribute. It has always been strictly cash =)
> here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
> points in roleplaying terms.
> for example lets take Prince Avan, and one of his vassels. In the
> vassalge agreement, a tribute of 5GB and 10RP is agreed upon, now the GB
> is easy,
> ' you pay me 10000gp every 3 months and I wont invade your grubby little
> domain and kill you '
> but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
> is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
> blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
> unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
> any comments would be appreciated, thanks
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03-10-1998, 06:47 AM #4Gary V. FossGuest
Birthright: Regency points
john gonzalez wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
> points in roleplaying terms.
> for example lets take Prince Avan, and one of his vassels. In the
> vassalge agreement, a tribute of 5GB and 10RP is agreed upon, now the GB
> is easy,
> ' you pay me 10000gp every 3 months and I wont invade your grubby little
> domain and kill you '
> but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
> is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
> blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
> unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
> any comments would be appreciated, thanks
Well, this is really the crux of the matter, isn't it? Bloodlines and regency
are what makes the Birthright setting what it is. Defining RPs might be a
difficult proposition, but since I don't plan on sleeping much tonight I'll
take a stab at it. (Which could be interpreted as an act of bloodtheft....)
I should begin by mentioning that I am in no way associated with the folks who
came up with the BR setting and that these are just a few ideas that I'm
throwing out on my own. Disregard them if you like.
How can one Regent demand RPs of another regent? Well, the short answer is
"magic" but a longer explanation would probably have to do with the nature of
the tie with the land and the power of a bloodline. Essentially, what seems
intangible to the unblooded must actually be tangible to a character with a
bloodline, mustn't it? Otherwise, they would not be able to manipulate RPs.
Many of the special abilities that blooded characters receive have to do with
the senses. Alertness, Character Reading, Detect Lie, Detect Illusion,
Direction Sense, Poison Sense all are essentially just different ways of
sensing things. Let's call them senses 7-13, shall we? (I reserve the 6th
sense for those people in our mundane world who can sense Newt Gingrich's
smarmy insincerity and irrational egoism.)
Bloodlines come from the gods and in the AD&D universe part of what makes a god
powerful is the belief given to Him/Her by worshippers. Blooded characters
have some measure of this ability.
In a Birthright campaign a bloodline gives a character the ability not only to
sense RPs, but to store and manipulate them. They must form a kind of psychic
energy, transferred by the belief of the people who are ruled to the ruler.
The difference between a BR campaign and that of any other setting is that on
Cerilia, the land can channel the energy of the populace to the ruler of a
province or holding who can store it or use it. S/he can even internalize it
in order to increase the strength of his/her own bloodline and, therefore,
connection with the land.
Part of a blooded character's ability to store and manipulate RPs is the
ability to transfer them to another blooded character. They can do this in the
form of vassalage, or by supporting the actions of that character in a province
in which they also have holdings.
So to blooded characters RPs would not be as intangible as they would be to
others. They would be able to sense them, use them, or hand them off. Oh,
they wouldn't articulate their use of the power of Regency in terms of points,
but then how many weight lifters would express their strength in points or
MENSA members express their intelligence in points?
Wait. Weight lifters express the strength in the number of pounds they can
lift and MENSA members in IQ points, huh? OK, bad example.... Well, how many
weight lifters and really smart people would express their abilities in points
in Medieval times before weight machines and standardized intelligence tests?
I hope this makes some sense!
- -G
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03-10-1998, 07:46 AM #5relve@Otdk.Helsinki.FGuest
Birthright: Regency points
> here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
> points in roleplaying terms.
> but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
> is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
> blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
> unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
> any comments would be appreciated, thanks
Well, I have ruled that regency is sort of "invisble mist" that
gathers around powerful people blooded or not. But its only scions
with whom the mist is able to create a channel (the connection, tie,
link whatever). When the channel has been "built" the mist starts to
pour through it. (The witdh of the channel and thus its abilty to let
the mist trhough depends on the bloodline strength). Initially,
the mist is tied to the land but after pouring through the channel it
becomes attached to the regent (forming a "personal pool").
Thus, transferring regency presumes creating yet another channel
between the regents (by investiture spell). Once created, the mist
starts to pour from one "pool" to another. The width of the channel
(i.e. how many RP's are transferred in one DT) can be altered only
with another investiture spell which means that you cannot agree
for example that you will pass half of the RP's to be collected - no
matter what's the regents "income" the constant amount of RP's pours
through the channel. (Depleting all donors RP's, if need be)
Concerning bullying the other regent into giving up his RP's looks
very much the same as with GB's: ' you'll participate in investiture
ceremony and be willing to give up a part of your power and I wont
invade your grubby little domain and kill you '
My 2RP's
Kaarel
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03-10-1998, 09:50 AM #6Manfred V=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Guest
Birthright: Regency points
>Greetings all,
>
>here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
>points in roleplaying terms.
>for example lets take Prince Avan, and one of his vassels. In the
>vassalge agreement, a tribute of 5GB and 10RP is agreed upon, now the GB
>is easy,
>' you pay me 10000gp every 3 months and I wont invade your grubby little
>domain and kill you '
>but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
>is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
>blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
>unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
>any comments would be appreciated, thanks
Ok, here is a simple one:
I think, RP's are transferred by ordering the vassal to fulfill certain
deeds and tasks (compulsory service). Second the reputation and the fame
of regent increases with any vassal working for him. As a result of this,
this may cause the blood strength to increase as well.
How about this?
Manni
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03-10-1998, 05:10 PM #7Ed StarkGuest
Birthright: Regency points
At 12:23 AM 3/10/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Greetings all,
>
>here is a question thats been bugging me, how do you explain regency
>points in roleplaying terms.
>for example lets take Prince Avan, and one of his vassels. In the
>vassalge agreement, a tribute of 5GB and 10RP is agreed upon, now the GB
>is easy,
>' you pay me 10000gp every 3 months and I wont invade your grubby little
>domain and kill you '
>but how does a regent ask another regent to send to him something that
>is an intangible link to the land and the divine spark within the
>blooded. how can it be explained. is it something that happens
>unconsciously between the two regents in an undeclared contest of wills?
>any comments would be appreciated, thanks
>
>wyntergryn
Sure, no problem. RP are a representation of popular support, personal
power, and status in the land. If you have lots of RP, you can call in
favors, enforce commands, and issue orders that you are pretty sure will be
obeyed. People under you will consider your commands important and will
drop everything to do what you want.
On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of RP (or spend them on your
actions), people don't listen as well. Even if they are loyal and love you
to death, if you don't focus your attention on an action (by spending RP),
go through the motions of getting support and setting the political wheels
in motion, you have less chance of succeeding.
This sort of influence can be transfered. You can explain it however you
wish. Let's say, for instance, that the Baron of Roesone and the Count of
Ilien come to an understanding. For whatever reason, the Baron gives the
Count 20 RP. In roleplaying terms, the Baron is coming out and saying "I
support the Count! If you owe me a favor, the Count can call it in!" If you
want to roleplay this, you can actually have the Count keep the RP separate
and, when he spends the Baron's "gift" RP, he has to be able to explain why
the Baron's influence would help on that occasion.
-- ->-- ->-- ->--@
Ed Stark
Game Designer, Wizards of the Coast/TSR Division
Asst. Brand Manager, BIRTHRIGHT/GREYHAWK/MARVEL Group
TSR Website: http://www.tsrinc.com
(soon to be http://www.tsr.com)
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03-10-1998, 06:11 PM #8Bret W. DavenportGuest
Birthright: Regency points
> Sure, no problem. RP are a representation of popular support, personal
> power, and status in the land. If you have lots of RP, you can call in
> favors, enforce commands, and issue orders that you are pretty sure will
be
> obeyed. People under you will consider your commands important and will
> drop everything to do what you want.
>
> On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of RP (or spend them on your
> actions), people don't listen as well. Even if they are loyal and love
you
> to death, if you don't focus your attention on an action (by spending
RP),
> go through the motions of getting support and setting the political
wheels
> in motion, you have less chance of succeeding.
>
> This sort of influence can be transfered. You can explain it however you
> wish. Let's say, for instance, that the Baron of Roesone and the Count of
> Ilien come to an understanding. For whatever reason, the Baron gives the
> Count 20 RP. In roleplaying terms, the Baron is coming out and saying "I
> support the Count! If you owe me a favor, the Count can call it in!" If
you
> want to roleplay this, you can actually have the Count keep the RP
separate
> and, when he spends the Baron's "gift" RP, he has to be able to explain
why
> the Baron's influence would help on that occasion.
Funny. I was reading this and going, "that's some really good stuff."
Then I read the bottom here and go. Doh! No wonder =)
> -- ->-- ->-- ->--@
> Ed Stark
> Game Designer, Wizards of the Coast/TSR Division
> Asst. Brand Manager, BIRTHRIGHT/GREYHAWK/MARVEL Group
> TSR Website: http://www.tsrinc.com
> (soon to be http://www.tsr.com)
>
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03-10-1998, 07:07 PM #9Daniel McSorleyGuest
Birthright: Regency points
>This is a good answer and should probably be in a rulebook somewhere ;-)
>
They probably think we can figure it out by ourselves. They give us too
much credit :)
>Regarding your suggestion of keeping separate accounts for RP earned and
>"given": Doesn't this raise the ugly possibility that the Baron could
>rescind his/her earlier decree of support for the Count, thereby reclaiming
>the RP?
>
>Jonathan
>
Of course it does, as it should. People should always be able to back
out of agreements, it happens all the time. I don't know about
retroactively reclaiming the RP, that would be like saying, don't follow him
last week, you can't change it. But they should certainly be able to break
the treaty. Perhaps, if this happens, the overlord loses half, the rest go
into his private stock, and the vassal doesn't get any back, as he has
already undermined his authority.
Daniel McSorley
mcsorley.1@osu.edu
ICQ:5299865
AIM:DanMcS
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03-10-1998, 10:16 PM #10
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Birthright: Regency points
In a message dated 98-03-10 00:20:16 EST, you write:
>
Think of it as using one's influence on another's behalf. Real world examples:
Political candidates stumping for each other
Calling in a favor/pulling strings
Public declaration of support for (or opposition to) a certain
issue/candidate/bill
Product endorsements
Recommendation letters
When Vernon Jordon used his influence to help Monica Lewinsky get a job at
Revlon, he was in effect giving her some of his RP. When Ronald Reagan chose
former opponent George Bush as his running mate, he gained some of Bush's RP.
When Michael Jordan appears on television in Hanes underwear, the Hanes
corporation receives some of Jordan's RP. (Jordan, in return, receives plenty
of GB in exchange.)
Revlon, Bush supporters, and underwear consumers all become willing to trust
someone unknown because someone else they *do* trust has used their influence
on the unknown's behalf.
Does that help clarify how people can exchange something intangible?
Carrie Bebris
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