- -Gary Wrote:

> > But if we apply this to Birthright, we won't get the population
numbers
> > everyone is assuming are accurate in Cerilia. In 1500 years, we
can
> > have about 50 generations. To be a little more conservative, I
will assume
> > that it takes 2 generations to double the population. This is
something like
> > an average of 2.7 children per couple. 2 to the 25th power is 33
million.
>
> Don't forget one important detail..while clerics with teh ability to
cure
> disease are somewhat plentiful on Cerilia, not all peasant families
have
> access to them. As antibiotics aren't invented at this point, you
can
> also safely assume that 3 of those 4 children won't live to see
their 13th
> birthday...such is as it was in the 11th-15th centuries ..even after
taht
> it didn't get a whole lot better until sulfa drugs came around in
the
> 1800's..

Another thing to keep in mind is the dilution of the bloodline.
Assuming that all
these folks are not marrying within the family (ew!) or mating with
other blooded
characters, even a bloodline of the highest strength (100) will
dwindle down to
nothing in a matter of nine generations.

1st gen: 100
2nd gen: 50
3rd gen: 25
4th gen: 13 (do you round down or up?)
5th gen: 7
6th gen: 4
7th gen: 2
8th gen: 1
9th gen: 0

I think that this is a very valid point.

I can imagine that just after the big bang, and after all the stabbing
through the heart rampages died down a bit that those non-nobles
amongst the Blooded would be looking for a place to hide from these
Sword wielding maniacs that want to stab you through the heart.

The Nobles have generally been fairly insular, and so by intermarriage
between blooded nobles, it is possible to maintain strong bloodlines
that we see in the current time. The bastard offspring, and other
non-noble scions would breed out the bloodline that they have in a
matter of generations.

If you round down when halving the bloodscore for offspring, then when
a score is zero, these people no longer have a bloodline. Also, in
order to account for bastards, etc in the most recent generations, you
could say that a bloodline of a scion with a bloodscore less than 5 is
all but undetectable by the known detection spells. This can leave a
greater number of blooded characters in the campaign, but most will
have no powers, and will go through life without ever knowing they are
blooded, and breeding this branch of the line out of existence in the
next few generations.

Just my 2GB.

Shaun Hodgson.