Birthright (of course!)

[Jim Cooper]

Hey y'all:

I have a question for everyone. It is:

"In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"

That's all. And remember, just the MOST important thing in your mind
that distinguishes it from the other game milieus please!

Cheers,
Darren

[Tim Nutting]

Simple:

Maturity.

BR is the only campaign world that has been published by TSR that has this
level of maturity. Heck, we listers may get into some pretty nasty spats, but
the sheer quality of the posts here and the respect we tend to treat each other
with outshines almost every other list out there.

The world itself has a very realistic approach to the makup of religions and
such. In every other FR clone out there, you have this dominant pantheon that
only has disharmony along the Good/Evil bend, and whose churches all agree
happily on the correct order of the universe.

BR is sooo much different. Different sects seeing different aspects of their
god and claiming it to be true, and to the direct confusion of all the
simpletons out there, all of the priests are right because they all get spells.
hehehe.

Later
Tim Nutting

[Craig Greeson]

Jim Cooper wrote:
> I have a question for everyone. It is:
>
> "In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
> distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"
>

Greetings,
In my opinion, the thing that most distinguishes BR from other TSR fantasy
realms is that it encourages THE PLAYER CHARACTERS to be the "big men on
campus." If the players and the DM think it works well for them, a 1st
level character with 0 experience points can start out as the ruler of a
formidable domain (whether it be a realm, a major branch of a religion, a
guild network, or a magical source network). The relatively low levels of
most NPCs mean that a 6th - 8th level character is someone to be respected
and perhaps even a little feared, regardless of whether or not he/she is a
regent.

As a result of this "player character-ocentric" approach, the players feel
like they are very important in the scheme of things. If something big is
to be done in the campaign (kill the Spider, wipe out the goblins of
Thurazor, go into the Shadow World and close all the portals to Cerilia,
etc...) the players feel like they're the ones to do it. They don't feel
like inconsequential beings next to the likes of Elminster, Mordenkainen,
the Dragon Kings, or whoever.

Regards
Craig Greeson

[Gary V. Foss]

Jim Cooper wrote:

> Hey y'all:
>
> I have a question for everyone. It is:
>
> "In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
> distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"

Bloodlines.

Everything in BR that distinguishes it from other campaign settings hinges upon
the existence of bloodlines. Bloodlines allow for domain/holding rulership and
RP collection which allows the entire domain rules section of the game, and
bloodlines create awnsheghlien, which is the other part of the setting that
differentiates it from the others. Essentially, the back story for the BR
setting with the battle of the gods, etc. is the best of all the published
materials I've seen. It's epic, it creates a setting unlike any other, and it
gives players a historical background in which to play which is not only easy
to remember, but very significant.

Gary

[BenandAmy]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Jim Cooper
To: birthright@MPGN.COM
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 1998 3:33 PM
Subject: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Birthright (of course!)


>Hey y'all:
>
>I have a question for everyone. It is:
>
>"In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
>distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"
>
>That's all. And remember, just the MOST important thing in your mind
>that distinguishes it from the other game milieus please!
>
>Cheers,
>Darren

I think everyone can answer this their own way--they'd all be different,
and they'd all be right. For me, I like that the BR world is NOT Forgotten
Realms. (applause)
Really, though--the STRATEGY. I can put my players through hell in a
million new ways, and there's more at stake. You can use diplomatic and spy
games that would make Tom Clancy's head spin.
I like not having everyone and his housecat doing cantrips to water the
flowers, ok? It's much more close to a Tolkien-like feel. Very cool.

Overall, I like that it's the players' world. Period. They don't just
sway in the winds of a world they help fix without Elminster's permission.


Ben

[Lee]

In a message dated 98-10-14 16:28:03 EDT, you write:

>

With awnsheghlien, the monsters have the opportunity to be unique. There
is The Hag, The Vampire, The Chimaera. They are more powerful, and worthy of
being powerful villains, even for regents.
Runners-up: politics (already specified by the region books) and unique
takes on demihumans, non-humans and their abilities.

Lee.

[Sacha Nicoloff]

>Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 13:10:44 -0700
>From: Jim Cooper
>To: birthright@mpgn.com
>Subject: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Birthright (of course!)
>Reply-To: birthright@mpgn.com
>
>Hey y'all:
>
>I have a question for everyone. It is:
>
>"In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
>distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"
>
>That's all. And remember, just the MOST important thing in your mind
>that distinguishes it from the other game milieus please!
>
>Cheers,
>Darren

Greetings,

I think what makes Birthright special, is that it's a mature world (like
it was said in another message). It allows characters to evolve in a
very structured world and so they have the opportunity to develop a
strong link to it.

Strong link means more implication and deeper feeling, and that's what
makes a great journey into role-playing, IMO.

Sacha
(by the way, it's my first message on this list, so, once again hello to
you all)

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[Sacha Nicoloff]

>Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 13:10:44 -0700
>From: Jim Cooper
>To: birthright@mpgn.com
>Subject: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Birthright (of course!)
>Reply-To: birthright@mpgn.com
>
>Hey y'all:
>
>I have a question for everyone. It is:
>
>"In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
>distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"
>
>That's all. And remember, just the MOST important thing in your mind
>that distinguishes it from the other game milieus please!
>
>Cheers,
>Darren

Greetings,

I think what makes Birthright special, is that it's a mature world (like
it was said in another message). It allows characters to evolve in a
very structured world and so they have the opportunity to develop a
strong link to it.

Strong link means more implication and deeper feeling, and that's what
makes a great journey into role-playing, IMO.

Sacha
(by the way, it's my first message on this list, so, once again hello to
you all)

__________________________________________________ ____
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

[darkstar]

Jim Cooper wrote:
>
> Hey y'all:
>
> I have a question for everyone. It is:
>
> "In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
> distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"
>
> That's all. And remember, just the MOST important thing in your mind
> that distinguishes it from the other game milieus please!

Definatly the low level of magic.

- --
Ian Hoskins

e-Mail: hoss@box.net.au
Homepage: http://darkstar.cyberserv.com
Aduria: http://members.xoom.com/ihoskins

ICQ: 2938300 AIM: IHoskins

[Galwylin]

At 01:10 PM 10/14/98 -0700, Jim Cooper wrote:
>
>"In your opinion, what do you think is the aspect of the game that most
>distinguishes Birthright from other TSR fantasy realms?"

I'd have to agree with a couple of posters. The maturity of the setting is
very high, in my opinion. Things aren't black and white on any level.
Evil domains are just as important to the scheme of Cerilia as good
nations. We have religious conflict within single religions. You have
good races performing evil deeds and evil races doing good. Friends are
just as likely to betray you as enemies no matter their alignment. I also
like the low magic of the setting. Though on this one, it seems there are
more true mage NPCs than I would have guessed. But that's mainly due to
the bloodlines which seem rather common.

Personally, I would rather bloodlines to have been handled differently with
the chance of having one to be more like the chance of having a psionic
wild talent in another setting.

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