> My question to you guys is: How well do you think people actually
> role-play the PCs presented in the published materials? I am thinking
> one possible explanation for the lack of success that BR had was its
> reliance upon pre-existing characters. People might have been turned
> off by that, preferring to just get a campaign with locations and NPCs
> and then roll up their own PCs, as is the norm for campaign settings.
> Given that most of the people reading the messages here probably already
> like the published materials, I think most of us probably don't mind the
> published characters, but do you guys think that is the way most gamers
> react? Have the published PCs been a good thing for BR?

In my Birthright campaign, we all agreed it would be more fun to let the
players create their own characters. Naturally I've had some influence on
that, most importantly regarding the background story and the blood powers
of each character, but for the most part they are all original, in great
part because my players know next to nothing about the campaign setting.
As for how they react to the published NPCs: my players just love to
ridicule them. But that's got nothing to do with Birthright; they do that
in every campaign they play. Not in the presence of said NPCs though... :)

- the Falcon