As a smaller continuation of last missive (I'm winding down)

I briefly used modified Birthright rules to run between-game activity
for some high (to me) Forgotten Realms PCs ... 10th to 14th.
I assumed with all the spells they had cast and been hit by,
all the magic potions they've drunk, all the items they've worn
non-stop for years, that if not quite glowing in the dark, they should
be reasonably soggy with magic. So I allotted a quasi-bloodline equal
to their level.
Next, holdings. The high level priestess was in great shape,
being the founder of a temple-province (rebuilding Eastern Tethyr by
the way). The high level thief, after visiting Zakhara, and turning
out to have Long Lost Relatives there, turned into a merchant-rouge,
and was becoming a merchant prince, so the guild rules worked well for
him, including espionage, agitate, and throwing behinds-the-seens
influence.
The wizard was Out of Luck as the knowledge to bind magical
sources to his will was not known, but if the game had continued a few
more game years he would have researched tapping into the many odd
sources of power littering the landscape of Toril.

As one of the authors (forget who at the moment) said, domain actions
can be taken as a shorthand for events that could be role played out
... one could take 3 weekends to interview travelers in waterfront
taverns, select ship, crew, cargo, journey for weeks to a new land,
negotiate with locals to sell goods and set up local representatives
for continued trade, etc. Or one could spend gold, regency, roll
dice, lose detail and fine control, but get on with the rest of the
story!

It worked reasonably well. In an hour of real life time we could
cover months of between-adventures stuff in reasonable detail, and
with more player involvement and sense of collaboration than just a GM
intuitive winging-it decree.
It would likely have worked better if I had read the adaption
of Birthright to Al-Qadim in Dragon magazine, but I did a fairly well
rounded invention of the wheel.

Unfortunately Real World plot complications (from car troubles
through death of relatives) dispersed that campaign.


Lyndon the live-game deprivedTo unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com
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