Blood Brothers (and sisters and

[geeman]

BTW, for those of you who have been getting several copies of the same message, if you
get 2 copies of that last one, it is probably my fault. My ISP disconnected me just
as after I hit "send" so my computer never confirmed that it sent that message, so I
sent it again when I reconnected.

Gary
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[David Sean Brown]

> There are several examples of relatives in the published materials, but shouldn't
> there be many more and shouldn't regents have access to these guys as part of
> their domain?

I was thinking that sort of thing myself, and you've done a good job of
listing the pros and cons. The simple answer I came up with after looking
over the materials are...for whatever reason, the BR designers decided to
make most of teh regents only childer (or have their bros/siss killed
off)..at least that's what I've gleaned from looking over the famiy trees
published in the Player's secrets books. As far as those unpublished
domains go, well:

I'd probably have most of the rulers of the non-awnsheghlien "evil" realms
probably wouldn't keep relatives too close for the reasons mentioned above
(if teh sib is good, they might "liberate the land for the good of the
people, and depose this evil tyrant" or if evel...well..jus cause they
want the power..*shrug*)...

As for the rest of Anuire (I'm more familiar with it, thus I'm using it as
an example)..the elves and Dwarves likely don't have a sibling, simply due
to low birth rates and attrition in wars...That really doesn't leaev a
whole ton of domains left...I would think teh Avans would have a cadre of
relatives kicking aournd..seems the easiest way to rule.

Its possible that many of thse relatives not mentioned could haev lesser
roles other than Lieutenant..advisors, courtiers, captains in the army,
etc..it all depends on the "best use" of the individual..not everyone is
cut out to be a lieutenant, and bloodline alone isn't good enough...

Sean

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[Michael Benner]

> There are several examples of relatives in the published materials, but
>shouldn't there be many more and shouldn't regents have access to these
guys >as part of their domain?

I too, have always wondered why the inclusion of relatives has been
left out. After reading many of the books I can understand why they don't
include their relatives. These guys really have it out for each other. Once
again it looks as if it is up to the DM's discretion to create family tree's
for royalty and assign them positions of rank. I have thought the dwarves to
be more family oriented and have developed extensive listings of family
members and their positions amongst the Regency.

- -Michael

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[geeman]

Michael Benner wrote:

> I too, have always wondered why the inclusion of relatives has been
> left out. After reading many of the books I can understand why they don't
> include their relatives. These guys really have it out for each other. Once
> again it looks as if it is up to the DM's discretion to create family tree's
> for royalty and assign them positions of rank. I have thought the dwarves to
> be more family oriented and have developed extensive listings of family
> members and their positions amongst the Regency.

Very good points. Demi-human species would be more apt to have "family" ties
that are at least as strong or stronger than many human ones. The dwarves are a
perfect example. The humanoid races are probably just or more cut-throat than
the worst human cultures, but elven races would likely be even more family
oriented given their relatively low birth rates.

Once again, I think we (or at least I) are (am) guilty of a bit of
humano-centric thinking. Worse, Anurio-centric thinking. The Rjurik and Brecht
are not so cut throat as are the Anuireans or the Vos. The Khinasi are... well,
a little hard to pin down in this regard. I'm inclined to think they would be
more family oriented given their cultural codes and the importance of sayim.

Regardless, I think this is an area that has been largely unexplored by we
BRers. Maybe we could come up with a few NPCs. Prince Avan's playboy brother,
Richard, the scholarly sister of the Mhor, Jesmine, the wizened great aunt of
the Rhiana Waynmuun, Protector of Coullabhie.

I've found that a good NPC often provides the perfect adventure hook all by
him/herself. A few months back I did an adventure with "the Werespider" and
just the nature of that NPC villain made for a long night of adventuring.
(Someone asked me for a write up of that NPC. I'm really curious if he got used
and what the turn out was.... He just recurred in my campaign and it worked out
real well, so I'm wondering if others have found him useful.) So coming up with
a few of these relatives could provide plenty of adventure possibilities....

Gary
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[Kenneth Gauck]

My short answer on this topic is that BR was created without much
consideration of how the bloodlines operated over time.

Another practice one would expect, is where the sons of friends, vassals,
and dependants are brought up in your court.

I found that to keep it all strait I needed to use a family tree program to
track it all back about four generations. This becomes complicated when you
realize you need to make the bloodlines of the right magnitude.

Kenneth Gauck
c558382@earthlink.net

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