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  1. #1
    Junior Member Aren Yashar's Avatar
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    Starting Campaigns

    It has been a long time since I've tried to DM anything, and I was wondering if there was any advice that you could offer. I'm thinking of starting a BR campaign, using the standard setting, with a very small group of players (My area is just not a good one for attracting gamers, or I am just not connected enough with my fellow gamers to get a healthy group going).

    Any ideas on how to start the group off would be nice. I'm sure at least one will want to become ruler of a province (to start with). How does she gain control of it from her predecessor? I'm scratching my head on this one...there is only so much DM manipulation that one can employ before realism is stretched out of shape. Honestly, how many riots and overthrows can a place take over a short time? And if more than one player wants to control land how messed up can a realm in general get during a "Time of Troubles" such as this...but then that might be a way to go about it. Three provinces fall to new rulers, and the evil forces (for want of a better term) take advantage of this fact and start an invasion...

    Ok, maybe I'm just looking for a sounding board here, but I would still like to hear any ideas that would help me get things rolling and keep them going. I'm not looking to railroad my players here, but an idea of a line they could go down in the course of gameplay would be helpful...even if said timeline is probably going to be ripped apart as soon as the players run their own way through the campaign.

    Thank you for reading, and thank you in advance for your suggestions.
    "Come on, everyone, do the Black Mage. Especially you White Mage!" - 8bit Theater

  2. #2
    You could just start off the campaign with the PC already in charge. Perhaps they are the heir of the former ruler, for example.

    Short of that... well, really, the only way to take control of a province other than to inherit it is to conquer it somehow. That makes it more of a mid-high level goal, usually.

  3. #3
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    Aren Yashar schrieb:
    > This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
    > You can view the entire thread at:
    > http://www.birthright.net/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=3097
    > Aren Yashar wrote:
    > ...
    > Any ideas on how to start the group off would be nice. I`m sure at least one will want to become ruler of a province (to start with). How does she gain control of it from her predecessor? I`m scratching my head on this one...there is only so much DM manipulation that one can employ before realism is stretched out of shape. Honestly, how many riots and overthrows can a place take over a short time? And if more than one player wants to control land how messed up can a realm in general get during a "Time of Troubles" such as this...but then that might be a way to go about it. Three provinces fall to new rulers, and the evil forces (for want of a better term) take advantage of this fact and start an invasion...
    >
    > Ok, maybe I`m just looking for a sounding board here, but I would still like to hear any ideas that would help me get things rolling and keep them going. I`m not looking to railroad my players here, but an idea of a line they could go down in the course of gameplay would be helpful...even if said timeline is probably going to be ripped apart as soon as the players run their own way through the campaign.
    Without riots and overthrows? Many.

    The best way to become ruler of a province would depend on the character
    of your player who wants to become a landed regent. A sneaky character
    might enjoy assasinating the regent and his heirs - accidents naturally
    if he is sneaky AND skilled - while playing his faithful lieutenant
    who eventually when the land runs out of heirs has to take up the burden
    to rule himself (e.g. Guilder Kalien).

    A lawful good Paladin might get a province as reward or as part of a
    duty from a higher ranking noble, e.g. Diemeds ruler dies and the lawful
    heir is a weakblooded aristocrat only able to weave around all day with
    a perfumed handkerchief - but he is the legal heir and so will rule. He
    needs of course someone who takes care of the provinces at his border
    where some less civilized and more warriorlike rulers are needed to
    maintain control and defend the land and to deal with those unbathed
    peasants that need to pay taxes to allow the ruler of Diemed to enjoy
    another banket.

  4. #4
    A good book for building your own kingdom is "King of the Giantdowns"-while its location specific, obviously, the techniques and the level of effort required could easily be applied to "wasteland" regions of the rest of the setting, like the Five Peaks, the Tarvan Wastes, or about half of Vosgaard.

    It also provided a good solution for getting some RP to go from Scion to Regent-there was a magic item you could find that gave you a one time boost of 10 RP, regent-hood or no regent-hood. That's at least enough to get a holding up to 1, in which case you can start properly accumulating RP and start working on TAKING OVER THE WORLD-or, ah, province.

    The various setting-books have a lot of conflicts in them; personaly, I'd suguest picking with region of Cerilia you want to play in, first, and taking a look at what conflicts and story hooks the setting's already provided for you. Make a quick list to keep track of them, and decide how you want to work your PCs into the area politics. Even if the regency-type stuff is largely in the background, any political game runs smoother if you decide who the area's players are, how they interact with eachother, and otherwise keep track of the NPCs. You never know when a PC is going to crash through your current plot and slam right into something else, so keeping careful track of the region's sociopolitical goings on helps you, as the DM, react more fluidly. Naturaly even.

    If you do this right, your PCs will think it was all part of your sinister master plan, which is one of the little cosmic rewards of DMing. All good sinister master plans are fifty percent improvisational acting, twenty percent bullshitting, fifteen percent clever use of your setting notes, ten percent filthy lies, and five percent actual planning.

  5. #5
    I'm about to run my first D&D campaign, and my first Birthright campaign all run into one. The idea I have to get my players (in the first session), into a position of power is quite simple.

    Suris Enlien is stepping down from the Archpriest's throne.

    The Church of the Celestial Spell is divided between many candidates.

    So she makes a decree that the person to locate and retrieve the Tome of Brun Szareh (my own invention), giving it into her hands, will have shown that they are blessed by Ruornil and are deserving of the throne.

    Making a decree like this fuel the roleplay is good, because already I know that the PCs will have a lot of enemies. Mercenaries, most paid for by Guilder Kalien are trying to find the Tome as well. So are various cronies hired by Heirl Diem. Other factions in Medoere are seeking it, as are various other nations' cronies.

    Of course, it remains to be seen how well this whole idea will go down with the group, but if it goes badly, I'll let you know. Plus, if you're DMing, its your world, and if you have nice, understanding players they'll go along with it. I know my friends will during the game. Then, after, they'll say (because at least two have DMed before), "You know, you COULD have just done this, instead of leading us around by our noses the WHOLE time."

    But yeah. Use decrees, use "nasty plague kills the ruling regent and his house", use "half the realm rebels", use "you are the heir of blahblah the lord of all blahblahs"... most of the Player's Secrets books assume you are the heir of the regent, and it all runs smoothly from that.

    Plus, if any of the players in game act up, drop an ACME anvil on their head.

    ~Ol

  6. #6
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    BR can be a daunting task- don't underestimate it. And, as such, don't try to add too much detail- feel free to "fake" the neighbors, at least until they become central to the storyline. "There are some Guild battles to the south, trade routes destroyed, and an out-of-work mercenary group went rogue to the north and was crushed"... if it's not of importance to the PC's (except for flavour), there's no reason the details of Gold and Regency and etc of far-off holdings should be of importance to you as GM. Save your time/energy for the central plotlines.

    OK, that said, it all depends on your group, and what sort of story you want to tell/they like to tell!

    Do they tend towards predatory behavior, grab what's not nailed down and stomp on anything smaller than themselves for practice? Then an assassination/coup may be just the ticket. Maybe they don't know about "bloodlines", but as assassins they become blooded by accident? There's an open door for a fertile evil genius!

    Do they enjoy being the hero, against the odds, noble and seeking the next wrong to right? Then maybe an NPC committed that same coup I mentioned, and it's up to them to restore order.

    Do they enjoy surprises and mystery? Maybe they aren't blooded at all, or just don't realize they are, and either a chance meeting with a dying Scion ("...Poison, I'm dying- you must stab me through the heart, and take my bloodline... Swear to me..."), or a search for the "last surviving heir" brings them into a world they never expected.

    Depending how independant they are, might be an idea to give them a liege lord, either leniant, tight-reined or dottering/distracted, so that they 1) have a mentor, B) have a powerful ally, and iii) you have a hammer to hit them with if you need it. Or, set them loose as a fish in a pond of like-sized fish, with a few bigger around - Guilds and Temples can be good for this, as they tend to be "below the radar" of landed politics.

    You also have to decide if they ALL are going to be Scions, or just one (or two, a land/law pair?), or what? Maybe the goal is to get everyone blooded via Bloodtheft, so a junta of Land/Temple/Guild/Source regents, who know and trust each other (!), can sweep all before them, marching shoulder to shoulder once they're all in place.

    Or, they each start out separately, perhaps young successors after a plague, and location throws them together.

    Maybe the story is one of inevitable self-sacrifice, as the Regents must destroy an Anshweigh (sp?), and risk the Taint of Azrai to save their lands.

    The variables of plot and players are too many to predict- no need to feel you have to write the ending yet. The best you can do is set up a rich environment given the known tendencies/playstyle/preference of yourself and your group, and let the imaginations run with it.

  7. #7
    Personally I like having the PC's around 6th level before they take up the mantle of regent. I have found its a bit easier to justify, especially if the new regent is of a new bloodline or ancestry.

    Plus that gives the DM 6 full levels of non-regent adventures to get them prepared. Then, instead of just telling the player at 1st level, "these people don't like you, and these people do" they will have already met these groups, and developed their own relationships themselves.

    Plus its more fun to throw a couple good old dungeon crawls in at the beginning, or a rampaging monster, to get your group's energy up and get them a reputation.

  8. #8
    That's a good idea. They are supposed to be hero-kings, after all, and while its kind of hard to do, I think you get the best experience from Birthright by not neglecting the "hero" for the "king" or the "king" for the "hero". Its a tricky balance, and DMing's already a big job, but the payoff, I think, is worth it.

  9. #9
    Junior Member Aren Yashar's Avatar
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    Great, now my players whom have gotten a date set up for me to run the first session of BR have reversed themselves and have chosen to opt for 2nd edition rules after all...grr.

    I don't suppose anyone has a TSR 2nd edition AD&D Character Record Sheet in PDF form? Or even a scan of one as an image file? I'm not looking for one someone has whipped up, but rather the original TSR one, if it still exists out there.

    Any ideas where I can find it?

    - The Eternally Frustrated DM
    "Come on, everyone, do the Black Mage. Especially you White Mage!" - 8bit Theater

  10. #10
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    If you want 3rd, lay down the law! YOU are the GM- start acting like it! Who's in charge here, anyway? (sheesh!)

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