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Thread: Bloodlines for sale...
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09-07-2006, 04:51 AM #21
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Originally Posted by ploesch
Well, thanks for the feedback, folks. Don't think it will happen, or be visible in the campaign I am running now, but perhaps one in the future.
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09-07-2006, 05:18 AM #22Originally Posted by epicsoulWhen you play the game of thrones you win or you die.
George R. R. Martin - A song of Ice and Fire
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09-07-2006, 02:22 PM #23
If a line of wealthy merchants wants to be blooded, I tend to presume that the normal way of doing this would be for their heir to marry one of the later offspring of a minor noble family. No matter how greedy and corrupt the merchant, I propose that he would rather do this - "purchase" a bloodline for his descendants than do something so unnatural as to but a bloodline outright and have it invested.
Moreover, I fundamentally disagree about the attitude of scions with regards to their bloodline. I think even a poor 4th son of a minor noble would hardly even contemplate such a transaction, let alon think of it himself. Giving up your bloodline would be like selling you soul - which is not something most people would. After all, the gods gave men souls, and scions bloodlines. Who are mortals to meddle in the divinely ordanied way of things...
This is a bit Anuireocentric (as a most of my scriblings), but I see similar if not identical mechanisms for other cultures. A mighty Vos warrior would never BUY a bloodline. He would SEIZE it by force. Might makes right in Vosgaard, and no warrior worth his axe would even contemplate buying a bloodline (and the priests of Beilinik would likely censure such actions severly IMO).
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09-07-2006, 03:45 PM #24
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In a message dated 9/7/06 10:21:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET writes:
<< Green Knight wrote:
If a line of wealthy merchants wants to be blooded, I tend to presume that
the normal way of doing this would be for their heir to marry one of the later
offspring of a minor noble family. No matter how greedy and corrupt the
merchant, I propose that he would rather do this - "purchase" a bloodline for his
descendants than do something so unnatural as to but a bloodline outright and
have it invested. >>
I think this is more likely to happen, as it is certainly less messy than
trying to buy a bloodline outright. It is also more in line with the
dynasty-building element that lurks below the surface of BR.
Which raises another question, definitely social: how common are arranged
marriages? Anyone do much with that in their games?
Lee.
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09-07-2006, 03:45 PM #25
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In a message dated 9/7/06 10:21:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET writes:
<< Green Knight wrote:
If a line of wealthy merchants wants to be blooded, I tend to presume that
the normal way of doing this would be for their heir to marry one of the later
offspring of a minor noble family. No matter how greedy and corrupt the
merchant, I propose that he would rather do this - "purchase" a bloodline for his
descendants than do something so unnatural as to but a bloodline outright and
have it invested. >>
I think this is more likely to happen, as it is certainly less messy than
trying to buy a bloodline outright. It is also more in line with the
dynasty-building element that lurks below the surface of BR.
Which raises another question, definitely social: how common are arranged
marriages? Anyone do much with that in their games?
Lee.
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09-07-2006, 05:35 PM #26
every marriage that has occured in our games in Aberdeen has been arranged, if that is any help.
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09-07-2006, 06:39 PM #27
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Originally Posted by ploesch
Originally Posted by Green Knight
But for the selfish, impulsive, unscrupulous person who wants it "now", for themselves, regardless the consequences... (and there certainly are folk like that out there; and more in fantasy stories than RL.)
Moreover, I fundamentally disagree about the attitude of scions with regards to their bloodline. I think even a poor 4th son of a minor noble would hardly even contemplate such a transaction, let alon think of it himself. Giving up your bloodline would be like selling you soul...
Furthermore, those same fantasy stories are equally full of stunningly ingenius evil forces, who apply incredibly precise pressure at the right time to the right person... and how many of those same scions, blooded or not, would lose their children, their entire lineage, rather than give up their bloodline? What father, mother, wouldn't be tempted to "sell their soul" to save their children?
Offensive? Absolutely. Painful? No doubt. But "out of the question"?... not in this world, not in most. Ymmv.
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09-07-2006, 07:26 PM #28
Now we are getting somewhere. Now the sale of a bloodline is less of a trade of commodities, and instead a dark and angst-ridden story device.
The general rule that sales do not occur, or are generally even considered, gives rise to MANY excellent plot items, with one example:
The Vos warlord who didn't actually seize his lineage for himself, but had a few Khinasi "merchants" bring him a young girl, kidnapped from her family, and not stabbe through the heart directly, but having a cast-out priest of Beilinik transfer the bloodline in return for favours. Later that priest suddenly becomes a very important figure, even a regent priest, in the realm of the Vos warlord, and they share a dark secret. If this ever comes out, the warlord will be disgracd, and his growing "empire" will fall appart, and the priests of Belinik will fall upon them both with a vengenance. Oh, and maybe the girl isn't killed outright, but left in the snow to die of exposure or to be eaten by wolves, only to be found and nurtured by a priestess of Kriesha. And so on.
The actual mechanics I think work well enough, and I'm sure such things do happen, I just wanted to point out the difference between thinking it a commodity rather than something truly special and unique.
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09-07-2006, 08:42 PM #29
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Ah- no, I agree with you on that point, that for any regent to seek to sell their bloodline would require an exceptionally debased and desperate individual, rare to the point of dubiousness.
But that raises another question...
Originally Posted by Chapter 2, under "Bloodline Strength
(* With the term "camp-follower", some would be neither educated, socially significant, nor particularly motivated. The blooded prostitute, hill-billy muleskinner or scullery maid... accidents of fate.)
Scions with up to 19 bloodscore have no blood abilities, and with the current "scion level" rules, if they don't know, how would they ever? Dreams, destiny, fate aside... practically speaking, could small, minor bloodlines be scattered about the back-country?
(If so, they may not even know exactly what it is that they have. Altho' destiny "should" have a way of promoting them to their "proper" station, maybe they've been passed by somehow.)
And would they know the value, much less potential, of what lies hidden within them?
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09-07-2006, 08:53 PM #30
The way I see it, bloodlines are there from birth, but need not manifest much until the child is older. How old can vary. I tend to go for a gradual strengthening, so that the full power of a bloodline need not manifest until well into adult age, but it will be at least "visible" by young adult stage.
I imagine the great noble families nuturing the divine spark in their children, telling them of the legendary powers of their lineage and havign the practice/whatever their powes. They also have the stronger lines, so they manifest more readily.
But yeah, on the flip side of that coin, I can readily see such things as you describe having a place in the tapestry of Cerilia.
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