OK, folks, having had some time to absorb 4e in some detail I have a
suggestion: It`s like chocolate. It`s tasty and it`s sweet and maybe
it even makes us happy when we have it, but in the long run it`s not
really good for us. That is, it`s a perfectly workable system, and
I`m sure playing it will be an enjoyable gaming experience for those
who give it a shot and play objectively, but in many ways it`s not a
good fit for Birthright. Its tone/flavour is off. The scale goes in
a different direction. It emphasizes crunchy combat characteristics
where we need more subtle savory taste to portray things like the
domain level of play, the the interaction of characters as social
competitors, and characters who might be in conflict with their own
bloodline as much as with others (before they try to kill each
other....) Worst of all, it looks like as a system for customization
it is the very opposite of 3.5. That is, it would require a LOT of
work to make it something that suits a setting other than a
not-too-different variation what is now the standard D&D game
world. Where 3e-3.5 worked perfectly well for Birthright with a few
tweaks here and there, it`d be awful hard to do Birthright 4e--and I
don`t think the end result would be all that satisfying.

But, also like chocolate, a little bit is a good thing. It makes
life a lot more pleasant, and in moderation we can enjoy 4e in
perfect health. A few of the ideas of 4e are completely workable for
Birthright. Some of them just make sense as an edition of D&D. The
way the system handles hit points, for example, is the kind of thing
I plan on using. I like the more compact skill system (though I`m
going to have to tweak that a bit) and how it interacts with
character class/level.

So my plan is to do a sort of retroactive game mechanics
alteration--a "retmech" if you will. I`m tentatively calling this
concept D&D 3.6, and am planning on using it as the basis for my
future work with Birthright (and D&D in general, most likely....)

My questions to the Birthright community are these:

What aspects of 4e do you think should/could be "borrowed" to work in
a version between 3.5 and 4e, with our favorite setting as the major emphasis?

What aspects of 4e do you think should/could NOT be used in
Birthright for a 3.6 version of D&D?

Gary