Birthright for Other Game systems

[Memnochk]

All,

It's been a long time since I have perused the BR site. You guys have been doing a great job keeping the BR world going.

Has anyone looked into the potential to migrate Birthright from it's 2nd edition origins over to other game systems? It was converted to 3.0 and 3.5, and now I see it as 4.0 DnD. Who still owns the copyright on the BR campaign world?

I've seen other posts re: different game systems. But I see this as being slightly different. As many of you already know, a new version of Hackmaster is coming out by Kenzerco. This system is, imo, very similar to what Birthright should be...it's game system is extremely low magic, very fight intensive, and as my players have found out.. quite brutal when played incorrectly. I think a Hackmaster / BR marriage would be the best combination with the least amount of mechanic conversion needed.

Comments?
Memnochk

[Elton Robb]

There is a version of Birthright for GURPS on a GURPS fansite. I'm not sure if it's still there. As to who owns the copyright, that would be Wizards of the Coast. As of today, Birthright caters to a very small niche market. This is why Wizards of the Coast is sitting on the "intellectual property" to do anything really official.

[Memnochk]

Ah, thanks. I had seen a statement alluding to the idea that the BR.net community held the IP for Birthright..but it sounds like WOTC is just sitting on it instead.

[Vicente]

I've been thinking about using Birthright with FATE lately (with Legends of Anglerre to be exact). FATE is a very flexible system, and LoA comes with very nice rules for organizations, units and realms, so I think they would blend together pretty nicely...

[SirEktar]

I've been running a game set in the Birthright world (Roesone in fact) using a mash-up of Savage Worlds and FATE. The results have been a bit mixed. If I was going to do it again, I'd go fully over to FATE...

[Vicente]

I haven't tried Savage Worlds, although when I read it I wasn't very excited by it. But LoA and FATE was totally different, when reading it I was like: I had to try this My few sessions have been pretty positive, although it has been a big jump from DnD.

[Birthright-L]

At 10:04 AM 2/21/2011, SirEktar wrote:

>I`ve been running a game set in the Birthright world (Roesone in
>fact) using a mash-up of Savage Worlds and FATE. The results have
>been a bit mixed. If I was going to do it again, I`d go fully over to FATE...

I`m liking the Pathfinder stuff lately, even though the difference
between in and 3.5 is pretty subtle.... Unfortunately, I don`t
really have a lot of time these days to picking up a new
system. What are the merits of FATE vs 3e/3.5/PF?

Gary

[DanMcSorley]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 3:12 PM, Gary <geeman1984@verizon.net> wrote:
> I`m liking the Pathfinder stuff lately, even though the difference between
> in and 3.5 is pretty subtle.... *Unfortunately, I don`t really have a lot of
> time these days to picking up a new system. *What are the merits of FATE vs
> 3e/3.5/PF?

So, Pathfinder is 3.5+house rules. If you like 3.5, and have been
running it with your own house rules, then your reaction to it will be
determined by whether you like the paizo houserules.

(I`m running my game using Pathfinder)

Fate (not an acronym) is based of Fudge. This implies a small number
of things, primarily that it uses fudge dice or another
strongly-0-centered rolling method, and so your die rolls are
relatively unimportant compared to your skill (your odds are ~23% of
rolling a 0, and ~60% of rolling a -1, 0, or 1, on 4df).

Most games called "Fate" games are skill-based, with no attributes.

The primary wrinkle then is the fate point/aspect system. Aspects are
"important things about your character", roughly. When one of your
aspects is important to whatever roll you`re making, you can spend a
fate point and get +2 to your roll (given the centeredness of 4df,
pretty significant).

When one of your aspects is detrimental or closes off your choices in
some way, you can earn a fate point.

Then there are stunts, which let you use your skills in unusual or
specialized ways.

A big thing that draws people to fate is the community, frankly; the
original authors at evil hat are pretty available online, and
supportive of other people hacking the system and publishing games
using it.

See also:
http://www.evilhat.com/ (the original publishers of fate)
http://www.faterpg.com/ (their website for the system itself, which
only has 5 articles so far, and is pretty readable)
http://www.faterpg.com/resources/ (stuff you can download, the Spirit
of the Century SRD is that of their first Fate3 game)

--
Daniel McSorley

[Vicente]

I'm going to add a little Daniel answer.

FATE is centered around a mechanic called "aspects". An aspect is a sentence that describes something about a character, a place,... For example, the Archduke of Boeruine could have an aspect like:

"I will do anything for the Iron Throne"

When playing, if your aspect is related to a situation a lot of things can happen. If it's related in a good way, you can spend a FATE point (invoke an aspect) to do things like:

- re-roll, add a big bonus, make a narrative declaration that becomes true in the world,...

If bad (compel an aspect):

- bad things happen to you, but you get a FATE point.

For example, if Boeruine was dueling Avan and he missed a strike, he could declare that the aspect applies because losing that duel would lower his chances for the Iron Throne. So he spends a FATE Point and gets a re-roll.

But for example in an argument in the Senate, while trying to defend something, the GM can tell Boeruine that because everyone knows his ultimate goal is the Iron Throne, people are wary of his proposals. If the player accepts the complication, then the NPCs are wary of him, but he gets a FATE point for the trouble.

The nice thing of aspects is that they can be anything. The College of Sorcery is rumored to be "a place of secret knowledge", the Gorgon is "the oldest enemy of Anuire", Ilien has developed into "a thriving city for merchants", and a weapon can "lust for the blood of scions".

About the centered rolls, that's not always the case. While most games use 4dF (which is the same probability curve as (d3-2) + (d3-2) + (d3-2) + (d3-2)), other games (like Legends of Anglerre, a fantasy version of FATE) uses d6 - d6, which has a more "random" curve.

The difference between both is the economy of FATE points, in LoA they are spent and earned faster and characters have more of them on average (to compensate for the more random rolls). But you can play LoA with 4dF if you prefer giving more importance to skills (skills are added to dice rolls).

Appart form that, another good link to read about FATE is:

http://stuffershack.com/xtras/playin...n-how-to-play/

3 short articles that make a nice intro to the system. Hope it helps!

[hirumatogeru]

I've read the FATE rules over, and it could be a good fit assuming the mostly narrative game.

I've been doing a conversion to Warhammer Fantasy 2nd Edition for Birthright myself. I like that system because of the realistic power-levels of the characters and the fact that it doesn't rely on magic items. Plus, I've figured out a quick way to convert the Birthright War Cards into Warhammer Fantasy Battle units that works quite well. I don't actually own any miniatures for this, but I was gonna use the MapTools software as my tabletop with a hex grid and tokens.