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Thread: Living Cerilia?

  1. #1
    Member Keovar's Avatar
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    Is there anyone else that would be interested in an RPGA "living" campaign based in Cerilia once the 3rd Edition rules for BR are released? I think it would naturally lend itself to a format that is similar to Living Greyhawk.

    In LG, various countries of the campaign world are assigned to different real-world areas. For example, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have a country called the "Gran March" in the world of Greyhawk. While there is a circle of developers that manages the campaign as a whole, the various regions each have a triad that runs their section of the campaign. This means that each region has alot of creative control over their area, while still remaining consistent with the campaign as a whole. Look into Living Greyhawk at " http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome " to get more information on what I'm talking about.

    For Birthright, we could assign different domains to real-world regions, starting with the more important ones first. For example, we might assign New York to be Avanil, because we want to be sure that such a powerful country gets a good representation in the campaign. For a somewhat less crtitcal area like Tuornen, we might have to assign multiple states to represent it because of less active RPGA players. Awnshegh-controlled domains would not be assigned to any region, but "core" adventures playable in any region might involve travel into such an area. If an area is extremely xenophobic, like some of the elven nations, it might be wise to not assign it to a region either, but more open ones like Tuarhievel would probably be ok. The main issue to consider there is if belonging to a specific region would severely limit the types of characters you could play, since the domain attached to your region is considered "home" for the characters you make.

    To start out, no characters would be regents, but there could be ways for characters to become a regent in the course of the campaign. Until something like that happens, the regional managing triad would make the domain decisions, but with input from the players of their region. As was done for LG, there could be Yahoo groups created for each region that would serve as a forum for such discussion. Characters could, however, be lieutenants of the regent, which provided a simple plot-hook to get characters involved in the stories.

    What do you think?

  2. #2
    Member Keovar's Avatar
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    Apparently not...

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    I am!

    How would be go about starting?
    Ken 'Ulairi' Johnson
    Associate Editor, IGN Vault Network
    http://rpgvault.ign.com
    http://www.ign.com

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    Senior Member marcum uth mather's Avatar
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    me to! I am a littel confused what would happen with it . how would real world stuff effect the game?

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    Sounds like a killer of an idea. I would be willing to participate and help get it set up. If you would like to contact me off line as well you can reach me via email @ lordchiorandvar@hotmail.com
    This is an adventure dammit! I expect to be rewarded for acts of homicide!

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    Member Keovar's Avatar
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    For anyone that is interested in the idea but is confused about how a "living" campaign works, please read the info about Living Greyhawk. Combine that with the domain rules, and we'd have a very dynamic campaign. I'm sure alot of BR players have dreamed what it would be like to have every domain in Cerilia active at once, and with this campaign it would be possible.

    As far as starting it, I want to wait until we have a definitive 3rd edition ruleset. Other than that, we'd need to contact the RPGA and find out how a new living campaign is started.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Doyle's Avatar
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    Love the idea (I also play LG), but I think that in Australia there might
    be too few BR gamers for viability here.
    Regards,
    Doyle.
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Keovar" > Keovar wrote:
    > Is there anyone else that would be interested in an RPGA "living"
    campaign based in Cerilia once the 3rd Edition rules for BR are released? I
    think it would naturally lend itself to a format that is similar to Living
    Greyhawk.
    >

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    Keovar:

    While I agree that running a Living Cerillia would be exciting and *tremendously* dynamic, you need to step back and look at the workload that you would be placing on the administrators of the campaign. Even when a good percentage of the players have become Regents in their own right, you would require the admins to adjucate *every* interaction between them, as well as hold the campaign to a very specific timetable.

    I have played Living Greyhawk (before the Y592 debacle and the 'Magic Mart'), and assisted the local Triad quite extensively. I've also played in Living Arcanis (and helped to suggest the Lifestyle costs erratta for high-class characters), as well as dabbled in Living City (Silly).

    The biggest problem with running on a timetable for domain interactions is that it makes it *extremely* difficult to maintain a balance between keeping the pace fast enough to satisfy gamers, slow enough to allow module writers to produce material and slow enough that modules aren't 'stale' because the issues behind them have already been resolved by Domain Actions.

    I love the concept, but I have serious doubts about its feasability.

    -Mike Dowd
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion -- and usually easier."

    - R. A. Heinlien, from The Collected works of Lazarus Long

  9. #9
    Member Keovar's Avatar
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    Well to be honest, I wasn't really considering the domain actions in much depth. When I played and ran Birthright, we never used the domain rules and never missed them. Sure, they were interesting as plot hooks and background ideas, but we loved Cerilia for it's sense of history and cultures, not for the power trip of being a "king".

    In the idea I was envisoning, this would be the playstyle of the average player. You might belong to an in-game organization or domain, but you wouldn't be running it. "Domain Actions" could be handled in a real-time fashion, so administrators only have to deal with domain turns once per season. Being a ruler and taking domain actions would eat up a massive number of your Time Units every year, so while having a PC regent would let you affect the course of the campaign, it would also severly limit or even halt your adventuring life. Maybe I'm overestimating the abilities of regional triads to handle such a campaign, but my local Greyhawk region (Gran March) has an awesome group, so maybe my expectations are rather high.

    Again, I'd like to mention that domain actions would be based on real-world years and seasons. If that pacing is too slow for people that simply want to race for the Iron Throne, then it's not the campaign for that. There are plenty of PBEMs that run on a much quicker turn basis. They try to cycle turns too quickly and they end up grinding to a halt. Then again, those have only one person or a few that handle the turns for the whole continent, and they are doing a BR year in anywhere from one week to one month. A Living Cerilia that does one BR year in one Real-World year, and that has an administrative group for each domain, would put alot less work on the administrators, and allow for alot more roleplaying time in each game turn.

  10. #10
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    Even so, if you tie one game year to one mundane year, that is still going to be 12 domain actions. Communication had better be *damn* good between the regional administrators, since with guilds, temples and sources, you find that they are the most common domains that stretch across multiple regions.

    Each region will need to have a cadre of module writers and editors to keep people happy, as well as some admins with *excellent* to *superior* communications skills.

    If you go ahead with this, I would suggest not tying the City of Anuire to any geographical location, but instead make it the province of the Campaign Admin, similar to what LG has done with Greyhawk. That way, the Campaign Admin can work on world-wide political plots involving monarchs, and possibly give some direction to the Fegional Admins.

    (After all, isn't the goal of most of the regents to *control* the Imperial City? :)

    The way I see any division of the world would be:

    Anuirian Lands: USA
    Rjurik Lands: Canada
    Khinasi Lands: Europe
    Brecht Lands: Australia
    Vos Lands: ???
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion -- and usually easier."

    - R. A. Heinlien, from The Collected works of Lazarus Long

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