Greetings everyone!

Ok, its been since late February that I started my 3e Birthright campaign, I would like to point out my observations so far. Most of my players are old 2nd edition Birthright players so please keep this in mind. I will not go into detail what the campaign was about, this is just our impressions on how the "system" worked for us. I ran 6 players 4 were Regents the other 2 played "lieutenants".

First observation. The Domain system need to be retooled more. There needs to be either a more free form and simplified domain action system or a clarified and expanded action and resolution list. There have been many times that I have had to make DM calls on the actions that players would have during the session. So far it reads and plays domains just like the Original BR.

Second impression. Everyone dislikes the Template system for BR. We think it was much more fun to have random bloodline strengths and scores (ranging from 1 to 100 aka a percentage of you blood) and give unblooded PC's +20% xp. My players think that trying to make BR "fit" into 3e loses some of the flavor. Also, Birthright's Bloodlines were powerful and it seems like the playtest is alot more limited than in the original BR.
  • Example: Two of my players in the middle of my campaign confused and upset that they had to "lose" a level because of usurpation. They started with tainted bloodlines and then, through bloodtheft, eventually gained enough to become major bloodlines. They then had to "add" the Major scion template and lose a level, let me tell you they did not like that one bit.


Third Impression. The bloodline abilities were good, they worked out well. The Regency earned and collected worked out all right. The domain magic worked well but the battle magic "feat" we did not like. Also the races seem a bit underpowered compared to their 2nd edition counterparts.

Overall: We think this was a wonderful albeit low-powered attempt at creating birthright in the third edition, though it needs to be powered back up. We were first attracted to BR in the first place because of "Having the blood of the gods in you".

Suggestions: Improve the Races and their starting abilities. There was nothing wrong with the old bloodline scores or random strengths, we suggest to bring them back in a similar fashion. If you have to have a structured limit on bloodlines, make the bloodlines like racial levels like in Arcana Unearthed this way it is a choice on what bloodline strength you will start with, but that is IF you must.

This is what we are going to do in the meantime. We will tailor the magic system after something like Arcana Unearthed that way you have blooded wizards like Magisters with access to both complex and simple spells then you have magicians that have only simple spells. Then we will tailor the UA classes for BR (Think of Nesirie's priests as Sea Witches ^_^) and use the playtest for the Regency and Domains but modify the Domain spells. We will try going back to the original random bloodline scores and strengths with the new 3e Bloodline abilities. Once we have done this we will playtest this for a few months and by that time we should have a good grasp of if this will work or not.