AMA: Richard Baker, author of lots of stuff!

[Rich Baker]

RE: 5E Birthright
Blooded scion as a race sounds interesting, but how would you handle things like blood theft? 5E races tend to give abilities that are important in low levels but less so in later ones. 2E Blooded Scions had the whole Blood Score which fed into how many blood abilities and how many Regency points a character got each domain turn. If you did a 5E Birthright today, how would you handle Blood Score if at all?

I think blood theft still works okay. I might suggest a simple system to begin with, such as "your base bloodline score equals your level." Great successes as a ruler earn you +1 bloodline score. Killing an enemy scion earns you +1 bloodline score. You'd build a small table of benefits that unlock at various score milestones for each bloodline. Yes, it might be a "better" race than standard if you're a 15th level character with a long string of successes, but if those tables are done right, then accumulating a couple of stat bumps or a handful of spell-like abilities doesn't make you a seriously better cleric, or wizard, or ranger, or whatever than your non-scion pals of the same level. After all, you're going to make that character earn his advantages by giving him a kingdom to look after.

In that system, I might go ahead and provide a feat just for scions called "Greater Bloodline" that gives you a +2 or +4 boost to your bloodline score. If someone really wants to play at the deep end of the bloodline system, it's not crazy to ask them to invest a feat. To put it another way: Scale the bloodline table benefits toward the sort of thing you might see in an "average" bloodline, and require a player who wants a better than average bloodline to pay a little something for it.


Rich

 

[DerekSTheRed]

If a 5E warlock were to make a pact with an Awnshegh, what would that pact boon be? Feel free to spit ball flavor and/or crunch ideas.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

BTW, thanks for doing this Rich. Birthright is my favorite D&D setting and I keep making (or trying to make) home brew versions of it every time there's a new edition.

For the races of Birthright, why no Gnomes? Why Orogs instead of Orcs?

 

[Rich Baker]

If a 5E warlock were to make a pact with an Awnshegh, what would that pact boon be? Feel free to spit ball flavor and/or crunch ideas.

Hmm, I haven't thought about something like that at all . . . I think I might begin with blood-themed and transformation-themed flavor and crunch. Pact of the Tome gives you flexibility with at-will spells, Pact of the Chain gives you a familiar, maybe the Pact of the Black Blood lets you get some minor wildshape-like or shifter-like (as in the Eberron race) ability to make yourself more monstrous like your patron. For Otherworldly Patron features, I think the early abilities in the Fiend pact feel appropriate for an awnshegh patron. You might mix those up with some of the blood-themed powers from the 4e warlock builds.

That's all off the cuff, but maybe it'll point you in an interesting direction!


Rich

 

[Rich Baker]

BTW, thanks for doing this Rich. Birthright is my favorite D&D setting and I keep making (or trying to make) home brew versions of it every time there's a new edition.

For the races of Birthright, why no Gnomes? Why Orogs instead of Orcs?

Mostly it was about looking for ways to make the setting a little more distinct from "standard medieval fantasy world." Keep in mind that TSR was publishing Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Mystara all at the same time. All those worlds look a lot alike--basically, if it was in the MM or the PH, it was in the setting. Birthright's "high concept" hook meant that it was yet another world that was all about knights and wizards and castles, etc. -- the idea of "you play the king" could have been implemented in any of those other worlds.

I would also add that gnomes in 2e were really redundant with dwarves and halflings. It took a lot of work in 3e to make them look and feel different from dwarves. Every time you add a PC race to a setting, you have to answer the questions of "Where do these guys live and why are they in the world?" Adding unnecessary races takes up space and diverts the reader's attention from the things you want him or her to become invested in; it's a distraction that doesn't add to the story you're trying to tell. So, we omitted the gnomes.


Rich

 

[Rich Baker]

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to ask me questions! I'll check back in the next day or two in case there are any stragglers.

And I'd sure appreciate it if you'd help me spread the word about Ultimate Scheme! It's a ton of fun and it's loaded with geek culture references. Share the link, check it out, help us get to some stretch goals!

http://kck.st/1UeR8nu


Thanks, all!


Rich