D&D 5E Enough about Darksun, is there anything preventing a 5.5E Birthright remake?

[Digdude]

Hi All. My first new post since the EN old days. I wanted to use it to see what the thoughts are on what I think was the best TSR world ever made, Birthright. Are there any problem areas that would need to be adjusted or tweaked? Can the current culture handle a new revision? Is WoTC even capable of pulling it off? Should it be a bix set or more like DL? Discuss.

 

[bloodtide]

Kingdoms of nobles ruling over peasants with no democratic elections?
Rulers in endless wars?
Magic Blood only a few select rulers have?
People with a "Birthright" to rule others?

Sounds fairly bad.....

 

[MichaelSomething]

Its the perfect opportunity to bring back the Warlord!

 

[Haplo781]

More likely to see Eldraine IMO

 

[Steampunkette]

Birthright would absolutely work in the modern day.

The devil of it is... there's nothing -special- about it.

Like yeah, playing a ruler is cool, fighting wars is fun, but you can do that in literally any campaign setting. And often do in Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. Eberron is everything Birthright is, plus -other- stuff.

MAYBE you could bring back the Warlord as a selling point for a 5e expansion... But I just don't see Birthright moving many copies on it's lonesome. Spelljammer and Planescape and Dark Sun have all these crazy gonzo concepts. Dragonlance has dragons front and center. Eberron is full of flavor and style.

It'd just need something that sets it apart, I think, to really catch in the modern marketplace.

 

[Retreater]

I don't think there's enough to set it apart from Forgotten Realms that WotC would want to divide the customer base.
And it doesn't have fans of novels or other media like Dragonlance does.

 

[MGibster]

Lack of interest I think. Birthright was an interesting idea, but I don't think a lot of people actually played it. It was just so different from the normal adventurer centric play you'd typically see in AD&D.

 

[Andrew Anderson]

I think the concepts of "only elves can be full wizards" goes against a common thread of "everybody can be everything". The elves themselves might be considered problematic.
The human cultures are all either "pastiches" or "stereotypes" depending on whether you're offended or not. Someone will find that an issue as well.
There are a few novels set in Cerilia. I have read a few of those and as many Forgotten Realms novels as I can stomach. Tastes differ, but I think it's a shame the Birthright novels didn't get more widely read. I liked the mythic qualities some of the monstrous scions had...they were Legendary monsters that felt Legendary.

 

[Haplo781]

Eldraine

Eldraine (pronounced EL-drain) is a plane introduced in the Throne of Eldraine set and described in Kate Elliott's The Wildered Quest. Eldraine is a medieval world filled with knights, castles, and magical creatures. Wild magic is woven through the heart of the plane and two opposing but...

mtg.fandom.com

Gets us most of the same beats and is fresher.

 

[SkidAce]

I going to disagree, I think Birthright had a flavor that other settings missed or dont quite do.

Birthright had a more mythological/fairy/sidhe folklore archetype feel, if that makes any sense.

What Theros did for greek/titan/elementals, Birthright could do for celtic/russian/fairy folklore and legends.

Plus the mythic monsters such as "The Spider" and "The Gorgon", with their legends and backstory adds tons of flavor. Read the description of the origin and motivations of "The Spider" some time. Tales of corruption that remind me of original Raveloft.

Sure you can find these things patched into Forgotten Realms in a generic fashion, but like I mentioned with Theros, Birthright is a more cohesive package for telling those themed type of stories.