Birthright conversion for non-Cerilian games

[Silveras]

Comments ? Questions ? Complaints ? Accusations of insanity ? Job offers ?

Anyone ? Anyone ?

 

[Argus Decimus Mokira]

Silveras,

This is really great work. Even your "rough outline" for trade is realy impressive. You really grabbed the essence of the domain system. As a quick aside, what are your opinions on taking Birthright domain rules (your own or the 3rd edition effort) and dropping all references to bloodlines completely? I believe I may have mentioned before, my interest in Birthright is apllying it to the murky politics of Sembia in the Forgotten Realms. As such, have folks with divine blood at all levels of government kinda doesn't fit, and I'd like to drop that all out of the equation.

Thanks for sharing this with us!
-Matt

 

[Silveras]

Silveras,

This is really great work. Even your "rough outline" for trade is realy impressive. You really grabbed the essence of the domain system. As a quick aside, what are your opinions on taking Birthright domain rules (your own or the 3rd edition effort) and dropping all references to bloodlines completely? I believe I may have mentioned before, my interest in Birthright is apllying it to the murky politics of Sembia in the Forgotten Realms. As such, have folks with divine blood at all levels of government kinda doesn't fit, and I'd like to drop that all out of the equation.

Thanks for sharing this with us!
-Matt

Glad you find them interesting.

As I was working on the system, I kept drifting away from using the Bloodlines. My feeling is that they should be a Cerilia-specific element, or at least not part of the Domain Management rules. The problem is that the Bloodline score is used extensively in the Birthright Domain Rules:

• As the cap on how much Regency a character can retain each Domain Turn.
• The Regent can spend RP to increase his/her score
• Failure to address events is penalized by loss of Bloodline score
• It is possible to overspend RP, costing you Bloodline score at the end of the Domain Turn

I moved away from the score, making the Strength category more of the determining factor in my own treatment.

I have considered substituting some sort of Honor Points system. By virtue of having about the same numeric range (ie, up to about 100 for most games, up to 200 for major NPCs), it seems like it would fit well as a replacement. I looked at Green Ronin's Noble's Handbook and was not satisfied (for reasons spelled out in my review on this site), although the Noble House Strength rules may also make a good substitute in some campaigns.

I still like the idea of familial heritages of divine origin (or other sources); I just don't need them tied so closely to the government system. Giving magical abilities based on them seem overblown; I think making each ability a separate feat is a better approach. Green Ronin has some Bloodline feat chains in Hammer & Helm that fit better in 3rd Edition -- granting Sorcerers more access to their ancestry -- because special bloodlines are (or should be) primarily of interest to Sorcerer characters.

 

[Argus Decimus Mokira]

Honor points sound like the way to go. I agree that divine right to rule is interesting and all, but I prefer aasimars of Siamorphe for that ... like you say, that's an option that can be modelled using feats/races/classes/PrCs/etc.

So honor points would be a generic rating of your political clout, reputation, title, and the honor of your family. It would be mechanically the same as a Bloodline score (same ranges as you mentioned), only without the nifty doo-dahs associated with Bloodline abilities.

So, as far as I can tell, this would require changing the wording of Bloodlinefeats (maybe stick the word Family in evrywhere Bloodline is currently). The Blood abilities would be limited to virtual feats and skill bonuses (and maybe some other non-magical effects, though I can't come up with any right now). The rest of your system would work just perfect otherwise, I think.

Thanks
-Matt

 

[Silveras]

That sounds about right. None of the feats would grant powers now, and would be replaced with indicators of family honor and lineage. There should still be some benefits to non-Regents for taking them, so increasing Honor scores (in my campaign) gain some minor benefits: reputation, ancestral weapon, bonus starting money, and the like. I am inclined to add the Influence ability from the Noble's Handbook, or a variation of it.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Wow...

Wish I found this earlier.

First, I say, "pththththth" to Birthright.net. Nothing against them, mind you, but being that Dragon/Dungeon can run a conversion article on any of these settings without consulting the "official" sites tells you how much weight "official" carries (i.e., slightly more than none). Just keep your hands off the setting and you'll find there's very little original about it. Rulership? Many different games already covered it. Regents? Didn't King Arthur have a "you and the land are one" deal by which the land was reborn after drinking from the grail? Yes, he did...

That said... Cripes, this is a lot of info. Half-wish you did this one topic at a time in order to digest it easier/clearer.

 

[Silveras]

That said... Cripes, this is a lot of info. Half-wish you did this one topic at a time in order to digest it easier/clearer.

Well, that's why they are in separate posts. Littering the board with 9 or so 1-post threads seemed like a bad idea.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Just remembered, Gilgamesh had a connection to the land, as well... So did the Pharohs, IIRC.

Well, that's why they are in separate posts. Littering the board with 9 or so 1-post threads seemed like a bad idea.

I know... Just wish you had, perhaps, posted the "foundation" and gotten input, and then posted the next part... Trying to osmosiphy this stuff in full-form is giving me a headache...

Tell ya what... I'm going to come back on focus on the first post alone.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Silveras, is all of this in the document you sent to me earlier, including the "fortify = stronghold units" stuff?

If not, can I get a copy of the full thing? (I have bought the PDFs of all the Birthright material, except for Naval System Rules and I think the non-Anuirean Player's Secrets. So that shows you how much I like Birthright...)

 

[DanMcS]

First, I say, "pththththth" to Birthright.net.

We love you too, Bendris. Because, after all, there have been a lot of BR.net people on this thread saying bad things about Silveras, plus, the fact that someone visits a website other than enworld makes them bad people, right?

Sheesh.