Birthright d20, anyone?

[Paxus Asclepius]

<Rolls eyes>
Sure. Eliminate the Wizard. The class I was most interested in playing.

Oh well. I can find something else, although I would ask *why* you feel the need to ban the class.

As for advice, I agree with Dirigible; use birthright.net's material instead. It's much better, IMO. Despite their download section being empty, I was able to find and download the book (in .pdf format, size is 4-5 MB) through here:

http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/

It's the "Download the BRCS" link on the right side of the page; left-click and use "Save Target As," as simply right-clicking on the link will attempt to open the pdf file online.

Can you give us some more info on making our characters? Will we start as regents, and if so, how much will we have (in terms of provinces, holdings, leutenants, treasury, etc.)? What campaign background do we need to know?

You will all be regents; I'll be using some variation of a point-buy for your domains, so that everyone's equal, and has a real degree of choice. The reason to remove the wizard is that it really doesn't fit with the notion of true magic as coming from the blood of the gods; if the power is in you, why do you need a book? The magician class represents those who need formulae to wield magical power. If you really would prefer to play a wizard, rather than a sorceror, I can let you, but my personal feeling is that it's thematically wrong for the setting.

You're right, the Birthright.net material is much better, now that I can actually see it. We'll be using that, possibly with the variations I already noted.

 

[Dirigible]

Nice find, IdentityCrisis.

but if anyone has the time to devote to running actual adventures, I'll be glad to do so.

Heh. I was planning (well, speculating) on starting an adventure-based BR campaign here. I reckon I could GM the rest of the groups characters through some side quests and so forth. We can consider the possibility once this is up and running.

I'm thinking that I'm going to eliminate the wizard class entirely, using the sorceror for elves and the blooded

I use Sorcerors for elves as well. But for humans? Horrors!

The reason to remove the wizard is that it really doesn't fit with the notion of true magic as coming from the blood of the gods;

It doesn't, though. It comes from Cerillia itself.

I've always thought that elves can channel mebhaighl through will and force of mind (thus, sorcery), while humans require the forumlae and incantations of wizardry.

Hope I'm not being too pedantic; I'm just present my thoughts on the subject. However, if you've made your mind up, I'll keep my peace.

 

[Creamsteak]

I've read the Birthright Novels, and would like to join in if a slot is open. I assume we'll "mostly" be running nations, so do we create PCs or not, and how/what type?

 

[Tonguez]

Heh. I was planning (well, speculating) on starting an adventure-based BR campaign here. I reckon I could GM the rest of the groups characters through some side quests and so forth. We can consider the possibility once this is up and running..

I've long wanted to do a Nations based campaign in which the players of each nation in turn DMs an adventure based on the events of that Nation-level game.

So say two regents go to want to open a trade route - they in turn run game in which a trade mission is sent into a neighbouring land...

 

[Dirigible]

Good point. Do we have to be realm regents, Pax, or can be be guilders, priests or 'sourcerers' instead? As well?

 

[Paxus Asclepius]

Good point. Do we have to be realm regents, Pax, or can be be guilders, priests or 'sourcerers' instead? As well?

Regents of any sort are acceptable. If anyone has the actual 2E book available, and can post the rules for building a domain from points, I can figure out the values to give you. Characters will be fifth level, 36 point buy, with bloodlines of Major strength and 20 score. I have been persuaded, and will allow the wizard for a human regent; elves must be sorcerors, and half-elves may select either.

 

[IdentityCrisis]

Dirigible:

Thanks. I just used www.monstercrawler.com and did a search for
"birthright 3e" to find it; the link was right around the top.

I'm opposed to including adventures, though, for several reasons:

1) It will slow the game down. If even one of us decides *not* to go on an adventure at the same time as anyone else, somebody's going to end up twiddling his thumbs waiting for everyone else to finish their merry little romp through the dungeon. You could avoid that by doing quests in a chat or instant message format, but then you forfit the biggest advantage of the PbP format; namely, the fact that everyone can play the game as their own schedual permits instead of having to re-organize their lives around the game.

2) Between the PbP format and the emphasis on domain actions instead of quests, we have more freedom than is possible in most games.

For one, if we don't have to adventure together, we don't have to have our characters get along or even be civil. We could roleplay mortal enemies, for example. I plan on playing a sourcer/guilder, and there's plenty of room for conflict there. And secondly, we don't have to worry about party balance. Nobody has to be "the tank," or "the healer." Everybody is free to play whatever they want, without worrying about what anyone else is playing.

All of this is lost if we're expected to group up and go on quests occasionally.

3) Finally, there's no rule that says we can only have one BirthRight campaign going at a time. Start your own, then we can have it both ways!

In fact, I call dibs on the first slot...

 

[IdentityCrisis]

Pax:

Don't sweat the wizard thing. It's your game, and if you feel that uncomfortable with it you have every right to say no. I asked why more out of curiosity than protest. And frankly, now that you've pointed that out I can see where you're coming from.

If you change your mind before our characters are finalized, let me know. But it's not a problem to play a sorcerer instead.

Designing a balanced point-buy system for domains and such will probably be complicated; you should probably run it by us before finalizing it so we can help. Frankly, I think that this is something they should have included in the book. You might want to try searching the web and seeing if anyone has already worked such a system out for 3e.

Here are some issues to consider, to help get you started:

1) Don't forget that not all provinces are equal in terms of potential for development. A coastal province is worth more than an inland one, for example, and a province with a higher source rating is also worth more, even if you haven't taken advantage of it yet.

2) Who inhabits a province can matter as well. IIRC, an elven province can increase it's province level without lowering it's source level, so in such a province source level should probably cost 2 or 3 times as much.

3) One's bloodline and power can be improved completely independant of the experience/level system, just like one's domain. So that should be factored into your system as well, instead of having us trade attribute points or something for it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dirigible]

Another thought; if there are four of us, can we play a Collective Rule campaign? Where each person control one of the four domain types within the same realm?

I'm leaning towards a half-elven spymaster, at the moment.

I can figure out the values to give you.

If I recall, domain points values are primarily derived from blood strength.

Designing a balanced point-buy system for domains and such will probably be complicated

There's one in the back of the 2nd ed rulebook, IDC. I can borrow it off my mate tomorrow and post the gist and tables, if y'all wish.

 

[IdentityCrisis]

Pax:

Doh! Stupid simultaneous posting!

I see you're allowing wizards now. Fair enough. However, I was thinking about what I just said to Dirigible about having much more freedom if they don't have to get along or adventure together, and it occurs to me that I might not have taken that idea far enough. Depending on how far you're willing to go, we could do something *really* differant.

For example, how about if one of us plays the villianeous mastermind (or at least, one of them)? As an example of this, based on the fact that elves (and only elves) can expand without damaging sources, I could make an elven sorcerer out to restore the magic of Cerilia - by wiping out the non-elven races.

What do you think?