Birthright domain / regent sub game

[bert1000]

Given the buzz over Paizo's new adventure path that is reported to include some rules on ruling a kingdom, I dug out my old Birthright stuff. In the 90s I used the setting for a few normal adventures and liked it, but never really used the regent / domain system.

For those of you that really playtested the domain, regent, large scale battle card, etc. sub-game, what are your thoughts? Is it fun? Does it allow for sufficient strategic decisions? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

 

[Blastin]

Well...It's been a while....
I ran two campaigns in Birthright. Each was about a year long real time. Each time it started as regular adventurers who then became regents for the last 9 months or so of the game.
I can't really remember too many specifics, but I do remember that there were a few issues. Regents with a high blood score had a HUGE advantage over those with low scores. The RP bidding wars could get a bit crazy. Regular adventuring gold became kinda like copper pieces to the players as they were dealing in Thousands of gold regularly in the Ruling game.
The battle cards....didn't work well. The idea for a mass combat system was ok, but pulling it off came out kinda bland. Magic (realm and battle) dominated and non-spellcasting regants could be royaly screwed by a magic weilding regent and had very little they could do to defend against it.
Overall I LOVED the system. I remember we made a few tweeks here and there, but overall it did waht it was supposed to do. It's also the only D&D game that I have ever participated in where character age actually mattered as the realm turns were 3 months long each. Years actually went by pretty fast.

 

[Thanael]

Check out Birthright.net for a 3E conversion of BR.