Birthright

[Hawklord]

I had an aboprtive attempt at running an all Regent campaign that didn't really work out.

However when I re-started the campaign off again with everyone as ordinary adventurers and made them "earn" their power and position through Adventuring it worked so much better! I still get requests from the players to revisit Birthright years later.

I still think Birthright is one of the best background settings TSR ever produced, for all the reasons others have identified above - Abominations, the Shadow World, scions, the political situations, the treatment of the fey, the weird halflings !

The 3E conversion on Birthright.net was pretty sound, but I'd love for someone to produce a big juicy full-colour hardback of this.... and while they're at it could they do Greyhawk as well !

 

[ephemeron]

If anyone is interested, and if I can find it, I can email them the 3E campaign setting pdf (it is 8.5 megs if I remember correctly). Hope this was helpful.

I'd love to see the PDF. Please PM me if you can find it.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have nearly every book released for Birthright, though I only got to ever play it once. The DM bought all the supplements, ran one game, and gave everything to me. I loved the setting. It had a very solid background and feel to it; the races differed from the cookie cutter norms most settings offer. Elves were aloof, even sinister. Halflings were odd, almost spooky. The various nations and realms all had a very "real" feel to them. The bloodline concept (that the blood of the gods flowed in the veins of the world's denizens) truly placed the setting apart from "traditional" fantasy.

www.birthright.net (if it's still a viable site) has made great progress in updating the rules to 3.5, as I recall. Dang... now I want to play BR.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I'd love to see the PDF. Please PM me if you can find it.

Links to the chapters are here: http://www.birthright.net/showthread.php?t=2628

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Links to the chapters are here: http://www.birthright.net/showthread.php?t=2628

I could not download or open the links. Evidently just registering on the boards isn't enough.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I could not download or open the links. Evidently just registering on the boards isn't enough.

I registered on the forums and logged in.

Downloads work fine here. Not a helpful comment, I know, but the data is there.

Exhibit A:

Chapter one: Characters Ability Scores

The ability scores of BIRTHRIGHT characters are generated as detailed in the Player’s Handbook. When creating a character for BIRTHRIGHT, generate and assign six standard ability scores using any of the systems for elite characters presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. See Chapter 2, Blood and Regency, for rules on using a 7th ability score at character creation. Random ability score generation is the assumed default for d20 BIRTHRIGHT. Alternatively, your DM may choose to allow the tougher campaign point buy (28 points) or a modified elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 8). Character race Cerilia is home to many humanoid races, ranging from fierce orogs and goblinoids to graceful, deadly elves. The BIRTHRIGHT campaign allows players to choose from nine character races: dwarves, elves, half-elves, halflings, and five distinct human cultures (Anuirean, Brecht, Khinasi, Rjurik, and Vos). Each of the Cerilian races differs from the equivalent race presented in the Player’s Handbook...

 

[Steel_Wind]

I could not download or open the links. Evidently just registering on the boards isn't enough.

Do you have cookies turned off? I know that some downloading that relies on cookies often does not work with Mozilla.

Try IE.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Do you have cookies turned off? I know that some downloading that relies on cookies often does not work with Mozilla.

Try IE.

I don't know what happened, but I managed to download them. Thanks!

 

[Glyfair]

I registered on the forums and logged in.

Downloads work fine here. Not a helpful comment, I know, but the data is there.

Exhibit A:

Apparently when they went to new forums, they lost all the attachments. I assume that between the two visits, they were reuploaded to the forums.

 

[Blastin]

Again, I have to agree with every good thing that was said above. Birthright is by far my all time favorite setting.
I ran two long term campaigns in Birthright, the first being a group that ran Rosonae and the second through King of the Giantdowns (which is kinda like a birthright minicampaign).
Both times I started the party out as regular adventurers that then earned the right to rule and then took the game into a combo of adventures and realm management. My players, and I, all loved it.
Birthright has the absolute most internally consistant background, lands and language of any campaign world produced by TSR/WOTC. Eberron comes a somewhat close second.
If you are looking for campaign ideas, there are TONS just from reading the Ruins of Intrigue book from the main box. Want to run a Robinhood campaign? There's a realm that has just that setup. Want to run Sinbad/arabic flavor? Look to the realms in Khinasi. Want nordic vikings? Rjurik. Russian barbarians, industrialized merchent princes, crusading religious fenatics, you name it, it's there. And best of all, it is all presented as part of the world in such a way that it makes the world feel more real, not cobbled together.
I could gush on for hours about the setting. If ya want specifics, feel free to message me off the boards at Blastin >at< aol dot com