Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I remember that adventure. It was one of the few instances of the magazines adding new blood abilities (as opposed to new spells or magic items).
D&D General Tell me about Birthright
- Thread starter Haplo781
- Start date
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
Now we should rebember the possible impact of the Feywild and the Shadowfell in the world of Cerilia, and there is only one lineage of true dragons. And the conflicts between gnomes and ardlings, because now they are the newcomer becoming too popular, and gnomes are really jealous.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
For those who have successfully run it, how did you handle the “sessions”? Did folks do their turns at home and turn them in, or were they done while everyone was at the table? What about RP sessions? Was everyone playing at the same table and were they running their own characters if so? How would you handle things in 5E?
There are things I like about Birthright, but I really struggle envisioning it as an at-table sort of campaign, and I don’t like the idea of a campaign being “homework” to turn in each session.
There are things I like about Birthright, but I really struggle envisioning it as an at-table sort of campaign, and I don’t like the idea of a campaign being “homework” to turn in each session.
Way back, before BR came out, I tried my hand at doing a campaign where the players were domain rulers, and it was all done where the players would do their turn at home, turn it in and I’d evaluate it, randomly generate some events and give them back the results for the next turn. If a battle happened, the players would get together (with me as Referee) and it would be handled via Battlesystem/WHFB/BECMI Mass Combat Engine (depending on the players choice). We did not have a case where everyone got together to do any group RP, except in one or two occasions where one PC was visiting another on a diplomatic mission (and that ended when one PC decided to attempt to assassinate another visiting PC).
We finished that campaign a few months before Birthright hit the shelves. My experiences (and heartaches) with that homebrew campaign both had me yearning to try it, but also dreading attempting it, and with the little I played of the Gorgon’s Crown game, I couldn’t see how having an at-table game of Birthright would pan out without someone either sitting on their hands or playing subordinate to someone else’s regent.
As for the Council campaign, with my past experiences it would have likely worked until one PC or the other decided to multiclass and start grabbing another PC’s holdings because “they can do it better”
We finished that campaign a few months before Birthright hit the shelves. My experiences (and heartaches) with that homebrew campaign both had me yearning to try it, but also dreading attempting it, and with the little I played of the Gorgon’s Crown game, I couldn’t see how having an at-table game of Birthright would pan out without someone either sitting on their hands or playing subordinate to someone else’s regent.
As for the Council campaign, with my past experiences it would have likely worked until one PC or the other decided to multiclass and start grabbing another PC’s holdings because “they can do it better”
payn
Glory to Marik
One of the first games I did was a F2F. Each player was a regent and there were many of us. A round was about 15 min where each player went around the room talking to other regents. When time was up folks submitted their actions for the season. GM would adjudicate, resolve issues, and then have setting events happen (or not).For those who have successfully run it, how did you handle the “sessions”? Did folks do their turns at home and turn them in, or were they done while everyone was at the table? What about RP sessions? Was everyone playing at the same table and were they running their own characters if so? How would you handle things in 5E?
There are things I like about Birthright, but I really struggle envisioning it as an at-table sort of campaign, and I don’t like the idea of a campaign being “homework” to turn in each session.
Way back, before BR came out, I tried my hand at doing a campaign where the players were domain rulers, and it was all done where the players would do their turn at home, turn it in and I’d evaluate it, randomly generate some events and give them back the results for the next turn. If a battle happened, the players would get together (with me as Referee) and it would be handled via Battlesystem/WHFB/BECMI Mass Combat Engine (depending on the players choice). We did not have a case where everyone got together to do any group RP, except in one or two occasions where one PC was visiting another on a diplomatic mission (and that ended when one PC decided to attempt to assassinate another visiting PC).
We finished that campaign a few months before Birthright hit the shelves. My experiences (and heartaches) with that homebrew campaign both had me yearning to try it, but also dreading attempting it, and with the little I played of the Gorgon’s Crown game, I couldn’t see how having an at-table game of Birthright would pan out without someone either sitting on their hands or playing subordinate to someone else’s regent.
As for the Council campaign, with my past experiences it would have likely worked until one PC or the other decided to multiclass and start grabbing another PC’s holdings because “they can do it better”
Was fun for a bit, but got to be a bit tedious talking to so many folks and planning things.
Another attempt was play by post using a forum site. This was much better as you could simply trade emails between regents and GM. Same as above but time frame was more like two seasons a week. Game flamed out after a few months because GM was bad about explaining the rules and folks lost interest.
I think the second attempt was perfect using a forum and email to communicate. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but with different GM.
TheSword
Legend
First off, I think it’s worth saying that I have ran a fun and enjoyable campaign in the setting without the players being Regents. I think it stands on its own merits.
That said, I think there is a reason that the adventures for Birthright were weak… chiefly, they just weren’t ambitious enough.
The kinds of things that challenge a regular party just aren’t enough when the party each have the resources of a kingdom behind them. It’s not enough to defeat bandits or stop an assassin. It’s too small, too mediocre. They need to somehow require kingdom wide solutions and intimidate solutions only the PCs can provide.
That assassin needs to be part of a continent-spanning organisation poised to strike at the heart of the ruling elite - controlling some rulers like puppets through fear and extortion. With the PCs needing to work out who they can trust, deal with the puppets and keep their own lands safe, while finding out who the ring leaders are and stopping them in their tracks.
Those bandits need to be the advanced forces of a massive invasion that will require the continent to band together to defend while at the same time dealing with kingdoms that capitulate rather than be destroyed as the players mount their own surgical strike to save their neighboring regents and rallying the defense.
Every adventure I’ve seen released for Birthright so far from a Domain point of view is small and mediocre. It’s just hard to write up the kinds of obstacles needed to challenge a regent and an adventurer. They need to demand complex and varied solutions on multiple fronts that tax the resources of all the players.
That said, I think there is a reason that the adventures for Birthright were weak… chiefly, they just weren’t ambitious enough.
The kinds of things that challenge a regular party just aren’t enough when the party each have the resources of a kingdom behind them. It’s not enough to defeat bandits or stop an assassin. It’s too small, too mediocre. They need to somehow require kingdom wide solutions and intimidate solutions only the PCs can provide.
That assassin needs to be part of a continent-spanning organisation poised to strike at the heart of the ruling elite - controlling some rulers like puppets through fear and extortion. With the PCs needing to work out who they can trust, deal with the puppets and keep their own lands safe, while finding out who the ring leaders are and stopping them in their tracks.
Those bandits need to be the advanced forces of a massive invasion that will require the continent to band together to defend while at the same time dealing with kingdoms that capitulate rather than be destroyed as the players mount their own surgical strike to save their neighboring regents and rallying the defense.
Every adventure I’ve seen released for Birthright so far from a Domain point of view is small and mediocre. It’s just hard to write up the kinds of obstacles needed to challenge a regent and an adventurer. They need to demand complex and varied solutions on multiple fronts that tax the resources of all the players.
TwiceBorn2
Adventurer
If anyone here becomes inspired to run a Birthright PbP (any edition)... I'll happily sign on as a player!
The way we played was almost exactly like 5e has downtime set up.
We played, went on adventures, spent "downtime" resolving kingdom actions, etc.
ANYTHING the players were really interested in, we turned into a potential adventure scenario.
Turns out, the domain and rulership rules GENERATED a lot of ideas for rp and adventures.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
I liked to start with Combining 2 -3 random events and then letting the players response to those events generate RP and adventure. It’s always important that Random events have NPCs attached and the world has histories and relationships that characters are trying to affect.
Interestingly enough even my non-Birthright games often start with PCs gathering at a festival.
As for adventures yeah the published ones were mediocre but Legends of the Hero-Kings has some nice spins on Domain actions and Sword and Crown has a tournament games and political challenges
I might try to find those two then.
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Didn't Mystara have a similar origin for the Hin?
