The bring back Birthright thread!

[Coredump]

I loved Birthright. Eventhough I never got to play in that setting, I bought a bunch of the books because it had a very good feel to it.

For those that feel similarly, I really suggest you check out Kalamar from kenzerco.com. I think it has a similar feel as to the type of world it creates. The humans (and all races) are much more complex than the two dimensional they-are-all-the-same that most settings assume. While it does not particularly set you up as a ruler, it would not be that hard to make that the campaign focus. There is a *lot* of great information about the various kingdoms, their history, personalities, rulers, etc. etc.

Hope you can enjoy it as much as I do.

 

[Neo]

I always really liked Birthright myself and was for me some of the best quality second edition material ever produced. There were aspects of it that weren't great though.. and my players were never fond of the wargame feel to it as it took the epmhasis of the roleplay a bit too much and turned it into cards and bookkeeping. Certain aspects did seem to read better in theory than they worked in practice but that takes nothing away from Cerilea being one of the most interesting settings that was released.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I always really liked Birthright myself and was for me some of the best quality second edition material ever produced. There were aspects of it that weren't great though.. and my players were never fond of the wargame feel to it as it took the epmhasis of the roleplay a bit too much and turned it into cards and bookkeeping. Certain aspects did seem to read better in theory than they worked in practice but that takes nothing away from Cerilea being one of the most interesting settings that was released.

Hey, Birthright taught me how to use Excel! (I used that to keep track of domain actions, income, expenses, etc, and did that at work during my spare time)

On a more serious note, it helps if you like building stuff. I treated it as a game of Civ with a lot more orcs. The domains provide lots of plot hooks for a cruel DM, and grabbing regency lets you jack up the character's bloodline rating.

Then again, by the time we got done with it, most of the domain maintenance was pawned off on subordinates while we went and saved the world. Again. Twice this week.

Brad

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I loved the setting more than any other, I do miss it, I do own most of the books, and luckily I gave up D&D when I went to boot camp so I didn't see the quick and unscheduled demise of it...

Don't expect miracles on a sunday and in less then 12 hours. I think the problem lay with the focus on domain ruling and not on the adventuring, most groups play D&D for the adventuring.

I've thought about this more than once, we use to do it when I was growing up, but I don't ever seeing coming back. There's one of these threads every few months so there is a fair amount of love for it, but I don't see WoTC making room for another world... :\

If BR were to ever make a comeback it should be more focused on adventuring in the world of Cerilia (which was pretty nifty) and less on the domain rules.

Honestly, you need both, if not it's just another setting, admitting a very cool one, but you do need rules for running a domain.

I was wondering (just a thought), would WotC be willing to sell the BR property (instead of liscencing the property)? And if so, what would something like that be worth?

Well considering they have links to a message board that give free access I honestly doubt it would be too much... I know what I would be doing if I won the lottery though...

 

[trancejeremy]

Birthright is actually the setting that got me back into D&D. But then I realized I really didn't like AD&D 2nd Edition, so I actually used the D6 rules to play Birthright.

However, I really don't think it was a success, at least by WOTC standards. For instance, I have several copies of Tribes of the Heartless Wastes which I got through a mystery pack from American Science and Surplus. I've managed to give away about half of them, but still have 3-4 left.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Hmmm, Birthright. I definitely loved their approach to the setting's cultures (yay Hanseatic League based nation!), the unique monsters and the Cerilian dragons (much scarier than the old 2E dragon). As an adventuring setting I thought it was just awesome. I never tried out the domain/war rules though, sounds like a great pain. What about just the war rules though? Has anyone used/updated those?

 

[Ampolitor]

war rules

Im not sure Ill have to check onthe war rules part.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Birthright is still one of my all-time favorite game settings. I loved most of the supplements, except the domain sourcebooks - there were too many of 'em, and I actually had no real interest in that level of detail.

I agree that the material released for the setting was too focused on the domain ruling aspect. The relatively few modules released for the setting were rather lackluster, in my opinion, which I feel hampered the setting. Adventures often set the mood for and help define the atmosphere of a setting, in ways that sourcebooks can't quite achieve.

One of the things that struck me about 3e was that many of the monsters/domain rulers and bloodline abilities of Birthright apparently were either echoed by, or incorporated into, the new edition of the game, either in the abilities monsters now had or in feats that seemed to come from bloodline abilities.

Anyway, the rules for bloodline abilities have been released as OGC content in Unearthed Arcana, and many of the domain rulers of Cerilia are fairly easily detailed using 3.5 rules; many of them simply seemed to be advanced monsters, some possibly having character levels.

 

[Neo]

Birthright is still one of my all-time favorite game settings. I loved most of the supplements, except the domain sourcebooks - there were too many of 'em, and I actually had no real interest in that level of detail.

Was quite fond of the domain sourcebooks myself and I know my players found them helpful when it came to being the regent of a specific domain. Great for adding flavour and details providing some basic maps and npc's and regents in case they were NPC domains etc..

I still like flicking through my favourite the Tuarhaviel Domain book even now

 

[Neo]

Out of curiosity if Birthright were to be done for 3.5 say.. what would people add, alter or redo?