Ye old Birthright

[Dragonbait]

There was once a monster manual pdf available on the old TSR site. You might be able to find it on the Wizard's downloads section.

Finally, Birthright was supposed to be a low-magic setting (regarding the frequency of magic items and number of wizards), although not all authors seemed to have gotten that memo. So don't be afraid to remove magic items from NPC write-ups and such if it doesn't fit the flavor, and use monsters that can only be hit by magic weapons sparingly.

To add to this comment
Caveat emptor when using any of the published adventures or the book on the awnsheghliens. Many of the world's rules were either ignored or not defined for some of the writers of these books. Awnsheghliens with psionics, races and monsters in adventures that were clearly stated as NOT being in the setting and then the whole magical item thing. If you are not that big on setting details then it wouldn't be noticeable but if you are a stickler for such things then some adventures would require revisions.

 

[AllisterH]

Birthright seems to not have a big a following as the other settings. Hell, even the sub-settings like Jakandor, Masque of the Red Death and Al-Qadim seem to be more fondly remembered.

Do you think it was because Birthright got caught in the tail end of TSR's collapse and thus didn't get enough time to be well loved by the masses?
OR
was it because of the low powered nature of the setting (when people say they D&D is medieval fantasy RPG, the only setting I think of is Brithright and NOT the Realms or Greyhawk) and thus was TOO medieval/low powered for D&D?
OR
was it because of the focus of the rules themselves. What I most remember about Brithright was that the focus was more on controlling your kingdom/running battles than actually doing the typical D&D adventuring which was drastically different than other campaign worlds

 

[Marius Delphus]

At a guess, I'd say Birthright suffered from a combination of:

• Late-TSR setting multiplicity
• Trying to do too many things at once
• High concept
• Quirks

I'll tell you what I wanted from Birthright. I wanted a system that would let my existing high-level PCs settle down and run baronies, duchies, and what have you.* Possibly something that was reminiscent of Battlesystem but a little simpler for mass battles.

* I know, the OD&D Companion box. But it wasn't Adva-a-a-anced (whine)

I got a complete campaign world and the way-too-abstract "cards" system for mass battles [EDIT] and a regency system that at its core depended on the campaign world's unique quirks [/EDIT]. I wasn't enthused.

In hindsight, I find there's a lot to like about Birthright. I particularly like the implications of the awnsheghlien: the idea that (despite what the MM says), there's not an entire species of manticores out there, but there is the Manticore (and he's freaking dangerous). And the Banshee (Banshegh?). Et cetera. I also liked the xenophobic elves (I'd have permitted PC elf druids, at least, though), the refugee halflings, and the elemental dwarves. The notion that there really is a divine right of kings in the world, and that managing that gift properly is downright essential.

I'm not surprised it was doomed, frankly. But I was glad to know it stayed alive on the Web (and will return, to all appearances).

 

[KidSnide]

I'll tell you what I wanted from Birthright. I wanted a system that would let my existing high-level PCs settle down and run baronies, duchies, and what have you.* Possibly something that was reminiscent of Battlesystem but a little simpler for mass battles.

QFT.

Although I always thought there were two parts of this idea.

1) Enough "kingdom/organization operation" rules that let you feel like you were running an entity, but not so much that you felt like you had to do the computer's work in Masters of Orion.

2) A mass combat system that let you play your character in a field with large numbers of lower-than-level appropriate monsters (kind of like large 4E swarms, but more interesting).

-KS

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

I got a complete campaign world and the way-too-abstract "cards" system for mass battles [EDIT] and a regency system that at its core depended on the campaign world's unique quirks [/EDIT].

It's possible to divorce the regency system from the bloodlines for non-Birthright campaigns. Just remove the cap on regency collection (which depends on a character's bloodline score). If a character wants to start his own domain, I'd let him gain regency points through adventuring and questing.

I guess the designers aimed for ease of use and quick battle resolution in Birthright. This is contrasted by the detailed and rather time-consuming domain rules which could certainly use some streamlining (income and law claims, I'm looking at you ). Using average values instead of rolling for income is a good start.

I'm not surprised it was doomed, frankly. But I was glad to know it stayed alive on the Web (and will return, to all appearances).

I'd be very happy to see it return, but judging by Chris Perkins' comments that he posted in this thread (posts #73 and #90), I'd say a 4th edition Birthright is unlikely.

Do you think it was because Birthright got caught in the tail end of TSR's collapse and thus didn't get enough time to be well loved by the masses?

This, in addition to a glut of campaign worlds. Birthright was the last setting published in 2e and had strong competition.

What I most remember about Brithright was that the focus was more on controlling your kingdom/running battles than actually doing the typical D&D adventuring which was drastically different than other campaign worlds

Though the way it's presented in the books does lead the DM to assume that, IMO it depends upon how the DM chooses to run it; characters can adventure to their heart's content while also running a domain. My preference was to run typical D&D campaigns with the opportunity for the characters to become regents in the course of the story. (One of my group's characters inherited the Barony of Diemed after the ruling family was killed during an invasion from the Shadow World. Of course the party had to beat the invaders back after that. Who wants to rule a smoking ruin? )

 

[Necronomicus]

Well, I put in an order for it last Thursday and hope to see it in soon. I've been looking online and haven't found much else that is free to use without pirating and I refuse to do that. Also, I really don't want to update it to 4th Edition like I've seen on a few sites... I think it'd seriously take the fun out of the game, albeit some new classes are great... just that I haven't seen any rules that look close enough to official and balanced.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

There are a number of online campaigns of Birthright that are being run at any one time. Typically, one section of the world is taken (like Anuire) and all the regents in that section are offered as PCs. You'll have 20 or so players, and the game focuses on the regency side, with very little on the adventure side.

I'm actually quite interested in how such a campaign would go in FTF. If every PC is a regent, then there is not as much adventuring together, and the PCs might not be necessarily aligned.

Oh, yeah, and the War Card system is no good. Forget about it.

 

[Necronomicus]

I actually found the War Card system rather interesting.

As far as the Face To Face games, that's how I've played it in the past and think it'd be nice. General actions are listed in public, though anything that would be kept secret would be a secret meeting between all individuals involved (PC<s> and the GM of course).

 

[Wik]

There are a number of online campaigns of Birthright that are being run at any one time. Typically, one section of the world is taken (like Anuire) and all the regents in that section are offered as PCs. You'll have 20 or so players, and the game focuses on the regency side, with very little on the adventure side.

I'm actually quite interested in how such a campaign would go in FTF. If every PC is a regent, then there is not as much adventuring together, and the PCs might not be necessarily aligned.

Oh, yeah, and the War Card system is no good. Forget about it.

I remember reading an old DRAGON magazine, years and years ago, talking about the Birthright Playtests, and just that happening. If memory serves, Roger Moore was the regent for an evil kingdom, and invaded the world with spiders or something. And the other PCs all had to ally together to stop him. Sounded to me like it'd be a lot of fun.

I had a friend whose older brother was BIRTHRIGHT freak way back when. What his group did (and I think a lot of groups did this) was have one session a month involve regents, doing their thing... and the other three sessions involved different PCs (but each PC belonged to a lang controlled by a player at the table) adventuring in that part of the campaign world. So, if Jim invades with Spiders, the "Adventuring PCs" would have to deal with all sorts of spider raiders for the next few months.

 

[Nyeshet]

Birthright.net seems to be working fine now. The prior link goes directly to its wiki page, so hopefully that will be informative for you.