Soooo... What exactly makes Birthright a unique setting ? what's it about ?
And should I get interested, what books should I buy ?
Thanks in advance...
There are also "Official" 3.x rules availabel at:
http://www.birthright.net/forums.php
Give them a read through to gain an idea of the background of the setting. As for what to buy, you should pick up a copy of the Birthright Campaign Setting Boxed set (written for 2nd edition Ad&d, published in 1995).'
That is really all you need to get started and play for a long time in the Anuirean part of Cerilia.
- you can play a normal adventure-style game just using the BR world as your setting (with divine bloodlines being one of the selling points)
- you can play using the "domain" system, which will allow you to run a kingdom or powrful organization (Br is still the only setting that has comprehensive rules for this)
- or you can mix and match the two for a truly unique experience
I've always just ran the setting as a straight campaign setting myself, and played IN it as it was intended. We have added a bunch of house rules to the basic domain system to create greater flexibilty and to match to a greater extent historical examples. What has kept me and others coming back to Birthright is the five highly detailed cultures, though one got left out in the end supplement-wise (the Russo-Mongol Voss) but they make truly good bad-guys. That's another thing I liked: it was the first 2nd Ed setting that worked well without alignments and we quickly did that. This enabled me to create complex, three dimensional villains and keep the BIG VILLAINS of the box set and the supplements as background. When they did appear I used them like Tolkein used Sauron: something any sane character ran from no matter his level. Unless of course he had an edge, like a powerful artifact or a whole group behind him with a pretty good bevy of powerful items! In Birthright you use your brains because you'll ALWAYS run into something smarter AND stronger than you!
In the end it was indeed the complex, consistant, colorful and logical setting that sold me and still does. After all these years we can still create campaigns for any level but with such a detailed setting with such complex and real cultures we actually prefer to avoid "power" campaigns and just explore the world and create a little havoc now and then chasing bandits and selling our swords. Exploring that color is what we've come to love.
This we also like: it was TSR's first setting that could be low magic without hurting it. Sword really shine while wizards are what legend made them: dark and mysterious figures who use powerful spells to affect whole realms, or advise heroes! Sure they adventure, but our wizards are more like intelligence officers than glorified heavy artillery. They are also feared, see above.
Birthright is so coloful and varied I can run a straight on "13th Warrior" type session then swing around and run a "Princess Bride" session in the same campaign setting and change nothing! Beat that!
Hello Folks,
I've always just ran the setting as a straight campaign setting myself, and played IN it as it was intended. We have added a bunch of house rules to the basic domain system to create greater flexibilty and to match to a greater extent historical examples. What has kept me and others coming back to Birthright is the five highly detailed cultures, though one got left out in the end supplement-wise (the Russo-Mongol Voss) but they make truly good bad-guys
Actually tribes of the Heartless Wastes covered Vosgaard.
Yeah, sure the setting is lovely, but it's not to make me sigh over it.
I was aware of TRIBES. It came out when I was deployed and then disappeared before I got back. Soon after [u]Birthright[u] died a premature death. I never really missed it as It made Vossgaard "open territory" for me to play with, sorta the "last frontier" for my players.
Actually Ranger REG it's the lack of all that High Fantasy bells and whistles combined with the socio-political detail demanded by the rules that make Birthright so rich. The usual overblown "good vs. evil" and "Its maaaagic" stuff doesn't exist. And here the Goblin have REAL armies! When a Dragon flies abominations give way and kingdoms tremble as in the old folklore fantasy is based on. I also like that the populations aren't nailed down and every important city mapped out to a fair the well (good art is about it). The color is all there but it takes the DM and the players to bring it out in full. The lack of development means it's what I wish it to be.
Lastly nothing new that's official is coming out so it's ours to play with (Mine, mine! AAALLL MINE!:evillaugh )! Think about it: half the work is done for you while no new supplements or books are going to come out to ruin your campaign. No players saying "But in book so-and-so of the Whatchamacallit Trilogy it was like this..." And no drow rangers
!And yes, Cerilia is indeed a beautiful continent. It's a continent covered in huge forests, thick jungle, deserts, plains and mountains and the covers give such color to it all I can picture the landscape with ease. The cultures are analogous to real ones so its easy to see them as well (I used the "13th Warrior" for my Rjurik campaign set in Hjolvar to give the players the color), to feel them as real.
This I find a real problem in other campaigns, with the cultures feeling like Renn Fair extras and people playing elves as pointy eared neo-pagan humans with snooty attitudes. Dwarves are as bad. Yech
. I love it.Meh. I'm only in it for the realm management rules. Don't know why that hasn't taken off. Who doesn't want to run their own realm and make policies with their neighbors, be it ally or threat?
Yeah, sure the setting is lovely, but it's not to make me sigh over it.
For me, the realm management rules were interesting, but bear in mind this was roundabout the time that Civilization II and other rule-your-empire style games came out on computer, and a computer could effortlessly handle all the number crunching between turns for all the cities and nations.
Whereas there was simply no way a DM could realistically handle all the Regency Points of all the domain rulers without resorting to some sort of shorthand.
For me, the realm management rules were interesting, but bear in mind this was roundabout the time that Civilization II and other rule-your-empire style games came out on computer, and a computer could effortlessly handle all the number crunching between turns for all the cities and nations.
But the BR system is so simple. Are you criticizing for TSR/WotC for using the KISS approach to realm management and politics?
And BTW, I have Civ2, then Civ3 (which cannot compare to Civ2), and as great as those computer games are, there is always something missing, the same component when I play CRPGs and MMORPGs (through my friend's account, never a fan of pay-2-play) ... the tabletop dynamic human interactions and roleplaying non-mechanical details that cannot be emulated through code programming.
Sure, Cerilia is a rich setting to play in, but I've already been a fan of FR since it became a commercial product back in late 80's. BR appeal to me is their political system, bar none.
But the BR system is so simple. Are you criticizing for TSR/WotC for using the KISS approach to realm management and politics?
Didn't you read the last sentence of his post?
Wyvern
Hello Folks,
I was aware of TRIBES. It came out when I was deployed and then disappeared before I got back. Soon after [u]Birthright[u] died a premature death. I never really missed it as It made Vossgaard "open territory" for me to play with, sorta the "last frontier" for my players.
"Tribes" are one the best Birthright supplements I ever seen. I strongly recommend you found them, for even Vosgaard has his own frontier regions and great plots. And there were depicted some very "tasty" kingdoms. And I'm sorry, for you can't experience merry times, when our group of players read these funny names and barbaric customs descriptions years ago here in St. Petersburg, Russia.
I like sidhelien - only truly fey elves I ever seen in WotC multiverse. And I like those dwarves too - they are more "children of stone" than their other "armored pedestal" brethren.
I miss only one sourcebook (for it was never planned and written) - about cerelian goblins and orogs, for these races were great and distinct from other D&D evil peoples.
Yeup, playing hashed together Slavic/Mongol crossbreeds had to be hilarious for a real Russian. Though from what I've read pre-Christian Slavs could be pretty terrifying. Certainly the Byzantines were plenty intimidated!
No slam though, my own Celtic/ Germanic ancestors were a bunch of naked, head-hunting, tatooed warriors who raped and pillaged their way across Europe, and I'm dang proud of it! It's far more interesting than the peaceful earth-mother tree huggers the PC crowd is trying to turn them into. Yeesh, its what the Rjurik (Celto-Germanics) got partially turned into, at least your ancestors got spared that indignity! Such warriors letting their families starve rather than shoot just one more deer? I think not!