Riddle of Birthright

[Sykora]

Just picked up TRoS this week and I'm very impressed. While reading through it, I kept getting this Birthright vibe, which leads to the inevitable conversion. Social class is built right into the priorities.

The two main conversion hangups are Blood and fief management. My thought was replacing the Gift priority with Blood Strength and making up some new Gift/Flaws for it. Ports rather easily that way. The other main contention point is there's no fief management system. Anybody working on anything along these lines?

On another note, damn all my luck - picking up the game the week that the website's down. ;)

[Jake Norwood]

Yeah, we're working on that website. I might have to change my server company.

Birthright...I really liked BR, though I never played. I agree that porting it wouldn't be too bad. Let us know how it goes.

Jake

[Brian Leybourne]

I was having thoughts along Pendragon lines, some of which might be applicable for you (work with me here for a sec :-))

Pendragon plays in seasons, during the summer each year you go campaigning (or whatever) and winter is kind of "down time" when you administer to your estates and holdings etc, roll to see if your heirs die of cholera, and so on.

So I've been thinking of trying to write something up for TROS, allowing it to be played along similar lines, could be a lot of fun and it would probably work pretty nicely for Birthright etc, along the lines of what you're talking about.

Two problems: 1) I don't HAVE Birthright and 2) Of Beasts and Men is pretty much taking up all of my working-on-rpg's-while-not-actually-playing time at the moment (to the annoyance of the players in my 3e campaign who are starting to notice that I have not been putting as much work into preparing for sessions *grin*), so it'll be a while before I could think of starting on it.

Might be interesting to collaborate though, we're aiming at pretty similar targets.

Brian.

[Sykora]

Pendragon was almost exactly what I was thinking of (sorta). Never seen the fief management system, but I've heard of it in the past.

The main problem with the Birthright system is that it's really abstract (much like D&D as a whole). A basic port would probably not be all that complicated but then it would feel like exactly that...a port. A much nicer way would be a sort of manuever system where one could 'economically manuver' against rival lords or something. My other thought was a whole new set of derived attributes based on the fief's structure and general leadership ability, with a "Realm Pool" that would refresh every season. Don't know. Just tossing out thoughts right now.

The nice thing is that so much in BR already exists in TRoS. Mages can blast whole armies. And, hopefully, with a mass battle system (in TFoB?) the military actions would be covered as well.

Side note: TRoS Ravenloft would also be really, really ugly. RealmLords=Sorcerors. Crank the bleakness up to 11.

[Brian Leybourne]

The main problem with the Birthright system is that it's really abstract (much like D&D as a whole). A basic port would probably not be all that complicated but then it would feel like exactly that...a port. A much nicer way would be a sort of manuever system where one could 'economically manuver' against rival lords or something. My other thought was a whole new set of derived attributes based on the fief's structure and general leadership ability, with a "Realm Pool" that would refresh every season. Don't know. Just tossing out thoughts right now.

Yeah, interesting. I'll have to think about that when I get some time :-)

Side note: TRoS Ravenloft would also be really, really ugly. RealmLords=Sorcerors. Crank the bleakness up to 11.

Ouch.. now that's a nasty thought. Given how fricking hard undead are to kill in tRoS (no blood loss, no shock, 1/3 pain mods to represent the actual damage but not agony of a wound, forget puncturing weapons, etc) you basically have to chop them into very small bits. Add the other nasty things that go bumb in the night, and make them COMMON (as in Ravenloft) as opposed to VERY RARE (as in normal tRoS) and you have a scary-ass game.

Brian.

[Nick the Nevermet]

I got the exact same feel about Birthright and TROS.  But then, BR is one of the better settings for D&D IMO (and certainly one of the most underrated).

And a fief management system for TROS... man that would make me drool.

[Jake Norwood]

I got the exact same feel about Birthright and TROS.  But then, BR is one of the better settings for D&D IMO (and certainly one of the most underrated).

And a fief management system for TROS... man that would make me drool.

We actually planned one, as I love doing that in games, but finally we decided that it wasn't anyone's cup o tea and that the book was big enough as-is (back then the manuscript was well over 300 pages), so we didn't finish fleshing it out.

I think I'll publish it as a PDF or something, as I don't know what book I'd put it in this year.

Jake

[Nick the Nevermet]

Drooling has now commenced.
I hope yer happy

:D

[Brian Leybourne]

Yep, have yo go with Nick on this one. That would rock the kasbah. Definately want to incorporate that into my next tRoS campaign (after my D20 game finishes).

Brian.

[Sykora]

A friend worked up the basic Birthright races yesterday. As soon as I get his notes, I'll post 'em.

Count me in for wanting those fief management rules, Jake.

[Lyrax]

I hope drool mixes well with keyboards...

[Nick the Nevermet]

2 things:

1) I apologize to all who can read my words that drooling is now part of this thread.  It was a poor decision on my part

2) Just to note: while I would LIKE estatement management rules, I'm not demanding them by any stretch of the imagination.  First, there's a limit to how much a consumer can demand.  Second, I would hold such a ruleset to a pretty high standard.  Rules would need to work and also 'fit' TROS.  For example, I think something like 'cultural attributes' instead of spiritual or something would be cool.  But i'm high on chocolate milk & cold medicine at the moment, so my opinions may not be all that 'on'