BIRTHRIGHT: Cerilia the Land of Kings (Inactive)

Game Master Elton

I need full player character write ups by

AUGUST 23rd

Campaign starts on:

AUGUST 26TH

Mieres is okay to take up. There are other Anuirean Colonies to the west, managed by Boeruine and Avanil.

Great. I'll just write up a ranger-regent into the slot (and as the successor of) Arren Vaumel, Ruins of Empire pp. 16-17. I'll throw some history in to the backstory to tie it into the canonical history.

Are there any rules or sources for developing other domain assets? The ruleset lists the domains and who controls them, but not the armies, navies, trade routes, fortifications, air fields, opera houses, cute little local bistros, and all the rest of the whatnot that keeps up the tourist trade to foreign places.

So, a couple of specific questions as I start to build

1) Any guidance about good favored enemies? I'm thinking humanoid(human) will cover most of the politics, but if your plan from day 1 is to send us into the Plane of Eternal Goblins I might re-think.

2) Rangers are technically divine casters. Realm spells?

3) Leadership and cohorts. Assuming I take it at level 1, who designs the cohort? Who runs it? Can a cohort be blooded? Can a cohort be a sub-regent (e.g. the priest who controls a temple network)?

GM Elton wrote:

Mieres is okay to take up. There are other Anuirean Colonies to the west, managed by Boeruine and Avanil.

Great. I'll just write up a ranger-regent into the slot (and as the successor of) Arren Vaumel, Ruins of Empire pp. 16-17. I'll throw some history in to the backstory to tie it into the canonical history.

Are there any rules or sources for developing other domain assets? The ruleset lists the domains and who controls them, but not the armies, navies, trade routes, fortifications, air fields, opera houses, cute little local bistros, and all the rest of the whatnot that keeps up the tourist trade to foreign places.

Oh, I didn't think you wanted to go into that much detail. Let me check the prd/:

<checks prd>

You can use the Optional Kingdom Rules to fill out the messy little details: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCampaign/kingdomsAndWar/optional KingdomRules.html

As for Armies, Meires would have a strong navy to protect it's merchant ships from the Sea Drake, so it would be as strong as Ayria's -- except you have Anuirean cogs, galleys, and probably the 14th century version of a frigate. It's army's details are on this page:
http://www.birthright.net/forums/showwiki.php?title=Mieres

So, a couple of specific questions as I start to build

1) Any guidance about good favored enemies? I'm thinking humanoid(human) will cover most of the politics, but if your plan from day 1 is to send us into the Plane of Eternal Goblins I might re-think.

2) Rangers are technically divine casters. Realm spells?

3) Leadership and cohorts. Assuming I take it at level 1, who designs the cohort? Who runs it? Can a cohort be blooded? Can a cohort be a sub-regent (e.g. the priest who controls a temple network)?

Q2 A: Rangers are technically divine casters. "As the default, Cerilian rangers gain the ability to cast divine spells directly from nature and not the blessing of any deity. An alternative would be to have non-elven rangers gain the ability to cast divine spells from Erik, the god of nature. Cerilian elves would still gain this power directly from nature itself since they are not attuned to the gods."

Blooded rangers, paladins, and other minor divine spell casters are capable of casting divine realm spells, but due to the spell level requirements, many realm spells are beyond them. Some divine realm spells may only be available to priests of specific religions.

Q1 A: I don't fully understand the nature of the question. Most humanoids you'll encounter in Aduria are beastmen (which catfolk, ratfolk, and nagaji are all lumped under). On the otherside of the mountain range are the other Anuirean colonies set up during the Empire's expansion and apogee. So, I don't fully understand the nature of the question. Can you rephrase it?

Q3 A: Third question: yes. Fourth question: If you control a law, source, temple, guild, or trade route holding; then yes you are a regent. However, the one that wears the crown controls the provinces (and are regents). Regents can be: temple advisors, court wizards, generals, and trade advisors. Typically, if you look at any of the Secrets of sourcebooks (which Colin McComb didn't like), you would recognize each of the NPCs as cohorts (not all of them, El-Hadid isn't a cohort!). Ariya, to continue the discussion, has several cohorts serving the Paladin -- a court wizard, an admiral, a trade advisor, and his trusted lieutenants of the church. For a true cohort, however, one only has to look to Rahil the Falcon.

Orfamay Quest wrote:

So, a couple of specific questions as I start to build

1) Any guidance about good favored enemies? I'm thinking humanoid(human) will cover most of the politics, but if your plan from day 1 is to send us into the Plane of Eternal Goblins I might re-think.

Q1 A: I don't fully understand the nature of the question. Most humanoids you'll encounter in Aduria are beastmen (which catfolk, ratfolk, and nagaji are all lumped under). On the otherside of the mountain range are the other Anuirean colonies set up during the Empire's expansion and apogee. So, I don't fully understand the nature of the question. Can you rephrase it?

Happy to. As a first level ranger, I need to pick a "favored enemy," which is usually a monster type (e.g., aberration or undead) but for some types is actually a subtype. For example, I can't pick all-of-humanoids, but I can pick a subtype such as elf, dwarf, halfling, human, or for that matter, gnoll or orog. I figured that in a largely human area such as Annuire, picking humans would be a good choice, but wanted to ask if you if that would mess up your Cosmic Plan.

I think you will get the most use from Humanoid (Human).

GM Elton wrote:

Orfamay Quest wrote:

So, a couple of specific questions as I start to build

1) Any guidance about good favored enemies? I'm thinking humanoid(human) will cover most of the politics, but if your plan from day 1 is to send us into the Plane of Eternal Goblins I might re-think.

Q1 A: I don't fully understand the nature of the question. Most humanoids you'll encounter in Aduria are beastmen (which catfolk, ratfolk, and nagaji are all lumped under). On the otherside of the mountain range are the other Anuirean colonies set up during the Empire's expansion and apogee. So, I don't fully understand the nature of the question. Can you rephrase it?

Happy to. As a first level ranger, I need to pick a "favored enemy," which is usually a monster type (e.g., aberration or undead) but for some types is actually a subtype. For example, I can't pick all-of-humanoids, but I can pick a subtype such as elf, dwarf, halfling, human, or for that matter, gnoll or orog. I figured that in a largely human area such as Annuire, picking humans would be a good choice, but wanted to ask if you if that would mess up your Cosmic Plan.

Each human counts as one of the subraces. Human (Anuirean), Human (Rjurik), and so on.

Beast-men is a wide ranging catagory that includes: Ratfolk, Catfolk, Serpentfolk, Nagaji, Gnolls, Kobolds, etc.

hmm, Colin McComb and Rich Baker said the same thing. They should have done Kingmaker before starting out as Kings.

hmm, Colin McComb and Rich Baker said the same thing. They should have done Kingmaker before starting out as Kings.

Huh? Do you want to change the campaign type?

I admit I didn't understand that comment either.

I don't know, yet. :D

IF no one else signs up before the 26th, then yes. :)

How can we attract enough reliable, quality players?

Maybe there are too few players on these boards who have played and remember Birthright enough to volunteer to for a PbP campaign based on that knowledge?

Maybe the requirement to have a Birthright Rulebook is too steep?

The recruitments that receive 20+ character submissions have a very strong introduction post clearly articulating campaign expectations of the story, game mechanics, player behavior, and GM behavior. Here appear to be some good examples: Ruins of Pathfinder, Here be dragons, and maybe this new one.

How can we attract enough reliable, quality players?

Cheers

That new one isn't as good as Ruins of Pathfinder.

Let me set up a new recruitment thread next week. :)

Maybe there are too few players on these boards who have played and remember Birthright enough to volunteer to for a PbP campaign based on that knowledge?

Maybe the requirement to have a Birthright Rulebook is too steep?

Both of the above, plus the fact that the ruleset itself is quite complex, IMHO. The fact that we're trying to merge it with Ultimate Campaign probably doesn't help, either.

Basically, a new player needs to master the bloodline rules, the kingdom/regency rules, and the new world atlas. Any one of those is probably reasonable, but three may be overburdensome.

But I can easily see one of my regular ftf players going "what the SMEG?" (Yes, he's a Red Dwarf fan, deal with it.) "How the smeg am I supposed to pick which kingdom I want to run when I don't understand the mechanics of the kingdoms? Oh, wait, the mechanics of the kingdom vary depending upon what smegging holdings I take, and I don't know how the holdings work...."

i'd be happy to play another GM Elton game, but i dont know A THING about birthright.

i dont have the birthright book or ultimate campaign.

i'd be happy to play another GM Elton game, but i dont know A THING about birthright.

i dont have the birthright book or ultimate campaign.

I don't have Ultimate campaign either, but most of the relevant rules are on the Pathfinder Reference Document or http://www.d20pfsrd.com.

The Birthright Atlas is online and has undergone much more detail than what is published on paper. I think Rich Baker and Colin McComb would be proud (they'd also say they wish they thought of the Kingmaker AP first themselves, go figure).

http://www.birthright.net/forums/showwiki.php

One idea that occurred to me on the drive in this morning; if you could provide more detail on what/how you want domain level action to work (for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the system) and also on the recommended starting realms ("Illien" is a name, but a paragraph about Illien including any specific challenges would make it more accessible).

It's like asking me if I want to play a "Mage of Throog" archetype. Do I know what a Throog Mage is? Do I know how the rules about it work? Do I have any way of picking between this and a "Ranger of Cryl"?

Basically, every page people need to look at to decide even if they want to join this game is a barrier. So pointing folks to Birthright.net is probably a turnoff, even if it's so detailed and authoritative. (In fact, perhaps especially if it's detailed and authoritative.)

One idea that occurred to me on the drive in this morning; if you could provide more detail on what/how you want domain level action to work (for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the system) and also on the recommended starting realms ("Illien" is a name, but a paragraph about Illien including any specific challenges would make it more accessible).

It's like asking me if I want to play a "Mage of Throog" archetype. Do I know what a Throog Mage is? Do I know how the rules about it work? Do I have any way of picking between this and a "Ranger of Cryl"?

Basically, every page people need to look at to decide even if they want to join this game is a barrier. So pointing folks to Birthright.net is probably a turnoff, even if it's so detailed and authoritative. (In fact, perhaps especially if it's detailed and authoritative.)

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Redoing the entire introduction page.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Redoing the entire introduction page.

Sorry, I forgot to say this in the earlier post. I do recognize that this is a hell of a lot of work. You're perfectly within your rights to say "the #$%@ with it, I'm going to run Serpent's Skull," or even "I'm going to take up origami."

The problem is that Birthright has a steep learning curve. New world, several new rulesets, a largely new ruleset to support the new system, and a scary amount of canonical background material that may or may not be required. (I don't play Star Wars games with true SW geeks for that reason; I haven't read the million pages of the Expanded Universe and so I have no idea who Nagini Shadow was....)

So the real question is how far are you willing to go to meet the n00bs? (And, of course, how can anyone else help?)

It's all in the Advertising, Orfamay. It's all in the Advertising -- the work to deliver.

May I ask if this is still open for recruitment I passed this by because of the plus 100 posts but I'm so very interested

There is a new thread open with a better introduction to the campaign.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q2lo?BIRTHRIGHT-Ruins-of-Empire-Recruiting-Dri ve

Still an extra space in between "Dri" and "ve."

Still an extra space in between "Dri" and "ve."

There's nothing I can do about it.