What is Birthright?

[Man_Over_Game]

There was mention of a Birthright setting in the 5e forums, but I never heard of it before.

Could a veteran explain the setting to me, and what its major points are?

[noob]

I believe it is about racism and about spells to detect from which family people are or something like that.

[Khedrac]

Birthright was a 2nd Ed camaign setting concerned with ruling domions.

I never played it, but I believe the characters could have a number of inherited abilities which is why they were nobles, but I don't know the details.
A good place to ask about this is the Other RPGs and Older versions of D&D subform, or go over to The Piazza which has a dedicated Birthright subform.

[Man_Over_Game]

Birthright was a 2nd Ed camaign setting concerned with ruling domions.

I never played it, but I believe the characters could have a number of inherited abilities which is why they were nobles, but I don't know the details.
A good place to ask about this is the Other RPGs and Older versions of D&D subform, or go over to The Piazza which has a dedicated Birthright subform.

Gotcha, thanks for the help!

[Helluin]

I actually just started reading some online articles on this setting last week:
http://www.birthright.net/forums/sho...php?title=BRCS

It’s not the original Birthright setting transcribed, since those were probably from oD&D/AD&D (I’m not sure), but a 3.5/d20 port, but I believe the setting elements and conflicts should be largely preserved? Can someone confirm if this is true?

[Eldan]

It's one of the older settings. In the nineties, I think? Just before my time.

Players were members of divinely powered noble bloodlines, each of which carried special powers. As nobles, the players controlled domains made up of various holdings, engaged in politics, etc. The special mechanic was that every player character had an Aura of Regency, which let them command normal people.

[Man_Over_Game]

I actually just started reading some online articles on this setting last week:
http://www.birthright.net/forums/sho...php?title=BRCS

It’s not the original Birthright setting transcribed, since those were probably from oD&D/AD&D (I’m not sure), but a 3.5/d20 port, but I believe the setting elements and conflicts should be largely preserved? Can someone confirm if this is true?

I'll take a look.

Someone brought it up on the topic of Edition-specific settings in the 5e forum, related on determining what kind of setting would be best suited for what edition.

Someone said that 3.5 had the Eberron setting, built around an overly magical world that's kept safe due to effectively a "Cold War" magic scenario, due to how excessive high level magic can be in 3.5.

Then I made the comment that 5e would support massive armies, with generals/elites being mages that are either stocked with AoE spells or Counterspell, in order to waste the opposing army or protect their own. In 5e, numbers are more powerful than straight level, as a small army of level 1s (50 or so) could easily take a max level character. So combat would rely on armies clashing against armies, then taking measures to ensure that your army wins (using anti-army, or anti-anti-army tactics). Then it was said that I basically described the Birthright setting, which doesn't have any material for 5e.

Maybe with enough reference material, I could use info on it to create a similar setting that's designed around 5e's mechanics.

[Kaleph]

For further information, DrM315 contains a conversion of some birthright features. This conversion is meant to be played with AD&D content.

The birthright campaign setting has been discontinued by the WotC for 3.5, and the rights has been "borrowed" to a fan-based website.

On google you may therefore find the pdf of this homebrew campaign setting for 3.5.

[jmberry]

A lot of people have already commented on the basics, so here is a cliffnotes of the setting and concept:

- About a thousand years ago, the god of evil fought the other gods on the material plane, while his army of goblins, gnolls, orogs, and evil humans fought the good humans. All the gods died. Those humans who were closest to the gods' death, their champions, absorbed most of their power and became the new gods. This includes two who became the new gods of evil.
- Those further away from the battle site but still participating also absorbed some of the divine power. They didn't become gods, but their new power was potent and hereditary, carried in their bloodlines
- Followers of the dead evil god then started killing other bloodline holders and discovered they could increase their own bloodline power this way. The most powerful became the Abominations, who are the main supernatural threats to the world
- Roele, who gained the bloodline of the old god of justice (and was brother to the new god of justice) decided to use his bloodline to forge an empire devoted to justice and fair rulership
- Five hundred years ago Roele's empire collapses when the last emperor decides, without designating an heir, to challenge the Gorgon, an abomination who is essentially the setting's Sauron-equivalent. Civil war lasts for 70 years
-This is basically the status quo since. Bloodline holders, the Scions, rule over various domains, with their power becoming stronger the more prosperous the domain is. As a result, even republics and other non-hereditary governments are led by scions, since they are just that beneficial to a domain.
-Player characters are scions, ruling over domains with a sort of turn-based strategy style subsystem. The system is set up so that certain classes will be better with thematic provinces (i.e., a cleric should rule a theocracy, a fighter should rule a monarchy, etc.)
-The elves are a bunch of reactionary jerks who routinely call a Wild Hunt to cull humans (it's actually more complicated than that, but since "elves are jerks" was a brand-spanking new concept for the 1990s, the core Birthright books really lean into it). The elves are also atheists in this setting.
-The dwarves and halflings are … there. Okay, the halflings actually do have a unique twist in that they're refugees from the Shadow World, a plane similar to future D&D concepts like the Shadowfell, and this is why they are sneaky. The dwarves, however, seem to be there because an AD&D world needs dwarves, with their culture being the same as in other settings (to the point of worshipping Moradin).
-There was an OGL book by AEG, Empire, that attempted to update these rules to 3.0, although without the bloodline concept. Likewise, the kingdom building rules Pathfinder has, most well known for their use in the Kingmaker AP, can be viewed as a spiritual successor to these rules.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head.

TL,DR: Birthright is a setting where the default is the PCs are rulers with divine blood who can increase their power through improving their domains.

[LibraryOgre]

Notably, you can get it on PDF.

As others have said, the main idea was "The players get to run kingdoms". There were rules for running a domain, and building their different holdings. They had their own, post-battlesystem, rules for army units and battles. The stronger your divine power (bloodline score), the more powers you were likely to have. Bloodlines tended to run in ethnic groups, and they have an influence on what powers you got.

If you check for Birthright products on Drivethru, you'll also find that they had a LOT of "Players Secrets"... small sourcebooks about specific regions.

[Caelestion]

The Battle of Deismaar was 1524 years ago at campaign start and the death of the last emperor was 551 years ago, thus the dates of the two calendars used in Ruins of Empire.

[Kurald Galain]

Players were members of divinely powered noble bloodlines, each of which carried special powers. As nobles, the players controlled domains made up of various holdings, engaged in politics, etc. The special mechanic was that every player character had an Aura of Regency, which let them command normal people.

Weirdly, a long-ago DM of mine insisted on playing Birthright but without the rulership part. Some PCs had a bloodline, most did not, and nothing was done with the domains; we just did standard dungeon crawling and monster hunting. Unsurprisingly, this combo doesn't work too well. I don't recall the setting ever being all that popular; but then, 2E D&D had way too many campaign settings anyway.

See also: Kingmaker, a more recent take on the same concept.

[xroads]

- Followers of the dead evil god then started killing other bloodline holders and discovered they could increase their own bloodline power this way. The most powerful became the Abominations, who are the main supernatural threats to the world

Ahhhh. I seem to remember getting the impression that Birthright was inspired by the "Highlander" series. Maybe this is where I got it from?

It's been a long time since I played Birthright, so I barely remember any of the details.

[Caelestion]

Weirdly, a long-ago DM of mine insisted on playing Birthright but without the rulership part. Some PCs had a bloodline, most did not, and nothing was done with the domains; we just did standard dungeon crawling and monster hunting. Unsurprisingly, this combo doesn't work too well. I don't recall the setting ever being all that popular; but then, 2E D&D had way too many campaign settings anyway.

See also: Kingmaker, a more recent take on the same concept.

Well, you easily could play commoners in Cerilia, but in 2E, you got +10 hp to account for your lack of divine blood (quite a sizeable boost in 2E).

Ahhhh. I seem to remember getting the impression that Birthright was inspired by the "Highlander" series. Maybe this is where I got it from?

It's been a long time since I played Birthright, so I barely remember any of the details.

I don't know if Richard Baker was inspired by Highlander, but the setting details came from an unpublished novel of his.

[LibraryOgre]

Ahhhh. I seem to remember getting the impression that Birthright was inspired by the "Highlander" series. Maybe this is where I got it from?

It's been a long time since I played Birthright, so I barely remember any of the details.

There's an element of it, though without the "There can be only one" aspect in any practical sense.

Bloodtheft is a thing that can happen. If a scion kills another scion by piercing them through the heart, the victim's Regency Points (basically, how they do domain actions) are lost. The killer also gains 1 bloodline strength if the victim was weaker, 2 if the victim was stronger, or 20% of the victim's bloodline strength if the victim was the last of their line. If the weapon used is made of tighmaevril (bloodsilver), the killer gets HALF the victim's bloodline strength, and their domain becomes completely uncontrolled.... normally, bloodtheft doesn't affect succession.

So, if you're a scion with a taste for blood, you can murder your way to power, increasing your bloodline strength by bloodtheft. However, it's also possible to spend Regency Points to improve your bloodline strength, so it's not like you're stuck wherever you started.