Taking the Magic out of Birthright

I've been gone for a while. I don't know if I'll be back any time soon. Law school has encompassed my entire life, essentially swallowing everything that's not law up. I've had time to run games, but barely. Absolutely no time for posting blogs.

Birthright is already a low-magic setting, so what the hell could I be talking about? I'm discussing lifting the rules for realm governance up out of Birthright, stripping them of their magical-feudalism, and making them useable

Major Changes to the Bloodline Rules

Bloodline now represents legitimacy. Rather than the mysterious purity of a divine bloodline, this score is now known as Legitimacy. This represents the perceived right of the regent to his position. Legitimacy can be degraded by alienation of territories, major losses in war, etc.

Regency points now represent political capital. Instead of a magic bond to the land, RP is a mechanic to represent the accruing of legitimacy and the various little enterprises that give a lord favors to call in, authority to flex, and power to exercise.

Loss of Territory. Loss of territory in war directly affects legitimacy; a lord's legitimacy degrades by 1 point for every rank of the province lost.

War. Regency points are gained or lost in large battles. Massive defeats may affect a character's permanent legitimacy.

Proclaiming a Successor. When a lord proclaims an adult successor, he grants that successor 1/2 of all his banked regency points.

Passing the Torch. When a lord no longer wishes to rule and passes his power on to his chosen heir, he loses 2/3rds of his permanent Legitimacy, which is gained by his heir. This must be accompanied by a public ceremony of investiture.

Alienation from territories. Each month that a regent has none of his basic holdings (provinces or law for fighters, temples for priests, etc.) their Legitimacy score is degraded by 10%.

Subrace and Subculture

Birthright does something interesting with humans. It divides them up into cultural groups and gives them bonuses as though they were separate races. The bonus modifiers for the Cerilians are the following:

Anuirean, +1 Wis, -1 Dex
Brechtian, +1 Dex, -1 Wis
Khinasi, +1 Int, -1 Con
Rjurik, +1 Con, -1 Cha
Vos, +1 Str, -1 Int

On the one hand, I really like this. On the other, I have some reservations about it. These single point perks and flaws are meant (I'm sure) to represent the various inclinations, cultural leanings, values, and training amongst those populations. That's neat, because cultural norms SHOULD be reflected in the game.

And yet... cultural norms shouldn't, to my mind, be as decisive a factor as the blatantly inhuman nature of demihumans. That +1 Dex, -1 Wis is no different from the dwarven alteration from the PHB (though to be fair, in Cerilia, dwarves get a +2, Con, -2 Dex which sort of addresses the problem). I almost want to adopt the more dramatic adjustments from Birthright for my own demihumans (almost, but won't).

I really like cultures and subraces. I really like stat adjustments. I really like when they work together. I think Birthright, alone amongst the AD&D supplements, solves this issue in the best way (eg, exaggerating the inhuman qualities of demihumans). Things such as the Complete Book of Dwarves tend to blend the idea of distinct subraces and distinct cultures—in fact, the notion of non-cultural subraces is something that might not make sense, though that's a debate about genetics in a primarily fantasy setting which is a road we probably don't want to go down.

Adventurers as Insiders

Last week I wrote about adventurers as outsiders and why they are almost always slotted into that category. Today we're going to talk about ways that you can avoid this and integrate your adventurers so deeply into the society of your setting that they aren't really adventurers (in the classical sense) at all anymore.

The easiest way to begin the process of tying a character into their society is through the use of backstory. I know that I have railed against too-complex backstories hundreds, if not thousands, of times before but in this case the story can serve an integral purpose. Every link created in the character's past is one that can be used to anchor them to a certain social construct. Perhaps we should look at some good examples? Here they are then!

Nobility. The most obvious of the anchoring-points in a backstory, being a member of landed nobility is a perfect way to integrate your character into society. Even second and third sons would generally have some expectations placed on their shoulders (but not too much, enough that they could detach and transform into the classic "outsider" adventurers). If you have a character who is a noble that either stands to inherit a sizable estate or has already inherited it, this will certainly give you inexorable ties to the land, the people, and the social structures of the region.

There's also a huge number of pre-built conflicts that come with being a noble. You have the politics of other houses, the royal politics of your king or overlord, and the dangers to the entire kingdom which you can become involved in.