Customer Reviews

Birthright Campaign Setting (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition/3100)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Birthright is a campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying game. It is a boxed set with a Rulebook (96 pp.), an Atlas of Cerilia (32 pp.), Ruins of Empire (a campaign expansion, detailing domains and regions of Anuire, the main area of Cerilia; 96 pp.), a full-size map, a Battle Mat, 110 Battle Cards, a DM Screen with important tables and Charts, and 12 cardsheets, some of which look like entries in the Monstrous Compendium.

In this campaign, your Player Characters can be kings, priests, wizards, and guildmasters, all with political influence -- collectively called "regents." They can affect the game world in a very real way -- declare war, demand tribute, collect taxes, etc.

If they choose to be a regent, then they are descended from a hero of a mystical battle that destroyed the gods 1500 years before, and left the gods' essence in those that survived. This divine power, which has been passed down from generation to generation, is called a "bloodline." The Bloodline also ties a regent to his land: the more powerful a king, the more powerful his blood abilities are -- that is, you get Regency Points based on your "holdings" in your domain, which you can then spend to increase your bloodline strength, and to use some blood abilities.

The Rulebook is well-written, but I did find some areas confusing, such as whether someone gets Regency Points from a Province's Rating as well as from any Law Holdings in the Province. The answer was surprisingly simple (Answer: yes, they do. That means that a Regent can rule a province, just not necessarily the Rule of Law in a province -- a different concept).

What I think I liked best about this setting was that it found a way to include all types of characters -- Fighters/Warriors rule Law holdings, Priests rule Temple holdings, Wizards rule "Source" holdings, Rogues rule "Guild" holdings, and anyone can effectively rule Provincial holdings. However, it is this very thing that makes it difficult to translate this setting to a rules system that isn't based on the class and level system of AD&D. For example, I would love to translate this to Fantasy Hero (which doesn't have class, levels, or alignment), but would find it rather difficult because of how closely a character's class is tied to his Regency Points.

All in all, this is a great effort by the authors Rich Baker and Colin McComb, and is perhaps the best campaign setting yet by the folks at TSR.

For over 15 years i have adventured from one setting to the next. Not until i entered Cerilia, have i had so much interest and excitement in a single campaign. The mixture of blooded kings, large scale wars, and single adventures, no setting has more to offer than Birthright. If you have been waiting for that one setting to take your gaming to the next level, it's here.

Birthright is the best setting I have ever played in. Low in wizardly magic so magical items are quite rare. Very diffrent demi-humans inculding immortal elves (one race only) and Dwarves with usually short beards. Not to mention 5 distinct human races. Goblins and goblin-kin (orcs, gnolls, etc) are no longer just beasts but are as "human" as elves or dwarves. A great world for those who like thier games to have things to do with kingdoms. Best part is the ability for players to easily be kings.

Wonderful - you can be a king!, and everything is detailed for your character to run a breathtaking campain in Cerila!

I've played many kinds of role playing games and none have ever been so fun. Never have any one gone so indepth of kingdoms. I've grown more interested in running campaigns and have an idea of how to run them easily. If you like role playing this is a must.

The game is way to confusing, and I couldn't stand it. So I created my own campaign setting with similar rules, and it was much better.

The story of the campaign was borring and far too simple. It was a fight between the forces of evil and the forces of good. At the end the forces of good as in all romance stories won. BORING BORING BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!