Birthright

A campaign setting that revolves around noble birth and political intrigue.

Nobles and most players in this setting are "descendants" of dead deities and their divine bloodlines can give them awesome abilities (or totally useless ones if they are unlucky). Also their blood ties them to the land in which they rule by some sort of "strange magicks" so if they are successful rulers they can increase the strength of their bloodlines. Or on the other hand they could just travel around the world and kill other scions in a highlander fashion (only instead of cutting the heads of those poor bastards, here you must pierce through their hearts).

The game also features rules for managing your domains (lands, temples, guilds etc.) and also for large scale battles. The battle system is a simplified version of other wargames and it uses cards. (hey! they are cheaper than miniatures!)

There was a computer game adaptation back in the stone age, but it sucked hard.

Setting

The game is set in the world of Aebrynis, specifically on a continent named Cerilia. There is only one plane linked to this world and that is a darker version of the reality called Shadow World.

Races

Humans

Humans in the Birthright setting can come from 5 different cultures, thus adding a bit more personality (and stat bonuses) to your characters. They are:

• Anuireans, the predominant, typical fantasy people.
• Brecht, the local variation of north Germans who like to trade stuff and dress fancy.
• Khinashi, who are in fact Persians or some other sandpeople .
• Rjurik, the drunken highlanders medieval Scandinavians.
• Vos, the angry slavs.

Playable Non-Human Races

• Elves - Sidhelien as they call themselves. They don't really like humans (or anyone else). They are an immortal weedaadee race made from stardust, rainbows, sunshine and moody nostalgia about their once great kingdoms.
  Half elves exist, also, but they tend to be hated by humans and just live with elves, who accept them as elves. Also called 'Changelings'.
• Halflings - Overpowered little bastards, who look like the typical useless hobbitlike small dudes from other settings, but in fact they are exiles from the parallel universe called Shadow World. They have the power to travel and create gate to this Shadow World, which is quite useful.
• Dwarves - Nothing special about the dorfs. They live in their underground kingdoms, waging an eternal battle against the Orogs (underground orc like creatures here)

Non-Playable Non-Human Races

• Goblins - Smarter than the average goblins. They even have their own states and "culture".
• Orog - Ugly humans who replace orcs in this setting. They live underground and thus are the racial enemies of the dorfs.
• Awnsheghlien - Not really a race. They are creatures who once were scions of the tainted Azrai bloodline and the evil workings of that corruption turned them into more or less awesome monsters.
• Ehrsheghlien - same as above, only they have the blood of an other god. Rare as hell, since the blood of the good gods doesn't usually turn you into something transhuman.

Bloodlines

The seven old gods died in a big battle at a place called Deismaar, and their power were transferred to warriors at the battle. The luckiest became the new gods and the others got to be scions of the different bloodlines. One bloodline was spawned for each of the perished gods and they grant powers according to the god it once belonged to.

The seven bloodlines are the following:

• Azrai - he was the bad guy in the old days, so the other gods sacrificed themselves to kill him. His bloodline is not only special, since it gives the most badass powers and it can turn you into a monster, but it even can corrupt scions of other bloodlines to turn into Azrai's. So technically it can't be eliminated.
• Anduiras - patron of anuireans, he was a typical goodguy, his bloodline is for typical goodguys.
• Brenna - patron of the brecht, goddess commerce and fortune, so naturally this is the bloodline for merchant princes and guildmaster, master thieves and such.
• Basaïa - patron of Khinashi
• Masela - some sort of godess of sea?
• Reynir - patron of Rjuven, natureloving treehugger
• Vorynn - former patron of the Vos, but they left her for Azrai. He was the god of magic, so many magic users have his bloodline.

System

Birthright was an aD&D campaign setting. Since TSR suspended and Wizards of the Coast canceled production, so for 3e and [4e] there are only fanmade rules, yet.

Special Classes

The system mostly uses the standard aD&D classes, with a few exceptions

• Bard: they can only learn illusion, divination and enchantment/charm spells.
• Druid: they have some special powers, like move silently. Technically they are special priests of a god called Erik, a treehugging hippie.
• Magician: an illusion, divination specialist mage. They can only cast 1st and 2nd level spells from other schools. Storywise they can't access true magic because they are not scions of a bloodline.
• Wizard: only blooded characters can become wizards, who are capable of using realm magic (=big badass spells)

• Guilder: a brecht subclass for thief. A highclass thief, who robs you with taxes and tolls and not by picking your pocket.

Characters who are reagents get some number of bodyguards, and warriorlike characters get followers by time.

External Links

• www.birthright.net
• Birthright Wiki