Favorite Domain to DM

Dungeons & Dragons The Royal Library
1

Sort of a mindless question but I was just wondering what the community thinks. I have run birthright from 2nd ed right on into now 3.5 (Great conversion by the way guys) and I love how the setting can be reused especialy if the D.M. just changes and tweaks a few things, namely the major NPC’s and their motivations. Also my group are mainly older (Read 20+ year gaming geeks) who love the politics and roleplay nearly as much as good old fashioned bloodshed.

Anyway from a D.M. point of view I think it has got to be Tuornen. It just has so many issues and potential problems that the players can really feel like they are doing great deeds if they can prop up the domain.

In this incarnation the players are blooded Scions of the Various Bloodlines outlined in Tuornen, however they as of yet rule no domains. The are running about Tuornen trying to support Duchess Flaertes (Who at this point is just a Lt. of her insane father) The various factions of court (Pro Laela, Pro Insane Figure Head dad, pro Bastard Half Brother I added, pro WIT, pro MOC,pro Boeruine, pro Avin…etc) are really gonna make things interesting. Not to mention the players own political ambitions.

I love poor little strife torn Tuornen. :smiley:

2

I like Roesone, personally. Its got an awesome mix of intrigue and fantasy adventure possibilities. Its next to the sea. It has some awesome realms
next to it, including exotic Illien and mysterious Medeore and a couple of
ever-dominant threats boding ill for Roesone. Who knows what the mysterious
High Mage Aelies is up to and competition with Aranwe gives us some friendly
rivalry, diplomacy, and court politics/events.

In the midst of all this, Roesone itself is surprisingly primitive. They`re
good, hard-working folk, and yet, they are positioned in a very strategic
area, covering large tracts of land, and large amounts of resources.
Playing Roesone is always either purely offensive or purely defensive, but
you can never just ABSTAIN from nearby politics.

Medeore, Roesone, Ilien, Arenwe, and Endier, alone with a host of local
domain holders, gives you a broad and eclectric group to form a “game of
thrones” for a variety of PC types, while Ghoere, Diemed, Osuorde, and the
Spider give a GM ample room to design adventures and campaigns around. Wild
rumors of Mieres are always fun.

I love that whole area.

On 4/9/07, Dcolby brnetboard@birthright.net wrote:

This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
You can view the entire thread at:
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Dcolby wrote:
Sort of a mindless question but I was just wondering what the community
thinks. I have run birthright from 2nd ed right on into now 3.5 (Great
conversion by the way guys) and I love how the setting can be reused
especialy if the D.M. just changes and tweaks a few things, namely the
major NPC`s and their motivations. Also my group are mainly older (Read 20+
> year gaming geeks) who love the politics and roleplay nearly as much as good
> old fashioned bloodshed.
>
>
>
> Anyway from a D.M. point of view I think it has got to be Tuornen. It just
> has so many issues and potential problems that the players can really feel
> like they are doing great deeds if they can prop up the domain.
>
>
>
> In this incarnation the players are blooded Scions of the Various
> Bloodlines outlined in Tuornen, however they as of yet rule no domains. The
> are running about Tuornen trying to support Duchess Flaertes (Who at this
> point is just a Lt. of her insane father) The various factions of court (Pro
> Laela, Pro Insane Figure Head dad, pro Bastard Half Brother I added, pro
> WIT, pro MOC,pro Boeruine, pro Avin…etc) are really gonna make things
> interesting. Not to mention the players own political ambitions.
>
>
>
> I love poor little strife torn Tuornen. :smiley:
>
>
>
>
> Birthright-l Archives:
> http://oracle.wizards.com/archives/birthright-l.html
>
>
>

3

I prefer any of the Rjurik nations myself. I loved the movie “The 13th Warrior” and always picture those characters in my head, when roleplaying up in that area. Plus I’m part Irish, so the culture is similar to my own background, sorta.

4

Sounds like you’ve got a great campaign. Though I think any realm can be beset by crisis after crisis without too much trouble.

I like to run games just below the level of kings, so the players are provincial rulers, royal officials, or high ranking in the domains. A good realm for me has some ambiguity about which faction to join, which rulers to embrace, and which to oppose.

5

I think at this point they are simply trying to figure out the other (NPC)courtiers motivations. It will become more complicated once they start to chase their own political ambitions and or reconcil those ambitions with familial obligations.

6

Tuornen is my favourite, too, and for similar reasons. I can’t really draw a comparison with other realms, though, as my first, still running BR campaign is set here and I haven’t tried out any other realm.

I first chose Tuornen, because when reading the PS I thought it’d be nearly impossible to keep this realm intact with all those different power groups involved and I wondered what a group of PCs could achieve there.

Coincidently, I also added a (power-)mad brother to Laela Flaertes and also a younger sister (a PC). As the Campaign now stands, Laela has just been murdered (and bloodthefted) by her brother’s bride who keeps her husband-to-be firmly enthralled and longs to see Tuornen destroyed. Already the growing evil of her brother’s decisions and his will to marry her off is driving my PC crazy:D
A confrontation seems unevitable…

7

How did you connect the PC’s to families? Did players design their families? Did you assign families to them? Did you present a variety of families and let them choose? Or did you have another method?

8

I don’t have a specific domain that I like DMing more than another, I enjoy working with the entire continent. However, my most active domains are Diemed and Rohrmarch. Both players are very well read in the history of our world and try to apply some of that knowledge to their domains.

The player for Diemed has managed through diplomacy and sacrifice, to gain much of Diemed’s old territory and make some powerful allies, thus securing his borders.

The same for the player of Rohrmarch, though he tends to be more direct and sometimes doesn’t think about the consequences of an action, thus making for some interesting interactions with his neighbors or notable Awnsheghlien.

9

I enjoy playing (and running) Medoere. It’s interesting to see what players will do with the land “protected by the Silver Prince.” =) And Diemed being the antagonist to the west always makes for some good fun.

10

I’m a HUGE fan of Aerenwe. I love having the Erebannien as a buffer of sorts. I also like having the PC’s approached by William Moergan to aid against Jaison Raenech. It also gives room for other opportunities. The PC’s could aid Medoere if Diemed gets uppity. They could aid Roesone if Ghoere gets to misbehavin’.

Not to mention the bloodline there is pretty cool, as Michael Roele’s wife came from Aerenwe. They also have some awesome horses. =)

11

I love to DM the Brechtur relam of Muden. It has such as great culture and is close to the barbarious nations of the Vos. I have run a city based campaign for awhile and went as far as mapping the capital city. (don’t have it on the computer anymore unfortunately). Currently I am running an adventuring campaign set in Muden and is set around the prophecy of a dead Awnsheghlin coming back from the dead (shadow world) to live again. I am also hoping that as they get more powerful and have more influence the party will become regents. They are currently only 3rd lvl and the campaign has been running for about 1 1/2 years now playing for a full day once a month. I am heavily into realism and character development as my style of DMing. I love Birthright for the fact that it is low magice as well and the party only have a handfull of very low powered items.

12

That’s very cool. My campaign focuses on realism and character development as well. My players started out as regents with the exception of one who is working his way to the top of Molochev.

13

Well sir I wrote up a modified synopsis of the different families as presented in the Tuornen Players guide. Set the bloodlines and bloodline strengths that I wanted them to have and included a general description of the politics of the family head. I then allowed the players to choose their Families (Without the other players knowledge). It made for an interesting web of Brothers and cousins, also some players have purposely created characters that are not in line with the official family goals.

For example poor Jaedeme Tuor has a pair of sons and a nephew that are well outside of her political views. One son is a ranger with no interest in courtly politics (Jaedemes lifeblood) and the other son Has devoted himself to the church of Cuiraecen as a paladin. (Jaedeme is a devout Haelynite and supected Avinist)

The Nephew may actualy be favored by Jaedeme at this point as he is a Cleric in the WIT.

There are three other players in the campaign and they are all from different families so it should get nice and juicy once all the goals intersect.

In order to get the players used to working together I created a background that they are childhood friends recently returned to Tuornen after a period of fosterage at another kingdoms court (Read Hostages) so it is somewhat natural that they are used to working together. (I also disallowed evil alignments so that I would eliminate the worst of the human behaviors in the course of their plottings!):rolleyes:

14

In my case, 4 of the 5 players I started my Tuornen campaign with had never played a rpg before, so I did most of the background work for them, but I talked it through with them and listened to their suggestions.

To me, our elven mage has the most interesting background in the group. She is the daughter of Braedonnal Tuare, but her mother is a member of Rhuobhe’s band. She came to Tuornen in search of her father after a serious argument with her mother. This has great potential for future family conflicts I believe and will probabyly feature prominently if ever I use the Sword&Crown adventure.

15

Does Mad Maeve play a role in your campaign? If so, how do you portray her? Is she benevolent or malevolent?

I’m still not entirely sure how to use her and as of now only one PC had a brief encounter with her.

16

Not as of yet…I am thinking that she is a definate upcoming adventure. I see her as a singular version of the witches in MacBeth. Neither good nor evil but a tool for plot hooks and adventure oppurtunities. What or who she may turn out to be I have not yet decided. maybe my players will make the choice for me.:smiley:

17

I agree with regard to Maeve being neither good nor evil, but IMO the witches in MacBeth are definitely evil. Cf. the divination thread:http://www.birthright.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3564

18

Yeah, Tuornen is a good one. One of the first really good campaigns I DM’ed was actually set there, and the PCs weren’t regents, but rather agents in service to the crown. External and internal threats and intrigue abounded.

The Southern Coast is always a good choice as well, particularly Roesone, one of the best realms with which to introduce newbies to the setting. A number of years ago I ran just such a game, with one of the newbies as regent, while the rest of the PCs, including the more experienced ones, were advisors and personal confidants. I particularly enjoy that style of play (but that only really works if you know that the people you’re playing with will be good roleplayers as its quite a risk putting the less experienced players in charge). That campaign was one of the best I had ever run, and all the newbies were hooked.

One of the more interesting games I’ve ever DM’ed, however, wasn’t set in Anuire at all, but in Vosgaard, with a set of “evil” PCs led by a warpriest of Belinik tainted with the blood of Azrai. They started out working together in a coven of Belinik worshippers in Melyy, the smallest and perhaps most harmless of all the Vos nations, and eventually overthrew the government and imposed a tyrannical dictatorship. They succeeded in creating quite the empire up in the frozen wastes until the lead character died in a spactacularly dramatic fashion in the last session of the campaign.

19

I’ve been thinking about running a game in Tuornen, with PCs as agents of the crown, as well. (Once my current (L5R) campaign is done) No one I proposed the idea to wanted to be ruler.

Which is kinda funny because the last group I proposed the idea of Birthright to was horrified that not everyone would get their own fiefdom.

20

Scratch that, Tuornen has abominable heraldry.

http://www.rpgnow.com/products/WOTC/tsr3107.jpg