Birthright Conversion for Fantasy Craft

[Bill Whitmore]

I have been working on a Birthright campaign that I will be running in the near future using Fantasy Craft.  I have done quite a bit of work on conversion, though it is by no means complete.  I have decided to post what I have done so far for others to use and peruse.  As I make updates, I will keep a revision history here, in the first post.  I am also going to reserve the next 4 posts to be used for this project.

July 15th:  First posting.



Things that need to be done:
Gods:  I need skills for all of them.  Also, my goal is to have 5 paths for Greater gods, 4 paths for Intermediate Gods, 3 paths for Lesser Gods and 2 paths for Demigods.

Races: Mainly design work on the Halfling.  I need some touch-up work on the Halfling build and I want to put together a couple of heritage feats that extend the Shadow abilities of the Halflings.

Scions:  I still need to convert over the Blood Abilities available to Scions.  I am thinking of using a point system where Minor powers cost 1, Major powers cost 2 and Greater powers cost 3.  Then there will be a Heritage feats which gives them 3 points they may spend on Blood Abilities, up to some maximum based on Bloodline Strength.

Limited Magic: This is pretty straightforward and should work as-is.  There may be some tweaking required to reflect the unrestricted access to Illusion and Divination magic that mages in Cerilia usually enjoy while tightening up on the lack of magic from other schools.

Source Magic: Access to Source holdings making magic either easier or harder to use is always something I wanted to include and Fantasy Craft made it so easy to incorporate.

War of Nations:  This is where most of the work is required, yet.  This is at once extremely difficult and surprisingly easy.  The realm control system used in Birthright is largely independent of the core RPG system and so it ports over largely unchecked.  However, it is also the biggest part of the system and there are a few surprises mixed in which requires me to basically go over the system with a fine-toothed comb to find cracks that may make the whole thing explode.

[Bill Whitmore]

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   Spirit: Drama / Intrigue
   Genre: Political Fantasy
   Era: Feudal
   Alignments: By god*

*Described in this document

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   Miracles
   Non-scaling NPCs
   Races of Cerilia*
   Scions*
   Sorcery
      Limited Casting*
      Source Magic*
   War of Nations*

*Described in this document

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   Haelyn
      Paths: Good, Heroism, Light, Order, War
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Claymore
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Belinik, Kriesha, Eloéle

   Erik
      Paths: Beasts, Earth, Nature, Water, Wilderness
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon:
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Belinik, pantheons of the goblins, gnolls and orogs.

   Cuiraécen
      Paths: Chaos, Good, Heroism, Strength, War
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Long sword
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Belinik, Kriesha

   Nesirie
      Paths: Air, Good, Life, Protection, Water
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Fork/trident
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: None

   Ruornil
      Paths: Darkness, Knowledge, Magic, Secrets, Spirits
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Quarterstaff
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Belinik, Kriesha

   Sera
      Paths: Beauty, Chaos, Deceit, Fortune, Travel
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Flail
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Haelyn, Cuiraécen, Belinik

   Avani
      Paths: Knowledge, Life, Light, Magic, Order
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Boar spear
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Eloéle, Kriesha, Belinik

   Eloéle
      Paths: Chaos, Darkness, Deceit, Fortune, Secrets,
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Dagger
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Avani, Laerme, Haelyn

   Laerme
      Paths: Beauty, Chaos, Fire, Good
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Shortbow
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Kriesha, Belinik

   Kriesha
      Paths: Evil, Order
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Mace
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Avani, Cuiraécen, Haelyn, Laerme

   Belinik
      Paths: Chaos, Evil, Strength, War
      Alignment Skills:
      Ritual Weapon: Broad Axe
      Avatar:
      Opposed Alignments: Avani, Erik, Haelyn, Cuiraécen, Laerme, Ruornil

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   Dwarves, Elves and Humans may be used as-is
   Drakes do not exist in Cerilia and are not playable.
   Giants, Goblins, Ogres, Orcs and Rootwalkers may well exist in Cerilia, but are considered little more than monsters and people generally either kill them on sight or report them to the nearest army to have the killing done for them.  These may only be played with GM permission and, even then, don’t be surprised when the local constabulary tries to have you killed if you venture into town…or are spotted in the wilderness.
   Pech are replaced by Halflings below to better reflect their special, Shadow nature in Cerilia.

   Halfling
   Type: Small biped folk with a Reach of 1. Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution score × 2/3 (rounded up).
   • Attributes: +3 Dexterity
   • Base Speed: 30 ft.
   • Enlightened Resolve: Your maximum Resolve rank increases to your Career Level + 5. Only the highest bonus from any single enlightened ability may apply to each skill.
   • Shadow Sense: As a half action, you may make a Resolve/Concentrate check.  With success (DC 20) you sense the presence and general direction of any Undead creatures or Spells from the Reaper school in effect within Close range.
   • Unarmed Proficiency: You gain the Unarmed proficiency.

   Shadow Walker
   Requirements: Halfling only
   Benefit:

   Shadow Sight
   Requirements: Halfling only
   Benefit:

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   The blood of gods may well flow through the veins of the PCs.  Every PCs starting Bloodline Strength starts at 0, but may be increased in several ways at character creation.  Upon attaining the first level of Bloodline Strength, the player must make 2 decisions concerning his Bloodline; his Bloodline’s Derivation and his Bloodline Attunement.

   Bloodline Derivation indicates from which god his blood draws power.  Mechanically, this will determine the pool of powers available for the character to draw upon.  The options are; Anduiras, Azrai, Basaïa, Brenna, Masela, Reynir, and Vorynn.

   Bloodline Attunemt dictates the most efficient means by which the Scion may draw power from the land.  Mechanically, this will determine for which holdings the Scion may collect regency.  The options are; Archmage, Crusader, Free Trader, Guildmaster, and Warlord.

A character may begin as a Scion using one or more of the following options.

   1) Any character may raise their bloodline strength by 10 points by taking a -2 penalty to any one attribute.

   2) It may be gained via the following Specialty.
      Scion
      The blood of the gods flows through your veins.
      • Bonus Feat: Blood Abilities
      • Blood of the Divine: Your Bloodline Strength increases by 20.
      • Celebrated: Your Legend rises by 2.
      • Free Hint: 1/session you may request a free hint from the GM.  If he refuses you gain an AD.
      • Natural Elegance: Your Appearance bonus increases by 1.

   3) It may be gained via the following Heritage feat.

   Blood of the Ancestors!
   You carry the blood of the divine, passed down from your ancestors.
   Requirements: Level 1 only
   Benefit: Your Bloodline Strength increases by 10.  In addition, you gain 2 points to be spent on purchasing blood abilities.

   Once character creation is complete, Bloodline Strength may only ever be further increased by actions taken during play.

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   Spells of the Seer and Trickster schools may be learned by any practitioner of magic at any level.
   Spells of any other school are limited to 2nd kevel or lower unless the spell caster is either an Elf or a Blooded Character (See Scions).

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   Access or restriction from tapping into Source holdings may make casting spells either more difficult or easier.  What follows refers only to casting the normal spells and should be ignored for Realm spells, which use their own rules.

The following 3 conditions, in the listed priority, may affect the difficulty of using magic and all of them refer to the province in which you are acting.

   1) If you have access to at least 1 level of controlled Source, the Easy Magic campaign quality is considered to be in effect for you.
   2) If there is at least 1 level of uncontrolled Source holdings in the province or at least 1 Mage has granted “public access” to his holding, then you cast as normal.
   3) If there are no levels of uncontrolled Source available and you do not have access to at least 1 level of controlled Source, the Difficult Magic campaign quality is considered to be in effect for you.

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   In progress.  To cover domain turn, regency, realm spells, etc.

[Bill Whitmore]

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[Bill Whitmore]

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[Bill Whitmore]

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[Bill Whitmore]

Ok, I am done setting this up for the moment.  If anyone has any comments, complaints, suggestions or ideas, I would love to hear them.

I'll update these posts as I fill in the details.

[TheAuldGrump]

A quick question - will you be incorporating gunpowder weapons? While not in the core setting material there was a Dragon article that proposed making cannon, etc.. an integral part of the setting, which fit, given the rest of the setting material.

I will admit that the realm management portion of the game was my favorite....

The Auld Grump, somehow one of the most hated NPCs always ended up being integral to the various schemes going on. Including a scene where every single PC (and a few NPCs) bribed him to do what he was planning to do anyway! (Gods, I loved that scene.. it was like Christmas!)

[Bill Whitmore]

I hadn't seen the Dragon article about that.  I wonder if I can find it anywhere.

Anyways, as of right now, I don't have any plans to incorporate cannons into the game for a couple reasons.  First, it isn't part of the core setting that I am using as the basis for my conversion.  And second, I don't have any rules for using cannons in the system and there is enough work in doing the straight conversion at the moment to keep me busy for a while.

That said, part of the reason I am doing this is that I am interested in making the the kingdom management portion of the rules generic enough to be able to use with a different setting at a later date.  Being able to add cannons to that would be all kinds of awesome sauce.

I already have ideas for other types of holdings; spy networks, educational, entertainment, etc.  Imagine being able to say that you now control 80% of the Schools and Universities of your rival nation, that you have a network of spies spread across the land, or that the band of troubadours traipsing across the land generally report what they see back to you and seem to disparage the current lord with song, dance and plays.

See, there I go again.

I figured I should use what I have to get a core system up and running first.

[TheAuldGrump]

I hadn't seen the Dragon article about that.  I wonder if I can find it anywhere.

Anyways, as of right now, I don't have any plans to incorporate cannons into the game for a couple reasons.  First, it isn't part of the core setting that I am using as the basis for my conversion.  And second, I don't have any rules for using cannons in the system and there is enough work in doing the straight conversion at the moment to keep me busy for a while.

That said, part of the reason I am doing this is that I am interested in making the the kingdom management portion of the rules generic enough to be able to use with a different setting at a later date.  Being able to add cannons to that would be all kinds of awesome sauce.

I already have ideas for other types of holdings; spy networks, educational, entertainment, etc.  Imagine being able to say that you now control 80% of the Schools and Universities of your rival nation, that you have a network of spies spread across the land, or that the band of troubadours traipsing across the land generally report what they see back to you and seem to disparage the current lord with song, dance and plays.

See, there I go again.

I figured I should use what I have to get a core system up and running first.

I believe that the rules, and the cards, were both in that Dragon Article. I am going to have to check a box that is currently in storage - all my Birthright stuff is in it, including the Dragon articles.

The Auld Grump

[Bill Whitmore]

I believe that the rules, and the cards, were both in that Dragon Article. I am going to have to check a box that is currently in storage - all my Birthright stuff is in it, including the Dragon articles.

The Auld Grump

Thanks for pointing me to that article, Grump.

Now I am quite inclined to include cannons in my Birthright game.  With the information from the Dragon article and the fact that the core Feudal era rules in FC includes some rudimentary black powder weapons, I have everything I need to add it in with minimal work.

[Catodon]

Have you played a few sessions yet?
How does the non-scaling NPC's play out any kinks?

[Bill Whitmore]

We haven't actually started yet.  We are still making characters and it will be a couple weeks before we begin.

The primary reason I am using Non-scaling NPCs is to simulate the array of low, mid, high and vast power of the opposing regents.  If you are not familiar with Birthright, there are several ancient, evil and incredibly powerful beings that rule some of the realms.  My players are the kinds of people who would march into their realm with an army and challenge them on Day 1 since Fantasy Craft normally scales all encounters.  I just wanted to make clear up front that this would be a Bad Idea (tm).

[Catodon]

The scaleing of encounters seems wierd to me. As the PCs grow the rest of the world gets more potent. I don't think even fictional sources work like that. Seems weird. Then again an rpg is not life and not a film or novel so will develop its own features. THoughts?
How about using non-scaling for armies? Hordes of goblins and the like.
Anyway, let me know how it plays.

[Krensky]

When you're using scaling NPCs and challenges, it changes the context of leveling up
in the game.

With non-scaling NPCs and challenges, when the PCs level up the become quantitatively stronger.

With scaling, when they level up they become slightly more powerful, because PC numbers go up faster then NPC numbers or the challenge DCs, but it should be seen more as the PCs becoming more capable then more powerful. Their effective numbers don't rise as fast, but they do become more capable, with more ways of using those numbers.

[TheAuldGrump]

The scaleing of encounters seems wierd to me. As the PCs grow the rest of the world gets more potent. I don't think even fictional sources work like that. Seems weird. Then again an rpg is not life and not a film or novel so will develop its own features. THoughts?
How about using non-scaling for armies? Hordes of goblins and the like.
Anyway, let me know how it plays.

I might use a hybrid - major characters are at a fixed level, or have several points of the Veteran quality. Minor characters are done as normal. Taking on the Gorgon should always be a bad idea. (Though the PCs in my 2e game did manage to really mess up the Spider.)

War I would be inclined to treat as a Dramatic Conflict or a complex series of tasks.

The Auld Grump