TSR
WRITTEN BY RICH BAKER AND COLIN MCCOMB
PRODLICTS REVIEWED: #310043108 $30 FOR BIRTHRIGHT BOXED SET, $18 F012 BLOOD DEMIES, $9.95 FOR SWORD AND CROWN, $6.95 EACH FOR DOMAIN SOUREBOOKS

Birthright brings two things to AD&D campaigning that are unique to this setting. First, the setting really requires that at least one of the player characters have a bloodline that establishes them as being among the powers of the milieu, visually a regent (land holding lord). Second, it makes politics a predominant force in the game, requiring that players become involved with the running of a-realm, with all its requisite posturing, blustering, scheming, and back stabbing.

Bloodlines derive from a cataclysmic war in which the gods themselves participated. The god was so powerful that all the other gods gave up their immortal lives to defeat him. When they each died, their essence was scattered randomly among the many mortal survivors of the bottle. The mortals who received that essence became the first of that Bloodline.

Bloodlines grant certain super powers (not to be confused with Marvel Superheroes, but sorta like that), like divine aura, enhanced senses, healing, regeneration, and many other abilities that the X- men and Power Rangers would love to have as their own.

There are some very good ideas in Birthright, many of which are even implemented well. However, there is so much mundane clerical work and record keeping that the rules invoke images of players sitting about a table with accounting forms and copies of the Fiscal Year '95 tax codes.

You, as regent, must constantly be mindful of your realm's morale, the standing and strength of Your various holdings (from guilds, temples, and taw holdings), which wizards are tapping into your realm for its magical strength, how much it costs to maintain your realm versus your income and other expenditures - the list goes on.

While the idea is wonderful, giving the player complete control, or at least visibility, of their realm, a true lord would have a huge support staff to handle much of the mundane records and payroll - players do not.

The system for generating gold bars and Regency points provided by a realm are not terribly complex but are time consuming. The Realm descriptions are supposed to provide the starting gold bars, regency points generated, and starting army, but those little details seem to have escaped the authors more often than not, so you are left to go back and recreate them for yourself.

The realms in Ruins of Empire make for some pretty tough reading. That sort of background is usually pretty dull and hard to work through, SO it's not a problem with the system, but having so many backgrounds in one book and expecting a GM to have at least a slight grasp on their inner workings and interaction is a bit much to ask.

In addition to all the role-playing material, there is also a system for working out large scale battles between military units in the game. It's very simplified, but it does an adequate job of resolving conflicts.

The Blood Enemies book, which contains the background and stats for some of the world's great monsters, wasn't terribly useful. While it may include some additional background on the world, only armies or incredibly stupid characters would go against any of these characters. It's more of a who's- who of monsterkind.

Sword and Crown is a well organized adventure, giving players a taste of the Birthright milieu. If you like Birthright, you'll enjoy the adventure. Suffice it to say that there is plenty of intrigue (which is good), some mystery (which is also good), and lots of opportunity to fight in some pretty odd circumstances (which is a matter of opinion).

The Domain Sourcebooks, provide more domains, from, the world of Birthright. There is much more background provided for each of the countries in the sourcebooks, but they aren't as well organized as the original material presented in the boxed set. Each domain comes with its own collection of problems, NPC characters, and built- in intrigues. While some are terribly dull, others are quite an interesting read.

I guess the bottom line is this: Birthright is a setting that you will either like or dislike, there's very little middle ground. It didn't work for me. I prefer politics to wield power subtly but with great effect. The bloodline concept is intriguing, however. Overall, I found Birthright to be a great source for material, but not a great campaign setting.

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