linde
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Posts: 5
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Post by linde on Aug 23, 2019 9:00:30 GMT
Looking at druids in the original setting they rule both temple and sources, if sources are reserved for gifted characters, then druids could be sorcerers with religious lifepaths.
I I was the GM I would be iffy about allowing a character that is both gifted and faithful, so I wouldn't create such a character.
But delving into two such different careers would require a lot of lifepaths and make background stories a bit funky, or it would leave the character very weak as opening lifepaths in both directions are relatively low powered.
In light of this i have a few questions:
What is your take on druid characters?
Do you have a lifepath limit, or a guideline that should be observed?
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Post by Lidhuin on Aug 23, 2019 16:54:41 GMT
Hmm...
I think there a few ways to do druids, but first to address faithful:
Some priests and bishops won't necessarily be "faithful". They'll be blooded, they'll be leaders of orders and commission great cathedrals and works of art. But they won't be able to call upon miracles. To put it another way: It's not a requirement to be faithful in order to rule Orders or Sanctums, although Orders and Sanctums should probably aid the faithful in some way.
Given that, and given that druids should (per RoE) be able to rule Sources, then I suggest that Druids should focus on the "Gifted" trait and avoid the "Faithful" trait.
(Also, the way BW describes Faithful is very monotheistic. I could definitely see a druid with both faithful and gifted, where faithful represents their druidic beliefs though).
An alternative to the above is to create a new trait that allows Druids to utilize elven spellsongs. However, it's my impression that sorcery as described can neatly cover druidic-style magic.
That is, unless druids become limited to Orders & Sanctums and are regarded as less magical in this setting - so that a druidic realm would instead be made up of some druids (one player) who rules the Orders and Sanctums and other druids (second player) who rules the Covens & Nodes, and together they form a circle of druids. Then between two characters, one could be faithful and another could be gifted. A third player could become a Druidic King, responsible for leading hunts and enforcing druidic law (Law & Manor). Hypothetically, they could regard guilds and trade as anathema to their beliefs and vehemently oppose such incursions upon their lands.
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I would definitely put a lifepath maximum at 4 to 6 for humans, and 3 to 5 for dwarves, elves and orc-kind. The higher limit would be for characters who choose a rougher lot in life, and the lower limit for your noble who has never faced a single hardship. While the game isn't fair, a little bit of equality probably never hurt anyone.
Players are, of course, free to create characters with fewer lifepaths (although if they're going for young characters, I would instead rather recommend picking lifepaths that add as few years as possible a few times, just to flesh out the character a little more).
As a guideline: The finished character should have sufficient resource points to start with 1 affiliation (10RP), or 1 property (10RP) so that they can start with a holding level somewhere.
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Thoughts on how to make holdings unique by character:
Artha could be generated only by appropriate holdings (e.g. a merchant-style character only generates artha from Guilds & Trade), similar to RP generation Characters of the appropriate background could uniquely be able to rule an extra +D level (e.g. a king can rule up to 4D Law & Manor) Holdings of the wrong type may generate more maintenance costs Holdings of the wrong type may be harder to rule (+1ob to +3ob)
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Post by Lidhuin on Aug 29, 2019 19:02:03 GMT
Assuming a setting that's set about 130 years after the events in the show "Arthur" and 100 years after the Birthright Albion game, I think the most sensible is that druids with magical powers should have the trait "Gifted". Recall that Merlin was technically a druid, and that the reason druids were feared was their magical prowess. Regardless, I think it's still important to make holdings unique by character. I think the best option is to do so via traits. This should be two-fold: Traits should encourage ruling certain holdings. Ruling certain holdings should encourage certain traits. Example: Anyone can rule up Trade Holdings via an appropriate skill (it doesn't have to be the same skill for each character, but no single skill should be used for more than one - maybe two - different rolls per character; so if you use "Shrewd Appraisal" to boost your trade holdings, you cannot also use "Shrewd Appraisal" to boost your guild holdings... or maybe that's the only other thing you can use it for). A character with the "Hawker" Trait gains an additional +1D per unique Trade Holding (regardless of level) A character who ends up with 50% (or beliefs, or whatever) of their holdings being trade holdings might see their traits changed to reflect the nature of their ambition and greed. Maybe they lose a trait that granted them +1D per unique Manor Holding in favor of their new Trade Holdings. Now they start to lose a little bit of hold on the of manor holdings they've scattered about, but their 9D of trade holdings are their new focus anyway. Thus, characters are not static, but they are encouraged to rule similar holdings. Gifted is a bit unique, in that it should either be acquired via character generation or via adventure. This also resolves the issue that holdings are only barely paying for themselves during maintenance, allowing for assets and units (TBD).
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Post by macSlainge on Sept 8, 2019 15:39:23 GMT
I was wondering if some actual history during the ~7th century +/- might be a source of setting and character ideas, as I see several rich personas and events in history during the ~5th - 9th century that would be fun to use as a starting point for character generation (never mind the wealth of storyline options!).
For example, in the 7th century the Angles, Saxons and Jutes were in the process of invading/conquering Britain, eventually leaving Britain with 7 major and ~30 total kingdoms (depending on exactly when), with lots of great stories about the rise and fall of these kingdoms throughout the centuries. Does outside invader cultural, military and economic pressure exist in a similar format in the game setting?
Same question for the historical monotheistic religious pressure during that timeframe (christianity/monotheism eventually filled the void left after the druids were massacred by the Seutonius Paulinus lead Romans centuries earlier). In this setting, I'm assuming the druids were not (completely) massacred at Mona and instead continued to thrive at some level (centered at Mona or elsewhere), creating a more direct (and open?) conflict between the druids and monotheistic beliefs. Is this conflict heavily regionalized or more interwoven among the different peoples of the land? i.e. is religion more culturally isolated/fragmented, or interwoven across those boundaries? Are elves assumed to be more on the druidic side, or completely seperate? What about the dwarves?
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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 9, 2019 16:26:21 GMT
Conflict between the mundane and magical is definitely up there.
Conflict at the Hadrian's wall between the Dwarven culture (I'm thinking Norse), vs. Elven (ancient druidic) vs. the variety of humans (Britons, Picts, Celts, Angles, Saxons) is also opportune. One thought is that a province can have multiple cultures up to the MPL (e.g. a Dwarf(2), Elf(3) province in Ancient Forest Mountains). Then if you're a dwarf who wants to build a level 3 holding you have to either grow the dwarven part of the province (maybe at the expense of the elves?) or suffer penalties for cross-culture.
(To be continued...)
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