Introduction

[Rhoubbe]

Hi :) i always wanted to get into D&D but i dunno...me and my friends just haven't got round to it...

...anyway I first picked up the awesome PC game birthright the gorgon's alliance game ages ago and I loved it! it was what first got me interested in D&D and of course got me interested in Birthright, I read all the atlas and history ,etc. avidly and looked for sequels to the game (maybe there'd be games for the other lands?)

unfortunately there weren't any..but anyway I'm still interested in the game and when I finally buy the basic D&D kit and play with my friends I'd love to be able to play with this setting...but could someone break me in gently as to the new 3.5 rules-where i could find them all the changes and new classess,etc.

Also will they ever release an official updated 3.5 birthright book????

[Benjamin]

All the 3.5E rules are on this website. Look at the BRCS forum where you can download all the rules.

As for "will they ever release an official updated 3.5 birthright book" - that's what we are: the official Birthright website. TSR/Wizards has ended Birthright, but has borrowed ideas for 3.x rules (bloodlines comes to mind). We are the only place where Birthright rules will be converted to 3.5E rules.

[Rhoubbe]

Well Birthright still seems to have lots of fans so how come Wizard jsut gave up?

[RaspK_FOG]

The whole thing happened when TSR had started publishing numerous campaign settings, which means a whole lot of books; this resulted in economic issues for the company, which finally lead to it being bought by Wizards of the Coast. Before that happened, though, they shut a couple of product lines down in an attempt to save themselves from bankruptcy.

[geeman]

At 02:58 AM 11/18/2006, Rhoubbe wrote:

>Well Birthright still seems to have lots of fans so how come Wizard
>jsut gave up?

There are a lot of reasons that were given by TSR/WotC and a few that
are the result of observation from the community. When it boils
right down to it, BR was an expensive product to make and difficult
to market. Relatively cheap paper covers were offset by full color
backgrounds on every page and lots of original art. It wasn`t
_really_ expensive given the cost of other settings, but since it
didn`t have as many buyers its actual cost was a problem. It didn`t
have as many buyers because it was hard to present the setting in
advertising that made sense. The setting often looked and was
described in ways that made it sound like more of a wargame than a
RPG setting, so people didn`t realize that it was a "campaign setting
plus" rather than a wargame that one was supposed to role-play around.

Lastly, I think the fact of the matter is that BR is basically
counter to the direction that D&D has been going for the last 10-15
years. D&D has increasingly turned into a sort of gonzo magic,
big-bang kind of thing. The rules seem to support (and encourage)
even more super fantastic concepts and campaigns as time goes on. BR
was low-magic (in comparison) and intentionally limited in both size
and scope. Where D&D settings are expected to represent a whole
world packed with every conceivable combination of culture from the
real world along with several standard fantasy ones, BR gave us a
very small continent and limited fantastic cultures. That the
continent and the cultures were absolutely packed with significance
is difficult to convey, and most folks just don`t relate to it since
its so antithetical to D&D`s usual set up.

That all those things are the strengths of the setting is something
that fewer people get the opportunity to explore, so when it comes to
actually selling the setting they are weaknesses.

Gary