Everything you need to incorporate Domain rules & Bloodlines into a game
Interested in rules that help you administrate at the nation level? Keen to explore Bloodtheft and see if it's right for your own game? This is all you need.
The product line for the Birthright setting is robust and gives a lot of depth to the setting and world - but if you are only looking at this because you need domain management rules or a funky new mechanic to explore this is the only purchase from the set you need.
Note: You will need to tweak things to incorporate it into any edition outside of 2nd. It's not hard, but it's also designed to mesh deeply into Birthright as a setting feature.
The Setting as a Home for Adventure
I loved this setting when it was released. It was at a time when there was a huge glut of products from TSR and each of them were interesting and unique - but most of them were bloated and piled more on top. Birthright pared things back. Yes, there are five human subraces, but most of what made the setting interesting, after Regency and Bloodlines, was the tightly focused path of options for characters: Humans, Halflings, Half-Elves, Dwarves, and Elves.
The same goes for classes. What made Birthright click was the identification of what the seting was and wasn't vs. other TSR worlds. Add in cultures that felt real and distinct, a few fun mechanics, fantastic maps, and whatnot and you've got a great home for adventure.
The one thing that it didn't do well: Tractless wilderness. The entire continent for the game is mapped out, cut into domains and provinces, and detailed with rulers. Perfect for a Game of Thrones style campaign, but not as perfect for a What's over that hill there? setup.
All in all, as a purchase this set is great for someone who's interested in new rules and/or exploring for a new land to base their games out of. With the very low probability that WotC will ever republish a detail of this setting, it's also a great product to grab and make your own with far less fear that you'll have to retcon after a product release. I still strongly recommend this setting and am glad to have it again as a PDF.
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