Player's Secrets of Medoere

"Ranging from the Spiderfell in the north to the Straits of Aerele in the south, Medoere was born of faith and the blood of revolution. As regent, you fulfill the duties of Archpriest of the Church of the Celestial Spell, leading the theocracy to greater heights of glory. The domain is yours to command - if you have the courage, the conviction, and the blood of kings in your veins."

Medoere is a small (3 province) theocracy ruled by the Archpriest of the Celestial Spell. Like Roesone, Medeore is a new nation, recently split from Diemed to the west. To the north is the Spiderfell (a constant threat), to the south the Straits of Aerele, and to the east Roesone and Illien, Medeore's closest allies.

While Medeore is full of pious individuals, it's also a realm that just recently won a civil war, and there are scars that have barely begun to heal. Adventuring in Medoere is going to be a somewhat different experience from Roesone. Dealing with boarder actions with Diemed and raiding parties from the Spiderfell are most likely, either as independent adventurers, or sponsored by the church/crown.

Guilder Kalien of Endier and the Heartland Outfitters controls both the law and the guilds of the northern province, a situation that the Archpriest would like to correct. Kalien could hire adventurers to protect his interests in the province, or to act against Orthien Tane and El-Hadid, the rival guild leaders in Medoere. Alternately the archpriest could use adventurers to weaken Kalien's hold on the law of the province, and bring it under her control.

The court wizard of Medoere is Hermedhie, who also holds significant source holdings in Diemed, much to the Baron's dismay. Like all wizards of Cirelia, Hermedhie is both powerful and secretive. For example, she doesn't talk about the three parallel scars running down the left side of her face. Yet there are things even a wizard can't or won't do, at least in person.

As with Roesone's baron, the young Archpriest is also new to her crown, and it doesn't sit securely. In addition to Guilder Kalien controlling the law of one of her three provinces, there are priests within the temple who feel that the crown should have gone to another. Either rooting them out, or helping them see the current Archpriest into retirement could be a lucrative business. Then of course there's Medoere's friends Roesone and Ilien... a more formal alliance might be in the works.

The rumors, plots, and secrets section has a number of wonderfully juicy adventuring options, including a possible swamp monster near Mills Landing, a magical sword for a champion, and an ancient elven cache of treasure.

Birthright: Player's Secrets to Roesone

"Once a lawless frontier less than a century ago, Roesone is one of the youngest states in all of Anuire. As the ruler of this land, you'll find that Roesone is surrounded by uncertain allies and dangerous enemies. Plots and intrigues creep through the halls of your court, and shadowed powers are moving against you. It will take strength, courage, and determination to keep your crown on your head - and your head on your shoulders."

Roesone is a young realm on the southern coast of Cerelia, founded on the ruins of lands that were depopulated by goblins of the Spiderfell under the command of one of the great awnsheghlien Tal-Qazar, aka The Spider, several hundred years prior. Less than a century ago a bandit lord, Daen Roesone, began the process of bringing the abandoned but repopulating lands under his control. He then applied to the Baron of Diemed (whose lands these officially were) to become his vassal. Instead the baron sent his army to take the lands and install his own ruler. Daen Roesone defeated the army of Diem, and crowned himself Baron of Roesone.

The realm of Roesone is actually a good place to start for a fairly standard fantasy RPG. It's a young boarderland full of old ruins and mysteries, with an evil human nation to the north, a really evil monster realm to the northwest, ancient woods to the east, and boarder nations to the west protecting you from the old barony that wants Roesone back.

There are 3 different guild houses that control the vast majority of trade in the realm. Orthien Tane, head of the Southern Anuire Shipping and Imports is pretty much a mob boss. The Port of Call Exchange, under El-Halid is involved with overseas trading, and is an excellent way to involve pirates and sea monsters. The Spider River Traders operates near the Spiderfell under a relatively young and honest Siele Ghoried. Protecting river barges and trade caravans from the raids of the Spider, and possibly from bandits from Ghoere.

Neither of the two great wizards who hold the magic of the realm, Rogr Aglondier and the High Mage Aelies, actually reside in Roesone, but there is one who does, the Count of Bellam, whose loyalty to Roesone is... tentative. Either Aglondier or Aelies could request PCs fetch them things, or check on one of their source holdings.

The Baroness Marlae Roesone is recently come to her throne, and would make use of adventurers to help her keep it secure. She could be of great use as a patron. Additionally, she has a younger brother Daenal who is something of a wild child, and is likely to get himself hurt, killed, or even kidnapped. Keeping an eye on him could be an entire quest line. There are many activities that a sitting regent can not take care of herself, especially activities outside her realm...

The end of every Players Secrets book has a section on Rumors, Secrets, and Plots which is an invaluable goldmine of ideas, and while they're focused on the regent of the realm, there isn't any reason that they can't be just as useful to non-regent PCs. For instance, haunted ruins of an ancient wizards tower? Or how about some giants in the woods near the coast? What happens when the great tournament comes to Proudglaive? Will the PCs enter, or use it as an opportunity to take care of other business?

Birthright Players Secrets guides

Most of the products that came out of the Birthright setting were in the "Players Secrets to" series that detailed various realms across the continent of Cirelia. 14 were produced (15 if you count the PDF only Player's Secrets of Müden) and released mostly between 1995 and 96.

The Players Secrets are interesting products, in a variety of ways. First off, they're clearly aimed at the players. This isn't typical of 2nd edition products, most of which were pretty clearly aimed at DMs from adventures, to boxed sets, to various campaign books. Secondly they don't have rules in them! No kits or prestige classes, no new monsters, no new spells. It's 32 pages plus a foldout cover crammed full of background fluff.

I'm going to go through my collection (I've got most of them) and do reviews of them here. These aren't going to be typical reviews, but rather looking at each of the realms detailed, and seeing how well the material could fit into a non-Birthright campaign. Now, the realms are explicitly tied into the setting, and not really designed to be pulled out, but it wouldn't take significant tweaking to make it work, especially given the complete lack of rules and mechanics in them. I'm going to start with Roesone, Ilien, and Medoere, since these three realms all fit in nicely together.

The complete list of Players Secrets guides is as follows. As I review them I will update this list with links to the individual posts.

Player's Secrets of Endier
Player's Secrets of Roesone
Player's Secrets of Medoere
Player's Secrets of Tuornen
Player's Secrets of Ilien
Player's Secrets of Talinie
Player's Secrets of Ariya
Player's Secrets of Binsada
Player's Secrets of Baruk-Azhik*
Player's Secrets of Halskapa
Player's Secrets of Khourane*
Player's Secrets of Tuarhievel*
Player's Secrets of Stjordvik
Player's Secrets of Müden (PDF only)
Player's Secrets of Hogunmark*

*Still need to add to my collection

Going to a weird place...

I placed an order with Noble Knight games for something I've been wanting for a long time...

The Players Secrets to Endier

Oh, yeah, and Vornheim!

I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but Wow...

Birthright - Economics - Expenses

Expenses are just as abstract as the revenue side of things. Basic upkeep is determined by adding up the total number (not level) of holdings (not counting level 0 holdings) and provinces, and checking a chart. You must also pay 1 GB per castle/fortified holding owned and per province occupied. Next you add up the upkeep costs of the standing army and navy (1-2GB/unit). Finally you decide how opulent you want this seasons court to be. If your court isn’t up to par, you suffer a penalty when making any diplomacy actions. If you don’t have the GBs to cover everything, you either have to disband your army, or you can spend RP (at a cost of 4 RP to 1GB) to cover those costs. If you still don’t have enough cash after disbanding your army, and selling off your assets... the rule book doesn’t actually address this. I would probably rule that you automatically lose levels of holding for any you can’t afford and/or provinces ruled would drop in loyalty.

Number of Provinces and Holdings Controlled	Maintenance Cost
1-2	0 GB
3-6	1 GB
7-12	2 GB
13-18	3 GB
19-24	4 GB
25-30	5 GB
31-40	7 GB
41-50	10 GB
51-75	20 GB
76-100	30 GB
101+*	1 GB / 3 Provinces + Holdings

I looked at the realms of the southern coast when checking on regency, and I’m going to focus on the same area for expenses. Unfortunately the box set only gives the description of the standing army of one realm on the coast. Roesone is the only realm on the southern cost given the the full 2 page write up. Even the Players Secrets Guides (32 page books on individual realms) don't list the standing armies...

Marlae Roesone, Baroness of Roesone rules 7 provinces with 7 law holdings. Base cost is 3 GB. She has a castle in her capitol city (1 GB), and a standing army of 3 units of archers, 1 artillerist, 1 knight, 3 pikes, and 1 infantry which costs an additional 11 GB, for a total upkeep of 15 GB per turn. On average Roesone collects 17 GB/turn in taxes, and due to her low level of control of the law holdings of her realm she may collect an additional 1 or 2 GB per turn from the guilds and temples. This means that depending on what actions Marlae decides to take during the turn, especially if she decides to hold court, she may end up having to tap into her treasury.

Medoere, a young theocracy is 3 provinces, of which the regent Archpriest Suris Enlien controls 3 temple holdings and 2 law holdings. She also controls a temple holdings in Roesone for a total of 9 provinces/holdings and a cost of 2 GB. There is also a temple in the capital, for a total upkeep of 3 GB. She can bring in 7-8 GB per turn in taxes and an additional 7 GB in Temple collection, and maybe an additional 1 from the guilds.

Ilien is a single province. It's ruled by Rogr Aglondier, a wizard who controls the law and source holdings of Ilien as well as source holdings in 8 other provinces, has an upkeep cost of 0 GB. Source holdings don't require upkeep! Rogr brings in a total of 6.5 GB/ turn in taxes! In addition he can probably claim 3-5 GB/turn from the guilds and temples.

The Impregnable Heart of Haelyn, a temple on the southern cost has 12 holdings, but one of them is a level 0, so doesn't count, for a total cost of 2 GB. It brings in 22.5 GB/turn, but it probably loses 5-7/turn from law collections. Still, without an army or castles to maintain, much of that will go into actions or the treasury!

As you can see, depending on the size of the realm, and the regents control of it, things can get very expensive very quickly!

Birthright - Economics - Revenue

The economics of Birthright are fairly abstract, and significantly simpler than those presented in the Rules Cyclopedia*. Every domain turn (3 months/1 season) you generate revenue in Gold Bars (GB) based upon your different holdings. Province rulers collects taxes, while temples and guilds collect tithes and profits. Magic holdings provide no revenue forcing wizard regents to either collect money from other regents or to convert Regency Points (RP) into gold via a realm spell (if they have it!). Law holdings (distinct from ruling the realm) can be used to claim money from Temple and Guild Holdings.

Taxes

Province Level	Light Taxes	Moderate Taxes	Heavy Taxes
0	-	-	d3-2
1	d3-2	d3-1	d3
2	d3-1	d3	d4
3	d3	d4	d4+1
4	d4	d4+1	d6+1
5	d4+1	d6+1	d8+1
6	d6+1	d8+1	d10+1
7	d8+1	d10+1	d12+1
8	d10+1	d12+1	2d8
9	d12+1	2d8	2d8+2
10	2d8	2d8+2	2d10+2

Guild + Temple Collections

Province Level/Holding Level	1	2	3	4-5	6+
0	-	-	-	-	-
1	d3-2	-	-	-	-
2	d2-1	d2	-	-	-
3	d2-1	d3	d4	-	-
4	d2	d3	d4	d6	-
5	d2	d3	d4	d6	-
6	d2	d3	2d2	2d3	2d4+1
7+	d3	d2+1	d4+1	d6+1	2d4+2

Law Claim

Comparitive Holding Level	GBs Generated
	1	2	3	4-5	6+
Law < Target	-	d4-3	d3-2	d2-1	d2-1
Law = Target	-	d3-2	d2-1	d3-1	d4-1
Law > Target	d4-3	d2-1	d3-1	d4-1	d3

In addition to revenue from holdings, Trade Routes can be created. These generate an income for the creator equal to the average of the two linked province levels. Linked provinces need to have a road running between them, and they have to be of a different terrain type. Coastal provinces can have sea routes, which provide half the provinces level in revenue. A province can only have a limited number of trade routes. Level 1-3 can have 1, 4-5 can have 2, and 6+ can have 3. The rules say that only someone with guild holdings can create a trade route, however the rules for what a wizard can and can't do with a Source Holding say that with a level 7 holding they can create trade routes.

Next Birthright post will address Expenses. I know you just can't wait!

*I remember late in one campaign when a name level fighter decided he’d try his hand at clearing and holding a domain, that the costs of upkeep, namely the staff, was simply exorbitant, and rather unrealistic for such a small realm. Almost immediately thereafter a Dragon Magazine came out with revised prices.

---

This month's RPG Blog Carnival topic is Animals and it's being hosted here at the Tower of the Archmage! How can you get involved? Easy! Write a post about animals, anything about animals, and share the link!