I don't watch Game of Thrones, but if we were ever gonna get a Birthright revival, it would've been when that show was at its height. Wizards dithered and procrastinated, and now that its popularity has utterly imploded, that's probably it.
Which is a crying shame. Birthright might've been marred by many of the questionable design decisions of its day, but it was also a fine setting and a revival, using modern rules and modern design principles, could've been something special.
Now, admittedly, Birthright isn't for everyone. You need a table comfortable not only with quests and adventures, but with "downtime" spent upkeeping and ruling the land, diplomacy and politics. If even one player is just here to bust some heads, it doesn't work as well, and while theoretically a party doesn't ever need to settle down and run their own country, what's the point then?
But, to my knowledge, no other version of D&D ever went this hard into sociopolitical, military, and economic realism. Diverse, human ethnic groups with unique mechanics, smartly-written non-human races with well-developed cultures that actually feel different than humans, and one of my favorite takes on monsters in D&D, harkening back to mythology, where each one is a unique, singular, powerful creature, and the ruler of a strange domain at that. Most of them are as well-written as any [[Tabletop Game/Ravenloft Darklord]], and so much less well-known!
I also appreciate that things like magic and religion wouldn't be treated with this level of thought and care until Eberron, with "realm magic" representing large-scale spells that can impact an entire domain, and creating a scarce resource for fiefs to compete over.
However, if I had to criticize a major element, it would be the bloodline system. It's random, luck-based, encourages a variety of anti-group behaviors, and heavily favors antagonists over players. It is one of the things that would require a major overhaul in the event that the setting ever got updated, and is a major obstacle to simply using the old books. This leaks into many of the other management mechanics, which are simply not up to modern design standards.
It would take a lot of work... but it could be done, and if Game of Thrones were still a popular mass-market sensation instead of a laughingstock, I think it would be worth it financially. And it isn't.
There've been a few fan-made rulesets, none of which can be professionally sold thanks to Wizards sitting on the license and not letting anyone else do anything with it either. Some are pretty good, though most are woefully incomplete and don't offer enough macro-level rules or antagonist statistics.
At the same time, if you ever wanted a gritty D&D setting and didn't like how drastically different Eberron was, this is probably what you were looking for. Crack it open and try to ignore the AD&D clunk. You might find more worth salvaging than you expect.
TabletopGame Missed the window, probably forever
I don't watch Game of Thrones, but if we were ever gonna get a Birthright revival, it would've been when that show was at its height. Wizards dithered and procrastinated, and now that its popularity has utterly imploded, that's probably it.
Which is a crying shame. Birthright might've been marred by many of the questionable design decisions of its day, but it was also a fine setting and a revival, using modern rules and modern design principles, could've been something special.
Now, admittedly, Birthright isn't for everyone. You need a table comfortable not only with quests and adventures, but with "downtime" spent upkeeping and ruling the land, diplomacy and politics. If even one player is just here to bust some heads, it doesn't work as well, and while theoretically a party doesn't ever need to settle down and run their own country, what's the point then?
But, to my knowledge, no other version of D&D ever went this hard into sociopolitical, military, and economic realism. Diverse, human ethnic groups with unique mechanics, smartly-written non-human races with well-developed cultures that actually feel different than humans, and one of my favorite takes on monsters in D&D, harkening back to mythology, where each one is a unique, singular, powerful creature, and the ruler of a strange domain at that. Most of them are as well-written as any [[Tabletop Game/Ravenloft Darklord]], and so much less well-known!
I also appreciate that things like magic and religion wouldn't be treated with this level of thought and care until Eberron, with "realm magic" representing large-scale spells that can impact an entire domain, and creating a scarce resource for fiefs to compete over.
However, if I had to criticize a major element, it would be the bloodline system. It's random, luck-based, encourages a variety of anti-group behaviors, and heavily favors antagonists over players. It is one of the things that would require a major overhaul in the event that the setting ever got updated, and is a major obstacle to simply using the old books. This leaks into many of the other management mechanics, which are simply not up to modern design standards.
It would take a lot of work... but it could be done, and if Game of Thrones were still a popular mass-market sensation instead of a laughingstock, I think it would be worth it financially. And it isn't.
There've been a few fan-made rulesets, none of which can be professionally sold thanks to Wizards sitting on the license and not letting anyone else do anything with it either. Some are pretty good, though most are woefully incomplete and don't offer enough macro-level rules or antagonist statistics.
At the same time, if you ever wanted a gritty D&D setting and didn't like how drastically different Eberron was, this is probably what you were looking for. Crack it open and try to ignore the AD&D clunk. You might find more worth salvaging than you expect.