Inspiration For Advancement

At the end of my last post I mentioned either touching on some things that have inspired me lately, or going over some of those new racial abilities I’d worked out. I figured why not kill two birds with one stone (vultures or something, not awesome snowboarding crows or anything like that) and talk about the Bloodline mechanics I’ve been developing for Humans in my setting.

The Highlander meets Naruto meets the Birthright campaign setting. That’s about as succinct an explanation as I could possibly give and it may sound strange but after I elaborate it will all make sense.

Let’s go through this one reference at a time and for the sake of clarity it’ll be in the reverse order that I mentioned.

The Birthright campaign setting came out in the 90s so it was the first setting I became familiar with that wasn’t just generic Fantasyland. The bloodlines inherited from Gods, small and large kingdoms fighting over territory and resources to expand and empower their Domains and make use of their Regency, and leading armies into battle in mass combat has always held a special place in my heart. This is where the idea started as another major component to my new campaign setting is setting up threads and having mechanics in place to support Domain level play should the players choose to engage in it.

The Bloodlines in Birthright are for any of the playable races, but I’ve decided to use them for just Humans in my setting which is the first major change. The ideas behind generating your starting Bloodline score, increasing/decreasing it and the advancement rate are largely the same in concept, if not in exact math.

The next major change comes in the abilities themselves. In the Birthright setting, the Bloodline abilities were essentially the birth of what are now Feats. Some of them very minor things like Alert, some a little crazier like Regeneration. Each of these was tied to a number of heritages so not every ability was available to every hereditary line and they were fairly randomly distributed. I decided to have each Ability have a minor, major and great form as a self contained thematic set that grows in power over time.

As an example if your Bloodline has the Inner Storm ability, in its Minor form you can cast Thunderwave 3 times per short rest. If/when it improves to Major you gain the ability to cast Lightning Bolt 3 times per long rest and if Inner Storm reaches Great, 2 casts of Chain Lightning per long rest are added. These spells would have no material components, cost no spell slots and use standard save DC calculation using your chosen class’ prime stat.

Each family line can have up to 3 of these Abilities laying dormant or activated depending on their Bloodline Ability score. The noble family (or Ninja Clan) Kastrus for example may have Inner Storm, Regeneration and Unbreakable Will. All Blooded Scions of this family line would have these 3 Abilities to potentially be unlocked. A Player Character would likely just roll for which Abilities they have as they progress in power, unless their character's background has them being from a documented family line.

A character's Bloodline Ability score is determined at creation and with some insane luck can actually start at a reasonable level, though it's far more likely you'll have a low score or none at all. That's where Highlander comes in. Blooded Scions who defeat one another in combat can steal a portion of the loser's power, even more if they are killed, and even more if in a specific way known to few. Rumors float through dark places that those without a Bloodline at all can claim the power of one for their own, though the method is all but unknown.

The benefits of Regency, a mystic connection with territory you control increase as your Bloodline score does. Couple that with having to defeat Blooded Scions who are probably landed nobles to increase your sphere of influence thus increasing your Bloodline score, much of human progression is driven by the desire to conquer.

The hope is that the mechanical benefits provided by chasing after increases to your Bloodline score will fuel narrative play as players will find themselves embroiled in the political landscape of the campaign world as they take and hold territory, defeat and absorb the power of their rivals all while still dealing with life as an adventurer.

Hopefully this information mostly made sense. Eventually the document I've got all this information stored in will get cleaned up and I'll be putting out a Player's Guide to my setting with all of the crunch to go with the fluffy explanations.