They do have a lot of resemblances, but Birthright was much higher level management in general. It was much more high level politics than low level stuff like city building, unit designing and so on.

I loved Birthright!

It had some potential, but the game was a bugfest basically.

Agreed, the game was a bugfest, but the original Pen and Paper setting for AD&D is priceless. It mixes politics and adventures really really well.

It's entirely possible the devs have never played it! You should mention it to them and get them to take a look at the dynasty stuff.

In Birthright, the people who rule something are called "Regents". Let it be nobles (control the law), guilders (control the commerce), priests (control the faith) or wizards (control the magic).

Regents rule because they are "Scions": descendants of people who fought in a cataclysmic battle between the gods thousands of years ago. When the gods died fighting, their followers gained part of that divine essence in the form of "Bloodline". Bloodline is like a royal aura around a character, that allows her to rule and command normal people. People with extremely high bloodlines (the people who were closer to the gods usually) ended corrupted or affected by it, transforming into something more than a human (terrible monsters in the case of bloodlines from evil gods for example).

Bloodline is hereditary, and when two people have a child, the bloodline averages that of the parents. Bloodline can also increase or decrease if you rule wisely or badly, as if it reacted to how you care for the lands and the people under your command.

Bloodline can also increase by killing other people with Bloodline piercing them through their hearts. If you use weapons forged from a special metal you will gain far more bloodline when performing a kill. And last, you can also give your Bloodline to another person if you willingly perform a religious ceremony called "Investidure".

That's more or less how the dynasty stuff works in Birthright.

Yeah it's a decent setting indeed.

Also, take into account that realms are managed in a very abstract form. Realms can be "landed" (own provinces, like nobles) or "non landed" (do not own provinces, like guilders).

A province has a certain terrain, which determines:

• Maximum population level
• Maximum magic level

The population of a province can be increased using actions ("Rule Province"), while the Magic Level of a province is always: Maximum Magic Level - Current Population Level. In Birthright population destroyes the nature places that are associated with power (except elves, they are an exception to this rule as they know how to live in harmony with nature).

Apart from population and magic levels, provinces can have 4 types of "Holdings":

- Law holdings: they represent the control over the province population. Usually the owner of the province is also the owner of most Law Holdings. They allow you to set taxes over other holdings.

- Guilds: represent commerce and allow to create trade routes.

- Temples: represent the faith of the people, allow to cast divine spells and influence the population loyalty.

- Sources: represent the magic power, allow to cast arcane spells.

Holdings are given levels too, so for example a Province (6) (level 6 population), can't have a Law Holding bigger than level 6 (Law (6)). The conflict in Birthright arises as several people can share holdings of the same type in the same province.

For example, a Province (4), could have two nobles, one the rightful king with a Law (3), and a rebel champion (like Robin Hood for example), with a holding Law (1). That means that in some parts of the province, the people think the rebel is the rightful leader and follow him. With 3 vs 1, the king shouldn't be worried, but there are actions ("Contest") that allow you to reduce other people holdings and increase yours. That's how conflict arises in Birthright.

And that's more or less how provinces are defined, no buildings, cities or other low level stuff, just 6 numbers and done (there are some extra things: fortifications, armies, trade routes,... but really, everything works around holdings and the conflict to own them or setup new ones in your enemies provinces).