DM Alexander Kilcoyne's Kingmaker PBP- Interlude (Between 1 & 2) (Inactive)

Game Master Alexander Kilcoyne

We will use this thread to run the 24 kingdom turns- use it to discuss anything you please regarding it.

The only thing I will be rolling is the events phase at the end of each turn, so i'll post the new month after resolving the events phase every turn.

For quick reference-

Ruling a Kingdom

Like a player character’s stat block, a kingdom’s stat block continues to evolve and grow as the kingdom expands, gathers more resources, purchases upgrades, and suffers defeats and setbacks. As the kingdom grows, the PCs will need to deal with a host of situations, all of which can further influence the kingdom’s stat block.

A kingdom’s growth occurs during four phases, which represent a month in total. When the PCs establish a kingdom, you should pick a day of each month to resolve that kingdom’s growth and fortunes—it’s best to set this as the last day of each month, so that any accomplishments the PCs have made during that month can impact that month’s growth.

Upkeep Phase

During a kingdom’s Upkeep phase, take the following actions. If your kingdom currently controls 0 hexes, skip this phase and proceed to the Improvement phase.

Step 1—Determine Kingdom Stability: Make a Stability check against your Command DC to determine your kingdom’s level of security for the month. If you make the check, reduce your kingdom’s Unrest by 1 (if your Unrest is at 0, gain 1 BP as a result of surplus goods and services). If you fail this check by 5 or more, increase Unrest by 2.

Step 2—Pay Consumption: Deduct your kingdom’s Consumption from the kingdom’s Treasury BP. If you aren’t able to pay for the month’s Consumption, your kingdom’s BP drops into the negative. Every time you end
an Upkeep phase with negative BP in your Treasury, your kingdom’s Unrest increases by 2.

Step 3—Fill Vacant Magic Item Slots: If there are any vacant magic item slots in any cities, randomly roll new items to fill these slots.

Step 4—Unrest: If the kingdom’s Unrest is 11 or higher, it loses one hex chosen by the kingdom’s leaders. Any improvements in that hex (farmlands and roads) are lost and must be rebuilt after the hex is reclaimed. Any settlements in that hex become towns that must be annexed if they are
to be reclaimed into the kingdom (see page 56). Finally, if the kingdom employs a Royal Assassin, reduce your total Unrest by 1 at the end of this phase.

Improvement Phase

During a kingdom’s Improvement phase, take the following actions. The number of improvements you can make during a single phase is limited by your kingdom’s size; see the Improvements per Month table for these limits.

Step 1—Select Leadership: Assign leaders to any vacant leadership roles. Leaders must be PCs or closely allied NPCs. You can change leaders as often as you want with no impact on your nation’s statistics (apart from changing what bonuses apply, as the ability scores of leaders differ); reallocating roles allows you to give every player a chance to play the role of ruler if you wish.

Step 2—Claim Hexes: Each hex on the maps of the Stolen Lands measures 12 miles across, and the PCs kingdom must be built hex by hex. To claim a hex, you must explore it and clear it of monsters or dangerous hazards; the hex must also be adjacent to a hex that is already part of the kingdom (with the exception of the first hex, which can be anywhere). At this point, you can claim the hex as part of the kingdom by spending 1 BP. Increase your kingdom’s size (and thus its Consumption) by 1 for each hex you claim. You can abandon a hex to reduce your kingdom’s Size. Doing so increases Unrest by 1 (or by 4, if the abandoned hex contained a city).

Step 3—Establish and Improve Cities: Prepare land for city districts and then purchase new buildings for your kingdom’s cities. The building’s adjustments to your nation apply immediately. You can also destroy buildings at this time in order to clear a space to build something new; if you destroy a building, don’t forget to remove its benefits from your kingdom’s statistics!

Step 4—Build Roads: Roads have an immediate initial cost but over the long term can pay for the investment handsomely. It costs 1 BP to build a road though a hex. This cost increases to 2 BP in forests and to 4 BP in swamps
and mountains. If the road crosses a river, a bridge must be built—this doubles the road’s cost.

Step 5: Establish Farmlands: You can develop any grassland or hill hex that contains roads into farmlands to help sustain your kingdom’s Consumption. It costs 2 BP to designate a grassland hex as farmland and 4 BP to designate a hill hex as farmland. You cannot build a city on a farmland hex. Every farmland hex in your kingdom reduces your Consumption by 2 BP.

Step 6: Edicts: Pick or adjust your edict levels (see page 55) as you wish.

Income Phase
During a kingdom’s Income phase, take the following actions.

Step 1—Deposits: You can add funds to a kingdom’s treasury by donating coins, gems, jewelry, weapons, armor, magic items, and other valuables you find while adventuring. For every full 4,000 gp in value of the deposit, increase your kingdom’s BP by 1. Items that individually cost more than 4,000 gp must be sold as detailed under Step 3 below.

Step 2—Withdrawals: You can also withdraw funds from the kingdom’s treasury, but doing so runs the risk of annoying the citizens. Each time you withdraw funds, the kingdom’s Unrest increases by 1. In addition, you must
make a Loyalty check (DC = Command DC + number of BP being withdrawn); a failure causes your kingdom to gain Unrest equal to the total BP withdrawn. Each BP withdrawn in this manner converts into 2,000 gp.

Step 3—Sell Valuable Items: You can attempt to sell items that cost more than 4,000 gp through your city’s markets to bolster your kingdom’s Treasury; these can be items you recover during an adventure or they can be magic items currently held by any of your cities. To sell these items, make an Economy check (DC 20 for minor items, DC 35 for moderate items, and DC 50 for major items). A failed check indicates the item doesn’t sell. Success indicates that the item sells and you can increase your kingdom’s treasury by 2 BP (for minor items), 8 BP (for moderate items), or 15 BP (for major items). You can make one Economy check per city district during each Income phase.

Step 4—Generate Income: Make an Economy check against your Command DC at the end of your Income phase. If you’re successful, divide your result by 5 (dropping any fractions) and increase your Treasury’s BP by that amount.

Event Phase (DM resolved)

During a kingdom’s Event phase, roll once on the Kingdom Events table to determine if an event occurs. Adventure specific kingdom events occur during this phase. Once you’ve determined what kind of event occurs (if any), simply follow the rules for each event to determine how the event impacts the PCs’ kingdom or cities.

Chance of an Event: There’s a 25% chance that a random event occurs during an Event phase. This chance increases to 75% if no event occurred in the previous Event phase.

Improvements per Month

Kingdom Size- New Cities/New Buildings/Hex Claims/Roads/Farmlands
1–10 1/1/1/1/1
11–25 1/2/2/2/1
26–50 1/5/3/3/2
51–100 2/10/4/4/2
101–200 3/20/8/6/3
201+ 4/No limit/12/8/4

Month 1-

Kingdom of Kardas, Month 1 - Lamashan

Alex and I are working out the kingdom details for turn 1 and going forward. We have claimed the stag lord hex and prepped the land for SwordHaven. We can't build a building due to prepping the site, but we can build a road, which I say we do.
We must now decide on the edicts for our city.
Kingdom Edicts:

Promotion Stability Consumption
Type Bonus Increase
None –1 —
Token +1 1 BP *Malthir's vote for the first couple of turns
Standard +2 2 BP
Aggressive +3 4 BP
Expansionist +4 8 BP

Taxation Level Economy Bonus Loyalty Penalty
None +0 +1
Light +1 –1
Normal +2 –2
Heavy +3 –4 *Malthir's vote for the first couple of turns
Overwhelming +4 –8
Consumption

Festivals per Year Loyalty Bonus Increase
None –1 —
1 +1 1 BP *Malthir's vote for the first couple of turns
6 +2 2 BP
12 +3 4 BP
24 +4 8 BP

with the choices I have listed our bonus' will be:
Economy +20
Loyalty +13
Stability +16

I'm fine with those suggestions.

Obviously finishing the fortress is top priority, but I think building a house or two and perhaps an economic building (Shop, Smith, etc.) would be nice. I think we should hold off claiming more than one or two hexes until we build up a decent capital city.

I'd actually advise steering clear of the castle for now, it doesn't lend itself well to a new kingdom. Up to you of course :) but thats my impersonal advice.

I'm fine with those suggestions.

Obviously finishing the fortress is top priority, but I think building a house or two and perhaps an economic building (Shop, Smith, etc.) would be nice. I think we should hold off claiming more than one or two hexes until we build up a decent capital city.

yeah, we will need a couple more hexes for farms, but you are right, a slower expansion initially should be good.

I say we do it in roleplay terms, a castle will take some time to complete. We have started working on it, but it may not be for a year or more and use the money to get some of our initial building up and running and work on that later as well, but really more for RP terms. Houses, Inn, Tavern, shops, ect. Just my 2 cents.

I haven't read over the rules in quite a while. Could you perhaps summarize the first few turns as to what we are claiming/building? I just want us to focus on the economy at first to build up a nice kingdom treasury.

I haven't read over the rules in quite a while. Could you perhaps summarize the first few turns as to what we are claiming/building? I just want us to focus on the economy at first to build up a nice kingdom treasury.

Check the post above, we can't build this month due to prepping the site. We are at the edict phase, I added in the current bonus' with the choices I selected.

Costs:
hex claim cost- 1 BP
city foundations- 2 BP
road cost - 1 BP
Edicts - 2 BP ***EDIT, we are setting up edicts this turn so no cost until next turn***
This turn will cost us 4 BP.

Economy roll is 20+ 1d20/5 to determine income (BP's) against a Control DC of 21, +1 BP if our unrest is 0. So as long as we don't roll really bad we should have a couple of BP's to increase our treasury.

Last thing, whomever needs to roll for an event, etc when it is asked by Alex, just make the roll to keep it moving, I am making the economy roll... 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (3) + 20 = 23

well not a great way to start.
50-4+4=50 in the treasury after turn 1. Corrected for no loss incase you see it changed, glad Alex has done this before.

The +1BP from unrest 0 etc. is part of the stability roll done in the upkeep phase and is not included in the economy check.

As this is your first turn, we skipped the upkeep phase this time.

Economy, Loyalty and Stability are akin to saving throws- a natural 1 is an auto-fail.

50 actually.

Improvement Phase- 4BP spent.

Economy Phase- 4BP gained (Malthir's 23 exceeds DC21 and is divided by 5 to bring back 4BP)

Event Phase- 1d100 ⇒ 19 25% chance

Guardians, we have our first event... *grins*

1d100 ⇒ 64

Not applicable, reroll.

1d100 ⇒ 57

A local travelling Bard of the Stolen Lands by the name of Dakkon finishes his masterpiece-an epic tale of the Guardian's of the Greenbelt's conquest of the Greenbelt from the fierce Stag Lord. Although somewhat embellished, his work proves incredibly popular in Brevoy, promoting a surge of immigration and a wave of patriotism from the new citizens of Kardas!

You gain 1d6 ⇒ 3 BP and a +4 bonus on Economy checks until your next Event phase.

When I get the nod from Malthir that the kingdom sytats are up to date and uploaded to group site for perusal we'll begin Month 2.

Everything looks fine by me.

I'd like to hastily note that i'd love to hear what your characters are up to in their spare time etc. over the two years. Once base value gets a bit higher and items can be sold off i'm sure the promised treasure share split will happen too. Also, for this downtime period- assume time is no object for crafting, only GP. Malthir's beloved full plate is complete in a month or so for example.

Month 2

Upkeep phase first-

Stability roll to determine unrest from anyone who cares to roll it.

Then consumption of 4 is paid directly from the treasury (1 size, 2 edicts, 1 city district).

Then onto improvement phase (hex claims, roads, farmland, buildings etc.)- I should note that farmland cannot be built in a hex with a city.

Stability roll: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29

Question: How about purchasing exotic raw materials like mithril? Because if that is an option, Cas would very much like Maladin to make him a mithril breastplate.

Answer- Not an option yet as Swordhaven's base value is a measly 200 gold pieces (this base value determines the value of items you can buy in it, including raw materials)- but I suspect by 18 months time it will definitely be feasible.

The kingdom of Kardas is enjoying strong trade links with Brevoy and little to no trouble on its small borders. 1BP gained, then 4BP lost from consumption.

Improvement phase- At your current size you can claim 1 hex maximum, build 1 road maximum, build 1 farm maximum, and build one building maximum*.

*Exception- The first house built in any building turn doesn't count towards this limit.

I'd like to hastily note that i'd love to hear what your characters are up to in their spare time etc. over the two years. Once base value gets a bit higher and items can be sold off i'm sure the promised treasure share split will happen too. Also, for this downtime period- assume time is no object for crafting, only GP. Malthir's beloved full plate is complete in a month or so for example.

Month 2

Upkeep phase first-

Stability roll to determine unrest from anyone who cares to roll it.

Then consumption of 4 is paid directly from the treasury (1 size, 2 edicts, 1 city district).

Then onto improvement phase (hex claims, roads, farmland, buildings etc.)- I should note that farmland cannot be built in a hex with a city.

Suggest we claim another hex for farmland and put a road through it.

BTW I am working on Fenna's armor next, she already puschased the materials at Oleg's about a month or so ago...

Edit: Expanded to two years.

Ilya, in his capacity as Grand Diplomat, spends his time writing letters of introduction to merchant guilds, governments, and religious leaders on behalf of the nation of Kardas.

Diplomacy 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Ilya practices some venture capitalism as well, using his contacts through House Orlovsky to urge trading companies and mercantile concerns to invest in the new nation.

Profession (merchant) checks over two years comes to 1030.5 gold pieces deposited into the royal treasury.

As your currently a full-time ruler, i'll allow this- but lets say the money earnt goes into the kingdoms treasury, not Ilya's pocket (any crafting or profession for money in kingmaker for personal wealth will be nasty in time). I'm liking the fluff behind it.

Every 4000 gold pieces in the kingdom treasury yields a BP btw. Any minor item that aren't worth 4000GP or more have their value added t the treasury.

Note- You may want to think about writing letters of introduction to the other major river kingdoms at some point, Daggermark for example.

Farms, inn and housing sounds like a good idea.

Over the first couple of months, Kalev spends time handpicking hunters and trappers with knowledge of the area to act as scouts and report on any unusual activity. A fair bit of time goes into training these, but Kalev also goes into the Greenbelt for several days at a time, coming home with pelts and skins, as well as a greater familiarity of the land, every time.

As he is only spending some of his time actually hunting, I'll make one roll per month.

Survival: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31
Survival: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

Income: 27 gp

Casimir works closely with Akiros to identify potential troublemakers and unsavory elements among the immigrants.

He also works with Ilya, establishing the first tentative contacts in other nations that may prove to be sympathetic to the new-founded colony and provide valuable info.

Finally, he makes sure to frequently visit the Temple of the Elk and cultivate his relationship with Kressle.

Cas, Ilya, Fenna- Suggestions for improvement phase? Malthir has made a suggestion already. Your choices for hex claim are the River Crossing hex or the Fangberry hex.

Cas, Ilya, Fenna- Suggestions for improvement phase? Malthir has made a suggestion already. Your choices for hex claim are the River Crossing hex or the Fangberry hex.

For now straight up to the crossing so the road heads north and we get closer to our two resources?

Ok, so improvement phase-

Hex claim of River Crossing- costs 1BP
Road cost of River Crossing- costs 2BP
Encourage farmland growth in River Crossing- costs 4BP

Swordhaven is founded, and a housing district and a fine inn are built over the course of the month.

House cost- 3BP
Inn cost (+500GP base value in Swordhaven, +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty)- 10BP

Note that that house is now 'tied' to that inn- the house cannot be used to count for an adjacent house for another building.

20BP spent total.

Assuming no changes in edicts or leadership- we're due for an economy roll to generate BP.

1d20 + 25 ⇒ (11) + 25 = 36 Includes +4 from previous turns event.

36/5= 7 BP gained.

Event Phase- 1d100 ⇒ 18 25% chance Oooh another one ;).

Event Type- 1d100 ⇒ 65

Political Calm: A sudden absence of political machinations coincides with an increase in public approval. Reduce Unrest by 6.

Obviously no effect as unrest is at 0...

Alexander Kilcoyne wrote:

Cas, Ilya, Fenna- Suggestions for improvement phase? Malthir has made a suggestion already. Your choices for hex claim are the River Crossing hex or the Fangberry hex.

For now straight up to the crossing so the road heads north and we get closer to our two resources?

+1, a house and and an inn sounds fine.

1. Secure the crossing and put a bridge on that baby. Trade for the win. :)

2. Also, please note I expanded my Profession checks to two years worth, in case it wasn't noticed. It's 1030.5 gold pieces for kingdom development.

3. Would this be a good place to talk about personal purchases? Does the figure of 5626 gold pieces per member include the selling price of items from the Stag Lord's fort?

2. I think for simplicity we'll add that to the pot at the end of the two years.

3. Over to Malthir- You haven't yet been able to sell many of the items recovered so I don't think the bootys been split yet. Also note that your buying is restricted by your cities base value- items of up to 700 gold pieces can now be purchased from Swordhaven.

Note I edited my previous, and made the economy check on your behalf, once I have a nod from Malthir that the kingdoms up to date we'll begin turn 3.

1. If no one else claims it, Ilya would like the amulet of natural armor +1.

2. Since we have two years, can items be purchased and shipped from Restov?

1. If no one else claims it, Ilya would like the amulet of natural armor +1.

2. Since we have two years, can items be purchased and shipped from Restov?

1. I don't think anyone has claimed it, M can confirm?

2. No, both for IC and OOC reasons (not least that officially you have no link to Brevoy, and ESPECIALLY not to Restov). Part of the reason i'm allowing such a long downtime is for you to be able to build the infrastructure to have items of value in your own kingdom.

I think that we'll find that once the two years have passed, we'll have a lot more options in our own kingdom.

1. Ilya will sit on his share until our purchasing power increases. His only shopping is for two scrolls; summon monster I and summon monster II.

Spellcraft 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16 Whew, just barely!
Spellcraft 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26

Removed 175 gp from inventory and copied new spells.

Ilya, Casimir would appreciate a couple of scrolls of expeditious retreat and silent image (2 of each), if you wouldn't mind scribing them.

Not a problem. Just subtract... (25 * 4) * 0.5 = 50... 50 gold pieces from your inventory.

As mentioned earlier, I'd like the +1 Ranseur, the +1 Scale Mail (already wearing it) and the Stag Lord's Helmet. It comes to, if I recall correctly, 3680,50 gp.

For turn three, I suggest claiming another farmland hex, building a house and a town hall, if we can afford it.

Kalev will continue training his "Scouts" (hope to make it part of the military at some point), as well as go hunting/scouting in the Greenbelt, including visits to the Temple. (approx. 10 days "governing", 10 days with the scouts and 10 in the wilds each month.

Survival: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (8) + 14 = 22 Income: 11 gp

Not a problem. Just subtract... (25 * 4) * 0.5 = 50... 50 gold pieces from your inventory.

Done. Thanks.

Anyone playing around with Photoshop or something similar to show what our beautiful capital looks like?

Kalev will continue training his "Scouts" (hope to make it part of the military at some point)

Ooooh, I hadn't thought of that. Perhpas Ilya will need to brainstorm on how to train a diplomatic corps. :)

Anyone playing around with Photoshop or something similar to show what our beautiful capital looks like?

You can use MapTool to make it pretty easily. What structures have we built so far?

We have built a house and and an inn. And we also need to get the fort in there, but marked so it isn't active (a big red x perhaps). House and inn need to be adjacent, and one of the sides of the city grid should be marked as the waterfront.

Casimir wrote:

Anyone playing around with Photoshop or something similar to show what our beautiful capital looks like?

You can use MapTool to make it pretty easily. What structures have we built so far?

I think Malthirs making it via paint- that said, if you want to take the task off his hands hes got a fair bit to do already. The building images etc. are available in Rivers Run Red in the kingdom building section if you have access to it.

We have built a house and and an inn. And we also need to get the fort in there, but marked so it isn't active (a big red x perhaps). House and inn need to be adjacent, and one of the sides of the city grid should be marked as the waterfront.

The southern side :)

OK here is the deal with treasure. Consider yourself having the 5600 or so gp in gold, but only for purposes of claiming equipment. Subtract any items you take from your share.
Actual cash we can spend is 21421/6=3570.16gp limited by our 700gp city base. The rest is in equipment to claim or sell.

Claimed items so far:
Scalemail +1 ..Kalev
MW Cold Iron Longsword ..Malthir
Ransuer +1 ..Kalev
Longsword +1 ..Malthir
Amulet Nat Armor +1 ..Ilya, unless someone else wants it then roll off
Ring of Pot +1 ..Casimir
Stag Helm ..Kalev

Fenna, do you want anything to cause a roll off?

We have over 7K in the treasury, so as soon as an useful party items come up we should take them. Fenna, we should think about some lesser restoration items so you can free up that spell slot, you could probably use the other 2nd level slot.

All subject to Alex approval of course...

I have the city stuff ready to set up in paint, unless someone else want to take a hack at it or I could send the files to someone else to work on if they want...microsoft paint works really well to just grab and lay down the buildings in a couple of minutes or I can work on it tomorrow. Maybe by then we will have a couple more months under our belt.

I'm out for the rest of the evening. Please (mis-)manage without me ;)

How about this? LINK

How about this? LINK

Looks good!- I think you've just volunteered yourself ;). Unlike the kingdom stats, we can get away with not updating the map every single turn if you like though. It would be nice to take some pressure off poor old Malthir.

City picture works for me!

For turn 3 I suggest
Claim another hex, maybe the Sootscales hex for +1 economy
Build a road in it and farmland
Build another house in the capital.

Any other thoughts?
I am also done for 5 or 6 hours, will check back in before bedtime though :)

Okay, I can handle the city maps. I like Malthir's idea for turn 3.

As a general rule when I see a rough consensus of 3+ we'll assume it goes through and i'll update.

Note that you'll need to 'buy' another housing area to get the shop built (it requires one adjacent house).

I use the term buy loosely because often its not buying- its encouraging economic growth via influence, favors etc. as much as it is building the buildings- often more so.

Month 3

Ok... will need a stability roll (+16 modifier) against the current command DC (22).

Perhaps for simplicity and speed I should make all kingdom rolls?

I would be fine with you rolling for us. It would speed things along.

But just this once...

Stability 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (12) + 16 = 28

Not so fast there chief...I say we do some of the roles unless we are holding things up :_) Economy roll!!!!! 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (16) + 21 = 37

Now I am outta here...lol's

For the record, I'm also ok with Malthir's suggestions for round 3 - Are we building both a house and a shop, or just a house. If we have the BP, I say both.