My players killed Oleg, took Svetlana is now basically owned by the barbarian, and they keep on just destroying everything.
I love what players do to plans.
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As a GM, this would first make me raise my eyebrows in surprise, then rub my hands together as I look towards book 2.
"This kingdom built on treachery, bloodshed, and slavery, needs new rulers worthy of their noble subjects. Your rulers don't respect you, rather they seek to use you up and grind you down to be the rough tools for their ignoble causes. Their laws oppress you, and their erratic behavior endanger your very lives. Their very first act in this verdant green paradise, was to slay those who befriended them, enslave their families, and laugh over their graves. Your rulers, not fit to clean your outhouses, need to be tar, feathered, and driven out of town...."
Grigori, speaker for the new regime of Kingdom X.
sometimes as gm you need to say "no, i don't think you'll be doing that!", preferably spoken in the voice of the super intelligent chimp from the the simpsons.
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Do your players have "CE" written on their character sheets? If not, it might be time to change that :)
First though: Are your players aware that the basic premise of the AP is for them to craft their own kingdom? If they are, is there a chance they're rebelling against the idea "just because"?
Secondly: If they persist in their destructive ways, the Stag Lord will probably want to attempt recruiting them to his own cause.
Finally: If things continue in the current direction, this could eventually become a two-part campaign; one where the PCs destroy everything in their path, and another campaign with new PCs sent to contain their destructive predecessors.
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If their motto is that it is easier to destroy than create, and you still want to do a kingdom game... Way of the Wicked is also an option...just saying..
most folk in Brevoy, and lots all around are chaos
there are also a lot of evils from where they come from.....so go for it!!
its all good prep, having a CE kingdom, ripe for the powers that be in Beyond Kingmaker
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I hardly see the Sworlords giving them 50 Bp worth of materials to build their own Kingdom.
They want a peaceful border, not a nations of brigands.
On the other hand they could ally with the Stag Lord, overthrow him and start their own nation from there. Give the Stag Lord a lot more mundane loot, a few bands of follower around the greenbelt to annex and you are ready to go.
They can do bandits raids in Mivon and Brevoy to become richer, attract bandits, misfits, river pirates and so on to their kingdom to increase the population and live a happy and evil life.
I think the real question is... why did they kill Oleg? And destroying everything?
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I think that Brevoy may very well revoke their charter when they've heard what they've done. That would definetly change things with regards to the path the campaign takes. On the other hand, perhaps the lord of Pitax offers them a chance to become his vassals...
How did this come to pass? There is too much missing from this story for me to pass judgement of any sort.
Kesten Garess and his men, along with Jhod Kavken will be waiting for them when they return.
That's a challenge rating of what? 6?
Don't forget the druid, too, and probably Bokken.
They're going to have to kill a bunch of people higher-level than them just to avoid a TPK.
If I were the GM, I'd let it roll, but Kesten wouldn't hold any punches, and if it's a standard party of four first-level characters, they're going to be adorning the walls of Oleg's before long...
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The only real issue here is whether or not the GM and players are in agreement about the type of game they are playing. If this is a yes, its time for the GM to sit down and discuss the new situation with the players. Let them know that Brevoy, the Swordlords, and possibly Maegar Varn may not be too happy with them. Let them know that the minute they enslaved Svetlana, the River Kingdoms marked them as enemies. At this point, frankly I would swap out Kesten and Jhod's personalities for ones that align more closely with the PCs kingdom, same as I would with all future personalities meant to assist in filling kingdom roles. Change up the game to give them allies and opponents that align more with their new kingdom beliefs.
Of course this is a lot more work for the GM.
If there is not agreement about the players taking a wrecking ball to the typical story unfoldment in Book1, then its time to roll up new characters, start a new AP, or in some other way reboot.
Agreed. When I first saw the OP I hesitated to post until I had more to go on. Not really sure if J3Carlisle is looking for advice on contrary players or if this was the agreed path for the campaign.
by destroying everything, I meant they kill anything that is thrown at them, however, they did have a near tpk in the mites tree.
As far as how their actions are effecting the game, so far Kesten thinks that oleg was killed by the bandits, and seeing how he was sent by the sword lords to protect the trading post, they dont care if it is oleg or someone else running it. The cleric and druid have not shown up yet.
The PCs and I are getting along quite well with how the game is running. I figured that the group would be CG in general, but I can make the game work just fine in the current direction.
Personally, I love to see when the players do things that the story was not prepared for, and oleg just happens to be the first in this campaign. Oh, did I mention this is my first time DMing a campaign? But PCs changing the game gives them the feeling that they actually do have a say in how the world is built around them.
Agreed. When I first saw the OP I hesitated to post until I had more to go on. Not really sure if J3Carlisle is looking for advice on contrary players or if this was the agreed path for the campaign.
the only agreements we had at the begining of the game is that they are setting out to help make the land settle-able, and that the sword lords hired them to do it
I also forgot, that ddue to the fact that I recently read some of The Iliad, I gave svettlana a very greek outlook on life/marriage, in that if someone kills the husband, then everything he owned, becomes property of the victor.
The characters renamed her to Miss Elizabeth, and she has become my go to way of passing on info to the PCs
Kingmaker is very open
players have done lots stuff not expected in the AP, allying with X and not with Y
Didn't answer my question. Why did they kill Oleg?
"They killed Oleg! THOSE BASTICHES!!"
Ustalov isn't too far off to the northwesterly bearing. Oleg Jr., deranged survivor of the horrors of Carrion Hill, Pankotic Manuscripts in hand, might feel a strong familial bond with his old man. Upon learning that his mom has been enslaved by the newest "Kingdom" to set up shop in the Stolen Lands he masters the terrible secrets (or some of them) and siccs eldrtich horrors that shatter both mind and body upon the rat bastards that dare inflict such shame upon his family.
Dimensional Shamblers, Nightgaunts ...
I recommend that he sets up shop on Candlemere island in the formerly abandoned shrine. A pet chaos beast / shoggoth and a plethora of glowy "spirits" plus plenty of atmosphere should go a long way to OlegII's "fighting fire with fire".
Perhaps the opening gambit is that he sends a shambler to snatch his poor mother away from the monstrous attentions of these ruffians! A later attempt to orchestrate a performance of the King in Yellow with royal attendees....
Didn't answer my question. Why did they kill Oleg?
Svetlana got drunk, threw herself at on of the characters, due to a bad forth, she then puked on said character. When Svet was called a white, Oleg took exception, and thus ended the life of Oleg
Ah, well in that case, if you're having a good time and so is everyone else then more power to ya. Glad to hear you're enjoying your first time GMing and that the players feel like they are empowered. Always a good combination, regardless of the tone of the campaign.
It may not be everyone's cup 'o tea but I hope everything goes well for you. You seem willing to adapt to and work with the curve balls thrown at you by your players and that's really half the battle. The rest is easy (well, not really, but acceptance is the hardest part for many a GM).
Keep us apprised of how things go. It's always interesting to read about the experiences of "evil campaign" APs.
I should also say that I started this game on as a drunken birthday present(which happens to be the same night Oleg was killed) I allowed them to use whatever material they wanted, including third party.
Here are the three standard players
Elric Frostburn: A human "Ice Wizard" in reality he is a sorcerer, with plans of using as many ice type spells. Elric is equally power hungry and pan sexual, He has plans of ruling the stolen lands with a icy fist with the help of the other PCs. Elric is for sure evil, and probibly neutral
Grunhilda Battle something or another: Full Orc Battle Cleric. She is probably the closest to non evil in the group, however she has no problem smashing heads in with her flail. Although a strong character and player, Grunhilda has not shown quite as much flavor as the other two, which means I will need to make sure she gets some solid game time.
Will Sasso Savage. Duergar Barbarian. This character is heavily based on early 90s wrestlers, specifically Randy Savage. This character is chaotic neutral or evil, unsure at this point. Savage is very obsessed with making sure everyone knows that he is the biggest badass around, spending most of his time twirling his axe or kissing his muscles. Also Savage speaks as Randy savage at all times, it is grand
There are two more characters that have shown up a once each.
Machiavelli: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (using adv Races I made a turtle race) This Turtle nearly was killed by the party when he attempted to sneak into Olegs fort one night. He uses bow and arrow, and talks in a surfer accent.
J'Orrarr: a Male Khajiit(catfolk) Barbarian another character with a full time accent, this Khajiit just joined the party, but he seems to fit the party quite well at this time.
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When we started Kingmaker, one of the first things my character (a CG Cavlier with Kingly aspirations) did was recruit the kobold tribe. We rescued the kobold being tortured (by the mites, I think...) and returned him to his tribe. We then skipped ALL the kobold combat encounters and RPd the hell out of the Kobold chief, eventually persuading him to be our spymaster.
When I told our GM I wanted to negotiate with the kobolds and bring them into the kingdom as full citizens/members his jaw dropped and he just stared. This was one of his first experiences GMing PF, and most of his experience with me (as a player) involved me doing what I could to kill everything "evil"...
Anyhoo, as others have pointed out, Kingmaker can handle virtually any play style. The GM just has to be willing/able to think on his/her feet.
I changed my kingmaker up a little. I introduced gnolls instead of the mites. The pcs were offered options of helping either the gnolls or the kobolds (they hated each other - gnolls had an appetite for kobolds). Long story short the gnolls have allied with the pcs but the pcs are wary. Anyways the gnolls are there looking for ancient gnoll legend that is under candlemere. Oh when I say I made a few changes .... I actually mean more than a few. Hahahahahha.
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Magical Goodness
By the gods, I wish I was in your game. All of these ideas are things that at least 75% of my group would haaaaaaaaaate, 15% would expect it from me, and the last 10% making buddy characters. However, I have to ask, does your one player know about the actual Will Sasso? Depending on what era (and weight class) we're talking, I think he's pretty much the OPPOSITE of Macho Man Randy Savage. Still, I'm idea-burgling the muscle-kissing-and-big-weapon-spinning-in-a-Savage-voice for PFS. He will be the best Unbreakable Fighter to work for the Silver Crusade ever. Burgle, burgle.
He does know about will sasso, and I dont know for sure how the two characters were combined, but I am guessing it is mostly just making fun of sasso, and maybe sasso did an impression of macho man randy savage at some point.