What do people think the effect would be of giving characters with ranks in Knowledge: nobility or a few relevant Profession skills more knowledge of the kingdom-building rules? I'm thinking that the PCs start out with little knowledge of how to do this, as it models their lack of training and experience for kingdom-management.
Anyone do this already?
I was planning on starting out very abstract with the rules (churches make people happy!) because my characters have no knowledge of how to run a kingdom. I like the idea that having ranks in Knowledge (nobility) would help offset this, though. I'd hand out insight to the player that made these rolls.
I had a good chat with Jason N. @ PaizoCon and he had an excellent suggestion. If you're going to dumb down player knowledge of the kingdom-building rules then you might want to consider giving the players an "advisor" NPC of sorts to get them on their feet. Don't give him too much power (it's the PCs' kingdom), but use him to provide enough insight into how to approach kingdom-building that the players don't make any major mistakes they'll regret later (and blame on you for not having told them up front).
My players are all planning on taking ranks in knowledges and professions appropriate to their fields. I am looking to replace (or augment) the stat modifiers with these, since they seem to care about it. I wouldn't give players bonuses to learning how to do their job, personally. Plenty of people never bother to learn how they do their job well.
Hrmmm.... this strikes me the same as not letting a Sixth level Rogue know what a sixth level rogue can do unless he has ranks in Profession(Rogue) or at least been a sixth level rogue for a while. Granted, an ugly example, perhaps a more pertinent one would be not telling a fighter what a feat does, beyond a vague description before he picks it up, in terms of game mechanics. Logically the fighter has seen the feat used by other fighters most likely (seen the building in other cities) and knows either through common knowledge what the exact benefits are or he asks someone/figures it out as he's prepping to train for it (build it), but before he's started. It's one reason why we have the list of game mechanics right next to the feats.
All the darned rules are an abstraction and it might frustrate players to not know what 'block A' does until they build it.
Examples of where I would be personally confused:
1. I want to have a safe kingdom. So I want stability. So I buy a barracks to house all my troops! .... whatdya mean it doesn't give me a bonus to stability?
2. I want minor healing potions and healing to be available. I wanna get an herbalist! Whatdya mean I have to buy a house first? The herbalists' shop is like 700 feet square! Alright... 1 house, 1 herbalist, 1 magic item per turn... cool. It's a wand of burning hands. I don't want that! Oh, I can sell it? It gives the kingdom BP? And they generate another one next month? Why didn't you tell me this when I started the kingdom 6 months ago?!
3. Okay, we want some better magic items. I bet a guild of herbalists would make more! Let's buy a guildhall! Cool... whatdya mean it doesn't generate magic items?!
We did a few uses for skills. Here is what are game has.
Profession Cartography OR Craft Maps: For maping the region in Book 1 (100exp per hex, 75 if failed check)
Knowledge: Engineering: Passed check (DC 25): "Hmmm yes we could convert this ________ in to a ___________"
Knowledge Local: (DC 25): Tells the players the Bonus' and Negatives of a Building that they can build