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So we're starting Kingmaker in a week. I've GMed for a while, but nothing like Kingmaker before.
So can you give me your top 3-5 pieces of advice for running a good Kingmaker campaign?
1. Pay attention to your balance between adventuring/kingdom building during the game session and how much your players enjoy each. My group likes the kingdom building, but for no more than about 10% of our playtime maximum. Not everyone in your group may have the same level of interest, so be prepared to deal with conflicting demands.
2. Take the time to foreshadow. It is never too soon to drop frustrating unexplained clues that won't be revealed until book 6 - just don't overdo it.
3. Be ready to drop hints about what your players *should* consider doing next. Sometime the opportunity to go anywhere creates some 'analysis paralysis' and a little guidance is appreciated.
4. Make your consequences real. If they fail to act on something, let them experience the results. If they do something awesome, let them have a benefit beyond what is written. The more they can affect the game world, the more they will care about what happens in it.
5. Add detail (& encourage them to do so as well). When they build a brewery, invent some microbrew names. If they build a monument, be sure to describe it in a way that reflects things that have happened in game. A little bit of granular detail goes a long way to making your Kingmaker story unique.
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So we're starting Kingmaker in a week. I've GMed for a while, but nothing like Kingmaker before.
So can you give me your top 3-5 pieces of advice for running a good Kingmaker campaign?
Read through the thousands of suggestions and stories on these Kingmaker boards. There are some real gems in here and I'm not kidding. I've borrowed so many ideas from them. Other than that, you know normal gm stuff; know your group adjust the path for them, roll random encounters ahead of time and have fun.
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1) Be up-front about the purpose and tone of the campaign, and make sure the players are 100% on-board with it. Let them know this isn't a "raid dungeons, kill monsters, get loot" campaign. Mindset is key. Make the characters *want* to be sovereigns for being sovereign's sake, and for no other reason and for the pursuit of no other reward.
2) Let go of the reins. You don't run this campaign, the players do. This bears breaking down into two subpoints, so that I can make sure emphasize them both:
2a) The players will go wherever they want, ally with whomever they want, and prioritize whatever they want. You should therefore prep the setting but not the plotline. Think of yourself like the code behind an MMO server: your job is merely to respond to player's actions, not to cause actions yourself.
Therefore, be harsher than you normally would. Since the player's decisions matter, make sure they matter. Let them die. Let them lose territory. You should be much more of a "merciless DM" in Kingmaker than you are otherwise. Besides, unlike any other AP, Kingmaker recovers gracefully from a TPK: so long as the Kingdom endures, even a new crop of heroes provides a strong enough sense of continuity that it doesn't feel cheap or artificial.
2b) Give them GM-like narrative control during the copious off-time. Most groups follow the pattern of the PCs asking the GMs what exists in the world, and the GMs asserting that X, Y or Z exists, then the PCs have to choose between those three options. Break this mindset: train your PCs to assert what exists, as if they were mini-GMs. They're the rulers afterall. Let the king say "I host a tournament. This-or-that noble comes and visits. I beat him. The girls go wild over me." Let the high priest say "I hold a grand festival to my god. Villagers come from miles around. I give an amazing sermon, and cause a huge revival. Many women dedicate the firstborn sons to the church, and the ranks of my clergy swell." None of that required any die-rolls, or asking you for permission. They just said it, by fiat. It's scary and difficult to let go of control. But your will reap wonders from it.
3) Make it your own. This is your game. Every building should have something notable about it. If the PCs build a smithy, they have to describe what the smith acts like. If the PCs build a tavern, they have to tell you what the signature dish is. If the PCs build a shrine, they have to tell you what miracle it is commemorating. Etc. When running kingdom events, make sure to set the events at these locations. Have NPCs mention the famous local microbrew, let the protests happen outside churches they've built, etc. The more you lead by example and use the environment, the better it will feed back into point #2b above.
4) Make sure you use the expanded events table, and interpret the results. Do not run them rote, but flavor them and come up with cool ways to twist them in. See point #3 above.
5) Kingmaker isn't an Adventure Path, this is a toolbox of neat stuff. Use what you like, throw out what you don't, and throw in tons of stuff of your own creation.
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1) Be up-front about the purpose and tone of the campaign, and make sure the players are 100% on-board with it. Let them know this isn't a "raid dungeons, kill monsters, get loot" campaign. Mindset is key. Make the characters *want* to be sovereigns for being sovereign's sake, and for no other reason and for the pursuit of no other reward.
2) Let go of the reins. You don't run this campaign, the players do. This bears breaking down into two subpoints, so that I can make sure emphasize them both:
2a) The players will go wherever they want, ally with whomever they want, and prioritize whatever they want. You should therefore prep the setting but not the plotline. Think of yourself like the code behind an MMO server: your job is merely to respond to player's actions, not to cause actions yourself.
Therefore, be harsher than you normally would. Since the player's decisions matter, make sure they matter. Let them die. Let them lose territory. You should be much more of a "merciless DM" in Kingmaker than you are otherwise. Besides, unlike any other AP, Kingmaker recovers gracefully from a TPK: so long as the Kingdom endures, even a new crop of heroes provides a strong enough sense of continuity that it doesn't feel cheap or artificial.
2b) Give them GM-like narrative control during the copious off-time. Most groups follow the pattern of the PCs asking the GMs what exists in the world, and the GMs asserting that X, Y or Z exists, then the PCs have to choose between those three options. Break this mindset: train your PCs to assert what exists, as if they were mini-GMs. They're the rulers afterall. Let the king say "I host a tournament. This-or-that noble comes and visits. I beat him. The girls go wild over me." Let the high priest say "I hold a grand festival to my god. Villagers come from miles around. I give an amazing sermon, and cause a huge revival. Many women dedicate the firstborn sons to the church, and the ranks of my clergy...
Damn Eric Well said!
My campaign almost fell apart because the party thought it was to easy. I had 4 players most of the time. The one a day encounter throws off what CR should be used to be challenging. I would say starting with book 2 be prepared to upgun the one a day encouters. You can balance this extra experience by handing out less experience for acomplishing quests.
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It also helps to be able to have the other modules on hand. If cost is a factor get the next module in the series. That way you know what is occurring and how to weave it into the overall story.
Pay attention to your PCs. They are going to speculate a lot about what is occurring. This in turn can lead into some pretty wild plot lines.
The environment is fluid. What I mean about this is just because something has been fully explored and the bad monsters killed off doesn't mean that something else might not move in. Also pay attention to the weather. Not everyday is a nice 75 degree sunny day with a light breeze.
Play up your Big Bads. There are certain enemy leaders in the mods that are passive (Stag Lord, Hargulka). Breath life into them, make them active, and get the PCs to HATE them. You wouldn't let someone rob your house while you stay in the bedroom. Why should they?
Fey. They are there. Use them whenever you think that it makes sense for them to be there. Not all Fey are friendly.
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Assume Kingmaker is more like a black & white coloring book. You have the picture, the layout, but to really make it shine, you the DM need to fill in the pages with your own colorful designs.
For example, I snagged an idea here and began the campaign with a prologue where 6 months prior to arriving at Oleg's the party met at a wedding in Restov where they developed backgrounds and explained relations that would involve them in going southwest to the Greenbelt.
It's all about being reactive (as mentioned above) to your players. Each week, I alter events significantly based off what they've done, and I take a LOT of wisdom and great ideas from these forums (one of the best is dudemeister's monster kingdom idea to spice up RRR, the second module, which seems a bit aimless without some work).
The designers have left a lot of room for customization, on purpose I believe, so take full advantage.
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I intend to have a lot more "encounters" than those listed and the suggested frequency of random encounters. This is a wild, unexplored region, so there should be numerous encounters in each hex. Due to the makeup of my party, and the caliber of roleplaying, I don't have to worry about them chopping down every wild animal they come across. A lot of these encounters will involve seeing animals in the distance, or in other ways knowing they're there, but not interacting with them in a direct enough way to warrant gaining xp for the encounter. In this way I hope to make the exploration a lot more realistic and fill my Stolen Lands with a lot more life, without skewing the xp and power progression of the group.
I also plan to faithfully use the requisite survival checks to avoid getting lost. Especially in the early levels, I'm sure they'll get lost more than once, and this will add to the feel and flavor of the danger of taming a wild land, and provide yet more opportunities for encounters with the denizens there-in.
Also, don't roll random encounters. Make up encounters ahead of time and place them in areas where they make sense. Place tatzlwyrm random encounters near and within the hex with the tatzlwyrm written encounter, do the same with kobolds, mites, etc.
Oh, and for the love of your RP, try to avoid EVER referring to "hexes" and discourage your players from doing so. There is no such thing as a hex in the world. There aren't hexes on the maps that exist, and there won't be hexes on the map the PCs are making. You, as GM, are the only person who needs to know that hexes exist. Don't describe your PCs as "entering a hex" or "exploring a hex". This will kick them right out of the story. If you want good roleplay, it begins with you and how you set the tone. Keep the system of the exploration behind the scenes, don't let it appear onstage.
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These are excellent suggestions Lex.
I try to have a mix of scripted and random encounters, mainly because I like how the story can change by the luck of the dice and how the party runs with it.
Very good point about the hexes and I find myself and my group guilty of doing just that. Might be hard at this point to stop referring to the hexes, especially because the kingdom building aspect of the game requires it and is very much out of RP gaming time. In game, I agree that is hurts immersion.
One thing I did to make the land seem more real IMC was to roll on a table for sounds and tracks as well as encounters each time the party entered a new hex or camped. This way, there is a lot more happening, even if the party doesn't get any encounters, and for instance following troll tracks does make it more likely you will encounter them. It also gave my survival focused inquisitor a fun role to play early on deciphering the tracks. The sounds often times really freaked out my party, and they still have not figured out what the loud, haunting warbling is whenever they are near the Shrike river at night. Wait till they find out it is the evening calls of tatzlwyrms!
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I'm the founding member of the "Kingmaker is Overrated" club. Am I too late to say run something else? :P
OK seriously my 5 top tips
1) Change the magic item economy and make economy more about mines and forestry etc.
2) Throw out mass combat altogether and use a better mass combat system like the one from Legend of the Five Rings.
3) Work with your players to develop the fluff of the kingdom. Laws, beliefs, ordnances, state religions. That kind of thing.
4) Develop the other three expeditions into the Stolen Lands and Pitax so you have a political backdrop for the campaign.
5) Most important! Nyrissa, Nyrissa, Nyrissa, Nyrissa. Foreshadow book 6 heavily. It's the biggest issue with the AP that book 6 (as good as it is) comes out of nowhere. You should have big, whopping anvil shaped clues dropping throughout the first 5 books that something mysterious is going on.
A lot of stuff is preached about Kingmaker and people generally consider it top 3 as far as AP's go. I didn't dislike it but I have finished 4 AP's and I must say that enjoyed all three of the others far more than Kingmaker (and yes that includes Second Darkness).
The point is that Kingmaker needs a lot of work. Kingdom building rules need tweaking to stop being a chore, mass battles are boring and he onus is on the GM to add in a lot of his own stuff to bring the setting to life. There is no Shalelu or Ameiko or Laori Vaus to get your teeth into, everything has to come from the GM.
If you relish this challenge and have players who like to do their own thing then it's a great campaign but moreso than any other AP (with the possible exceptions of Second Darkness and Serpent's Skull) it needs a lot of work to bring it to life.
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My advice (some of which echoes, and some of which contradicts the advice bandied about here):
1) Insist on 15 Point Buy characters (doubly so if you have 5 or more PCs). There are a lot of vignette encounters that can be too easy to brush off for OP characters, this will SAVE you work in the long run. If you have 4 players and go with 20+ point buy then I recommend using the 6 player conversions for single encounters.
2) Read the boards to exhaustion. There is so much good advice, bonus encounters and great ideas on here your GM-Craft ranks will increase exponentially for taking the time to prepare.
3) Your players run the show, but NPCs have opinions too. You'll be creating NPCs whole-cloth left and right but it's totally worth it. Whenever the PCs have a question they don't know the answer to have them consult with an NPC in the kingdom this gives their kingdom a sense of being a living breathing place while also giving you adventure hooks for later.
4) KEEP NOTES! You are going to adlib A LOT of stuff in a player directed game, so you MUST be organised to maintain a sense of consistency.
5) Don't be afraid to throw the players curveballs. My Kingmaker expansion pack threads were built entirely on the premise that while the players act on the world, the world will react to them.
6) Keep a list of mysteries: As the players discover things they'll discover mysteries like the dead unicorn, or a ring with a dryad's hair. These are details that over weeks/months/years(!) of play players are going to forget, by having a list of mysteries the players can review the facts they've come across and put together answers. For themselves.
7) The Kingdom Building rules work fine, it's usually best to do years worth of kingdom building at a time so that you can keep the game moving at a steady clip. Don't be afraid to tinker and change things that aren't to your liking. I use JBE's Book of the River Nations and the only change I made is that magic item sales don't add BP, they just add a +1, +2 or +5 to the economy check to determine BP made (for minor, medium and major items respectively).
8) The Mass Combat rules work fine, just throw some bonus HP on armies as they grow in size and cut between Mass Combat rounds and normal combat rounds as PCs work to capture important objectives, or defeat high CR foes and generals. The point of the Mass Combat rules is to create an abstract representation of huge battles, and winning or losing them is not a huge deal (there's more than one way to defeat an opposing king).
9) Be willing to put some work in. Kingmaker's greatest strength is allowing the GM a massive amount of leeway to throw in extra adventures/mini-dungeons/intrigue events/diplomatic stuff/mysteries etc. For example I ran a mash-up of Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale/Realm of the Felnight Queen during book 2. This Wednesday I'm running an adventure set in the Kingdom's premiere magic academy. Since there's no BBEG countdown clock to worry about, it means that the pace of the AP doesn't suffer. Kingmaker benefits from slowing down and adding personal touches.
10) Be patient: I've been running my Kingmaker game for over 2 years now, and we're only just now between books 3 and 4. We play practically every week. The players are ALWAYS excited to come to the table and inhabit their characters. I've even allowed them to role up secondary PCs, because the game's been going on so long so that they can play different characters. I might even throw in Skeletons of Scarwall from Curse of the Crimson Throne during book 5.
Kingmaker is the best campaign because you get out of it exactly what you put into it :)