Rivers Run Red side quests--WHO exactly is approving the rewards?


Kingmaker


I've been trying to figure out how to rationalize the rewards listed for the additional side quests displayed on the inside covers of Rivers Run Red. Considering the area is now the players' kingdom and Brevoy is pretty much "hands off" during this initial part of the development, how does "the kingdom" approve these rewards? Certainly the PCs aren't establishing bounties for missions they plan to go after themselves, and later just take it from the treasury?

I'd love to hear thoughts on what solutions others have devised...

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I view these as individuals within the kingdom offering quests to any adventuring group. I gave the PCs the ability to choose if they will do them or "hire" another adventuring group to do them. If a different group does the task they gain the reward.

I have hand picked a few of them and changed the flavor so they appear to be kingdom events. The one about boy named Tig is actually the start of a war between the Sootscale kobolds and the lizardfolk. The PCs haven't yet asked what started the war, and have actually chosen to not inquire directly until another pressing mater can be dealt with. It is going to be interesting when they finally discover that the boy has been a captive for a few weeks.


Another idea would be that the PCs get a hint about, say, a dragon going on a rampage somewhere south. Some time later they encounter (and hopefully slay) it.
After returning to civilization the word spreads (or they even took the carcass to their local taxidermist), eventually reaching Restov where the swordlords realize what great service the PCs rendered them by stopping this monster early on and decide to dispatch the reward as written with the next messenger.

Ruyan.


What I did is something like a blackboard, which can be used to give out tasks to any adventuring party. The reward is payed by the kingdom itself. If the PC's do the task themself, then they can take the reward, but it gives me the possibility to withdraw a quest, if the party is way past it's CR (as I did with the Tatzlwyrms... the quest was still open when they founded their kingdom, so they were slain by two trapper, which became adventurer for the kingdom afterwards...)


In chapter one I just put up a "Wanted" board at Oleg's. Something similar will remain in the PC's kingdom (they've technically finished the first chapter, they killed the Stag Lord last week, but they haven't explored anything west of the forest line yet so we're still on the first book plotline wise), either because they currently plan to base their kingdom around Oleg's - meaning it might well be the same dang corkboard - or because someone will put up one where they DO settle if they don't.

Dark Archive

On another thread JJ mentioned that the kingdom in question in these quests is still Restov.

Link


Thanks to all for the feedback so far!

So, it seems another way to look at it is that while the Swordlords may be "hands off" in terms of the development of the new kingdom, they still remain informed of and are involved with other reports from the region and continue to offer rewards for these side missions, whether handled by NPCs or the PCs themselves.

I suppose at this point, too, (as suggested above) there could be an undisclosed time limit before certain quests are completed by others (representing the PCs being busy with kingdom building, and/or it could be a way of maintaining the speed of character advancement if it felt out of control). Funny thing, my players spent the very first session of the second installment wrapping up the fangberry quest for Bokken--being the only loose end they missed--so it could also clear the board for "completionist" parties. :-)


I have to agree with the folks who listed Restov as the most likely source for a lot of these quests. I could also see some of them as a 'reward' for PCC rulers who built certain buildings or attracted certain types of people. I.e., if you build an alchemist's shop you can get the 'potions in exchange for troll blood' quest.


This.
Exactly what I'm doing. Certain buildings are tied to certain quests. Works for visiting NPCs, too.
Another way I came up with was to give e. g. the quest about the roc's eggs to the chef they employ at their castle. The monetary/item reward will not happen, but that can be easily remedied by adding those rewards to other encounters.

Also check out Dudemeister's take on e. g. KM #3 where a lot of quests are now tied to the Nomen.

The XP my group might miss (if the buildings are not built or the dice call for another event does not bother me, because I have integrated much more not-so-random encounters to prevent nova-easy-mode).

Ruyan.


I'm looking at some of these quests. Some of them -- for example, resolving disputes between fey and humans -- make sense for a kingdom's rulers. I think I'm going to repackage some of the "Wanted" type quests -- slay this, slay that, slay t'other thing -- so they provide something like a Loyalty bonus or a BP bonus. The idea is that the characters are doing this for the kingdom, not for themselves.

I think the alchemist/herbalist quests will go bye-bye. I don't know about Lily Teskerton's quest. I'm going to throw her into the mix as a "local flirt." It makes sense that she might entreat a handsome admirer to send her out into the wilderness to fetch something for her, but it feels too much like an MMO fetch quest to me.

In lieu of some of these, I think I'm going to work up some special kingdom events. Branching off of Dudemeister's Monster Kingdom concept, I think I'm going to build some inter-kingdom intrigue involving the lizard men, the Sootscales, Hargulka, and maybe even the Dancing Lady.


In my campaign, the reward for defeating the trolls (converted to be all BP in the form of trade concessions) was posted by the Mivon Merchants' guild. Mivon was the PC Kingdom's main trading partner, and the trolls were far enough south that I figured they'd be a problem for both kingdoms. Most of the other quests were either given by individuals or things that the kingdom would have to deal with anyway (in which case I made the rewards Loyalty/Stability boosts rather than cash).


I remade a few of them as "local lords who live just off the map, and who want to win your favor" hand out the items without letting the players know it's a quest.

Lily is the younger, marriageable, sister of one of those lords.


I used Lily for agaes :) We are just starting Book 5 and every so often our ruler still asks "Is that Lily woman coming?"

In my campaign Lily was an aristocrat - not noble and without any claims to titles, but with money. She seduced the ruler fairly early on (not a difficult thing to do with a chaotic aristocrat bard) but then kept cropping up.. and then cropping up again and again ...

The main room in her house still features an eleven artefact she brought from the party - and she is pleased to tell everyone that she knows them well *wink wink*

I left a number of 'quests' out but slipped the 'rewards' in where I felt appropriate.

I didn't like all those BP from abroad as a reward - so I treated them as wagon lads of settlers (certainly I the early days). 50 bp turned up over a number of months in the form of tree wagon trains - and I sent NPCs along leading the trains they could use to help run their kingdom if they wanted them.

As time went on, more and more of the smaller items were just automatically assigned to the Kingdom rather than cashed up and dealt with piece by piece. One whole unit in their army is armed with +1 magical weapons that they acquired en-masse in book 4.

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