It strikes me that it is almost criminally irresponsible to be only rule a kingdom 1 week in 4 and spending the rest of the time adventuring out of contact.
So how to fix this.
I have thought of two ways
1. Permanent Telepathic Bonds with the other counselors. They can keep you informed and ask for your opinion.
2.Make Simulacrum's of your party for when you are gone they have your same stats so long as they don't get in a fight no one will even know you were gone.
Thing is both of these options can't really be done till level 13 which is a bit high. Can anyone think of lower level ways.
Greetings, fellow traveller.
Actually, there are many historic precedents where the ruler would travel around his kingdom, staying at major settlements for some time and then move on to the next (see Kaiserpfalz on Wikipedia).
The advantages were: depletion of food/other resources happens at more than one place, lessening the chance of bad feelings from his subjects, including nobility (logistics in those days could not serve the needs of the court; when food could not be brought to the court, the court travelled to where the food was); better supervision of his subjects; increase of prestige to the lord where the ruler stays, but not too much of a burden for a longer period of time (see first argument), ruling happens on personal level/based on relationships with his vassals, etc.
Ruyan.
See RuyanVe
As for my groups: I have informed them that they need to focus 1 week of the month to make sure they don't fall behind on their work. This is signing contracts, visiting people, having dinners, etc etc.
So technically, if they wanted to they could stay the remaining 3 weeks out in the field, and have their minions fix the *little* problems while the *important* ones pile up. Three weeks, for bureaucracy, is not *that* much.
However, I find that both groups I run don't really stay away for 3 weeks. They will go out, and explore, and make a little detour to re-stock and pick up important facts whenever they are anywhere near one their cities/the capital.
If you're the GM: watch them, and respond accordingly. Maybe change the 1week/3weeks to 2day/5days a week? Let npc tell them they wish they weren't away so long. Let them 'just miss' someone they wanted to see themselves. Remind the fighter that 3 weeks in his armor is not that nice, by letting the youngins/ladies avoid him when he returns to town. Hell, maybe his wife won't see him until he's been to the sweatlodge for a couple of hours.
They're not all rangers who *love* the outdoor and pissing against trees :P
If you're the player: remember the quality of a hot bath and a warm meal, and a soft bed?
The 3.5 MiC had the Farspeaking Amulet. I can't give you a link as it's not SRD content, but it allows the owner of the amulet and up to four others to communicate verbally as if they were in the same room. Let one of the NPC councillors who isn't likely to travel own something similar, and then he can give one secondary charm to a party member, and one to any other NPC councillor whose duties are likely to involve a lot of travel.
I take a different approach- the day to day running of the kingdom is done by the council - according to guidelines laid out by the 'Rulers'. So if I want them to spend a few months concentrating on problems in Varnhold (for example) I don't punish them for it. :)
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Then again, they could spend the first week of month A then the last week of month B doing kingdomly duties. That could put a full 6 weeks between appearances.
I was more concerned with allowing the PC's to.. well... be PC's. I explained to them, early on, that this was ok... sort of. If the kingdom could get in touch with them and they could be back in a decent amount of time, this would likely never be a concern (Grigori notwithstanding).
In the beginning, the challenge was ensuring that they could receive messages. Now that they're 11th level, they travel through trees, teleport, have flying mounts, etc. so its getting to be less and less a concern.
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The wizard and sorcerer in my game do not have the levels yet to make a Ring of Sending or the like. So far their only resources have been to either take ravens with them for a one-way communication back to a settlement, or the spymaster's Silver Raven (Figurine of wondrous power).
They have been wracking their brains trying to come up with a method, but have not figured out one yet. They have had to rely on a very extensive spy and scout network, both of which can be compromised. This makes one Game of Thrones loving GM very very happy...
IMC, it has felt like too much time. We build and then it's a really long time before you build again. If they are out exploring, you can spend a couple game sessions doing that without going back to the castle.
For those reasons, I'd consider changing it to 2 weeks a month, rather than the 1.
Wondrous figure, Animal Messanger, Companions, messengers... you have plenty of such things in PF.
I also used the "the NPC concil member handle the kingdom during the players absence" approach. This also allwos me to set up a few events better.
I borrowed an approach from George RR Martin: They use Ravens.
They keep in contact with Brevoy with Ravens, and if they're out on the road for more than a couple/few weeks they bring Ravens.
I've mentioned my group's majordomo/advisor using messenger pigeons. I presume they'll do likewise when they head to Varnhold next chapter. Alternatively, they'll rely completely on the Duchess's sending as needed.
With roads and horses crossing 1 hex is 1 hr, throw on horseshoes of speed and a few mount changing stations, strategic spots for rookeries an messenger birds, and of course spells my guys have communication challenges pretty much covered. They also plan 6 months in advance and have proxies on the council when they are away (I allowed it since who is going to tell them no its their country.)