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RRR mentions that "particularly adventurous PCs" might try to recruit unusual NPCs like Chief Sootscale and Melianse the nixie as leaders for their kingdom. My group is about to start RRR, and I suspect that this will come up - they're already talking about recruiting Perlivash and Tyg-Titter-Tut. The phrase "particularly adventurous" suggests that this should come with special risks, but it doesn't seem to give any guidance on what those risks might be, so I'm looking for suggestions and feedback. This is particularly important because they're also considering having an NPC Ruler.
I'd prefer to avoid just treating their ability scores as lower than they are, since that doesn't seem "particularly adventurous". I'm thinking that I'll customize whatever I do to sit the NPCs and the role, but some basic ideas are:
* Recruiting the NPCs in the first place may be difficult - treat their initial attitude as Unfriendly or Hostile for this purpose. Playful fey don't like the idea of paperwork.
* Small chance of generating Unrest each turn, as the humans are uncomfortable with their leaders.
* Some, like Perlivash and Tyg-Titter-Tut, may shirk their duties. Each turn they have, say, a 5-10% chance of leaving their office vacant.
* NPCs with dumped stats (not in their primary ability scores) may create problems. For instance, so far they have spared Auchs - if they give him a leadership role, they may find that he endangers the fragile peace they've established with the Sootscale Tribe.
Other thoughts or suggestions?
I think, as you kinda suggest, it could be more about intangibles than the stats. Having a LE kobold or a CN faerie as one of the rulers could (should?) result in some unusual or uncomfortable situations. Faeries might make good spies on a personal basis, but can they recruit and run a network of informants? (this might lead to a paucity of information about rebellious factions within the kingdom) Would they understand the importance of social/political news relevant to the kingdom, in determining what to prioritize or bring to the Ruler's attention? (Ruler gets inundated with lots of "weird" reports that leads to the faerie Spymaster being ignored, or valuable information is just ignored) Stuff like that.
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Nepotism could also play a big role, but allow it to swing both ways. There should be both advantages and disadvantages. Maybe Perlivash starts delegating work to other faeries so as to have less to get done, but those faeries now own those responsibilities for good or ill. Maybe some Pooka is now the only being who can decide where to place magical academies, and anyone else attempting to do so will curse the land they choose so that foundations crumble and nothing can be built.
This is where I find the kingdom building rules unable to cover every possible situation. That's not a negative on the rules: There's only so much one can do in a book of limited size. However, this is also an opportunity. The rules give you good general guidelines that you can use as a basis for adding effects tailored to your players' decisions. But I would recommend that you don't use every "adventurous" option they take as a reason to "punish" them for "bad" kingdom management.
A few examples of things you could add:
- If Chief Sootscale gets a leadership post, then the kingdom's Loyalty takes a permanent penalty because humans don't naturally respect a kobold leader. On the plus side, he opens up one or two underground hexes that can be added to the kingdom. Maybe such hexes have special resources (gems? metals? light-producing fungi?) that can improve the Economy.
- If Melianse is recruited, then the nixie's total lack of familiarity with human commerce and business creates problems, increasing the costs of buildings that have some relationship with her role (as defined by you). On the other hand, her knowledge of the kingdoms waterways improves the productivity of all fisheries.
- Perlivash is a totally unreliable leader who leaves his office vacant sometimes, just as you suggested. But he's got a fantastic talent for humor and jokes, so (when he's in town) the mood of citizens greatly improves, giving the kingdom a bonus whenever an event triggers a Stability check.
- I'm not sure I would give much of a positive side to recruiting Auchs, who's depicted as not only very evil, but completely dim-witted. I guess giving him the Royal Enforcer role post could give a special bonus to reducing Unrest (maybe reduce Unrest by 2 instead of 1 on a particularly good roll). On the other hand, he's bound to anger people out of either stupidity or cruelty or both, so his leadership warrants a Loyalty penalty.
This is particularly important because they're also considering having an NPC Ruler.
I'd make a strong effort at convincing them otherwise. With a PC ruler, the game flows smoothly. With an NPC, the story has to warp a bit - either the PCs are continually following the orders of an NPC, and all the hard decisions rest with that NPC; or the PCs ignore their king and do as they please, which can lead to conflict elsewhere.
If it's simply about the fact that their Charisma modifier is less high than an NPCs, the stats make relatively little difference. You can get your kingdom stats up with buildings fairly easy, and the difference between a +3 Charisma ruler and a +1 Charisma ruler can be only a single building away.