Terrain Improvements (Ultimate Campaign)


Homebrew and House Rules


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I have been working on putting together material to run a Kingmaker campaign for the past few weeks, with an eye towards improving upon a few deficiencies I noticed the first time I ran the AP. Among these was how terrain improvements work when using Ultimate Campaign. Because farms are given an asterisk, hills become far more valuable terrain than plains, and it's possible to have a city, a farm, a mine, and a fishery all in one hex. Rather than simply remove the asterisk however, I decided it might be nice to change things up and fill out the list of possible improvements a bit.

How my revised system works is this: each hex can have up to three 'major' improvements such as a city, mine, or quarry. The first improvement can be added as soon as the hex has been claimed, the second can be added once the hex has been improved with roads, and the third requires improving the hex with a highway. No improvement can be built more than once in any given hex unless expressly permitted in the description.

Major Improvements:

City
Effect: 1-30 City Districts
Restriction: Any
Description: Each individual district must be cleared in order to begin building (at a cost of 1 BP each). You may build up to three City improvements in a single hex, allowing a large metropolis of up to 90 districts.

Fields
Effect: -2 Consumption
Restriction: Desert, Hills, Plains
Description: A large area given over to agriculture, fields are typically planted with simple grains such as rice or wheat and form the staple of most diets. You may build up to two Fields in a single Plains hex, and a desert hex must contain a River or a Canal in order to build Fields.

Fishery
Effect: -1 Consumption, +1 Stability
Restriction: Coastline, Water, River, Marsh
Description: Simple piers for a small fleet of fishing vessels which catch fish and other seafood. You may build up to two Fisheries in a single Coastline or Water hex.

Herbalist
Effect: +1 Loyalty, +1 Stability
Restriction: Forest, Jungle, Marsh
Description: A simple cottage industry serves to collect herbs, mushrooms, and rare reagents from the surrounding countryside.

Hunting Lodge
Effect: -1 Consumption, +1 Loyalty
Restriction: Any
Description: Hunters from this lodge catch enough game meat to feed the local populace.

Mine
Effect: +1 BP/turn, +1 Economy
Restriction: Desert, Hills, Mountains
Description: Miners extract coal, metal, or salt from the earth here.

Orchards
Effect: -1 Consumption, +1 Loyalty
Restriction: Hills, Plains
Description: Cultivated groves of fruit or nut trees produce less food than Fields, but improve one's diet substantially.

Pastures
Effect: -1 Consumption, +1 Economy
Restriction: Desert, Hills, Mountains, Plains
Description: Herds of domesticated animals can graze in a far wider range of environments than are suitable for crops, and often yield leather, wool, or other useful byproducts.

Plantation
Effect: +1 BP/turn, +1 Economy
Restriction: Hills, Plains
Description: Cash crops such as cotton or grapes don't do much to keep bellies full, but do provide a steady source of tax revenue.

Quarry
Effect: +1 BP/turn, +1 Stability
Restriction: Hills, Mountains
Description: Extracting stone from the ground allows you to build everything from cathedrals to paved highways.

Sawmill
Effect: +1 BP/turn, +1 Stability
Restriction: Forest, Jungle
Description: A logging industry turns trees into useful planks for building houses with.

Minor improvements like aqueducts, roads, and watchtowers would continue using the current rules. I was considering setting the cost of each major improvement aside from City and Fields to 6 BP, allowing City to be 'free' (you would still need to pay to clear the land for the district, after all), and setting the price for Fields equal to the current price for Farms.

Thoughts?


I am too working on preparing a kingdom building campaign (not Kingmaker, though), and adapting the rules to fit my group.

I like this idea of major/minor improvements, and I agree with most of the list. A general cost of 6BP doesn't seem unreasonable; may need a bit of balancing after testing.

I really like the fact that the Farm improvement was separated in Fields, Orchads, Pastures and Plantation; and the fact that a City is counted as an improvement is a good thing.

I'm uncertain concerning the Herbalist improvement, since it's already a district building (with the same effects, and a potion slot). I'm Okayish on the Hunting Lodge.

Shouldn't the Fort also be a Major Improvement ? I know that it upgrades from the watchtower (a likely minor improvement), but a 24BP cost "walled encampment for military forces" is a bit much to be considered minor.

[Edit:] I'll probably use this houserule for my group. Thanks !


Dotting for perusal later, my group will be working kingmaker as next AP and i am also looking to overhaul what i see. Thanks for posting your work!


Aralicia wrote:

I am too working on preparing a kingdom building campaign (not Kingmaker, though), and adapting the rules to fit my group.

I like this idea of major/minor improvements, and I agree with most of the list. A general cost of 6BP doesn't seem unreasonable; may need a bit of balancing after testing.

I really like the fact that the Farm improvement was separated in Fields, Orchads, Pastures and Plantation; and the fact that a City is counted as an improvement is a good thing.

I'm uncertain concerning the Herbalist improvement, since it's already a district building (with the same effects, and a potion slot). I'm Okayish on the Hunting Lodge.

Shouldn't the Fort also be a Major Improvement ? I know that it upgrades from the watchtower (a likely minor improvement), but a 24BP cost "walled encampment for military forces" is a bit much to be considered minor.

[Edit:] I'll probably use this houserule for my group. Thanks !

Regarding the herbalist, the idea was to have something for players who don't want to build sawmills in the forest on account of forming alliances with the fey. Also, the herbalist built in a city is really more of an apothecary, whereas the herbalist improvement is more about actually collecting the various items. You do have a valid point though.

As for the Fort however, I was a bit iffy on making it less desirable as an improvement, since it already costs Consumption to maintain and is quite expensive to build. Also, I like the idea that a Fort could represent the manor of a minor lord in service to the players, representing a proper feudal system, and honestly, such forts would only take up a few acres at most.


Mackenzie Kavanaugh wrote:

Regarding the herbalist, the idea was to have something for players who don't want to build sawmills in the forest on account of forming alliances with the fey. Also, the herbalist built in a city is really more of an apothecary, whereas the herbalist improvement is more about actually collecting the various items. You do have a valid point though.

As for the Fort however, I was a bit iffy on making it less desirable as an improvement, since it already costs Consumption to maintain and is quite expensive to build. Also, I like the idea that a Fort could represent the manor of a minor lord in service to the players, representing a proper feudal system, and honestly, such forts would only take up a few acres at most.

Ah, I see. That's good points. I guess That means it would be better to change the "building" Herbalist's name, in order to remove this ambiguity.

I despise ambiguity, especially in houserules; it can easily create misanderstanding and conflict around the table. So yeah, one of my pet peeves.
But Apothecary seems to be pretty descend as replacement name for the "building" herbalist.

For the Fort, it's a nice idea to use them to represent an out-of-city manor. I guess then keep it minor would be better for a gameplay standpoint (but I want my mage tower in the wild !).

On another point, Hunting in the desert or underground may not be really effective. Maybe the Hunting Lodge shouldntt be possible in Desert and Cavern. In the same idea, I noted that you didn't include the irrigation requirement (canal/coastline/river) for desert-implated Fields, Orchads and Plantations; is that wanted ?

Since the campaign I'm preparing will be in an archipelago, I'm thinking in expanding on the Water Improvements, maybe having multiple alternate fisheries, like you did with the Farms.
I guess I'll also make Water hexes invalid for roads, highway and aqueducs; A 12 miles (20km) long bridge over water, while possible nowaday, seems a bit too wierd for me in PF, especially if done without magic.
Your Thoughts ?


Yeah, you're probably correct about the Hunting Lodge. Lizards and giant scorpions and such wouldn't be abundant enough to feed people. Caverns probably need a mushroom farm option if someone's going to make a campaign integrating underground terrain though. (Regarding fields/orchards/plantations, I didn't allow for building orchards or plantations in the desert, and moved the requirement for irrigation down to the text.)

As a further note on Forts, manors, etc... Consider that if Fort was made into a major improvement, it would be in the best interest of players to simple build a city there instead, costing 1 BP and increasing consumption by 1... and then build whatever improvements they liked. A Cistern, Brewery, and 4 City Walls costs 20 BP and generates 1 more point of Loyalty than a Watchtower. I would prefer if there was actually a reason for Forts to exist, so... minor improvement.

Regarding bridges... don't forget about the Arch of Aroden, which was a massive construction project which even the largest sailing ships could easily pass under. A third of it has collapsed, but it remained intact and in use for something like two thousand years. It shouldn't be a cheap, simple project, but if the players want to do something epic like that, I see no reason not to come up with rules for it and allow them to. I would also love to see your input on additional water-based improvements.


Well, here you go. Here's a first draft of for the maritime expansion of Terrain Improvements.

[Upgraded] Terrain Improvements (Ultimate Campaign / Kingdom Building)

I started with your houserule and built from there, except I adapted the statblock format to match with the one in Ultimate Campaign.

The changes I did :
- New Major Improvements : Deep Diver Cabins, Seaweed Farm, Shellfish Farm
- New Minor Improvements : Lighthouse, Maritime extension
- Renamed City improvement into "Settlement" to match with UC's terminology
- The Settlement improvement start with a free District. Following districts follow the 1PB cost to use.
- Added Caverns to the available terrains for Fields (with a note to indicate mushroom farms) - this may become a full improvement, but my focus was on water hexes.
- Herbalist and Hunting Lodge get a cost of 4PB to line them up with the Fisheries. Other Improvement get the pre-considered 6PB.
- Sawmill price goes up to 4BP (from 3BP) to line up with Fisheries.

[EDIT : reply to a precedent point]

Mackenzie Kavanaugh wrote:
don't forget about the Arch of Aroden, which was a massive construction project which even the largest sailing ships could easily pass under. A third of it has collapsed, but it remained intact and in use for something like two thousand years. It shouldn't be a cheap, simple project, but if the players want to do something epic like that, I see no reason not to come up with rules for it and allow them to. I would also love to see your input on additional water-based improvements.

While it would be great to let the players do that kind of structures, the cost and time necessary would be great enough to be quite a bit more than simple Terrain Improvements.

Maybe adding something like "Wonder" Improvements ? Apart from Minor and Major Improvement, with a multiple-rounds build time, and BP cost per round ? Or maybe a very high total BP Cost, with the player throwing as much BP as they want at it each month ?


Hmm, I do like the idea of pearl diving being an option, and I have no idea how I missed the lack of a lighthouse option. You might also want to consider a Shipyard building for their cities, since a strong navy would be more important to the defense of an island nation than barracks or watchtowers.


dot for interest


Mackenzie Kavanaugh wrote:
Hmm, I do like the idea of pearl diving being an option, and I have no idea how I missed the lack of a lighthouse option. You might also want to consider a Shipyard building for their cities, since a strong navy would be more important to the defense of an island nation than barracks or watchtowers.

I looked over the building list for the cities, and a shipyard looks like the only thing that could be missing. I'll stat it tomorrow, I have a need for sleep right now.

That said, I found a strange thing while comparing stats. When upgrading the Barracks into a Garrison, the city actually looses Defense and Law.
Yes, the Kingdom gain 2 points in Loyalty and Stability, but the City itself loose the +2 in Defense and +1 in Law that the Barracks gave. Isn't that strange ?

The Shop upgrades seems to do a similar thing, loosing one point of productivity during the upgrade.

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