pennywit |
At last session, my players built their kingdom a little bit, and they're kind of glancing in every direction. Rumors of civil war brewing in Brevoy. Kobolds tunneling underground. A polite but prideful monarch from the West who gives an NPC paladin the heebie-jeebies. My players are pretty friggin' paranoid right now because they don't know where the next hammer blow is coming from.
Is it wrong I'm enjoying this a little bit?
redcelt32 |
Nope, tell them welcome to being a ruler. Now they know why adventurers stay murderhobos and don't become kings very often, its a lot more headache and hard work. Its sort of nice as a GM to have your PCs playing that role and leaving the hard decisions in your players laps and you get to play the murderhobos running around their kingdom. Oh, and its not being paranoid when everyone really is after you :)
My players are so wary, that they immediately start looking for the catch if something fortuitous happens. They know there is a cost hidden in there somewhere.
Plus I think its good to throw more things at them in the early days than they can "put a hat on" and deal with. It makes them have to evaluate the opportunity cost for every decision they make. It also makes them feel better when they are higher level with more minions and can assign other NPCs to deal with all the lesser headaches.
pennywit |
The funny part is that I actually haven't firmed up my plans yet. So far, I've only decided that I want Irovetti to be a more obvious rival for book 4, and that I'm probably going to toss a good chunk of the Armag plot in favor of running Courts of the Shadow Fey. But if they're worried about civil war ...
pennywit |
My players, I think, vary in their tolerance for the kingdom-building mechanics. But one upside is that they have a sense of ownership of their kingdom. Each one has sort of "adopted" a region of the kingdom and settled there, ranging from the party alchemist/treasurer, who built a house on lake Silverstep, to the wizard/magister, who lives on spooky Candlemere Island and is building a community of magic-users.
T.A.U. |
I WISH my players were that paranoid...
I wish that too, some of them are barely aware of the political big scheme around them... some-others are simply resigned, waiting for the time when something big will happend to them because of their action.
You really did a really good job Pennywit!pennywit |
Philip Knowsley wrote:I WISH my players were that paranoid...I wish that too, some of them are barely aware of the political big scheme around them... some-others are simply resigned, waiting for the time when something big will happend to them because of their action.
You really did a really good job Pennywit!
Thanks. I have good players who really buy into the setting. The game's actually functioning on both the kingdom level and the adventure level now.
As I write this, they're considering some between-session kingdom-building options in a Google Doc. It's fascinating to watch.
Turin the Mad |
Philip Knowsley wrote:I WISH my players were that paranoid...I wish that too, some of them are barely aware of the political big scheme around them... some-others are simply resigned, waiting for the time when something big will happend to them because of their action.
You really did a really good job Pennywit!
T.A.U., might I suggest a rival/thorn in their side that they can take all kinds of personal offense to when he does a "ride by" on them? <grin>
T.A.U. |
T.A.U., might I suggest a rival/thorn in their side that they can take all kinds of personal offense to when he does a "ride by" on them? <grin>
There are some plot-twist I already planned, and one will be particularly heartbreaking for one of the PC...
The_Superior_Dudemeister |
Not as much as I enjoyed having my PCs scrape together 50 gold to bribe a mite to get the statute (which the mite provided to them in broken fragments)...the easiest way to sneak it out........they spent resources (time and effort) to repair it only to have the chief slam it on the ground.....
Yes. This is my favorite thing.