Custom Kingmaker Idea: Need Opinions


Homebrew and House Rules


In my campaign im writing up, the Group will be starting out with a small base of operations to start exploring from, but its going to be a much larger area then what Paizo put in for kingmaker.

I was thinking of doing like a World of Warcraft Garrison Idea to begin with, Where you can send NPCs out on Missions. These missions cost resources but have potential Gains. Scouts would be sent out, using a small amount of Resources per Tile they would be exploring. Their would be a small chance to losing a scout if there is a hazard or danger in the Hex. If a scout returns they would report if there is anything worth looking in to, or "Missions." Some Missions would be things the party could decide to check out themselves, or they could assign resources to it. Some would be things you would want NPCs doing anyways like "Looks like a suitable silver mine" and the resources you would spend would be to setup and maintain the mine and in turn get income from it.

Other Idea's are archaeology dig sites, Graves from Previous Civilization in the area, or setting up trade routes with another race. Each Mission would have a set amount of resources to spend, and the party might be able to work out potential rewards but not any mission would be worth it. They might spend 5 magic researching something only to get 3 back. They might also spent 5 Magic Resources and come out with a New spell from an ancient civ, or some magic items, or even an Artifact!

It would allow to a change in how exploration is done, and get out of the repetitiveness of rolling to explore, encounter anything there and move on. Would also allow some interesting story arc's. I would also make a Random Event Chart that could happen per mission type.

Opinions?
Thanks.


i agree that olegs soon gets left behind but the beauty is it can be picked up and relocated. Olegs wife ended up the mayor of our party's first settlement.

I am adding a lot to he encounters in each area and tailoring the random encounters to the nearby locations - in that respect the encounters aren't really random. Adding 2 or three more elements to each location should help prevent the fight - rest - fight - rest syndrome that Kingmaker is prone to. That also means I can keep a lot of random encounters Roleplay based or the occasional non-combat challenge.

My last piece of advice is not to give the PCs access to the mechanical aspect of kingdom building - unless you want one 'chamberlain' style PC to take the hassle of your hands. Ask the PCs to make ther decisions based on what they want to do, rather than purely mechanical considerations and use NPC advisors to describe the effect building a temple or raising taxes will have. It will have far more impact!

In my re-run with a second group I'm integrating Rappan Athuk into the area - this will now be the reason the area wasn't settled before and provide a large amount of loot to help build the kingdom.

Have fun, you have some great ideas -


I have actually run kingmaker 3 times now, so looking to write my own. Here is our blog with some of the tweaks i made if your interested :) the blog only went till around book 2 midway to end point. So neat tweaks i did though that alot of people liked.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

If I wasn't so busy with the kingdom tracking spreadsheet and some rules I'm working on to make kingdom rulership a bit more... interesting, I'd take a stab at expanded exploration edicts, since exploration is one of the most simplistic rules elements for kingdoms as it stands.

I love your ideas, Goraxes, sounds like you have it well in hand!

Edit: here's an idea. Create an "exploration bonus" and "exploration checks". When you set up an exploration expedition, note the classes and levels of the members. Each class gets a different modifier to exploration (so Rangers, Rogues and Druids would get bigger bonuses, and other classes would get varying lower ones). Add up the modifiers and apply another modifier for levels. The expedition costs BP based on the total levels of characters. When entering a new hex, they roll a single exploration check (plan DCs so that its about as tricky as normal exploration). Each hex has at least one "interesting feature" such as "natural resource", "ruins", or whatever. Create a table for each type of interesting feature, with low results being less good than high results. For every 5 points (or whatever) that the explorers beat the exploration DC, give a bonus to the roll on the feature table.

As an example off the top of my head: the explorers enter a new hex and stuff the exploration roll. The feature in the hex is meant to be a natural resource. You roll on your Natural Resources table, unmodified, and get "played-out copper mine". If the roll had been better, they might have got "darkwood copse" or "mithral lode" or something.


Chemlak wrote:

If I wasn't so busy with the kingdom tracking spreadsheet and some rules I'm working on to make kingdom rulership a bit more... interesting, I'd take a stab at expanded exploration edicts, since exploration is one of the most simplistic rules elements for kingdoms as it stands.

I love your ideas, Goraxes, sounds like you have it well in hand!

If i get it down how i want to do it, i will post here :)


Just looked through Ultimate campaign (came out just as i finished the last run of kingmaker i had done). The Exploration edict is more or less scouting as i imagined it, using BP though. Will modify my Idea based on that :)


Goraxes wrote:

In my campaign im writing up, the Group will be starting out with a small base of operations to start exploring from, but its going to be a much larger area then what Paizo put in for kingmaker.

I was thinking of doing like a World of Warcraft Garrison Idea to begin with, Where you can send NPCs out on Missions. These missions cost resources but have potential Gains. Scouts would be sent out, using a small amount of Resources per Tile they would be exploring. Their would be a small chance to losing a scout if there is a hazard or danger in the Hex. If a scout returns they would report if there is anything worth looking in to, or "Missions." Some Missions would be things the party could decide to check out themselves, or they could assign resources to it. Some would be things you would want NPCs doing anyways like "Looks like a suitable silver mine" and the resources you would spend would be to setup and maintain the mine and in turn get income from it.

I would be careful with this, such that exploring is something the PCs are still much better at because the scouts have a lower level. Hidden things might be missed, the courts could be seen, or casualties might be suffered. Spending more build points increases the scouts chances of success. Maybe the scouts can only travel through hexes already explored. And for sure, while the scouts return with information, they keep all loot themselves.


Ya i think im gonna use a Modified Exploration Edict for Scouting. They will Have X many scouts to start that are X Level (thinking level 3 rangers). They will be able to hire/purchase more or higher level ones for BP. Then it still costs BP to fund a Scouting mission. Exploration Edict is for mapping hexes. Im thinking Scouting will just bring back possible missions. When i get it written up with the way im thinking of doing it i will post it here for opinions.

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