A Game of Kingmaker

Game Master Wandering Wastrel

Gah - sorry (again). Been ill. Not Covid-sick, just regular, but bad enough. Back now.

Hope I still have an audience.

EDIT: Nariel - I'm using the website that Tristan (I think?) put me on to. It's called Inkarnate (LINK) and it's really good. There's a free version, but the premium is inexpensive and gives you a lot more functionality.

Would really recommend. I have little in the way of art or technical skill and it makes it very easy.

Hi, yes, yes you do. I'm slowly easing my way back into our games and I might need a couple of days to both catch up on what's been going *and* to get a feeling for my own characters again.

I hope you feel better soon.

Welcome back Aivar! Great to have our fearless leader back :)

Also, thanks for pointing me in the right direction Wastrel. I've actually assigned one of my players to do it, as they have a cartography program well suited to the task. I'm finding running Kingmaker in 2E requires a fair bit of time on my part to convert the rules, so having a player step in seemed a good idea. I was hoping they could turn around the new 2E version of the Kingmaker campaign sooner, but alas it will be several months yet.

Nevertheless, it's been not too bad, and I must admit that I'm rather enjoying the new edition rules in my tabletop game... I find the combat system has been particularly slick compared to 1E or D&D 5E.

Sorry for my lack of posting.

I've been absolutely buried in work since we reopened.

My apologies: you deserve much better from me than you've been getting lately. I am still here (I hope you are too) and will get us moving tomorrow, following which I will try to post something most days.

Seriously though, 2020 can f#%& right off.

Still here and eager to continue!

Still here!

Still here! I'll post later this evening or tomorrow morning at the latest... and agreed, 2020 can f++~ right off.

So we have Sasha, Nariel and Raquel still around, and Aivar checked in not that long ago so hopefully is still here.

If we've lost any of the others, that's on me. Let's give them a bit longer to post and hope that they return.

I'm here o/

Sorry for delay again - that post took longer to compose than it should have.

Anyway, happy 2nd birthday to this game! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Wow, has it been two years now? Great game Wastrel.

Thanks Nariel - I'm having a blast too :)

@Raquel - this probably wasn't as clear as it could have been so my bad, but the deadline you've been given is until the end of the current year, i.e. by 31 Kuthona (so just over 2 weeks from now).

Ah, I see. Definitely not happening. :P

And happy anniversary all! Looking forward to more antics as we keep rolling along.

Yeah, it's kind of intended that way, else we don't have much of a game :-)

"And then the heroes decided to give up and go home. The end." :P

In the words of one of the great bards, you have to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, and when to run...

Speaking of bards, we seem to have lost Tristan: his player hasn't posted in other threads for a while now. Given the current RL circs I'm willing to cut people a lot of slack, so if he does show up he's definitely welcome back.

But if he doesn't, what do people think? Happy to continue for now with the existing five, or would you want to move back to a 6-person group?

Pfoe, that's a tough question. I really do hope he's alright and simply (and figuratively!) drowning in RL responsibilities, but with all that's going on, you can't help but fear the worst.

I am fine with waiting for now, but you as a DM know best when there will be an opportune moment to introduce a new character slash player. I think Kingmaker is fine with bigger parties, but we can always incorporate Tristan as an NPC.

Combat is a lot easier to balance with a group of 4 or 5 players, so there's that.

I say continue on for now, and welcome him back if and when he returns.

Yup, no rush for now but wanted to get a gauge of what you thought.

Gonna see if anyone else wants to chip in on the gameplay thread before I move us along.

Yeah, let's just wait and see if Tristan makes his way back. Also, my knowledge nature roll is included here.

Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

Still here, just stuck in Ohio without internet.

I'll jump back in this weekend.

I'm making an assumption about who or what Ilthuliak is but given what race we're talking to here I don't think its a stretch.

A truly conniving character might use this opportunity to antagonize them and force a proper casus-belli so the kobolds could be removed. Oh, right, I'm playing a paladin!

Oddly enough my tabletop group had a similar thought (they were more into realpolitik than you guys) - play the kobolds off against the fey and wipe out the survivors.

My tabletop group is struggling with what to do with the Sootscale; lots of disagreement among themselves. I've designed them Sootscale as not entirely deplorable and even somewhat sympathetic by creating a splinter group from the clan that just wants to live peacefully and be left alone within the Stolen Lands ... decisions are much tougher when they're not so clear cut XD

All I can think of are completely not okay plans and schemes that reek of OG early modern era colonialism, Nariel, so I won't share them here, haha.

Good characters tend to drift towards benign plural societies, but true savage peoples will still clash with that. I suppose the difficulty lies in finding both the patience and the right angle to somehow incorporate savages (read: evil a-holes) into your kingdom in a way that doesn't involve either taking all of their left hands or putting them ten feet underground.

Perhaps helping the kobolds find their economical niche within the kingdom is the way to incorporate them into ours. If we facilitate their trade with the outside world, they can reap the rewards, and have little to no reason to go against us ... as long as we benefit *them*.

Sadly, that's where I think the exchange begins and ends. We need to benefit them.

If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that English doesn't have enough synonyms for "bad"

Post is up.

Hi all

I know posting has slowed down on my part, but I am still here and I am planning to continue with this game (I have plans, oh yes, I have plans). Raquel has posted in gameplay this week but I haven't heard from the rest of you.

If you're still around, could you let me know?

Hey Wastrel,

Sorry for the delay. I'm here, just had a busy week and haven't checked in. I'll get a post up shortly.

I'll check in tomorrow. I had a long week and I pretty much had to get through it running on fumes. Fun times.

Oh yeah, I know that feeling.

Just to be clear: I'm not trying to guilt people. I have had big lapses in posting myself, and the slowdown is my fault. I just want to know who is still around, and whether we have a viable game or not. If Raquel, Nariel and Aivar are still here, that's good enough.

been lax in checking the boards for new posts but I'm here.

No probs, Arianna - 2020 has done a number on most of us, I think. Glad you're still with us.

About our treasury: are we at 7 or are we at 19 after the kobold's gifts? I was looking through the stats hoping it would help me to figure out what to do next (barracks? mines? sit on the gold?), and I noticed that it might not be updated yet.

I figured I'd ask!

I'm really sorry, I thought I'd updated the kingdom sheet but clearly not. My bad.

You have 18 BP in the treasury, but the current Kingdom Turn is over. The next one will be in the New Year.

Also, in KM armies are crazy expensive (like in real life). Aivar is right that you can't afford them, but it's going to be difficult to hire mercenaries when your supposed enemy is the "Queen of the Fairies."

In metagame terms, we're too early into the campaign to have battles. This is something you guys sort through adventuring.

On which point, I will get us moving again later today. Sorry this game has slowed so much, it's entirely my fault.

No worries. The administrative side is a collective duty.

And for what it's worth, I'll try to be more pro-reactive in the future and attempt to push the story forwards where possible. I'm never quite sure when we get to do so as players, since KM seems very ... hrm, what's the right word, scene-based? And it isn't up to me to decide when the days go by, ha.

Yeah, the onus is definitely on me to move forward from one scene to the next. I just want to make sure that everyone who wants to has a chance to speak at a particular scene.

I'm here and ready to move on! Raquel has more shenanigans to engage in!

Absolutely, I will move us on this evening when I have more time/focus.

Sweet, we're back on! I'll post shortly in-game.

Also, in KM armies are crazy expensive (like in real life). Aivar is right that you can't afford them, but it's going to be difficult to hire mercenaries when your supposed enemy is the "Queen of the Fairies."

Holy cow, you're right. I just realized looking through the armies section of Ultimate Campaign that the upkeep cost is per week, and not per month... yikes! I would think that keeping a small militia at the ready shouldn't be that expensive, but c'est la vie.

The dukes of Burgundy started to professionalize their forces by maintaining a permanent body of mercenaries and guess what, the only way they could afford that was through centralizing the state apparatus so more taxies could be levied. Or, the taxes that were levied would go to the duke's coffins. The Burgundians really were the first and most notable of rulers to do so back in the 15th century.

This meant cutting out the middle man: local nobles who held judge positions (a good part of the fines they'd give out went to the judge), locally elected bishops and priests, and so on. Suffice to say, centralization brought about a fair bit of unrest. In a way, the Dutch revolt against the crown of Spain was the result of the former.

So yes, I'm not surprised that maintaining a standing army - even if they're nothing but bumpkins with a prodder and a codpiece - costs us an arm and a leg. And Aivar is quite fond of his limbs xD

But perhaps there's a lesson to be taken from the above: make sure the middle man is loyal to and dependent on us.

In metagame terms, we're too early into the campaign to have battles. This is something you guys sort through adventuring.

Thanks for saying this outright, I've had at least one experience on these boards when I missed some hints the GM dropped about how we were expected to proceed, it might seem like an odd line of comparison but I didn't pick up on the fact that we were supposed to make a deal for information with a Lovecraftian entity and got one of my party members killed, more or less, he ended up as a vegetable, and I left the game out of embarrassment soon after. I lost track of the genre of the game we were playing, which was starting to happen here.

@Arianna - no problem! I try to let things play out naturally, but this is an AP so there is a 'railroad' you're supposed to stay on. If I think you're getting too far outside the box I'll let you know :)

@Nariel: one important point is that "mobilised" armies cost per week. If you "store" them in a suitable building then the cost is per month. Still crazy-expensive, but peace is a lot cheaper than war!

EDIT: "garrison" is the word I was looking for.

Since Tristan’s player is still MIA, it would probably be best to have him stay here and supervise Raquel!

Yeah, Tristan will quietly become an NPC. You don't need to re-recruit for his kingdom role, as the Diplomat he will spend a lot of time away from home anyway.

Bah, I really hope Tristan is ok IRL. This year ... :(

I'm alive!

Arianna sighs at Raquel's low-born (or so she thinks) humour, but tolerates it because it's obvious that the Graf does. "If we are going to be in Restov for New Year, we should leave soon, Your Grace. And by soon, I mean today."

Gah. I meant Karinna, not Arianna - sorry if it looks like I was botting you there! I had a lapse of not keeping names straight. Sorry.

I'll get down to replying today. I had a pretty rough week that ended with good news, but the result is that my mind is pretty much empty and my whole being is in need of a battery recharge. My sister had a cancer scare that was backed by both her physician and the radiologist that did the scan, but the tests came back negative o/

Suffice to say, my mind wasn't quite 'there' to get into the nitty-gritty intrigue. Again, I hope everyone is managing to stay safe. Corona made a nasty comeback where I live, so I'll be acting like a hermit as much as I can -_-