A kingdom in the wilderness (Inactive)

Game Master nightdeath

Discussion thread for the players from group 1

Dalgar
Sirsi
Kearen
Josef
Magnus

Please leave this thread for these people. I'll be posting OoC comments and information here, and also this is the place for you to ask questions or make comments on the game.

Good to be here! I look forward to a long period of gaming with you all!

As do I! This promises to be a great deal of fun!

Hello Everyone! Good to be here!

Does anyone else keep thinking about cheese?

Dalgar Reporting in.
We seem a fairly balanced team but the brawn...oh the brawn.
We're all rather high in the physical departments.

We're just waitin on Sirsi and Kazz I think. Josef is in the other thread.

Just Sirsi actually, I've been here all along mate.

And yeah, our party has a lot of front liners. We'll certainly get our money's worth from Inspire Courage if nothing else!

Whoops sorry.

Are we all here?

Two Skinwalkers! and a Fetchling! Ha! I'm beginning to feel the odd one out!

Aww Shucks. We're not that bad........

Just waiting for Sirsi to sign on, then I'll start off

Hmm I'll PM Sirsi......

"You have a problem with the Kayal, Knight?"

Sorry, took a look for the thread and didn't see it, thought it was waiting until Friday reading the other one!

Here now.

"Hey, watch the slurs. Let's all get along now. Or do I need to crack your thick skulls together to make you play nice?"

Okay. I have a few things I want to agree on before we truly start.

First off, a few people in this group are not a hundred percent done with their character. Can you please have this done before the weekend?

Second. Posting rules. I'm not going to enforce a strict posting order, but please try to watch that everyone gets to do their part. Different timezones, jobs, real life there are many reasons people might not respond for a few hours, maybe a day, and nothing demotivates like coming back after sleeping and finding a hundred posts you need to go through.

Third. Conversely, don't let other players wait for no reasons. Of course real life comes first, but it takes a few seconds to send a pm to me, and I'll post some my other contact details at the end of this post.
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Now as some of you know, Kingmaker is an adventure path, and like the other adventure paths has 6 books detailing an adventure designed to take you from level 1 through to well above level 15. But unlike the other adventure paths, this isn't just about killing the monsters, looting the treasure, and leveling....

Kingmaker lets your character taste of true power. The power of governing a kingdom. And not just any kingdom, but a kingdom, you as a group will build up yourself, from a tiny little hamlet to a sprawling realm containing tens or even hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.

This new power comes with new dangers though. Where normal adventures deal with the occasional orc band or dragon, you will have to deal with invading armies, rebellion, betrayal from within and without.
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I will make a separate post detailing the kingdom building rules later. As said earlier I will use the rules from ultimate campaign instead of those from Kingmaker. The differences are relatively small, but it is more balanced and more expansive. For those of you unfamiliar with the rules. kingdom rules

A few rules I want to point out you might want to consider.

1) As you've seen on the character sheets I send you when your character was completed I use numerical alignment, meaning that I track your character's moral on a scale. Once you cross a border I will enforce an alignment change.

2) I use two optional rules from the kingdom building list. One is from deities and holy sites. Holy sites give bonus based on their alignment. And the other rule is the leadership role skills rule. Both can be found in the link above.

That was it from me for now. Any questions, please ask them here. If you wish to ask in private PM me, or use the options below:

Yahoo messenger: katataban
Skype: katataban

Hmmm... Just to Sum up. My 2 coppers.

Sirsi - CG Bard 18 Cha. 14 Dex, 14 Int
Kearan - NG Fighter 18 Str. 15 con 14 Dex
Kazz - LN Summoner Dex 18. 16 Cha 14 Str
Magnus - LG Cha 17. 16 Str 14 Con
Dalgar - NG Str 17. 15 Con 14 Wis (I sux. lol)

Ruler - Cha
Consort - 1/2 Cha (Not really applicable to us)
Councilor - Cha/Wis
General - Cha/Str
Grand Diplomat - Cha/Int
Heir - 1/2 Cha (Not really applicable to us)
High Priest - Cha/Wis
Magister - Cha/Int
Marshal - Dex/Wis
Royal Enforcer - Dex/Str
Spymaster - Dex/Int
Treasurer - Int/Wis
Viceroy - 1/2 Int/ 1/2 Wis
Warden - Con/Str

lol Our kingdom gonna likely end up as some martial kingdom.
Alignment looks to be 'good' & 'Neutral'

The party happens to be more Lawfully inclined than Chaotic, as the sole representative of the Chaotic faction, I'm happy to be part of a lawful kingdom.

I have not read up on Kingdom Building or played Kingmaker before, so I'll read up on the rules now.

Finally I'm based in the UK, so I may end up posting at odd times relatively speaking, apologies for that.

Regarding role, I think I'll be looking towards either Diplomat or Spymaster, though as a generalist I'll fill whatever role needs filling.

Getting a feel for the rules is a good idea but I wouldn't worry about poring over the kingdom rules just yet. As I understand it we won't really start needing them until the second book and that's months away.

Diplomat was my initial leaning as well. It's a ways away yet but I suppose one of us will just have to settle for being in charge of our little scrap of land :P

The rules are far more in-depth than I expected! I'll have to give them a thorough reading at some point. As for roles, I expect Kearan will aim for Warden if he takes on a position, perhaps Royal Enforcer instead (as it focuses more on the hinterlands). He'll leave General to the more war-minded folk... like his brother. Or the paladin.

"You have a problem with the Kayal, Knight?"

"I don't think so. Why, do you? Is it some kind of exotic disease?"

Magnus would probably be suited to General or possibly ruler, though I think we should just wait and see what happens.

As the majority of us are Lawful and the majority Good, I presume we will have a Lawful Good Kingdom? Any objections?

"I don't think so. Why, do you? Is it some kind of exotic disease?"

"I, am a Kayal. Fetchling is a word for the ignorant, please try to keep that in mind."

I'm all for the lawful part but 2/5 is a strange looking majority my friend :P

Given our uncommon Races, I'm leaning towards the neutral side. Good is always good. As for alignments, I count 4 Good and 3 Neutral. :p

My bad. Neutral Good would seem to be a better choice. IIRC that gives +2 Loyalty, +2 Stability and +2 Economy. Nicely rounded.

Neutral good isn't a bad choice. Though I worry about our economy as we only get +2 Stability and +2 Loyalty from the deal. Guess we'll just have to spend wisely!

Dalgar, I'm curious. Why would our races favor Neutrality? Law isn't inherently racist...just certain overzealous types.

Well, I view it that Chaotic incorporates Freedom, including the freedom to be any race, whereas Lawful tends to be too centred on a humanocentric theme to be inherently welcoming to other races.

Think of it this way: 1950's Britain was a lawful society that, while it did not discriminate on the basis of race in Law, it did in society (largely through ignorance). This is typical of a lawful society, where acceptance comes slowly. An analysis of American society at the time would probably give you a similar result.

Chaotic society, on the other hand, is used to change and changes quickly. They will freely accept new and different, including new and different races.

Britain is a good example to be sure but I don't think one necessarily means the other. A lawful society might be more inclined to xenophobia but there's no reason it has to be that way. Plenty of ways to create a heavily structured society that is also a proverbial melting pot.

That said neutrality will likely do more to ingratiate us with the surrounding River Kingdoms.

Dalgar, I'm curious. Why would our races favor Neutrality? Law isn't inherently racist...just certain overzealous types.

That's it. I rather not have to deal with the over zealous as I think I'd like a kingdom which is accepting to all and known to be as neutral as possible where evil and good can mingle freely without the normal strictures that bind them.

It's nothing to do with races but the more uncommon ones do not always have to hide.

Well I'm more than happy with the idea of striking a balance between good and evil. Luckily we have lots of time to sort it out. I think we should wait to see what sort of a record we have once we get that far.

I agree with that. Knowing my luck I might have incurred the wrath of several promient people.

Well, I'm committed to Lawful Good, but I prefer to lead by example.

Are you still there Katataban? Something come up in your personal life?

Sorry bout that. The campaign tab didn't show any reactions since my last post, was about to ask what happened, then saw the posts. Well lesson learned, won't happen again.

No worries, glad to have you back!

OK, there are a few ways we can do this; we can get Oleg to greet the bandits as before, then close the gate on them, while I ride out and surprise them. The problem I have with that is that it put's Oleg at risk. Alternatively, one of us can greet them. That runs the risk of them getting cold feet and returning with reinforcements (I don't think it likely, but feel it needs to be said). The third option is to have no-one greet them. They should come in looking for Oleg, then we can ambush them. That would be my preferred option; does anyone have any different ideas?

Personally I'd suggest the first option. The danger to Oleg is minimal provided he keeps his distance initially and we move before the bandits close with him.
The third option comes with the worry that they check the wrong place first, say the walkway and find Dalgar with the rest of us out of position.
I'd be willing to go with it though, if the rest of you would prefer option three.

One of us can be the 'porter' loading supplies on to the cart then the rest of us can ambush them. The ebst stealthy one amongs us could take on the gates. We could use the covers or set up the gates to close with a rope or something.

I like the porter idea, I'd suggest Kearan for that job. As far as most stealthy, I'd imagine that would be me.

My initial thought was to simply have someone hiding behind each of the doors and swing them shut as soon as the bandits enter the fort. Just something to consider.

I think the porter idea would be great--Kearan's handy with his fists, and if he can get his axe as one of the loaded items, he'd have that as well. Slamming the doors is important, so having someone on either side to do that would be great. Maybe Oleg helps with that and then gets away from the thick of things, Dalgar shuts the other door, Magnus charges from wherever, and Kazz and Sirsi come out sneak-like.

Oleg should really be there to meet the bandits, keep their suspicions low. As a possible solution, Ammanas could close the doors with Dalgar. Provided they are well balanced enough for him to manage one side on his own? I would assume so but it's it's probably a good idea to check.

Good thing we have until sunset, then!

or is it sunrise?

I like the plan we're coming out so far. Shall we start working on it?

it's sunrise. sorry about that.

Happens to the best of us.

Now seems like an opportune time to ask you about your preferences for handling combat.
How do you handle initiative, posting order, ect.?
Are there any specific ways you would like us to format our combat posts?

I prefer to roll initiative then afterwards people can post. I prefer posting in order, but since that can slow down combat people can just post their actions and I'll do a write up afterwards.

Ok, one thing I have found really helps keep things ordered and moving along quickly is doing initiative in blocks.

For instance, if you rolled initiative and our order looked like this :
Dalgar
Sirsi
Kazz
Bandit Leader
Magnus
Kearan
Bandits

You would then say that Block 1 was up. This would include all those who go before the first enemy (Dalgar, Sirsi, Kazz).
Actions for Block 1 would resolve in the order they were posted.
Once Block 1 has gone, you post for the bandit leader and declare Block 2 is up (Magnus, Kearan). Once they have posted you put up the Bandits actions and Block 1 is up again. So on and so forth.

Doing things this way seems to work at least as fast as just having everyone post and doing a writeup. The main advantage is that it's much easier for everyone to keep track of the progression of combat and not have to worry about how other's actions might alter their plans without overly slowing things down.

Just an idea to consider.

It occurs to me we'll also need to find a picture for Ammanas.

oh yes. good point

Love Mjolnir's icon, but shouldn't the Horses (including Mjolnir) be 5' x 10', not 10' x 10'?