DM Jesse's Kingmaker PbP (Inactive)

Game Master Jesse Heinig

Maybe we could homebrew something like that for some other upcoming massive investment? Waterfront, University, Cathedral, are the three big buildings that provide a lot of discounts to other buildings we might want to build.

Heck that's an interesting thought exercise. Which one of those things might we want to build towards?

Hello everyone! I'm Kat, and your DM has generously invited me to join your game! I've wanted to play Kingmaker for the longest time so I'm thrilled to be given the opportunity to join you all.

I have a few concepts in mind already and I'd be glad for any input you all could provide for what you would think would work best for your party.

I've a few other, more nebulous ideas floating around my noggin at the moment, but I'd like to hear back from you all before I think too hard on any one of them. If someone could let me know which leadership positions you all were looking to fill, that might help me narrow down some things, too. =)

I've done a quick update to the map and added a green border around the hex that you've claimed. Don't forget that if you want you can claim an adjacent explored hex. You may not want to yet (since it increases your kingdom's Size, it increases your Control DC, making it harder to do stuff) but eventually you will want to expand and make more farms & such.

I've also started filling in the calendar on the worksheet. The adventure technically started in Calistril (Feb.) of 4710. Our exploration & fighting enemies took about a month, so that accounts for Pharast (March). Then we cleared the Stag Lord's fort hex and did our very first kingdom turn for Gozran (April). That means after rescuing Jubilost and dealing with the upset dryad and nixie, the next kingdom turn is Desnus (May).

As far as BP goes, 17 might be correct - it was 27 to make the castle (you get it for half price because of the Stag Lord's fort), plus 1 to claim and clear the hex, so 50 - 28 = 22, which is... off by 5.

I'm not sure where the other 5 went. Maybe accounting error.

Cass, does Bob have an idea of where those other points might've been spent before the current turn? Holiday edicts, perhaps?

Welcome Kat! I think we're in dire need of a Ruler at the moment though we can leave that to the next recruit? Other than that martial and arcane is the requirement.

Desnus! That should be an important month for Jenya!

@KatGrey: Welcome to our little sideshow!

Our group is mostly chaotic or neutral good - the kingdom is also neutral good - so you are correct that a diabolist would probably not be a great fit.

A gathlain would be an unusual character to be sure, and given that Kingmaker has very strong threads of dealing with the faerie world, that might create some interesting conflicts. What role would you see this character occupying for the kingdom's management, if any?

The summoner would be a solid fit, with a lot of nature abilities for exploration and the ability to deal with faeries to some degree, though you might find that at high levels your spells aren't keeping up with the bad guys (the major problem being that if your spells never go above 6th level, your save DCs against foes never get that high). On the other hand, plant eidolons do have a lot of useful immunities.

@Cass: Did some digging, another 1 BP was spent on the Holiday edict (1 holiday), and 1 point of Consumption. So that would be 30 BP spent out of your starting 50, leaving you with 20 after your first month (+ whatever you got from your first Economy check). Still digging to make all the numbers add up.

Claim hex = 1
Castle = 27
Holiday = 1
Consumption (from size) = 1

EDIT: Here was the post where Cassie laid out the initial setup.

So there's another 2 in clearing the Stag Lord's hex, and 3 for a house. That would leave you at 15, + whatever's earned from the Economy roll.

Oleg's economy check for the first month:
Economy check: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (10) + 16 = 26

Divided by 3 is an extra 8 BP in the treasury.

Oleg's economy check for this new, current turn:
Economy check: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (10) + 16 = 26

Another 8 BP.

So it looks like:
Initial set-up:

Starting BP: 50

Minus:
Clear hex = 2 BP
Claim hex = 1 BP
Castle (half price) = 27 BP
House = 3 BP
Holiday edict = 1 BP
Size 1 kingdom consumption = 1 BP

Plus:
Economy = +8 BP

END INITIAL TURN WITH: 23 BP

This turn:
Minus:
Size 1 kingdom consumption = 1 BP
Holiday edict = 1 BP
Smithy = 6 BP
Farm = 4 BP
Fishery = 4 BP

Plus:
Economy = +8 BP

END SECOND TURN WITH: 15 BP

If you want to claim that hex to one side then that also costs some.

And finally, NPCing it up:

Stability check from Alexei: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (8) + 20 = 28 No problem.

14 BP. The successful Stability check nets us 1 BP because unrest is 0. I'd like to prepare but not claim the next hex. Preparation costs 2 BP and takes a month. Claiming would increase size, consumption, and Control DC. Don't want to do that if we don't have too.

Average 9 BP a turn then. Not bad. Expansion will be slow though. Probably a hex every 3 or 4 turns. Have to save up to prepare the hex, claim the hex, and build a farm and road. Probably want to keep 5-10 BP in reserve.

Also 1 BP spent on that promotion edict, which I forgot about, to avoid the penalty. So that leaves you with 13 at the end of the month, and the hex nearby cleared.

Welcome Kat. Technically we have no martial or arcane "requirement" but those would be appreciated to cover our asses. He lost the front-liner and magical blaster. A really like the gathlain because of the fey's influence in this campaign and though I haven't heard of the race they sound interesting. After the conversation with Terresia, she'd be a good fit. The summoner would definitely be versatile and possibly shore up the missing roles. Both have nature influence and would fight the area and group.

If we are looking to fill in the ruler role, I don't think either would work. Summoner has great charisma but I think background will be important here. We can't hand the role over to just anyone that walks in. We might need someone similar to Carinna. A charismatic swordlord or swashbuckler from one of the schools in Restov. Or a member from one of the allied or neutral houses.

We can always ask our second recruit to take on the Ruler job, of course. But you should have some role that you can fill - a kingdom has 11 different positions, it's a good idea to make sure that every character can do something.

Jenya:

The part at the bottom of my profile mentions Cassandra and three of her friends (one also being her brother) joined the four ventures headed for the Stolenlands. Each trying to find a new home for their village of redeemed monsters. Many are full blood and inflicted lycan. The DM's message caught me off guard. (confederate through me off) I thought it was a message from Maegar Varn and part of book 2 or something. When I realized it was from home I ran with it and assigned Christian to the east. Haven't assigned the other two yet.

Anyway this:

Cassandra was committed to finding a safe place for all of her peoples.

is not common knowledge to anyone in the party yet. At least I am pretty sure Cassandra has never let it slip. This is the first time she's mentioned a brother too, I think. She fully intends to keep it a secret until the move is actually decided and underway. Especially after the werewolf incident.

Maegar Varn's expedition is technically part of book 3, but since one of Cassie's friends ("confederates") slipped into that group, it seemed like a good chance to lay the groundwork for stuff you'll deal with later. But, the fact that Cassie has friends/family in the various other groups is not widely known.

Edited just in time! I was thrown off by a some of Cassandra's internal monologues I think.

Is this confirmation the move is going to the Nomen Heights or just an update from one of the "confederates"? I re-read it and it sounds like it could go either way.

This is just a status update.

Thanks. Also sorry for the Confusion Jenya. She doesn't have a lot to say...most of the time, so I shove a lot into internal thought.

Don't know if you saw this but...

Would it be okay for Cassandra to explore the last few hexes over those three weeks? She could take along Akiros, Kesten, and Ranlin. Plenty of firepower if anything pops up.

If not, can we do like, recruiting to fill in Kingdom roles? There are a lot of people not too keen on keeping their positions. Oleg and Svetlana for instance.

I don't know if exploring with NPCs is the best idea. It's where a lot of the adventuring happens in Kingmaker.

Yeah, hexploration tends to come with encounters. Best to have the party - but getting those hexes mapped is a great goal for this month, so that you can have a complete explored map of the starting area.

I'm gonna look at my short list of people who might make a good contributing addition to the group and send an invite today.

Thanks for the feedback so far! As far as Kingdom roles are concerned, I didn't have the Ruler position in mind for either of the concepts. The gathlain I imagined in the role of Magister, although Grand Diplomat would be a better fit for her personality; that and having the point person between an up-and-coming human kingdom and the Fey being a fey, I think, would be neat. But eventually I'm guessing she would also have to establish contact with human settlements, too, and I'm also guessing that that wouldn't go over so well. Correct me if I'm mistaken.

The summoner I originally saw as a Councilor, but I think I could also swing High Priest (if we want the official religion to have a very nature-y vibe). She would be from House Medvyed, if that makes any difference in her viability as a potential Ruler. Would the Swordlords entrust the governing of their... vassal state(?) to a woman who's been "marked by the Fey"? Might have to think of a different background otherwise if the other player doesn't care for being the Ruler.

Lots to think about.

Incidentally, since Alexei is leaving, Auric will be going with him, but you could put Ralan in the Royal Enforcer role if you like (he is an exceptional NPC, after all).

For Kat's character ideas, you could put the gathlain into your diplomat role to release Vallen from that, or your Summoner could do Magister or Councilor since our former arcanist is moving into the background.

For our new recruits, keep in mind:

• You should get along with the Neutral Good kingdom, and be able to get along with humanity (since most of the kingdom is human people).
• Our party is predominantly Good, leaning between Neutral Good and Chaotic Good.
• You should consider the role you'll fill in the kingdom as well as the role you'll have in the party.

Some other thoughts:

• I'm usually ok with characters who are slightly off the beaten path, as long as you can get along with humans (since you will have to deal with them a lot). When we started, one of our initial players played a strix. Along those lines, you could potentially play an elemental-touched (oread, sylph, ifrit, undine), an aasimar or tiefling, an android (the Stolen Lands share a border with Numeria), a centaur, possibly even a drow or a dhampir. The more you can "fit in" the better. Many of these unusual character types do have potential backgrounds that can blend with this adventure, such as an android who has left Numeria to make a fortune next door, or a centaur from the Nomen Heights who is working to encourage treaty relations with humanity.
• Yes, you can take the Leadership feat or related feats (such as Torchbearer, Recruits, or Squire), once you reach the appropriate level, and yes, those characters can fill kingdom roles. I would prefer not to have an NPC Ruler because then I'm just making the kingdom decisions for you and that's no fun.
• Note that the Kingdom Building rules got a patch that plugged the exploit of making magic items for cash. (If you read old guides for the Kingdom Building system, they all tell you to use this exploit, but nobody bothers updating guides once the rules get patched.)
• Yes, you can take item creation feats. If you want to make magic gear for the party, great.

Basic stats are 20 point buy and wealth by level for a 4th-level character. We use Background Skills, and you may use Variant Multiclassing if you wish. Occult classes are allowed and occult skill unlocks are in play if you have the appropriate requirements.

Just an FYI I'm planning on Vallen taking magic item creation feat, starting next level with Craft Wondrous Item, then Craft Magic Arms and Armor, and then probably he'll start making golems around level 9. Not that it should stop anyone from taking item creation feats (we could still use someone making wands,rods, staffs, etc), I just wanted to warn of potential overlap.

Hrm, maybe we can be pretty specific for our last recruit then? High Cha Frontliner type?

Sick! I will try to post Friday but most probably resume on Monday

Sorry to hear that, Jenya! I hope you're feeling better soon!

I've settled on the gathlain arcanist concept. Her character sheet has been updated; suggestions, comments and criticisms are welcome. All that's left is to spend a bit more of her starting wealth (probably pay for a few spells to be copied into her spellbook) and write out her backstory and I think she'll be all set.

Thanks for your patience!

Hrm, maybe we can be pretty specific for our last recruit then? High Cha Frontliner type?

You rang? ;)

Greetings everyone, I'm another of DM Jesse Heinig's new recruits; I'll see what I can do for filling in that Ruler role (but you probably wouldn't want me to ever be the Treasurer though...); is there a specific type of leaderly type that the kingdom would have need of?

Of course, I will definitely run by any character concepts for everyone in this thread to choose from once I've come up with them. I do have the unfortunate habit of stacking any archetypes if I'm able to do so... but I can tone that down upon request.

Nice to have a full roster again.

Hello new friends!

Cool character Ilystria. Vallen will be very pleased if you can take the Head Diplomat position from him! Not sure how the GM feels about flying characters, but we're getting up in levels and will have access to flying magic soon enough anyway.

Hi Here, I don't think were looking for any specific leader type. Everyone has their own agendas, but we can all agree our characters are looking to make the land a better place for people to live.

Hey h4dafs! (hope you don't mind me shortening your alias!).

I think NG type or at least leaning that way would be the only advice I would have other than being good at Leadership rolls!

Specific type? No? Just someone hopefully open minded. Hate to force you into a role but we don't really need a high charisma character, just decent. Our kingdom stability is nuts. I think we'd prefer a front liner but we've been getting by pretty good. Paladin, cavalier, swashbuckler, fighting focused oracle? I care more about background than party build. I figured a scion of one of the houses allied to Restov or a student from one of the swordlords.

Thank you for your various inputs on the ruler type/background/alignment and class advice, Vallen, Jenya, and Cassandra. :)

Likewise, no worries on the shortening of my screen-name, Jenya and Vallen. ;)

I take it that the kingdom is not currently in any stable state? (No... really, Milani, we honestly aren't all that bad!)

Could be a good enough reason for Brevoy to send somebody that they would consider trustworthy over to help out though; additionally, I suspect that Hellknight involvement would never fly with the kingdom's citizens or their local fey/non-human neighbors.

Mechanically it's really stable as we haven't expanded. Fluff wise, yeah, it's barely an outpost with no one of Brevic authority.

(Really fancy castle though)

Ilystria: Cursory glance. What is a Collegiate Initiate anyway? Couldn't find it on the PFSRD. Your spells prepared don't match your spells known.

Here: I personally would love to see a Hellknight attempt to, like subtly try to insinuate the order's beliefs into the kingdom. Maybe hide the fact they are a Hellknight, or at least work for them, and try to slowly shift laws in their favor. Secretly try to bring order to the realm. But if it ever got out, we'd be the enemy of the entire River Kingdoms area. They are big on freedom and staunch supporters of anti-slavery. Considering the the Order of the Chains within the Hellknights, bad idea.

You bring up a point about stability though. We've been playing it as not being stable but the numbers says it very much is so. I think we got a sort of small town feel going on right now in the background where people are just generally nice and friendly since they're all starting fresh. Still playing fast and loose with the leadership roles but I guess people are just rolling with it.

Vallen Thanks! Ilystria will be glad to take over the duties of Grand Diplomat (or Head Diplomat or First Diplomat or what have you). Once she learns that those duties basically entail making friends with strangers, I think you all will be her new favorite peeps. As for the flying, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker to me if DM Jesse would rather not have a character with a fly speed. But wasn't there a strix that came before me?

Cassandra It won't be on Paizo's PRD if that's where you were looking. The archetype came out in the Adventurer's Guide, I believe. But it is here on the d20pfsrd site. It's also known as the Magaambyan Initiate. As for the spell confusion, as I understand it the druid spells the Collegiate Initiate selects through the Halcyon Spell Lore feature are added to her list of prepared spells but not to her spellbook. The stat block for the Magaambyan Arcanist in the Inner Sea NPC Codex seems to confirm that. No biggie if I'm misunderstanding it, though. I'll just have to buy more spell books.

Hi Here4dFS! I don't know if I've been here long enough to say "welcome", but welcome!

How goes the characters, new friends?

Well, I have Ilystria's new backstory all thought out! But good old fibro fog rolled in over the weekend so putting those thoughts into words has been a challenge. Only managed to write the first paragraph so far. =/

I might just end up grinding out what I can and coming back to pretty up the prose later when I can think straight again.

Vallen beat me to it! I'd like to get rolling again as soon as possible, so even if your character is in a partial state, do chime in so we can get a move on! :D

Hi Here4dFS! I don't know if I've been here long enough to say "welcome", but welcome!

Why thank you, Ilystria, for that welcome and don't you worry none, if this were a cheesy school anime, you'd still qualify as being my senpai/upper classmate- along with Cassandra, Jenya, and Vallen; Except for DM Jesse Heinig though... he'd have to be the Sensei/Teacher instead. ;)

Jenya P. wrote:

Mechanically it's really stable as we haven't expanded. Fluff wise, yeah, it's barely an outpost with no one of Brevic authority.

(Really fancy castle though)

Cassandra Lupin wrote:

Here: I personally would love to see a Hellknight attempt to, like subtly try to insinuate the order's beliefs into the kingdom. Maybe hide the fact they are a Hellknight, or at least work for them, and try to slowly shift laws in their favor. Secretly try to bring order to the realm. But if it ever got out, we'd be the enemy of the entire River Kingdoms area. They are big on freedom and staunch supporters of anti-slavery. Considering the the Order of the Chains within the Hellknights, bad idea.

You bring up a point about stability though. We've been playing it as not being stable but the numbers says it very much is so. I think we got a sort of small town feel going on right now in the background where people are just generally nice and friendly since they're all starting fresh. Still playing fast and loose with the leadership roles but I guess people are just rolling with it.

Thank you again, Cassandra, Jenya; those points were pretty helpful; admittedly, I've not started looking over any of the past previous posts yet (still gotta sign up with Roll20 too)... ;)

Vallen Silverclasp wrote:

How goes the characters, new friends?

DM Jesse Heinig wrote:

Vallen beat me to it! I'd like to get rolling again as soon as possible, so even if your character is in a partial state, do chime in so we can get a move on! :D

Heh, guess now it'd be a good time as any to roll out my prospective character proposal...

Elevator Pitch: A man who is constantly cursed/fated to sleep and forget about everything that ever he was... for all of eternity.

Since DM Jesse Heinig bought up Android as a suitable race, I thought to myself, Why not? Admittedly, Androids do have that pesky Cha penalty to deal with but the idea of a seemingly immortal (in the corporeal aging sense) "man" who ends up having to relearn his "life" every century seemed like a neat hook; especially if there are those out there (Elves, Undead, or Dragons, as an example) who are old enough to remember him from his "past life" because he doesn't physically change like a Samsaran does. This concept could work with a regular Human though; in such a case, his family resemblance to his ancestors, while being remarkably very close to identical, is merely coincidental.

For this male character's name, I was thinking of going with Brevnic Zharatov but that's not entirely set into stone. For alternate names, I was also thinking of something along the lines of either "Vladric" or "Vladomar" with the first name and "Vladovar" or "Zharakov" for the last names instead. Obviously, I won't be using the first and last names with identical starting letter but I do envision the character looking very similar to Henry(?) Cavill in the recent DC cinema universe.

For the general gist of Brevnic's background, I was thinking something along the lines of a mash-up between Batman and King Syndicates' Phantom; our Android has a small cadre of loyal servants (maybe an "Alfred" analogue? perhaps even immortal like an Elan or Vampire?) that bring him up to speed on some of his more non-secret past deeds and trying to keep him constantly learning to use an Aldori dueling sword. Of course, Brevnic still considers himself to be human, even if he actually isn't.

Now classwise, I'm going to have Brevnic go with alternating between the Level 2 Bloodrager and the Level 2 Vigilante classes but with some likely dipping into something like Cavalier/Swashbuckler or the Noble Scion Prestige Class as well.

With the Vigilante class, I'll be using the combined Archetypes of Dragonscale Loyalist and Faceless Enforcer; which means that he'll be straddling the line between Aldori Swordlord and Hell Knight; something like Nolan's Batman Trilogy with Bruce Wayne using the "skills" of the League of Assassins for a better cause. It is also possible that the acting Regent of Brevoy has been looking to the Hellknights as form of official peacekeepers since the Aldori Swordlords have officially stayed neutral.

As for the Bloodrager class, instead of being yet another type of Arcane caster, I'll have him go with Psychic spellcasting with the combined Archetypes of Id Rager, Urban Bloodrager, and Ancestral Harbinger. For the Ancestral Harbinger part, I was thinking that Brevnic will eventually be able to summon up aspects of his "former lives" (they ultimately might end up taking to a form not all the dissimilar to the Star Wars universe's "Force Ghosts") as he goes up in Bloodrager levels.

The stats for Brevnic, as it stands, may end up looking like: Str 14/Dex 14/Con 13 that goes up to 14 by 4th level/Int 10/Wis 12/Cha 14.

In terms of the character feats, I've chosen to go with Empathy and Eldritch Heritage: Psychic bloodline. For the traits, I'll be using Mock Gladiator: Aldori Dueling Sword (Social) and Sword Scion (Kingmaker Campaign).

Of course, I will be open to any suggestions from my "senpais" and "sensei" if there's changes to be made...

That's a heck of a build. Too complicated for me to get my head around. How would he do as a frontliner? And fluff wise as the leader of a NG kingdom?

Retinue of Immortal servants is a concept that's a bit out there I think personally.

An Android that periodically forgets who he is with an immortal butler to help remind him? And three classes with five archetypes?

I agree with Jenya. Sounds like your trying to equate character depth with complexity and that's not how it works.

I think the DM needs to weigh in because I am not sure how much drama he's willing to inject into this. Installing someone associated with the Hellknights (who are a really long way away) as ruler is a really heavy-handed power play. If he says it is they I say forgoe building someone to fill in for ruler and build what you want. We can figure something out.

DM: I don't think you addressed it but as part of down time, can we attempt to recruit random NPC's as leaders?

Is Bob a leader? Bob has to be a leader! I nominate Bob for Treasurer.

I never gave Bob stats. He was just an outlet for my interest in the kingmaker rules.

Okay, Ilystria's crunch is all finished. The gist of the backstory until I can properly put it into coherent sentences is:

That's as far as I've gotten so far. As far as hooks (to the party), I'm not sure if you've got that covered DM Jesse or if we should be thinking of ones, but I've been trying to come up with some. The most obvious (to me) is that Lily's met Tiressa at some point and the dryad convinces her to seek out the heroes for some as yet thought out reason.

I like the last part. The first part not so much. How is it a tiny, little Gathlain met the leaders of the fey courts? And tutored by the Lantern King himself? Terrified what machinations he's set in place by doing that.

Even if the Elder Fey don't grant audiences to the public like I had envisioned, there should be someone in a position analogous to a High Steward she would have been able to petition to. And The Lantern King is my favorite part! Are you worried that it strains credulity having him tutor her?

Mild spoiler: The Fey play a major part in this campaign if run by the book. So the we have the same problem as with Here's character. Huge potential for drama that the DM will likely have to account for. From what I read of the Lantern King, training Ilystria would not be a whim. He's a trickster god capable of playing the long game. Ilystria is now a wild card in the wildest sense.

I like the idea too. Great character for recruitment. Tougher to throw into the middle of the game. Also timed to join the rulers of a new country. No way that's not a nefarious play on his part. I'd have something a little simpler as a back up.

EDIT: I might be being overly critical here. Sorry. This is one of my longest running games and I want to continue in the interesting and fun way it has since the beginning.