DM Talomyr's Kingmaker

Game Master Talomyr

I'm good with continuing once we begin again. If we don't start back up, it's been a lovely experience with you all.

Awww lost my sister booooo!

I would also be down to picking up again after a pause!

Alright, it appears that there is at least a bit of interest in resuming following a hiatus, so once things calm down a bit, I'll make another post in this thread to see if that is still the case at that time.

Alright, back for a bit of an update. Things are starting to ease up a bit, but not quite there yet.

I know the timing sucks from an availability stand point for some, but I feel that I would be able to restart the game December 10th (give or take a week) if everyone/enough people were interested.

Let me know what you all think.

Sounds fine with me!

Should be able to post then. I'll let you know if that changes.

I’ll be here :)

I'm back if you'll have me. Still need to catch up.

Alright, we're getting close to the restart of the game (I intend to make the first post on Friday). I've spoken with Kalaman's player, and he is interested in resuming. I'll talk to Garethane's player on Saturday to confirm his level of interest.

Celebeth, Rhiannon, Tove, and Terri: You all still interested?

Still here! Sad about my missing sister though. :(

still here and willing. :)

Still here.

Yep, still here :)

And we're back. Thank you all for sticking with this and coming back after my lengthy absence.

I have spoken with both Garethane and Kalaman and expect both of them back.

According to the Kingdom tracker template, Rhiannon and Terri do not currently have positions in the kingdom.

If people are willing, I would recommend:

* Move Celebeth to Spymistress.
* Give Terri the role of Grand Diplomat, since she's more charismatic.
* Celebeth has the Recruits feat, meaning she has a pair of rando NPCs to help out, and by the writing of the feat, they can do downtime management. I'll write them up (subject to the GM's approval, of course) and we can have one in the position of Councilor.
* I don't know who Celeste Naevirion is, but if she's no longer with us, Rhiannon can take over as Grand General. EDIT: Her backstory is here, it sounds like she is unlikely to have moved on.

That just leaves us without a Royal Enforcer, and we will need someone to take over as Treasurer when Oleg leaves, which can presumably be another recruit from Celebeth's entourage.

I think Celeste is Tove's sort-of girlfriend. I'm currently the Royal Enforcer but probably hasn't been updated. Though if it was available I wouldn't be opposed to General either

Ok, whatever works! I'm not saying anyone has to move, just the openings that we have will determine how I deploy my Recruits. :)

Grand Diplomat is fine with me!

That sounds pretty good to me, but yes please don’t kick Celeste out, she’s definitely still around, haha.

I've written up a pair of recruits for Celebeth, using the rules for making such NPCs. Subject to GM approval, of course!

Turcáno is an elven magus (armored battlemage) and a distant relative (uncle twice removed or something?) of Celebeth's. He's rash and tends to get himself into trouble. He's built to off-tank, as his AC will improve when he gains a couple of levels.

Meridian is a human witch (hedge witch, hex channeler) who grew up in the same town as Azen. She is geared primarily for support healing and the occasional utility spell. She can make healing and support potions!

With these in mind I suggest:
* Celebeth moves to Spymistress, as mentioned before.
* Terri takes Grand Diplomat.
* Celeste stays Grand General.
* Rhiannon takes Royal Enforcer.
* Turcáno takes Treasurer (and Oleg gets his life back).
* Meridian takes Councilor.

You can find a link to Celebeth's recruits here, and it's also on her sheet and in her stat bar. Both were made with the standard NPC rules: heroic NPC array, level 1 heroic NPC starting wealth, no traits (only PCs get those). Celebeth gains another recruit at every even-numbered level!

Sounds good to me!

Oleg will certainly be happy!
That sounds great :)

Those NPC's work for me. Just one question Celebeth. How shall you be exerting your influence as Spymistress? Economy, Stability, or Loyalty?

And yes, Oleg will be happy.

Next order of business - Do you want to knock out another month of Kingdom building or would you like to resume your hunt for the Hodag?

Of course, anything else is on the table too, just let me know where you'd like to go.

Howdy, everybody. After spending a good part of the weekend exploring the Outer Banks, I'm back in the land of the internets. I now have knowledge of Kitty Hawk and the brothers Wright.

Thanks for doing the extra homework, Celebeth.

My vote is for a Hodag hunt. Garethane's vote will almost always be for a hunt, just sayin'.

Given the in-game issue of the impact eliminating the hodag sooner rather than later will have on the people (our leaders heard us and acted swiftly), we should probably complete the hunt, followed by Kingdom building.

Agreed, I think getting back into the cadence of adventuring is a good idea, let's go hodag hunting and then we can do some paperwork!

All for the hunt!

HUNT!

I'll let this play out with Turcáno's introduction before resuming the hunt. Jesse, you want to respond as Turcáno, or would you like me too?
Also, do you intend to introduce Meridian here, or later?

Since Turcáno and Meridian are NPCs, they are always yours to control if you want; but I realize that having extra characters is putting extra burden on the DM, so I'm happy to play them out. I try to use cohorts responsibly and play them as people with their own lives and goals. :)

Meridian will pop up later.

I'll go ahead and make the introductions, but at any time if you feel like "No, that character wouldn't do that, it's obviously against their self-interest" or whatnot, feel free to step in.

That sounds perfect, plus it will give me a feel for the "voice" of the characters in question for when I need to play them later.

Sorry all, been busy the past several days and haven't had a chance to sit down and post. I'll try to catch up over the long weekend coming up. Boot as needed until then.

Sorry for my absence there, I blinked and apparently 10 days passed by. Sixty+ hour weeks, amirite?

Yay! All of our player's have posted again.

Sorry about the 60+ hour weeks.

Apologies to all if I mess a few rules up here and there, this is first bit of Pathfinder I've played since the hiatus.

Those NPC's work for me. Just one question Celebeth. How shall you be exerting your influence as Spymistress? Economy, Stability, or Loyalty?

Stability, the most important quality for an early kingdom.

Still alive. Cold's kicking my butt. Will post when able.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep botting you in the meantime.

Let's handle the Kingdom building stuff over here as it purely mechanical.

Kingdom Turn Sequence
A kingdom's growth occurs during four phases, which together make up 1 kingdom turn (1 month of game time). The four phases are as follows:

Phase 1—Upkeep: Check your kingdom's stability, pay costs, and deal with Unrest. If your kingdom controls 0 hexes, skip the Upkeep phase and proceed to the Edict phase.

Phase 2—Edict: Declare official proclamations about taxes, diplomacy, and other kingdom-wide decisions.

Phase 3—Income: Add to your Treasury by collecting taxes and converting gp into BP, or withdraw BP from your kingdom for your personal use.

Phase 4—Event: Check whether any unusual events occur that require attention. Some are beneficial, such as an economic boom, good weather, or the discovery of remarkable treasure. Others are detrimental, such as foul weather, a plague, or a rampaging monster.

These phases are always undertaken in the above order. Many steps allow you to perform an action once per kingdom turn; this means once for the entire kingdom, not once per leader.

Upkeep Phase
During the Upkeep phase, you adjust your kingdom's scores based on what's happened in the past month, how happy the people are, how much they've consumed and are taxed, and so on.

Step 1—Determine Kingdom Stability: Attempt a Stability check. If you succeed, Unrest decreases by 1 (if this would reduce Unrest below 0, add 1 BP to your Treasury instead). If you fail by 4 or less, Unrest increases by 1; if you fail by 5 or more, Unrest increases by 1d4.

Step 2—Pay Consumption: Subtract your kingdom's Consumption from the kingdom's Treasury. If your Treasury is negative after paying Consumption, Unrest increases by 2.

Step 3—Fill Vacant Magic Item Slots: If any of your settlement districts have buildings that produce magic items (such as a Caster's Tower or Herbalist) with vacant magic item slots, there is a chance of those slots filling with new items (see the Magic Items in Settlements section).

Step 4—Modify Unrest: Unrest increases by 1 for each kingdom attribute (Economy, Loyalty, or Stability) that is a negative number. The Royal Enforcer may attempt to reduce Unrest during this step. If the kingdom's Unrest is 11 or higher, it loses 1 hex (the leaders choose which hex). If your kingdom's Unrest ever reaches 20, the kingdom falls into anarchy. While in anarchy, your kingdom can take no action and treats all Economy, Loyalty, and Stability check results as 0. Restoring order once a kingdom falls into anarchy typically requires a number of quests and lengthy adventures by you and the other would-be leaders to restore the people's faith in you.

Your current Control DC is 22.

For your checks you have the current modifiers (I am not going to apply any negatives for vacancy this time around, given the time off and the group churn, at he same time I am not counting Meridian as the Councilor as she has not been introduced yet, so I'm going with a 0 modifier on the Councilor slot this round:

Economy 19
Loyalty 9
Stability 17

Upkeep Phase

You have 48 BP in your treasury at the beginning of the turn and 0 Unrest.

After the result of the stability roll, which is made by the Warden, Kesten Garess aka me, Consumption (2) will be applied.

Step 1: Stability: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27 (Success; +1 BP)

Step 2: Treasury post Stability and Consumption = 47 BP

Step 3: N/A

Step 4: N/A

Next up is the Edict phase:

Edict Phase

The Edict phase is when you make proclamations on expansion, improvements, taxation, holidays, and so on.

Step 1—Assign Leadership: Assign PCs or NPCs to any vacant leadership roles or change the roles being filled by particular PCs or closely allied NPCs (see Leadership Roles). This is where the previously agreed assignments land, with the exception of Merdian. If you choose not to place a councilor at this time, you will suffer the vacancy penalty on your next round of kingdom building.

Step 2—Claim and Abandon Hexes: For your kingdom to grow, you must claim additional hexes. You can only claim a hex that is adjacent to at least 1 other hex in your kingdom. Before you can claim it, the hex must first be explored, then cleared of monsters and dangerous hazards (see Steps 2 and 3 of Founding a Settlement). Then, to claim the hex, spend 1 BP; this establishes the hex as part of your kingdom and increases your kingdom's Size by 1. The Improvement Edicts table tells you the maximum number of hexes you can claim per turn. What would you all like to do here?

You may abandon any number of hexes to reduce your kingdom's Size (which you may wish to do to manage Consumption). Doing so increases Unrest by 1 for each hex abandoned (or by 4 if the hex contained a settlement). This otherwise functions like losing a hex due to unrest (see Step 4 of the Upkeep phase).

Step 4—Build Terrain Improvements: You may spend BP to build terrain improvements like Farms, Forts, Roads, Mines, and Quarries (see Terrain Improvements).

You may also prepare a hex for constructing a settlement. Depending on the site, this may involve clearing trees, moving boulders, digging sanitation trenches, and so on. See the Preparation Cost column on the Terrain and Terrain Improvements table to determine how many BP this requires.

The Improvement Edicts table tells you the maximum number of terrain improvements you can make per turn.

Step 5—Create and Improve Settlements: You may create a settlement in a claimed hex (see Founding a Settlement). The Improvement Edicts table tells you the maximum number of settlements you can establish per turn.

You may construct a building in any settlement in your kingdom. When a building is completed, apply its modifiers to your kingdom sheet. The Improvement Edicts table tells you the maximum number of buildings you can construct in your kingdom per turn. The first House, Mansion, Noble Villa, or Tenement your kingdom builds each turn does not count against that limit.

Step 6—Create Army Units: You may create, expand, equip, or repair army units (see Mass Combat).

Step 7—Issue Edicts: Select or adjust your edict levels (see Edicts).

I'll introduce Meridian immediately so that we can get that out of the way.

My recommendation for this turn is:

* Claim hex F6, the river crossing to the northeast. Immediately spend 2 BP to build farmlands there. Though this increases our kingdom size, farms reduce consumption. (Alternatively we could claim F5, but I don't know if the Fangberry Thicket counts as a bonus "resource".)

* In Elkmark, we construct a Mill (6 BP). This provides us with +1 Economy and +1 Stability. Stability is very important; you basically can't get anything done if your Stability rolls fail. Mathematically, each +1 Economy is +⅓ BP per turn, so you can't go wrong there.

That's it for now. We have a lot more exploring and building to do before we expand much further. I generally recommend that early kingdoms focus on Stability and Economy, so that you can make sure you hit your Control checks and grow quickly. That means our early construction are Houses (until Unrest is 0), a Brewery, an Inn, and eventually a Granary and an Herbalist, Shrine, Shop, Library, and Watchtower. The Granary generally waits until the kingdom is large enough for farms to offset all consumption. If Unrest stays at 0 we don't need Houses except that one block of Houses is required to build an Inn (which is a nice story element to have in any case, as travelers start visiting the town) and certain other buildings.
Also remember that you can build multiples of certain buildings, so if we really want to hammer a given stat we can certainly do something silly like churning out multiple Smithies for a while.

(In case it wasn't obvious, I really enjoy engaging with the spreadsheet management side of KM, but every campaign I've been in has tanked before getting anywhere.)

Also GM, I think our Consumption is 5, not 2:
1 Size
1 Settlement
2 Holiday edict (6 holidays per year)
2 Promotion edict standard
-1 Fishery in capital hex

1+1+2+2-1 = 5

Also GM, I think our Consumption is 5, not 2:

1 Size
1 Settlement
2 Holiday edict (6 holidays per year)
2 Promotion edict standard
-1 Fishery in capital hex

1+1+2+2-1 = 5

I suppose that it would be good if I actually read my own damned spreadsheet correctly, 5 is what it says.

Update: Going into Step 2 of the Edict Phase you have 44 BP.

And Celebeth, yes, it is obvious you like this portion of Kingmaker. I'll try to do my part to keep this going as long as I have players that are interested.

Well I’m not going anywhere, Kingmaker is my favourite AP by far, I love watching kingdoms take shape and sprawl across the hexmap.

I think I agree with basically everything Celebeth said, both from a story and a gameplay standpoint I think that plan makes a lot of sense. Securing the crossing in F6 also feels like a good idea strategically, and should make it easier for us to expand northwards toward the gold deposits in D6 and eventually incorporate Oleg’s trading post into our territory.

Well I’m not going anywhere, Kingmaker is my favourite AP by far, I love watching kingdoms take shape and sprawl across the hexmap.

I think I agree with basically everything Celebeth said, both from a story and a gameplay standpoint I think that plan makes a lot of sense. Securing the crossing in F6 also feels like a good idea strategically, and should make it easier for us to expand northwards toward the gold deposits in D6 and eventually incorporate Oleg’s trading post into our territory.

I feel like this is a portion of the game that's really there for the people who are super into it, but I also try not to take over the whole game with it. Also even for people who aren't really big on Heroic Accounting, it's still helpful to have story-based ideas like "we should have a tavern in our capital" or "what if we built an elf village in the woods" so that we can make choices based on things that would be neat to interact with!

Since Tove is the ruler I will defer to her in choices of how the kingdom should go. :)

All the suggested course of action makes perfect sense to me.

Agreed with rhiannon^

Alright, after claiming F6 and farming it and building the Mill you have 35 BP in your treasury.

I assume that's all for the Edicts phase unless you'd like to do anything with the following:

Step 5—Create and Improve Settlements: You may create a settlement in a claimed hex (see Founding a Settlement). The Improvement Edicts table tells you the maximum number of settlements you can establish per turn.

You may construct a building in any settlement in your kingdom. When a building is completed, apply its modifiers to your kingdom sheet. The Improvement Edicts table tells you the maximum number of buildings you can construct in your kingdom per turn. The first House, Mansion, Noble Villa, or Tenement your kingdom builds each turn does not count against that limit.

Step 6—Create Army Units: You may create, expand, equip, or repair army units (see Mass Combat).

Step 7—Issue Edicts: Select or adjust your edict levels (see Edicts).

If not, then we are on to:

Income Phase:

During the Income phase, you may add to or withdraw from the Treasury as well as collect taxes.

Step 1—Make Withdrawals from the Treasury: The kingdom-building rules allow you to expend BP on things related to running the kingdom. If you want to spend some of the kingdom's resources on something for your own personal benefit (such as a new magic item), you may withdraw BP from the Treasury and convert it into gp once per turn, but there is a penalty for doing so.

Each time you withdraw BP for your personal use, Unrest increases by the number of BP withdrawn. Each BP you withdraw this way converts to 2,000 gp of personal funds.

Step 2—Make Deposits to the Treasury: You can add funds to a kingdom's Treasury by donating your personal wealth to the kingdom—coins, gems, jewelry, weapons, armor, magic items, and other valuables you find while adventuring, as long as they are individually worth 4,000 gp or less. For every full 4,000 gp in value of the deposit, increase your kingdom's BP by 1.

If you want to donate an item that is worth more than 4,000 gp, refer to Step 3 instead.

Step 3—Sell Expensive Items for BP: You can attempt to sell expensive personal items (that is, items worth more than 4,000 gp each) through your kingdom's markets to add to your Treasury. You may sell one item per settlement district per turn. You must choose the settlement where you want to sell the item, and the item cannot be worth more than the base value of that settlement.

To sell an item, divide its price by half (as if selling it to an NPC for gp), divide the result by 4,000 (rounded down), and add that many BP to your Treasury.

You cannot use this step to sell magic items held or created by buildings in your settlements; those items are the property of the owners of those businesses. (See Magic Items in Settlements for more information on this topic.)

Step 4—Collect Taxes: Attempt an Economy check, divide the result by 3 (round down), and add a number of BP to your Treasury equal to the result.

If there are no withdrawls or selling of personal items, that brings us to Collecting taxes with an Economy roll being made by the new Treasurer, Turcáno.

Also you need to decide where on your district layout your mill goes.