Kingmaker. The shadows behind the throne.

Game Master DBH

***First Kingdom Turn***

Guys, there is some confusion here.

The time when we build the original Tavern and House is Turn 1.

So it should go like this:

***First Kingdom Turn***

Edict Phase:
- Grant of 50 BP
- Claim Hex 30 (-1 BP, +1 Consumption, Terrain Bonus: +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty, +1 Stability)
- Prepare Town Site (-2 BP, +1 Consumption, ford counts as free Bridge: +1 Economy)
- Build House and Tavern (-15 BP, -1 unrest, +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty)
- Build Farm and Mine in Hex 30 (-10 BP, -2 Consumption, +1 Economy, +1 Income)
- Declare Edicts:
- - Kingdom Alignment: NG (+1 Loyalty, +1 Stability)
- - Promotion: Token (+1 Stability, +1 Consumption)
- - Taxation: None (+1 Loyalty)
- - Holidays: 1 (+1 Loyalty, +1 Consumption)
- - Assign Leaders (+9 Economy, +11 Loyalty, +15 Stability)

TOTALS:
This leaves our treasury with 22 BP.
- Consumption is 2.
- Bonus Income is 1.
- Economy is 13.
- Loyalty is 16.
- Stability is 18.
- Control DC is 22.
- River/Canal Hexes: 1
- Road Hexes: 0

Then events and support for the kingdom need to be resolved before we worry about anything else. What we build in turn 2 will depend somewhat on what events happen in the event phase. If we end up with unrest we need to cope with that which may influence what we build.

My votes for names:

Country Name: Republic of the Kamelands
Capital Name: Thornford (Riverwatch is my second choice)

Wow, not bad for your 1st months event roll!

You got the Economic boom. Roll 1d6 and add the total to your BP. If you roll a 6 keep rolling and add it to the total.

You get 16BP added to your stock due to an influx of traders hoping to get a head start on a good relationship with the new kingdom.

Just a reminder given his background and abilities I'm having Richards official government title be Minister for Trade... you don't put spymaster up on you door.

I think for the first bit I'll add his role bonus to Economy, it is our lowest for now and I'd like to get us a good foundation. Richards working those Lebeda connections.

I agree with Elena and will add my Ruler bonus to Stability.

We could deposit some of the Trade Goods and Jewelry recovered from the Stag Lord's hoard to add 2 BP to the Treasury, but I think we should use these items' value to purchase items from Restov - such as the Headband of Alluring Charisma I asked Oleg to order.

Since our Treasurer is an NPC, is it okay if I roll to collect taxes?

Collect Taxes: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30
Divided by 3, this adds another 10 BP to the Treasury. Business is booming in our town!

I've worked up a sheet to track the capital's first district.

Niadroub, if you already took care of this and I forgot (as happened before), I apologize in advance.

I think for the first bit I'll add his role bonus to Economy, it is our lowest for now and I'd like to get us a good foundation.

If that's the case then we would have:

For the record though, if you don't have any unrest and you make your stability check for the turn (in the upkeep phase), you get a 1 BP bonus. Which is usually what +4 to Economy will do (there is a 1 in 3 chance it will give you 2 BP).

If you did have unrest then making the stability check reduces unrest by 1. Failing increases it by 1, and failing it by 5 or more gives you 1d4 unrest. I'd prefer it not to be possible to fail by 5. Unrest can be really bad if you also get bad events.

Since our Treasurer is an NPC, is it okay if I roll to collect taxes?

Collect Taxes: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30
Divided by 3, this adds another 10 BP to the Treasury. Business is booming in our town!

If Economy for our first turn is 17 then the result here is 34, which means 11 BP instead of 10.

*** First Kingdom Turn ***
Edict Phase: Done

Income Phase: +11 BP Taxation, +1 BP Income (Mine) = +12 BP to treasury.
- Treasury now at 34.

Event Phase: Economic Boom! +16 BP to treasury!
- Treasury now at 50. :-D

GM: Since each turn is a month, but it requires us only to be the rulers for one week out of each month, should I assume that we don't have to worry about turn 2 for a while?

I've worked up a sheet to track the capital's first district.

Nice! I like how you were able to fit the name of the building in the tile for the building.

GM: If possible I think we would want the city to be right up on the river. It looks like the ford is right at the intersection of the two rivers, so is it possible we can be right in the corner? Any chance that we would be on a "point" that had water on three sides?

GM: Since each turn is a month, but it requires us only to be the rulers for one week out of each month, should I assume that we don't have to worry about turn 2 for a while?

@Elena. Up to the party, if you wish to take some time and explore for those free weeks you can. If you want to stay and get things built up a bit more that's fine too.

GM: If possible I think we would want the city to be right up on the river. It looks like the ford is right at the intersection of the two rivers, so is it possible we can be right in the corner? Any chance that we would be on a "point" that had water on three sides?

@Elena, just to be clear which side of the river are you building Thornford on? South of the Thorn river, with the Shrike to your east?
Or on the North bank of the Shrike, with the Thorn river to your west?

I've worked up a sheet to track the capital's first district.

Niadroub, if you already took care of this and I forgot (as happened before), I apologize in advance.

I have not already done anything about the map. I always took issue with the way these rules have players build a city map since cities are rarely made up of perfect little grids. However, I don't have a better solution than what Paizo has offered, so I'm not objecting to it. Your map looks good, Colwyn. I'll add links to your city maps on the appropriate tabs of the Kingdom Tracking Sheet.

Guys, I'm unemployed and am prepping for a job interview for tomorrow morning, which is why I've been silent for a couple days. I'll update the Kingdom Tracking Sheet tomorrow afternoon, assuming the day goes as I expect.

Guys, I'm unemployed and am prepping for a job interview for tomorrow morning, which is why I've been silent for a couple days. I'll update the Kingdom Tracking Sheet tomorrow afternoon, assuming the day goes as I expect.

Good luck, buddy! We'll be rooting for you!

Good luck, buddy! We'll be rooting for you!

*fist bump*

@Elena, just to be clear which side of the river are you building Thornford on? South of the Thorn river, with the Shrike to your east?

Or on the North bank of the Shrike, with the Thorn river to your west?

GM: On the north bank, with the river to the west.

I think if the city is attacked the attack is most likely to come from either the west or south, so the river acts as a defensive barrier.

It also makes it a bit easier to build a wall between the town and the surroundings.

Niadroub Kliip wrote:

Guys, I'm unemployed and am prepping for a job interview for tomorrow morning, which is why I've been silent for a couple days. I'll update the Kingdom Tracking Sheet tomorrow afternoon, assuming the day goes as I expect.

Good luck, buddy! We'll be rooting for you!

Seconded. Good Luck!

I suggest not using the Niadroub accent during the interview. :)

@Elena. Yes you have have the city on the river by the crossing. You Can't get three sides covered though, but two is good for defense.

@Niadroub. Knock them dead. Bad things to say at a job interview

Seconded. Good Luck!

I suggest not using the Niadroub accent during the interview. :)

NOW you tell me.

@Niadroub. Knock them dead. Bad things to say at a job interview

"Well, they say to dress for the job you want. That's why I'm dressed as a superhero."

Thanks, guys. The interviews went well, but I didn't get the free time that I had planned on getting. I'll try to have the sheet up to date this weekend.

The first month has passed peacefully for you.

What are your plans for the second? Building wise and your adventuring?

Edict Phase
No changes in leadership

Claim Hexes: Did we want Hex 23 for the Rickety Bridge and future access to gold mine, or did we want Hex 36 for Stag Lord's Fort? I vote for Hex 23.

Terrain Improvements: Not sure what we want next.

Improve Settlement: I'm thinking either a Mill, Granary, or Smithy

Did we want to form an army unit?

Not to ignore Colwyn, but I'm still catching up. Guys, here's the Kingdom Tracking Sheet updated for the first turn. DBH, would you mind adding this link to the top of the page?

Also, I have a few notes:

1. Akiros only adds a +3, not a +4 to his role as was given in the last list of leadership roles in this thread.

2. We have a Bridge "building" in Thornholme, so I think that Colwyn should mark this bridge on the Thornholme map. I guess look where the rickety bridge is on the map in comparison to our city, and put the bridge off the appropriate lot? While he Bridge takes up 1 lot mechanically, it "shares space" with a river or Waterway lot, which implies to me that we don't have to reserve a lot on the map only for the bridge.

3. Richard's, Colwyn's and my votes for Taxation was "Light;" Reknar's was for None. Elena's clarifying post had "None." I currently have "Light" in the Kingdom sheet. Unless I missed something in the conversation, of course.

4. Elena, did you do the Upkeep phase before you posted the below? Because I can't find it.

*** First Kingdom Turn ***

Edict Phase: Done

Income Phase: +11 BP Taxation, +1 BP Income (Mine) = +12 BP to treasury.
- Treasury now at 34.

Event Phase: Economic Boom! +16 BP to treasury!
- Treasury now at 50. :-D

If you haven't, then we have 48 BP because of our 2 Consumption.

5. Finally, I added an "Activity Log" tab to track the actions we take each turn for the kingdom. It could probably be enhanced by using the columns for each phase and certain activities, but that's work for the future. I just wanted to let everyone know it's there.

1. Akiros only adds a +3

My bad... probably a copypasta error.

2. We have a Bridge "building" in Thornholme, so I think that Colwyn should mark this bridge on the Thornholme map....

The "rickety bridge" is actually in a different hex. The thing that constitutes a bridge is actually a ford, but serves the same function.

Making a bridge as a tile means that you have to have waterway tiles on your map. But the map is also designed so that you can have water edges (see the check boxes on the sides) in which case the bridge would be off the edge of the town map. Not sure how to work that out if the bridge counts as being on the edge.

3. Richard's, Colwyn's and my votes for Taxation was "Light;" Reknar's was for None. Elena's clarifying post had "None." I currently have "Light" in the Kingdom sheet. Unless I missed something in the conversation, of course.

I had assumed that some people who voted "Light" had not realized that you still collected income when taxation was "none."

4. Elena, did you do the Upkeep phase before you posted the below? Because I can't find it. ... If you haven't, then we have 48 BP because of our 2 Consumption.

No I didn't, because Upkeep happens at the beginning of turn 2 instead of the end of turn 1. Honestly, I find that a little annoying and I would much rather deduct comsumption at the same time as collecting income (which would make a decent house rule if the DM wants to implement it).

So in the Upkeep phase we lose 2 for consumption but then add 1 for our successful stability check. So we will be at 49 BP.

5. Finally, I added an "Activity Log" tab to track the actions we take each turn for the kingdom.

Cool. That could be handy.

Tracker is up top now.

Edict Phase

No changes in leadership

Unless Richard wants to switch his bonus to Stability. We aced this month's check but our stability seems a little low right now, enough to make me nervous.

Claim Hexes:

The instinct is commonly to try to claim a hex every turn. But this is not always desired. Every hex you claim increases the control DCs for the kingdom by 1. So if you aren't increasing your kingdom scores by 1 it actually makes it more difficult to run the kingdom. So we don't need to claim a hex every turn and there will be times we want to take a "break" from expansion.

I think we can afford to claim a hex this turn but I would be fine if we don't as well.

If we do I think I'd prefer the Stag Lord's fort hex because we could capitalize on the discounted watchtower.

Terrain Improvements: Not sure what we want next.

Improve Settlement: I'm thinking either a Mill, Granary, or Smithy

RP-wise Elena would prefer a shrine/temple, but that might not be the best thing right now.

This depends a lot on whether we take another hex or not. My suggestions would be:

If we take a Hex:

Terrain Improvements: Farm and Watchtower in new hex (this costs 10 BP in hex 36 or 16 BP in hex 23).
Town Improvements: Watchtower and Tenement (this costs 13 BP)
Totals: +2 Stability, +4 Defense, +0 unrest, consumption net -1

If we DON'T take a Hex:

Terrain Improvements: Fishery and Road (this costs 7 BP).
Town Improvements: Either: Mill (costs 6 BP) Total: +1 Economy, +1 Stability, 0 unrest, -1 consumption
OR: Town Hall (costs 22 BP) Total: +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty, +1 Stability, 0 unrest, -1 consumption
OR: Foundry and House (costs 19 BP) Total: +2 Economy, +1 Stability, +1 income, 0 unrest, -1 consumption
OR: Temple (to Erastil) and Tenement (this costs 33 BP) Total: +2 Economy, +2 Loyalty, 0 unrest, -1 consumption

Did we want to form an army unit?

It's tempting to set up a "Town Watch," but RAW the minimum consumption is 1 BP per week, which translates to 4 BP per month (rounded down). That's a little steep right now.

Why Tenements?

You'll note that I included a Tenement in both options there.

Tenements can be great, if you manage them properly.

What's bad: Building a Tenement causes 2 unrest. Unrest is pretty bad, and 2 points is very bad. But if you can mitigate that unrest and bring it back down to zero, then it just functions like another house.

What's good: A number of things.
* It's really cheap
* It supports other buildings the same way a house does
* It can be upgraded to a house later on

The last point is the kicker. It means that if you are later on confronted with unrest you can spend a mere 2 BP to upgrade a tenement to a house and reduce unrest by 1. That is the cheapest possible spending for reducing unrest. If you upgrade that as your one building per turn you can also build a free house and get another -1 unrest from that.

Normally you want to "save" constructing unrest-reducing buildings for turns when you actually have unrest. Otherwise the ability of the building to reduce unrest is wasted.

So it's really good to have one or two tenements in your city that you can upgrade later on.

I switch my bonus to stability for a bit.

"If we take a Hex:

Terrain Improvements: Farm and Watchtower in new hex (this costs 10 BP in hex 36 or 16 BP in hex 23).
Town Improvements: Watchtower and Tenement (this costs 13 BP)
Totals: +2 Stability, +4 Defense, +0 unrest, consumption net -1"

I'm a little unsure about the tenement but best to see it in action. I say Hex 23.

All the hexes adjacent to 30 are hills so that provides us with a few opportunities to might a nice core to the kingdom in this area. A stockyard paired with farms in all would be quite nice eventually with a granary for rainy days. A foundry with mines in all the hexes would be great (with half not even needing roads). There's various other buildings but it's a nice medium term idea modified no doubt with Temples, military academies and various other personal interest buildings.

A group of children report a find they have made, handing over to the party a pair of gloves found hidden under some brush close to the women's wash area. Each of these fingerless worked leather gloves look as though they have seen heavy use.

Minor magic item. Gloves of reconnaissance.

...A stockyard paired with farms in all would be quite nice eventually with a granary for rainy days. A foundry with mines in all the hexes would be great (with half not even needing roads).

Stockyards and Foundries are some of the best buildings for generating revenue.

Potentially a stockyard in this town could reduce consumption by 7. That's a big deal.

A foundry is only paired with an individual mine, so if we have seven mines in the area around the town we also would want seven foundries. This would make the town kind of an "industrial city" and might attract dwarves and other metallurgists. However, Foundries take up a lot of space and it is unlikely that we will get all these without building one or two more districts.

Those gloves are too cool not to keep. Colwyn is the obvious choice but Richard would put his name in the hat for them if Colwyn doesn't like the idea of using them.

And there's nothing stopping you from swapping them around should one of you be needed elsewhere.

I support buying the gloves, and I would be willing to pass them to Richard for now since he seems more likely than Colwyn to take point.

Speaking of magic items, since a month has passed, was Colwyn able to order and receive the Headband of Charisma?

...

I vote for claiming Hex 36 (Stag Lord's Fort) and building the watchtower and farm there.

For settlement improvements, I support building the in-town watchtower and the tenement since, in character, I can envision us setting up some hastily constructed bunkhouses to accommodate the sudden influx of settlers.

I agree with this on Hex 36 (Ex-Stag Lord's):

If we take a Hex:

Terrain Improvements: Farm and Watchtower in new hex (this costs 10 BP in hex 36 or 16 BP in hex 23).
Town Improvements: Watchtower and Tenement (this costs 13 BP)
Totals: +2 Stability, +4 Defense, +0 unrest, consumption net -1

My roll goes for Stability.

++++

One doubt I have - will we be exploring hexes as part of these turns?
And on a final note - thank you all for the amazing work of listing out rules, drawing up maps, and setting up spreadsheets for this - I am learning a TON, and hope not to be too berated for making errors ;)

Income Phase

Since we may be buying some magic items, I don't think we'll be making any deposits to the treasury this turn, so I'll just roll for income.

Economy Check: 1d20 + 15 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 15 - 2 = 33
Huzzah! 11 BP added to the treasury.

I support buying the gloves, and I would be willing to pass them to Richard for now since he seems more likely than Colwyn to take point.

I'm not certain if it's us being given the chance to buy them or is it a lucky find and we just get them.

It's a lucky find, you get them for free. Though you should be nice and give the kids who handed them in a few coins to spend. :)

One doubt I have - will we be exploring hexes as part of these turns?

Reknar: Each turn represents one month of game time, but the actual job of running the kingdom only takes one week per month. So the other three weeks the party can spend adventuring. The end result is that usually you go back and forth between "kingdom mode" and "adventure mode."

Month 2 has started, you've got the claiming of a new hex and what to build sorted out, picked up little bonus magic item.

So adventuring. Going to head out and look around this month?

Yup, our first course of action is the hexes to the south east starting with the nearest one and going outwards from there.

Agreed.

And Elena, thanks for clarifying ;)

Niadroub Kliip wrote:

4. Elena, did you do the Upkeep phase before you posted the below? Because I can't find it. ... If you haven't, then we have 48 BP because of our 2 Consumption.

No I didn't, because Upkeep happens at the beginning of turn 2 instead of the end of turn 1. Honestly, I find that a little annoying and I would much rather deduct comsumption at the same time as collecting income (which would make a decent house rule if the DM wants to implement it).

So in the Upkeep phase we lose 2 for consumption but then add 1 for our successful stability check. So we will be at 49 BP.

Okay, you're right, of course. Makes perfect sense for the first turn. Thanks.

And on a final note - thank you all for the amazing work of listing out rules, drawing up maps, and setting up spreadsheets for this - I am learning a TON, and hope not to be too berated for making errors ;)

No worries. Sans variables, the rules are fairly forgiving at first. Of course with variables (Taxation and Events), a kingdom could fall into trouble even if the rulers make all the "right" decisions.

Regarding discussions so far for Turn 2:

Claim Hex: One vote for 23, two votes for 36 ... with Elena (I think) also stating she'd be fine with either.
-- I'll also vote for 36, bringing that to three votes.

Terrain Improvement: One vote for a Farm and a Watchtower ... Richard quoted this, but I'm not sure if he was actually voting for it or not.
-- I'll also vote for this, bringing this to two votes.

Settlement Improvement: One vote for Watchtower and Tenement ... Elena (I think) also stated that she'd be fine with this.
-- I'll also vote for this, bringing this to two votes.

Since we're a republic, we need three of us to agree on any single decision to move on. :)

Apologies if I missed or misinterpreted anyone's votes/discussions.

Richard, for your map, are you able to easily colorize the borders of certain hexes? If so, we could use that to track which hexes are part of our kingdom.

I have done so just now but it's late here so forgive any errors. I can do a purple or yellow border as other bright options. I think we claimed another hex or are claiming it... it's two in the morning here so my brain is fried after running a six hour session of a game.

I know in Hex 30 we have the Capital, farms and a mine right?

Do we have any other hexes claimed yet and if so what is in them?

GM_DBH, I accidentally submitted a post with with an incorrect alias - mind removing it from the game please? Apologies, and thanks :)

Since we're a republic, we need three of us to agree on any single decision to move on. :)

I think we just need more votes on the Farm and Watchtower terrain improvements and on the Watchtower and Tenement improvement for our lone settlement. One more vote for these will cement them as our actions for this turn, as far as I'm concerned.

And I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but from my experience with this AP, the state of the kingdom and the path of the story only actually touch each other minimally. (But maybe GBH has other things in mind?) That said, if anybody is not interested in participating in the kingdom rules, I think it's fine if they just say they're not interested in that aspect of the campaign. Less people will probably speed up Kingdom Building discussions/decisions. But nobody should feel pressured to sit out, either.

GM_DBH, I accidentally submitted a post with with an incorrect alias - mind removing it from the game please? Apologies, and thanks :)

I didn't even know GMs had that option!

GBH, you can drop Andostre, too. That guy is incredibly annoying.

Niadroub are you accounting my votes?

Niadroub are you accounting my votes?

Yes, I am, but your question made me go back and look closely at everyone's posts.

For the Terrain Improvement, Reknar voted for the Farm and Watchtower.

I also voted for the Farm and Watchtower.

Elena discussed various options, but I don't think that this is an actual vote.

Here Richard quoted Elena, but I'm not clear if that's an actual vote for the Farm and Watchtower.

Colwyn voted for a Farm and Watchtower. I messed up here. I mixed-up the two hexes in the discussion (23 and 36) and wasn't sure if I could count Colwyn's vote because it was for a hex that I thought we were not going to claim. Even if I hadn't messed up, I guess I was being too much of a stickler.

For the Settlement Improvement, Elena discussed various options, but I don't think that this is an actual vote.

Richard quoted Elena, but I'm not clear if that's an actual vote for the in-town Watchtower and Tenement. Maybe that was a yes for the Tenement?

Colwyn voted for the in-town Watchtower and Tenement. (I screwed up on this because of the reason stated for Colwyn's vote above, but it shouldn't have even been an issue here. Sorry.)

Reknar voted for the in-town Watchtower and Tenement.

I also voted for the in-town Watchtower and Tenement.

=======================

So that's clearly three votes for each. Sorry for holding everything up.

The tracking sheet is up to date. We're ready for Turn 3.

:D

For the record, my preference is for the farm, two watchtowers and tenement. The terrain and town improvements are really a package, since the two watchtowers negate the unrest from the tenement.

Sorry people, too busy battling spiders in the attic to update today. Putting in insulation.

Sorry people, too busy battling spiders in the attic to update today. Putting in insulation.

Watch out for ettercaps, man.