Rivers Run Red

Game Master fictionfan

Ok, for my first trick, after Marten goes to Vandoran, he starts using Diplomacy to generate stuff... with +15 he can take 10 and get 25, which generates 2 units per day. I'll pick up 2 influence, then 4 goods (2 days), then 4 labor (2 days), then 2 magic. That takes his second week and 210 gp. This gives all the stuff necessary to build the shrine at discount.

That leaves me with 1 magic and 1 goods left over, and a couple more weeks to flesh out trying to start up Marten's business. (Cisterns don't appear in the downtime building list so I don't see a way to improve that.)

I've updated the calendar with this and with the initial push of influence in Allania (for RP purposes), with Marten in a bronze color under Toran's lines.

Now working on figuring out his income-generating cloister...

Mmm, two questions!

1. Mr. DM, should my cohort use the standard NPC heroic stat array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), or something else?

2. Can I make a building for my business and have it count for a kingdom structure discount rate? I know you answered this before but I forgot. :/

If that shrine of yours finishes construction in the same month, I see no reason why we couldn't apply the half BP discount and refund some of that BP we spent. Just because we started the Kingdom phases before you as player were ready, doesn't necessarily mean Marten's shrine wasn't already well under way, or completed.

Would that be alright with you, GM?

Jesse, I was working on the PDF version of Marten's character sheet for you and was wondering about what his Charisma score is supposed to be. It's listed as 16 (18). I was thinking maybe that meant the base score was 16, which was increased to 18 by your headband, but that's not reflected in your divine grace.

So which is it? 16 or 18?

Also, let me know if you have, or find, a cool character portrait for the character.

EDIT: Never mind. Figured it out on my own.

Man, you have the most detailed character stat block of anyone I've ever seen. Makes this SO easy!

EDIT: I noticed you have a +2 shield. Is there any particular reason why you decided not to go with +1 armor and +1 shield and save 2,000gp? That's money that could have gone towards a stat enhancing belt, or a much needed ranged weapon! :D

EDIT: What's the name of Marten's horse?

I noticed you have a +2 shield. Is there any particular reason why you decided not to go with +1 armor and +1 shield and save 2,000gp? That's money that could have gone towards a much needed ranged weapon!

Almost every PF GM extant who lets people come in with higher-level characters has a house rule that you cannot spend more than 1/2 of your starting gold on a single item, so that you don't get characters with one absurdly outleveled magical item (instead, it encourages having a collection of lots of smaller items, like you would expect to see over the course of gaining levels naturally). Adamantine full plate hits exactly that limit -- if it's enchanted it will be more than 1/2 my starting total of 33,000 gp. I didn't want to push my luck. :)

I've heard of such things, but I've never actually seen a DM enforce it.

It's not the worst thing in the world, and I can always get the armor enchanted later. There's some inefficiency but it's not gonna make me cry. ;)

No, it will just make the rest of us cry when you can't range smite the flying dragon. :P

Almost done with the character sheet. If you could help answer some quick questions, I can see that it gets done tonight:

• What's the name of Marten's horse?
  
• What is Marten's birth date? How old is he?
  
• Do you have, or can you find, a suitable character portrait for him? (If not, I'm happy to look for one on your behalf.)
  
• Do you intend to stat out Johan more fully? Or is he just going to be one of those background item crafter cohorts some people are so fond of? (in which case, we probably won't need a full stat block.)
  

If that shrine of yours finishes construction in the same month, I see no reason why we couldn't apply the half BP discount and refund some of that BP we spent. Just because we started the Kingdom phases before you as player were ready, doesn't necessarily mean Marten's shrine wasn't already well under way, or completed.

Would that be alright with you, GM?

That should be alright

Yay! Four more BP!

I've updated the Caerulus Heraldry to include the Lebeda Family Crest.

From left to right: Thunder Lizards (Caerulus' kobold army), Allania Military Defense Force, Shadow Agents (Caerulus' spy network), and House Lebeda

If Jesse wishes, I can modify it to be more specific to his group of knights (whatever he decides to call them).

I've added a picture link to Marten's profile.

Marten is 26 (it's on the sheet!). He was born on Arodus 16, which is a holy day of Iomedae, which also partially influenced his choice of calling.

Johan will be statted as soon as the DM answers my question upthread about what stat array he should use! He is, however, a stay-at-home companion who will mostly make potions and wondrous items.

1. Mr. DM, should my cohort use the standard NPC heroic stat array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), or something else?

2. Can I make a building for my business and have it count for a kingdom structure discount rate? I know you answered this before but I forgot. :/

1. Not sure it has been awhile what is everyone else using? For their cohorts?

2.Yes

NPCs always use the heroic stat array if they are using PC class levels (ie, fighter, sorcerer, etc.) and the standard array if they possess only NPC class levels (warrior, adept, etc.).

Here's Marten's PDF character sheet as it stands now Please let me know if everything looks okay.

Feel free to use the link in your profile.

I guess you missed the link to the picture I picked out? :D

Nope. Just trying to get the art style to at least somewhat match what we have on the other character sheets. Also, I just really hate 3D CG images. :P

Let's go ahead and start the next Kingdom month as well, so that we can get Marten elected and start marching on those annoying bandits.

Since I haven't come up with a better idea, I'll finish out the prior month's downtime with starting on the barracks. After that maybe work on stuff that will provide a plausible income.

ROVA 4708 AR
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.

stability: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (15) + 39 = 54
[ooc]Unrest goes down by one it is now 3[/dice]

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).
economy: 1d20 + 35 ⇒ (17) + 35 = 52
cloak of shade potion is replaced by Scroll of raise dead

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). See Losing Hexes.

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.

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).

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 for more details). 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. Table: Improvement Edicts tells you the maximum number of hexes you can claim per turn.

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 Table: Terrain and Terrain Improvements to determine how many BP this requires.

Table: Improvement Edicts 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). Table: Improvement Edicts tells you the maximum number of settlements you can establish per turn.

You may a building in any settlement in your kingdom. The list of available building types begins. When a building is completed, apply its modifiers to your kingdom sheet. Table: Improvement Edicts 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).

Step 2—Pay Consumption

Consumption is 2 due to the new hexes we acquired in Arodus. I forgot to mark it on the Kingdom sheet before. I've deducted them from the current BP pool, leaving us with 32 to spend this month.

Step 3—Fill Vacant Magic Item Slots

Don't forget the new magic item slot for the shrine built during Arodus.

Step 1—Assign Leadership

Marten and Allisar are now elected officials I guess. Play it out if you want.

Step 2—Claim and Abandon Hexes

Any of our new leaders have any input on what hexes we should claim, if any? We can claim up to 2 each month, but it costs BP to do and raises the Kingdom Check DC and Consumption rating.

Step 4—Build Terrain Improvements

We're doing so well right now, we can build just about anything we want and not go wrong. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking maybe a build fort at the Old Sycamore. It may prove a good defense against the dragon, Lady Greengrass, and her forces.

We also should consider constructing new farms and fisheries to reduce our consumption again.

Alternatively, we could continue building roads. We'd have every hex in our kingdom filled with roads if we focus on it this, and the next, month.

Step 5—Create and Improve Settlements

So what was it you guys wanted? An academy, barracks, or monastery? Or should we save up BP for something grander?

Barracks can wait until I build it via downtime rules first, which shouldn't take too long. I think building roads is always good, but a fort would be really useful if we can afford it.

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.

economy: 1d20 + 45 ⇒ (15) + 45 = 60

That is a gain of 25 Bp

Event
No event this turn.

Care to weigh in with your thoughts, Jesse, before I start making stat changes later this evening?

I'm mostly just torn on how to set up my own income. Since Dragonflyer says he's gonna handle the barracks I will just fill in downtime to set up some kind of thing that will fit the stuff I've already mentioned but purely for my own downtime income generation. Won't spend too long on that.

As far as claiming hexes, is it time to consider expanding the capital city in lieu of gaining a hex? Having an extra district means making more buildings which means more benefits to the kingdom's totals, whereas just adding one hex means maybe a farm or fishery which has some benefits but not as much in the long run as getting the city expanded.

I know it's not necessarily a case of "You can claim a hex or expand the city," but since they both have the same effect of increasing our various control DCs by 1, I was thinking about them in those terms.

Ok, I'm going to start working to construction of a Guildhall, which I see as roughly equivalent to the starting place for a combination soldiering location and house of trade supplies. I can't find, however, what it actually can generate - the downtime rules say that buildings can generate capital, but the entry for "Guildhall" doesn't say what it can make. The "Run a Business" downtime action says that buildings generate certain kinds of capital and I can't find the reference for what a guildhall generates.

Anyway, that's gonna be 67 days of work overall, so I'll piecemeal out the rooms so that it can be partially constructed and then I can pause to work on barracks. Hopefully we can earn some money in the meantime. ;)

EDIT: Ugh, it's under each ROOM description, not the Buildings. Argh!

By the end of Arodus, that'll finish a Common Room, an Office, a Storage room, and a Lavatory. That's enough to pause that building and work on the Barracks in Rova. 660 gp spent generating all of the influence, and the actual construction will take about twice as long (so those rooms will be ready about halfway through Rova, to be rough about it).

Wait, Jesse, are you going to build barracks? That's what it sounds like based on that post

I'll start working on Barracks in the month of Rova. It takes so much material that I won't be able to finish it in one month, though, so maybe if you wanna pitch in...?

You must be in the settlement at the start of the construction or recruitment period, but don't have to spend any of your downtime days to begin construction or recruitment. In effect, you have to be present only to give the order to begin.

If you have the capital or funds, you can have several construction projects going simultaneously. If you weren't accounting for that already, you could save a LOT of time.

Just be mindful of the spending limits:

Spending Limit Per Day (Goods, Influence, or Labor)
02 Thorp
04 Hamlet
10 Village
15 Small town
25 Large town
35 Small city
50 Large city
65 Metropolis

Allania is a small city. Vandoran is a small town.

Alright, so we have three new roads and, since you guys didn't want to build any kingdom-level structures of your own just yet, I've added in a house, tavern, and shop to Vandoran. I hope to upgrade the shop into a market in the near future.

Vandoran now has a population of 2,250 souls, making it a large town. Due to its new size, it has also picked up the holy site, pious, and prosperous qualities from the GameMastery Guide's settlement rules.

So we are ending Rova with 25 BP, 2 unrest, 2 consumption, and kingdom stats so high we can't fail our checks short of rolling a "natural one." A good month overall I'd say. Let's fill out that calendar and do some adventuring! :D

So to recap: In the near future we plan on building a barracks, guildhall, and market in Vandoran; a fort at the Old Sycamore; and three more hexes worth of roads. We are considering adding a new district to Allania.

Do I have all of that right?

Sounds good to me! I just finished building the military academy at the end of Rova if we want to spend the BP for it next month. I'm looking at what to start on now, but I'll probably just build up money the rest of the month.

Sounds good to me! I just finished building the military academy at the end of Rova if we want to spend the BP for it next month. I'm looking at what to start on now, but I'll probably just build up money the rest of the month.

We're going to be about 10 BP short of being able to build a Military Academy during the month of Lamashan.

We'll have to not build anything else throughout the month of Lamashan, or else not build much during that time, so that we will have saved up enough BP in Neth to be able to construct it then.

Unless of course we sell 40,000gp worth of stuff into the treasury to do it a month earlier.

GM, can we throw the BadAxe into the treasury to generate the necessary income? It looks to be worth 32,000gp before even accounting for its intelligent nature (which only adds to its value).

Alternatively, I suppose I could not build the tavern during the previous month. I would have to undo a few things, but it should get us the BP we would need for a Military Academy.

The BadAxe is stuck in a Stone which only the worthy can pull it out of.

Define worthy? Jesse and Toran may qualify.

Badass and not going to sell it.

That's a nope for me, Toran's put too many class features into using his halberd.

Similarly, Marten's archetype is built around using your deity's favored weapon, which in his case is longsword.

Ok, I made a slight change of plans and worked on the Guildhall all through the month of Rova. I need that to get finished so that Marten can earn some money if he's going to work on the Barracks. It won't be finished until the end of Lamashan, I think (I wasn't super-rigorous about the build time for each of the rooms, I just know it takes longer to build them than it does for me to generate the necessary capital). The capital accumulation and gold spending for it will be done in the first week of Lamashan, though, which will free up my downtime to do other things (probably earning some money back!).

Is Marten going to make Gather Information checks or something similar? Or should I give it a try?

I am, just shifting one day of work later down the calendar.

Diplomacy: Gather Information: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22
Diplomacy: Gather Information: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (4) + 15 = 19
Diplomacy: Gather Information: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (10) + 15 = 25

I am, just shifting one day of work later down the calendar.

[dice=Diplomacy: Gather Information]1d20+15
[dice=Diplomacy: Gather Information]1d20+15
[dice=Diplomacy: Gather Information]1d20+15

This probably should have gone into the Gameplay thread. Also, what question(s) is Marten asking around about specifically?

Yeah, I was trying to shuffle a day on the calendar but opening it on my laptop I wasn't getting any tabs so I couldn't change months, then before I could go over to the gameplay thread I got pulled away by other obligations.

I'd actually already worked out what I wanted to post over in Gameplay but haven't had a free second to do so (my weekends are basically 110% booked at this point).

...my weekends are basically 110% booked at this point...

That's fine. Most weekends are pretty slow for us anyways since we are often doing things in real life. As for the weekdays, my preferred rate of posting is about 1 post per player per day.

That's not a group rule or anything, just my own personal preference.

I do try to keep a good cadence when possible. I would prefer to be able to post on weekends as well but certain obligations sometimes make that difficult!

If the GM allows, I may make something other than those feather step slippers (I'm thinking gloves of arrow snaring for Riva, after having been pin-cushioned by the spriggans), now that the new Ultimate Equipment errata has basically nerfed them into oblivion. I will have to adjust Riva's stats for her jingasa of the fortunate soldier as well--which is even worse off now than the slippers! I'm thinking I'd like to keep that as is, but convert it into a homebrew item if that's okay.

Vallisa's goblin fire drum also took a big hit, now only adding 1 point of damage to her fireballs instead of 10. :(

Was anyone else affected by the latest errata?

Not in this game, but jaunt boots, bracers of falcon's aim, and the jingasa got hit pretty hard :(

If the GM allows[/url]?

That should be fine

Whoa! When did Toran start making more gold than Riva?

He's been a busy boy. This month he finished the military academy, giving him 3 fully functioning buildings and an organization.

Can I get the breakdown so I can update his PDF?

Military Academy:
Rooms: Armory, 1 Bath, Bedroom, Belltower, Book Repository, Common Room, 2 Classroom, Cell, Courtyard, 1 Dojo, 1 Greenhouse, Infirmary, 1 kitchen, Lavatory, 1 Lodging, 2 offices, Scriptorium, Sitting room, Statue, Storage, War Room
Earning Check Modifiers: +95 to GP, +51 to Goods, +81 to Influence, +35 Labor, +27 Magic
Automatic Weekly Generation: 73.5 GP, 42 Goods, 63 Influence, 31 Labor or 25 Magic

Herbalist:
Rooms: 1 Artisan's Workshop, 1 Bedroom, 1 Greenhouse, 1 Kitchen, 1 Lavoratory, 1 Storage, 1 Storefront
Earning Check Modifiers: +36 to GP, +31 to Goods, +30 to Influence
Automatic Weekly Generation: 32.2 GP, 28 Goods or 28 Influence

Waterfront:
Rooms: 4 Dock, 2 Animal Pen, 1 Office, 4 Storage, 1 Workstation
Earning Check Modifiers: +78 to GP, +72 to Goods, +56 to Influence, +64 to Labor
Automatic Weekly Generation: 61.6 GP, 57 Goods, 46 Influence, 51 Labor

Town Center(just began):
Rooms: 2 storages
Earning Check Modifiers: 4 to GP
Automatic Weekly Generation: 9.8 GP

Artisan's Guild:
Teams: 1 Bureaucrats, 2 Craftspeople, 2 Laborers
Earning Check Modifiers: +16 to GP, +8 to Goods, +4 to Influence, +12 to Labor
Automatic Weekly Generation: 18.2 GP, 12 Goods, 9 Influence or 15 Labor

Wow, once I do the math on a weekly basis I'm really raking in the money if I stop spending it to continue development!

Thanks. I went ahead and updated the old spreadsheet, and some of your numbers look off to me.

Spreadsheet (PDF)
Spreadsheet (XLSX)

I'll be adding the adjustments to your PDF character sheet later this evening.

Let me know if you want different names for the businesses, or if I overlooked anything.