Saga of a New Land

Game Master Jovich

I think we should give it a 12 month timeskip for the kingdom to develop and PCs to pass into NPC-ness. I was looking at the kingdom tracker and while the buildings and economics look fine it doesn't look like the kingdom has acquired any troops? They should have definitely had units by the end of mod 2. Could someone look over the sheet and see what I'm missing, please?

This is also a good time to ask how much you as a group want to interact with the kingdom building system. I've had players who love playing the kingdom spreadsheet minigame and parties who wanted that stuff to happen in the background. What do you guys want?

I am fine with it happening in the Background. If the other PCs want it in the foreground, maybe there is just one small area Cenna can focus on instead of the full big picture. By this weekend I'll finish reading through all of her original posts and get a sense of what her 3 goals may be.

I would vote for in the background, but I'm willing to go with the majority here. I can speak with experience that the minutiae of kingdom building does not play well with PbP. The whole build by committee, with all the back and forth, is an enormous time sink.
But, then again, kingdom building is (more than) half the fun.

I can speak with experience that the minutiae of kingdom building does not play well with PbP.

Great point. Perhaps IF we handle the Kingdom Building those should be discussion here in the OOC thread, maybe title each such post Kingdom Building so we can differentiate significant in game posts from shooting the s*!& and announcing vacations and illnesses. Then we can keep the RP and battles on the In Game thread less cluttered and bogged down.

Though I think that the ultimate decision maker here SHOULD be Lord Christian D'Elagante as the rest of us are really jumping into a game that he has devoted pretty significant time to!

I am perfectly fine with the Kingdom building being done in the background. I think we can all agree that while this is a big part of the AP and a fun one, any PBP game takes a great deal of time to complete. I am all for minimizing any lag on the game.

I would say that the more important events of Kingdom building involve all players.

There is no Military as of yet but I do have my mercenaries from my background that are now at the city. This was by design for the leadership feat/Dynasty founder. The previous DM had pushed the dynasty founder feat benefits to after we killed the WhiteHallow Brothers.

Charis came from an online language for draconic. It means "Hope"

Actually, let me make that a request to everyone to post in this thread. Please give me 3 goals for your character in the region, at least 1 of them actionable in the short term (like: 'Hunt down Tuskgutter the legendary boar,' not 'restore my PC to the throne of Brevoy'). This is for all PCs.

Goal 1: Build her temple to the Radiant Prism, obviously. Maybe utilizing Downtime rules? A temple that offers food, healing, maybe a place to stay. Could be interesting. I think if you can spare the time to earn all capital instead of buying it then building is relatively inexpensive. Maybe Elaina rolled in on a wagon with supplies ready to start.

Goal 2: Meet and befriend a powerful fey creature. Elaina has fey blood - Heart of the Fey alternate human race trait, which is where her low-light vision comes from.

Goal 3: Restore my PC to the throne of Brevoy Destroy a powerful undead/Rovagug related artifact or monster.

Also for new PCs (everybody but Jovich and Shadow), please tell me how/why your PC was selected by Lord Christian to be on his new troubleshooting team. Why aren't you just some random murderhobo but instead are working directly with the Baron of Charis? This is for AJM, Monkeygod, Seth, and Crisis.

Elaina just kind of showed up one day and refused to leave. What better way to win the hearts and minds of farmers and loggers and such who may not see the relevancy of goddesses of art and love than by helping them?

I am perfectly fine with the Kingdom building being done in the background. I think we can all agree that while this is a big part of the AP and a fun one, any PBP game takes a great deal of time to complete. I am all for minimizing any lag on the game.

I would say that the more important events of Kingdom building involve all players.

There is no Military as of yet but I do have my mercenaries from my background that are now at the city. This was by design for the leadership feat/Dynasty founder. The previous DM had pushed the dynasty founder feat benefits to after we killed the WhiteHallow Brothers.

I'm happy to game out the kingdom events in the background.

Christian, with respect to the Dynasty Founder feat Leadership followers you and I need to write up a list/make a spreadsheet. I looked at your background but it's kind of hard to parse who your feat-based followers are.

Elaina just kind of showed up one day and refused to leave. What better way to win the hearts and minds of farmers and loggers and such who may not see the relevancy of goddesses of art and love than by helping them?

The gods work in mysterious ways.

Goal 1: Build her temple to the Radiant Prism, obviously. Maybe utilizing Downtime rules? A temple that offers food, healing, maybe a place to stay. Could be interesting. I think if you can spare the time to earn all capital instead of buying it then building is relatively inexpensive. Maybe Elaina rolled in on a wagon with supplies ready to start.

For everybody- I'm a big fan of the Downtime rules. If you want to build a building, start a business, or recruit people, the Downtime rules work great.

Elaina Newberry wrote:

Goal 1: Build her temple to the Radiant Prism, obviously. Maybe utilizing Downtime rules? A temple that offers food, healing, maybe a place to stay. Could be interesting. I think if you can spare the time to earn all capital instead of buying it then building is relatively inexpensive. Maybe Elaina rolled in on a wagon with supplies ready to start.

For everybody- I'm a big fan of the Downtime rules. If you want to build a building, start a business, or recruit people, the Downtime rules work great.

Excellent, I'll include that in my analysis for goals!

I took last night off from the boards(and in general) to star binge watching Andor season 1 before the second one drops next month.

I rather like the kingdom building rules a lot, but I also realize that not everybody else does, and it can be tricky in a pbp.

That said, in regards to:

I'm a big fan of the Downtime rules. If you want to build a building, start a business, or recruit people, the Downtime rules work great.

Can't some of this be handled via the KB rules? Or are we ditching them entirely?

Can't some of this be handled via the KB rules? Or are we ditching them entirely?

It's just a different scale. Kingdom BP is for recruiting a whole army unit or building a temple district (that's how I interpret it, anyway, otherwise the provided map is weird). Downtime is for Elaina to build a temple that she runs to her spec or for Aelbourne to set up a thieves' guild.

It's also different focus. Downtime resources are about what your PC wants to do as a personal goal that benefits themselves (or a small group of people like the party). Kingdom BP are for about making decisions that have an impact on the economy or morale of the entire kingdom.

Also, your PC can spend Downtime resources however you want while Kingdom BP need to be decided on by the whole group. So it's a different level of interaction for the player.

When I've done kingdom in the background before, I do kind of abstract the rules a bit and just give a general sense of the way things are developing rather than using the rules strictly RAW. I ask generally how much you want to expand and how you want to focus your development and kind of develop the kingdom in a more relaxed manner. If the players don't want to interact with the minutiae I'm not going to make myself stick strictly to the rules.

Again, as a DM I generally lean toward what's more fun for you guys as players. I'm not restrictive and I don't try to stick to RAW.

I like the Down time rules.
I can see me building a Military Academy.
and lots of diplomacy towards our allies.

I like the Down time rules.

I can see me building a Military Academy.

Dragoons and other gunnery things from my side :P

PS. Have had power issues since Monday. Hope to have most of it sorted tomorrow

A temple to the Radiant Prism will likely be some combination of rooms from these:

Somewhere where people can go to worship, heal, and a place for travelers to rest.

Copying this from the recruitment, as I have confusion:

Monkeygod wrote:

Also, I'd like to take the role of the Marshal if that's available, as that seems to really fit for the Hinterlander.

It's probably best if new PCs don't come in planning to be kingdom leaders. I haven't read through all the old posts to see what kind of relationships the NPCs have but just for ease of transition it seems best to leave the current kingdom roles as they are and retiring old PCs into NPCs.

Although... looking at the kingdom tracker Narthropple is a unique choice for Marshal. I don't think I've seen that one before. I'll be interested to read back and see how the group came up with that.

Isn't the entire point of this AP for us to be kingdom leaders?

Also, I believe Elania is planning on being the new high priest, which was a role held by a former PC.

I feel like if an active player wants to assume the role a NPC has, the player should be able to. Unless of course Lord Christian would prefer Narthropple to continue to serve as the Marshall. Since he's the Lord/leader, I'll acquiesce to his request.

Copying this from the recruitment, as I have confusion:

karlprosek wrote:

Monkeygod wrote:

Also, I'd like to take the role of the Marshal if that's available, as that seems to really fit for the Hinterlander.

It's probably best if new PCs don't come in planning to be kingdom leaders. I haven't read through all the old posts to see what kind of relationships the NPCs have but just for ease of transition it seems best to leave the current kingdom roles as they are and retiring old PCs into NPCs.

Although... looking at the kingdom tracker Narthropple is a unique choice for Marshal. I don't think I've seen that one before. I'll be interested to read back and see how the group came up with that.

Isn't the entire point of this AP for us to be kingdom leaders?

Also, I believe Elania is planning on being the new high priest, which was a role held by a former PC.

I feel like if an active player wants to assume the role a NPC has, the player should be able to. Unless of course Lord Christian would prefer Narthropple to continue to serve as the Marshall. Since he's the Lord/leader, I'll acquiesce to his request.

I think that is just for now and then we can RP into the position if we so desire, at least, that's the way I read it.

Based on the Kingdom Tracker, it seems that Cenna is the Magister. Based on that position and based on what the prior Cenna had stated in her RP, the following would be my goals.

Goal 1: Create a charter system, essentially a License to Adventure within the Kingdom, specific requests must be made to go Dragon Hunting. As a Draconic Bloodline, she would not look kindly to anyone hunting Dragons simply for the sake of them being Dragons. This should allow access to more money in the treasury as the charters won;t be free and will also allow us to have a role of who is wandering about trying to MurderHobo in our own backyard.

Goal 2: Expand the current academy to recruit/promote more magic-users to join or be trained within. This will hopefully allow more access to magic items being created on site and allow for available Wizards to assist in time of need. I'm thinking of the War Wizards of Cormyr long term.

Goal 3: I guess a bit more long term, looks like the prior group was considering building a wall. Was it built? Does it make sense to expand this wall or are we placing wildlands on the other side of it? I would say that a wall around the "capital" itself would at the very least make sense.

I'll look at downtime ideas next.

A Downtime activity that makes a great deal of sense for Cenna, outside of pursuing the goals listed above, is plying her trade as a Tattoo Artist. Based on what I am seeing,even taking 10 every day (she has a +10 in her Profession) would gross 2 GP per day. Not sure if there is a cap on that.

As this is a 12 month time skip, let's assume that Cenna spent 3 months pursuing Goal 1, 3 months pursing goal 2, 3 months collaborating with the rest of the Party and locals, and 3 months building/expanding her Tattoo "Business". At 30 days per month and taking off at least two days a week, that leaves her with 2 GP per day for 20 days per month so 40 GP per month over 3 months is 120 GP. Not sure what to do with that Gold. Looks like the idea is to use it to acquire some kingdom building aims.

If it wasn't for her burnt skin she would totally be a tattoo addict :P

Isn't the entire point of this AP for us to be kingdom leaders?

Also, I believe Elania is planning on being the new high priest, which was a role held by a former PC.

I feel like if an active player wants to assume the role a NPC has, the player should be able to. Unless of course Lord Christian would prefer Narthropple to continue to serve as the Marshall. Since he's the Lord/leader, I'll acquiesce to his request.

There's the AP and there's a kingdom building minigame. Kingmaker players don't have to interact with the kingdom building part of the game at all if they don't want to.

I'm not saying PCs can't take on leadership roles in the kingdom building minigame. If you want to, go ahead. I was just saying you don't need to build your background so that your character is designed as the perfect Magister, High Priest, Grand Diplomat, or whatever. Since there aren't any gaping holes in the kingdom leadership you don't need to worry about slotting in anywhere specific.

Barring her cohort, shes done.

Cohort wont be an active member. mostly for crafting, i can add stats if GM wants?

I am considering the Woodland Skirmisher archetype but I'm worried it's far too focused.

Would love feedback from both my fellow players as well as the GM. TIA!

I would say warden is also good. More fav terrain

And would work well if you plan Horizon Walker

But that's just what I like

Her leadership is not great. But I works for starting her own firearms business. 1 for major work and enchantments. And the rest basic craftsman and labour.

I think atm, with the bonuses from being in the kingdom. She has about 25 labourers/craftsmen and then her cohort. Should prob go dwarven wizard

I am considering the Woodland Skirmisher archetype but I'm worried it's far too focused.

Would love feedback from both my fellow players as well as the GM. TIA!

Seems to make sense if this is a forest campain!

Are we ready to move forward???

Elaina is!

Cenna I believe is ready to go!

Been a bit extra busy since the weekend, but I should be good to go shortly.

Let's give monkeygod through the weekend to get their PC ready and I'll put up the first IC post on Monday.

That will also give me time to run through 12 kingdom building turns. Anything you specifically want BP spent on other than the normal economy-building stuff? If you have lists, please go ahead and let me know here.

Questions for both the GM and Lord Christian(as it have been answered in game):

What's the deal with the three other groups that are also supposed to found fledging nations? I was thinking perhaps my PC could be a member of one of those groups and something happened that caused him to leave and eventually make his way to Charis?

Alternatively, maybe he was just among the original large gathering of 'heroes' and didn't make the cut, so he just 'hung around' the general area?

Also, considering the Woodland Skirmisher archetype is the generic name for the Nirmathi Irregular, would it be okay if I'm from Nirmathas?

Let's give monkeygod through the weekend to get their PC ready and I'll put up the first IC post on Monday.

That will also give me time to run through 12 kingdom building turns. Anything you specifically want BP spent on other than the normal economy-building stuff? If you have lists, please go ahead and let me know here.

I'm not too familiar with the rules, but I do like the idea, I posted it a few days ago, of a dedicated group of Wizards to create magic items and eventually to be utilized for defense, i.e. the War Wizards of Cormyr as an example. I presume that Lord Christian would also need to be on board for that plan.

Are we using EitR? Apparently, that was added post game start?

If we are doing a 12-month time jump. I was wondering if this would be enough time for me to build a military academy or should I use the downtime to do this? I have a large group of followers that theatrically be used to build this structure.

Same with Aldrea and her gun workshop

If allowed

Reusing this old alias.

I have a couple of feats I need to pick out, and spend my gold, but otherwise he's done.

In addition to my above questions, are we new players joining in after the 12 month time skip? Ie, we don't get to make use of that span for any downtime/KB activities?

Barring her cohort, shes done.

Cohort wont be an active member. mostly for crafting, i can add stats if GM wants?

If they're going to be Aiding your Crafting checks or Crafting on their own, at least generate their Int and relevant skills so I can see the mods.

Questions for both the GM and Lord Christian(as it have been answered in game):

What's the deal with the three other groups that are also supposed to found fledging nations? I was thinking perhaps my PC could be a member of one of those groups and something happened that caused him to leave and eventually make his way to Charis?

Alternatively, maybe he was just among the original large gathering of 'heroes' and didn't make the cut, so he just 'hung around' the general area?

I don't see any reason why your guy couldn't have been with the Varnlings, the group on the east side in the Nomen Heights. They're just mercs who were loyal to Maegar Varn, a nobleman adventurer. You could have had a disagreement or decided you wanted to do something else or wanted to have better opportunities somewhere else.

Also, considering the Woodland Skirmisher archetype is the generic name for the Nirmathi Irregular, would it be okay if I'm from Nirmathas?

Sure.

I'm not too familiar with the rules, but I do like the idea, I posted it a few days ago, of a dedicated group of Wizards to create magic items and eventually to be utilized for defense, i.e. the War Wizards of Cormyr as an example. I presume that Lord Christian would also need to be on board for that plan.

I'll work towards building a Magical Academy but they're expensive and you're still a very small kingdom.

Are we using EitR? Apparently, that was added post game start?

Yeah, looks like it.

If we are doing a 12-month time jump. I was wondering if this would be enough time for me to build a military academy or should I use the downtime to do this? I have a large group of followers that theatrically be used to build this structure.

Using Downtime? Maybe. You could try to simulate it out and see how far you get. Same for Aldrea.

I played out 12 kingdom turns and there haven't been enough BP to build a Military Academy yet, so it won't be reflected in the kingdom building system.

In addition to my above questions, are we new players joining in after the 12 month time skip? Ie, we don't get to make use of that span for any downtime/KB activities?

No, you can use the 12 months to calculate Downtime activities.

Monkeygod wrote:

Questions for both the GM and Lord Christian(as it have been answered in game):

What's the deal with the three other groups that are also supposed to found fledging nations? I was thinking perhaps my PC could be a member of one of those groups and something happened that caused him to leave and eventually make his way to Charis?

Alternatively, maybe he was just among the original large gathering of 'heroes' and didn't make the cut, so he just 'hung around' the general area?

I don't see any reason why your guy couldn't have been with the Varnlings, the group on the east side in the Nomen Heights. They're just mercs who were loyal to Maegar Varn, a nobleman adventurer. You could have had a disagreement or decided you wanted to do something else or wanted to have better opportunities somewhere else.

Actually, let's do this. Your guy was with a band of rangers who were Varnlings but broke off to help a group of settlers build their own town on the frontier up on the Nomen Highlands, with Varn's blessing (since he figured he'd eventually roll them up under his rule and wouldn't have to dedicate any resources to the town). This group worked for Varn as his field scouts and they called themselves the Foresthawks. Other than Zarrin there was Elyin, Dorin, Galadon, and Izora (all human rangers). Elyin decided to retire in that town and Zarrin moved west into the Greenbelt.

First IC post is up.

Apologies, everyone. Last Friday I closed on a new house and I've been spending most of my free-time between the two houses. I set up internet service on the new house last Monday and have been on the phone with Comcast all week trying to get things started, only to find out from tech support on Friday that they sent out a faulty modem. I have a technician coming out today to replace it and get me up and running.

Any suggestions on what to take for the Favored Enemy granted by the Hinterlander PrC?

In this AP you can't go wrong with fey, humans, and magical beasts.

I'm at a bit of a loss how to introduce her. Will post soon.

Also

Sorry

Seems all my chats were cleared. Didn't see any updates

Website wasn't cooperating. I'll try to get a post up either late tonight or in the AM.

Do you want those of us who are interested to make the relevant Capital raising rolls for the 12 months of downtime? Raising capital is half as expensive as buying it.

I love the idea of using the time skip to establish our characters in town. At least for Elaina it very much makes sense for her story, even if it doesn't really matter for gameplay.

^^ I second our priestess's above question regarding raising capital. I have a few skills that can be helpful there, especially Handle Animal.

Hope Elaina didn't scare anyone away :P

The disfigured human is just not a socialite :P not saying she's a loner. But this kind of event is NOT her scene

Ha ha! Def a good scene for the likes of Elaina though

I do not think anyone was scared off.
I hope at least.

Give it a minute and we'll have people scared off. ;)