IcedMik's page

My players love Kingmaker, but are less than pleased with Kingdom Turns. They want to love the system and don’t want to just handwave it out, but the turns take forever and the quieter players struggle to find a place to include themselves. As game developers, we decided to make house rules to simplify and enhance certain things, and well, it eventually ballooned out into the alternate ruleset before you. This is our Kingdom Rules Overhaul – or at least a synopsis of the overhaul. We plan on writing our full rewrite of the rules for Pathfinder Infinite, but wanted to get the forums’ opinions before finalizing any drafts. These rules are a fairly large departure from the rules as written; other rules notes in the forums have taken a conservative approach to rules changes, which may be better for some tables.

Generic Rules Changes and Philosophy

The philosophy behind these changes
* Streamline the phases and reduce rarely-taken actions.
* Reduce complexity of rules while maintaining impactful choices for the players each round.
* Balance skills and feats to be more equal in importance.
* Take advice from these forums regarding XP and Untrained Improvisation.
* Include advice on how to keep kingdom turns in-character and using roleplay over rules.

Rules Changes

Leadership Activities and Phases
Other than the Upkeep phase, the various phases have been merged into one Leadership phase. The Upkeep phase includes Commodity collection and consumption, but does not include RP gaining (this is now part of the Treasurer’s Collect Taxes activity, which is assumed to be taken every turn). It also always includes two Kingdom Events to be revealed before the Leadership phase. During the Leadership phase, all Leaders gain one Role Activity and one Leadership Activity from a role-specific list, which they can take in any order. Each role-specific list has one Role Activity and five Leadership activities.

The Role Activities are summarized here:
Counselor: For each settlement, you may attempt to build or demolish a structure.
General: For each army, you may take an Army activity.
Emissary: You may Trade Commodities to attempt to gain bonus Resource Dice next turn.
Magister: You may attempt to gain Intel (a general “Infilitration” style action)
Treasurer: You may Collect Taxes (which is now changed to not be limited to once every two turns. In addition, certain structures are tagged as “taxable;” when you roll a check to Collect Taxes, on a success or better, you add 1RP for every taxable structure in your kingdom). Or Tap/Restore Treasury.
Viceroy: Claim or Abandon one hex, Establish a Worksite/Farm, or Construct a Settlement
Warden: Build Roads, Build Bridge, or Fortify Hex.
Ruler: Take any one Role Activity from another leader. (If Building Structures, you may only build one Structure. If Commanding Armies, you may only command one army. If you Collect Taxes, you do not roll any Resource Dice, but can still gain bonus RP from taxable structures.)
– All Role Activities include “or gain 2RP” at the end as an option.

The Leadership Activities are fairly varied, with each leader gaining five choices of activities, four of which are based on specific skills. All require a skill check which results in similar results as the official rules. The whole list is under the cut.

In addition to their four skill-based activities, all leaders have “Resolve Event: Use one of your role-specific skills to solve an event.” Because two events are always rolled during the Upkeep phase, to avoid critically failing an event, at least two leaders must spend their Leadership activity on Resolving an Event.

This rules change standardizes the number of activities per turn, rather than giving fewer actions to small parties and incentivising large ones. It also reduces the complexity of going through each phase. The challenge in a Kingdom Turn is deciding who will take part in events and who will roll their skills. The Role Activities make each leadership role feel a bit more unique, as each player gets a specific job to do in the kingdom. The Ruler gets to feel a bit more like a proper leader with the unique ability to double up another leader’s Role Activity.

Additional Notes
These rules will need to come with a host of feat and structure changes, and the Army actions haven’t been touched yet as we haven’t yet started playtesting a war.

This was a huuuge post – what do people think? I’d love to hear opinions and suggestions, if this seems like a good plan or not?

Expanded Kingdom Rules: Courtiers

This is an idea me and my players came up with, to help solve a few of the kingdom rules' problems, and to do something interesting with the menagerie of NPCs they've collected. Essentially, the companions and important NPCs you meet can be recruited as members of the royal court. This becomes vital, as every kingdom action now requires a courtier to complete for you. Of course, courtiers have their own skills and specialties, which can help shore up a kingdom's weaknesses, but they are limited in number, and are never more skilled than a kingdom's specialties.

Some of the problems my group has with the kingdom rules:
* After the early game, the DCs for untrained skills become impossible to meet. In a party, this is fine because you have allies with their own skills -- but there's only one kingdom. This can lock away essential actions if you're not careful, or at the very least locks your kingdom into a certain direction.
* Many actions and buildings are locked behind skill trainings. Many buildings can only be build when trained in Industry, and you must be trained in Statecraft to send a diplomat (a prerequisite for trade agreements).
* Events have a single skill requirement, so eventually some events become instant failures. There's also no choices to be had with events.

Our solution is the Courtier System.
Courtiers are skilled NPCs that attends court when held by its leaders. Each Courtier is trained in two Kingdom skills, and has one special trait which grants them a bonus and/or penalty in certain situations. To complete any Kingdom Activity, you now must assign a Courtier to complete it. That Courtier's skill proficiency can be used for any Activity's proficiency requirements, and that Courtier's skill bonus can be used instead of the Kingdom's for that Activity. Once a Courtier has been used, they're unavailable to be used until the next Kingdom turn.

For example, your leaders decide to Trade Commodities, and are trained in Industry. They must send a courtier, but that courtier's skills don't necessarily matter since the Kingdom already has a high Industry rank; they decide to send Tristian. The leaders roll the skill check as normal.
Were they not trained in Industry, they could choose to send Jubilost instead. Since he's trained in Industry, the rulers can roll using Jubilost's bonus rather than the kingdom's. Though, if he's the only Courtier in the court with Industry, they might decide to hang on to him so they can use his proficiency to meet the requirements of a foundry.

Courtier Rules
Courtiers have courtier levels, which don't necessarily correspond with their character level (similarly to how a Barrister, a Creature -1, is considered a 4th-level challenge in legal matters). They also have an Ability Score Modifier of +2 (meaning they will never be better at the skills that are focused by the kingdom). They are trained in two kingdom skills; at 3rd level, one of these skills becomes Expert; at 7th level, that skill becomes Master while the other becomes Expert; and at 15th level that skill becomes Legendary while the other becomes Master.

Each also has one special trait which grants a +2 circumstance bonus to applicable rolls. For example, Amiri gains that bonus when dealing with Barbarians. This might be Warfare checks against Barbarians, trading with Barbarians, or hiring Barbarians as adventurers. GMs should try to let PCs come up with narrative reasons why a bonus might apply.

When choosing to use a Courtier's skill modifier, no Kingdom bonuses (such as item bonuses from buildings) apply; however, penalties such as Unrest DO apply.

At the start of your kingdom's creation, you begin with at least 8 courtiers in your court (even if that "court" only starts off as a couple logs around a campfire), and you can gain more as you progress through the story and befriend new people, or as the GM feels necessary. This pool is made up of Companions from the Companions guide, important NPCs you've met along the way, visiting representatives from other factions, future questgivers found in the book, backstory NPCs like family and friends, or just made-up-on-the-spot NPCs. Not everyone can be a Courtier; they must have some reason for being trained in a Kingdom Skill, but otherwise there is no limits to the number of Courtiers that a court can support.

At every kingdom level up, you gain two levels to give to Courtiers. A Courtier can't be levelled up beyond the Kingdom Level. In addition, players can choose a new "Kingdom Feat 3: Courtier Training. You gain four levels to give to Courtiers; this cannot level a Courtier above the Kingdom's level." The limit to levels means that keeping an eye out for new and talented Courtiers is always important.

Some example Courtiers
(Companions are set to Level 4 as it's assumed they're about the PCs level when the kingdom starts.

Amiri, Level 4, Warfare (Expert), Exploration (Trained). Bonus vs. Barbarians.
Linzi, Level 4, Arts (Expert), Magic (Trained). Bonus dealing with rumours.
Valerie, Level 4, Defense (Expert), Warfare (Trained). Bonus defending against attackers.
Nok-Nok, Level 4, Intrigue (Expert), Wilderness (Trained). Bonus vs. monsters.
Tristian, Level 4, Folklore (Expert), Scholarship (Trained). Bonus against curses.
Ekundayo, Level 4, Exploration (Expert), Wilderness (Trained). Bonus against giants and ogres.
Akiros Ismort, Level 3, Warfare (Expert), Folklore (Trained). Bonus against religious zealots.
Keston Garess, Level 3, Warfare (Expert), Defense (Trained). Bonus dealing with mercenaries.
Mikmek (Sootscale representative), Level 2, Intrigue (Trained), Engineering (Trained). Bonus with traps.
Chundis (Swamper), Level 1, Boating (Trained), Agriculture (Trained). Bonus in swamps.

In my player's kingdom, they have a few NPCs based on their backstories.
Eikadam Stonesplitter, dwarven niece of the ruler, trained for courts. Level 3, Politics (Expert), Statecraft (Trained). Bonus with laws and regulations.
Gramps, retired farm owner and warhorse trainer. Level 4, Wilderness (Expert), Agriculture (Trained). Bonus with trainable animals.
Andary Marsholm, de jure mayor of the capital. Level 3, Agriculture (Expert), Engineering (Trained). Bonus with residential districts.

Events

With these rules, you can also change up the Events system. In my game, we move random events to happen before the rest of the Kingdom Turn, while all Courtiers are active. I roll the events beforehand, make sure I come up with a specific narrative for it, and come up with a few ideas that Courtiers might have to solve them that don't necessarily use the same Kingdom skill that the event usually calls for. These solutions might even change the results or the difficulty of the roll. The players can choose which Courtier to send, or even come up with their own ideas.

For example: Nature's Blessing. A flock of rare red-breasted eagles has been spotted near the capital.
Linzi (Arts): Such beauty! Lets encourage painters to use eagle motifs as they make houses!
Tristian (Folklore): I know of a few deities which revere these birds. Let us celebrate those faiths for our people to see.
Amiri (Warfare): Huh, these used to be important to my tribe. We could make them a symbol for our troops. [+1 Event difficulty] (On success, gain a bonus instead to Loyalty instead of Culture)

Example 2: Monster Activity. A nomadic tribe of goblins has been raiding travelers through our woods.
Valerie (Defense). I will not allow this to stand. If they will not relent, they will fall to my blade.
Ekundayo (Wilderness). I can get us behind these goblins and scare them off, simple. [+1 event difficulty]
Nok-Nok (Intrigue). Hey, I think I know these guys! Maybe if I can get close enough without getting stabbed, I can get them to work for us [+2 event difficulty](On a success or critical success, you gain one goblin courtier).

Conclusion
What do people think? Having a handful of trained characters means a kingdom isn't locked away from things it isn't good at, and choosing which courtiers to send around to do various actions makes for a bit more dynamic kingdom turns.

I have a problem that might resonate with a few people here: my players know the story. Between playing the game and hearing stories about this classic adventure, they know everything Nyrissa has in store for them. Of course, they're great players, and aren't going to metagame with that knowledge, but my favorite part of GMing is player theorycrafting and end-game payoff when they realize you had something planned the whole time. So, I'm going to homebrew a lot of changes, and I'm hoping the people here can help me!

The below is inspired by several dozen posts from the 1e Kingmaker forums and various blogs, some over a decade old, so many I can't credit all of them - but I'd like to shout out DaddyDM's post mortem, Erik Freund's Venture Capital, Dudemeister's Monster Kingdom, and Redcelt's Game of Thrones. There's one post I couldn't find that suggested the Golushkin dwarves were in on the Vanishing, but I can't find it. Additionally, a looot of this is inspired by the various tips and hints hidden around the Paizo books intended to inspire your own creation.

My intentions with this are:
1. Deprioritize Nyrissa and make her less of the sole catalyst. Rewrite Chapters 10 and 11.
2. Bring back Choral the Conquerer, and solve the Vanishing and Skywatch's closure.
3. Upgrade Vordakai and Irovetti to be more integral (Vordakai more entrenched, and Irovetti less tied to Nyrissa).
4. Play up the civil war in Brevoy, the Mivonese Aldori, and more of the River Kingdoms.
5. Involve Yog-Sothoth's cult more directly.
6. Because one PC is a Golushkin dwarf/Garess scion, I want to involve Toval and the missing Golushkin clan, potentially related to Hargulka's dwarven ruins.
7. Because one PC is a changeling who wants a Calling storyline, I want to involve the Knurly Witch.
8. Potentially remove the entirety of Chapter 5 due to player lines/veils about diseases.
9. Tie the companions' adventures more directly into the plot.

This is...a lot. Maybe (definitely) too much. But I'm gonna try?

1. Deprioritize Nyrissa
She's going to be less of a final villain and more of a mid-game villain. She lives in the Thousandvoices forest rather than Thousandbreaths. Rather than the plotline of the Apology, her heart (Briar) is merely being held by Irovetti, and immediately after the players retrieve it, they can return it to Nyrissa or attempt to slay her with it.

So what is Nyrissa now, what're her actions and whats her motivation? I...don't really know, to be honest. As mentioned in point 8, I'm removing the Bloom entirely (very cool but not a great fit for my players). She's influenced the Stag Lord and Hargulka, but I'm not sure to what end.

2. Choral the Conquerer
Rather than Thousandbreaths, I want the ultimate extraplanar threat to be the return of Choral. Based on several clues in the books, and fan theories in several threads, I'm ruling that the Choral is indeed himself a red dragon. His original disappearance a century ago was to create his own demiplane in the Lake of Mists and Veils (similar to Thousandbreaths). For whatever reason, the demiplane is crumbling now (as evidenced by the Rogarvian artifacts appearing in the Lake, as of Lost Omens Legends)

To try and keep his demiplane intact, he uses ancient cyclops magic which requires him to sacrifice suitably royal blood, which is infused with the divine energy of those who are ruled. Ruthlessly, he sacrifices his own bloodline, thus causing the Vanishing of House Rogarvia. But because the Rogarvians ruled through fear rather than by respect, the ancient ritual didn't hold together long. By the time the players' kingdom has become a nation itself, he needs another sacrifice, one of royal blood who's subjects love them (a sort of parasitical divine magic), and turns to the player kingdom to sacrifice (though whether or not the players are playing noble heroes or tyrants doesn't matter).

As for Skywatch's closure, I'll list my ideas more in point 6.

3. Vordakai and Irovetti
How do we make these guys more integral than single-chapter villains?

For Vordakai, I think he's been awake for longer than the start of the campaign, over a century. He's trapped by Choral's magic, kept bound to his lair and magically restricted until Choral needs him. The ancient cyclopian magic that Choral uses was taught by Vordakai under duress. By chapter 6 though, Vordakai has gained some more freedom, enough to take over Varnhold. It seems like Varnhold's Vanishing mimics the Rogarvian Vanishing, though the whole town is taken rather than just a bloodline - perhaps only the Varn bloodline was used in the magic, but the rest of the townsfolk are just phylactery fodder. We can use this as hints for Choral as the final boss.

As for Irovetti, I...don't know. He's already a menace. Maybe the Rushlight Treachery could happen much earlier, staking him as military events earlier on so the PCs can use their armies. I will need to read the chapter more closely. But I do want to keep him in hold of Briar, and use Chapter 8 as a climax for Nyrissa's story. Perhaps afterwards, even Nyrissa could become an ally.

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I've got some more notes to get out my brain and onto paper, so I'll continue this another time. I'd extremely appreciate any notes, opinions, ideas, or links to threads for anything above! Thanks!

Hey, I wanted to give a shot at remaking the Stolen Lands map. This is hand drawn (well, in Clip Studio Paint) in Mike Schley's style. Each hex is 150px from edge to edge. The colour delineation should help if you're using the hexploration rules and need to know what kind of terrain something is. The only major gameplay difference between this and the official map is that I considered the the starting area as grasslands/gentle hills rather than full hills (though I think the official map was vague about it anyway).

https://i.imgur.com/gKe80ZS.jpg

In the hexploration and kingdom rules, "hills" are describes as difficult terrain in the mountain section. Assuming that dark green on the map represents hilly terrain, most of the starting area is very hard for new players to traverse. It's possible these rules refer mostly to mountainous hills and not the gentle hills of the Stolen Lands, especially since Plains and Hills are combined as a starting terrain -- is there any mechanical reason that the greenbelt and tuskwater could be gentle enough to not be difficult terrain (and vice versa; the Kamelands and Sellen Hills /are/ difficult terrain)? Will this cause any issues with armies and similar subsystems? This is probably an unimportant thing in the longrun, but in case I missed something in the book, I wanted to get as official as a clause as I could.

edit: I do see hill shadows on the map, but they don't seem to line up with the descriptions of each region.

Something I've wanted to do for a while is add more literary themes to my campaigns, something to center my story and anchor my ideas around. All RPGs have "good vs evil" kinda thing, and Kingmaker has several themes already, I'm just not great at identifying them. I want to make sure I /do/ define them though, because my group is very interested in RPing the kingdom and I want to challenge them on this RP basis.

Because building a kingdom is inherently political, I want to emphasize that I am avoiding any modern takes on ideological themes. I've had a conversation with my group about this - Kingmaker takes place in a fantasy world where Good Kings make their kingdoms thrive, and there's no global corporations or human atrocities happening behind the scenes. We're all fairly active politically, but we want to play RPGs where a child's understanding of the world is true. All of this is to say - be very careful using any of this, talk to your players, use safety tools, and try not to think about (gestures at everything).

The Land Needs No Kings. This is like the classic "power corrupts" theme, but with a twist of society itself being corrupting (oh jeez, what did I just say last paragraph!). The line "This Land Needs No Kings" is spat by Oleg, and echoed by various folk in the lands (I'm dotting safer areas with small, unnamed 3-4 family thorpes). This means, if there were no "lords" around, the Stolen Lands would be peaceful. They want to be left alone.

Society in this instance is the Stag Lord, Irovetti, Drelev, Armag, Vordakai - all human (well, and cyclops but they're the humans of their time) and all tyrants. I'm going to echo this with Brevoy and Mivon, with Brevic backstabbing and Mivonese infighting causing many of their people to risk joining the heroes' kingdom.

Hargulka (who for some reason - even a decade ago when running the hot-off-the-presses original - I thought was female until writing this) is a queen of trolls (and I'm homebrewing it to be true). As written, she'll take over the countryside and grind bones for bread, but I'm going to change it. Even with Nyrissa's (undefined) influence, she wants a safe place for monsters hunted away by Swordlords. Gurija, who I'm changing to a Mivonese hobgoblin who learned Aldori dueling but was never accepted in society, convinces her that the PC's kingdom is worth eating.

As for the Sootscale Kobolds, they're corrupted by Tartuccio, and otherwise content warring with mitflits (which isn't great but at least they aren't inflicting tyranny elsewhere); and the Greengripe Goblins are pretty chill before the cult. It's big society's influence that corrupts these peoples, who are otherwise content to get along with their lives.

For the Kingdom, the PCs will need to make sure they're different. Of course they're not tyrants, but I'll be making sure to flavor all applicable events with difficult choices they must make; sacrifice their own power to do what's best for the kingdom. Only then will they be able to provide something more to the people of the Stolen Lands.

Whisperers Behind the Throne. Less of an ideological theme and more of just a recurring thing - almost all of the villains are being manipulated by another force. In fact, so are the PCs being manipulated by Nyrissa! Most of them are manipulated by Nyrissa, but Armag has the Sisters, Hargulka has Gurija, Foras has, uh, Yog-Sothoth.

Not only are the players manipulated by Nyrissa, but I'm going to have the Lantern King play more of a role, if hidden. He whispers in the heroes' ears in the form of an old poem, which reaches the ears of the PCs through dreams, found tomes, that pesky golden gnome, or even Linzi having a strange spark of imagination. As the Lantern King is fey, and has a different perception of time than we do, he foretells the "Ten Trials" that all kings go through (that doesn’t make sense, but hey, fey). This is meant to guide the players somewhat, for mercurial reasons, which Nyrissa has no clue about.

Each of the ten verses below relates to the first ten chapters, and is revealed to the PCs shortly before the important part of their corresponding chapter. Right before the Black Tears attack Jamandi, right before heading into the cradle at the breach, after the heroes retake Briar, etc. The second verse does differ in that it covers all of Ch 2. (Also, I really hope that people like this. I spent a LOT of time getting the right poetic meter going, and even got a subscription to a Shakespearian website to get appropriate archaic words!)

The Ten Trials

'Fore the iourney yet enkindles, likely rulers sup and mingle,
knowing not the night's devices, lie abed with hopes beleev'd.
Yet the sable princes countlesse, spilling blood with daggers soundlesse,
hale our crownes unto the fire: lo, the kingdome is conceiv'd.

Commer crownes explore their holdings, new foundations thus unfolding.
They emboss a vicious hart to fashion footeholds 'pon his grave.
Battle won, the fog reveales just whose life our heroes steale -
scarcely but a namelesse childe; lo the kingdome's start is paved.

Arest with structured walls surrounding, newfound barons their lands counting.
Beurocratical adventures, toyling whilst their foes dost wake.
Ferret fiends whose shadowes skitter: dragon false and scorn'd thieves bitter,
fire-brands, Moone sins, heibarr's bane; lo, the kingdome's fortune makes.

'Twixt the challenge prior facing, to our noblest word debasing,
from the thicket storme-sway'd fiendfolk gath'ring up corival sortes.
Follow'd fast by blinded mourner, shivers homesteades, mowes street corners;
making rivers redly runneth; lo, the kingdome's road contorts.

Seedes of ruin subtly spreading, threatning like to peace beheading.
Mothers's canker waxing so to spreade its way through stock and stone.
As it reaches full bloome's upsets, heroes venge their fallen subiects
thin the cradle at the breach; lo the kingdome's seedes are sown.

When an innocent young questant finds betray-ed emp'ror restant,
wicked wakes and breakes entombment; ravens rivals midst one night.
Heroes parley moone-lit guardants; past their datelesse vigil ardente;
Smash the cyclop't throne of bones; Lo the Kingdome's future's sight.

Reborne warlord steales obeisance of the cravven prince complacence;
Gives affiance to his thrall's oath, flies to brooke his forebear's brawne.
Weary rulers buckler legions, hew the twice-born tyrants's heathens
Trading blood for blood as forehand, Lo the kingdome dusks its dawn.

Favoured bastard, treachrous rival; wishing fortune's swifte revival
Sealed away the fool queen's bosum; flouting stocke, her trust begrudged
Hero lords o'rtake his nation -- Infiltration! Liberation!
Once their castle singly stands; LO the kingdome's worthe is iudged

Long past, deathless stove off timeless; eld verse new, divinely crimeless.
She, new goddess, stone plug sealed off; compassed warring factions bothe.
If the hero lords determine; watcher foes hear gravely sermone,
or they say not, either way; lo the kingdome seales its oath.

Measured goode with en'mies foyle; her fair heart strews cross the soyle
All at once, the land embraces as she breaths a thousand breaths.
Watch the sins past fly the sweete breeze; hark the angels singing how these
stolen lands are stolen no more; lo the kingdome lastly rests.

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So, what do people think? Any themes that you all are putting in your campaigns?

Kingmaker is huge. Between Chapter 2, the Kingdom rules, the Companion Guide, and the rest of the book, there is a LOT of overlapping events and quests. For my game, I decided to try and list out every single thing I might want to remember, by level. This doesn't include the events of Chapters 3-11, assuming you'll be reading those to prepare for your game -- but it does include every other event and timed note I could find. There's doubtless several things missing, but I'm sure others will comment below.

These are split up by level. They may have a prerequisite, and will have a page number (Companion Guide is prefixed CG), then the header or note. Below that is events tied to Kingdoms. I do list the first time that a companion has a quest or rare thing, but you should check each companion every level for potential upgrades.

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Level 1
• Campaign begins.
• Chapter 1. Meet Amiri, Linzi, Harrim, Jaelthal, Valerie
• 53; Oleg's Trophy, Radish Soup, Svetlana's Ring, Wanted: Kobolds, Wanted: Tuskgutter, Wanted: Bandits.
• If Amiri is companion: CG10, The Blade's Legacy, before "Blood Calling" can begin at any point. Also, she may want to fight Tuskgutter (CG12)
• If Linzi is made friendly; CG46; Special Training

Level 2
• 55; Quest: Gathering Fangberries
• 67; Quest: Davik's Revenge
• First time back to Oleg's; 54; Keston arrives. Quest: Find Falgrim
• After meeting Keston; 54; Jhod arrives Quest: Visions of the Elk
• Before facing Stag Lord; CG57; should meet Nok-Nok
• Temple of the Elk; CG 69, Meet Tristian
• Any point: CG102-104; Meet Octavia and Regongar.

Level 3
• 70, 75, 77; Quests: Wanted: Shamblesap, Tomb Treasure, Black Rattlecaps.
• Before driving out Stag Lord; CG25, A Score to Settle (Meet Ekundayo)
• After driving out Stag Lord; TW1 and TW2 (Meet Jubilost) available
• If Tristian is companion; CG71 Tristian can teach followers of Sarenrae.
• If Octavia is Influence 4, and the party can cast 4th-level spells while at character level 3; CG103 Special Training?

4th level
• Amiri, Ekundayo, Jubilost; Special Training/Items
• 79; Wrath of the Scythe Tree
• 188-198; Events: The Slain Townsfolk, The Rabble Rouser, Desperate Spies (200: Suggests 5th level), Cult of Gyronna
• 198-199; Minor Events: Founding of Tatzlford, Return of the Black Tears, Troll Sightings (200; Suggests 5th Level), Weird Gnome
• After Kingdom starts: CG98 Can meet the Twins. Special Training available immediately.
• (Personal suggestion: Foreshadow Amiri's cult of personality)

5th Level
• 74; Wanted: Howl-of-the-North-Wind
• Forgotten Keep, if rumour gets out PCs exploring here; 515; A Lady's Desire
• Forgotten Keep, if cleared; 153; Kyonin elves may make request
• If Nok-Nok is companion; preferably between Hargulka and the Beast; CG61 Heroes or Gods?
• If Harrim is Influence 6; CG95; Special Training

6th Level
• If Amiri is a companion; CG10; Monster Hunt
• If Ekundayo is a companion; CG27 A Feast of Feasts
• 81 85; Quests Mmm Eels, Wanted: Manticore, Wanted: Flame Drake
• When Chapter 5 begins: 105, refugees enter DR4.
• 217, Increase random encounters.

7th Level
• 87 Wanted: Spidersilk
• Forgotten Keep, if cleared and settlement built; 153 Dancing Lady may return
• Spend a day in a settlement while Linzi is in kingdom; CG47 To Ask for Forgiveness
• If Valerie is friendly, CG84 Valerie's gifts.
• If Jaethal is Influence 8; CG96; Special Training
• After learning of Varnhold vanishing: 527; A Missing Professor

8th Level
• 90; The Nomen problem
• If Jubilost is a companion, pref just after Ch 5 resolves; CG36; Jubilost's The Inconsequent Debates

9th Level
• XX, The Ghost Stone War
• 99; Dragonfly Cloak
• If Valerie has joined the kingdom; CG85, False Faces

10th Level
• 103: Wanted: Slug Spit
• If Garuum is brefriended: 64, Garuum's Revenge
• 101, Save the Bog Strider
• 159, Sepoko's Vengeance
• When about to reach 11th level, if Amiri is companion; CG13, Blood Calling
• If Linzi's quest was successful; CG54, Linzi's unique structure available
• If Tristian is companion, after Vordakai but before Ch7; CG72 Kingdom of the Cleansed

11th Level
• 104, Wanted: Speartooth
• Amiri companion; CG13, Amiri reminds party of Blood Calling
• If Regongar is Influence 6; CG104 Special Training

13th Level
• If Sootscale Cavern is part of the kingdom; 131; Old Sharptooth Comes
• If Amiri is companion; CG10; Barbarian Immigrants

15th Level
• 110, The Eater of Kings
• CGXX, Amiri's unique structure available

16th Level
• If you designed your own adventure to split the Twins; CG101; Separating the Twins (Forefather)

17th Level
• 113, Numerian Trade
• 114, Mammoth's Shame
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Once Kingdom is built
• CG98; Can meet the twins
• During First Month; 521; A Missing Brother
• If cleared Temple of the Elk; 62 Can attempt to restore

Construction/Claims
• Lumberyard, lumber camp, or claim forest; xx; I Swear I'm Sober
• Manor, Craft Luxuries, or explore Forgotten Keep: 515; A Lady's Desire
• Academy or Museum; 529 Forgotten History
• Noble Villa; 535 Chasing the Wind
• Three breweries; 542 Drunken Heroes
• Any hex swamp in Hooktongue: 533 Bog Mummy
• Linzi's Printing Press; CG54; Local Paper and Special Edition

Kingdom Level
• 7th, and before Rushlight Tournament; 523; Catching a Cheat
• 9th; 525; Omelet King
• 13th; 529 Strange Vegetation
• 17th; 545 A Flying Owlbear

SoT Book 1 looks amazing! Looks like it really brings RP to the forefront. Beginning with Teacher Ot giving a character interview, almost creating a Session Zero. There seems like a lot of value in just letting your PCs explore and interact with the university and city at large, perfect for players wanting to interact with NPCs and long-term goals without skimping too much from traditional adventuring.

Unfortunately, there's a few drawbacks. Limited page counts and different authors per chapter means a lot gets left unsaid. The book implies a lot about the next chapter and school as a whole with precious few details. Things that PCs could interact with, like more teachers or locations, are listed in Key Names and the campus map, without description. Normally, these can be improvised, but the adventure text occasionally has important information explained later. For example, if the Tree Stump Library wasn't described until book 2, you wouldn't know that it's abandoned and your improv might ruin a major part of the adventure.

While the NPCs are very well fleshed out, and the downtime studying subsystem is pretty cool looking, there isn't much guidance on how to describe it. It seems easy to hand-wave over what is ostensibly the point of this AP - to experience a magical university! This post is my notes for extra content I'd like to include in my game, since I'm terrible at adlibbing descriptions. None of this is actually tested, and including too much might slow the pacing too much, so grain of salt!

Downtime Revisited
The downtime rules are fairly loose and open-ended, allowing you to work into the story as you see fit. But I'm playing Pathfinder; I want crunch. Here's my thoughts for a bit more of a regimented system.

A year is broken into three terms, which are broken into four month-long segments. The general flow of the game is a month-by-month telling. Most of the month is dedicated to attending classes, working on perquisites, and other day-to-day activities (including NPC vignettes and general adventure content!) For each month, you gain seven additional days of free downtime activities, such as crafting, retraining, extracurricular clubs, etc. In addition, once per term, you can spend 14 days of downtime to make an Academic Check (Study, Cram, Practical Research). This means normally you get 14 days of free downtime, but forgoing studying for a term gives you a full 28 days.

Example: At the first month of their third term, after a few weeks of classes and competing in the Starday tournament, the GM tells the players they have seven days of downtime. Tsige chooses to study for his primary branch; nothing happens yet as he needs to spend another seven days before getting to make his branch's skill check. Quilla, having critically succeeded last term's study check, spends the seven days crafting some potions, but puts off finishing them so she can spend more time reducing their cost. Uruueda decides to take part in the school's rowing club, and the GM has them roll an Athletics check (they critically succeed and win a few races; the GM decides some of the NPCs take them more fondly and gives them a +1 circumstance on checks with them).

Extracurriculars
There's more to college than classes. With a diverse student body, any type of clubs might exist for PCs to join. These are intended to be activities during free downtime, taking place throughout the month, and are supposed to give opportunities to interact with NPCs and the city at large. In general, a PC can spend a few days at a club to make a skill check for a small benefit. Here's a couple examples, but any hobby a PC might have can be a great activity!
- Rowing Club. The Magaambya Magical Rowing Club is one of the dozens in Nantambu (LO:ME pg 237), and are trying to perfect wind spells to move more efficiently in the water. The captain of the club has learned that Haibram's specialty is air magic and desperately wants him to join, but Haibram is reluctant as the skies are more his thing. If a PC can recruit Haibram (possibly with the promise of dangerous tricks), the rowing club will be incredibly pleased. Regardless, winning races through skill checks slightly improves the attitude of any boat racing fan in Nantambu.
- Kickball Club. A non-magical club that competes with others in town. Okoro is a member, but routinely loses interest before big games. A member who can re-spark his interest can guarantee a victory, or at least improve the opinions of the children around town.
- Sparring Club. Dedicated to being prepared for physical fights, this club routinely finds guest speakers who can begin to teach all sorts of uncommon and advanced weapon proficiencies to dedicated students that spend a few weeks training. Esi, Mariama, and Haibram are members, and appreciate anyone who puts in the effort to learn rare weaponry.
- Culinary Club. A club dedicated to rare spices and teas abound in Nantambu. Skill in this club will allow one to make great treats and feasts for celebrations - everyone eats, so this is one of the easiest ways to endear yourself to any NPC. This is one of the few clubs to attract the introverted Tzeniwe and reclusive Anchor Root, and quiet PCs can impress them.
- Brewers' Club or Artificers' Club. These clubs give PCs a chance to meet NPCs while doing crafting activities. Mariama and Chizire often teach how to make alcoholic elixirs, and Noxolo or Anchor Root might be in an artificer's club. This is also great place to trade formula
- Religious Service. Temples of all sizes dot the streets of Nantambu, and many serve in various capacities. Pious students that join a religious community may find discounted healing or salves for maladies that the Magaambya isn't as well equipped to cure; and some may find some minor blessings.
- Performers, Buskers, and Bands. Many Nantambiyan musicians would jump for a musically talented mage, and theater troops could use some extra sparkle to their performances. Students who join a local band could gain some modest wealth and fame in town.
- Cryptic Circle. A secret society dedicated to deciphering strange codes appearing all around the base. Of course, these are actually Ignaci's notes, as listed in his section.
- Romance. Not a club, per se, but as this campaign could represent a decade or more of the PCs lives, this might be a good adventure for finding (or starting with) spouses, or having children.

Extra Reading
One of my players had an interesting idea; take text from various pathfinder lore books to condense into a little printout/handout that players can read between sessions, if they're interested. I've been copying text from PDFs into a document and plan to distribute them slowly over the next few chapters. This also lets me foreshadow some places and people that will come later on.
While I can't fully copy the notes here as they're from book text, here's a list of some stuff to include.
- Any lore on gremlins.
- LO: Legends - Description of Old-Mage Jatembe and the Ten Magic Warriors, and one of his stories.
- LO: Mwangi Expanse - Lots of great material on the various peoples and their magics.
--Hints of the Doorway to the Red Star's location.
--Mentions that to protect anadi students, the teachers spread stories of Grandmother Spider and helpful spirits disguised as spiders for millennia.
- LO: Gods and Magic describes Grandmother Spider.
- PCS: Distant Worlds - Descriptions of other planets. Good place to foreshadow Akiton.
- PCS: Inner Sea World Guide - I haven't read this, but it seems like a good place to find information about the two kingdoms that were destroyed by the Eye of Abendego, as the 'Knights of Abendego' appear in book 3.
Presumably Secrets of Magic will also have a lot of lore to utilize, once it's out.

More NPC Vignettes
The book has four assignments for teachers, and five short prompts for RP activities with their peers. I don't know if adding any more than this will drag out the campaign too much, but at the very least I want a few more ideas for other students. These are all largely inspired by the Students of the Magaambya section.

Okoro - Game Night In Nantambu. Every two weeks, Okoro drags up the PCs and 2-3 other people in for a game night. You must bet silver, school supplies, formulas, favors, or secrets. Other students can bet the same things, though generally not their specialty item. In particular, if using the monthly classes above, characters can gamble for downtime days (in the form of chores or favors) to gain extra time each month.

Tzeniwe, Noxolo, Ignaci - Fashion Club. The three have been designing new fashions, and want the PCs to try them on. These designs have some minor flaws (Tzeniwe's rain slicker is so bulky that your speed is reduced by 5ft; Noxolo's outfit is avant-garde, but the face-covering makes you effectively dazzled; and Ignaci's costume is quite revealing and requires a free hand to be used to keep from showing one's unmentionables). They ask they spend the day wearing them, responding to any complaints by saying they just need to be broken-in a bit. Of course, this happens to line up with a day that requires checks...

Tzeniwe - Scavenger Hunt. This is particulary useful if the PCs haven't explored all of the dorms. Tzeniwe would like to hide treats for her children around the dorm. However, the kids have been getting very talented at finding her tells and can often spot them based just on how her eyes move. She gives the PCs six small toys to hide around the dormitory anywhere as long as it doesn't bother the other students. The kids like the rafters (they have a climb speed) so they shouldn't hide too many there.

Any student - Rivalry. When it comes to specialties, many students have a competitive nature, or at least a panic response when they see someone exceed their skills. These might be a students' favored type of magic, a particular hobby, or a sport or skill they are proud of. Once they've identified a PC as matching their talent, there's lots of ways this could manifest; challenges, rudeness, support...

MINOR INTERACTIONS
These are simple descriptions to throw around between other things. Many of these are just quirks in their character descriptions, but it helps me to put them in a list.
- Esi mentions her mother is a Tempest-Sun Mage. It's clear she idolizes her.
- Esi is carrying books about foreign policy and military defense; she gives one to the PCs to learn from, if they're interested in warfare.
- Esi and Okoro have a feud about footracing.
- Someone asks Esi about her date last night. Esi says the guy was not nearly ambitious enough.
- Ignaci leaves some notebooks in the main room, all written in secret code.
- Mariama likes linguistics, and asks to hear any strange accents or languages the PCs might speak.
- If anyone asks Tzeniwe where the father is, she's a bit offended and growls that she ate him.
- Tzeniwe has themed outfits for classes. She's willing to make some for close friends.
- Tzeniwe leaves small gifts outside the new students' rooms; a fist-sized box of candied cherries, a woven sun-hat, a handpainted clay bowl for leshies to bathe in, and a small tin of wood polish.
- Ignaci is terrorizing Okoro with butterflies in a net in order to get him to leave him alone.
- Rumours from Okoro that Teacher Ot's kindly wholesome image is hiding a dark secret. Mariama fully disagrees, which surprises people as she's normally open to conspiracies.
- Chizire is spotted sleeping in a courtyard lecture. He wakes up to answer a question and immediately goes back to sleep.
- Chizire and Mariama are hammered on their latest attempts to brew moonshine; they believe they can see spirits, but it's just an effect of not cleaning the equipment after alchemical experiements.
- Noxolo is found spacing out, staring at dust motes. If the PCs interact, or just walk away, she starts and says she was trying to read the spirits around, but they all seem to be insects.
- Noxolo's snabble has figured out how to open doors and sneaks into rooms at night for food scraps.

Nantambu Sights and People
The PCs have several days in the city, not to mention 44gp burning a hole in their pocket. Even though they're on business, there's always a chance for a few extra good deeds. The Nantambu section of LO:Mwangi Expanse is the best source for these, but here's a couple extra ideas.

MEETING LOCALS (all described in LO:ME)
- BEFORE THE MASK CEREMONY: Teacher Ot suggests the PCs take some woodworking lessons. If asked why, he grins and pats the mask on his hip, saying "oh, who knows what the near future will bring." He points them to Goana (LO:Mwangi Expanse 245). She happily gives students (rates comped by the university). If any PCs are foreigners, she excitedly tells them she has some wood from their home country if they wish to take it. Meet with Goana (LO:ME 245) in Nantambu. If any PCs are foreigners, she's excited that she has some wood from their home country. Her help will let the
- Okoro is inspired by Anchor Root's chicken, Mariama's monitor lizard, Noxolo's snabble, and any of the PCs' familiars. He wants to go into town to buy a familiar, and has heard of Oba Eze (LO:ME 246)'s rare creatures. He asks the PCs to come with him into town to help him pick one out. Of course, Oba snubs them and becomes furious if argued with.
- LO:ME describes glass charms on every window and door; presumably even Spire Dormitory is covered in them. A glassmaker or woodworker's wares might include charms in the shape of PC or NPC interests, would make an excellent personal accessory or gift for a dormmate.

GIVING AID
Give the PCs opportunities to use their cantrips and skills to help the populace. If the PCs are wearing their beads, townsfolk may politely ask for aid.
- The canvas roof of a food vendor's cart ripped and spilled a pool of rainwater over the grill. The vendor has been struggling to relight the wet coals. He sheepishly asks the PCs if they have any spells to light fires.
- A trio of buskers, a mbira-player and two dancers, have a hushed argument about where their fourth is. The dance doesn't work without the beat of a drum (or, whatever instrument a PC might play)
- Someone splashed into water getting onto a wherry, and could use a prestidigitation to get dry.
- A pet is hiding under some scaffolding. A ghost sound might coax them out.

Missing Information
There's a lot of locations and people that are missing descriptions. I'm hoping some writers can shed some light on these things, because there are instances where important descriptions can be found in later books (such as a building being ruined), so we can't know what's free for us to play with. A few of them have one-sentence descriptions, others are just "this is where you can find Takulu." It seems like a lot of these should be described in the Players' Guide, but I don't see them anywhere. I don't want to foreshadow things without knowing if they have a concrete description later. While some of them might be described in later books, a few of them are actively visited in this book without description.
- Warden House
- Archhorn Library (has "imposing entrance" but no other description, except an offhand mention that the building hasn't been used for its intended purpose)
- Heron Archives
- Elephant Museum
- Verdant House
- The Between
- Whistle Tower
- Shifting Greenhouse
- Indigo Hall
- Sun Dormitory
- What are the First Ten Buildings (Heron Archives is one)?

There are also some people that would be good to know about. There are five "learned ones" that lead each of the Magaambya's branches. We learn who the Uzunjati's branch leader, but none of the others.
- The five learned ones.
- Teachers Izem Mezitani, Lesedi, Nhyira, Tahenkot. Likely described in later books, but if they are teaching classes, it'd be nice to foreshadow their input.

So, there's a few places in AoE where treasure is given in the form of pre-filled Spellstrike Ammunition. Except that it seems to be impossible, given that activated ammo needs to be activated on the turn its used. My assumption is the adventure's writers misunderstood the rules (or the rule writers mistakenly put "activated" in the ammo and haven't fixed it yet).

Is there any good ideas on how to replace these? In particular, there's a few creatures (Diobel Sweepers, Bloody Berleth) who use these in combat, and I don't know if running the combat with them as mundane arrows would nerf them. Should I allow them to be used like the book implies, or should I swap them out with something?

So I'm taking over my party's game starting with book 2, and I'm wondering how I can foreshadow some of the later events, or at least make sure certain events and people are given more prominence so they have more weight behind them later. Of course at the time of writing we can only talk up to book 4 and speculate on the rest.

1. In book 4, Wynsal Starborn makes a big request from the party. I am going to have him stop into the PC's station after they deal with Hendrid, passing by on his way to Starwatch Keep (and maybe a description of Starwatch), and thanks them directly for a job well done. I'd think he is one of the few people that makes Lavarsus sweat, so it might be a treat for the players. Book 1 mentions Wynsal is enthusiastic about restoring the Precipice Quarter.

2. In the Campaign Summary, it hints that Olansa Terimor has the stolen excavator, Graveraker. We'll want to really play up that it's missing in book 1, and keep bringing it up. The news chides Edgewatch for not having a lead, maybe Skinny (from the Faces of Edgewatch in book 1) is assigned to it and asks the PCs to watch out for any information at all.

3. Similarly, we want to mention Olansa Terimor early on. She's the City Planner in book 1, though not really mentioned outside of The 4720 AR Radiant Festival, and Chapter 1 where she was part of convincing the Grand Council to resurrect the Precipice Quarter. She might be seen walking the streets with a small retinue, mentioning...something?

4. Book 5's boss, Reginald Vancaskerkin, shows up in Book 1, and is mentioned in Book 2 as someone seeking an exclusive scoop. He should show up fairly regularly, perhaps giving them clues to certain adventures. While it would be fun to have him writing the PCs as idiots and twisting their words, I think he needs to be fairly endearing to the players. The Eyes on Absalom HQ is in the wise quarter -- without book 5, we can only speculate how it's connected to the story, so to be safe we should try and avoid the PCs going there, unless 5 has a description where they won't find out his secrets. He might set up a temporary office in a covered carriage near the edgewatch station. (Maybe it's drawn by a horse with a ginger mane, called "Red Top")

Any other suggestions?

I've been brainstorming a bit about the flavour of the circus itself. It's such a unique setup with so many cool characters, it feels a waste not to use them to their full potential. Personally, as a GM I like to have prompts ready for NPC conversations. Nothing too intense, just putting slightly more thought in them than I'm capable of at the table. These are a bunch of mine, just to flesh out the circusfolk a bit more, so there's always something happening when the PCs come back to base camp.

As we know, there's little written about the performer NPCs, so I've given them some backstories. These are obviously non-canon, and I may have missed an important detail in the books somewhere.
----------

So, I'm moving away next month, and going to be starting Skull & Shackles with some old friends of mine. This gives me a lot of time to prepare. I'm currently borrowing one of my players' S&S books, and reading through all of them when I've got the time, as well as pouring through each chapter's official thread.

Seeing as I've got so much time to prepare, I wanted to ask you guys if there's anything you wish you'd have done in your games. If there's anything I need to foreshadow, or any rule systems that need tweaking (I'm reading that the rum rations can kill off characters, if used RAW). Also, I'm going to look through the forums for suggestions of good supplements and tools, such as NPC spreadsheets, so if you guys know of any off hand that might have fallen off the first couple pages, let me know.

I'm sure a lot of the foreshadowing plot lines will become more obvious when I've finished reading through the books, but I wanted to ask beforehand so I can keep an eye out for specific things.

Thanks in advance!

So, we are mid-RRR, I'm about to run some of the forum's ideas on the lizard chief and Hargulka.

My players' kingdom is incredibly stable right now, and it seems to stem from their lack of expansion. They have 12 hexes total, and have all but filled their capital with buildings, many of them upgraded to their highest version.

Their Control DC is 34 (12 hexes, 2 districts), Economy 45, Loyalty 33, Stability 37.

Is this normal? They can't fail any of the rolls, unless I count a crit fail on Loyalty, and even then they reach it.

I've built a kingdom sheet in google spreadsheets here:
LINK
(I could have used one of the ones already on these forums but by the time I found them, I was half done my own)

The first tab is the Kingdom Sheet. The top is a reference, and if you scroll down a bit you can see all the calculations. (There's also the settlement magic item slots, which should be on the settlement sheets, but to keep the reference easy, I left it here).
The next two towns are settlement sheets, merely to calculate any buildings and building bonuses in those towns.

Really, the players could just be doing very well, focusing on keeping their kingdom stable before expanding, but at the same time, I worry that I'm not challenging them enough when any possible bad event can be defeated regardless of difficulty.

I've got two questions that came up recently. We've just finished book 1 and are moving onto book 2, ending the last game with a few turns of kingdom building.

With my game, I'm trying to involve the character's back stories and personalities as much as possible. One of the characters is a druid, though, and I've never dealt with any druid lore in either Pathfinder or D&D. Does anyone have any suggestions how a druid would affect a player-made kingdom? Or any reasons why a druid would want to be a leader in an urban environment? We've discussed it a bit and she's tasked as a sort of spiritual adviser for druidic interests, but I don't know enough about druids to come up with any events tailored for her. How have people handled their druids in their games?

My other problem is that not only did they save Auchs in the Stag Lord's fort, but they made him the Enforcer due to his strength. He's cruel, and incredibly dumb, but I'm actually stumped how I want to portray him. I could play up the cruelty and have him do something like execute some townsfolk who look at him wrong. Or I could make him secretly sensitive and redeemable; the King has a son of 5, so maybe the son and Auchs could bond over knight and dragon toys... Anyone have any ideas?

Hey guys. I'm about to GM our first Kingmaker session in a week. I recently got all 6 books in the mail, and I've been pouring over them. We recently put Crimson Throne on hiatus because we were getting into a lull, and Kingmaker seemed to fit my group much better.

I hadn't found the forums when I started CotCT, and I didn't know about all the excellent community created expansions and ideas until it was too late for a lot of it. I don't want to make that mistake with Kingmaker, but I'm running out of time. I hate to ask others to do the work for me, but I'm already overwhelmed trying to read all 6 of the books before the first session, and I don't have time to crawl through thousands of pages of forums.

So my question is: what do you GMs think are the best user-made materials in the forums? There are pages and pages of great material here, but I don't have time to read them all. Are there any materials that are instant classics?

Additionally, just in general, do you guys have any tips for a new KM GM? Thanks in advance for any help, and I'm sorry this thread doesn't really contribute anything to the KM forums. (Maybe this thread will become a good directory for the most popular add-ons?)

So I'm GMing an adventure path right now with some more experienced players. It's going really well, but they're getting really good at wiping the floor with spellcasters and interrupting spells.

Whenever they encounter a spellcaster, they do their best to disrupt spells. Archers ready attacks for when they see an enemy cast a spell. Melee guys ready charges for the same thing. The wizard uses counterspelling awesomely.

In this next chapter, there's some spellcasters that are supposed to be more of a pain, with combat experience in their back stories.

I love my players and I think their tactics are great, and the last thing I want to do is punish them with cheap tricks. However, they haven't yet come across a spellcaster that's given them any trouble. I was wondering if I'm missing any rules that spellcasters can use to defend themselves. I don't want to play dirty, but my players are using the rules to great effect and I want to see if I can do the same.

I have spellcasters that use more defensive spells, and position themselves to get cover. When in melee, I know about the defensive casting rules. However, are there any other ideas on how to avoid spell interruption?

Hey, I'm running my players through the labyrinth next session. I've been searching the forums for some tips on how to run it, but I wanted to ask if anyone has run it more recently, and what they've done?

For our tabletop, we use maptools on my TV in my living room. For the rotations, I'm planning on manually covering everything with fog of war, swapping the map (I made versions of the map with the four rotations, since the only other ones I could find weren't snapped to a grid) then revealing it again, since I can't use VBL with the rotations.

I don't really have any specific questions. I'm just slightly overwhelmed by the whole thing, since it seems like the combination of Vimanda disguised as Vencarlo, mixed with Sivit and the traps, could make running this incredibly complicated, but there only seems to be one or two paragraphs about the whole encounter with her.

The AP says she (as Vencarlo) will try to convince the party that Bahor sent them here to die; however, the party doesn't know Glorio is anything other than Glorio. Does Vimanda reveal that Glorio is a rakshasa?

I'm fairly confident I can run with what I've got, but any tips or experiences (other than what's already posted in the forums) would be very helpful!

So. Player joining my campaign at level 7. His character concept is a Golarion-imagining of Adventure Time's Finn and Jake. At first, I thought "pff, this is stupid, make a real character," but I do know him as a very good roleplayer, and he's had characters in the past that started off with silly ideas, but developed into their own unique and serious personalities. So I've started to play around with some ideas just in case.

Finn: Ranger 7, two-handed weapon style.
Jake: Awakened Animal 1 HD, Transmuter Wizard 4.

The idea here is that Jake had the Awaken spell cast on him at some point. The player is taking the Leadership feat, and losing his animal companion class feature (when Jake is awakened, he is no longer eligible for companion status, so Finn is entitled to a new one, but declined), so I'm charging half cost for the Awaken spell.

My options for Jake would be either to come up with a unique Magical Animal with self-polymorphing abilities, or to give him class levels that let him cast various polymorph spells. The problem with the former is that I'd need to balance those powers through all 20 levels, whereas with class levels there is power progression built in (even if at the start Golarion-Jake can't do all the things that Ooo-Jake can do.)

We chose Wizard for Jake because when we rolled his intelligence, he got 16 on the 3d6, and only 3 charisma. His feats are going to be Eschew Materials and Dodge. He is a transmuter, with the shapechange subschool, and he's going to be focused on providing flanking and other support to Finn. Battleshaping allows him to grow a natural attack for a round with an enhancement bonus. He'll be taking Improved Reposition later.

His spell list will be focused on buffing transmutations, which he'd cast on himself before combat. The spell I wish he could have is Enlarge Person, but he isn't a humanoid, and the spell Animal Growth is 5th level. Animal Aspect, reflavored somewhat, would allow him to do some stretchy powered things, so he'll be taking that. Shield to keep him safe.

Since Jake as a cohort is costing Finn both a feat, an Awaken spell, and a class feature, I am considering allowing Jake to do some things beside the rules. I'm considering allowing Enlarge Person to affect him (after all, it's not like he's a CR 7 elephant), as well as the ability to wield weapons and use items like wands and other things that require hands. I'm not sure if this is overpowering the RAW awakened animal companion cohort idea, or if it would be removing the penalties he has for taking an awaken animal as a cohort as opposed to a human of the same level.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Truly, I am putting much too much thought into this. I only hope my player sticks to his guns and doesn't make Finn and Jake too much of a joke character...

So, my group has finally been able to afford the rest of the Crimson Throne PDFs, as we finish up the Hospice in Seven Days.

Between the end of 7dttg and efok, I wanted to have a fairly large chunk of time dedicated to the NPCs of Korvosa and foreshadowing various other events.

- Glorio Arkona,
I originally introduced him during a meeting with Cressida, prior to the quarantine of Old Korvosa, but after they met Davaulus. They were discussing the ramifications of a quarantine or something. He says he's charmed to meet the PCs, but leaves mentioning he had some "unfinished business regarding an arson of a business partner at Eel's End," since my party set fire to it. Cressida explained him as a philanthropist tied to the underworld.
My party has been running their group as a business, with each player taking shares into the company, and getting commercial status with Bank of Abadar. Before they hear of Vencarlo's letter to Cressida in EfOK, they get a letter from Glorio Arkona mentioning that he heard of their role in the plague and he wishes to discuss business with them if they find themselves in OK after the quarantine is lifted.
(The primary reason for this is that I want more incentive for the PCs to visit him before they go into the Emperor of Old Korvosa storyline, because they described his picture as "young Ron Jeremy" and I want to disturb them with a bath sequence.)

- The Cinderlander
It's mentioned at the foreword of HoA that the Cinderlander is awesome and should be foreshadowed somewhat. Once the Hospice is cleared, between Chapter 2 and 3, the PCs will likely go to the Gold Market to hock their stuff (they've made some friends there who give them decent deals). They will likely pass by Smoked Foods, because I originally had a red herring tying the smoked bullete to the plague, and they met some of the NPCs. I'll have Thousand Bones there, attempting to cure his people of the plague himself. He'll thank the PCs again for what he's done, and say something like "If it isn't the tshamek devil, it's a plague" and explain the Cinderlander. He'll then say he plans to leave Korvosa immediately to keep his people safe from the plague.

- Gaedren's return at Scarwall
This is mostly a plan, since I haven't had a chance to read Scarwall too deeply, but I've read a lot on the forums that it'd be interesting to put Gaedren's ghost in Scarwall. I believe making Gaedren an ex-adventurer turned criminal would fit, because I'm also playing with the idea of replacing Venster with Zellara (I have her unable to remember her history) and I'm planning on tying it together by Gaedren being the one the Queen told to dispose of Zellara's body (he kept her head and stashed the body because he's a jerk like that).
My party left all of Gaedren's thugs alive, so I was planning on using them to just remind the party that Gaedren existed. As one of the gifts the players receive for being saviors of the town, I'm going to have Giggles deliver some kind of magic item that Gaedren owned, worth less than 1000g to the party, saying that as the ones who defeated Gaedren, by law they should own it (which is arguable, but what Giggles believes).

- The Gray Maidens' martial law.
The players had a rather cool moment with the Soldado family, so I want to bring them back in and really roleplay out a feast from her and the settled Varisians. I came up with a list of various Varisian items and clothing that they're gifted with, which should tug on the heartstrings of my players just a tiny bit when they see the few graves of people that didn't make it.
I'm planning on making it a little more dangerous though, with the feast being interrupted by Gray Maidens investigating the area. I imagine there will be a little tension, but I'm planning on it being a non-combat event, with the Gray Maidens determining nothing of import, except a warning to be quiet. It should make the party bristle at least a little bit more, since I ended up not including them too much in 7dttg by accident.

ANYWAY, does anybody have any notes on what else could be incorporated into this break between chapters?

So, I've got a player playing a LN inquisitor, focused on upholding the law beyond all else. It worked well while working for Cressida, but her alignment and beliefs have forced her to take opposition with a number of the choices that a more default party would make. For example, she almost argued to turn Trinia back in instead of helping Vencarlo hide her.

Right now, we're at the end of Seven Days, and the party is meant to investigate the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden. However, she refuses to break the law that states interfering with Queen Physician or Gray Maiden work is illegal.

At this point, they have evidence against Davalus, but Cressida doesn't necessarily have the authority to arrest him due to the non-interference law. She could take this to the Queen, except at this point she already suspects her to be corrupt. The player, however, says there is no proof, only conjecture, which isn't enough for her to go against the law.

I've read the beginning of Escape from Old Korvosa, and they basically get proof that Ileosa is evil at the public address when she shivs Marcus Endrin in the face, so I think once the player gets through the Hospice and Chapter 3 begins, it won't be much of a problem. However, I worry that when the Gray Maidens attack the party, she might join them.

Beyond simply telling the player outside the game that the character won't work with this adventure, does anyone have any ideas on how I can mitigate this issue?

So, my players have really taken to using Harrow Points in my games. They're just finishing up Seven Days, and have used up most of them. They got 4 this chapter, but only 2 on the first one, and were saying they wish they could have more.

My party has always run with ad-hoc XP rewards for doing cool stuff, like a particularly interesting solution to a puzzle or sacrificing a couple turns in combat for the team. I was thinking, instead of bonus XP, which could cause a bit of inflation (albeit only a touch), I could reward extra Harrow Points for this. "Your actions have inspired Zellara, and you feel your empathetic bond to her strengthen."

It would likely be a case of one bonus harrow point per session, so as to not make them too overused. Anyone use this idea before or have any thoughts?

My party just finished Edge of Anarchy and are starting on the downtime before 7 Days starts up. One of the things my party really liked was the Shingles Chase, except they managed to catch Trinia with only a couple turns (damn Sleep spell. I even followed someone's suggestion of it making her fall down a slope, take damage, and wake up next turn). They were disappointed it ended so quickly. Outside the game, one of the players suggested I retool it as a race, and thought... that's perfect!

So signs are starting to go up; In a few days, the Twenty-first Annual Shingles Race is occurring! It's a contest for rough and tumble types to get some fame and a decent pot of winnings. They start on the outskirts of the ward in various places, and have to race to the center. You're allowed to do anything within the law to win (and considering the types of people who live here, the rules is more "don't get caught")

Rumours say Queen Ileosa is on record saying it's a barbaric game, furthering the lower class's dislike for her. They also say that Blackjack famously won the first race, which was apparently supposed to be a one-off thing.

It's an opportunity for the PCs to get to know the lower class public, see more of the town, and hopefully form a stronger bond to Korvosa and just have some fun before 7 Days starts.

SO~ I wanted to ask the forums, does anybody have any ideas on extra flavour I can inject here? I don't really know what wards have the shingles, but I know that ward map post just ressurected, and I'm planning on using it for a visual for the PCs. Also, are there any NPCs who might show up later in the campaign that could be previewed here as competitors? My party didn't kill or turn in any of Gaedren's thugs, so Giggles is going to make a return.

Since this happens before Zellara's second harrow reading, and the players still have a couple Dex Points remaining, I made the DCs in the shingles focus on Dex skills mostly. I read through a bunch of chase threads for inspiration, and conglomerated them into this fifteen card list.

1. There's a shortcut on higher rooftops (a: Acrobatics/Jump Up DC 15, b: Climb DC 10)
2. Jump between two rooftops or climb around them, and pass through some narrow chimneys (a: Acrobatics/Jump Over DC 15 or Climb DC20, b: Escape DC 10)
3. A bakery chimney spewing clouds of soot, a narrow ledge (a: Perception DC 10, b: Acrobatics/Balance DC 20)
4. Thin passageway packed with people (any two of Diplomacy DC 15, Intimidate DC 10, Climb DC 20)
5. Hidden shortcut, walled off area (a: Perception DC 15 or Know(Local) DC 10 b: Climb DC 15)
6. Rooftop gardens filled with brambles (any two of Acrobatics/Tumble DC 20, Reflex DC 15, or Know(Nature) DC 10)
7. Nest of angry pseudodragons, jump into an open water tower (a:Know(Planes) DC 10, b: Swim DC 15)
8. Laundry line and hidden passage (a: Acrobatics DC 10 to catch line, then Reflex DC 10 to land on a rooftop, b: Perception DC 10)
9. Passing a tannery with a cloud of gasses, cluttered rooftops on a slant (a: Fortitude DC 15 and you smell gross, b: Acrobatics DC 15)
10. Shortcut behind a jammed locked fence (a: Disable Device DC 10 or Strength/Break DC 20 to get through fence, b: climb DC 15)
11. Sleeping guard dogs, large fence. (a: Handle Animal DC 10 or Stealth DC 15, b: Acrobatics/Jump Up DC 15 or Climb DC 10)
12. A couple thugs who don't know about the race, and some shingles signposts describing passageways (a:Intimidate DC 15, b:Know(Local) DC 10)
13. Very steep rooftop with crumbling edges (a: Climb DC 10, b: Acrobatics DC 20)
14. Narrow gap in walls, passing by nest of imps (a: Escape Artist 15, b: Know(Planes) DC 10 or Stealth DC 15)

Reaching card 15 finishes the race.

Throughout, the players will see the occasional other racer, but must specifically state they're trying to reach them to encounter them (they must make one or more of the checks for that card, but move one less than they would normally. They then can make a standard action).
Additionally, once around the middle, Giggles is going to try and backstab one of the PCs, bull rushing him off the edge.

(I've read two other threads, both titled Gaedren Lives, so this is a bit of a repost. However, I have some more questions those threads didn't cover, and didn't want to resurrect them without need.)

So, I'm DMing CotCT, and I've already made some mistakes. I did the first session only reading the first book, and without looking for advice on the forums. Thus, my party consists of players who have no ties to Korvosa, no respect for authorities and thus unlikely to want to work with the guards, and only want to kill Lamm. Two of the characters' goals are to save up enough money to leave the city, even.

I've just bought the second book, and haven't had time to read it. I'm also planning on reading a friends' Guide to Korvosa PDF, but again, haven't had time.

The forums seem to say that the game's railroad is going to be broken if the players don't have any reason to stay in Korvosa when it gets tough. I'm planning on speaking to my players about this, to try and get some reformation on their backstories to make them care about Korvosa more while we're still very early in the campaign. However, my friends are an unruly bunch at best, and I think I'm going to need some more hooks to keep them going.

What I'm planning (and this is solely based on reading the first book, so it could be a huge mistake) is to have Gaedren escape the PCs when they break down his door. I'm rewriting his den to be an old smugglers' hideout, with a tunnel in the back wall leading down the river. Luckily, the PCs haven't been at all stealthy, so I'm going to have Gaedren be waiting at the doorway to the tunnel, initiate a bit of dialogue and enrage his gator, then slam and bar the door, running down the tunnel to an escape skiff (Of course, escape attempts can always be broken by the PCs, but I'm hoping that between the quick escape, the gator pit, and taking a few turns to break down the tunnel door, that the party will at least allow him to make it to the boat and let me fudge an escape).

They'll still find Ileosa's brooch and Zellara's deck here, to start the rest of the adventure, but the party will still be bonded by Gaedren. I'll drop hints that Ileosa may want to get back at Gaedren for having her brooch. Since I don't imagine the players would like being sent to work for the guards immediately, like the book says, perhaps part of the bargain will be that if the players help the guards restore order (ie, going to Cressida and completing her jobs), then the guards will help find Lamm, once they have the people.

I don't plan on having Gaedren be a huge boss, as much as a perpetual hook. Trinia will be rumoured to have some ties to Lamm. Rumours of him at Eel's End will be dropped before Cressida sends them there. Eventualy, when Gaedren stops being useful to me, I'll have them encounter and wipe the floor with him.

Anyway, people experienced with CotCT. Could this work? I'm going to be reading the second book in this AP before my next session, and if I'm lucky, the third as well. But I thought it would be best to ask people's opinions on this, before I start making notes.