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Due to the massive outpouring of support on the '*Interest* Solo Kingmaker' thread, this game is now currently recruiting!
For those who were not on the interest thread, I am looking for one PC, or two if you have a close friend or family member that can post at a similarly brisk pace, looking to run through the Kingmaker campaign with a gestalt character.
The PC will have complete freedom within the campaign. Redeeming the Stag Lord, engaging in a political marriage, hunting down the nine-headed Königsmacher for a legendary crown that gives the wearer a mystical connection to the land itself, turning heel and going full-on tyrant, making deals with rogue elements from Numeria to acquire the blueprints for magitech facilities, bartering with dark beings at the crossroads at midnight, and annexing other kingdoms is just a few of the things that your PC can do in this campaign that he or she would not be able to do in a regular campaign.
There is, however, a catch. I would like for the campaign to have several posts per day, as in the 5-10 range at bare minimum. I am perfectly willing to run the game on Discord and transcribe posts from there to here. I want a faster-paced PBP game because I don't want to my attention to wane after two or three weeks into a single combat. I am really enjoying the games I am running on Discord because of their brisk pace and want every PBP experience to be like that.
For more details on character creation, how everything will work, the copious amounts of houserules, and fun optional houserules that you can request if selected, please read through all the spoilers below. Given the furious zeal with which I typed this recruitment up, I may have missed something important. If you see something I did not touch base on, please mention it as soon as possible on the thread. I will add any changes made to the Campaign Info tab, so if you have showed up after the initial hour to edit posts has passed, please check there to make sure there are not other rules I forgot to mention.
Race: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Dwarf, Half-Orc, Catfolk, Hobgoblin, Orc, Oread, Suli, Sylph, Ifrit, Undine, Tiefling, Aasimar, Skinwalker, Android, Dhampir, Drow, Fetchling, Ghoran, Tiefling, Ratfolk, Changeling, Kitsune, and Samsaran are all possibilities. If you are using a psionic character, Elans and Maenads are also an option. If you would like to request a monstrous race, then send me a PM with your request. I am willing to allow buff to weaker races like Orcs.
Class: Any of Paizo's classes are allowed. Psionics and Path of War classes are allowed. Most Legendary Games classes are fine as well.
Starting level: You will start at level four, gestalt. Unlike normal gestalt, one half of your gestalt must be comprised solely of that class and taken to 20.
Starting wealth: 9,000 GP, split as you choose between gear and currency. In addition, you have 3 non-magical outfits for free of any sort you choose, 10 Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, a Holy Symbol of your deity or faith made from any material up to gold in terms of relative value, Masterwork kits or tools for any skill you have a point in that there is a kit or tool (Disable Device and Heal, for example), an old map of the Stolen Lands, a deed representing your ancestral claim to the Stolen Lands (does not have to be from Brevoy), a Masterwork Backpack, a full waterskin, a week's worth of trail rations, and a single mount of appropriate size for your character. You technically also own the caravan wagon you are traveling in, but it will be the closest thing you have to home at the beginning of the game and will not be able to be sold until about halfway through the first book.
Skills: Your character treats every Skill as a Class Skill and receives two extra skill points per level.
Feats: You gain a bonus Feat at 1st, 4th, and every 4 levels thereafter. Leadership and Sacred Geometry are simply not allowed.
Traits: You choose three Traits and one Campaign Trait from the Kingmaker Player's Guide.
Hit Points: Maximum HP.
Alignment: Any.
Favored class bonuses: You receive two Favored Class Bonuses. If you select any class-specific ones, it must be taken from those in your static gestalt side.
Variant multiclassing: Allowed.
Story feats: Story feats will be acquired in-game for free if it makes sense for you to do so. You will receive the Nation Founder feat for free when you create your first settlement, for example.
NPC followers: You start the game with 3 noncombatant followers accompanying you that were created with NPC classes. As you adventure, you will be able to recruit people to your cause. At no time will you ever have a combat party larger than yourself and five other NPCs. NPCs you recruit will have an effective character level of 1 less than normal PCs at the current place in the campaign. For example, if you are at a point where the PCs should be 4th level, all of your combat followers will be 3rd level.
Crafting: Crafting is allowed, but will be superfluous. Crafters you can recruit in-game will craft at-cost for you during Kingdom Phases.
Herb-gathering: The PC, along with any followers, will be able to gather herbs, as the Ultimate Wilderness rules.
Fighter combat stamina: Fighters gain Combat Stamina for free.
Rogue skill unlocks: Rogues gain Skill Unlocks as detailed in Pathfinder Unchained.
Ability score-increasing items: These items will be unavailable. Your PC will instead gain ability score increases as listed under Automatic Bonus Progression.
Mount: At level 5, you will be able to designate one creature as your Mount. While so designated, the beast functions as the Cavalier's Mount class feature. If you already have the Mount feature, your companion receives a +4 morale bonus to all physical ability scores, the Diehard feat, and a +2 bonues to Will saves that doubles to +4 against Mind-Affecting Effects. If you wish to change which creature you are bonded to, you must take a week to attune to your new mount. Once this is done, your old mount does not lose its loyalty, but no longer gains the bonuses for being a mount.
Animal Companions, familiars, and mounts: Animal companions, mounts, and familiars receive an appropriate template of your choosing for free, as well as +2 HP per level you hold.
Necromancy: Spells that create mindless undead from corpses are not evil and do not carry the (Evil) descriptor. The soul has already moved on and is not harmed or impeded by the flesh being animated. There is a strong cultural taboo against raising zombies and skeletons, but the act itself is not damning. Undead created from these spells fall inert when their creator dies.
Hero points: The PC will have access to Hero Points, with all the benefits that come from that.
Vancian casting replacement: I have a rule system to replace Vancian casting with a Spellpoint system, which I will just call SP for short. This combines all spell levels you can cast into a single number and you can cast spells from that pool by expending a number of points equal to the spell's total level. The system works with spontaneous, prepared, and hybrid casting styles.
Spherecasting: There is also the option to replace casting capabilities for the PC with Spherecasting, as per Spheres of Power.
Wounds system: When a PC would go unconscious or die from damage, they instead make a FORT save. If successful, they survive the attack, but must roll on a Wounds table and receive whatever permanent injury is listed. Examples include losing an eye, which decreases Perception checks and Ranged Attack Bonus, and losing 1d4 fingers, which can either penalize attack rolls if the result is 1-3 or make the character unable to use that hand in the case of a 4. The damage can be repaired through magic such as Regenerate.
Social skills: The PC can elect to simply roleplay without the need for social skills. That does not invalidate the skills though, because things like Demoralize and Feint still require the skills.
Trade routes: Another important addition to this game will be trade routes, although they are not a necessity. Without going into too much detail about the inch-wide but mile-deep implications, you will be able to open trade routes with factions that are at least relatively neutral towards you. You can trade away raw resources that you find in certain hexes or you can simply pay using points from your kingdom's economy score. Once established, trade routes provide a number of benefits. Opening a trade route with the secretive Numerian Exiles will not only open up magitech and firearms at affordable prices, but will also allow you to purchase new high tech buildings such as Reactors and Tech Factories like one could find in Numeria. Opening trade routes with Gralton could open up new building purchases such as Galtan Salons. There are as many options for trade routes as there are nations and factions in the River Kingdoms and there are a lot of those.
Politics: I am perfectly fine with allowing whichever PC is chosen to play political games. You can ally with other nations, send spies and saboteurs, make political marriages, or even just straight-up assassinate other rulers and annex their nations, if you are so inclined. You also have complete freedom when designing your own noble court's general design.
Heavy choices: As the acting regent, many choices will be presented to you. Some choices will be easy enough. What holidays to declare, what color your banners will be, and what you want your command center to look like. Not every choice will be that easy though. There will also be choices like setting the tax rate (if you set one), choosing a state religion (if any), settling land and property disputes, reacting to spies, choosing how to approach other countries, deciding how to handle refugees from other nations, and deciding the fate of turncoats. Every choice has a consequence and each consequence impacts the story, no matter how minor. There will not be very many 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' choices, but you need to bear in mind that every choice will matter, whether in the eyes of gods or men. Nothing may happen immediately if you have the beggar and his family nobody knows executed for poaching on your royal hunting grounds to feed his starving family, but you will have to live with choice and know that you have that stain on your soul, something which would could have impact later on. If you were to pardon the man and give him a job that enabled him to feed his family, you would likely have a follower for life.
Leylines: Leylines will be featured in the campaign, as the River Kingdoms is shot through with several of them. Indeed, somewhere in the River Kingdoms is a convergence of several powerful leylines that has a role to play in the future.
The Fey: There will be dealings with the fey throughout the AP. That much is written into the vanilla Kingmaker adventures. In this campaign though, there will be the opportunity for so much more interaction with them. For example, if you wished to search for a powerful, forbidden bit of magic or an item filled with shadowy power, you could use an occult ritual in the middle of a graveyard to journey to the Shadow Court's Twilight Stalls, where you can barter for those things with the occult currencies precious to the Fey of that court, such as happy memories, years off of one's life, one's luck, a 6th child of a 6th child, or one's ability to tell lies. The PC may also decide to get involved in Fey politics, although one had best observe all the seemingly nonsensical protocols lest the Fey decide their visiting dignitary is a charlatan and no one want that.
Book 6 mythic: At the very end of book 5, you will gain a single Mythic Rank. I will not spoil how or why, but you should prepare for that eventuality.
Encounter alterations: Some encounters will be drastically different in this campaign than they are in the books to account for both the sandbox nature of the game, the power levels I am shooting for in the campaign, and thematic reasons. In one example, I change a bland undead encounter into one with a Barrow Wight, the undead remnant of one of the barbarian kings that lived thousands of years ago. In another example, I replace a nameless mounted Fighter on a heavy warhorse with a Shadow Fey Cavalier (Fey Knight) astride his Black Unicorn mount, both of which fit the general level of power. Thematic changes are something I am pretty big on.