Sounds awesome! This is the sort of thing that makes kingmaker sing - have at it and tell us how it shakes out!
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As many have said in other threads, kingmaker is very much a one encounter a day as written. This makes for a rather unchallenging AP for many groups even with only a 15 point buy. However, as a gm running kingmaker, I can share that I have found that the real strength of this campaign is your ability to mold it and add additional encounters and challenges. Some suggestions you may want to consider:
Blaphers, thanks for the comment, that seems to make sense. Anyone else have thoughts or had a similar situation?
Greetings all, need a clarification on Flexible Counterspell: Flexible Counterspell (SU): Your mythic power enhances your ability to counter others' spells. As an immediate action, you can expend one use of mythic power to attempt to counter a spell. This ability otherwise works like readying an action to counter a spell, except instead of using the exact spell or dispel magic, you can instead expend a spell or spell slot of a level equal to or higher than the target spell. Example - We have a round order that looks like this: 1 BadGuy Fighter
In this round order, if Player Sorcerer wants to use Flexible Counterspell on BadGuy Caster's turn to counter the caster's spell (assuming they've identified it and can in fact counter it), does that move the initiative of Player Sorcerer's to just after BadGuy Caster? Does it prohibit Player Sorcerer from using a Standard Action on their round? I ask b/c Flexible Counterspell states "As an immediate action...", but then goes on to say "This ability otherwise works like readying an action to counter a spell,". If it is an immediate action, does it no longer count as a readied action, as usual with counterspell? This seems in conflict with the statement later on, in that it acts like counterspell (readying an action). Curious what others thoughts are, and if this has come up in a game situation?
Anyone started up a mythic Mr. J or Lady N or Wriggles? Curious to see what folks come up with!
The great thing about kingmaker is that you have lots of time for things like redeeming Staggy!
This is awesome. Now you need to convince them to brew some beer at home so you can enjoy a bottle of Tiger Stripe while you game!
What if their mission was to join forces with the Staglord, and sway him and his goons to the cause? They could be tasked with proving to Staggy that the PCs are worth hiring, maybe they have to go do missions for Staglord as opposed to Oleg and The Swordlords. Thus they could explore/expand his territory in the south of the Green Belt. Maybe their first job is to join Happs at the Thorn River camp to help him collect his tribute (A la the first encounter as written in the book - bandits at oleg's). They could be successful and pillage the goods, forcing Oleg to plea for a group of good guy adventurers to protect him. This party of 'good guy' adventureres would be working out of Oleg's, exploring and hassling the evil PCs as they expolore the area, with the eventual culmination of the module taking out Oleg and his heroes as opposed to the Staglord and his bandits. Perhaps they also are told by their masters that the Staglord should be taken out in the final battle, so that the evil pcs can secure their hold on the region from the south. Throughout, you could have missions claiming old barbarian cairns or graveyards to swell the ranks of their evil masters, basicly tip the first book on it's end and run it from the other side.
That could also work very well. One of the nice things about the River Kingdoms is that they are kinda loose, and the Stolen Lands could be as big as you want it to be. In my campaign, I made Oleg's 2 weeks from Restov, and added in a significant amount of land all around the green belt, to give the PCs a real sense of kingdom once they solidify their place. I also moved Loric Fels (a River Kingdom that is quasi haunted, full of trolls and hags and nasty things) to right between Pitax and Mivon to the south of the green belt. This served 2 purposes - it created an artificial no-mans land to keep Pitax and Mivon from coming to war themselves, and allowed a nasty land where monsters could originate from right to the south of the PCs borders. Sort of in the regard, What's to say that a smaller undead kingdom perhaps bordering the Stolen Lands isn't making a land grab same as the Swordlords? In the end, changing the landscape, modifying the bad or good guys, swapping and moving things around are what makes your game individual and compelling for you and your players. Plus it gives us all cool ideas and new ways of looking at the world of Kingmaker. Have at it and make something legendary - just keep us posted on what you do because it's cool!
Loving Percy. Could be an interesting tool for Grigori to exploit.
Don't see why it wouldn't work, in fact an undead mastermind behind the charter could be a ton of fun. Perhaps the sword lords of Restov are actually a cabal of vampires?
Shot you a message re: the icons on this site Eadric, lemme know where to send and ill kick them your way. Rock on!
What is it you want? A printable output? Big sky, I'd love a place on the web that represented the kingdom of the game I'm running, where players could go to see what are the current stats of the kingdom. The dream would be to have it set so that this kingdom page would be modified by either the GM or the GM and those players interested in the kingdom building aspect of the game, via a backend that handled all the rules calculations from River Run Red and Ultimate Campaign. Printable I don;t really care about if it's all avaialbel online in an easy to understand manner. Bonus for customizable art or art assets, so one could upload things like house banners, mottoes, pictures of the people in the various positions. Regarding the map tool you are looking at building -- have you thought about Icons for the hex types, or various hex improvements? Basics are Forest, Plains, Hills, and Mountains, as well as farm, apiary, castle, road, settlement, capital, viaduct, ect. Reason I ask, is I've been working on a number of Icons for the game I run for these sorts of things. If you want to use them, let me know, happy to share!
Curious, is it possible to make the hexploration/map uncovering so that one could upload one's own map? I ask b/c in my game I've grown the scale significantly, and thus have added in a lot of extra area for the players to explore. As far as initiative tracker- I use a custom page by encounter that has numbers form 30 to 1 where I jot everyone's initiative and the baddies. It also has some simple stat blocks for the baddies; hp, ac, saves, cmb/cmd, attack info, and notes. Could something like that be incorporated? The suggestion of making the kingdom tracking available online is a wonderful idea. I know folks are working on a new spreadsheet with the updated rules from ultimate campaign - is there any way to marry this idea with that?
Simply put you ARE doing it right. You chose to not have a dedicated healer and that is fine. You may not be able to move through encounters like others will tell you is imperative, but this is your game not theirs. You may want to talk to the gm about adjusting some loot here and there to allow more cure potions or some such, but beyo d that, as a gm, I think you are doing fine. It is after all a very dangerous place.
I've got the Carnival as well, can't wait to run it - should fit in well with the harvest festival that is fast approaching! I would caution against running the carnival inside the Felnight Queen, as they feel like very different stories with some common thread (nasty fey). My plan is to give them Carnival soon, then wait a year or two (giving them time to do other things (explore, invesitgate, negotiate) and some kingdom building, then wrap in Fellnight towards the end of Book 2.
I like the spriggans idea -- they pop up later on, and can be advanced pretty easily to be added in throughout if you want (in the 5th/6th books). They are also the perfect minions of Narissa to be used as needed. Something a number of folks do is add in "Realm of the Felnight Queen" (module) in the middle of book 2 for additional fun. It can easily be dropped into your kingdom with minimal effort and is a fantastic first world tie in. spoiler:
Many weave it so that Rhoswyn, the BBEG at the end of Felnight Queen is an ally or sister to Narissa, tying them closer and giving the players more of a link into the true BBEG (Narissa) earlier on. You could have it so that the druid's enemy were Spriggans allied with Rhoswyn, thus pulling the thread at least into the second book of the AP. Perhaps Rhoswyn has some oracle abilities and advised Narissa to send a team after this druid as she saw the druid helping to destroy Narissa? Rhoswyn's tie with Narissa then could jump you all the way to the end of the AP if you weave it well. All in all you're asking the right questions and working the right angles. Orcs are quite rare in the Stolen lands (that's not to say you couldn't insert some) but fey are more in line with the aim of the AP.
Very nice indeed, and a fun twist on kicking off the AP! Huzzah!
I know i've seen posts from James Jacobs that indicates that he thinks Pschic Magic wouldn't take an entire book. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a book of alternative systems- Psychic Magic, Numeria style weird science, and a few others. Kelly LeBrock in Pathfinder? Yes, statblock Please!
Honestly, switching away from encounter based XP o storyline based XP was one of the best decisions we made in our game. It removes the burden of arithmetic, and allows everyone to focus on the story as opposed to focusing on the number of points they've accrued. But beyond that, it allows, as many have said, to keep giving the Players more content to work through, and not have to do more work than you already have to as a GM. I'd seriously consider making the switch, as the Adventure Paths all indicate where your players should be as they progress through them.
I think you could turn the tables rather easily and run Kingmaker Goblinstyle - it would just require some extra work and finesse on the part of the GM. You could move the staglord's fort to the location of Olegs (let Oleg exist in a well kept frontier fort, and have a party of PCs stationed there, substitute Oleg or the leader of the PCs with the staglord's statblock), and have the ruins that the staglord is written in be run either by a goblin tribe, or a band of monster mercenaries. Only glaring problem I see is the contract/charter to get the goblins to try and take over the region. If you are sticking with Golarion Lore, Goblins are terrified of written language. A Verbal contract however should work out fine, form some great goblin king perhaps? Its an interesting proposition turning the tables like this. It could make Drelev and Mivon into allies! Hell I could see Vordrekai using the goblins to try to lure the Varnlings into a trap! And maybe then the party of goblins wind up being the harbringers of Narissa, working for her to unleash her plan of capturing the Stolen Lands?! I think you've got a lot of potential fun wrapped up in this concept, I'll be curious to see what you do with it!
Ditto - would very much appreciate any updates to the new stuff if at all possible. Whereas I can't guarantee diety status, I can guarantee a place in my kingdoms history!
It would be very interesting, and rather amusing, to set your band of naer-do-wells as the flip side of the traditional coin - the monsters in the adventure, being mercilessly attacked by these nasty do-gooders! I think your idea could work very well, with just a bit of tweaking and some GM elbow grease. If you were to put in a goblin settle ment to act as an Oleg's analog, OR, have them link up with the Staglord as a base of operations, with the idea to take out Olegs and the upstart party that the Wicked Userper Swordlords of Restov are backing! It would be quite easy to run the whole thing in reverse - have the staglord be a criminal barely holding onto the castle, and Beef up Oleg a bit. Have the enemies be a traditional party of players that stationed at Olegs, attacking the resources of the Staglord (and thus your players), forcing an eventual final confrontation at Olegs. To spice it up even more, you could still run the Staglord stuff, as the players would have to take out the competition to seal their dominace of the region. As for the later stuff, you could just change the backers from Restov and the Swordlords to Port Ice and Noleski. Most everything else would be analagous without much hassle. The more I think about it the more I love the idea - can't wait to hear how you make it all come together!
Seems rather cut and dry. She's not willing to help a party member who's hurt and bleeding, she shouldn't expect them to do the same when the tables are turned. Keep playing as is, and when the tables are turned be sure to help her last, just as she did with you all previously. Here's the thing -- she has a point re: the fantasy setting and fair trial, so long as that is what the GM is running for the game. In the end it dosen't really matter what happens to the bandits once they get shipped off, if that's how the story you all are telling goes. If your GM isn't interested in running a Game of Thrones-esq, High danger, morallaly suspect game, then enjoy what you have - a traditional game of high fantasy where you get to do amazing and heroic things. Some folks aren't such big fans of the high level of realism in their games, and they just want to enjoy the setting and have fun with their friends. Hoever if its not working for you, I'd suggest not trying to get them all to change, but instead maybe find a different game that suits your playstyle and wants better.
How about setting up a labor camp in the stolen lands? I bet Oleg could use some help around the trading post. With a quick thinker around (like Svetlanna) a constant stream of ex bandits working off their punishment could be quickly turned into a workforce to start growing crops in the area, or putting in the foundations of a few buildings near Olegs such as a smith. All of a sudden then when you claim the Oleg's trading post hex, you've got a little town already in the works - maybe a house, a trademan, and a store. Consider that the Bandits work off their sentence in 3-5 years, and you've now got skilled tradesmen and builders leading your workforce. I did something like this with my game. some of the NPCs the players encountered decided to stay on at Olegs and help out. By the second month of Book 2, Olegs was a free village with an inn, a house, a fort, and a smith. Since the players put Oleg in place as treasurer, and decided to start their kingdom at the Staglord's castle, they have been given 12 months to claim the hex that Leveton (Oleg's trading post) is in. If they do so they get the town for free. You might want to think about something like this as an option to present to your GM - it's working out very nicely for our game.
This thread is made of Win! Love the idea, would love to see what you do with it! Almost makes me want to reboot my own game!
Omelette? How about Roc Cavalry? Just sayin, you know...
Wow these are fantastic! Consider them yoinked for my game - and please keep us posted if you do any others! These are wonderful seeds and very awesome! Thanks!
Indeed, this is still going strong, and it's one hell of a resource for all you GM's out there. As Notsonoble said, they are fully funded, but the stretch goals are pretty slick, and the cause is sweet. And really, who wouldn't want to help out what may be the *best* online tool for use with running your campaign? If you haven't checked it out, do so. If you are already sing the service, think about kicking them a few bucks. The $35 level gets you a years subscription to their service (Totally worth it), at a 12% discount.
Awesome! Fantastic handling of a TPK *and* the political scene in the region that always feels like it is moments from a boil over. Can't wait to hear more of how this turns out! Huzzah!
I run a game with 7 people at the table. We used the 15 point buy but due to the number of players, I had to up the ante to not have encounters last for one round and be laughable. Here's what I do to keep it interesting and fun for the players: 1) Use the community made 6 person conversions that you can find on the site here. -- these are great resources and an awesome start for upping the ante. 2) Double the number of people/creatures in each encounter. -- this is the single most powerful tool you have as a GM. Often just upping hp to a creature, or giving it an advanced template really doesn't equalize the playing field that much. IT may make the encounter last for an extra round or two, but often does little beyond that. Adding in multiple foes is MUCH more difficult for the players to negotiate. Especially when you've got someone liek an alchemist with AoE bombs in play. Small gorups from multiple attack angles -- your job is to sap their resources (bombs) and keep the pressure on. 3) Keep a steady hand and eye on the resources the party can use. How many arrows does your ranger carry with him? How many are available at Oleg's to purchase? Perhaps he's bought them all up already and the next time he goes back they are out of stock? How many arrows can he recover after a fight? An alchemist needs chemicals and components to make the bombs they can throw. Make them track those and make them costly to resupply, or even not available to the player all the time. Why on earth would Oleg have alchemical components for bomb making at a trading post int he wilderness that supplies trappers? Same as with gunpowder and guns (Often seen as game breaking) - If you only have 20 shots, will you use them on the family of badgers, or save them for the BBEG? Keeping resources limited at the early levels is a key. 4) Faeries -- Have them steal one of the alchemist's chemicals so he can only make half his bombs. Maybe Perlivash has taken to snorting sulfur-dioxide for it's 'effervescent and enlightening' qualities? 5) Random encounters -- start giving them a minumum of 2 per day, up to 4 or more. These don't have to be party killers, but they should keep tapping the party's resources. Also dont be afraid to have encounters not be 'kill this animal' but instead be things like 'you stumble upon the scene of a long abandoned picnic' or 'you hear laughing children playing in the mist' or 'you come across a stone circle that is emenating cold'... In the end, its a balancing act. Your job isn't to kill the players, but to keep them challenged. Honestly in Kingmaker, especially early on, it's pretty easy -- you have limited access to supplies, a vast wilderness full of all manner of crazy things, and faeries galore to play with. I cant underscore enough that adding in multiple opponents is much more effective at creating a challenge than upping hitpoints and armnorclass. Have fun and enjoy it!
Indeed, sounds very intriguing. Linkage would be awesome!
Looking for some clarification: Does casting Cure Light wounds when a foe is adjacent to you provoke an attack of opportunity from the foe? What if you are using it as a touch attack against said creature? What if you are using it to heal an ally? I've played in a myriad of games that house ruled in varying ways, I'm curious what the consensus is here. Thanks!
Guess what my character's secret goal is. But as a bastard who can't prove his legitimacy, he has no basis for claiming that throne, and no power base to wrestle it from anyone else. Owning a kingdom right next door is a better prospect than owning nothing at all. This is the kind of RP gold that I love to see in my players -- it provides all sorts of additional intrigue and awesome to fold into the story. I think this is a great angle, and what the books say can go bugger a leprechaun. This makes for a great story, and what is this game we are playing if not collaborative storytelling? Sounds to me like you've got some awesome stuff happening here. As has been said before, the books don't go into the burning question of what happened with the royal line of Brevoy, and it can easily be left as a giant question mark without repercussion to Kingmaker as written. However, I would hope that your GM would see his awesome opportunity and run with it.
Perhaps there's something there that's drawing him - an ancient site, a secret hoard, anything - so long as the players aren't aware of it? I've found that sometimes, not tie-ing up all the threads can lead to a more compelling story for the players, and allow them to wonder about the mystery of why. Sometimes, a persons motivations are simply a mystery... Alternately: spoiler: What's to say that Narissa doesn't have a hand in helping to motivate him to go to war, destabilizing the region even further for her to spring her coup? If I recall, the AP hints at least at her influencing him somewhat to search for Briar, no? If he's the maciavellian (sp?) mastermind that he is, who's to say that he hasn't kept the discovery of Briar to himself and prevented Narissa from learning it's been found? Along these lines, if Narissa can get him to weaken the player's kingdom, it should be easier for her to conquer the stolen lands for herself, no?
Another option - perhaps those who Imprisoned Narissa are becoming aware that her prison is weakening. If so, maybe they see Irovetti as a better bet than the PCs, and are urging/backing him to secure the lands for when Narissa inevitably breaks out?
If you build it, they will come. In the game I'm running, (We've finished book 1 and are into the first bits of book 2) the Brevic civil war is heating up. This, along with some good political campaigning my players did in Restov between books 1 and 2 has planted the seed in the rumor mill that there's a promised land to the southwest, welcoming to refugees - the tired, the poor, the huddled masses wanting to breathe free of the yolk of oppression. In the end, there are many ways to increase your population. Once, as Orthos indicates, the area is more secure, there are built in mechanics to allow for growth.
Talk with you GM about it so they can help work in things like a temple to Sarenrae, and some story threads to work in through it. As a goddess of healing and justice, I could see her fitting in just fine with the Brevan culture, especially in Restov. Her martial stance, expecting her faithful to be skilled with swordplay could work beautifully as a sect of the Aldori Swordlords. Imagine a cadre of swordlords who were a combination of duelist and cleric - wow look out. I could see these swordlords helping fund a temple in Restov, and wanting to extend their influence. Hell, maybe its this temple that is backing the initial party as opposed to the swordlords as written? Anyway, I think yes, it could absolutely work.
Wow this outpouring is awesome, thanks to everyone for the kickass suggestions! This thread is a great resource for everyone! Now to get some shields and crests made!
In the kingmaker game I'm running some of the players have expressed interest in creating heraldry for their families. Does anyone have recommendations as to software, or websites that let you create family crests, ect? I've seen a lot of garbage out there, but very little in the way of templates for shields/banners/etc. Alternately, has anyone put together anything using photoshop or illustrator for their games? I'd like something that has a decent library of images to work with and/or good clipart resources to create templates on my own. Looking forward to hearing what might be out there.
Jeremias -- It's your game, don't worry about making changes to how things are for the setting, and the Gods. If you want Erastil to be a nice guy, there's absolutely room for that in the game you are running, simply allow him to be a nice guy. In my Kingmaker game, Erastil is more the provider, god of home and hearth, field and meadow. A rather hands off rural god watching over the life of his subjects and those they interface with. He's mostly benevolent, but can be stern when he needs to teach a lesson - think of him like, as others have mentioned, a grandparent. My point though, is that in the game you are running, you have ultimate control of how the npcs, and thus gods, are portrayed - If you want to make changes, feel free!
I think this is a great idea and should be rewarded for it's ingenuity, cleverness, and 'cool factor'. As far as the mechanics, I like the thoughts presented above of: 1) Questing to find the eggs to hatch the initial brood
This gives you as GM a lot of room for hilarity, as well as creates another fantastic plot anchor to work from. I could see all sorts of awesome happening - consider this yoinked for my own game, should the players want to explore it!
I mean, they are almost kings, so they custom order what they want :D ...and if that's the case, then the best craftsmen in the region should be charging exorbitant prices for their wares. After all, these kings are rolling in the gold they've earned off the countless backs of the peasants, right? At least thats what Grigor seems to be sharing with the common folk... Give 'em a 150% price hike for the thrice blessed slippers of spider climb imported from Absolom, made with real mwangi phase-spider silk and crafted with lost spells from the ruins of Khazak the Mighty discovered in forgotten Geb.
I discovered this little gem a while back and bookmarked it (It may have been on these boards, I'm not certain): Using this, I simply generate items once things get purchased and voila - no more shopping list/magic mart/xmas tree of items. I've made it abundantly clear to my players that they will not be finding magic loot all over the place, and that because of the scale of time allowed in the adventures, they will have abundant time to create items on their own. Thusfar, it's worked out very differently that what a lot of us are used to, but better for everyone at the table. If the players cannot make an item themselves (due to spell restrictions, ect), I've also built in a way for them to hire someone to make the item for them at an increased cost - usually 20-80% more than listed price, depending on how they interact/RP with the potential maker. I'm also placing in quasi artifact/legendary items tailored for each player that will grow with them, if they are willing to unlock the special qualities. Each of these things have a price, however each price brings significant boons.
No reason you couldn't adjust things a bit to make it work. Perhaps his parents liked to swing with only the hottest of the fey?
I'm running a kingmaker game currently where we tossed spell resistance out completely. Not only do I thoroughly enjoy it as a GM, but more importantly, my players *love* it. I would totally recommend everyone try it out sometime.
Like orthos, totally yoinking for my kingmaker game. Love the submission, wonderfully executed, unique, and full of magic and wonder. It's critters like this that keep me coming to the game table for over 30 years! Bravo!
As redcelt calls it, the bandits work very well as an arrogant lot who think they run the entire narlmarches. If you don;t want to bring in crackjaw, or some other nasty, give them two owl bears instead of just one in the cage, and watch them fill their pants.
Dervish, I really like what you've done with this modification. It sounds like it will work out very nicely, looking forward to hearing how it pans out. For what it's worth, I may yoink the lizardmen angle for felnight queen for my own group, I'm planning on running it but not sure how I want to tie in the wedding. Your angle provides a great option, thank you much!
I would like both 2.2 and 3.2, in both .ods and .xls versions if available. My group is looking at the best way to track this presently, and are getting tired of paper tracking. spoiler: jabberwonky23 (at) gmail (dot) com
What would it take to make the castle fly? I kind of like the idea of a mobile capital. Good lord I hope my players never come up with this idea. Whereas it would be hella cool, Gods help them when they realize Pitax is using Clockwork Flying Fortresses to wage an air war on the countryside. On the other hand... Man this is a genius idea! |