Lee Hanna's page

I'm trying to make sure I understand the details.

A wand of a 1st level spell costs 750gp, so crafting it costs 375gp in materials.

If a wizard earns 4 Magic capital, he would pay 200gp for it, plus the time spent. Those 4 Magic equate to 400gp of crafting costs.

So, one can work up 4 Magic, paying 200gp, and use that for a wand that would be 750gp on the open market?

Am I correct in reading that the effect of the ring is NOT passed on by the Spectral Hand's touch attacks?

We have just concluded our Kingmaker campaign, four years of fun. It’s taken us 46 sessions, nearly monthly, starting in December 2012 and wrapping up on New Year’s Eve, 2016.

It started with my friends buying Book 1 for my birthday in 2010. They all knew that the political-themed Birthright setting was my favorite, and thought Kingmaker might be right up my alley. By the time the AP was all in my hands, two players were concocting characters with me via email, and I was scribbling notes for conversion to that setting. I had plenty of time to work on it, as we were deep into Savage Tide. This gave me plenty of time to analyze the AP and its component sections, decide how and where to fit it into my campaign world, and discuss character backgrounds with my player group. Reading these discussion boards was very helpful, especially the development of the 6-play variant, as I usually had 6 players.

Weaknesses- Like others here, Nyrissa didn’t seem foreshadowed enough to me, nor the links from the First World to this one. On the other hand, given that my players wanted to go straight after the fairies right away, the lack of portals worked out. When I neared the end of Book 5, it occurred to me that I could make a good case that Pitax’s invasion could have been a very good campaign climax by itself—if one considers the kingdom as a player character, then the ultimate achievement of that state should be its winning a war for survival.

I was also very disappointed with the absence of contact with the neighboring realms; the player characters’ realm seemed to be in a vacuum most of the time. Varn and Drelev were barely named in the early books, and then they popped up only when it was time for them to disappear or be confronted. Likewise Irrovetti and his “famous” games, that only shows up years into the campaign. The incipient civil war in Brevoy dissolved from the background, and that seemed an especial fault to me.

Irrovetti’s Games were another thing that seemed to come out of the blue: if they were so famous, why wouldn’t the characters know about them before Book 5? It seemed a great place to play out some of that intrigue.

At various times, I toyed with the ideas of dropping books 3 and 6. The former as a “distraction“ from the main story, the latter as my group has an aversion to high-level play. This would be our third AP and high-level fatigue seems to set in for us after 12th level. This turned out not to be the case, as they wanted to play more.

Adjustments- I spent a lot of the nearly 2 years before we started playing by altering names and links between people and events in order to better fit my setting.

WIthin the Birthright setting, I needed a location on the map that seemed similar to the Stolen Lands: unclaimed space, adjacent to a country that was politically divided and a potential crossover point for a faerie kingdom. Within the Vos region, I found the Mistmoor (unclaimed space, believed to be haunted), near to both Rovninodensk (coming out of a civil war) and Tuar Annwn (elven realm that had magically sealed itself from humans centuries ago). To make the Stolen Lands maps match the Mistmoor, I rotated everything 90 degrees clockwise, so that their explorations were directed west instead of south. Pitax disappeared as a kingdom and city, becoming an outpost village of Drelev, rather than an already-developed city and country. The forests to the north were now Tuar Annwn, and Nyrissa became a mythical queen who had ruled the Mistmoor in the prehistoric past. The city map and the war plot were recycled later.

In the Birthright setting, the Vos are a human culture that resembles historical Slavic flavor, a tribal-warrior mentality, and the early medieval era. Vos culture celebrates martial power (embodied in the god Belinik) and animal cunning (embodied in goddess Karesha), holding them as distinctly male and female aspects. Arcane magic is practically forbidden, and relations with elves or other outsiders are typically hostile.

Nearly all of my players had become fans of “Game of Thrones”, books and/or HBO series, so I knew that had to play into that. I cast the Rovninodensk civil war in the recent past as similar to Robert’s Rebellion, and the PCs as young adults who had been children during that war. The daughter of the losing tsar had fled into the forests near the elven lands—she took over Irrovetti’s stats.

Shortly after starting, I bought the Campaign Starter book for the Song of Ice & Fire RPG, which presented personalities and details for a handful of noble families and retainers, which is what I craved. One family became the Marstenka house, placed on the “eastern” edge of the Hooktongue map; the Numesti family became her retainers. Another filled in faces and personalities for Nivatka’s Crossing (and picked up Lily Teskertin), and one for Varn’s family and retainers.

Technical things- We used one of the kingdom-tracking spreadsheets developed on the Paizo forums, which was a huge help. Our Councilor’s player saved a summary of each turn’s actions in a long Word document, so that we could look back on things. She and I would sit down before most sessions and play through however many campaign turns we needed; sometimes they would take the winters off. We briefly attempted to run Varnhold as a separate realm, but dropped it as unnecessary.

I kept a calendar for myself, pages with a series of columns: month, PC/realm activities, neighboring realm activities, random events for the kingdom, Tsar’s activities, NPC secret actions, and other events. One sheet of paper—12 fat lines—covered a campaign year. I like to roll out random events in advance, that way I could work them into plotted events as harbingers or add-ons, as needed. All my notes were kept in hanging folders in a plastic crate; important items were in a 3-ring binder. I kept track of NPCs on 4”x6” cards, often printed the pictures from the AP books on the backs. These could be updated as needed, and sorted by affiliation.

I used Epic Words as our campaign website. It tracked xps and treasure (and wealth by level), but the main feature was that I could post summaries of each game and teasers for the next one. The forum helped us plan future session dates as well as share jokes and notes about characters. Occasionally, in-character discussions happened, but my group wasn’t into that, it seems.

Combat Manager was a tremendous boon to me at running a session, as I could easily edit monsters and NPCs to fit my setting, as well as follow initiative easily. By keeping files for that on Dropbox, it didn’t matter if I was using my laptop or borrowing one from my sons, though I usually relied on keeping it on a flash drive.

Characters- My group varied from 5-6 players most of the time, with 5 characters playing all the way through, and only 5 (temporary) player character deaths. Only two of them wanted to take on the political aspects of Kingmaker, but one of them declined to have her character actually rule. Fortunately for me, one of these was my wife, and she took on the role of tracking all of the realm’s statistics. We could walk through her spreadsheet and notes on the campaign turns between sessions.

Countess Yulianna Sergeevna Lodovka- human female rogue. Her father was a younger brother of the Lodovka house, and her mother a half-elven sorcerer he met while adventuring in the Mistmoor. Mother later disappeared, presumably on a later round of adventuring into the Mistmoor. Father was a trusted ally of the new Tsar, and she grew up as a “guest” (read: noble hostage) in the castle of both old and new tsars. Her innate curiosity led her to uncover several palace secrets, but her loyalty to the new Tsar led to her placement in his colonization program.
Vitkor Kurganyev- human male cavalier. His family members were traditional mounted warriors, and he lost two brothers in the civil war while he was also a hostage in the old tsar’s castle. Viktor was always adamant in his dislike for any faerie elements, much less anyone not Vos.
Jana- human female ranger. Daughter of a peasant family, she became an apprentice to a caravan master as a teenager. She learned to make maps, and accompanied two successful roundtrips across the Mistmoor to the west, before it ended in massacre.
Vriska Araknisdottir- human female barbarian. From a tribal village, her family had a strong claim to the leadership of the Tiger Lord tribes, and descent from Armag the Terrible.
Petra- human female oracle. Also from a tribal village, Petra was raised by one of the winter witches of Karesha, living apart from the villages as nomads. Her “mother” was powerful and devout enough that she was able to have a winter wolf as a companion. When Petra felt Karesha’s call, she also received a winter wolf pup. I often had Karesha deliver warnings or foreshadowing through Petra, through forum postings before game sessions.
Yuri- human male Inquisitor. From the same tribe as Vriska, he felt the call to guide her as she took up her destiny.
Leif- human male ranger. Replacement character for Yuri.
Varin- centaur male skald. From the Nomen tribe, Varin joined the group after their alliance to the Nomens formed.

During encounters, the power of Viktor’s mounted charges was often matched by Vriska’s melee fighting. Yulianna and Jana became fast-shooting archers, peppering targets with arrows. Yuri’s player dropped out about 5th level and the character retired to the background. That player ran Leif for a while before dropping out again. Vriska’s player went off to college around 11th level. We discussed retiring her to an NPC and brought in Varin. Instead, Vriska stayed in as a partial PC, sometimes played by guest players, such as her brother or Leif/Yuri’s player.

Yulianna, Jana, and Viktor each took the Leadership feat, and so had a cohort each (2 fighters and a warpriest, respectively). Petra had a winter wolf for an animal companion. There got to be a lot of miniatures on the table after mid-levels!

Given the long-term aspects of this campaign, of the Birthright setting, and of the Game of Thrones feel that we wanted, marriages and dynasties were on option for all. Only two of the characters took advantage of this, Yulianna and Jana each married NPCs and had 2 children. The courting took up little time at the table, more by email. Most of it was more practical and political than romantic, which felt like it belonged in the game.

I usually placed the latter parts of pregnancy (when adventuring would seem risky) in winter when there wouldn’t be any adventuring, anyway. I think there was at least one session when Yulianna’s player was unable to attend, so I altered the timeline that her character was at home, just before or after giving birth. I didn’t dock her the xp for the session.

My group has generally been one that cuts to the heart of the matter in this AP: they wanted to go straight for Stag Lord's keep, the troll lair, etc.

Yet, as we entered the Thousandbreaths last night, they opted to follow Zuddiger's progress instead, essentially going to each and every encounter area.

Have any other GMs seen this?

As a background element for the whole AP, the group leader has been tracking her mother, an adventurer long lost in the Stolen Lands, one who had been seeking Briar a generation before. At this point, she's convinced that mom was using Picnic as a guide, so that's what she is doing.

My group is in the final stages of Book 5-- they've met and defeated the armies of the invader and are hitting the rebellion's leadership at home. IMC, however, "Irrovetti" is the leader of a rebel faction with fey support, and "Pitax city" is the capitol of "Brevoy", seized in a coup de main by flying in on wyverns.

One of my players, way back when we were generating characters-- about 3 years ago!-- had the idea that she had been a noble daughter and had spent time in the palace as a fosterling (read: hostage) to the Tsar. The character concept was "Sansa Stark with brains". She was also very curious and had explored the many reaches of the castle (like Arya), getting caught on at least one occasion overhearing conversations.

When re-organizing sections of the Kingmaker books, I thought of setting up the seizure of "Pitax", that the House of a Thousand Doors would be the Tsar's palace, and thus she would know the ins and outs of the place. She knew about the secret entrance (but not where it was in the river, that needed outside help), and most of the other secret doors inside. Thus, the group was able to infiltrate the castle from the bottom up and have the map of the upstairs revealed to them. I did not tell them about guard posts or NPCs or their locations, so that part's still being learned.

I was very pleased that I had found another way to pay back the player who had invested the most time and effort away from the table with me to work out her character's non-mechanical elements. I've done similar bits for other players, too, this one was just the longest in coming.

There's more for her, since the same player also created a missing half-elf mother who had been an adventurer. Thus, she's picked up that "Zuddiger's Picnic" is somehow tied to her mother's disappearance, and that's linked to the green lady and the magic sword that Mom was hunting for.

Has anyone else been able to do this kind of thing? For all of my gripes about this AP, being able to look far ahead and slip in links to individual characters has been one of the things I most enjoy about GMing it.

IMC, the party has taken temporary control of Drelevgrad and neutralized the Tiger Lords, so we're heading out of Book 4 and into 5.

My players have signalled to me that they prefer the personal action of their PCs to fighting battles using the Mass Combat system, so I am looking for ways to play to that desire. One that I've thought of is that they might sneak up on some of Pitax's army units, and do a Pearl Harbor-style strike to take out leaders and disorganize one of the smaller armies. Like the hill giants.

I've dusted off good ol' G1, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, and am making conversions. So far, I think I will:
- tell the players that the giants have just been raiding some human settlements, and scouts have tracked them back to this wooden fort. There are a lot of them gathered there right now, but the weather may close them in for a while (it's good to have a Winter Oracle in the party).
- swap out the "cloud giant envoys" in favor of Imeckus Stroon, since he got away from Drelevgrad by Teleport last game.
- Most of the underground map, especially the troglodyte lair, will be erased,
- I am debating replacing the bugbear slaves with humans, taken from Pitax & Drelev villages & farms.

Any suggestions?

My campaign has gone off the rails long ago, which is fine. In my sandbox, the rulers are going to do some exploring/excavating (with permission) in the hills beyond Drelev's turf. I think he should want to accompany them.

Has anyone done some role-playing with Lord Drelev? Any suggestions how to play to his strengths?

A partial game report, no player fatalities.

Last night, we played session 25 of my game, set in the world of Birthright, so the names and places have been changed from the Kingmaker AP. I'm a mishmash of Books 3 and 4, so that Armag's Tomb is where Vordekai's lair is, Varn is the guy turning into Armag, and Vordekai got taken out a few sessions ago. Varn dragged the missing citizens of Varnhold off into the mountains to dig out the tomb.

Where it started to get strange: Our oracle, while investigating the Oculus, consulted with her immortal patron, who is Lawful Evil. She had no objection to the use of the eye, and the oracle was already (partly) blinded by her class. So, she accepted her fate and popped it in.

Not so strange: The party led their army into Varn's land, and we set up for a battle using the mass combat rules from Ultimate Campaign. We had played with these once before, against Hargulka's troll kingdom, and some players didn't like them at all-- with Small and Medium armies, it was too easy to one-shot-kill a whole army. Which happened to 2/3 of the realm's armies. This time, we built up so that all of the units were Medium or Large. Once I laid out the armies (I made a card for each unit, so that all could perhaps visualize who was fighting whom), then it got weird.

Strange: the player who most strongly objected to the system, did it because there is no visible tactical maneuver: the cards don't move around to fight. I thought this strange, since he'd objected (years ago when he was DM) to my trying to use tactics in a game. A debate broke out, and we decided to not play this out as a battle. It will be played out, just for fun and education, at some later time. BTW, a 10th-level barbarian looks like she should carve her way through a Large army of warrior-1s all by herself.

More strange: the night before the battle, our Oracle walked out of camp, near to the enemy camp, and used the haunting call effect of the Oculus to "Don't trust the priests" among Armag's army. I ruled that this would disrupt the loyalties and combat effectiveness of Varn's/Armag's armies enough that they fought poorly the next day, and were quickly overwhelmed by the PCs and their armies.

We went on to play into half of the Armag's Tomb dungeon, suspending the game with the golem's defeat.

My group went into Vordakai's tomb today. They include 3 9th level PCs, 1 7th, 1 8th, a winter-wolf companion and one 6th and two 7th level cohorts. I was kinda worried that the piscodaemon in W14 would kill a PC, especially the 7th level barbarian (already killed her once, thus the lower level). As their only rogue does not have trapfinding, I was afraid the trapped room in W10 would be a TPK.

Nah.

When they did trigger the trap, the one-turn delay meant most of them made it to the north portcullis before anything bad really happened, and then the oracle cast Wall of Ice at the entrance to the room, keeping the rapidly-filling water away from them. Plenty of time to escape.

Then, when facing down the piscodaemon, she cast Ice Slick under the beastie, so of course he rolled a 1 on his Acrobatics check to stay upright, blew the Concentration check to cast defensively, and died to a mess of AoOs. This is also how Vesket bought the farm, by the way. The oracle is becoming an occasional party-saver for them.

I'm apparently unable to leave a module standing as is, I like to move parts here and there. Let me post some ideas, and see what the Kingmaker cognoscenti have to say.

First off, this isn't Golarion, it's the world of the Birthright setting.

I want to move the Rushlight Tournament to the beginning of Book 3, where my players are now.

Option A is that they get to meet & greet the other players in the area, so that they might care when their neighbors are being overrun or switching sides. I think it would be neat if they find out "Armag" is a guy they fought with just the year before.

- I haven't decided on the host yet: Varn, Drelev, or one of two families nearby (Restov or the area to the west of Oleg's) IMC.
- The competing nations become other noble houses from the area.

Option B is that the host is instead the nation that's off to the south edge of the map, and the participants are mostly from that nation and its other neighbors. I still want them to meet Koth and Armag-to-be here, they just won't know who they are, yet.

Opinions?

How early would want to start dropping hints about Nyrissa coming to call? Or that she's looking for something?

My big fear (based on what I've seen my group do in the past, including in this AP) is that once I lay a crumb, they will want to follow it exclusively. They're not ready for Book 6, and neither am I-- we're at the boundaries of Books 2 and 3, FWIW.

What I have done, is bait a hook given me by one of the players. Our Baroness' mother mysteriously disappeared when the character was about age 7. I've run with that: both her parents were adventurers here in the past. After the PC was born, human father stayed at home, while half-elven mother took off on her own-- father says he doesn't know where she went, and everyone at home says she just disappeared one night. The PC now has her mother's earlier adventuring journals, which talk (in code) about seeking something, and notes about some places to be checked out someday.

What she doesn't know is that while father & mother were quietly seeking Ovinrbaane for the previous king, mother was secretly looking for Briar, too, on behalf of some nebulous elven group. I intend for them to find mother's second journal, which will have more details, as well as a copy of "Zuddiger's Picnic."

So, my questions center on when to reveal:
1 that there is a powerful magic sword out there?
2 that parents were looking for it?
3 That there is Another magic sword out there?
4 and a faerie queen wants it?
5 Mom was secretly looking for this?

And just where is mother, anyway? It would be extremely convenient for Evindra to be the missing mother, but I worry that it would be too neat, too trite? (It would solve a long-running mystery, and be a logical source for the infodump about Briar, Nyrissa, and her return.) I might have someone at the Rushlight Tournament (former companion, from a foreign country?) give Baroness a quiet briefing, but still with incomplete information. Should they find her bones somewhere, with the updated notebook? In Drelev's or Irrovetti's collections? In Armag's tomb?

I did let them know that adventuring was done around here, and that Bokken, his brother, and a nutty older nobleman were also adventurers here about the same time. That last guy (touched by dreams of Nyrissa, like Stag Lord and his father) was the one who went adventuring again, and triggered Talonquake. The Swamp Witch has said that she knew mother and father as well, but they did not confide in her, so she doesn't know anything significant. I think some of the centaurs might remember her, too, but they haven't met yet.

So far, the group has found rings of green hair on the bodies of several of their foes (thanks for those on this board who proposed that one), and suspect that the ancient elven towers (in the forest, in the mountains, etc.) are all linked, and I've added traces of interplanar gates in them.

So, anyway, suggestions?

I'm preparing for the next game session, which for me involves both rolling random events in advance and deciding what various NPCs and their realms might be doing. I try to stay about a year in advance of the characters, so I don't have to make up stuff on the fly.

I have inserted another noble family on the north edge of the map, the Marstenkos. They claim some of the hexes on the border of maps 1 and 4, including Wyvernstone Bridge. The Stag is part of their house crest.

1. A few months ago IMC, there was a "Land Rush" RE, which I randomly decided was in a hex adjacent to Oleg's (recently claimed, not very developed yet). Ah, I say, "Lady Marstenka's founded some farms there, and they are doing very well. Settlers are passing through Levetgrad to move in there." The group immediately Farmed Levetgrad, to counter the Stability loss.

2. We ended the last game session with the arrest and trial of Grigori. They now know someone put him up to it, their first suspect was Varn, actually.

3. Next game will begin with a "Monster Attack" RE, and the dice again point to the hex of Levetgrad. Unrest is currently high enough that if the PCs don't deal with this, his hex will secede! I'll present this as, "Mayor Oleg's store was cleaned out, and if you all cannot protect him, he will find someone who will!"

4. The party has pretty much ignored Jhod Kavken and Kesten Garess, we last saw them still at Levetgrad. I think Jhod will have moved in to the Erastil temple, and has collected secret BP from Lady Marstenka to re-open the temple. Garess may have moved over to her service, too?

5. Lady Maray (from BfB) is definitely a spy for Pitax, and has been working to upset things around here. That includes sending Grigori. I'd like to move her about a bit, perhaps they should find out that it's a woman pulling these strings, and get them to suspect her before they attack Drelev's castle.

I think the dice are setting me up to trigger a little fight between Marstenka and the players, don't you? Perhaps I'll use the Battle for Tatzylford a bit early, but leave an obvious clue that the attack came from her, not Drelev.

So, my group is about halfway through RRR. I just had them take a year of non-adventuring, just to give them more time to build up the kingdom. The result is that they are still at 7 hexes, and held there throughout that off year.

Our informal ruler is very concerned about the Control DC exceeding their save numbers. The DC has been holding at 28 the entire year, the saves have fluctuated from 12 to 24, usually holding around 22. Unrest has been wandering between 0 and 2, with a dip to 4 a couple of times. The treasury has been very healthy, staying around 20 BP.

How does that compare to others' experiences? I'm not looking for quick fixes for them, I'm mostly concerned about whether they can handle the expansions that might result when they defeat the trolls or get to absorb Tatzylford. I got the impression that realms could be reaching 20+ hexes pretty soon.

I'm looking for the opinions of other GMs here.

So, IMC, I have an NPC who is not a ruler of a land, but a representative of a merchant clan. He wants to improve his clan's ties to the PC ruler, and present her with a deal that should help them both.

I get that he could negotiate a Trade treaty, and set up an Embassy in the capitol town. What happens if he puts down the money (BP) for a business? Who gets the benefits? Should I include them in the city totals for the town, or just say there is a shadow building that is taking up a slot in the town grid, and the benefits are flowing to the NPC owner?

I continue to throw out ideas, looking for ways to improve and tailor my game. This one's a bit more radical.

My group has a history of not finishing long campaigns, we tend to lose interest after 2 years of real-time, and have formed a low opinion of playing past 12th level or so.

I like the endgame of Book 6, as well as the war of Book 4 & 5. I intend to mash 4&5 together a bit more closely, and I really hope to get to Book 6 as a big climax to the campaign.

Problems:
Varnhold Vanishing, though, seems to be a jump in a different direction, away from the central plot. I fear taking time on that might be too much of a diversion, and my players will lose interest before we get to the endgame. Also, we play only monthly, and I fear that by the time we get there, they will have forgotten any clues that I've dropped about a fey threat.

I realize that my group would miss out on the levels gained, but if I put them on Fast xp progression, that will make up 2/3 of the lost levels. Also, as my group is 6 players, they seem to be consistently punching above their weight.

I do like the peace-making with the centaurs section, so I am contemplating shifting them somewhere else on the map, perhaps the southeast corner of the Greenbelt.

In short: retain Centaurs and some of the quests that touch on their side of the mountains, shift to Fast XP; drop lost villagers and Vordakai and the related quests.

Opinions? What would I lose by dropping out Vordakai and the empty village? He is a nice villain, but I don't know if I can afford the time to go get him.

As I've said before, I am taking the AP apart and re-assembling it to fit my world. One bit is that I am now planning to separate Irrovetti, Pitax, and the Rushlight Tournament.

I'm moving the tournament to between Books 2 and 3, and moving it to a different neighboring kingdom, one off the south edge of the Greenbelt map. It would fit better culturally somewhere else, and it allows me to play it as part of a trade embassy with a foreign land. One of my PCs is eager to start trade caravans to that land, and once the trolls are out of the way, she can do it. I have an NPC suitor for the Baroness' hand who is a merchant noble, and he also wants to get that going.

I will probably still keep the map and descriptions of Pitax, but swap them for another city down the line. Irovetti's stats will get reskinned and retained as the main bad guy in Book 5.

My question to you all regards the mechanics: since the tournament events are mostly DC and AC based, it would seem that I could just reduce the numbers to match the groups' levels at that time, right?

Another long-term concept I'm working on. Since IMC the Baroness is the daughter of a major noble (Lodovka war-leader), and the home kingdom is having a low-level civil war, Father will call upon them in the 2nd year of the game, requesting a military unit for duty during a summer campaign off-map.

Essentially, the PCs would have to pay to raise an army, pay its Consumption, but not get to use it for a while (like during the Troll War).

In return, they get: an army that will improve its morale and tactics without them having to do anything; Father will move to the barony in the off-season (I have really long winters), potentially an NPC for a leadership role. Possibly, they could send an NPC they already have as a leader, too, possibly gaining levels or loot for that guy.

Does this sound like a fair trade-off?

This is my attempt to improve a story link between the homeland and the new colony, as well as keeping the players thinking about military matters.

EDIT: The funny thing is, once I proposed the idea, the player of the cavalier PC thought his guy might want to ride off to this war, instead of sticking around here.

My group is about halfway through Book 2, the new barony is slowly growing. I am looking to lay down some foreshadowing and direction for later books, and I would like the suggestions of the group here.

One player (the Baroness' player, in fact) gave me some great backstory. Both her parents were adventurers, had settled down about the time Yulianna was born, but then Mother disappeared. Father was a semi-barbarian warrior noble, now a strong supporter of the Tsar; Mother was a half-elf, possibly a wizard or sorceror. We've discussed that both parents were adventuring in the Stolen Lands earlier, I've secretly decided that both were quietly searching for Ovinrbaane on behalf of the previous Tsar, while Mom was also very covertly hunting for Briar, too.

There was an earlier outbreak of fey coming to the Stolen Lands to look, too, and both parents fought that. The Swamp Witch helped them a little bit, Bokken's brother was one of Nyrissa's human agents, driven insane back then, as was Stag Lord's father.

Someone on here (great thanks, whoever you are) had planted a copy of "Zuddiger's Picnic" for a PC to find, her mother's lost copy, which plot point I am SO stealing and folding into this disappearance.

1. So far, I have decided that a partial copy of "Z's Picnic" will be found on the body of the ranger killed by the Big Owlbear (IMC, he'll be an older noble under Nyrissa's influence).

2. Mom's journal of the earlier expedition has already come to the PC, but I haven't revealed all of its contents to the player yet. I think it should include hints or sketchy maps to a lot of buried sites in most of the books, like the Lonely Barrow and the Dancing Lady's Keep. Most of them marked, "to check out someday." It should imply that they were looking for something magical, maybe even that it's Ovinrbaane.

3. Mom's journal for her 2nd expedition, the one when she slipped away from home without telling her daughter, should come up somewhere, right? It should have more detail on things, possibly even a more precise location for Ovinrbaane. But where can the PCs find it?

This is one of the things I really want your help with. It probably shouldn't show up before they set out on Book 3, or we risk the players forgetting about it, or not wanting to deal with the distraction elsewhere. It will point one direction, but the pull of Varnhold is the other way.
- One thought is to put it in Drelev's library.

4. Mom's fate What happened to her? This is the other thing I puzzle over; I have a lot of ideas, but cannot make up my mind. Some ideas:
- Did she die to some danger in the Stolen Lands? Did Nyrissa kill or imprison her?
- Is she Evindra? That seems too pat for me.
- Is her body in the Castle of Knives?
- Is she Ilora, hiding out and still searching, 15+ years later? That seems like a long time to never come in from the cold.
- Is she the dead explorer at 4G?
- Did Vordakai kill her? Then I could use her undead body instead of Cephal in the tomb. That doesn't seem right, either, as it's supposed to be the recent explorations by Gunderson that sets off Big V., not hers 15+ years ago.
- Did Irrovetti kill her, years ago, and some of her gear will be among his loot? If so, one of his tournament champions might have been the actual killer, and let something slip during the Tournament.
- Might she have died while with the Nomen centaurs, and they know where she is buried?
- Did the trolls get her, and some of her gear will pop up there?
- Might she be petrified into one of the statues found here and there? It's already too late to make her one of the ones in the Dancing Lady's Tower, but Candelmere or the troll lair is possible.

Thanks for any suggestions.

My group has just started KM, but I've been dreaming & scheming since the AP first came out. Most of that work has been tinkering with the setting, to move it into my own preferred world instead of Golarion.

This is my group's 3rd AP, and the last two were closed down about 2/3 through. This has been from combinations of player fatigue and high-level burnout. So it's long been my intention to wrap up at the end of book #4. I didn't really like "War of the river kings," and I doubt my players would, either.

BUT, I really like elements of Book #6, and I think my group could have fun with that. One player inadvertently set her character up perfectly for it with some background.

So, I have a pair of questions for the group here.

1. Does anyone have suggestions for building up the barbarians to become our Final Enemy? IMC, I've already started this with "Brevoy" having suffered a civil war that ended 6 years ago, and the daughter of the losing tsar fled into the wilderness near the "Stolen Lands." I'll be using her as my "Armag."

2. The other one is more wide-open, I guess I could either downgrade the monsters in #6 to be level-appropriate to the end of book #4 (or not, as this is a party of 6 characters, not 4). An alternative is to replace #4 and #5 with the fey invasion of book #6 (and I would then cut down the CRs).

Opinions?

After at least a year of waiting and planning, I've finally begun running this AP. It's a big party, 6 players, with emphasis on melee combat (Cavalier, Ranger, Barbarian, Inquisitor, Oracle, Rogue).

As I suspected, they blew through the fight at Oleg's in 2 rounds and change. They shot straight to the Thorn River Camp, and mopped that up in 6 rounds (2 got away, they let one run free). That time, I got some licks in, as Kressle KO'd the barbarian and three others got peppered with arrows, and down to low hp.

After that, they at least took their time exploring their way down to the Stag Lord's Fort, but there they are, scoping it out while still 1st level. I figure on perusing this forum for suggestions used in similar situations (not tonight, though). My main thought is to show them something as they watch, to let them see that this is a pretty powerful outfit.

I'm also attempting to be digital-DM for the first time, as I use Combat Manager for me at the table and Epic Words away from the table. So far, neither has quite lived up to my hopes.

My D&D/PF group has finished the Savage Tide AP and per long-standing agreement, I am on deck to run Kingmaker for us next (early Dec. start date). We'll be adding a 6th player for this campaign, so there will be plenty of bodies.

Discussion of PCs has been ongoing for a long time, but not all are finished. Of all of those, we've got 3 fighter-types (ranger, cavalier, probable barbarian?), a rogue and possibly an oracle and some sort of warpriest.

Notice there are no arcane casters: do any of you who have read and run the AP see an obvious problem? What should I look into correcting? I haven't seen anything that could cause problems, but my judgement is often clouded. I think that having lots of bashers and animals plus at least two with healing spells should make combat no problem.

Something to consider: I am only planning to run sections 1-4 of Kingmaker (but I'd really like to run part 6 someday).

I'll be starting KM in the fall or winter. I'll be using my favorite world, Cerilia of the old Birthright setting. For those who don't know the setting, the Vos human tribes have strong overtones of real-world Slavs or Tartars. The Mistmoor is an unpopulated, haunted region perfect for use as the Stolen Lands.

I'd like to up that flavor, dragging in some monsters from 2 old issues of Dragon magazine. I'd like to ask opinions here on how & where I might swap some monster types. Issue #290 had 4 critters that I'd like to use. All of these are solitary by nature and chaotic fey, but not of the tricks-playing type.

The vodyanoi are Medium and aquatic, I think I could squeeze one in instead of the lone boggard in part 1, as well as anywhere on the water.

Rusalka are nymph-like and also aquatic, so I'd move one in for another dryad or something.

Leshii are forest fey.

The one that has me scratching my head is the vila, another female, but more like the Valkyrie in that they sometimes invisibly aid worthy warriors. Would it be worth it to substitute one, or a band, for Perlivash and Tyg-Tutter?

Also: The Mistmoor region is supposed to be haunted by a misty cold creature. A little tweaking of the Steaming Soldier undead from Dragon #324 is in order.

Two of my players-to-be have already started working up backgrounds as well as class/level builds for Kingmaker. I like to ensure that unresolved threads that the players give me will get addressed sooner or later in the game.

One has given me the thread that her mother, a Dreamspun Sorceror, has disappeared in recent years. I was immediately reminded of an earlier thread in which someone was going to use a PC's lost mother at one of the castle ruins, placing an "advance copy" of "Zuddiger's Picnic" there. I'll probably run with that-- mom literally following her dreams to a doom caused by Nyrissa, and daughter has the opportunity to right the wrong-- but I'm open to suggestions.

Now, player #2 has given me two somethings, and I'd like to throw it open for comments. One was a feud between his PC (not quite noble birth), but as a squire-equivalent, he beat up two arrogant noble sons, who are now rivals or enemies. The other is that his own two brothers are missing, perhaps in the Stolen Lands, perhaps in a recent civil war.

I was originally thinking of having the arrogant nobles show up in the Stag Lord's Fort. The missing brother(s) have me stumped for now. Where might I have these guys discovered? Dead or alive? Enemies or allies?

I'd like at least one of them to show up soon (like within the first module), and something valuable should come of it. This is so that my players can see, early on, that I really do pay attention to their background homework, and that I will reward them for it. I hope that can be used to increase their investment in the world, their PCs, and the game.

Or, what's dark with them?

I'm not running KM now, but I am slotted to run it after we are done with Savage Tide. One of my potential players was musing about a druid/dread necromancer character concept. "Sounds dark," says I, and then I get to thinking, "Well, how _will_ people react to that?"

The lightbulb in my head flickers, and I think about the Stag Lord's abusive father, the mad hermit, and the bear-priest of Erastil at the lost Temple of the Elk. OK, once I looked them up, they're not all really druids, but as they are people who live alone in the wild and/or Erastil{nature} priests, they can be thought of that way. Oh, and I forgot Jhod Kavken screwing up and executing the wrong man. All of them gone nuts and/or killed folk. To quote a notable nutcase, "Does that seem right to you?"

Opinions? Comments?

So far, I'm thinking of tying it to Nyrissa's influence on the area, or tie it more closely to politics in Brevoy*, as the Erastil* temples suffered some sort of convulsion, and many priests were driven out after they killed a lot of their people.

* or their equivalents, as I intend to use my favorite world instead of Golarion.

I've only read through the mods, not going to run them for a while. I don't think whatever happens in Brevoy has much impact on the PC realms, does it?

I'm planning for using my own world, so I'm thinking along the lines of re-setting parts of #4 and #5 in the mother country, as part of a civil war getting underway. Does anyone see any obvious shortcomings to that?

As I type this, my oldest son is in another room, running his first D&D game for two other boys.

He's been playing off and on for a year, but today is his first time in the DM chair.

EDIT: I just heard him say, "Roll for init."

I've been receiving the Kingmaker books since they started coming out, as a birthday present from a friend (and partially funded by my wife). Sooner or later, I will start DM'ing this.

I understand there are also PDF copies available for download. Am I correct in assuming that my friend is the only one able to download these? Are they marked in any way that they cannot be transferred? That is, can I use his account to download them, shift them to a memory stick and move them to my PC?

First, I'm a player, not a DM, in an STAP game. I have read only a few of the threads here, to avoid spoilers.

That said, I have a little problem, and I'm looking for help. Our DM has been quite vocal about editing errors in the magazines, and I was hoping someone might have a list of corrections or fixes I could point him to.

For instance, we just finished (I think) Bullywug Gambit last night, and he pointed out that "the Huntress" text says both that she would fight to the death and that she would flee when knocked under 10hp.

Or in the basement encounter, apparently things were hiding in the east corner of the basement, making noises that could be heard from the west.

At the end of last night's session we had lost one of our key PCs, the knight Sir Leofire. We were at the end of Thirteen Cages, we had shut down the gate and scattered the Cagewrights. As characters, it seemed like a good time for a break from adventuring. The urban druid PC really wanted to devote some time to helping to rebuild the city, and the rest wanted to revel in their plunder.
As players, we were feeling varying levels of burn-out, mostly a result of higher-level playing-- there's a lot to keep track of at 15th level! Years ago, we had bought one of the players a Dungeon subscription, starting with the beginning of Savage Tide, and we've been wanting to start that ever since.
So, we voted to suspend this game, at this very good stopping point, and fire that one up. We have left open the option of re-starting Cauldron, maybe 6-12 months down the line in Real Time, and a month or so in game time. That DM has promised that we will not be doing all 20 levels of STAP.

So, after 57 sessions in 67 months, dating back to April of 2003, we are done. It was a fun ride, but we just wish we could have finished it, and done that sooner.

One of my friends has promised to run STAP for us someday (we need to finish SCAP first). I'm interested in the Archivist class from the Heroes of Horror for a PC. Has anyone had experience with one fo those, and how has it been? Should I fall back on a wizard, or a plain ol' line-fighter? Assume a 5-player group.

Just a brief report, since some folks like posting here, I thought I would add this tale of not-so-rousing success.

Our group (Elite Recovery) is starting into "Lords of Oblivion" this past weekend. We scoped out the Rhiavadi mansion and decided to crash the party, in our usual (un-)subtle way. Reaching the upstairs with only some warning, we found... a lot of bad guys. Just as we begin laying plans, they beat most of our initiative rolls.
While the mooks moved forward to get in our way, our warmage gets hit with a Feeblemind spell. And tanks her save. There went most of our offensive firepower, so we regroup and Dimension Door out of there. Three rounds, tops.
Next month, we'll go back and hit them again, after a visit to a cleric with a Heal spell (ours weren't prepared for that).