I’m sorry I have been gone for so long. I cannot explain everything that has happened, but between computer failures, weather problems and increased responsibilities at my two jobs I have not been able to participate in any online communities.
I apologize for taking so long to contact everyone about the changes in my home situation. I hope my absence has not been a major hindrance to anyone’s fun here on the forums.
I’m sending out this message now so everyone can plan accordingly. I will be unable to participate in any forum games for the foreseeable future. Please carry on without me (which shouldn’t be too hard since I haven’t been around for so long now).
I hope everyone is well and will continue to be so. I enjoyed my time here on the forums and my interactions with all of you. Thank you for understanding and patience.
Salvin takes in the tour quietly, thinking to himself all the while.
No real mention of efforts to build and grow the city to handle population increases, but that's probably because the war has made such considerations moot. This retirement sounds a little too much like heaven on Golarion, so I'm not so sure I trust it. Still, everyone seems far more concerned about threats from without than threats from within ...
The paladin is so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he only belatedly realizes that everyone else is speaking. He catches the last bits of what Gregory says and chimes in.
"Yes, I'd be willing to help your people fight these threats, but I must be free to worship the Goddess and share her teachings with anyone who wants to learn more about Sarenrae."
Salvin looks over the maps, careful to give Vhailor his space since the wounds of magical compulsion are still so fresh.
No marked graveyard, Salvin thinks to himself, shaking his head at how cynical just a few days in the forest have made him. But still, it's best to learn all I can just in case there are two sources of undead and not just one.
Salvin moves toward the carriage and says, "I'm ready to learn more.
I agree with Gregory and Enginehouse. The Flameslingers will see us coming a mile away with that flying carpet. We'd be sitting ducks. Salvin would be happy fighting the good fight in the Delve. Not so sure how our Evangelist friend will be able to return that way, however.
I could certainly see helping the Delve fight drow.
As for Iadenveigh, I'm not sure they won't go back on their word and try to kill us all for being polluted by outside ideas and not killing everyone they dislike. I seem to remember that they wanted the Delve leader killed. Saying it was a necromancer might not satisfy them. And then, there's the matter of their guards we'd have to deal with. Of course, that might be fun.
Goddess, please help me to purge fear from my mind. My weakness almost killed Vhailor and could have allowed an evil necromancer to continue killing and perverting life. I cannot make the same mistake again.
As they go into the darkness, Salvin feels a great weight lifting from his shoulders and starts to smile just a little as he knows his Goddess had heard his prayers.
LOL, yeah, they do. I've just got home from work, so I'll have to work on this later Sunday. I'll just be added one rank to all my skills, so it shouldn't take long. I just need to check the books for feats and such.
Salvin goes about the work of purifying the place with a grim look on his face. He says prayers for the bodies to give them some sort of piece. Then he asks his goddess to makes sure no evil uses this foul place again before turning with the others to leave.
That was tight. Good work guys and I'll post my level up after work in the OOC thread.
Salvin looks around the room, peering up the elevator shaft.
"Didn't they say something about a crane to get things in and out? Think it's strong enough to wreck the place, or just good enough to lower down supplies?"
Does Salvin remember seeing anything like a crane around, or didn't they mean something much more simple like the elevator?"
"This is all your fault!" Salvin yells at Vhailor.
Edit: I cannot attack yet. Since I'm beside Vhailor, does that mean I take an attack of opportunity if he runs? If I take that attack, does that satisfy the spell and then I get a normal turn?
Wow, your "allies" seem eager for the probing. Both options seem like good stories to me, so let's hear from the fellow who will have to endure all that.
As soon as the paladin sees the gnome cast a magical light spell, he'll stop fumbling with his backpack and prepare to go down the ladder as soon as possible.
If Damrang calls out a warning, or just stops altogether, Salvin will take out a torch, his flint and light it.
I cannot see to attack, but I'm not sure I can light the torch this round. I'll leave that ruling up to you, Engine. But I'll keep going until it is lit, even if that means using next round to do so.
Salvin sighs as he looks over the farewell note. He nods as the others mention returning things to the Delve. He sees Vhailor examining the elevator and gets an idea. He leans over the mechanism with the gnome.
"So, do you think we could rig this in some way to collapse when we choose? Or keep it from working for anyone but us?"
Salvin grimaces at the pain of the electrical bursts, then quickly touches his own chest to heal some of the damage. Then he swings his greatsword again, hoping to the adept in front of him.
Salvin sees the others move past him and follows, taking a double move to clamber over the barrier and stand in P4.
salvin hopes to get an attack of opportunity. I'll roll it here to speed things up.
Power attack 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 Damage 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (1, 5) + 9 = 15
Salvin moves deeper into the ruins, trying to avoid enemy fire. He puts his back against the wall as he stands in L7. He quickly touches his chest to heal.
Salvin stumbles as the magical bolts pierce his flesh, then quickly tries to scramble over the walls to stand behind Odol at H2. Then he quickly touches his chest to heal his wounds.
Lay on hands 1d6 ⇒ 4 Two uses of lay on hands remain
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
2 Badguy Caster
3 Player Fighter
4 Player Sorcerer
5 Player Cleric.
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?
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!
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.
#1 makes the most sense. But I am having an issue of why he would go for a simple land grab. How does he benefit from expanding his holdings with a costly war, even if the land is both prosperous and developed? How does a larger kingdom benefit him?
Better yet, what is his end game? I think figuring out an ultimate goal for him will really help me here.
We know the result of that land grab, which is a costly siege where he loses everything.
I have a bit more to go before I am close to preparing for part 5, but this a good start to 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?
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.
Great work Clay, this is a tight item impeccably balanced, but more importantly a thematic home run. I can already see players eyes lighting up once they figure out what this cloak can really do. This is great design - wonderful feel and a wonderful fun addition to any game. Keep up the good work!
That's my online site for my group - the folks like it a lot and enjoy all the info there. I just wish more of them were interested in writing journal entries form their character's perspectives, so that we could have a documented tale of what happened when its all done. But then again, it's their game as much as mine, and we've all got lives to lead outside the gaming table.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it!
-Also, I a giant, big, superdooper thank you to everyone on these boards for sharing your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, and additional content -- my Kingmaker game wouldn't be the same without all the hard work the community here has put in, and so graciously shared.
Off topic a bit, but regarding the Teleportation issue: Knowing my players, I realized early I would have to supress some of their ability to travel instantly once things really started rolling. I came up with the following as a way keep the game feeling epic/heroic, without allowing them to feel like they were stomping all over everything, bouncing from encounter to encounter to encounter -- Modes of instant travel such as teleportation, ethereal travel, blinking, etc are supressed for the time being. The players can investigate the situation with research and eventually uncover a way to end the supression, but this will have consequences...
spoiler:
The Stolen Lands originally were a place where the barrier between the first world and Golarion was very permeable or soft. It was easy to travel between them without realizing it, part of the reason so many fey inhabit the area. The ways between were known to some, but more often would change/morph/or move locations, as the ways between were tied to the primal chaotic magics of the fey. Long story short -- Lady Narissa was charged by the Sidhe court to rule over the Stolen Lands as Regent of Titania and Oberon (Queen and king of the Sidhe court). As such she used the Kellid Barbarian natives to the region as as slave labor force, and built up an army to storm the First world in an attempt to displace Titania and Oberon and take control of the first world. The Kellids were displeased with this and started an underground rebellion. They devised a way to erect a barrier between the first world and Golarion, using druidic magic tied to standing stones, henges, and druidic circles scattered across the entirety of the region. When Narissa took her armies and marched on the First world, the barbarians sprung their trap, sealing off the two worlds, with Narissa trapped, cut off from her supply lines and resources.
At the time of the adventure, this barrier has become very weak, as the elements and time have eroded the foundation stone circles. This poses a problem for the players as the Sidhe court is displeased with the events that have transpired, not to mention Narissa has been watching and plotting for some time from her prison in the Thousandbreaths. Incidentally, Narissa has found a way to communicate from the thousandbreaths with some denizens of Golarion, mostly members of her former court and staff who were left in Golarion as she marched on the First World. This has allowed her to create a nasty plot to return. If the players discover the way to remove the suppression, this will allow the Sidhe court to return, likely demanding that the player's kingdom swear fealty to Titania and Oberon.
Great info, thank you very much for sharing all the good stuff. Hearing all the good work you guys are putting in makes me so psyched I helped with the Kickstarter!
I have one concern about the 'naming' problem -- is it possible to code the game in such a way that the unique ID on an character is generated with BOTH the character's name and the account's name, and only show the character's name ingame?
One of the most frustrating things that I see over and over again in MMOs is that if you don't claim a name at second one of hour one of day one of launch, or even pre-launch, the liklihood of getting the name you want can diminish greatly. This also impacts your ability to create alts with specific name or naming scheme at a later date. This is something that Guild Wars 2 is suffering from especially since all names must be unique across *all* servers.
It seems to me that by doing this you could have more than one person with a given name -- like all the people you know named Bob or John. It's always seemed to me like a miss from the industry, and something that sems pretty simple to address (at least in theory).
Thanks for listening, and I hope it at least makes it to the consideration phase. I sure don't want to see a whole bunch of Drizzts running around, but I'd also sure like to be able to play Craddok if I decide to roll an alt 3 months after release.
Thanks for all your amazing work on this,folks. Midway through VV, my PCs hit level 9, and now EVERYBODY in the group has a cohort, plus one improved familiar. Nervous as hell about maintaining the balance of this game that has worked fairly smoothly thus far, so I'm grateful for at least having a starting point to address this massive power shift. If things don't work out so well, I'll ask a couple of them to trade in their feats for something different, but they're all really excited and I hope I can keep the game fun for all of us.
My main concern is that I don't want to put them too far ahead of the curve XP-wise; they got ahead back in Stolen Lands due to an extreme number of random encounters, and are just now returning to their appropriate level. Since they're not actually a 6-person party, any advice on keeping their XP from skyrocketing? I do feel a bump in CR will be necessary, because my experienced and savvy players were already giving me a run for my money, and I have had to use clever tactics and maxed HP to challenge my group even up until now, with only one cohort and an improved familiar in the group.
I'd start with talking with the group before the next game about your concerns, specifically that they are eclipsing the XP curve in such a way that the adventure is becoming less of a challenge, and thus not fun. And to inflate the challenge from your side of the GM screen is likely to start resulting in characters dying often, due to an unsable power balance. Let them know you dont want to do this, and you are looking at ways to adjust the game from a global perspective, as opposed to an encounter by encounter perspective. Some of the options you are thinking of are: Reducing the XP amounts per encounter, Changing the XP track to slow, Dividing the XP differently to allow for the power differential to come back into balance. And then see what they think might be a good solution.
Alternatively, you could just roll with it as they are, and let them be really powerful heroes that are in fact the stuff of legends. All too often we forget that, from the player's seat, this is a big part of the reason we play. This could also allow you to start bringing in challenges that are less dice-based, and more RP based -- how about granting XP for diplomatic negotiations that must be played out, not rolled?
And if that's not something they are interested in, just let them know that the game has switched to hardball mode, and that they may want to start stocking up on resurrection scrolls. Have the bad guys play really smart, and plan for this roving band of 'heroes', this upstart kingdom. Nothing to say that the neighboring kings would be pleased about new neighbors, and why wouldn't an egotisitcal neighbor not be paring to wipe this fledgeling kingdom off the map? Easy pickings for an established ruler to expand thier holdings...
I'll also share this -- I'm running a group of 6 in our Tales from the Stolen Lands game. I've added in a bunch of additional content (because how can you not when given the awesome sandbox we've got with Kingmaker), which has caused me to adjust a number of things beyond the 6 player conversion. For instance, the staglor has 3 additional cronies with him, as well as a group of about 20 'soldiers' working at the castle. He's turned into an opportunistic slaver in the region, opressing the local populous (a few additional towns/hamlets scattered about) and there's a town that has sprung up near the castle to support the slave trade. However, my players are very intelligent, expert players, and frighteningly resourceful, so I have no fear that they will devise a clever way to handle the problem...
Long story short, I've found that often, adjusting the numbers of critters in an encounter is much more effective than simply upping something's power level by a factor of X. Changing the number of bandits form 4 to 6 (or 8) can have an incredibly adrenalin inducing effect on the encounter, without making it horribly dangerous to the players.
Regardless, good luck with it -- in the end it is a game with friends, and should be a LOT of fun for all parties involved!
Methinks I’ve found the way to make this work. I’ll be doing a little geographical rearranging to bring it together, but it should play out along the lines outlined in the spoiler.
spoiler:
Kressle is heard of in book 1, but the party never runs into her. She’s not at the Thorne river camp when they hit it, the party finds out that shes en route south, ferrying tribute to the Staglord at the time. When she returns she finds the camp decimated by the party and goes on the hunt. She’s been tracking them for about a month, and will be on their tails as they assault the staglord’s fortress. She may or may not be part of that battle, depends on how much time the PCs spend planning their assault. If she’s in the battle she’ll fight and do her damndest to get away should the PCs prove to be turning the tables. If not she’ll see the fighting and serruptitiosly be around to see the Staglord die.
Upset, lost, and feeling abondoned, she’ll head south and west into the woods, wandering for a few weeks where she’ll stumble off the map and into some altered geography.
Reading the Book of the River Nations I came across some pretty awesome stuff. I’m moving the region of Loric Fells to nestle in between Pitax and Mivon, just south of the Stolen Lands, pretty close to Hrgulka’s Monster Kingdom (thanks DM!). Additionally, the ruins (town) of Heibarr will be placed in Loric Fells as a nexus point. This gives me a couple of additional threads I can start working on as the party continues.
Moving Loric Fells gives me a stronger power base to motivate Hrgulka and help expand his kingdom. He now becomes a general (pawn) of the hags running the show to the south. His actions will lead back south and west, into the mists. Kressle will become a champion of Gyronna, having been persuaded by the hags, her hatred nutured and expanded. She’ll eventually lead strikes into the PC’s kingdom, always fading back into the mists. The Hags themselves will have some dark ties to Lady N and the endgame, reinforcing that angle as well.
Eventually, the PCs will learn that to end the poison growing to the south, they’ll need to strike into Loric fells and address the problem there. Kressel will have set up her base of operations at the ruins of Heibarr – they’ll have to handle that as well as the hags at Rookwarden. I’ll hopefully be able to do the apocalypse now analogue and have some fun with it, and the players will get to feel even more of the sininster threats to their kingdom.
Completing this will of course allow them to expand their kingdom, and it should open up the trade routes that connect Brevoy to the South. Unfortunately, this could cause political issue as both Pitax and Mivon lay claim to the Fells, though none have been able to hold the land due to the terrible stuff that resides there.
I have not done anything as of yet,though I've been pondering something that would port to an iPhone as an app in some capacity. What all are you thinking of putting into it? How complex are you looking at making it?
I'd second Recelt32's point RE: characters that cannot be killed/continuously get away. From a player's point of view, nothing is more frustrating or meta-gamey (read:fun killing) than feeling like you are neutered out of your character's capabilities for a plot point.
Now, that being said, the idea of the character being reincatnated as different entities/races/critterz may be the ace in the hole that keeps the table from feeling this way. If orchestrated well, it could be very awesome and creepy to have random persons/beasites/etc. in the realm all using the same catch phrase and then attempting to kill the party. That could lead to all sorts fo mysterious cult theories and paranoia.
As far as foreshadowing, I'm adding in a number of sites to the map (stone circles, monoliths, old ruins and stoneworks) that will play into what happened before and why it's important.
Spoiler:
The quick and dirty looks like this: Long ago the first world and golarion were co-terminous in the northeast. The First world claimed the largely undsettled and barbaric lands annexing the north eastern part of golarion. They ruled it fairly peacefully for a long time. In the first world, there was a coup, and war rolled across both the first world and NE Golarion. The barbarian tribes rose up and with the help of some law-based outsiders were able to shunt the first world back out of golarion. At present, the magics used to force the first world out are decaying. This poses a problem as the Thousandbreaths is closer to Golarion, thus "Lady N" is starting to exert her influence, and the clock is slowly ticking.
I put together a backstory/history that will slowly be uncovered as the characters progress through the AP, and will slowly be revealed to the oracle in the party as they move forward.
Also I added in a little item called the Journal of Percy Sparkspriggle, an elaborate diary from a gnome that traveled extensively throughout the first world. I'm letting this have some information as needed for people who take time to read it. The journal itself is unique in that it describes percy's travels with the fey, as well as is a study in the mental degredation of a gnome as they bleach. As the journal progresses it becomes more and more maddened, as the bleaching process overtakes the poor soul. This journal can be used for just about anythign that you want to give clues on regarding the fey, and may even have tales of the early, less spiteful parts of Lady N's life.
Your thought of the party hitting the fort while Staggy and his crew are out recruiting or something else, is pretty solid IMO. That could be a lot of fun for the pcs as well – they take the fort, defeating the skeleton crew left behind (Random bandits 1-7, or extras from the Thorne River Camp), and then are able to plan an ambush there for Stagasaurus Rex. How pissed would old Antlerhead be upon returning to his “castle” to find the doors shut? Oh how the tables can turn, its part of the magic of this AP!
Conversely, if you want to force the confrontation at the fort cosider this: There’s a lot of space between Oleg’s and the Stag Lord’s Fort, this could be used to your advantage. You could easilly put in encounters for the party to come across that would give them XP and loot to get them up at least a level. You could also have them get lost, moving them off track into the wilderness, buying you more time.
In my game (we’re also in book one) I’ve increased the footprint/holdings of the staglord to make it a bit more interesting. Instead of a ruined fort, he’s in a small castle. He’s actively been campaigning in the riverlands to call brigands to his service, and taking slaves to build up his “Kingdom”. Yeah he’s still a drunk, and hes got some nasty bastards working for him that will allow me to do dastardly things should I need to. I’ve added in a few additional camps like the thorne river camp that are surveying and working the stolen lands, and harrassing the party, as well as a number of other oddities and stragenesses for the party to discover/enjoy.
In the end, you’ve got a lot to work with in this AP – don’t be afraid to let your imagination run!
Prologue Encounter Six: The Ruined Camp, On the Road to Oleg’s , CR2
MAP: Ruined Camp
NPCS: Dead Soldiers (6)
Monsters: Wolves (6)
I set this encounter up to set the stage of the Stolen Lands. The camp was a group of soldiers (common men at arms) sent from Restov to help Oleg keep the peace at his trading post, and were ambushed by a roving group of the Stag Lord’s bandits. The Bandits made dirty work of the soldiers, murdering them and then mounting their heads on stakes near the road, with their tabards from the city of Restov as a warning to anyone entering the Stolen Lands.
Coming around a hill, you see what looks like a disheveled camp about 100 yards up the road.
Approaching the camp it's easy to see that this has been the site of a battle. Corpses lay scattered about a cold fire pit, stripped of their valuables. They appear to have been mangled from animals gnawing at their foetid flesh. You can only guess that the heads mounted on stakes facing the road belong to these poor souls. This scene serves as a morbid warning to any who travel the road, though what that warning is one can only guess.
DC 10 heal check - they’ve been dead around a week.
DC 15 heal check - looks like wolves have been at them, recently.
DC 15 survival check - wolf tracks lead into the underbrush where you see pair of yellow wolf eyes! Wolves attack!
There is little left of the camp save some ruined blankets.
DC 12 perception check - there are some saddlebags tucked under a log that contain 20 gp, a change of clothes, and the contract from the Marshal of Restov, below:
By order of the Marshal of Restov, Jeffry Troyer is hereby pronounced Deputy of the Council of Swordlords, and charged with the securing the northern Stolen Lands. Furthermore, he is charged with striving against banditry, and with bringing stability to the region. The area of responsibility entitled to the bearer of this document is to extend no further than twenty miles from Oleg’s Trading post, located in the Northern Stolen Lands. Once arriving at Oleg’s Trading Post, report at once to Constable Hodd, local representative of the Council.
Six wolves can be a tough thing to handle at level one, there is no doubt there. We have a party of six however, all of whom are long term players and very skilled at using their character’s strengths. One of the things I did was have the wolves appear in a staggered fashion, 3 the first round, 2 the third round, and one the 5th round.By the end of the third round, the cleric was rolling to stabilize at neg 2 hitpoints, and saved the day with a healing burst (which also helped some of the wolves). However the Cavalier with the Halbred was able to make fast work of the wolves once he started hitting them, and not having the wolves attempting to trip every single round was a boon for the party. It was a tense and hard combat, with everyone on the edge of their seats, but in the end rewarding. And they came out of it with 5 decent wolf pelts they are thinking about making into gloves!
This all got them to Oleg’s to start the campaign in earnest. In all it was a pretty good Prologue, my players told me afterward that they “really liked how the adventure path started us out in a city and had us move into the countryside.” That brought a smile to my face, especially after I told them that I had come up with all that stuff, and that the AP actually set you up to start at Oleg’s, arriving the night before the Bandits come to collect their insurance payment. I guess I’m doing something right!
Prologue Encounter Five: On the Road South and West. CR1
XP: 50 per for roleplay on the road
MAP: Brevoy Wilderness
NPCS: Mercenaries, Innkeepers, Serving Girls
I decided to over emphasise the scale of the world in my game. Oleg’s is now about 2 weeks travel from Restov -- deep in the wilds. I fleshed out a couple of encounters for on the road, feel free to use as needed for your campaign. Assume there are inns scattered roughly a day apart for the first few days, then every two days. This is mostly a time for the party to start to get to know one another, share back stories / backgrounds, and to insert a little more flavor of what’s going on in the region as a backdrop.
For our heroes:
It has been a fairly comfortable and uneventful week of travel through rolling grasslands and low hills. You’ve all gotten to know one another a bit, and have been able to take in some of the countryside of Brevoy. Flowers blanket the unworked landscape, and farmers have been starting to prepare their fields for spring planting. In all it is a beautiful and hearty landscape.
You’ve also seen soldiers traveling the roads, anything from a few mercenaries looking for work to full companies of twenty or more riding north or east to Restov. Often these are rag-tag groups of men and boys looking for glory, coin, and a hot meal. Many have been on the road for some time and are happy to trade stories and rumors.
Rumors:
1. Word is that the Issians are calling their banners and its looking like civil war again
2. Restov is calling on soldiers to fortify her armies - that’s where we’re headed!
3. The Swordlords look south with coins in their eyes while the real threat is north with pikes and iron shod boots.
4. The Issians are hiring engineers to build an army of terrible war machines
5. The Brevan farmlands will be the first casulty if war breaks out, and then all the land and armies will starve
6. The Swordlords have hired a number of teams to go south and explore. None seem to be coming back though.
7. Sir Hrodgar, the Spear of Rostland, is traveling the Rostlandian countryside gathering a host to smash the Issian dogs.
8. Theres a reason folks don’t go south - its said that the green gods still walk the Stolen Lands.
9. Barbarian ghosts wander freely in the wilds to the south, stealing children and preying upon unwary travelers.
10. There used to be an old keep on the borderlands of the south and west. That place is probably haunted now.
The few Inns you’ve passed have been hospitable if not full, though all have hot meals and decent folk.
--------
For our heroes, after a few more days of travel:
As you head further west, the farms become more spread out, often going miles without a sign of people working the land. Game is prevalent, as are light forest and more rolling hills. The hills are becoming a bit higher and steeper as you travel westward. On the 9th day you arrive at the ‘road’ that leads south to Oleg’s trading post. It is little more than a trail used by trappers and an occasional peddler heading south by southwest into the Stolen Lands.
At this point I started rolling random encounters for the wilderness. Low and behold, on the first day I rolled for a random Tatzlwyrm encounter. So I set it up in a way that the party could avoid it should they want to - they came over a low hill and saw the tatzylwyrm about 200 yards away. The wyrm had taken down a deer and was eating it, unaware of the party nearby. Perfect opportunity for them to skirt an encounter, and boom! The fighter decides to charge the Tatzylwyrm! In the end it was all right, the party got beat up badly but were victorious, thanks to some low rolls on the Wyrm’s part.
I’ve been parsing the boards here since January as a pre-launch (and of course ongoing) resource for the Kingmaker game I’m currently running. I cannot say enough how much the wealth of information and ideas on these boards are a godsend to the campaign. From the myriad of ideas and creativity here -- the 6 player conversion, the many options presented for kingdom building and maintenance, the raw energy and creativity everyone has contributed to the AP, these boards have and continue to be a wonderful resource for all of us.
From the second I heard about the AP I was intrigued, and once I picked up “The Stolen Lands” I was hooked. The toolbox we’re presented with is out of this world and just what I’ve always looked for in a game -- a way for the characters to make a meaningful and profound impact on the world in which they exist.
As I read The Stolen Lands for the first time, I found myself coming up with side plots, characters, and unique sites to add to the region and the AP as a whole. My mind raced with ideas - Who was there before? What had happened to allow the region to remain as wild as it is? What would happen if the Stag Lord was building his own kingdom? Could something more sinister be going on behind the veils? If there were barbarians here once, what did they leave behind? There is a definite Fey influence, how can we play with that? As I said, my mind was racing, so I did what any good DM would do -- I started putting these ideas down to flesh out and incorporate, and unleashed my inner DM.
We kicked off at the end of February, and so far our group has responded very well to the additional content. I thought that the least I could do is start sharing some of these for everyone else running Kingmaker games as well. Hopefully others here will find some of these interesting enough to add to your own games. I’ll be adding things to this post as our game progresses -- Encounters, NPCs, Ideas and the like. Please feel free to take any and all of these and run with them - make them your own for your own games as you see fit!
For any players in the Tales from the Stolen Lands game, please don’t spoil yourself by reading further!
I'm doing something similar with my game, though taking it a little more in depth. About every 3rd or 4th hex, I'm adding some sort of interesting feature or site that the party can discover. Some of these are more robust than others. Here are a couple of examples:
Happy Badger Glade -- This small, sun dappled clearing in the forest exudes a sense of calm. It's a very plesant place, and restful. Detect magic here will reveal a very faint aura of sanctuary, almost as if the glade held the memory of a magical safe haven.
The story: Happy badger glade is site that sits very close to the first world, in an area of succor -- it's corresponding point would be a sun dappled section of forest called the Naplands -- a warm and comfortable place filled with sleeping and restful animals and fey, dreaming happy dreams.
DC 12 perception check reveals that in the glade is a dire badger, it's eyes closed and with a grin on it's face, slowly rocking back and forth on it's back as if it were sunning it's belly. This animal can be replaced as appropriate.
Effect: None save a restful sleep should anyone stay here.
Standing Stones -- You come across an area of standing stones. There is an almost palatable magical numbness here, as if it is a bit harder to concentrate on a spell or manipulate raw the magical energy.
The Story: Ancient Barbarian tribes in the area spent time erecting various sites of standing stones to help reinforce the barriers between the first world and this world. Using druidic rites, they imbued these sites as anchors to help supress the somewhat permeable barriers between the worlds. With age however these sites are starting to weaken
Effect: Allow for RP to carry the sense of arcane or fey magic to be harder to use, no real mechanical effect. Conversely, you could apply a mild penalty to arcane magic here (damage is decreased, spellcraft checks are harder, spell resistance is increased, ect.).
Toppled Stones/A Broken Circle -- You've discovered a site of standing stones, however this site looks to have succumbed to the elements, it's stones are toppled and broken. A thick mist hangs in the region limiting your view to 15'.
The Story: Nature has eroded the foundations of this site and it has collapsed, breaking any enchantment and allowing for a thinner barrier between golarion and the first world. This allows for tricks of the light and sound to affect the characters, as fleeting glimpses/sounds/impressions of things in the first world are coming through.
DC 5 perception check: You hear something scrabbling amongst the stones beyond your vision / You catch a glimpse of something slithering off into the mist.
Effect: This sort of site is used to freak the players out a bit, like the dancing lights noted above -- same sort of idea, you never catch it, its always ahead of you. Conversely you could put some sort of fey critter here to mess with the players as you see fit.
The Lost Glade -- This is a site placed in a hilly or rocky region of the forest. It is a plateau or large table of rock (About 1.5 to 2 squaremiles) on top of which is a natural sanctuary. Characters would note it via a DC 15 perception check to see a series of handholds carved into a cliffside in the forest. The climb is about 70 feet up, 2 DC 15 climb checks are needed to make it tot the top. Once at the top, a rope can easilly be affixed to a tree to assist others in climbing up. This site is only accessable via climbing the cliff -- from the air it seems to not be there, just mroe forest.
The site is a comfortable paradise of flora and fauna. It is littered with all manner of plants (DC 12 knowledge nature or survival to determine that there are plants here growing that are notnative to the region or climate) and small game. There are a number of comfortable glades, glens and areas to rest. There is a small spring and waterfall (15 foot high), and a shallow pond (4 feet deep, about 40 feet across) as well as a comfortable cave big enough to sleep 10. The temperature is always 75 degrees at the site, and the rain is rarely more than a warm shower. Each day at dawn the site is replenished with fish and game: There will be 2d4 fish available and 2d4 small game (bunnies, squirrels, deer).
Effect: This site can function as a generator for components needed for spells and alchemical mixtures. One can harvest enough raw material once per month for 2d4 spells/alchemical mixtures of levels 1 - 3. The plants harvested are not specific to any spell or mixture, but can be used for any as needed. Harvesting more than the 2d4 per month would ruin the site and cause it to become lost again -- it's location would move, either revert back to the first world, or simply move to a different place in Golarion.
