Dear members of the board, I've been lurking here for a while, but now my Kingmaker campaign is shaping up nicely, I decided to share my variations on our shared Kingmaker theme. :)
First of all, I love published adventures and paths, but I have the habit -often good, sometimes bad- of turning and twisting them until they become something entirely different. For the Kingmaker AP I had decided to stay close to the original, but in the end I couldn't resist tinkering with, well, almost everything.
There are things I decided to change from the outset, and things that got transformed from session to session.
Everything below will be spoilers, so future and current players: don't read any further.
THINGS I PLANNED TO CHANGE
Goal: Starting play in Restov, and spending some time introducing the Swordlords, Brevoy, Maegar Varn, etc. Giving the players a sense of "arriving" in the Stolen Lands. Giving the players a sense of accomplishment before their first step into the Greenbelt.
Effect: In the end we spent three sessions on Restov and the road to Oleg's. Brief reports can be found here, here and here.
Goal:Playing up the fey aspect, and heavily foreshadowing Nyrissa.
Effect:Dreams, fey encounters on the road, and an ominous episode at Fort Serenko achieved the goal of establishing a(n evil) fey presence within the background of almost every session. Players now know of the mysterious "Lady with Green Hair", but nothing else.
Goal: Playing up the political scheming in Brevoy and its relation to the players' expedition.
Effect: This was realized in the first few sessions, as House Surtova plays an active role in sabotaging the expeditions, and the threat of civil war looms over Brevic politics.
Goal:Changes in the kingdom building / mass combat rules. (1) Making feudalistic Domains instead of the Kingdom the focus of realm building, so each PC and important NPC will have its own small fiefdom (2) Replacing build points by resources/food. (3) more "civilization"-like feel to the whole process. (4) Less Kingdom building turns with more to do.
Effect I took a clue from other kingdom building and mass combat systems and I invented a few things of my own. The most dramatic changes are the Domain system, the ability system which treats Domains/Realms as characters, the seasonal governance phases, the military unit structure. You can find them here, below Lore of the Stolen Lands.
THINGS WHICH GOT CHANGED ALONG THE WAY
Bandits at Oleg's Players arrived when bandits were presently threatening Oleg and his wife. This was a much more dramatic intro to Oleg's.
Bandits' revenge Knowing my players I should have realized they would go after the bandit camp as soon as they heard it existed. Their "stealth" mission, however, failed, as usual, and they were barely able to retreat to Oleg's. Instead of letting them attack the bandits a second time, I had the bandits coming to them for revenge in great numbers, which really scared them and resulted in an awesome battle defending the palisade.
Stag Lord? Well, with a heavy presence of Erastil, and one of my players being an Erastil druid, a "stag" lord seemed a bit much to me. For some reason. He got turned into a Wolf Lord. And a lycanthrope. So did his lieutenants. Instead of a mere bandit chief, he became the leader of a small, primeval human tribe who revered him almost as a demi-god.
Kesten Garess His noble background was emphasized. Oh and his wife Tania came along. Together with a dozen or so members of his household and a dozen loyal warriors. They came in handy during the battle at Oleg's. Now there's a strong bond of camaraderie between the PCs and Kesten.
And many more small things.
I'll keep you all posted of any other "variations", and welcome any comments :)
