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My group is jumping back into Starfinder (1e) after a 2 year break. We are on book 2 of the Fly Free or Die AP and just introduced the Drift Crisis!

(As GM) I've decided to leave it "broken" since the players are not focused on being heroes and fixing things ... instead, they plan to try to capitalize on the situation.

(i.e. The Drift crashed and now, its going to be chaotic for days/weeks/months as it slowly "re-stabilizes" into Drift 2.0 ... which I want to be near the end of the campaign, not happen over night)

This raised a lot of questions;

Impact of travel times
It seems all traffic (if possible) defaults to 10d6 during crisis ... so about double the "pre crisis" value of 5d6 (for Vast, 3d6 for Near Space)

Does that mean players will need to complete (twice) as many deliveries to make up for the extra durations?

Pilot check DC to navigate during CRISIS ?
The pilot skill mentions GM can "increase DC by 5 or 10" (based on circumstances)

So maybe, +5 for Pact Worlds / Near Space and +10 for the Vast ? Is that feasible for level 3 players?

SELL PRICE
The rules only show adjustments from (-2 to +1 bp/lot) based on destination.

Since all routes are now going from 5d6 to 10d6 average flight time ... seems like a +1 or +2 BP boost could be relevant.

alternate FTL engines
assuming this optional suggested idea is used ... how do we balance out the fact every alternate "engine" has a differing BP cost.

As GM, do we just ignore that part of the rules and assume each new one simply "magically fits" into the "prototype adapter"? and ignore the impact the increased BP "cost" has on the overall ship??

or are players faced with difficult choices like dropping all their ship weapons or shields, etc ... to make room for this more expensive drive??

Advice or Suggestions?
I'm curious to hear how other GMs have integrated the DRIFT CRISIS into their FFoD campaigns.

My group is jumping back into Starfinder (1e) after a 2 year break. We are on book 2 of the Fly Free or Die AP and just introduced the Drift Crisis!

Literally, on their last jump ... "it happened" and now all drift travel is "in chaos".

(As GM) I've decided to leave it "broken" since the players are not focused on being heroes and fixing things ... instead, they plan to try to capitalize on the situation.

(i.e. The Drift crashed and now, its going to be chaotic for days/weeks/months as it slowly "re-stabilizes" into Drift 2.0 ... which I want to be near the end of the campaign, not happen over night)

This raises a lot of questions, that didn't come up when playing previous APs.

DESTINATION DCs (for pilot check to navigate)

Piloting skill descriptions have a vague listing ...
DC 10 home base (very familiar)
DC 15 seldom visited
DC 25 unfamiliar

There is no DC for "visited once" or "someone described it to me" ...
>> DC 20 visited once <<

HOW DO WE TRACK THIS?
Does the PILOT PC need to track every "drift navigation" they have ever done? Since it ignores your starting location, at least a list of every "drift port destination" they have navigated to seems relevant.

DC during CRISIS ?
The pilot skill mentions GM can "increase DC by 5 or 10" (based on circumstances)

INITIAL (impact of) DRIFT CRISIS
So, its seems fair to say "all traffic" is now slow ... using the default 10d6 "slow drift travel" assumption. maybe 7d6 for high traffic routes?
Maybe even the hard coded Harbors remain as 3d6 travel time (such as Absalom station)

Does it starts out as +10 DC to navigate anywhere? is that even "possible to navigate" for level 3 players?? if not, is the +5 DC a more appropriate DC to use to represent the chaotic nature of the drift ??

if its +5 for Pact Worlds / Near Space and +10 for the Vast .. it would greatly impact the SELL PRICE of cargo.

SELL PRICE (impact to)
Seems like the sell price (per lot) should go up; as all shipping has been impacted and supply is low while demand is high?

The rules only show adjustments from (-2 to +1 bp/lot) based on destination. Since all routes are now going from 5d6 to 10d6 average flight time ... seems like a +1 or +2 BP boost could be relevant.

Especially to make up for fact they can only complete 1/2 as many deliveries in the same time "during the crisis".

DRIFT CRISIS RANDOM ENCOUNTERS
lastly .. what about Random encounters?

Is it simply a flat increase in chance like +25% or (x2 normal chance) of a single encounter ?
or is it per day traveling in the drift, there is a chance for one to occur?
or just a single encounter per drift travel ??

I'm curious if others have dabbled with the new rules for creating, managing and "warring" with Armies - introduced in the AP?

My group is currently kicking off Part 5, War of the River Kings.

The players recruited a few specialized (faction specific) armies.
(Centaurs, Lizard-kin and Kobolds)

As well as a general Cavalry from their citizens.

The combat rules are fairly simple, although it was difficult to figure out the appropriate DC for most WAR actions.

Eventually was able to determine its just an opposed skill check.

So to make a morale action, the DC is the targets Morale bonus + 10.
Same for any other skill check, except combat (which simply uses AC)

Running combat was fairly simple using initiative order and 3 actions like PF2.
Damage is very simple to track, just remember to make Route checks as needed.

As an example of gameplay:

Our last battle, the parties "elite kobold archers" where fortified in their castle. They were attacked by (3) armies at once ... which technically meant the could not be attacked until the castle was breached.

Since it would have been a boring session, I decided to let (2) of the attacking armies use their ranged attacks ... to attempt to damage the castle.

The 3 attacking armies had a tough time. The bandits never succeeded at their checks to advance / since the kobolds stayed fortified. Eventually they fled.

The horde of giants used their ranged attacks against the castle for a total of 3 damage before their used all their ranged attacks and had to flee as well.

And the ranged attackers dropped "explosive barrels" (so their ranged attacks could justify targeting a structure) ... and managed to do 3 more points of damage before running out of ammo.

Meanwhile, every round, the defenders spent 2-3 actions to attack from range and stay fortified. Even with the cumulative -5 and -10 penalty for multiple attacks in same round, they managed to do a lot of damage.

So, I had to "ad lib" a bit to keep the story moving ... and let the enemies feel like a threat. If they had more lucky roles, they would have made it through the castle walls and quickly dispatched the archers.

But the experience did leave me wondering ... if anyone else has had success with the army rules ?

Hi all, I just wanted to offer an alternative perspective with the updated Kingmaker Adventure Path, based on my personal experiences so far.

STORY
We are about 70% through the updated AP content, enjoying ourselves and making it work w/o too much effort.

My group is currently at kingdom level 12 / party level 13.

What we learned;

XP
The XP was definitely a mess until the kingdom hit around level 6 or so ... then they easily had enough with events and such to keep the kingdom leveling alongside the players.

SKILLS and House rules
We have a few house rules in place - based on things I read in these forums.
1. non-trained skills add (level +0) but still "gate" access to some buildings.
2. skills every level (rather than 1/2) and players could still spend feats to unlock additional skills.
3. Capital (only) - we ignored the size limits on capital, so they were able to more quickly get farms up -- and so it was always expanding as the center of their kingdom.
4. Item bonuses to actions. To simplify this, we ignore location and instead limit it to a stack of 3 buildings. This results in a +3 max bonus until 9th, then +6 maximum until 15th were it increases to the max +9. This way, players are encouraged to build structures in ALL their settlements and not simply place everything in their capital while ignoring the rest.

With these options … the party tends to have a 40% success chance on untrained skill checks. And by stacking the building bonuses and those from other actions, they often double those chances for trained checks. If not, they find alternatives and/or use their fame to re-roll as needed.

FAME ... My players were sad it wasn't a cumulative total of all the fame their kingdom has earned. Instead it's more like “hero points” (for kingdoms). Regardless, the kingdom starts with (1) Fame each new kingdom turn and any left over at the end is "lost" (resets to 0). So encourage players to use it up every month.

FARMS ... were a big concern early on, but once they hit level 5 or so it was not as much a concern. they could then afford the 5 RP / consumption to avoid starving their citizens.

ARMIES ... in hindsight, it would have been interesting to introduce them earlier. But younger kingdoms often can't afford the consumption and other costs associated with fielding an army.

Kingdom TURNS ... it was a mess when we started, trying to understand the phases and order of operations. Adding armies only made it more confusing. But now (with help of automation) we complete a turn in about 10 minutes - rather than a couple hours.

When starting, it was very helpful to slow each phase down, so everyone understood what was happening and how their choices impact the kingdom.

Phases -
UPKEEP - start of the turn; income and expenses; leadership changes
COMMERCE - collect taxes, trade commodities, manage trade
LEADERSHIP - these actions have biggest impact on events
REGION - players always forget they can do (2 actions as 1) in Heartland hexes.
CIVIC - Besides "gated behind skills" ... the only limit is "1 constructed building per settlement". So we end up with lots in progress at once and track the resources spent each month until successfully constructed.
EVENTS - At the early levels, we did events every month. This added some flavor and earned them lots of bonus XP. If players lacked a specific skill to end an ongoing event, they usually solved it with another leadership action such as Focused Attention, Hiring Adventurers or skillful use of Magic. Or they just failed gloriously, endured the outcome and moved on ;-)

ACTION ECONOMY ... something that was not obvious initially, was the action limits per kingdom turn.

UPKEEP, COMMERCE (no limits)
LEADERSHIP (2 per PC, so 8 initially... 12 with a castle)
REGION (3 per turn, never changes)
CIVIC (1 construction per settlement, gives crazy at high level with dozen or so settlements)
ARMY actions (1 per kingdom army)
EVENTS (varies)
... so the only variable is the number of leadership actions per month. And these can impact all other phases.

TIP #1: CIVICs ... As a GM, between sessions ... to prepare for the next kingdom turn ... I go through the Settlements and add 1 or more buildings the townsfolk and/or advisors are requesting. This greatly helps speed game play up when dealing with many settlements. Players can still choose to build something else, but it helps keep things expanding. And it gives me a chance to suggest other buildings to improve their kingdom stats, where it might help.

TIP #2: LEADER actions ... Over time, action economy is very important with this step. I'd limit it to 8 actions initially and 12 with castle ... regardless of the number of PCs. Also, I tend to be flexible with things like hiring adventurers for things the players roleplay well, such as clearing a map hex for the PCs.

TIP #3: EVENTS ... My players enjoy these events as it adds color to each kingdom month. So I will often roll them up ahead of time and give them vague clues at the start of the month. This way the players can prepare for these events with specific leadership actions or perform other actions to help offset the potential impact of the pending events.

More CONTEXT
However, a few things to add more context that may differ from others' experience.

PF1e
We are also running this using the original pathfinder ruleset, not pf2, which has made things more challenging as a GM … but thankfully, it has no direct bearing on the kingdom side of things.

VTT … FGU
First, we are playing over a virtual table table using Fantasy Grounds Unity … which does help a lot with common tasks and provides the means to automate further (with extensions, see below).

AUTOMATION
Second, we are using an extension toolset I put together over the last year or so of running this adventure path.

With the toolset, we don’t have to track all the details in spreadsheets and swap in/out of context constantly. Instead it organizes our gameplay along the phases listed above (including the un-mentioned “army” phase) … and lets us focus on the story and playing the game itself.

For those interested, here is Link to the automation toolset created for Fantasy Grounds;
FGU Extension: Nation Builder

I noticed they are missing from the new AP and wanted to mimic how they function in the crpg.

Initially, PCs can teleport between Arcanist's Towers, which can be built at level 5 and only require (1 rank) trained in Magic. However, this perk is limited to PCs and other influential citizens.

So, we introduced the teleport circles at level 9, which require (2 ranks) Expert in Magic skill as well as a settlement of City size or larger. (just like in the crpg, where you can build towers anywhere but can only build the circles in cities or larger)

Here is what I came up with;

TELEPORT CIRCLE
LVL 9, Size 1
req: Magic (expert) and City or larger settlement.

Build DC: 26

Cost 24 RP, 4 stone, 2 luxury and 2 ore commodities.

Decided to have it modify (2) nation actions that currently have no modifiers.

Establish Trade Agreements -- since it could make long distance trade possible and profitable.

Deploy Army (magic) -- because its what teleport circles would be ideal for.

Finally, I added the same increase in item levels that a waterfront or magic shop might provide; as the expedient travel would make magic trade easier as well.

Thoughts on this ?
How would you adjust it, to fit your campaign?

When you fail to pay "food consumption" for an army, it states "all your armies increase their shaken and weary conditions by 1".

And any army exceeding 4 shaken or 4 weary is bad -- as it immediately disbands and causes the kingdom 1d4 Unrest as well as 1 RUIN. which is per army that disbands, not just the first each turn.

Is this PER ARMY (not fed) ?
Or simply (if any army is not Fed) ?

In other words, we have 10 armies but can only feed the first 6.

The last (4) go unfed -- what is the result?

(a) All (10) armies disband due to 4+ weary/shaken.
or ?
(b) All armies simply gain a single point of shaken and weary.

While I realize food is critical to morale, logic suggests the penalty would be limited to those units not fed - or at the least, worse for them specifically.

In either case, it suggests the Nation leaders are better off feeding their armies first - before their citizens, to avoid the possibly worse impact to their military forces.

Is it the same as PF1? cant seem to find it in the CRB

Healing Nonlethal Damage: You heal nonlethal damage at the rate of 1 hit point per hour per character level. When a spell or ability cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage.

We're playing through the Kingmaker series of adventures and were looking for ways to track our progress over time. And to simplify the math involved with managing a kingdom.

NOTE: Rather than use the stock kingmaker rules, we are using the updated Ultimate Campaign rules.
These tools are all available on the internet for free - but to use them, you would need to host it locally or on the cloud somewhere.

I have setup a "hosted" version of each on the cloud so you can see easily how it works.

Thought I'd share this info in case others find it useful as well.

-- Kingdom HEX Map --
Rob's map tool was perfect for this - and already includes base maps of the Green belt. This made it easy to mark the cleared hexes and track anything of interest.

You can

• tap/click a hex to remove it to reveal the map underneath
• drag icons onto the map from the panel on the left
• move around the pawn icon to represent the current party location
• make other customization's from the drop-down menu.

My example S3 hosted - Kingmaker Map URL

original source

-- Kingdom manager --
Rob already some great work on this tool - but I found it incomplete and so made these changes;

• now displays/calculates the attributes for each Settlement.
• removed the requirement of farms <= roads (nothing in rules say you HAVE to have roads).
• Also added/updated the list of improvements to account for the updates Kingdom Building rules in Pathfinder Ultimate Campaign. (from Paizo site)
• working on adding Government types (currently has no impact)
  

My example S3 hosted - Kingdom Manager URL

original source

NOTE
I'm happy to share the hosted versions of these apps ... but keep in mind it costs $ based on usage in AWS - so I can't guarantee that I'll be hosting it forever. But so long as its not abused, I'll keep hosting it for all to use.

Credits:
Rob Rendell started all of this work. He gets all the credit. I just updated the resources a bit to fit our needs.