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Book of the River Nations: Complete Player's Reference for Kingdom Building (PFRPG) PDF

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This is the complete player's reference to Kingdom Building organizes all the rules players (and GMs) need to explore new lands, build nations, and defend against invading armies consolidated into one easy to reference tome. Starting with rules included in the Kingmaker Adventure Path, this volume expands every aspect of kingdom building and mass combat and delivers new feats, spells and class options to give PCs the edge in conquering and ruling their own corner of the world.

This book compiles information from Book of the River Nations: Exploration and Kingdom Building, Feats, Spells and Secret Societies and Mass Combat.

Your PDF download now also includes a HeroLab data file!

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A terrific resource for players and GMs alike

5/5 —

More than any other Paizo AP (in fact, more than any other campaign I've run in 33 years of gaming), Kingmaker requires legwork for the GM and lots of it. Not only do you need to run the players through the adventure as presented, but if you want to get the most out of it you need to create scores, if not hundreds, of vibrant NPCs, give each PC their own plotlines to develop, and think several game-years (at least) into the future. The result can be an unparalleled immersive experience for everyone involved, but make no mistake, it takes a LOT of work to make it so. Therefore, anything that can make your life easier as a GM is something to buy, treasure, and recommend to others.

The first thing to take into consideration is the title. I think it's a bit unfortunate, since this is far from just a PLAYER'S reference; GMs will find much to love here.

I purchased the PDF version, so my comments are limited to that. Physically it's a nice book, with a lovely cover, good B&W illustrations throughout, clean text and presentation, and not a lot of page background to mess with readability or devour printer ink.

The first section deals with exploration and is essentially a restatement of the rules in Stolen Lands, with a couple of nice additions like a size-comparison chart showing how big a kingdom is with RL comparisons. It's fine, but nothing thrilling.

Next is city and kingdom improvements, which is where the book starts to shine. All Paizo's buildings are listed, but additions are made for cities (like Office of the City Guard and Witch's Hut), rural areas (like Apiary, Winery, and Royal Preserve), and even castles (ranging from a fancy art collection through a moat to an anti-scrying room). This is where the book starts to become indispensable, as much time, effort, and balancing will be saved by having these structures ready to hand, in addition to giving players more of the options they crave. A much-improved random events table is also included.

Next up is mass combat, and the additions here are very useful indeed, ranging from new army types (everything from various size militias through orc raids to everyone's favorite shambling undead cannibals) through new attributes (like bleed, crusader, and mercenary) and rules to generate the sort of humanoid hordes we all know and love. If you plan to feature a lot of mass combat, you NEED this.

A short section on new Feats follows, which gives both traditional (e.g. Armored Swimmer or Tumble Strike) as well as Kingdom (e.g. Aid Another Leader or Inspiring Ruler)and Mass Combat (e.g. Mass Combat Focus and Inspiring General) options. Again, for someone really wanting to get into the building rules that make this AP special, this is excellent stuff that you will make use of.

The next section is for new spells, and it's here that the only real problem I have with the book comes, in the form of the various "Summon Army" and "Summon Nature's Army" spells. They're only usable by mass combat units, but I still think the present serious balance issues. Still, YMMV, and I'm sure some GMs will find them perfect for their games.

A very interesting section, somewhat misnamed as "Secret societies and organizations," comes next. it has two 5-level prestige classes and a pair of new archetypes, all of which are good, useful, and interesting, but nothing in it can replace, say, the sort of thing found in the Faction Guide if players wish to found their own organizations.

Two pages of magic items are the last major section, and these are generally useful, especially the magical statues that grant kingdom bonuses when placed in Parks. More could have been done with kingdom stat-modifying items, but that's a quibble.

Rounding out the book are several pages of revised forms for kingdom tracking, which is fine, although I think the majority of GMs find that the kingdom must be tracked through computer spreadsheets. These forms are fine and you'll like them if they're the sorts of things you like.

Overall, this is a truly exemplary resource for players and GMs using the Kingdom Building subsystems in their games. It's not perfect, but it is clearly a 5-star product and an absolute steal at its price.

Indispensable!

5/5 —

When I decided to start up my Kingmaker campaign, I knew I had to have this book from the reviews I've read and it hasn't let me down. My group is still slogging away through book 2 but they have already gone through 4 and half years of kingdom builing. The players have enjoyed the extra buildings and, as the GM, I've really enjoyed the expanded random encounter section. Additionally, being available in print makes it more convenient to flip through at the table. What also impressed me was the community support of this product by creating an excel spreadsheet that incorporated the extra material in this book. This has made the kingdom building aspect a breeze to keep track of.

YMMV

3/5 —

The book starts from the basic exploration, kingdom/city building and mass combat rules as presented in the Kingmaker AP Chapters 1, 2 and 5.

As written it's quite useable and has a few interesting changes as noted in previous reviews, such as the change in the square miles of the area a hex encompasses. Trivial point: the area of Washington D.C. is a bit under 70 square miles, so you can fit more than 5 of them in a single hex.

The kingdom building chapter adds in a substantial expansion on "farmlands" from the original rules, changing this to "open spaces development". This is the best part of the entire book, one I am adding in toto for my own campaign. This gives a reason to remember where your various landmarks are at on your kingdom map, as you can do something with most of them.

The revisions in this book for building cities and the changes in the actions by size of kingdom in my opinion are unnecessary.

There are a few new buildings, some of which are "odd". The majority of the new buildings are underpriced variants of the tradesman building in the regular rules that don't require houses be adjacent. The Keep is a variant of the Barracks that costs too much. The additions to Castles are nice, although the moat is badly explained and the 'wards' one is either overkill or far too easily bypassed by other means. Best to remove it from availability.

Mills are incorrectly assumed to only be used as a lumber mill and require substantial water access. More mills are likely built and used to grind grain than mill lumber and can be build on a much smaller river or stream than can a pier. As these rules stand, you have to have a carpenter for quite a few important items - which means in order to build various stuffs you will want every city built on a water border to build the mill that the carpenter requires. This doesn't really work well... Some of these discrepencies derive from the original material.

The militarily-required buildings are generally unecessary as well, although they are tied into the mass combat section of this book.

The mass combat system is a nice attempt at changing the admittedly basic one presented in Chapter 5 of the Kingmaker AP. The consumption costs are generally far too high, especially on a weekly basis. The training system works well enough, although using it as-is might not be so satisfactory for some.

There is a new tactic for victorious armies to learn and 4 new resources to upgrade armies with. These are also good additions and ones I plan to integrate in toto. I suggest that the poison resource inflict damage to the army using it as well unless that army is comprised of creatures with the poison use class feature or that are immune to poison.

There are several special abilities added - only Mercenaries is worthwhile. 'Bleed' is best left as originally presented in Kingmaker as part of the 'poison' special ability, while 'Crusader' is too subjective. Everyone will argue that all of their armies are crusaders to shave those consumption costs down.

Vassal armies I think are a good concept that in the book that is not well executed.

The army construction rules present an interesting concept: limiting maximum army size by 'method of conscription' - based on whether the army in question is conventionally recruited and trained (marshal), divinely acquired (planar allies?) or 'arcane' (which covers all the rest of them).

There are several new feats presented, most pertaining to govorning your kingdom or leading your armies. They are good enough to use, although Sickening Strike I would remove. Dirty Trick is already able to do this and doesn't quite require the "feat taxes" to acquire the feat. The rest of them seem fine, although Mountain Strike I would caution against unless you are willing to have some of your bad guys get it too.

The mass combat spell section has some problems as well. I cannot recommend integrating it as-is. The summon army spells are - while written for entire armies of wizards/sorcerers/clerics/druids - an especially bad idea. The effects of summoned monsters on this scale are sufficiently covered by that army's "spellcasting" special ability.

The only two non-army spells of note (besides the two that deal with scent) are (a) magic wall - which omits the very important detail of how much it costs and what the minimum caster level should be to make it permanent; and (b) wall of tentacles.

My beef with this supplement's army building rules are identical to the original ones - purely RAW they are way too easy to abuse. Armies of hound archons are the same cost as an army of 5th level fighters - both are a base CR of 4 as a Medium army in this example.

The same complaint goes for armies of golems, pixies, rust monsters, great wyrm dragons ridden by 20th level wizards and so on. There should (in most campaigns) be a hard cap on what one can recruit and train in such numbers.

This supplement attempts to reign that in by the consumption cost / week of resources = same as the cost to purchase. This really doesn't work well, as it makes armies too expensive without addressing the core problems.

The magic items are largely fine - but I caution against the trio of statues. As they're written, a group could plant one of each in each city for pretty cheap and rachet the kingdom's bonuses up even further. In a nutshell, one park per city(6 BP, most often either 3 or 1 BP) 'unlocks' access to these statues. Presumably the PCs are able to craft them, so they cost half. The +1 statues are a bargain at 2.5 BP each - the reason? Each *city* can have one of each statue in their park. I recommend house-ruling the highest such bonus provided by these statues be applied to the entire kingdom as an enhancement bonus. Otherwise, one set of +3 statues - at a 'retail' cost of 135 BP - provides the same benefit as placing a set of +1 statues in each of 3 different cities at a 'retail' cost of 22.5 BP. For the same price as one set of +3 statues, you can acquire a +18 to Economy, Loyalty and Stability for the entire kingdom, provided you have 18 cities, which is not hard to do.

Must Have For Kingmaker GMs

5/5 —

I picked this up for a Kingmaker campaign I'm running. It collects all of the rules from Kingmaker for exploration, kingdom building and mass combat in one place. While I have not taken the time to do side by side comparisons, all of these rules systems seem to be expanded and the expanded material blends seamlessly with the original material.

The absolute best part of this book is it can be easily shared with players as a reference work while performing kingdom maintenance without making the adventure and gm-eyes only sections of the Kingmaker Adventure Path books easily accessible to players. For that reason alone I consider this book money well spent and an absolute essential for any GM running a Kingmaker campaign.

Great content, but prefer better binding

5/5 —

Other reviewers have already summed up how immensely useful the content of this book is. There's no need for me to rehash that. The few typos and lack-luster art would not be enough for me to deduct more than half a star.

The reason then that I am rating this at 4-stars rather than 5 is for the printed copy of the book...

Unless the printing method has changed, the copy I received has a folded and stapled binding with non-glossy pages. Had I known that before-hand, I would have simply purchased the PDF-only and printed my own copy. I much prefer the more durable type of bindings used for the Adventure Path volumes, and appreciate the fact that I can open them even to the foreword or bestiary and still have them lay flat on my desk without issue. The same cannot be said for a stapled binding such as this.

As feedback then, I would just like to say that I find far more value in paying a few extra dollars for a good-quality binding than saving what amounts to a couple cups of coffee.

To Recap:
PDF: 4.5 stars (essential content, mediocre artwork)
Book: 4 stars (as PDF but binding is stapled)
Would I buy it again? Yes. I'd buy the PDF and then bind my own copy.

***EDIT***

6/04/2011: Note that as of the 2nd printing, this book is now perfect-bound! Great to see customer feedback implemented so quickly! Adjusting rating to 4.5 stars for the book too which it up to 5.

Note: One small thing to keep in mind when using this book is that the hexes are of somewhat different size than those in Kingmaker. They are 12-miles to the side, whereas the ones in Kingmaker were intended to be 12-miles from center-to-center. The difference is 375-sq miles vs. 125-sq miles. Very little (if any) effect on gameplay, but I figured it was worth mentioning in a review. More info on the difference here.

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Thanks Dale. I would have ruled that it must be claimed, but it is good to have an "official" answer,

-- david
Papa.DRB

The Book of the River Nations doubles the width of hexes (and quadruples the area of hexes).

The Kingmaker book said 12 miles from corner to corner (or 6 miles a side). James Jacobs once clarified this as 12 miles center-to-center (Approximately 7 miles a side). Both of these are much less than The Book of the River Nations' statement of 12 miles to a side.

This causes conflict with the Pathfinder overland travel rules (basically doubles the speed of travel), whereas the Kingmaker version is a mere simplification of the overland travel rules.

The Book of the River Nations also misrepresents the size of The Stolen Lands as larger than Washington State, whereas its supposed to be about the size of Maine. It also makes city districts seem like they take up much less space in a hex than they really do.

In other words, this small mistake "breaks" a lot of the assumptions that go into the Kingmaker AP.

Any chance of fixing this in the PDF?
Jon Brazer Enterprises
Gamemonger wrote:

The Book of the River Nations doubles the width of hexes (and quadruples the area of hexes).

The Kingmaker book said 12 miles from corner to corner (or 6 miles a side). James Jacobs once clarified this as 12 miles center-to-center (Approximately 7 miles a side). Both of these are much less than The Book of the River Nations' statement of 12 miles to a side.

This causes conflict with the Pathfinder overland travel rules (basically doubles the speed of travel), whereas the Kingmaker version is a mere simplification of the overland travel rules.

The Book of the River Nations also misrepresents the size of The Stolen Lands as larger than Washington State, whereas its supposed to be about the size of Maine. It also makes city districts seem like they take up much less space in a hex than they really do.

In other words, this small mistake "breaks" a lot of the assumptions that go into the Kingmaker AP.

Any chance of fixing this in the PDF?

This was asked upthread I said then that I was not going to. There are several reasons why. I don't know if I shared them all in one place before so I'll share them all here:

1) It doesn't change any of the actual game mechanics itself. The travel time table is identical to the one in the Adventure. If you want to change that for your home game it makes no difference to the game itself. None. If you want to change it for your own game, rest assured that your game experience will not change. Just like the actual population number, no mechanics are actually dependent upon the size of the hex or the area of the kingdom. Simply the number of hexes your kingdom occupies.

2) This is not a slam on Paizo or anyone that works there but I do not believe that anyone there is either a mathematician or civil engineer. Infact their open calls for game designers/developers typically calls for an english or a history degree. (I'm an engineer by day job and by degree.) The way you calculate area of a hexagon is to measure a side. So my natural assumption was that the 12 miles corner to corner was that it was a typo and they actually meant 12 miles per side. Jacobs clarification came after (or atleast I didn't hear about it until after) the book had already gone to print (and mathematically speaking, you don't measure the distance between points A and B to get something that B has nothing to do with, it is poor mathematics). Before it went to print, however, I ran through ALOT of calculation models before publishing the book (including models with 6 mile sides and 7 mile sides, because I did question exactly what they meant) and I found that the 12 mile sided hex worth of farms was closer to providing the consumption reduction (the actual number was like 11.6 something miles, IIRC). Mind you, the calculations assumed alot of things that simply aren't true like the growth rate was constant from year to year and all farmers were equally skilled, but it is as historically accurate as I can make it. That was the same reason why I switched the Warden and the Marshall, historical accuracy.

3) The Book of the River Nations has sold over 1000 copies. There are only 2 other Pathfinder Compatible books that I know of that have also passed that threshold (Tome of Horrors Complete and Psionics Unleashed).

There are simply to many copies of the book out there for me to invalidate for something that neither is historically accurate nor changes the way the game is played. If there ever is a second edition of the book, we are on the list of things to look at, but that will depend on if any future books use the kingdom building rules (*cough*Shadowsfall*cough) and their relative popularity and so forth. All I can say that we'll see. But for this version, the way it is is the way it is.

Your reply is much appreciated, and your product is excellent overall. The consumption reduction per land area is a very interesting point, and the historical accuracy is appreciated. However there is one point I want to clarify in response.

Dale McCoy Jr wrote:


1) It doesn't change any of the actual game mechanics itself. The travel time table is identical to the one in the Adventure. If you want to change that for your home game it makes no difference to the game itself. None. If you want to change it for your own game, rest assured that your game experience will not change. Just like the actual population number, no mechanics are actually dependent upon the size of the hex or the area of the kingdom. Simply the number of hexes your kingdom occupies.

If this didn't affect game mechanics I wouldn't have brought it up.

The size of the hex does affect a core Pathfinder game mechanic: that of overland movement, from chapter 7 of the Core Rulebook. The travel time table is based on overland movement.

If you double the distance across a hex while keeping the travel table, you must change at least one core pathfinder rule. Either characters are able to walk for 16 hours a day instead of 8 (without taking forced march penalties), or they are able to hustle for 8 hours without issue. This has ripple effects on a variety of spells and abilities that alter overland travel abilities in various ways.

This does change the game experience, and for Kingmaker where overland travel is so important, it's a big change.
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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
if any future books use the kingdom building rules (*cough*Shadowsfall*cough)

Oh, now this is interesting!

Jon Brazer Enterprises
Gamemonger wrote:
The size of the hex does affect a core Pathfinder game mechanic: that of overland movement, from chapter 7 of the Core Rulebook. The travel time table is based on overland movement.

While true, the AP assumes you use the travel table on page 3 of the Book of the River Nations. That table was not changed from the core AP.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that these rules were built with more hand-wave-ism and less analysis in mind. For example, no matter how big a hex is, it takes the exact same amount of time to cross a hex whether you are following one edge of a hex or if you're going from the top corner to the bottom corner. The second distance is twice as long as the first but the travel time remains the same.

Another example: the mass combat rules for traveling across a hex are the same regardless of the army size. Militaries know that larger units move slower than smaller units. But in the mass combat rules, a unit made up of the same kind soldiers moves at the same speed regardless of size.

Short of the long, the rules really do break down if you look at them too closely. They work well if a certain level of abstraction, but if you analyze them to much, the duct tape holding it all together is going to show. While the original rule (I'm sure) were built with Chapter 7 in mind, I believe you are using more scrutiny than the rules were meant to withstand.
Jon Brazer Enterprises
Alzrius wrote:
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
if any future books use the kingdom building rules (*cough*Shadowsfall*cough)
Oh, now this is interesting!

Sorry, I had a little cough in my throat. ;)

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I've just made available the Kingdom-Building Log/Calculator I created based upon these rules. To ensure broad compatibility, the format is MS Excel 2003.

If any of you find it useful, or have any bugs to report, please do so in the following thread:
Laithoron's Kingdom-Building Log
Jon Brazer Enterprises

Thank you for sharing.

Happy to do so. :)
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Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
Gamemonger wrote:
The size of the hex does affect a core Pathfinder game mechanic: that of overland movement, from chapter 7 of the Core Rulebook. The travel time table is based on overland movement.

While true, the AP assumes you use the travel table on page 3 of the Book of the River Nations. That table was not changed from the core AP.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that these rules were built with more hand-wave-ism and less analysis in mind. For example, no matter how big a hex is, it takes the exact same amount of time to cross a hex whether you are following one edge of a hex or if you're going from the top corner to the bottom corner. The second distance is twice as long as the first but the travel time remains the same.

Dale, while people running the Kingmaker AP can hand-wave the difference because the travel times are posted, those travel times assume the smaller hex size. They may still not be 100% accurate, because of the difference in how the hex size was described (12 miles across side-to-side vs. corner-to-corner), but they are much closer than the size your product describes (12 mile side length).

The issue is not people running the Kingmaker AP.. it is people trying to use your rules to generate their own material.

Is there room to hand-wave? Sure. Will all GMs agree that it is ok to hand-wave that much difference? No. The AP-described sizes (both versions) are more consistent with the Core Rulebook, and so are "better" in that sense. Your measurement effectively doubles speeds for land movement. +/- 5%, even 10%, is not so bad... but 100%? That can be a problem for some games.
Jon Brazer Enterprises

The only thing I can say is that Rule Zero still applies. If you do not feel it works for your game, change it to whatever you desire it to be. All I can say that it is mechanically independent of the rules and will change nothing else of game experience if you change it to any other size as long as the travel time table does not change.
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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I can vouch for the differences between hex travel/exploration times and the actual size of a hex having no appreciable affect on game-play.

We've been using the BotRN kingdom building rules for quite a while now, and any discrepancy between hex sizes and travel/exploration times has never come up, despite everyone having a printed copy of the rules for their own personal reference. As Dale says, it's not a big deal.
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Alzrius wrote:

I can vouch for the differences between hex travel/exploration times and the actual size of a hex having no appreciable affect on game-play.

We've been using the BotRN kingdom building rules for quite a while now, and any discrepancy between hex sizes and travel/exploration times has never come up, despite everyone having a printed copy of the rules for their own personal reference. As Dale says, it's not a big deal.

ditto...

-- david
Papa.DRB
Jon Brazer Enterprises

I just want to say thank you to John Benbo for his wonderful review where he called this book "Indispensable!" Thank you kind sir!
Grand Lodge

So this is a expansion of the rules in kingmaker ap?I dont own kingmaker but i was considering buying the first one for their kingdom rules.Does your book include all fo those rulles and expand on them or?
Jon Brazer Enterprises
fasthd97 wrote:

So this is a expansion of the rules in kingmaker ap?I dont own kingmaker but i was considering buying the first one for their kingdom rules.Does your book include all fo those rulles and expand on them or?

Correct. You do not need the adventure paths at all for these rules. They contain everything you need to run an exploration and kingdom building game. The original so ruled are included and are expanded upon.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

I just want to say thank you to Gregg Helmberger for an awesome 5-Star Review! Thank you for the kind words!
Liberty's Edge
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Beside the heartfelt congratulations for the 2.500th copy of "Book of the River Nations" sold were I have to sign in blood to get this?

"So before I make that announcement, I would like welcome E. Steev Ramsdell into the Jon Brazer Enterprises’ family. He will be in charge of creating Hero Lab files for all Jon Brazer Enterprises’ products, insuring that JBE’s products integrate as seamlessly as possible into your game. The first project he has nearly completed is the Feats, Spells, Archetypes Prestige Classes and Magic Items from the Book of the River Nations: Complete Player’s Reference for Kingdom Building. Please help us give Steev a warm welcome into RPG programming."

Best wishes to E. Steev Ramsdell too.
Liberty's Edge

I see the download has been updated today with the Hero lab files.
Great job Dale and Steev, but where is the proud annumcment of this accomplishment?

Thanks for the continual support, I have purchased the printed copy as a thank you, I had already purchased the PDF but I feel that we own something more to your and your crew. And it is a small step in the direction of the 5.000 copiues sold.
Jon Brazer Enterprises
Diego Rossi wrote:
Great job Dale and Steev, but where is the proud annumcment of this accomplishment?

Making the rounds now. ;)

link

Jon Brazer Enterprises is proud to announce that the Book of the River Nations: Complete Players' Reference for Kingdom Building now includes the hero lab file for all character options.
Jon Brazer Enterprises

Check it out, the picture of the new cover is up.

Thanks for the updated PDF. I just gave it a quick look-through, and offer these editing critiques in the spirit of tidiness. Otherwise, I'm quite impressed with the utility of the content.

Page 5
Kingdom Building
"Regardless of whether the players conquer an existing nation or they start their own in an uninhabited land, it is now the players' job to run that nation.”

Page 11
Magic Item Availability
"(strike)Although these(/strike)These items tend to be of a somewhat random nature, as new items are found or created and enter the economy."

Page 13
"Town Commons (4 BP): A public venue for edicts, gallows, gossip, town criers, wanted posters and flee flea markets. +1 Loyalty."

Page 14
"Mine (6 BP): A series of tunnels following the lode vein (salt, gems, mineral),."

Page 15, 2nd full paragraph, last sentence:
"The monthly BP paid helps to spread the cost of the major festivals over an entire year and sponsors additional smaller festivals, which is reflected in monthly Loyalty and Consumption."
Accident, last sentence:
"The hex does not provide any benefit this month while the workers are mourned and new workers are being trained."
Bad weather: Dubious usage -- I can't be sure it's wrong but I find "torrential winds" troubling. I associate "torrential" with water, not air. I'd suggest you use "gale-force winds" or "damaging winds" instead.

Page 18, last paragraph, 2nd sentence:
"The players should (strike)be(/strike) learn the art of kingdom building at the same time as their characters".
Last paragraph, next-to-last sentence:
"As you reward what you feel are their good choices, make their mistakes have equal consequences."

Page 19, Mass Combat, 1st paragraph:
"When fighting a war, the PCs' nation will need an army at their command."
The Army Stat Block, 2nd sentence:
"Here are the various parts of the stat block and what they mean."

Page 20, Tactics
"Close Quarters. The army is used to fighting in tight spaces, be it narrow terrain, inside ships or in underground tunnels."

Page 21, Fortification Builders, last sentence:
"This resource requires a smith to be in the city this resource is added."
Healing Potions, last sentence:
"This resource requires a shrine, temple, or cathedral to be in the city this resource is added."
"Shields (1 BP): This army possesses shields to help guard against ranged attacks. Units equipped with shields gain a +2 DV against ranged weapons. This resource requires a mill (did you mean smith??) to be in the city this resource is added."

Page 23, Training Armies, last paragraph:
"The maximum size army a kingdom can (strike)get(/strike) train is limited by the kingdom's size and the buildings in a city."
Vassal Armies, 1st paragraph, last sentence:
"The PCs' nation is still required to fund the vassal army's Constitution."

Page 28, Game Mastering Notes, 4th paragraph, 2nd sentence:
"Allow your players the chance to express their concerns while running them through a sample combat or two until they get used to the rules."
6th paragraph, 3rd sentence:
"mileux --> milieu (or possibly milieux if plural)"

Page 31, Perceptive Explorer:
"You know how to find the best vantage points and are an expert at reading the lay of the land, allowing you to speed up your exploration.

Page 33, Cover Scent.
"The affected creature can only be detected by the scent ability at half the normal distance."

Page 40, Monks of the Green Leaf, second paragraph:
"A typical monk of the green leaf finds cities to be confusing and farms to be out of balance with nature."
Elemental Fist (SU), next to last sentence:
"Starting at 4th level, a monk may spend 1 point from his ki pool to make one additional Elemental Fist attack."

Page 41, Broach of Kingly Protection
The word you are looking for here is "brooch", not "broach".

Page 42, Statue of the Learned Scholar
Here you want "poring", not "pouring" (unless he's wetting the books down with something).

Dale - I have a question about the open space stuff.

I just noticed that Aqueducts require being connected to a river, but reservoirs seem to be required be built in a hex with a body of water and allow you to build an aqueduct from there. Specifically, it's the "a natural lake or other body of water in a hex" part of the Reservoir description which makes it sound like there needs to be an existing (map-level) river or lake.

I see two possible ways to reconcile this
A) You have to build a reservoir on a river in order to build any aqueducts - change "connected to a river" in the aqueduct description to "connected to a reservoir"
B) Reservoirs are built on hexes without major bodies of water in order to start an aqueduct from them - add the word "minor" to the above quote.

Which is the intended behavior?
Jon Brazer Enterprises
Bobson wrote:

Dale - I have a question about the open space stuff.

I just noticed that Aqueducts require being connected to a river, but reservoirs seem to be required be built in a hex with a body of water and allow you to build an aqueduct from there. Specifically, it's the "a natural lake or other body of water in a hex" part of the Reservoir description which makes it sound like there needs to be an existing (map-level) river or lake.

I see two possible ways to reconcile this
A) You have to build a reservoir on a river in order to build any aqueducts - change "connected to a river" in the aqueduct description to "connected to a reservoir"
B) Reservoirs are built on hexes without major bodies of water in order to start an aqueduct from them - add the word "minor" to the above quote.

Which is the intended behavior?

No, reservoirs are map level major bodies of water. You are funding their protection and maintenance, like getting dead animals out. If you want to connect an aqueduct to a res, that works.

At this point, it doesn't look like I'm going to be reprinting the book of the river nations. There have been several ap's since kingmaker so reprinting does not make much sense at this point. If you want a print book grab it while supplies last.
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
Bobson wrote:

Dale - I have a question about the open space stuff.

I just noticed that Aqueducts require being connected to a river, but reservoirs seem to be required be built in a hex with a body of water and allow you to build an aqueduct from there. Specifically, it's the "a natural lake or other body of water in a hex" part of the Reservoir description which makes it sound like there needs to be an existing (map-level) river or lake.

I see two possible ways to reconcile this
A) You have to build a reservoir on a river in order to build any aqueducts - change "connected to a river" in the aqueduct description to "connected to a reservoir"
B) Reservoirs are built on hexes without major bodies of water in order to start an aqueduct from them - add the word "minor" to the above quote.

Which is the intended behavior?

No, reservoirs are map level major bodies of water. You are funding their protection and maintenance, like getting dead animals out. If you want to connect an aqueduct to a res, that works.

At this point, it doesn't look like I'm going to be reprinting the book of the river nations. There have been several ap's since kingmaker so reprinting does not make much sense at this point. If you want a print book grab it while supplies last.

So aqueducts connect to either rivers or lakes-with-reservoirs. That makes sense. Thanks!

Jon Brazer Enterprises

You're welcome.
Jon Brazer Enterprises

There are only a few copies left. Grab yours today before they are all gone. This is the last printing. After that, it is only available in PDF.

My group is playing Kingmaker and using the Book of the River Nations expanded rules. Sebastian is excited to kill one of our characters and I need your help!

One of the kingdom events is Assassination Attempt. It is worded as follows. One of your leaders (determined randomly) is the target of an assassination attempt. If the target is a PC, play out the attempt, using an assassin of a CR equal to the targeted PC’s level + 1. If the target is an NPC, make a Stability check to negate the attempt. If the leader is assassinated, the nation gains 1d6 Unrest points and immediately suffers vacancy penalties until the role is filled during a subsequent Improvement phase.

We randomly rolled and got a PC. (10th level) We succeed on 95% of stability rolls (only fail on one), yet having a PC rolled by these rules means that we have a near 100% chance for failure given that it would be a CR 11 character.

Do you think this implies one on one combat? Do you think it should be equivalent level +1 like CR 7 instead? (A single 10th level character is ECL 6.

Or, does Sebastian just get to kill one of our PC's? (Which he is known for and is currently salivating and licking his lips so feverishly that his keyboard at work has shorted out due to the drooling.)
Jon Brazer Enterprises

The pc is 10th level so the assassin should be 11th level. Then it should be a one on one combat between the two. I'd establish what everyone else is doing at that moment so that way the character can run for help. The assassination attempt may come down to how well the pc can attract other party help. Happened in my campaign. The wizard was targetted, he teleported out. The assassin was killed because the fighter was alerted and helped.
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
The pc is 10th level so the assassin should be 11th level. Then it should be a one on one combat between the two. I'd establish what everyone else is doing at that moment so that way the character can run for help. The assassination attempt may come down to how well the pc can attract other party help. Happened in my campaign. The wizard was targetted, he teleported out. The assassin was killed because the fighter was alerted and helped.

Thank you for the quick answer!! By the way, your product is amazing!!!

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Thank you very much! I hope your game is going great.

Dale, or anyone else with authority:

I love the product overall, and have been using it in my personal campaign that is not Kingmaker but is instead modeled after a scenario from Civilization IV (Age of Ice). I have mentioned this before.

I would like to make some improvements to the Kingdom Sheet (page 46 of the pdf file). It would be easiest for me to simply edit the document but of course it is protected.

Is there any way I can get my hands on an unprotected or otherwise editable version of THAT PARTICULAR PAGE? This would only be for personal use (I have no intention or desire to make money off of this), and I would even be willing to hand over any edits I made to you with permission for you to use them in future updates if you so desired.

I am trying to make the kingdom sheet both more inclusive and simpler. For example, records and effects of open space improvements and features like roads, rivers, forests, and apiaries need to be included in this sheet and currently are not.

I understand if you cannot do this, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks!

- Ron P.
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises
Werebat wrote:

Dale, or anyone else with authority:

I love the product overall, and have been using it in my personal campaign that is not Kingmaker but is instead modeled after a scenario from Civilization IV (Age of Ice). I have mentioned this before.

I would like to make some improvements to the Kingdom Sheet (page 46 of the pdf file). It would be easiest for me to simply edit the document but of course it is protected.

Is there any way I can get my hands on an unprotected or otherwise editable version of THAT PARTICULAR PAGE? This would only be for personal use (I have no intention or desire to make money off of this), and I would even be willing to hand over any edits I made to you with permission for you to use them in future updates if you so desired.

I am trying to make the kingdom sheet both more inclusive and simpler. For example, records and effects of open space improvements and features like roads, rivers, forests, and apiaries need to be included in this sheet and currently are not.

I understand if you cannot do this, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks!

- Ron P.

Hmm, Fair enough. It is in Microsoft Publisher format (since that was what I used for layout back then). Some of them are just images but the kingdom sheet is fully editable. Download here.

Sweet! Thank you so much!
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises
Werebat wrote:
Sweet! Thank you so much!

You're welcome. Glad I can help.

It seems this isn't available in print in the UK - there's a copy on amazon.com but it can't be shipped here. Any suggestions, beyond just printing the PDF? I'd prefer high quality for use at the table.
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises
Hairy Dude wrote:
It seems this isn't available in print in the UK - there's a copy on amazon.com but it can't be shipped here. Any suggestions, beyond just printing the PDF? I'd prefer high quality for use at the table.

Copies are getting harder and harder to get since we are not reprinting. I'll PM you a few ideas that may work for you. I don't want to do it here since this thread is for Paizo's web store.

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

For Black Friday, this PDF will be on sale for $1.50. Be sure to grab this Highly-Acclaimed and much loved kingdom building rules this weekend for this low, LOW price.
Shadow Lodge

So, I've heard you might be putting one or two of your products on sale?
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises
Kthulhu wrote:
So, I've heard you might be putting one or two of your products on sale?

Really? Where did you hear that rumor?

are there still print copies of this awesome product?
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Your local game store may have one. I'm currently working to get it on drivethru's print
service. But paizo is currently out and so is the warehouse that sends them do distributors. Sorry.

Dale - once Ultimate Campaign comes out, are you going to consider making a version 2 of this book which would expand on the newly expanded rules? Too soon to tell?
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Truth be told, I don't know. I'm not going to reprint the UCamp rules but I will probably come up with a PDF of additional buildings and other options. That might turn into a series or a whole new set of rules added on. I was actually working on an expansion when UCamp was announced and stopped working on it since I want to see what the final rules turn out to be. I don't want to come up with a whole set of add on rules only to find out Paizo did the same thing or went a totally different direction with the same basic idea. But I would rather see the final rules before making a final determination to a course of action.

Short of the long: all options are on the table.
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

This book is Powered by Hero Lab and includes a Hero Lab file in the download, making it easier to integrate into your game.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
Kalraan wrote:

In the Kingdom Rules it lists a Market as only needing 1 city block (by default as it doesn't say), but has the prerequisite of needing to be built adjacent to at least two houses.

However the token for the Market in the Pathfinder rules has it as a two Block space.

Which is correct?

I could be just missing something.

Sorry I didn't answer this previously Kalraan. I just noticed your question. I'll look into it and get back to you.

Any updates on this question? I've read through the rest of the discussion but didn't see an answer.

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Paizo may say differently in Ultimate Campaign, but I am sticking by what my book says for the time being. So a 1 square market would be my answer.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Dale--

Thanks for the fast reply!
President, Jon Brazer Enterprises
BishopMcQ wrote:

Dale--

Thanks for the fast reply!

Considering the original question was posted 2 years ago, I don't think I'm going to win any speed races.

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