Area Y, the Kobold Caverns, is listed as "Hidden". All the other Hidden encounters specify a DC of a particular skill to locate the encounter. This one just says that it's detailed in Part Five, and then part Five forgets to mention any DC at all.
It's a pretty important encounter. Do most people just make it a Standard to ensure that it happens, or do you keep it a Hidden with maybe a Survival DC 18 to find?
I made it Standard. I wanted them to find the place.
Same.
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So i just started a kingmaker inspired campaign (different setting but follows the general feel of the AP) and i find it highly amusing that my players are charging straight for the stag lord equivalents fort (they are just by passing hexes not exploring them but just moving through them hoping for a quick resolution). I almost pity them
So i just started a kingmaker inspired campaign (different setting but follows the general feel of the AP) and i find it highly amusing that my players are charging straight for the stag lord equivalents fort (they are just by passing hexes not exploring them but just moving through them hoping for a quick resolution). I almost pity them
My players started off that way, but a few not-so-subtle warnings put them off of the Stag Lord's Fort for now. They'll probably get caught up in side quests until late in their 3rd level now.
So i just started a kingmaker inspired campaign (different setting but follows the general feel of the AP) and i find it highly amusing that my players are charging straight for the stag lord equivalents fort (they are just by passing hexes not exploring them but just moving through them hoping for a quick resolution). I almost pity them
It's not so unreasonable that they'd do this. If they've just met a couple trying to make it on the frontier but for the sadistic bandits that visit every month, why would they worry about a giant boar way off in the woods?
Rather than railroading my players away, I kept the location of the fort a secret so that they wouldn't charge to it right off. They could still be motivated to end the bandit threat, but they had to find it, first.
Wow, there was a literal butt-ton of information in this thread! Thanks to everyone who contributed! This is going to help my pbp game a ton.
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Now that my players have finished Stolen Lands, here's an add-on I put together to replace Svetlana's Moon Radish quest. As well as giving Svetlana some more history, it also foreshadows Nyrissa a bit more overtly than Stolen Lands does.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16299287/Kingmaker/NewSehir.pdf
And a stand-alone map image for 3D Virtual Tabletop or similar: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16299287/Kingmaker/Ruins-tactical.jpg
I hope it's of use to someone!
I'm long past this point but I'm always in need of more maps =D Shame I didn't have this when I did Stolen Lands, I'd have loved to have added it.
Thanks, I'm glad you like it!
I tried to make several factions in the ruins that clever PCs can set against one other, because in theory the party could find New Sehir when they're still first level, which would make a frontal assault pretty dangerous.
As it happened, my players didn't really explore the Narlmarches much after dealing with the Thorn River camp, focussing on the plains and the Kamelands first. They'd levelled up and dealt with everything in the plains and hills (including the Stag Lord's fort) before doing any sort of systematic exploration of the forest, so they were able to steamroller most of New Sehir without having to be too clever (although they did use some of the opportunities I built into the scenario).
Mine did the same actually - went and dealt with the bandit camp, then immediately veered out and negotiated the kobold/mite situation, the spider den, and met Nettles, then dealt with the Stag Lord, and only after doubled back and went through the woods dealing with the fey pranksters, Tuskgutter, the Tatzylwyrms, and the unicorn bog.
I have a question regarding the location of staggy's fort: how close is it to tuskwater lake?
also, if my players decide to found their capital city there, should i consider one of the borders ad a watery one?
I have a question regarding the location of staggy's fort: how close is it to tuskwater lake?
There are numerous references in the first KM book saying that the fort is on the northern shore of the Tuskwater, but I don't think it states anywhere that the fort is "x feet from the water". The map of the fort doesn't really help. The only other guidance I can give is that fort is on a hill, so unless you're evnisioning the fort on a cliff above the water, allow enough room for the downslope of a hill to reach the shore of the lake.
also, if my players decide to found their capital city there, should i consider one of the borders ad a watery one?
It would make sense to have a town with a harbor instead of having to trek an extra 100 feet of land to get to the water, but I think it's up to your interpretation. Maybe set a distance of the tower to the water based on my answer above and then ask the players exactly where they want their border, keeping in mind that the city is likely to expand.
Or just make the decision for them and give the initial town a watery border for expediency.
thanks for the suggestion! Didn't notice the mention of Tuskwater!
depending on the answer of my players i could say that if they want the capital to be there they cannot position the castle near a shore, for it is over the hill. In fact it says somewhere that a district is like one square mile..I think that's pretty enough to include the slope.
tough i must say the fortress on the cliff would have been a much cooler solution...o well, too late for that.
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We put our Stag Lords fort 1.5 miles from the Tuskwater shore and 1.5 miles from the Shrike River.
That way we could center Staghart Castle in the center of a district with space for 1 district to the east, the Mill district. One district to the south, the Market district. One district to the SE, the Waterfront district. 4 districts right in the corner where the Shrike enters the Tuskwater.
That way our first district could be completely walled, though we didn't need to.
Our second district, we put 2 mills on the river border, one for grain & one for wood the was floated down from the Thorn River.
Our third district, the Academy district was N of the Castle district.
Our forth district, the Noble district was to the W of the Castle district.
Our fifth district, the Waterfront district was SE of the Castle district with the River on the E side & the Lake on the S side. (Waterfront in the SE corner).
Our sixth district, the Market district was S of the Castle district.
Our seventh district will be across the Shrike opposite the Waterfront district. (Arena district?).
That's our only town with more than one district.
so you decided with your players i guess.
seems reasonable to me.
I will tell them that the fort is close to the lake and then ask them where they would like it to be.
One funny thing i noticed in my version of the AP (italian version edited in a single huge volume ala rotrl ae) :
It says the ap is for four players following a Fast advancement track.
Guess that since i only have three players i will have to up the difficulty a bit, like adding some class levels to nps and the such (making the crazed bear using not-so- crazed stats for example..)
As any of you tried to run the ap in a fast advancement track?
I think I recall noting that the first book says the AP is for four characters, but doesn't talk about the advancement track. However, the 2nd book on mentions four players for the medium advancement track, which I understand is the assumption for all of Paizo's APs.
Hi Norin, I'm from Italy too, but don't own the Italian version, only the English one.
Although here on this same thread you can find James Jacob answer about advancement track. Medium track is the one supposed for this AP.
I see, well i guess since I've started with the fast track I'll keep it up and increase the difficulty of the encounters. I like higher level games. still, if I'll notice my players having to much of an easy game i'll revert to the mediaum advance..
Maybe you can diminish the XP rate for the hex exploration/module quests, or the number of random encounters. See if you can have your party still be at 4th at the end of the first module.
they are well in to 4th level (8k-ish xp) and are yet to encounter the kobolds and the mites.
they have already defeated staggy, explored the western part of the map and are aware that Kesten is coming back from Restov with 'great news'.
I tought i could start the second part even if they have not yet solved the kobo-mite problem, give them a year or so to found their kingdom ( meaning more xp!) and then maybe make Tartuk a 6-7th level sorcerer..with fireball/lightning bolt! I can't wait to see their faces as the mad sorcerer blasts tiny little kobolds' pieces all around!
Yes, already starting the second module could be another solution.
Have a look at pennywit's version of Tartuk as Summoner, using Old Sharptooth as his Eidolon. It's a CR 5 very tough encounter if he casts Invisibility first and then Haste.
It does look like a nasty encounter! But i think it's maybe too different from the original concept...if the statue is an eidolon the situation loose its absurdity and tartuk appears to me as less evil than he realy is.. Still nice one!
Thanks for sharing!
ok, i'm probably going to leave Tartuk as it is, a couple of fireball could well put a precocious end to the campaign, and that's not what we're here for. SO, i've decided that:
1) since my players are getting a load of missions in wich there's dead people (say the mage, the unicorn...)
2) since they will most likely lack a Magister
3) since I'd like to put a little more of what's to come on the table
I'll have the wizard whose stuff had been stolen by the bandits be still alive and kept in a treasure chest inside Tartuk's lair.
Titus Stromm (wizard 3 Diviner) is the adopted son of Imeckus (BFB), who's been sent by his disappointed father/master to seek for some ruined cyclops structure/magic/stuff.
He accepted gladly to put some distance between himself and the father (to whom he's feeling really guilty for secretly studying divination to find his real parents).
Too bad for he has never lived outside of Pitax, and gets soon robbed and captured by the bandits,the mites and the kobolds (much like Svetlana's ring :-) )
obviously he will be on the brink of death, so if my players won't be cautious they might easily end up killing him with a miss placed burning hands or by smashing the chest..
Tartuk basically keeps him alive feeding him chunks of mites/kobolds/stuff every other day and beneficts fully from his touch every morning)
the mites wanted only to eat him, the other kobolds tought Tartuk might sacrifice him to old Sharptooth.
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Now that my players have finished Stolen Lands, here's an add-on I put together to replace Svetlana's Moon Radish quest. As well as giving Svetlana some more history, it also foreshadows Nyrissa a bit more overtly than Stolen Lands does.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16299287/Kingmaker/NewSehir.pdf
And a stand-alone map image for 3D Virtual Tabletop or similar: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16299287/Kingmaker/Ruins-tactical.jpg
I hope it's of use to someone!
@RobRendell This is a great little scenario - I'm definitely going to work this into Stolen Lands.
Question for you - how did you tie the orb into the bigger Nyrissa plot? I am trying to make her more present in the AP so she doesn't come out of left field in the last couple of adventures.
@TheIneffableCheese - Thanks!
The fear effect from the orb was intended to stop larger creatures wandering into New Sehir while the blood bushes were still active, getting infested, and then fleeing, spreading the bushes to the wider Greenbelt. The theory was that
If the players get all the clues in the scenario, they should know that there was a Sylvan-speaking female who was involved in the rather grisly demise of New Sehir. They know that she wanted the orb kept in place until the bushes died, which might allow them to infer that she had some reason to protect the Greenbelt from a blood bush infestation. It's not really a smoking gun, but it gives them something to think about and hopefully connect with clues in later scenarios.
@RobRendell - That makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to clarify your concepts.
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Well, I'm starting my Kingmaker adventure path this Saturday... This will be quite a change of pace for us. See, we usually play something like once a month so what I did with previous adventure paths is I'd narrate most of the outdoor/random encouter/ traveling parts to quickly get to where the story evolves.
And with Kingmaker, all of what I used to "bypass" IS the adventure... lol
So, I've prepared my random encouter sheets, printed up my random weather, my handouts, my timeline, and we'll see where the Day-to-Day adventuring will lead us...
Ultradan
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Is there an aggregation of various encounters and scenarios people added to Kingmaker?
I've been thinking about running it using episodic leveling, so having a lot more to discover and do around the map has a lot of appeal for my group since they only progress levels with the story events.
Here are some links that I've saved away for reference for my game.
Link to a thread discussing additions to the first module: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2klsv?Kingmaker-Expansion
For the first module, there's also my offering, up towards the top of this page.
Link to a "best of" thread collecting community contributions to the whole AP: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q2t9?Starting-KM-best-community-creations, which includes links to Dudemeister's work (which you should definitely read - they deserve to be stickied, really).
Link to a thread listing published Paizo and third-party modules that fit well in the AP (scroll down to get the final list posted by Andostre, since you can't edit posts on the Paizo forums which are more than 10 minutes old, so he couldn't keep updating his original post): http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qos5?List-of-Modules-to-Use-With-Kingmaker
Also regarding the map, is there a way to retrieve the map graphics from the pdf? I'd especially love to have a version of the map without icons and site names.Use it all the time to get maps, pictures, etc..
-- david
Papa.DRB
I downloaded the program and extracted from the PDF following the Support on their websites instructions, although when I did this only 1 or 2 pictures came out of any use. Most of them are just the blank background images which I can use for unique stationary is quite useless since I wanted A detailed exploration hex map for the players without the POI's.
I explored their website, but could not find anything relating to this issue, so I'm hoping someone here can help despite how long ago you posted upon this isssue.
Thanks anyone who can assist!~
Also regarding the map, is there a way to retrieve the map graphics from the pdf? I'd especially love to have a version of the map without icons and site names.(...)
Thanks anyone who can assist!~
I haven't needed to export the images from the PDF using a tool. Instead, what works for me (on Windows) is to simply open the PDF in Acrobat Reader (the default free PDF reader from Adobe), click on the map image so that it shows up with a blue highlight, and then hit control-C to copy the image. I can then paste it into Paint or The Gimp and I get the image without any of the text, icons etc.
so where is the deserter for the trooper side quest? i cant seem to find a marker for him. is he a random enconder or im i missing something?
so where is the deserter for the trooper side quest? i cant seem to find a marker for him. is he a random enconder or im i missing something?
If you mean Falgrim Sneeg, who is wanted by Kesten Garess, he's one of the generic (but named) bandits in the Stag Lord's fort.
So my party ended up not helping Strips, instead they almost executed him for banditry. This is after he helped them, but the figured we was a regular bandit.
So now I have Tartuk and Akrios in the woods of the Greenbelt, both plotting revenge on the players. I am thinking of brining this up in a later part of Kingmaker with the two working together and Akrios having fallen to an anti paladin.
That make any sense?
So my party ended up not helping Strips, instead they almost executed him for banditry. This is after he helped them, but the figured we was a regular bandit.
So now I have Tartuk and Akrios in the woods of the Greenbelt, both plotting revenge on the players. I am thinking of brining this up in a later part of Kingmaker with the two working together and Akrios having fallen to an anti paladin.
That make any sense?
It's my experience that bringing back old NPCs help build a more cohesive story. There's lots of enemies and potential allies the party can encounter in Kingmaker; I tend to keep track of them and bring them back one way or another.
Akiros as an Anti-Paladin is a definite fit.
Yep. Last time I ran this, Kressle escaped from the Bandit camp. She laid 3 ambushes for the party before they finally got her.
Eventually they beat her and went to great extremes to make sure that she was well and truly dead. They enjoyed that final victory much more than anything that had gone before.
Definitely try to keep as many recurring characters as possible. Much more memorable.
Does anyone know who the pictures on page 62 and 64 are of?
Is the picture on page 60 of Port Ice? New Stetven?
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Temple of the Elk done! I see hope of actually finishing book 1 now. This is our 4th or 5th try at it.
I don't actually know what the picture is of, but Port Ice seems reasonable given the adjacent body of water. Congrats on finishing the temple though, it took me four tries or so to finish this book and now my PCs are 7th level! Best of luck
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I don't actually know what the picture is of, but Port Ice seems reasonable given the adjacent body of water. Congrats on finishing the temple though, it took me four tries or so to finish this book and now my PCs are 7th level! Best of luck
Thanks for the info, and the encouragement.