Sounds interesting. A group of all monsterous PCs can make for a very fun and rewarding game.
I'd suggest ditching the charter from Restov hook and instead have your players link their PCs together thematically and simply telling them that this is their best opportunity to carve out their own kingdom for themselves.
Any idea what monsterous races your players would pick?
having everyone play a goblinoid character could be interesting and also wouldn't have terribly high ECLs.
also, remember that racial hit dice count towards a character's ECL. I can't tell you how many people's bubbles I've had to burst by reminding them this.
*edit*
Follow the advice here on monsterous PCs for pathfinder and you won't go to far wrong.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monstersAsPCs.html
This is a refreshing and sound advice, after all the deliberate mistreatment of the monster PC in 3.5. I recommend it too.
If the players all go monstrous, it would probably make the most sense if the PC's all played the same species or subspecies. Such as all centaur or all goblinoids. Players being players though, that's unlikely to happen.
I had considered allowing new races to be available for PC's once they'd met them in the Stolen Lands. If they befriend a tribe of kobolds, then if they make a new character, they can choose kobold as a playable race.
Still, I don't know how a monstrous PC would fare in a position of power in a kingdom. The local peasantry would not be pleased.
Sounds interesting. A group of all monsterous PCs can make for a very fun and rewarding game.
I'd suggest ditching the charter from Restov hook and instead have your players link their PCs together thematically and simply telling them that this is their best opportunity to carve out their own kingdom for themselves.
Any idea what monsterous races your players would pick?
having everyone play a goblinoid character could be interesting and also wouldn't have terribly high ECLs.also, remember that racial hit dice count towards a character's ECL. I can't tell you how many people's bubbles I've had to burst by reminding them this.
*edit*
Follow the advice here on monsterous PCs for pathfinder and you won't go to far wrong.
Fixed Link
Still, I don't know how a monstrous PC would fare in a position of power in a kingdom. The local peasantry would not be pleased.
To be frank, opinion of the local peasantry means jack-s$!*. (Yes, I'm aware that across Golarion in general the local peasantry is full of mid-level characters, but as Kingmaker requires from 1st-level PCs to be waaaay more competent than an average dude, we can postulate that this is not the case for the purpose of this particular AP.) If humans are too prejudiced to settle in the land PCs protect, too bad for them, there is a ton of other races and even in Golarion enough of them, like kobolds, aren't hardwired to be murderous sociopaths all the time. Also, in Golarion you totally have humans living in the same city with winter wolves.
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*Update*
Its a group of 6 players, sofar we have:
A kolbold barbarian
A Lizardman Cleric
A tiefling Monk
A half Dragon fallen Paladin (plans on going Blackguard)
A Sorcerer something ( also hasn't decided)
and a lycanthrope druid
Not too high CR ratings, My idea for balancing out is:
Any race 1 CR and lower gets a 30 point buy, a CR2 gets a 25 point buy CR 3 gets 20 and CR4 gets 15,
add in your racial stats
For Races with racial HD,
Starting at First lvl, you get 1 hd from your race, and the class HD, every even lvl, you get 1 more of your racial HD till you get all your racial HD.
BAB will also be based on Class, not Race.
Races that start with Feats lose them, we'll be basing the feats of a normal PC game ( 1 at first, +1 every 3rd lvl.)
all other Racials stay, natural armor, Special attacks, racial skill bonuses etc.
Everyone gets 300g for starting Equipment.
2 traits, either from the general traits, or the Campiagn traits.
They will be tougher that most first LVL pcs, But hey, they are Monsters.
My adaptation of the adventure:
As Creatures of the Wild, Life is rough. You are constantly fighting to survive, fighting against your own people, other races, and the "Civilized races" of humans, elves, and their ilk. As champions of your respective race, you have all met and decided that unless you stand together, you cannot stand against the Human nation. Rumor has it that the local kingdom of Brevoy has placed a call to would be adventurers to clean out the "filth" of the area and create a new kingdom in your lands. You will not stand for this! Plans have been made to ambush this group, slay them, and steal their charter. With the official Charter from the King of Brevoy, you can begin to start your own kingdom, a kingdom where all the Wilders can live in peace with each other, and stand against the humans!
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Creative Director
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To be frank, opinion of the local peasantry means jack-s@&~. (Yes, I'm aware that across Golarion in general the local peasantry is full of mid-level characters, but as Kingmaker requires from 1st-level PCs to be waaaay more competent than an average dude, we can postulate that this is not the case for the purpose of this particular AP.) If humans are too prejudiced to settle in the land PCs protect, too bad for them, there is a ton of other races and even in Golarion enough of them, like kobolds, aren't hardwired to be murderous sociopaths all the time. Also, in Golarion you totally have humans living in the same city with winter wolves.
Still, I don't know how a monstrous PC would fare in a position of power in a kingdom. The local peasantry would not be pleased.
That city is in Irrisen, though. Whitethrone is an exception to the rule, not the norm.
As for a monstrous PC kingdom in the Stolen Lands, I suspect that could actually work out well, especially if all of the PCs are of the same race of monsters. It would make the most logical sense to use a monster that already has tribes based in the Stolen Lands, like mites, kobolds, lizardfolk, centaurs, boggards, bogstriders (a new monster appearing in Pathfinder #34), trolls, hill giants, or something along those lines. A PC nation of goblins, drow, janni, minotaurs, orcs, tengus, tieflings, or whatever wouldn't make nearly as much sense unless you, the GM, went into the adventures and changed some stuff around.
Of course, each GM gets to decide what the norm is for his game. If he doesn't have a problem with humans living at peace with things like some (or all) monster races, then that solves that. But in Golarion, the norm IS that monsters are monsters, and civilized folks are afraid of them because monsters tend to eat or kill or menace civilized folks. That's what makes them monsters, after all, and not neighbors.
But in Golarion, the norm IS that monsters are monsters, and civilized folks are afraid of them because monsters tend to eat or kill or menace civilized folks. That's what makes them monsters, after all, and not neighbors.
I think we figured out what capital punishment is... the Executioner is also the head cook.
That city is in Irrisen, though. Whitethrone is an exception to the rule, not the norm.
Aren't PCs supposed to be exceptional people who do exceptional stuff (in Kingmaker, particularly)? Maybe I'm used to my own players with their habit of making all defeated enemies, who aren't uncommunicably evil, into their PCs' underlings/vassals (once the current party becomes sufficiently badass to lead people, at least; examples from our ongoing DnD game include kobolds, bugbears and stone giants, in that order), but I just don't see why including non-core races in the new kingdom is a problem, instead of an adventure hook.
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Creative Director
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Aren't PCs supposed to be exceptional people who do exceptional stuff (in Kingmaker, particularly)? Maybe I'm used to my own players with their habit of making all defeated enemies, who aren't uncommunicably evil, into their PCs' underlings/vassals (once the current party becomes sufficiently badass to lead people, at least; examples from our ongoing DnD game include kobolds, bugbears and stone giants, in that order), but I just don't see why including non-core races in the new kingdom is a problem, instead of an adventure hook.
It's only a problem if the GM doesn't want to run that kind of adventure.
For me, it would be a problem because I prefer running adventures where the players are all human or nearly-so (as in elves or halflings or whatever), and I prefer running those adventures in campaign worlds where that's the norm (like Golarion... or Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms).
To be frank, opinion of the local peasantry means jack-s!##... If humans are too prejudiced to settle in the land PCs protect, too bad for them, there is a ton of other races and even in Golarion enough of them, like kobolds, aren't hardwired to be murderous sociopaths all the time.
Yeah... human peasants are probably going to be that prejudiced of the evil humanoid overlords. Especially since the PC's killed Brevoy emissaries and stole the charter. :)
Aren't PCs supposed to be exceptional people who do exceptional stuff (in Kingmaker, particularly)? Maybe I'm used to my own players with their habit of making all defeated enemies, who aren't uncommunicably evil, into their PCs' underlings/vassals (once the current party becomes sufficiently badass to lead people, at least; examples from our ongoing DnD game include kobolds, bugbears and stone giants, in that order), but I just don't see why including non-core races in the new kingdom is a problem, instead of an adventure hook.
I wouldn't allow it myself, since I can't see how any of the neighbouring kingdoms would tolerate it. The River Kingdoms may be rivals with each other, but seeing a group of evil humanoids create a kingdom on their doorsteps is going to concern those nearby. I would be struggling to find an explanation as to why the River Kingdoms (+ Brevoy) wouldn't unite, march into the Stolen Lands, and divide the lands between themselves. Especially if the PC's have a growing population of kobolds working as the peasantry!
Still, I'm being too picky. I like the idea in principle and I'm sure a creative DM can find many ways around these problems. It's simply that I dislike deviating this far from the written plot. Good luck with it, and let us know how things pan out.
Oh, and Solarious, regarding the drow
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We prob won't actually get to play this campaign for about a month, the group wants to finish off the 4e adventure one of the other players is running. But i will continue to post the sessions here.
From my understanding, there will be kingdom vs. kingdom combat at some point, I'll adapt the story to fit at that point. I know its a stretch to think that some "monsters" can just steal a charter and the people that issued it would be ok with it. I'll prob adapt some of the encounter charts to enclude patrols, or serch parties sent out to olegs.
The Greenbelt is a dangerous place, people die there all the time. I don't think it would be too far fetched to have one of the PC's forge the communitcation between the city and olegs to Cover themselves for a few months. We have a Drow noble Sorc, so enchating, controling some humans and or even Oleg would also be an option. They are a very creative group, so we will see where it goes.
I'm also running this with the org. story line for a different group aswell, and we play once a week, that should give me a base line of the adventure.
I'll keep everyone posted.
**Also, thanks for all the replys!
I wouldn't allow it myself, since I can't see how any of the neighbouring kingdoms would tolerate it. The River Kingdoms may be rivals with each other, but seeing a group of evil humanoids create a kingdom on their doorsteps is going to concern those nearby.
In the context of a DnD campaign this just means the GM already knows from where his PCs are going to be getting their XP and loot at higher levels. Going along with PCs's non-standard solutions only makes GM's life happier in my experience. But then again, besides dungeons and (not always) enemies' statblocks both of my (hopefully) ongoing DnD campaigns tend to resemble APs they are based on only in the main direction of their plotline.
I can see a lot of potential about this. I know a lot of people talk about how their groups have befriended the kobolds so I don't see why a group of monstrous players couldn't befriend humans in the area or why they couldn't build the first modern kobold kingdom.
The United Kobold Kollective Republiks shall conquer all!
I pitched the idea of having the PCs play a kobold or goblin tribe out to conquer the Stolen Lands before those pesky humans from Brevoy beat them to the punch, but alas they rejected it.