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1. Do the Sword Lords give their various catspaws in the Stolen Lands any sort of starting funds? At the start, with just exploration and mapping, it seems like it would be logical that the Sword Lords would treat this as a simple above-board expedition, and provide funds for hirelings and necessary equipment. But it's also suggested that this is entirely covert on their part, and every party is on their own. What would be an appropriate "start up"?
2. Approximately how many of the encounters are outright intended to be "kill or be killed"? A few of my potential players are more easily sold if I can say, "Over 75% of encounters (or 50% or 90% or 30%) can be solved without murder." The more times a pacifist/thinking man's solution can solve an encounter, the happier they are - but I also want to be honest about how much fighting there.
3. Will there be an article in an upcoming issue discussing international trade and diplomacy, or do I get to wing it with some house rules? I'm happy either way!
1. Depending how you want to play it but I guess the start up should be around 100gp maximum if you want to avoid the appearance of MW items.
2. The players will be the ones deciding this really. Most problems are solvable in more than one way. You can adjust by adding random encounters that are more or less action-oriented depending on kind of group you are GMing for.
3. It has been said that the rules of kingdom building will be expanded later. I'm not aware of any details beyond that..
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1. Do the Sword Lords give their various catspaws in the Stolen Lands any sort of starting funds? At the start, with just exploration and mapping, it seems like it would be logical that the Sword Lords would treat this as a simple above-board expedition, and provide funds for hirelings and necessary equipment. But it's also suggested that this is entirely covert on their part, and every party is on their own. What would be an appropriate "start up"?
2. Approximately how many of the encounters are outright intended to be "kill or be killed"? A few of my potential players are more easily sold if I can say, "Over 75% of encounters (or 50% or 90% or 30%) can be solved without murder." The more times a pacifist/thinking man's solution can solve an encounter, the happier they are - but I also want to be honest about how much fighting there.
3. Will there be an article in an upcoming issue discussing international trade and diplomacy, or do I get to wing it with some house rules? I'm happy either way!
1. The sword lords are trying to avoid a money trail, if one of their parties got captured and had money that could be traced to them, their neighbors would be really mad and gang up on them. All of their $ is for services rendered and payment on delivery. Remember: they only expect 1 or 2 of the 4 groups to return, those that fail can't be traced to the sword-lords in any way.
2. in the first module, about 75% of the encounters have another way out, depending on the player's choices. I would continue this trend in the random encounters, especially those that are way too powerful for level 1-5 PCs.
1. Do the Sword Lords give their various catspaws in the Stolen Lands any sort of starting funds? At the start, with just exploration and mapping, it seems like it would be logical that the Sword Lords would treat this as a simple above-board expedition, and provide funds for hirelings and necessary equipment. But it's also suggested that this is entirely covert on their part, and every party is on their own. What would be an appropriate "start up"?
2. Approximately how many of the encounters are outright intended to be "kill or be killed"? A few of my potential players are more easily sold if I can say, "Over 75% of encounters (or 50% or 90% or 30%) can be solved without murder." The more times a pacifist/thinking man's solution can solve an encounter, the happier they are - but I also want to be honest about how much fighting there.
3. Will there be an article in an upcoming issue discussing international trade and diplomacy, or do I get to wing it with some house rules? I'm happy either way!
1. As I read it, no, there is no up-front money. The sword lords do provide additional funds throughout the first part when the PCs accomplish missions, though. If you think additional funds might be warranted, I would add it to the xp earned as a reward per hex explored (see the rules on exploration).
2. Quite a few can be resolved with diplomacy rather than violence. Handled carefully, the PCs can win allies; ham-handed attacking can make enemies what will make things harder later.
3. We are expecting mass combat rules in the next volume. Because this is a "sandbox" campaign, I expect nothing with regard to international trade.
Note: LegallyTired is over-stating the case on expansion. No expansions have been confirmed by Paizo.. just the the general statement that the interest shown has made it likely they will consider expanding the rules in a larget product someday.
Note: LegallyTired is over-stating the case on...
I'm 99% sure that at some point in the future the kingdom and city building rules will be much more expanded in some future supplement. And THAT would be the time where we'd take a lot of the feedback from this first incarnation and polish things up and do some pretty extensive expansions to the basic rules we're starting with in Kingmaker.
Note: LegallyTired is over-stating the case on...
I'm 99% sure that at some point in the future the kingdom and city building rules will be much more expanded in some future supplement.
I think Urath's point is that since whatever future expansion happens is not on the schedule yet, don't hold your breath if you plan on starting kingmaker in the next 6 months.
Pretty much what I've been saying. Just wanted to clarify that "99% sure" isn't akin to "likely they will consider".
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My players jumped on the bandwagon for this without ever discussing getting paid. Didn't think about it till now, but it's kinda funny. Once I meantioned the "quests" they didn't ask then either. It wasn't until they were paid for the first quest, did they bring it up. it was like "oh, we can get paid for this stuff?" I must have pretty amicable players.
We even played a few encounters to "test out" the characters and build a little backstory. I reset everyone to 0 exp after that, and no one complained. My players even had their character donate all their loot from those preencounters before we started.
It's funny how different groups approuch things differently.
You can do what my players did - one of their characters is of noble birth and the other is an older gentleman spending his life savings on this life adventure. They chose Rich Parents (conveniently reworded as Retirement Fund in the one case) as traits and that started them off with more than enough coin for horses, supplies, and a couple pack animals without it getting too carried away.
As for non-violent options, there are plenty in Kingmaker thus far. One thing you may want to keep in mind, though, is that the Stolen Lands are a hostile frontierland - they should have to slog their way though a few bogs and kick a few bandits in the teeth to earn the right to homestead imho. ;)
2. Approximately how many of the encounters are outright intended to be "kill or be killed"? A few of my potential players are more easily sold if I can say, "Over 75% of encounters (or 50% or 90% or 30%) can be solved without murder." The more times a pacifist/thinking man's solution can solve an encounter, the happier they are - but I also want to be honest about how much fighting there.
quite a lot can be solved w/o killing. we have a bard and a druid, so lots chances for diplomacey and non killing spells
my group have allied with
mites, kobolds, boggards, fey,
killed very few animals
obviously dangers like trolls, owlbears and tatzlywyrms are most likely a fight, as are many undead ones
id say 50% at least (incluuing random encounters), but really depends on your approach, first reaction, general countenance and reputation throughout the realms, are they itching for a fight etc
A party of LN should have no problem saving the realm from chaos and forming alliances