My Changes to RRR - Hargulka's Monster Kingdom


Kingmaker

301 to 322 of 322 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | next > last >>

Just wanted to post a quick update. My group will most likely be encountering Staggy at the next session. (They know where he is now and have explored most of the chartered region). I'll be pulling a lot from this thread as well as Venture Capital as we move into RRR.

However, I love the idea of Nyrissa's calling card mentioned above (by Orthos I believe) of Acid/Lightning damage and plan to give Staggy a few acid/lightning arrows to shoot at the party.

A few plans I have laid out (Tolono Stolen Lands players keep out! :P ):

Ideas Going Forward:

1. Staggy's Helm is actually a minor artifact created by N. It has the ability to adapt to its wearer's abilities and enhance an ability that is well suited for that person. Of course, when someone puts it on, they are greeted by the beautiful, green haired woman who gushes over how glad she is to have a proper champion at last. Assuming they then fail the Will save (likely vs. N's caster level) the wearer will then absolutely refuse to take the helm off. This will then allow N to scry on the party when she wishes.

2. My version Golarion is also on the cusp of a major industrial revolution and as such, things like firearms and even rail traffic are coming about (and much, much more in Pitax -- see DM's Clockwork Pitax thread for a hint). N has subsequently arranged for a few of those wonderful weapons to make their way to the Greenbelt, with some of Staggy's bandits in possession of firearms (see below for more goodness).

3. Varn and Drelev have already been introduced to the party in the first session and a few bits have popped up since. The party will be called back to Restov to receive their new charter and some initial support but the meeting will be interrupted by Irovetti who will drop the shield of one of the Iron Wolves on the table in the middle of the meeting telling all of Brevoy that they will pay for sending a force to his borders. (Shamelessly stolen from somebody else on these boards whose name I can't recall, if somebody recognizes this, please give him/her credit).

4. I'll be employing both Venture and Redcelts Game of Thrones. The seeds of the latter have already been laid as one of the PCs took the rich parents trait and had a great backstory about how his family is trying to regain their former status before they were forced to flee to Brevoy. PC's grandpa has brokered a deal with Surtova to help out the PC, but in exchange the PC is supposed to report on what has been going on in the Greenbelt -- and so far has not done so muwahahahaha>

5. Last major change is that N has convinced Irovetti to send a particularly powerful weapon to Hargulka (figuring H is too dumb to figure out how to recreate it). H will be played (in miniature form) by Captain Gunnbjorn by PP (a Warlock in the Hordes game). To get an idea of the weapon in question, Gunnbjorn's weapon is called "Bazooka". This will replace his necklace of fireballs but act as both and aoe and a direct target gun (i.e. he picks a target like a normal gun and if he hits, said target takes the full damage roll. It then blows up in an aoe allowing the others in the blast to make Ref saves). If he misses, then its just a standard aoe allowing for everyone to make a save.

There may be some rounds left over after the fight. If not, the PCs will have to invest in research to learn how to recreate said weapon/ammo. I'm leaning toward having the bazooka do the same damage as the necklace but am a bit concerned that the direct hit may prove too powerful (as frankly a ranged touch attack won't be difficult), but I have time to figure out how tough the party will be at that point. So far they have struggled a bit (despite being 6 PCs) but they are also learning from their mistakes.

6. H's ring will grant its wearer visions of a certain sword and the promise of great power if they retrieve said sword.

Anyway, will let you guys know how things play out since no plan, no matter how well thought out, ever survives first contact with the PCs. :)


Forgot to add: Big thanks to DM, Orthos, Pennywit, Redcelt, the Paizo staff who brought this AP together and everyone else who I've cobbled off of for making the campaign that much better!

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Gargs454 wrote:

Just wanted to post a quick update. My group will most likely be encountering Staggy at the next session. (They know where he is now and have explored most of the chartered region). I'll be pulling a lot from this thread as well as Venture Capital as we move into RRR.

However, I love the idea of Nyrissa's calling card mentioned above (by Orthos I believe) of Acid/Lightning damage and plan to give Staggy a few acid/lightning arrows to shoot at the party.

A few plans I have laid out (Tolono Stolen Lands players keep out! :P ):

** spoiler omitted **...

In my version of the game Nyrissa and Irovetti were basically antagonists against each other, and Nyrissa wouldn't like a lot of tech coming into the kingdoms because so much of that would be made of hated iron.

HOWEVER! It's your game, and you should do what's right by your game, and group.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:


In my version of the game Nyrissa and Irovetti were basically antagonists against each other, and Nyrissa wouldn't like a lot of tech coming into the kingdoms because so much of that would be made of hated iron.

HOWEVER! It's your game, and you should do what's right by your game, and group.

You're definitely right about N not wanting a whole lot of tech in the Stolen Lands. I'm viewing it more as she's trying to bring in just enough to make settlement difficult/impossible while placing it in the hands of those she can easily control/defeat later (i.e. Staggy/H). H's gun for instance will require very special rounds that he doesn't know how to make, so once their gone, they're gone.

As for the bandits, I ending up pulling back on them a bit and only gave one bandit a gun (and he couldn't hit the broad side of a palisade). The party basically ended up doing a straight up assault on the fort and more or less triggered everyone at the same time, so I didn't want to overdo it and end up with a tpk. Staggy proved quite deadly as it was but the party managed to keep everyone alive (except for one animal companion).

Going forward it should be interesting. The helm worked as I anticipated and the PC who put it on thinks they are there to help the "beautiful woman". It is also looking as though this particular PC may end up the ruler (they are discussing it between sessions) and has recently taken to Erastil so they will likely be looking to keep their impact on the Stolen Lands relatively tame, but seeing their enemies with the higher tech might make them consider things carefully.

Again, big thanks to everyone for all the amazing ideas in this, and many other threads. It should be fun watching the development of the PCs and how they interact with Irovetti, N, etc. Ultimately I think I will have I and N end up as antagonists, but ones who will work together when it suits them. I, for instance, doesn't want to really see new kingdoms in the Stolen Lands either, so tossing some token support to Staggy and H doesn't bother him. But when push comes to shove he a) knows how dangerous N is and b) wants that power himself. All in all, it will present the PCs with a lot of options in how they go about running their kingdom, whom to ally with, etc. All of which is what I love about the sandbox.


Dot.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

My group has been slowly making progress into RRR, slow mainly due to such busy summer schedules for us all. However, they finally got their first taste of trouble from Hargulka. They were attacked by four trolls as they camped near the Mud Bowl (party set up capitol at Stag Lord's Fort) and after defeating them, they found a bunch of gold on the trolls. Each of the gold coins; however, had the letters "HMK" crudely scratched onto them.

Have to say that I am loving all the material that so many people have come up with for this campaign. We also used Venture Capital and as a result, the PCs started out with a ton of BP, so having the Monster Kingdom lying to the south will be a good way to help chew through some of those via armies to keep things from getting too out of hand with their kingdom (not that I have a huge problem with that, but a bit of a struggle would be nice).


My PCs just recently finished up Book 2 and thanks to all the suggestions here, it was pretty incredible.

They literally had tears in their eyes as Pervilash told them about Tyg-Titter-Tut and what he had been forced to do to those poor humans.

Hargulka was an amazing minion to the BBEG who masterminded the beginnings of a monster kingdom to oppose them. They fought over the loyalties of the Kobolds and the Fey. It was all-in-all masterful! The PCs know there is some big bad out there, but who or what is still shrouded in mystery. Time to head to Varnhold!


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm prepping (I hope) to start running Kingmaker soon. I love all the suggestions/tweaks from your threads, Dudemeister. Wondering if you had any advice for how you organize the various resources you use (AP book, your overrides, possibly the 6 player tweaks). It seems like you almost need to make an abridged rewrite of the chapter to use as your campaign sourcebook in order to not miss something.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I mostly just winged it, most of the notes here were written after I ran it. Mostly I just put post-it notes in my book that said something like:

"Make this bit more interesting."

Then after I ran the thing, I wrote it down here. Except the mass combat stuff, I planned that out a bit before hand because I knew there would be issues with low-level armies and playtested against myself before bringing it to the table.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

What I suggest for this is either print off the changes with one page per hex/addition and put them in the book or, if you're using a computer/tablet have a file that has a breakdown of the changes. Use sticky notes in the physical book and/or refer to the PDF and your file with the changes often.

I've been running Kingmaker and utilizing most of DM's additions for the better part of a year now and it's made the game amazing. Hargulka's Monster Kingdom, using mass combat early, and changing the quest-givers in book 3 are the main ones that should be included in every Kingmaker game.
(And adding in parts of Realm of the Fellnight Queen and Conquest of the Bloodsworn Vale.)


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I use a laptop at the gaming table so I can track the calendar, weather, etc., but I also have a "Campaign Binder" that I bring. Each session I have a one page "Session Notes" that I print out with suspected NPCs that will encounter the party, "events" (i.e. encounters), and a recap of previous session. In this I will also throw in print outs of added content (like the mini adventure in Candlemere Tower that somebody posted with a bunch of haunts), etc. That way everything is right there and the actual AP materials are on pdf for easy access. Now, if only my laptop were faster. :P


Dot

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

You can find links to all of my Kingmaker expansions in my profile :)


Hey Dudemeister,

Hope i'm not too late to get a reply :p Just finished reading through your suggested changes and i plan to implement them with some slight tweaks.

Question for you though, Towards the end of the attack on Hargulkas How do you suggest they play out the Talonquake attack and what about the smaller enraged owlbear?

I can't tell if i missed a post explaining what happens next or if i'm just not connecting the dots

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I pretty much ran Talonquake as written (might have made her even bigger).
I also statted up Talonquake as an Army of One, and had the players roll the town defenders trying to hold her off, while the PCs themselves raced with their armies to finish her off. But that was a long time ago, I'm not 100% certain.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Dudemeister, I don't know if you get this enough but your changes to RRR are amazing. My group just had their first interaction with Hargulka when they tried to annex the Sootscale Kobolds. Most of the time they are rather bold when approaching encounters. This time was different.

The Hargulka Encounter:
The party dropped in on the Sootscales unannounced but the Kobold guards told them to hurry in because the feast was beginning. A feast that shouldn't be happening because the Kobolds had no idea the PCs were coming. Hargulka and his two trolls were there, feasting on roast boar with the Chief and shaman.

I didn't hold back with Hargulka. After his opening speech the party's Ruler tried to counter some of his points. The Troll King exploited every weak point in the Ruler's logic but he also had a few fallacies of his own. Hargulka hammered on the idea that while the party's kingdom claimed to accept all races, they were responsible for the genocide of the mites and the party's kingdom was obviously against the trolls as well.

Our Ruler has a background involving ties to an ancient Azlant/Thassilon colony, giving her a legitimate claim to these "Stolen" lands. The Trolls didn't see it this way. Hargulka declared such claims as "Expired". It took a lot of back and forth, culminating in a series of opposed Charisma skill rolls. The party won by a very narrow margin and were able to claim the Kobolds as part of their kingdom. Hargulka stormed off, obviously furious but he took no physical action other than to break a table with his fist.

They are currently shook by the idea of a Troll kingdom somewhere to the south of their little kingdom. They've set up shop around the Stag Lord's Fort and are now exploring south to give them a better idea of where the Trolls are coming from.

TLDR: My players met with Hargulka, narrowly won in a Charisma Skill battle against him, they claimed the Kobolds as part of their kingdom, and are now shook about the idea of a Troll Kingdom.

I'm looking forward to running the rest of RRR with Hargulka's Monster Kingdom and I'll update as to what my players do with any of the key encounters with the Trolls.

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

My first post about Hargulka's Monster Kingdom was in December of 2010. Almost 9 years ago now. That it's still providing memorable moments for groups all this time later warms by grim, black heart.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Update! My players may have to challenge Hargulka for the moniker of "Monster Kingdom". They have this idea that all sentient creatures are welcome in their kingdom and that they should be dealt with and treated as equals. To this end they have a full blooded Orc as a general, a Half-Elf as Councilor, a pure-blood Azlant as Ruler, a Damphir as Spymaster, the Kobolds peacefully part of their kingdom, and even the dire wolves under Howl-of-The-North-Wind as 'citizens'. They spared the life of the werewolf who killed a shepherd boy and a young woman, opting to put him to work in order to earn enough to pay for the resurrection of both of his victims. They are seeking to add either the frog-men or the lizard folk to their ranks as well, as it would be unreasonable to assume both would live peacefully within the same lands. The Fey have been treated with respect and deference but the founders know that the denizens of the First World would never truly join their kingdom, so they settle on a friendly peace.

Gigori had a time ripping into them about the lack of human control over the kingdom, but the PCs leaned into their positions on equality and won over the hearts of their citizens. The disruptive bard left quickly with his tail between his legs. Hargulka had tried to claim that the founders couldn't possibly be accepting of monstrous races like the Kobolds. Their history with the Kobolds and the other non-humans of the Stolen Lands blew that argument up in the Troll King's face. I think they may have a good shot at stealing the title "Monster Kingdom" whether they want/realize it or not.

Liberty's Edge

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Almost 10 years since this thread was made, and it's still being used! I would have been 12 years old when you wrote this stuff, and here I am now, GM'ing it!

Our group went through the first Hargulka encounter with the Kobolds a while back. There was actually some unexpectedly high tension- Hargulka insinuated that perhaps our Half-Orc fighter belonged in the Monster Kingdom too, unless he was "diluted, afraid of his own savagery-" which sent the Half-Orc, who's usually calm and amicable, into an unexpected and unforeseen rage, one which surprised even the player! It was an incredibly tense encounter, one I LOVED! Will update you on more when we come around to it- you can actually listen to the scene because we podcast it! It's in Episode 11, about 50 minutes or so in after midroll. Thank you so much for inspiring our game!

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Looks like I have a podcast to subscribe too.
I would have been around 23 when I posted this, so I'm glad the old expansion pack still has legs.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

After *10 years* since first reading this thread, of which almost 5 years was campaign play time, of which 9 months of play time was the war, I can finally express my thank-you to DM_aka_Dudemeister and the many others here for this amazing idea of having the trolls form their own kingdom. This simple idea turned out to have vastly reshaped our Mythic Kingmaker campaign, and according to my players, has resulted in one of the most, in not the most, amazing roleplaying experience they have ever had. Last weekend saw the conclusion of an epic tale of surprises, arrogance, fear, betrayal, culminating in the exultation of total victory.

Declaration of War:

I had planned on adapting the initial encounter, with the kobold king luring the PCs to their settlement only to be surprised by the troll king, Hrondgren, and his retinue, along with his war declaration if the PCs do not leave the land. However, during the 1-year downtime I gave the PCs to build their nation, they decided in the 10th month to hold the Viridian Games, a super-festival Olympics to foster relations with the factions of the sponsor nation Lurindor, and their neighbours, the other 2 expeditions. And among the invitees were the kobolds, who they had allowed to form their own little kingdom (of 1 hex). This gave me the perfect set piece to start things off.

After 2 weeks of festivities and games, the kobold athletes turned out to be surprisingly fearsome competitors, winning several contests. In the closing ceremony of the games, the kobolds, led by their king, stepped onto the stage before all the representatives of foreign powers and the citizens of Prateria (the PCs' nation) to accept their rewards. It was then the kobold king that these awards are owed to the rightful ruler of these lands, King Hrondgren of Klorgfang! At that declaration, the kobold athletes polymorphed back into their trollish form (thanks to some mythic shenanigans). The half-dragon troll King made his declaration, promising Lurindor that they would be better neighbours than the PCs, and declared their armies on the move to reclaim the land before teleporting out of the capital. (Sidenote: The kobold king then groveled to the PCs for forgiveness for the deception and for protection. The PCs, being nice and generally liking the kobolds, forgave them, and the kobolds formally became part of Prateria.)

My PCs had *zero* suspicion that something like this would happen, even though I dropped some heavy hints that the kobold king was super nervous and that the athletes were very odd. What followed was a scrambling to get loans from Lurindor to quickly form armies (helped by their politicking during the Viridian Games). Even the kobolds gained their own unit under the PCs' command. The Evergreen War would last 5 in-game months, with 6 major battles using Mass Combat, and 2 operations played by the PCs themselves.

Faerie Nest:

Another adaptation I made from an idea on this thread was Faerie Nest idea. I merged this idea with the Grove of Tiressia (renamed Hazalea in my world) encounter from Book 2. Instead of the scythe tree, Klorgfang agents held Hazalea and her friend Tyg-Twitter-Twig hostages, forcing Percilash and Falchos and the fey of the Hazel Court to sabotage the PCs' nation. The PCs caught on that fey were involved, sought out Percilash and Tyg who they previously befriended, then learned of the hostage situation. They infiltrated the conquered court, defeated the Klorgfang agents, and freed Hazalea, making another fairy court their ally.

The Evergreen War saw the juggernaut troll kingdom of Klorgfang against the fledgling nation of Prateria. The PCs would have some early victories (due to us still experimenting with homebrewed Mass Combat rules), then have two battles that would decimate both sides, with the PCs narrowly earning victory. They gained intelligence by beseeching aid from their Fairy Queen patron Elyssria, and then learned that one of their cohort was leaking their plans to the enemy. After dealing with that, they would end the war with a one-on-one battle with Hrondgren and his mythic crew after infiltrating his capital. A quick summary of the war can be found on our campaign website: Kingmaker: Reborn - The Evergreen War.

The PCs have gone ahead and annexed most of Klorgfang as part of Prateria, granting some parts of it over to allies they formed during the war (the aforementioned Hazel Court, and a tribe of lizardfolk who resented troll rule). The PCs have earned a 4-year in-game downtime to develop their new gains and pick up on personal projects interrupted by the war, but also deal with all the intrigue from 3rd parties that they discovered during the war. Peace may have come to Prateria, but the PCs' lives remain as dangerous as ever.

Again, many thanks for inspiring me to take our campaign in this direction! It was epic and super-fun, with my players even clamoring for more sessions during the week to continue the war. My only worry now is how do I make the next chapter as epic as this one! But that is a challenge for another day...

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Thanks for the kind words Kain, looks like most of the credit belongs to you and your party. Congratulations!

For additional inspiration feel free to peruse my Varnhold Vanishing Additions and Changes.

301 to 322 of 322 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / Kingmaker / My Changes to RRR - Hargulka's Monster Kingdom All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Kingmaker