My group will be finishing up CotCT this weekend and next up for us will be either KM or CC. I have a few concerns about KM that hopefully some experienced KM GMs can help with:
1. Should my group decide to abandon or otherwise completely sideline the kingdom building aspect of KM does the AP still have enough content to be interesting for a group that has already done Savage Tide, Rise, and Curse back to back? I have read most of the first two parts of KM and can't quite get a feel for the overall campaign other than building a kingdom.
2. If my group does adopt the kingdom building aspects of the AP will this significantly expand the amount of time the AP takes to complete? We like to finish an AP in 7-10 months. I would not want KM to go much beyond this with or without kingdom building.
Thanks in advance.
1-Apart from the rules, the Kingdom Building aspect can easily be moved into the background entirely, and the rest of the AP has plenty to go on. I've only been a part of two APs (running KM and playing Runelords) so I can't speak as to how much "content" it has, necessarily. On the other hand, the AP as a whole is different in that it's free-flowing. PCs can go explore and aren't on many tracks throughout. Though that does allow for getting lost in the woods, if your PCs are into taking off wherever... :)
2-It may, though there are ways around it if you're willing to put in time yourself outside of game. 7-10 months? Dang, my group is slow. We've been playing for over a year and just hit book 4 (though we play, at most, every other weekend, and we've gone a month or more without gaming at times).
You could run KM without the kingdom building, there are "Kingdom in the Background" sidebars throughout the AP to help you do so, but why would you want to?
The entire point of KM is that it's something different from the normal type of adventure that you run your PC's through. If you're not going to use the kingdom building you might as well just run them through any of the other exploration focused AP's.
You could run KM without the kingdom building, there are "Kingdom in the Background" sidebars throughout the AP to help you do so, but why would you want to?
The entire point of KM is that it's something different from the normal type of adventure that you run your PC's through. If you're not going to use the kingdom building you might as well just run them through any of the other exploration focused AP's.
My guess is that it'd still be interesting because it's so sand-boxy. It doesn't change that much if you're the main heroes of a new kingdom compared to if you're the founders and leaders of a new kingdom, aside from cutting out the kingdom building rules... but the GM has to work harder to keep the PCs interested in their kingdom instead of just wandering off somewhere where the rewards might be better.
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I would suggest the GM add more extra content to Kingmaker if you arent running the Kingdom building. Some of the encounters offer special benefits to your kingdom, and some are more complex or fulfilling becaues of how it affects your kingdom.
Plus I would strongly suggest making sure the characters are invested in the new kingdom if they arent running it, either due to vows, obligations, marriage, alignment reasons, etc. Otherwise, its easy not to give a crap about many of the encounters which may change their fun, value, and difficulty.
This could result in a boring game, depending on what your party ends up like. A band of CN mercenary types for instance are likely to get bored if they arent invested in the storyline of the new kingdom in some way.
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An alternative method to kingmaker is to have the PC's start out as just the "heros" of the new kingdom but eventually take it over. I don't know many players who don't at one point or another think along the lines of "If only I was running this joint". In Kingmaker you can encourage this thinking. Thus for the first 3 or so adventures you could have the kingdom in the background but the PC's take over just in time for the second half of the AP. This could even make the AP run a little faster but it would require more work for you the DM. You need to come up with plausible reasons for the PC's to take over. IF they are good then the country should perhaps be skewing evil. If the PC's are chaotic stiffle them with law. Or perhaps just come up with a little story line about the leaders of the young country being assassinated or killed by a rogue monster and the people beg the PC's to take over. Each of these story lines is pretty easy to work in and some already exist in Kingmaker.