I am currently running the Kingmaker book, about half a way through the second book.
The kingdom that the party has is well defined, some 30 hexes and they auto pass all checks pretty much. Alliance with the Kobolds, destroyed the mites. Tatzlford will be annexed tonight with an auto pass check.
The real problem that I am having is twofold. One, the party has managed to give themselves equipment worth around 45k each thanks to the loyalty of the kingdom being so high. Therefore, they are significantly above the WBL, and means I have a party of 5, with two sorcerers who have a 24 charisma each. 15 minute workday isn't an issue. What is an issue is that they have a APL of perhaps 8 or 9, but cannot really deal with the monsters that they should be encountering at that level. 2 of the party have been afflicted with lycanthropy, but good tactics mean that it rarely becomes an issue, something that is further boosted by the cloaks of resistance that have been crafted.
I think the biggest issue I am having is with the plot hooks to get the party out of the castle and moving the plot. I have mentioned the BBEG of the story, but need other ways to involve them and get them moving. I read somewhere that there was the idea of paying other people to do the basic cartography of the area and then they just hop from encounter to encounter. I think its something I will try tonight.
Any other suggestions though?
Are your players big on role-playing? One of my favourite aspects of Kingmaker is the potential for political intrigue, both within the nation and beyond its borders. One of the nice things about it is, it doesn't really matter how big the kingdom is, or how powerful the characters; there can still be a constant, underlying threat that everything is going to fall apart.
As written, the politics don't really start to affect things until Book 4, but that's no reason to withhold them in your own game. I'd suggest an early visit from Maegar Varn (in my campaign he arrived to court the unmarried baroness), or some threat of Brevonian civil war, forcing the new nation to choose sides.
Or play out an assassination attempt. You don't even have to decide who's responsible at first; just roll up a high-level assassin, throw it their way, and then watch them scramble.
I like that idea, might well use it. Its about time they had an assassin. Make it a heavy RP thing, maybe they are holding court on some issue or another and then one of the petitioners is the assassin. Hmm...
The more out-of-whack wealth-by-level gets, the more trouble you'll have as time goes on. As the DM, you'll have to increase the power of the opposition more and more. That's a ton of work for you, and it isn't terribly satisfying (at least in my experience). It also makes the game very "swingy" (more powerful opponents have more powerful abilities that can suddenly drop one or more PCs) which means that in order to challenge them at all, you'll end up with an increasing likelihood of PC death.
I'd strongly recommend removing the option of withdrawing money from the treasury. Just explain to your group that this option is throwing off the game balance and will eventually make the campaign unplayable.
If at all possible, reset the current party wealth to the correct amounts. You may want to have a talk with your players and present these two options - reduce their wealth now (re-equipping their characters to the correct gold-piece value), or get very little treasure for a while until their level catches up with their current wealth.
I had a lot of success actually handing out printed copies of the quests. In fact, I'm still doing that in book 4. Since the PCs understand they get extra XP just for handing that slip back to me, it tends to keep them motivated.
Another idea is to use kingdom events as plot hooks. Roll (or choose) an event for a given month, and write that event so that it draws the PCs to another part of the map. For example, have an assassination attempt lead the PCs to a n opposing faction in the forest. This will lead them to explore more hexes looking for their opponents, and also will help them to specific placed encounters along the way.
If at all possible, reset the current party wealth to the correct amounts. You may want to have a talk with your players and present these two options - reduce their wealth now (re-equipping their characters to the correct gold-piece value), or get very little treasure for a while until their level catches up with their current wealth.
Also possible to have some of the items stolen in story. The PCs are, after all, on the edge of the River Kingdoms, notorious for bandits and thieves. One of the neighboring kingdoms might well be jealous of the new kingdom's success and decide to take some for themselves. This can also be an additional adventure hook, to find out who did it, get the items back, and mete out sufficient punishment.
I'd strongly recommend removing the option of withdrawing money from the treasury. Just explain to your group that this option is throwing off the game balance and will eventually make the campaign unplayable.
I completly agree with this. I banned my party at the very start from drawing from the treasury to buy magic items. I allowed them on a couple of occasions to use BP as GP if it was for the benefit of the kingdom. (For example they wanted to reimburse 12 minors familes killed in a mining accident so I allowed them to use 1 BP to do so).
Another option is becaue they are using kingdom resources for personal reasons have the people get upset about it and hit them with 1d4 unrest per turn until they reimburse the treasury.
Yeah, in all honesty, I never even brought the option up to my players, and it's worked out great. Surprisingly, they never asked.
To be honest, the situation worked itself out. The Elven Abandoned Keep actually killed 3 of the 5 players, and therefore those items are off limits. Indeed, the players themselves came up with the idea of making a museum or monument in their fallen comrades honour, and therefore burying the bodies permanently and stopping the items from ever being used again.
I might have just fallen back in love with the group and the game lol
To be honest, the situation worked itself out. The Elven Abandoned Keep actually killed 3 of the 5 players, and therefore those items are off limits. Indeed, the players themselves came up with the idea of making a museum or monument in their fallen comrades honour, and therefore burying the bodies permanently and stopping the items from ever being used again.
That...is awesome. I doubt my players would allow loot to vanish like that.
Here is another thought, something kinda wicked that I wouldn't do: grave robbers. You would just have to decide if the look on the players' faces when they are facing creatures armed with their dead companion's gear is worth them never leaving any magic underground again.
Another adventure seed is the heroes catching grave robbers attempting to loot the dead. This will let them stop the problem before it starts, and might have a huge emotional impact...and throw the characters' own grave robbing into perspective.
I think it also helped that I mentioned that if they started looting corpses and the like of their own, then there would be massive issues with WBL. Had a look before the game you see, and they were at WBL for 9th level characters at 6th level. In the end, it didn't take much persuading to get them to bury the bodies. Well, I say bury. They made an ally in the form of an ancient Wyrm Gold Dragon who has been kinda watching out for them. He turned up to the funerals and enchanted the bodies and the graves. Bodies are now interred in transparent adamantine graves rooted into the floor of the cathedral. The bodies have something like a permanent gentle repose spell on them, therefore will never decay, and have had all the wounds etc healed up. Because there is no resurection in the campaign, they are still dead, but the bodies will always look their best. A fitting tribute I thought to their battle.
It may or may not have been inspired by the book Eragon
My player didn't want to take the chance of getting unrest as 1 always fails. Take too much BP out an roll a 1 and you can destroy your kingdom as it falls into anarchy. I made point of saying this would be stringing up the leaders. As well in their city they have some really high level people, as that's where those major magic item come from.