Hi. I have for years wanted to run a campaign where the characters are asked to set up a colony on a new continent.
It would involve first the logistics of getting items and crew and a ship readied. Then landing and clearing out a safe area in this new uncharted dangerous land. Maybe meet some locals and at the same time find a good place to start building a small settlement.
They could spent time adventuring or trying to find new resources, mining etc. It would be pretty open ended and mostly character driven. Some dangers would always come up and they would be force to proactively handle them or re-actively defend the small settlement etc...
Then I heard a little bit (not much so don't spoil it) about Kingmaker.
Should I not even bother doing the work and just run Kingmaker? Is it better than anything most of us average to mildly above average GM's have to offer? Do I do a combo of both?
Please, if you have experienced Kingmaker, I could use your advice and maybe more info on Kingmaker without too many spoilers in case I get to play in it someday!
BAM!
Kingmaker is pretty fun.
you can easily take the Kingmaker campaign and modify it for an island, (possibly one colonized by 2 or 3 different nations at once)
I personally converted mine to a homebrew world and ran it in which refugees from dragon wars were establishing their own kingdom after the dragon wars destroyed most of the other civilized nations.
In other words the kingmaker does a very good job. if you dont want to use it you could at least use its rules as a start point for your own similar home brew.
Awesome. Thank you very much. So I here you saying
a. My players will be happy with King maker as King maker
b. It also works well modified
c. It also works well as a precedent for rules.
I appreciate it. This path must be really really well written as it seems I only hear positive.
Kingmaker is not "exploring a new continent". You have access to neighboring lands, and have to deal with establishing your realm with existing neighbors.
The kingdom building rules are good, but not 100% complete, as they are focused on the area in which Kingmaker takes place (and so do not cover other terrains, for example).
What you might want to do is to check out the River Kingdoms: Complete Players' Guide to Kingdom Building. That book, from Jon Brazer Enterprises, has re-published the Kingmaker rules with some alterations for use in other campaigns.
Edit: Of course, as Blue The Wolf notes, you *can* modify Kingmaker to make it fit other themes.
Urath thanks for the info on the resource. That sounds like a really good place to start. Is it a waste to buy that and then later run and buy kingmaker?
|
Kingmaker is well worth the money invested. Especially if you just buy the PDF's.
Each adventure book contains maps, with lots of pregenerated and random encounters to be had within. If your PCs stay on foot, there's literally YEARS of walking to be had within the first 5 books.
There're also rules for Kingdom vs Kingdom warfare, Kingdom Building, and tons of fey, animal, and humanoid stat blocks galore.
You can take the overall "plot" and set it anywhere, and if you would rather drop the kingdom building stuff, there are sidebars with suggestions on just that topic.
To top it all off, the 1st and 6th adventures are simply FANTASTIC. Well written, beautifully laid out, there's even a picture-book description, a la Lewis Carroll.
There is, obviously, a lot of overlap. The publisher put some effort into adding value for people who already have Kingmaker, so while there's a lot that is copied, there's also a good deal of additional material in there. At worst, it may become a resource you can pass to your players without handing them the adventure volumes.
You may also want to check out the Kingdom Building thread in the Kingmaker forum... it is *mostly* discussion about the rules, so there are not too many spoilers (though I do not promise there are none).
Awesome. Thanks again to both of you. I have read the reviews of Kingmaker and of the River Kingdoms book. It seems like the river kingdom compliments well enough to be useful either way.
Truthfully I live far from friends and have not a lot of time. I would love to play in Kingmaker. So maybe I ask my group what they prefer, and if they do not care I run the self created so that I can play in King maker!
Again, thanks for the info.
