1. How big should the player's town be by the end of Rivers Run Red, the 2nd module?
2. Does a Logging Camp give 1 Build Point or 1 point to the Economy for Economic checks?
Thanks,
John
1. How big should the player's town be by the end of Rivers Run Red, the 2nd module?
2. Does a Logging Camp give 1 Build Point or 1 point to the Economy for Economic checks?
Thanks,
John
Just as a reference, after 32 months, my player's Kingdom is 6 Hexes with an Economy of 29, Loyalty 17 and Stability 26. The Control DC is 26. There Treasury is 6 and their consumption is 2. This doesn't seem big enough after that period of time, I feel like I am doing something wrong.
How big should it be by the end of the module you think?
That seems a bit small, yes. Did they have any periods of unrest that they had to handle, or a lot of failed rolls at some point? At this point, they need to get their Loyalty up slightly but once they do they can expand pretty much at will.
There was no periods of unreast. They are smart players and we are using one of the spreadsheets. The only thing I am not doing is allowing free money for selling the magic items generated since that seemed to be so controversial on here.
So how big should they be by the end of this 2nd module, RRR?
Slow, careful expansion, with no magic item bonanza... Yeah, that makes a lot more sense now.
I suggest that they should probably have a good chunk of the map before expanding over into Varnhold's space becomes a real problem. You might want to have some downtime before starting module 3. Another option would be to have Varnhold have an agreement where stuff on the west side of the mountains belongs to the PCs. That would let them have some more adventuring before heading into Varnhold and the very dangerous finale of the VV.
I am guessing at some point, (I haven't read VV or the other modules yet) that the city will need to be strong enough to withstand an attack. I am just trying to get a feel for how large, how much stability and how much defense the city needs by the end of Rivers Run Red to be on track.
I can have them explore the Greenbelt, but should their town encompass all of the hexes in the green belt?
Not necessarily all the hexes on the first map, but you probably should have the majority of the hills and farmland before they expand into VV. (This won't actually make a big difference until module 4 and 5, however, so you can proceed at whatever pace you want.)
I would definitely read the later modules soon, however. There are some things in there you want to properly foreshadow.
Forget about size out-game, but focus in-game..
I modified the excel sheet a bit so they have an idea of how many people and/or square km are in their realm...
And then compare it to the other nations ;) *evil finger tapping*
Forget about size out-game, but focus in-game..
I modified the excel sheet a bit so they have an idea of how many people and/or square km are in their realm...
And then compare it to the other nations ;) *evil finger tapping*
What other nations can I compare them to?
Mivon is a small nation nearby. Some of the other River Kingdoms are probably good comparisons as well.
Do these towns have stats similar those that the PCs have with their town being built - to allow for comparison?
Where are the details for these town?
If you're the dm, make them up xP
I use real-world nations. For example, we are Belgian players, and my players right now have two thirds of Belgium right now. They love it :)
Love that idea Dudemeister! Didn't know that was a possibility. Maybe good idea when it's gotten bigger than Belgium!
CEO
|
I'll second the idea of having the players have regular contact with Varnhold and have them come to an agreement for the western hexes on the Varnhold map before the vanishing.
I'd also use the opportunity to provide additional adventure content. VV always seems to leave parties with too little XP at the end, so some custom content may be a good idea.
Excellent ideas! In my campaign, I had Varnhold set up trade relations with the PCs early on. Then I had a wedding with the Maegar Varn and he invited the PCs to the wedding. I borrowed the beginning encounter from the Fellknight Queen module
In exchange for the stuff in the spoilers, Maegar ends up giving the part of his domain on the other side of the mountains (the side where the PCs are) to them as a gift of thanks. I had all of this happen in the second installment so when they got to the third one, there was a connection.
-Lisa
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
|
IMC, one of the PCs married Varn as well. They had a baby who got kidnapped by Goody Niska from Rivers Run Red (crossed over with a crazy member of the Foxglove family from Skinsaw Murders, by way of the cult of Gyronna), and that actually ended up leading me to delay running the Varnhold Vanishing right afterward because it would've felt like piling on that poor player.
So... after finishing War of the River Kings and having a few months of downtime, I ended up having VV happen... only much worse! Borrowed a few scenes and sections from the last Carrion Crown adventure (the city of Gallowspire with the necromantic tempests in place of the now-larger city of Varnhold), using the Varnhold town from the adventure as a border town of the Duchy of Varnhold. The PCs at the moment just completed a cyclops version of the Skull's Crossing dam from Hook Mountain Massacre (complete with a healthy Black Magga) and will be heading to Vordakai's Island soon... (which is now on an island in the lake behind the dam, rather than in the river).
Good times!
IMC, one of the PCs married Maegar's daughter (all of the PCs are married at this point, and all but one have children). The timing worked out so that she was giving birth to their first child on The Night of the Pale, and the PCs first indication of problems in Varnhold is when Alyanna Varn sees her father's shade on the balcony (yes it spoils some of the mystery...but the party is still holding out hope that he's not *really* dead).
To answer the original question, my group hit just about 50 hexes before starting Book 3.