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Dear members of the board, I've been lurking here for a while, but now my Kingmaker campaign is shaping up nicely, I decided to share my variations on our shared Kingmaker theme. :)
First of all, I love published adventures and paths, but I have the habit -often good, sometimes bad- of turning and twisting them until they become something entirely different. For the Kingmaker AP I had decided to stay close to the original, but in the end I couldn't resist tinkering with, well, almost everything.
There are things I decided to change from the outset, and things that got transformed from session to session.
Everything below will be spoilers, so future and current players: don't read any further.
THINGS I PLANNED TO CHANGE
Goal: Starting play in Restov, and spending some time introducing the Swordlords, Brevoy, Maegar Varn, etc. Giving the players a sense of "arriving" in the Stolen Lands. Giving the players a sense of accomplishment before their first step into the Greenbelt.
Effect: In the end we spent three sessions on Restov and the road to Oleg's. Brief reports can be found here, here and here.
Goal:Playing up the fey aspect, and heavily foreshadowing Nyrissa.
Effect:Dreams, fey encounters on the road, and an ominous episode at Fort Serenko achieved the goal of establishing a(n evil) fey presence within the background of almost every session. Players now know of the mysterious "Lady with Green Hair", but nothing else.
Goal: Playing up the political scheming in Brevoy and its relation to the players' expedition.
Effect: This was realized in the first few sessions, as House Surtova plays an active role in sabotaging the expeditions, and the threat of civil war looms over Brevic politics.
Goal:Changes in the kingdom building / mass combat rules. (1) Making feudalistic Domains instead of the Kingdom the focus of realm building, so each PC and important NPC will have its own small fiefdom (2) Replacing build points by resources/food. (3) more "civilization"-like feel to the whole process. (4) Less Kingdom building turns with more to do.
Effect I took a clue from other kingdom building and mass combat systems and I invented a few things of my own. The most dramatic changes are the Domain system, the ability system which treats Domains/Realms as characters, the seasonal governance phases, the military unit structure. You can find them here, below Lore of the Stolen Lands.
THINGS WHICH GOT CHANGED ALONG THE WAY
Bandits at Oleg's Players arrived when bandits were presently threatening Oleg and his wife. This was a much more dramatic intro to Oleg's.
Bandits' revenge Knowing my players I should have realized they would go after the bandit camp as soon as they heard it existed. Their "stealth" mission, however, failed, as usual, and they were barely able to retreat to Oleg's. Instead of letting them attack the bandits a second time, I had the bandits coming to them for revenge in great numbers, which really scared them and resulted in an awesome battle defending the palisade.
Stag Lord? Well, with a heavy presence of Erastil, and one of my players being an Erastil druid, a "stag" lord seemed a bit much to me. For some reason. He got turned into a Wolf Lord. And a lycanthrope. So did his lieutenants. Instead of a mere bandit chief, he became the leader of a small, primeval human tribe who revered him almost as a demi-god.
Kesten Garess His noble background was emphasized. Oh and his wife Tania came along. Together with a dozen or so members of his household and a dozen loyal warriors. They came in handy during the battle at Oleg's. Now there's a strong bond of camaraderie between the PCs and Kesten.
And many more small things.
I'll keep you all posted of any other "variations", and welcome any comments :)
Foreshadowing N, with a little help from a certain Gnurly Witches' Daughter (Doesn't work well in parties with those immune to sleep)
A more threatening foe at the end of River's Run Red
I have a bandit from Daggermark passing herself off as a human child, who has been adopted by the King.
One of my players has a sister in the PC's backstory - who was seduced by the horned hunter. The sister bore a satyr, but died in childbirth induced by the PC's hand (it's complicated...). Assumedly the father will want the child back at some point, but maybe not for 4 more books.
There is also a much more vibrant Druid's Circle in my Narlmarches.
I'll shamelessly copy some of these ideas, thanks :)
Can you elaborate on the Druid's Circle?
I have a Druid / Green Faith Acolyte of my own half-plant homebrew race, who happens to be the local Druid's Circle leader and...
I actually forgot his name, but he's probably gotten a name deriving from Elven or Sylvan anyway. Now I'll need to make the other Circle members.
Oops... meant to say "halfling assassin posing as a child" in my previous post.
Regarding the druid circle, I fleshed out a few druids with links to side and major quests, and various groups and NPCs. Being druids, they tend to be spread out and I bring them into the story an as needed basis.
Rohidiron Fithen - Hierophant male human druid (deceased), kind hearted wanderer and friend of beasts.
Verzakus Windthorn - Archdruid, male human, distant, analytical master of air. Leader of circle, but gone west some months ago to study some unusual planar activity.
Ilamaner Melarisan - Initiate of the 8th Circle, artistic and vagabondish male elf master of water. Swamp dweller.
Niyani Kayhun - Initiate of the 3rd Circle, female 1/2 elf. Master of horses who wanders far and wide acting as mediator between humanoids and the wild creatures.
Velossfaniel - Initiate of the 6th Circle. Female gnome master of fire; unpredictable trickster and meddler. Embraces the destructive/rebirth cycle, dwells on the edges of the gnomish community.
Keurano Gaun - Initiate of the 2nd Circle. Male human, master of beasts. Deceased; your former mentor.
Ansegar Fessar- Initiate of the 2nd Circle. Male human wolf lord, embraces the destructive aspects of nature, the hunt. Cruel and distant. Dwells in the southern Kamelands.
Sarin Stonekinale - Initiate of the 1st Circle, Male dwarven master of earth. Lives in the mountains, interacts poorly with beasts. Monitors giant populations.
There are various seekers, aspirants and oviates as well; most in the farmlands of Twinax or Pitax.
Allied Members -
Ilora Nuski - Female ranger - highly skilled but undisciplined, former bandit. Operates in opposition to Pitax. Friend of Ilamaner.
Miriel Dewkissed- Female elven ranger. Skilled archer & tracker, Consort of Verakus.
Kitan & Aleyd
A pair of human lovers - fled from the powerful and widespread tiger lord tribe. Both powerful fighters, tend to serve Verzakus or Ansegar, or protect the seekers, oviates, and aspirants.
Rohidiron Fithen - NG male human animal druid (deceased) 15th
Verzakus Windthorn - N male human air druid 13th
Ilamaner Melarisan - CN male elf water druid 10th
Velossfaniel - CN female gnome fire druid 8th
Keurano Gaun - CN male human animal druid 4th (deceased, former mentor)
Niyani Kayhun - NG female 1/2 elf horse druid 5th
Ansegar Fessar- NE male human wolf lord 4th
Sarin Stonekin - LN male dwarven earth/melee druid 3rd
Allied Members -
Ilora Nuski - CN Female ranger 13 th
Miriel Dewkissed- CN female elven archer/tracker ranger 8th
Kitan - CN male human barbarian (ex-tiger lord) 4th
Aleyd - CN female human barbarian (ex-tiger lord) 4th
Highly recommend this rewrite for RRR.
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I think the the AP as written misses out by not keeping a strong Fey undercurrent going throughout the books. Here are some things I did to keep the Fey focus in the players minds:
- I put a faerie ring of stones in the middle of the Narlmarches and a pool in a small forest (not on the Kingmaker map) between the haunted bridge and the Stag Lord's fort along the river. These are both portals to the First World, that the party can learn to use later on in the story. Currently they serve as ways creatures from the First World can enter their kingdom. I am using these to keep interest and focus on First World/Fey involvement. So far they have encountered a hunting party of Fey Lords and Fey hounds coming to the Greenbelt to hunt through the pool and bands of First World hobgoblings (they have class levels) coming through the ring of stones. I help the players differentiate between First World encounters by having all the coins from First World be made of Nickel, not gold or silver.
- I added three Fey courts that the party can interact and negotiate with in addition to surrounding kingdoms- Winter Court, Summer Court, and Shadow Court. I added the history that they arrived here in the Stolen Lands millenia ago (before Azlanti times and earlier) and established a Gate of a Thousand Worlds on Candlemere Island. Once they began exploring, the ran into the Old Gods and decided that even for them this was too dangerous and sealed the Portal. Each Court appointed a Guardian to keep the portal sealed. Around the time of the Azlanti rise to power, the elves came and decided they wanted to access the Gate. They used their magic to trap the Guardians one by one, and as they trapped each one, they sealed of the same Court from the Stolen Lands. So far the party has freed the Great Serpent of the Winter Court, freeing them to return to the Stolen Lands. The party recently received an invitation to a Yule Ball from Jack Frost.
- The gnome druid in our party died early and the party decided to throw his body in the Fey pool since they had no money or resources left to bring him back. He took the trait First World Born (I think thats the name, my Herolab is offline atm), so I ran with it and had him raised by Gaia, who is opposed to the plans of another powerful Fey from Book 6 (the Big N). She gave the gnome a magical staff and told him to use it to restore the Old Sycamore (they previously cleared out the mites). The Sycamore is now alive and thriving, granting +1 Stability to their kingdom and reducing consumption by two due to its fertile influence. I plan to use omens from Gaia to hint at Nyrissa's involvement if more intervention is necessary.
-Getting ready to run Realm of the Fellnight queen out of Tatzlford towards the end of Book3.
-Hargulka is a First World troll, as well as several of his lieutenants. There will be evidence there of this, showing the party that there are now menacing forces coming from the First World. I plan to run Hargulka and the Giant Owlbear as Mythic Creatures from the playtest, simply because my party is far too efficient in battle and there are 8 players. If I had access to the Mythic rules, I would made the transformed Dire Bear also Mythic, but they fought him already.
- I have several herds of wild animals that rove around the Greenbelt, including a large herd of Dire sheep and many large herds of elk. Several of the herd leaders are from the First World, and are of above average intelligence, which the druid found out by talking with them.
Some superb ideas here - am running a pbp Kingmaker kicking off in a wee while.
Really want to amp up both the Slavic feel to the AP and the fey influence. Some great ideas here on the latter :)
Yonking the idea of a special staff that can restore the old sycamore- love that.
Like your idea of a Fey coins and and the Dire Sheep as well...
Thanks Redcelt!
Gaff the wretched is a necromancer and arch enemy of the party that is wandering the area and slowly heading east. He's actually uncovered some references to a vast horde of knowledge that will eventually lead him to Vord's tomb in TVV and allow him to ally with our favorite undead cyclops.
I'm toying with the idea of actually moving when The Varnhold Vanishing occurs in the time stream so that it happens right before Sound of a Thousand Screams. Tossing around the thought of having Vord being a functional demi lich who teaches Gaff how to lich-ify himself for when the party arrives. Added to the room where they will combat them will be some additional nasty buggers to increase the number of foes, as well as a negative energy trap that will be pulsing with a neg energy blast to heal the undeaders. Feels suitably wicked for a moustache twirling mastermind of evil like Vord is written to be.
Whereas I know this will call for some more work as far as creating the challenges needed for my group, I think it'd be a fun alternative, and add to the dire feeling of the situation.
You could play out Varnhold vanishing but have your necro hire a high level thief to swipe the occulus of abandon. Maybe Vord hooks Gaff up with some books and formulas before the PCs bust'em up. Less work that way you throw them another lich between 5 and 6. You could have some fun and have Gaff start stealing potentially powerful corpses that the PCs leave around. Fast Zombie quickling anyone, how about the Giant Owlbear's mate, or that unicorn from the first book!
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Since my last update several fey-ish things have happened.
1. Winter came early and is one of the coldest and snowiest on record, with no signs of easing up. The druids in my game have already noticed it is unnatural and have spoken to animal herd leaders who are worried about food. The party has decided that they need to find and free the Guardian of the Summer Court in order to balance out the winter, but hasnt gotten around to doing anything about it.
Meanwhile, some very insulting and snobby elves came to visit the queen claiming to be envoys from Kyonin. In reality, they are a splinter sect of elves who have a vested interest in keeping the guardians locked up, and after insulting the hell out of the queen (things like speaking through an interpreter when the leader knew common, etc), left to go check on the locked away guardians. They reinforced the defenses, laid traps, and hid them even better.
The party caught wind that they were up to no good due to the Spymaster's efforts and called upon some friendly elves in the Narlmarches to help track them down. They discovered a pocket dimension hidden in an elven graveyard (an area normally off limit to anyone but elves) where the visitors went, and are currently in diplomatic discussions to get permission to follow the visiting elves.
2. The early and strong winter will indeed last well into the Spring as the Queen of the Winter Court builds strength from her long exile. If the party wishes to parlay with her, they will have to brave the fey masked ball and survive charms, glamours, honor duel challenges, and treachery aplenty in order to gain an audience with the queen.
3. Hargulka is taking advantage of the wintery conditions to draw frosty allies from the First World to his cause. Now winter wolves, frost giants, hoar foxes, and the like will be fighting under his banner against the PCs. I plan on using Dudemeister's alternate rules for Hargulka's kingdom to the south.
4. The dryads in the Narlmarches are VERY unhappy about the recent wintery conditions (they are summer court fey). They approach the party druid about fixing these conditions. This should encourage the party to go after the Summer Court Guardian.
Keep the variations coming guys, I love hearing details about GM changes to the AP!
Agreed! This is all great stuff! Please keep it all coming.
Well well, lots of new and interesting ideas to draw from, thanks :)
Meanwhile, a lot of curious developments from my side of the gaming table:
1. After the battle at Oleg's the Wolf Lord sent Akiros to the party to negotiate a Spring truce, in order to rebuild his forces. The PCs agreed, on their own terms, which interestingly delayed the confrontation with the Wolf Lord for a few months. They began to explore the regions above the Wolf Lord's fortress and as they're fastly gaining in level, I'm contemplating now of mixing some of the Broken Moon (CC AP) encounters and plot into the Wolf Lord's region.
2. Hargulka was displeased with the Wolf Lord's pathetic performance and is putting him under pressure to drive the 'newcomers' back into Rostland. I'm still pondering on the emerging conflict between Hargulka and the Wolf Lord, who are both vying for Nyrissa's favor, and how this will develop.
3. I've let the players slowly and organically begin their kingdom building even before they've defeated the Wolf Lord and it is going smoothly, especially because my kingdom phases are timed seasonally and not monthly.
4. I've put two small settlements east to the Narlmarches on the map, to give the impression of a sparsely inhabited but still humanly populated land. The players brought these two hamlets under their control and I threw a modified 'Feast of Ravenmoor' as side-adventure in one of the settlements, which the players quite enjoyed.
5. The storyline of the 'Feast of Ravenmoor' was integrated with the main plot, because after the 'cleansing' of the village the players unwittingly cleared the Path of Dreams, through which Nyrissa influences the Stolen Lands.
6. In my plotline, Nyrissa is the unwanted offspring of the fey Queen Mab, who seduced King Oberon. She has been imprisoned (with some heavy influences from the 'Realm of the Fellnight Queen' module) and cannot as of yet escape the Fellnight Realm, but she can walk the Path of Dreams. This is the way she influences such NPCs as Irovetti, the Wolf Lord, Hargulka, etc.
7. The PCs have been invited by Elana Varn, the niece of Maegar Varn, to attend the Land Diet of Brevoy, a meeting where the noble houses of Rostland and Issia meet. Since the disappearance of House Rogarvia, this meeting has gained in importance as it was the Land Diet that recognized and legitimized the Surtova regency. The Rostland factions are concerned that the Surtovas will use the next Land Diet to finally crown Noleski as King of Brevoy, as they've been busy gathering support among the houses for Noleski's claim. In any case, the PC Leader is now courted by the different noble houses, promising titles and lands (the Greenbelt effectively) if she supports (or not) the Surtova claim.
The PCs, however, are suspicious of the Surtovas and they have shown a strong interest in the disappearance of House Rogarvia - so much in fact that they have arranged a meeting between themselves, their ally Maegar Varn, and Magistra Nadiya, who rules the Rogarvia estates in stead of the noble family. So before the Land Diet, the party is going to Varnhold to speak to Magistra Nadiya. Fun times :)
8. Obviously the 'Varnhold Vanishing' is put on hold until some time after the Land Diet, although the PCs will hear of some trouble in the south of the Nomen Heights, disappearing settlers etc.
That's all for the moment!