My First Time Really DMing

[Pelloth]

I started to run Stolen Lands for my players. They insisted on acting evil and decided to attack Oleg's Trading post themselves and run North. I've managed to get them to cooperate they still want to just turn evil and go in the one direction that they can't. What do I do?

[GM_Solspiral]

You need to basically get them to agree with KM. The game is predicated as being a heroic kingdom being founded. If the want to play evil DBs there's a game for that it's called warcraft.

[Herbatnik]

Well if they insist on being evil- no problem. Let them go north, take a random table encounters appropiate to terrain from:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/encounterTables.html
and let us know which monster rid of this pack of amoral berserkers:D

Ok, now serious, : seems that players wants to play a game in which they can be a evil badasses.Pathfinder modules are not support this style, so you and your players should talk and make a compromise about your expectations. Don't force them to play kingmaker. I suggest to try Warhammer in that case.

[In_digo]

Or you could home brew them up an "evil" campaign. Maybe they will be willing to try playing good guys after having a chance to be the baddies.

[Duskrunner1]

Kingmaker can be played as an Evil Campaign. What you will need to do is adjust things to reflect this. Since they have attacked Oleg's, when Restov hears about this you will have to decide on how the Swordlords respond. At that point they are fugitives on the run.

[Avatar-1]

If you're looking for a different campaign to suit evil characters, take a look at Way of the Wicked.

But since you've already started out with Kingmaker, Duskrunner's advice seems reasonable, though your players have thrown you for a loop which might be uncomfortable as a new GM.

[Philip Knowsley]

I'd hate to burst your bubble - but KM as a 1st time DM is going to be
hard work anyway. Changing the plot & many of the encounters & storylines
to accomodate your players is going to crank that up a notch or twelve...

My 1st suggestion is to have another chat with your players. If they are
hell bent (geddit? :-p ) on being evil - I'd suggest you need to grit your
teeth & prep for some hard work. You can run this as an evil game - with
A LOT OF WORK (Hell - it's hard enough as a seasoned DM). As a 1st time
DM - do you need it or want it...? They sack Oleg's...fine. Did anyone see
them, or did they get away with it? Ditto for their next evil action & so on.

My 2nd suggestion is that you tell them that KM isn't the game that's
going to be run. (Actions have consequences & they're the employees of a
good aligned kingdom, who will send in increasingly skilled NPCs to kick
their tiny whites to the outer planes...) If I was Restov - I'd already
be scrying them in the first place...

Sounds like your players need a chat either way. Either they don't get
what you've told them about KM, they're just immature, or they actually
do need to be playing a different game/campaign/AP...

[Odraude]

I'd be frank with your players. They're your friends so they should understand. Hell, my early GMing days, I politely asked my friends to not be evil and just be the core races/classes so I could get my GM chops settled down. No one will judge you for it. Just let them know you want to do a simple good guy campaign and try doing a redo of the first session.

[Rickmeister]

Odraude wrote:

I'd be frank with your players. They're your friends so they should understand. Hell, my early GMing days, I politely asked my friends to not be evil and just be the core races/classes so I could get my GM chops settled down. No one will judge you for it. Just let them know you want to do a simple good guy campaign and try doing a redo of the first session.

Same here.. I have players who keep up-to-date with all the "new" books (apg, ultimates, ..) and always want to play the newest and most shiny.

I simply told them I didn't want to use anything i didn't have myself (at that point, only Core) and that they had to go with it.
Same thing I did with "Why don't we keep exploring south?" > NPC gave feedback, and same for outgame-DM: "This isn't part of the adventure."

You play the game together :)
I would tell them "If you want to go 100% evil, this thing isn't going to work. You will become the evil kingdom, and as soon as you reach *some* size, you will become beset by a multitude of forces."

Hell, maybe they won't mind playing a second party, hellbent (:p) on destroying those filthy stains on the Greenbelt..Only to restore it, and take over the domain... Heroes, fo shizzle

^^

[Thaddeus Lorington Harnhold III]

Hi,
I'm also about to start a kingmaker campaign and I'm relatively new to GMing myself. I have armed myself with buttloads of printouts, some NPC creation software (PCgen) and a few other things. The one thing I am going to be adamant about is that the PC's not be evil. They love being evil though (There was some sewing on of appendages onto recently killed enemies in the horn of Abadon as I remember...) I can relate to trying to get the characters to give a damn about being good. It's going to be tough.
In the situation you're in; I would send a tough Monster/NPC after them and TPK them. Get them to roll new characters. Rinse & repeat until they comply. They might hate on you for a while but they can still have fun being good.
Also I will promise to do Skull and Shackles with them and they can be as good or evil as they want in that one!

Cheers.

[Macharius]

Drew and Thaddeus,

If your players really want to play evil characters, check out Fire Mountain Games' 'Way of the Wicked' Adventure Path. It is likely a better fit for your players.

[DMFTodd]

I don't see Kingmaker being a problem for evil characters. Maybe they have to trick Restov into giving them money, maybe you tweak Kingdom building rules so they have to earn it all themselves.

You do though have to get your players to agree on the game you're going to play. If they are not interested in "tame the wilderness, build your own (evil) kingdom" - then Kingmaker isn't going to work. If you get out Monopoly, but the players start doing Formula D with the Top Hat and Dog, things aren't going to work.

Did you pick the AP or did the group? If the group picked up, but they insist on not following the general idea, then they're dicks. If you picked and the players don't like it, you've made a mistake -- start over, look over all the APs, and get a consensus on which one people want to play.

[Thaddeus Lorington Harnhold III]

We ran a couple of books of way of the wicked last spring. It was good but monetary constraints meant we cut that short. Someone mentioned kingmaker and we all went with it. But PCs being PC theyll try to vex me as much as they can. Thats part of the fun!

[redcelt32]

Have your players get arrested by some really arrogant totally obnoxious knight and his men. They get locked up for 3-5 years. When they are let out, that obnoxious knight is now the ruler of a kingdom in the Stolen Lands, say about 45 hexes. Now unleash them on the kingdom and let them kick it apart, a la Ways of the Wicked.