We're just about to start Kingmaker, with a most unusual party. So I thought I would post up a bit about the party makeup, and try and see if anybody had some interesting ideas about where to take it. Or just if people would enjoy reading about it.
The party is going to be:
Grippli Alchemist
Goblin Cavalier (On a dog. No joke.)
Goblin Witch (As a Necromancer.)
Kitsune Gunslinger/Face
Ontop of this weirdness. The group background is that they were employed as a group by Noeleski Surtova in winning the civil war in Brevoy (I played it as a somewhat more extended conflict). They were a sort of undercover group (one of probably a few) that did things like poisonings and targeted sabotage that gave Noeleski the upper hand, and then are receiving the charter as a reward.
Part of the reason is while they were useful then, having these weirdos around now that he is the legitimate king would be embarrassing. Also to get them away so nobody starts asking questions about why they are there. Because things could be found out about what Noeleski did to win the war that might damage his reputation as the "conquering warlord."
My thoughts are that this gives the possibility for interesting political machinations inside of Brevoy later on, as well as flashbacks to things that have happened before as a group. I'd be open to any other ideas, as well as perhaps what other things might change for a group that has not a single human, or even a traditional race in it's party!
After this, Spoilers abound. So beware! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
This obviously creates some interesting problems. For one the relationship between the Swordlords in Restov and these apparently hired ringers for Surtova that show up with their own charter in the Stolen Lands. I do not believe these characters are especially loyal to Surtova, but it does make it interesting how Restov and the Swordlords would react.
Would they openly move against these agents in the stolen lands, and run the risk of the ire of Surtova? I think not. But perhaps they might interfere in other ways...
Would this sort of beginning throw off any of the later events too much? I can't think of it in my brief read over.
It would be very interesting, and rather amusing, to set your band of naer-do-wells as the flip side of the traditional coin - the monsters in the adventure, being mercilessly attacked by these nasty do-gooders!
I think your idea could work very well, with just a bit of tweaking and some GM elbow grease. If you were to put in a goblin settle ment to act as an Oleg's analog, OR, have them link up with the Staglord as a base of operations, with the idea to take out Olegs and the upstart party that the Wicked Userper Swordlords of Restov are backing!
It would be quite easy to run the whole thing in reverse - have the staglord be a criminal barely holding onto the castle, and Beef up Oleg a bit. Have the enemies be a traditional party of players that stationed at Olegs, attacking the resources of the Staglord (and thus your players), forcing an eventual final confrontation at Olegs. To spice it up even more, you could still run the Staglord stuff, as the players would have to take out the competition to seal their dominace of the region.
As for the later stuff, you could just change the backers from Restov and the Swordlords to Port Ice and Noleski. Most everything else would be analagous without much hassle.
The more I think about it the more I love the idea - can't wait to hear how you make it all come together!
While I'm all about playing a monster party, Kingmaker is not the campaign for it. The GM will have hours and hours and hours of extra work in order to make the basic plot make any amount of sense.
In this specific case, they are not really "monsters" in the traditional sense. Each is a character with some covert, special agent type missions during the work including sneaking, poisoning, etc.
Thanks for the thoughts, Jabberwocky. I had not thought of it that way. I like the backstory of the Stag Lord too much to have him just be a friend. I am thinking more maybe...Kesten Garess and the soldiers from Restov are there not only to protect Oleg's...but to keep an eye on the PC's as well.
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Big differences that I can think of are that Pitax would probably have much closer relations early on, since Irovetti favors monsters and misfits in his own realm. Also, while it is never stated, Mivon seems to be rather purist in maintaining and almost exclusive human realm, and they make vague references to how they pushed aside the native race when they first arrived. So perhaps they have more friction with Mivon.
Make them have to work harder to win over NPCs like Oleg, Svetlana, and Kesten.
And of course, you will have to do some serious re-writing of the whole end story of Book 2, since it makes sense that things should not end in bloodshed there given this new twist your party added to the mix.
To counter the diplomatic penalties they receive in being weird, different and non-human, have it be more difficult for enemy spies to function there, since the traditions, mannerisms, and outlook of the PCs citizens could be very different.
Just a few random thoughts off the top of my head...not sure if they were in the direction you were looking for or not, but your party sounds like they will make your life interesting :)
Big differences that I can think of are that Pitax would probably have much closer relations early on, since Irovetti favors monsters and misfits in his own realm. Also, while it is never stated, Mivon seems to be rather purist in maintaining and almost exclusive human realm, and they make vague references to how they pushed aside the native race when they first arrived. So perhaps they have more friction with Mivon.
Make them have to work harder to win over NPCs like Oleg, Svetlana, and Kesten.
And of course, you will have to do some serious re-writing of the whole end story of Book 2, since it makes sense that things should not end in bloodshed there given this new twist your party added to the mix.
To counter the diplomatic penalties they receive in being weird, different and non-human, have it be more difficult for enemy spies to function there, since the traditions, mannerisms, and outlook of the PCs citizens could be very different.
Just a few random thoughts off the top of my head...not sure if they were in the direction you were looking for or not, but your party sounds like they will make your life interesting :)
No thank you, that was extremely useful! I encouraged my players to do whatever they wanted. I need to read over book 2 again to sorta plan ahead for that. The point about Pitax and Mivon is quite interesting. It seems you could almost just switch the two, but then again I could see my players still targeting Pitax because of it's weak leadership. Who knows.
I think the main thing is that the Swordlords are going to play a much larger, and perhaps antagonistic role. Maybe Nyrissa reaches out to them to be dupes for creating trouble in the stolen lands. The idea being that Nyrissa gets claim to the stolen lands in exchange for creating trouble and eventually supporting a Swordlord lead full on revolt against Surtova. Of course the Swordlords don't know that they are being played, but it seems logical from their end. They would recognize Nyrissa as Fey Queen of the stolen lands. They would get Brevoy. Any opinions on this "unholy alliance?"
EDIT: Just saw your GOT style thread RedCelt. So stealing those ideas. All of them!
For those who care, an update! Again, SPOILERS!
They seem to be far more friendly towards others than I expected. They like Oleg and Svetlana a lot.
They ambushed the bandits, and did well. I played the Alchemist's bombs and the Gunslinger's shots as startling the horses, which trampled one unlucky bandit and they slayed the rest, taking Happs hostage. The Alchemist intended to use him as a human guinea pig.
They then tromped off after the bandits, and met the Kobolds in the Radish Patch. The Goblin Necromancer speaks Draconic and so approached them and simply said hello. After some discussion about wanting to meet the Kobold leadership, they decided a suitable "prove your worth" to the kobolds exercise would be to go rescue Sharptooth in the Mite Tree.
So they tromp off to the Mite Tree. After much questioning and Sense Motiving and threats, Happs seems to of joined the party. He does rather well in the Mite Tree battle, and the party warms to him. They rescue Mikmek, who when a player asked me if he speaks common I rolled 1d100 and got a 5, so decided that yes, he did speak common and was in fact a Lore Warden Fighter, part of Sharptooth's "Honor Guard" the rest being dead when the PC's arrive.
After a tough battle with the Mites and Tickleback+Grabble, which ends up with the Goblin Cavalier having a bad disease, the players are unsure of what to do. Some want to go to the Kobold Lair and see if they have a Shaman who can cure the cavalier's disease, or heading back to Oleg's to ask that drunken cleric of Erastil if he can fix it.
I'm so hoping they go the Kobolds. I am sure that Tartuk will have all sorts of interesting "remedies" for the cavalier.