My Kingmaker: Colonial North America (New France)

[Dagada]

(Sorry for the incoherent mess below)

Greetings

Now that my girlfriend has bitten the BB bullet and run through several adventures with each of the classes its time for me to indulge in my dream AP/story arc. A kingmaker mash-up in a fantasy/North American backdrop; specifically the PCs will be from New France.

Go to New France

---
Intro:

The PCs are sent to the Pays d’en haut (the "back-country" of New France) as agents in the Company of New France (Fantasy version of "fur trading company") to consolidate power in this part of the continent.

-(They have a similar charter from the governor of New France like the PCs in the actual AP)

From Montreal/Quebec the PCs travel the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers on through the French River and finally into Georgian Bay. Their destination is Fort Ste-Marie, a Jesuit Mission in Huronia, the homeland of the Huron Nation.

Huronia-Game Area

The PCs are greeted by Father Brebeuf and quickly informed of the 'bandit mess'.
A gang of British fur traders/trappers with Iroquois allies have been harassing the French post for several months.

- (From here the opening scene pretty much takes place like in the book)

Exploring the Greenbelt:
- Its assumed the PCs will use the Fort Ste-Marie as a home base like Olegs while exploring/mapping the wilderness (which basically happens to be by backyard growing up)

The British trappers/traders will have a camp like Thorn (?) in the AP and a much larger (but maybe not as big as the StagLords fort) base deeper in the interior.

Although its still definitely going to be a fantasy setting, I never liked the Mites as written in the First Book. I wanted to swap out the Mites/Kobolds for various Huron tribes/Village sites that are spread throughout the region.

Im taking topographic maps from the Township's GIS department (hosted free on their website) and drawing them out by hand right now and adding bigger elevations/hills, deeper/darker forests and tons of perfect places for other critters of the "stolen lands" to inhabit.

- I dont think I will be keeping it "by the book" for much longer than book 2 or 3 but I would like to hear from others about possible directions they would take it.

thanks for reading

EDIT: Woot, it seems I got the link to work on the first try. Went back in and added another image.

[Orthos]

Sounds like fun. Go go alternate/fantastical history settings.

As for where to take it, you have quite a few options. If you want to keep the political conflict, subbing in the British colonies or other, made-up or poorly-recorded colonization efforts for nearby competitors could be interesting. If you want to play up the fey influence, look for notable natural landscape features - big lakes, mountains/hills, deep forests, particularly-notable, recognizable, or memorable terrain or formations, etc. - in the region to tie them to, perhaps.

The real trick will be deciding what you want to do with the overarching plot - or if you want one at all - if you're dropping the as-written story with the first half. Until I know that, there's not many suggestions I can give that aren't just shooting in the dark.

[Lee Hanna]

That sounds at least as awesome as the Spaghetti Western concept floated here last month!

My suggestion is to make a list of all the encounters, what monsters/NPCs are there, and then what you want to turn them into. That's what I did to bend KM into Birthright.

So, muskets and tomahawks for the normal weapons? I like it.

[Philip Knowsley]

If you wanted to there's also the potential to throw in a slightly Norse
feel to the far north of the Canadian wilderness. There were settlements
there a long time before later European settlers hit those shores, but they
disappeared without a word.

Potentially you could have them still living there (just bend our history
a bit, which you're already doing anyway to create this game), and/or some
of the monsters could have a Norse flavour to them.

[Orthos]

That would make a good Varnhold replacement, perhaps.

[Dagada]

Hello everyone thanks for the input so far! That's why the KM sub-forum is the best.

Let my try a put down a summary

(Book/Arc One)

Agents of the Company of New France (the PCs) are sent to the 'back-country' to solidify their position that far into the interior and to ensure the withdrawal of English traders/trappers they encounter.

From Montreal the PCs head north west finally arriving in Georgian Bay. Their destination is Fort Ste-Marie, a Jesuit Mission in Huronia, the homeland of the Huron Nation.

The PCs are greeted by Father Brebeuf and quickly informed of the 'bandit/English mess'. ((No offense to all the UK readers out here, I do love you, but Im looking for some kind of nickname the French would have given))

A gang of British fur traders/trappers with Iroquois allies have been harassing the French post for several months. The PCs will/should prepare an ambush and confront them.

From here they can explore the 'back-county' mapping hexes, exploring the wilderness and what not.

(Book/Arc One = Done)...well sort of

So the thing is, the Jesuit Mission was burnt before a Iroquois raiding party could reach it. Previous to this that raiding party had already destroyed several Huron village and killed/tortured 2 Jesuit priests nearby. The Hurons and the Jesuits fled to Christian Island in Georgian Bay.

I would love to incorporate the destruction of St Marie (Again, alas) into the story arc here somehow, maybe on the way back from the SL's fortress. Im DEFINITELY getting to lose with the time period here cause the Iroquois wars with the Huron were 50 + years prior to English activity in the area, but it will add to the drama for sure.

Now the PCs wont be able to use St Marie as their homebase and will have to look elsewhere (I already have a better spot in mind anyway)

Now my PCs are probably going to want to go after those Iroquois right away, I need a way to transition into the next section (book 2?). It was Winter when the attacked happen so we could have-wave some building time until summer when the revenge can start.
- after moving ahead a couple of months and their fur trade post is established they can move out after the Iroquois party while exploring the next set of hexes.

The events of book 2 I think can still be incorporated. The werewolf, the bard and the cult (Somehow im sure.

Ill give you all a break now!

Thanks for reading

[Philip Knowsley]

Dagada wrote:

The PCs are greeted by Father Brebeuf and quickly informed of the 'bandit/English mess'. ((No offense to all the UK readers out here, I do love you, but Im looking for some kind of nickname the French would have given))

Heh heh - I'm sure the POMs won't mind... :)

You could always 'borrow' a term from the Napoleonic era - wherein the
French called the English 'Roast beef'. (Try to imagine it with a French
accent...)
This was pretty tame compared to the foul mouthed English soldiers & the
many nicknames they had for the French...

[Doug OBrien]

Philip Knowsley wrote:

You could always 'borrow' a term from the Napoleonic era - wherein the
French called the English 'Roast beef'. (Try to imagine it with a French
accent...)
This was pretty tame compared to the foul mouthed English soldiers & the
many nicknames they had for the French...

Yeah, very telling that the French slurred the English during the Hundred Years War by referring to their penchant for profanity. See Les G~*%!~s

Great idea for a riff on Kingmaker, by the way, Dagada! This wouldn't happen to be an online campaign, by any chance, would it? I can have my exiled lesser noble, savate specialist ready to go in no time ;-)

I did some brief work on a 17-18th century setting a year or so ago--there's plenty of inspiration to draw on out there, so have fun!