Hi everybody,
I have a player who has an insane bonus to his Swim skill, and who is negating any barrier function the rivers serve by swimming across with a rope, tying ti to a tree (so far they have only explored the Narlmarch, and stayed away from the Kamelands-they are convinced the Stag Lord lives in the woods), and then having the other party members use the rope to guide themselves over. They even get the horses over, because our Druid has a huge Handle Animal score.
So far I've been saying it takes a few hours to get across, so they lose some exploration time (usually I add an extra day to the time to explore the hex), but is there anything else I can do?
I've been thinking about having a tree break, and sweeping some folks down the river, but that might be too deadly. (Also, our group lost a child to drowning a few years back, and I'm trying not to trigger anything). Maybe I could just say they lose some horses.
I'm not sure why you're trying to stop them. You should try more carrot and less stick. If bypassing the "barrier" of a river (which could also be achieved by building or buying a rowboat) confers them any advantage at all (which it doesn't really) then they should be applauded, not punished.
Let them catch wind of the location of the Stag Lord's fort, either from interrogated bandits, ally encounters (the fey?), or from word at the trading post.
If they don't want to follow the clue, let them go. It's kingmaker.
I personally find that getting the players to opt in on the random encounter percentages helps. They see encounters as an element of risk that they must account for. This means they tend to plan their wandering.
I think you're handling the rivers just fine, especially with the group make up you've got now. The game should be fun for everyone, first and foremost, and if certain challenges are too similar to real-world trauma, that player stops having fun. I do the same thing with my group and sexual harassment.
If you want rivers to be more of a challenge, but without any undue references to drowning, there are a couple solutions. You could have a storm hit, and have a couple days of raging rivers, tell the player with swim that "you look at the water and can immediately tell that even with the rope, your horses aren't good enough swimmers to make it across."
You could also silently rule that there's no risk of drowning in a river; instead you take some damage and wash up on a random edge 2d10*10 feet down the river. Again, for the sake of your group makeup, I'd describe this in such a way as to not cause undue stress. "The rope breaks! One moment you're hanging on, the next you've been thrown onto the shore 80 feet away, and on the same side that you started from! Not to mention, your backpack feels lighter..."
I didn't really worry about the rivers when I ran Kingmaker, but if you want your players to sweat a little...
Start rolling for random encounters when your Player is swimming across all on his lonesome.
There were a number of aquatic nasties in the random encounter charts from memory, and the rivers are both deep and wide enough to have some big inhabitants!
DBH
Oh I am SO stealing that. I always thought the water table deserved more than just the lakes.
Yeah, not sure why you want to inhibit your players from benefiting from where they chose to put their skill ranks. It's not a big deal if they gain a few extra hours here and there by using their skills to succeed in a challenge.
Plus, there are, like, two rivers of toe in the first book.
Oh I am SO stealing that. I always thought the water table deserved more than just the lakes.
Well the Thorn river is only 60 feet wide and 30 deep, but the Shrike is 300 feet across and 60 deep.
The Skunk is 100 across, 30 deep and stinks as well.
AP1. Stolen lands gives them a DC 15 swim check to cross, if all party members and mounts make the check then there's no impact on time to cross the hex.
No real aquatic encounters for AP1, though you can easily say the river banks increase the encounter rate due to animals and monsters coming to water.
DBH
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You should have the swimmer meet a naiad, water fey, or something similar, and have a few interesting roleplay interactions. Maybe she fusses at him for polluting her river by swimming in it. Or maybe she demands a toll for crossing the river without asking her permission. This is a good way for your expert swimmer to form a connection to a river fey and stay linked to the rivers in the Stolen Lands throughout the game.
One very cool encounter I thought would be interesting would be for a water fey to "borrow" a young child playing near the river and take him back to her lair, either as a short term companion or adopting him. The anxious mother of the child might know of your player's swimming prowess and plead with him to dive down in the river and look for him and bring him back. Now you get the same RP encounter as above, plus the expert swimmer really gets to showcase and use his high skill score, which he will need to find this underwater grotto.
The rivers in our game play a huge role, and bridges and travel are noticeably affected when it comes to troop and caravan movements. Having someone focused on the water and rivers opens up a whole new aspect of this game and can really make a difference, in particular if he tries to use his swimming skills in the Hooktongue!
I am going to take several of these suggestions and use them.
My original grumble with their tactic was that I din't think they were treating the rivers as much of a hinderance that they proved to be historically. I was a bit taken aback by their casual announcement of "I swim it" and the ease of their accomplishing the act. I've since adjusted to the practice, and I'm just looking for ways to make the crossings more exciting, and have adjusted some planned encounters to be river-independant (before I had some that they HAD to be on a certain side of a river for, or it would not have made sense).
In my defense, I have been rewarding my players for their skill investments. The druid, in addition to his animal companion, has a few "pets" as well (animal empathy on trapped creatures-gave him a bonus for freeing and feeding them) and there is a chance he'll get another one when they reach the trapped thylacine.
My swimmer found the remains of some long dead warriors at the bottom of a pond, including some gold and jewelry, which I added in because he said he was going to swim around in the pond looking for stuff.
As for the Stag Lord, they have recently learned that his camp is not in the forest, but I think they might just finish exploring it anyway.