Mythic Kingmaker

[pennywit]

I'm rewriting the modules and motivations as I come to them. IMC (so far) Nyrissa is a behind-the-scenes player, trying to gain control of the Stolen Lands (and places of power within them) through catspaws so that she can bottle the lands and draw power from them. These catspaws (the Stag Lord and Hargulka, so far) were given a piece of her power so they could carry out her will.

[Mackenzie Kavanaugh]

FatR wrote:

Not everything should be Mythic (because then nothing is).

I think you're missing my point a bit. What I was saying is that you can use the plot from Kingmaker as a base, but that you need to change the villains and make them mythic in order to run the game as a Mythic campaign. The Stag Lord is a drunk bandit who is pretending at being a 'lord' because he's the only human with followers in the Greenbelt. That's not mythic at all. But what if he actually were a stag-headed mythic creature imbued with power by a faerie queen, building ships to raid along the Shrike and Sellen, and sending bandits out to harass southern Brevoy for the funds to fuel his plot of conquest? It's still a story about the Stag Lord of the Greenbelt, but it's now far more mythic in quality.

Also, I don't know if you have Rise of the Runelords, but I would totally recommend stealing an idea from Book 1 if you want to foreshadow Nyrissa better. Have the Stag Lord keep a personal journal, filled with crude pornographic sketches of some faerie queen he can't seem to remember properly now, and musings on what he will do once he's completed her tasks. Maybe even have him using a lock of her hair as a bookmark.

[Game Master]

I'm starting an M6 game of Kingmaker (e6, but with mythic) tomorrow. I'm planning to keep Mythic power out of the players' hands until book 6, as when the firstworld starts leaking into the Stolen Lands, it will allow the players to gain mythic power from the blooms/residual "larger than life" nature of the firstworld.

Certain foes will be mythic prior to that, though. Not the Stag Lord, but epic foes like Vordokai will.

[CommandoDude]

Keep in mind that Kingmaker is a module that will drastically increase the power mythic abilities give compared to other modules, since its encounters come in longer bursts (aka 1 encounter a day deal often) and dungeon crawling is at a minimum.

You might find that unless you really beef up the small stuff, your players will blow right through any non-dungeon crawl encounter.

[kadance]

Luckily all my players took combat oriented mythic powers. Sure, normal combats became a cake walk, but they were still up a certain creek when it came to navigating Brevoy's politics, dealing with an annoying bard (without looking like tyrants), or pretty much any encounter that can't be solved by hitting things harder.

[pennywit]

CommandoDude wrote:

Keep in mind that Kingmaker is a module that will drastically increase the power mythic abilities give compared to other modules, since its encounters come in longer bursts (aka 1 encounter a day deal often) and dungeon crawling is at a minimum.

You might find that unless you really beef up the small stuff, your players will blow right through any non-dungeon crawl encounter.

I'm midway through VV, and I've addressed this in a couple ways.

First, my table has shifted the main focus away from exploration and toward building and maintaining the kingdom. During RRR, you can make the case that the players are maintaining a frontier kingdom, so they ought to be Nobles Who Actually Do Something. But after the end of RRR, my players were in control of a pretty good-sized kingdom. Storywise, it just doesn't make sense for the baroness and members of her council to ride out exploring the hinterlands. They're the rulers, after all. They can hire people to do that for them.

Instead, my players focus on diplomacy and intrigues with their neighbors. I've also turned several of the antagonists (both from the modules and the "GM Specials") into beings with resources and significant power in their own right, who are existential threats to my players and their kingdom. To give an example:

VV spoilers:

I've restatted Vordakai from an atrophied lich into a vampire archmage. Vordakai's ambition is to conquer the northern Stolen Lands and turn them into an undead wasteland with himself as king. He has a mcguffin that can trigger an undead uprising in a metropolis, provided the mcguffin has time to metasticize. Considering Vordakai can't go out in the daylight, he acts through his familiar (using the mythic abilities to channel spells through it) and through his consligliere, a mythic-tiered centaur graveknight named Kerezar who has his own story.

Kerezar and Vordakai are slowly gathering resources (mostly by slaying creatures and turning them into undead). The whole thing is likely to culminate in a mass combat in the Valley of the Dead, while the PCs themselves face Vordakai inside his lair.

The general idea is that workaday critters -- things like an infestation of giant spiders, or a plague of owlbears -- are beneath the notice of the mythic champions of the kingdom.

The second thing we've done is that my players have all rolled up secondary PCs. These secondary PCs explore the territory around the kingdom and have adventures that feature your more traditional dungeon crawls. We swap in their secondary PCs when my players get a hunkering for traditional adventure or when we do something that involves being in several places at once.

[Gargs454]

Game Master wrote:

I'm starting an M6 game of Kingmaker (e6, but with mythic) tomorrow.

Dumb question time: While I've played a decent amount of Pathfinder, I have yet to GM it, so have not read all the books, but I keep seeing E6 on the forums. What the heck is this?? :P

[Game Master]

Gargs454 wrote:

Game Master wrote:

I'm starting an M6 game of Kingmaker (e6, but with mythic) tomorrow.

Dumb question time: While I've played a decent amount of Pathfinder, I have yet to GM it, so have not read all the books, but I keep seeing E6 on the forums. What the heck is this?? :P

It's a modification to the game where the players cap out at level 6, and every level they *would* gain after that, they gain another feat instead.

http://p6codex.com/

[Gargs454]

Game Master wrote:

Gargs454 wrote:

Game Master wrote:

I'm starting an M6 game of Kingmaker (e6, but with mythic) tomorrow.

Dumb question time: While I've played a decent amount of Pathfinder, I have yet to GM it, so have not read all the books, but I keep seeing E6 on the forums. What the heck is this?? :P

It's a modification to the game where the players cap out at level 6, and every level they *would* gain after that, they gain another feat instead.

http://p6codex.com/

Thank you Sir! Sounds like it could be interesting for martials, but probably not so much for casters (which is fine as long as everyone knows what they are getting into).

[Game Master]

It's designed to make martials viable. Casters cap out before the levels where they just utterly invalidate all non-casters. A level 6 environment is often considered the ideal "balance point" where all the classes are closest to being even in power.

[Orthos]

You could also run the games at other levels with slight alterations. I've seen E8, E10, and E12 as other popular options.

[Gargs454]

Aye, I get the intent there, and can certainly see the appeal. I think you are right about the balance level in that 6-8 or so tend to be pretty balanced. I just think that me (personally) would be more hesitant to run the caster since I think the martials will eventually outpace the casters as it seems like if all you are getting is feats, then the martials will profit more from them. Obviously a lot would also depend on how long you are going to play too.

Regardless, sorry for the derail. Back on topic, I do see a lot of potential for making KM mythic. In fact, an interesting campaign could include the two sets of characters that a lot of parties already use, where one set (the Rulers) are mythic and the other are not. This could further help cement the rulers as being truly legendary while also providing for lots of supplemental content that keeps all the PCs at an appropriate level

[pennywit]

I think it meets the most important test of all -- both my players and I are having a lot of fun.

[Gargs454]

pennywit wrote:

I think it meets the most important test of all -- both my players and I are having a lot of fun.

Aye, you are definitely doing it right then!