Alternate ideas for running Kingmaker ...

[pennywit]

The really great thing about Kingmaker's sandboxiness is that you can plug and unplug things into the adventure path without touching the core story: Having your players grow a kingdom from infancy to a great monolith. I've had a lot of fun GMing my campaign, where I plugged in Dudemeister's Monster Kingdom and added a couple cracked-out scenarios of my own. And Redcelt's Game of Thrones is just awesome.

In that spirit, I thought it might be interesting to have a thread where we could brainstorm alternate systems and setups for Kingmaker -- things that might throw new challenges or roles at players, or even change things up to create something kind of oddball (or not). A couple ideas I'm rolling around in my head in case I run this again:

Frontier Kingmaker:

Men are real men, women are real women, kobolds are real kobolds, cowboys spend long days out on the range, and the sheep get nervous. In this scenario, I'd use Paizo's "guns everywhere" rule. Oleg's would be a stage coach depot at the edge of the civilized lands, and the Stag Lord would have an antler-shaped helm and a big ol' shotgun. Unless I want a Magitek setting, I'd probably twiddle the rules a little bit. Magic wouldn't be something you study, but something, poorly understood, that comes from an inborn gift or pacts with otherworldy powers. I'd ban the witch, magus, wizard, and cleric classes, but leave in place the sorcerer, oracle, and alchemist classes.

Fiefdoms:

The kingdom-building rules assume that the players work together to build a kingdom. But what if a GM tweaked it a little bit. Each player would be required to take a specific Kingmaker campaign trait. This trait would represent whatever power they're beholden to back in Brevoy. In this scenario, the players don't rule a single kingdom. Instead, each player has his own little fiefdom, and all of them have to find a way to co-exist (or fight with each other) in the Stolen lands. I would create bonuses for controlling certain plances (Bridges, the Ruined Temple, the big Erastil monument, etc.)

Tweak: Influential, Not Ruling:

In this variant on the "Kingdom in the Background" rules, the players wouldn't be on the kingdom's ruling council unless they really, really want to be. Instead, players would specifically play influential kingdom citizens. Rather than use the kingdom-building rules, they'd use the other downtime rules to build such things as wizard guilds, bardic schools, and mercenary companies, all of which could influence the kingdom's development over time.

Any other ideas here?

[DundjinnMasta]

1) I've always considered the Stolen Lands as something of a Frontier. Most of the characters I have created for Kingmaker games are Sheriff-type Gunslingers. This is a pretty neat idea, and maybe something I use in the future.

2) I had a short-lived game that I knew far ahead of time that the group was going to split into multiple kingdoms... lucky or unlucky the game folded... but I also started that game out with an alternate adventure where I was blending several adventures with Curse of the Crimson Throne and Kingmaker together in a giant Act.

3) I've not really considered this route before... but that does seem interesting. I wouldn't mind giving that a try too.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

pennywit wrote:

The really great thing about Kingmaker's sandboxiness is that you can plug and unplug things into the adventure path without touching the core story: Having your players grow a kingdom from infancy to a great monolith. I've had a lot of fun GMing my campaign, where I plugged in Dudemeister's Monster Kingdom and added a couple cracked-out scenarios of my own. And Redcelt's Game of Thrones is just awesome.

In that spirit, I thought it might be interesting to have a thread where we could brainstorm alternate systems and setups for Kingmaker -- things that might throw new challenges or roles at players, or even change things up to create something kind of oddball (or not). A couple ideas I'm rolling around in my head in case I run this again:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

Funny story, early on in my Kingmaker game (during book 1), I inserted a dungeon complex called Coyote Rock, which was an unused dungeon that I had left-over from a Cowboys and Dragons game that never really took off. It was a fantastic dungeon, and the notes are scattered among my belongings after moving twice. It was Coyote Rock where I introduced some the fire-arms elements to the game (long before there was a gunslinger class finalized), and a pair of magical pistols called Hocus and Pocus that are still used by my players today.

[GM Lamplighter]

Look at Red Hand of Doom, an old 3.5 module written by James Jacobs. This fits nicely into a Kingmaker campaign once they get to the appropriate level, and allows you to get away from the "fey all the time" feel of the later books.

[the David]

I want to run Kingmaker in the Birthright setting. It kinda fits if you substitute the fey with shadow.

[Lee Hanna]

the David wrote:

I want to run Kingmaker in the Birthright setting. It kinda fits if you substitute the fey with shadow.

I *am* running Kingmaker in the Birthright setting. It's working out very well. I swapped Stolen Lands into the Mistmoor, and Brevoy = Rovninodensk, and away we go!

The Shadow incursions have been low-key so far, but at least one PC has bit heavily into the "must defeat the Shadow folk" idea.

That said, I endorse the Wild West idea, too, and may do that someday.

[Gargs454]

My plan for when/if I run Kingmaker is to run it in the age of steam (hence I'm loving Dudemeister's write up on Pitax at the moment :p). My plan would be for firearms to still be in the very early stages, using them more as spike damage than as a go-to weapon. They can be made the go-to weapon for those who want to really invest in it, but the idea would be to keep bows still relevant.

Other twists to the setting are that humans will be relatively rare having recently been nearly exterminated. Magic and technology are clashing as well as colliding. Technology is making people less reliant on the gods so their power is waning, magic is seemingly disappearing slowly, etc. The goal would be to make the campaign as much about the clash between "nature" and technology as anything. Mages/Clerics don't like technology because it allows "mundanes" to replicate much of what makes the spell casters special. The fey hate technology because the wilds are seeing rail lines introduced, etc. All the while, arcane energy seems to be harder and harder to harness, almost as if somebody were gathering it up for something big . . .

[pennywit]

Gargs454 wrote:

Other twists to the setting are that humans will be relatively rare having recently been nearly exterminated. Magic and technology are clashing as well as colliding. Technology is making people less reliant on the gods so their power is waning, magic is seemingly disappearing slowly, etc. The goal would be to make the campaign as much about the clash between "nature" and technology as anything. Mages/Clerics don't like technology because it allows "mundanes" to replicate much of what makes the spell casters special. The fey hate technology because the wilds are seeing rail lines introduced, etc. All the while, arcane energy seems to be harder and harder to harness, almost as if somebody were gathering it up for something big . . .

That has potential. did you ever play the video game Aracanum?

[Gargs454]

No I haven't, I take it the game had something similar? I ask because I am always open to looking at ideas to help firm up what I already have planned.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura is one of my inspiration sources for Steampunk Pitax. You can buy the game fairly cheaply at GoG.com and being an older game it should run on just about any computer.

[Gargs454]

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura is one of my inspiration sources for Steampunk Pitax. You can buy the game fairly cheaply at GoG.com and being an older game it should run on just about any computer.

Awesome, will definitely have to check it out. Even a miserly old codger like myself can afford $3. :)

[pennywit]

Another idea that is a variation on fiefdoms:

Young Lords:

The players do not come to the Stolen Lands alone. Rather, they all come with a bevy of supporters, and they start at second level. Each player receives a gold budget that MUST be converted into capital at the "earned rate" under the downtime system. This capital can be used to purchase teams OR can be kept as capital (no rooms yet). After the players clear out poor Haps from Oleg's Rest, they can use their teams to earn capital and start building rooms for their new organizations. Over time, these organizations will be the core of the players' power bases in the Stolen Lands.

This scenario envisions a modified version of the Kingdom-Building rules. Much like a real-life feudal lord, each PC would have multiple responsibilities, running both his holdings and his piece of the kingdom's ruling council.

[Cardz5000]

pennywit wrote:

Magic wouldn't be something you study, but something, poorly understood, that comes from an inborn gift or pacts with otherworldy powers. I'd ban the witch, magus, wizard, and cleric classes, but leave in place the sorcerer, oracle, and alchemist classes.

Why would you ban witches? aren't they the definition of pacts with otherworldy powers?