Hexes annexed from Varnhold, Fort Drelev, and Pitax

[Golbez57]

As described here, I'll be using Kingmaker as the core of our gamified classroom this coming school year.

I have my 25 5th graders for Reading and Math instruction, while they go to my two partner teachers for Science and Process Writing. I'll have all three groups of 5th graders for Social Studies.

My homeroom class will be the main "players" and will be the ones exploring the Greenbelt, etc. One of the other 5th grade classes will be developing Varnhold and the surrounding lands, and the other will be doing the same for Fort Drelev. I only have each of those groups for just over 2 hours a week, so, that was the best way I felt I could incorporate them into the main storyline. They'll eventually be taking on the roles of some of the leaders within the larger kingdom. 75 heroes all teaming up to tame The Stolen Lands!

The four-panel map will be a huge part of our game, essentially our "game board" since my homeroom class won't move through all the encounter areas in the traditional way.

Volume 3 is very specific on which hexes are annexed as part of saving Varnhold (2 hexes in every direction, along with some of the road leading northeast). However, Volume 4 is less specific about which lands encompass and can be annexed after liberating Fort Drelev, and Volume 5 says "refer to Volume 6 for information on annexing Pitax"... but I wasn't able to find specifics there, either.

Special considerations: my class will be able to generally explore one new hex each of our 180 school days, starting on the second week of school (Day 5) after they've created characters and formed into four guilds. There are 319 total hexes (some on the borders partial, about 20 of those technically part of Brevoy) on the four-panel map. I am pacing the game to play out over the three trimesters, so two volumes per trimester, which each end in late November and then in early April before finally wrapping in mid-June. On that schedule, Varnhold will likely be annexed around half-way through the school year, in mid-January, with Fort Drelev joining the kingdom near the end of the second trimester, in mid-March. Those events (along with Pitax's annexation) will add a lot of territory to their kingdom.

What are your suggestions for how large an area to include in each annexation? I don't mind if they explore the whole map; in fact, I think they'll be driven to do so once they start discovering the adventure sites and the cool things that are there.

Thanks for any and all input, ideas, and inspiration!

[Philip Knowsley]

For Drelev (where my PCs have just reached), I've told them that Drelev currently
controls 1 hex around the fort & all of the hexes up the road to the bridge
(but not including the bridge). I decided that in the basis of the resource in
the last hex, but the barbarians wanting to cut them off from Restov & hence
making them abandon the hex.

Pitax - not there yet, but I saw a recent(ish) discussion on these boards about
the amount of territory they hold. I think they say the bottom 2 rows of hexes on
the map, but that Pitax actually controls territory off the bottom of the map
also. All I can say is 'search & you shall find.' Others have scoped it out in
great detail.

That said, the other thing to remember is that by the time they take over/conquer
Pitax, hexes almost become superfluous to the story, as the finale kicks in &
armies & kingdoms kinda go into the background as your heroes go into the final
battle.
LOVE to know how you'll handle that with your 75 heroes! :)

[Golbez57]

Thanks, Phillip, I will do some more digging. My Search-Fu has alwasy been especially weak at the Paizo Messageboards. :)

I'll also have a look at the River Kingdoms maps ("Guide to the R.K." along with s "Inner Sea World Guide") to get an idea of where Pitax's holdings start and end. I guess in the end I'll just try to factor in that they'll only maintain control over lands closest to the capital while other outliers (off the four-panel map) are contested with other nearby River Kingdoms off-screen/campaign.

You are totally correct that they'll really need to be done with exploration by the time we reach later April or early May and they shift into murderhobo mode. So, I'll have to look at how they might explore most of the lands in 150 rather than 180 school days.

In our game, it's really the "Guilds" who stand in for individual party roles. Students choose their Character Classes, and to be successful, will need to diversify, since I'm doing a super-simplified RPG system where each class is specialized in fighting one of eight Monster types or facing certain Dangers. Took some cues from Dungeon Roll (companions vs. monster types) and Sentinels of the Multiverse (Villain and Environment being the main foils). So, only one hero from a 6- or 7-member Guild will be active in a given encounter/lesson depending on what's being faced, and they'll do so on a rotating basis, with each Guild having a shot at an encounter a minimum of once a day.

That's for the 25 kids in my class. The 25 from each of the other two classes will mostly be doing kingdom-building.

Should be a blast!

[Philip Knowsley]

This from James Jacobs: -

Pitax's claims on its nation are pretty spurious—they actually claim to control all of the Stolen Lands west of Hooktongue Slough, but they don't really have an organized patrol route and the city certainly doesn't give out much support to anyone who wants to do stuff like live or work in that region.

The region that Pitax can legitimately claim as its own, though pretty much ammounts to the bottom two rows of hexes on page 22, with the exception of any hexes with forest in them and the addition of the hexes containing areas K and L.

Here.