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Yesterday, after 4 years of playing (on and off - my group is also playing ROTRL and other games), I finally finished my Kingmaker campaign. I thought I would summarise the game, and highlight some of the changes I made throughout, and their effects on the game. Hopefully this will be of interest to other GMs.
Suffice to say that this has MANY spoilers. I'm not going to call them out, so if you're playing or going to play, then probably not a good idea to read on.
So...
I had PCs in the game:
Human Cavalier (became the King)
Human Cleric (Gorum) - died, not raised, and replaced with an Aasimar Rogue
Human Druid
Human Ranger (who later took Leadership and brought in a Cleric of Erastil companion)
Human Wizard
Before I started I read a number of the forums and identified that the BBEG was not obvious enough throughout the campaign, which became disjointed as a result. In addition I wanted to include closer ties with the broader history of Brevoy. To this end I added to significant changes to the metaplot:
1. Nyressa was 'allied' with Choral the Conqueror. She added him in uniting Brevoy, but at a cost. 300 years after he united the country his entire line (the Rogarvia house) as well as Choral himself - who is a Red Dragon in my version) were all pulled into Soul Jars and Nyressa and remain in her Fable.
2. Nyressa has a mirror which she smashed and then sent the shards into the Stolen lands. She could spy through them and over the course of the campaign the PCs learnt that there was someone behind this. Shards ended up in the possession of most of the bad guys in the AP:
Staglord
Hargulka
Witches of Gyronna
Vordakai
Irrovetti
etc.
3. The Druid PC regularly had dreams about a boy lost in the woods. From time to time he could hear someone (a girl?) calling 'Briar'!) He had not idea what or who Briar was but knew it was important.
4. The Aasimar came in the world with a prophecy that she was here to protect Briar.
Other adventures
Partly because I had 5 players and partly because I wanted to tie more of the fey aspects of the campaign together stronger, I incorporated a few other modules into Kingmaker:
1. Carnival of Tears.
A wickedly evil module which works with little effort. The carnival came to their capital city and then people started to die. They learnt that someone was behind the events and gained at least one mirror shard. The varisan harrower left behind a single harrow card with a blue dragon on it (The Tyrant I believe?)
2. Realm of the Fellknight Queen.
I incorporated the locations from the module into the Narchmarches (which was easy) and then started the adventure when the PCs were 6th level. Pretty much ran this as is. By now they add enough circumstantial evidence to believe that the Fellknight Queen was behind the shards and the attacks. They were wrong - it's Nyressa and Roswyn is her daughter(!) Of course they would find no broken mirror in the Fellknight Realm, which confused them.
3. The Harrowing
Two of the first KM NPCs - Oleg and Svetlana Leveton had twin children in the first year of the campaign. They were kidnapped on there birthday and taken to the Harrowed Realm. behind was left a harrow deck with one card missing. As soon as the PCs brought it together with the one left from the carnival of tears they were whisked away. They had to find the twins and return. It was during this time that tazlford was attached and razed to the ground.
4. Revenage of the Kobold King
Chief Sootscale (who was originally an ally of the PCs, but was convinced to cause them issues by Hargulka and was 'put down') returned in undead form to raise an undead army using the magics in an ancient Azlant tomb (taken from the module) and discovered in the plans to the east of the Narlmarches.
5. Dragons Unleashed - Eranex
I added in both the Fey Dragon and Vespyrs Blade. The PCs helped her and she returned the favour by telling them about Briar and Nyressa. They gained Vespyrs blade which helped them later in the campaign.
Comments on the individual parts:
Stolen Lands
1. Ismort betrayed the Staglord and ultimately became a member of the PCs Council.
2. There is a much bigger Gyronna temple under the hill - this would be found later...
Rivers Run Red
1. Grigori was arrested and forced out the Kingdom. He returned to Pitax and was later encountered.
2. I expanded on Cult of Gyronna. Niska actually ingratiated herself with one of the PCs. Became his wife, had a son, and then was exposed and the PCs had to stop her from sacreficing the boy to the hag-goddess. She had a shard.
3. Kundal was saved and cured of Lycanthropy - he married one of the PCs and became the General of the kingdoms army.
4. Hargulka set up his one competing 'monster' kingdom. He had a shard.
5. I used the Ultimate Campaign Kingdom building rules rather than those in KM. Fortunately for me a couple of my players really like the crunch of this system and I encouraged them to spend time outside the game doing the numbers (they developed a spreadsheet). The rest of the players preferred the 'fluff' of naming cities, people, etc.
The Varnhold Vanishing
1. Pretty much run as is. Vordakai had a shard of the mirror.
2. The found a copy of Zuddigers Picnic but made no connection that this time.
Blood for Blood
1. I already mentioned that I used the Harrowing as a distraction whilst Tatzlford was attacked.
2. In Fort Drelev, Stroon became an ongoing villian after he escaped the battle, he would return time and time again before finally being killed in the battle for Pitax.
War of the River Kings
1. I started with invitation to the Outlaw Council for the King and his council. It was there that Irovetti delivered the invites to his Tourney.
2. I used Hex Maps the KM Map book, and Carcasonne board game components to represent the citys, and Game of Thrones Boardgame components to represent the armies. We used Jason Nelsons Ultimate Battle PDF to expand on the War rules in Ultimate Campaign.
3. The Siege of Pitax involved the thieves guild and the noble houses. The PCs allied with some that wanted a return to a time before Irrovetti. They destroyed the thieves guild that was controlled by the king and then organised a coup. Pitax became a vassal city-state and Irrovetti was killed.
Sound of a Thousand Screams.
1. By now they knew of Nyressa (and her relationship to Roswyn and Shards, and all the events that had happened throughout the campaign) and Briar and the Eldest.
2. The used Zuddigers Picnic to navigate Thousandbreathes and slew Nyressa.
3. They found the broken mirror.
4. The destruction of the house released all the Rogarvia house and Choral! He 'thanked' them and returned to reunite Brevoy.
5. The story officially ended with the wedding of a PC and Tamary Numesti of Drelev. It was a fully wedding of Erastil.
Epilogue
The campaign lasted 8 years. Three of the PCs had children during this time.
1. At the end I let the players tell me how they leaved out their lives. None of them adventured again.
2. Finally I accelerated forward 11 years and gave out 2nd level characters - the children of the original PCs. They had an encounter in the Narlmarches and found a shard of mirror with a flickering light within.
The End
General comments.
Kingmaker is not, in my opinion, an AP you can just read and run. Due to the sandbox nature it needs to be customised to suit the group. It also needs more 'story' in places and incorporating other modules helps.
The PCs NEED to care about the Kingdom and do everything possible to encourage that. Create loads of NPCs, some important, some not. But breathe life into them and then kill them later (or marry them, or whatever).
Encourage the PCs to enjoy the kingdom building, and don't make it all number-crunching. All know when to stop using it.
Do the same with the Army/War rules. Use it to create an epic story, but don't let it get in the way.
In Review.
I loved Gming this. It was a lot of work but hugely rewarding. The sandbox nature made it easy to customise and therefore personal to the players. I suspect that Kingmaker will be remembered for many years.
If you want to find out more check out - https://the-conquerors-legacy.obsidianportal.com It's not complete, but there's an adventure log and NPCs there.
Awesome.
Sounds like you did an awful lot of extra work to make the adventure more cohesive, expand on it, and generally more interesting.
I love the extra bits you put in, sounds like they helped a lot, and I really love the epilogue.
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Awesome.
Sounds like you did an awful lot of extra work to make the adventure more cohesive, expand on it, and generally more interesting.
I love the extra bits you put in, sounds like they helped a lot, and I really love the epilogue.
Thanks! The key for me was not rewriting the AP, just supplementing it. The brilliant thing about KM is that the GM (and players) have the space to make it their own whilst supported by the overall framework.
Well done to you and your group.
By far the best AP we have done. Nothing else got close thus far sadly
Very nice! I agree wholeheartedly with your "General Comments" section at the end. Adding content based on the PCs is key.
I love that your campaign lasted 8 years. It looks like my KM campaign is fizzling out, but I had looked forward to seeing how things developed as the years passed by.
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Well done to you and your group.
By far the best AP we have done. Nothing else got close thus far sadly
Thanks!
Yes, KM is unique in that respect, and I'm struggling to decide what to run next. I have Skull & Shackles and understand there are sandbox elements. For the moment though, I think it's fair to say that I'm not looking to try and outdo it and in fact I suspect I'll try something smaller before diving back to an AP.
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Very nice! I agree wholeheartedly with your "General Comments" section at the end. Adding content based on the PCs is key.
I love that your campaign lasted 8 years. It looks like my KM campaign is fizzling out, but I had looked forward to seeing how things developed as the years passed by.
I was hoping that I could make it last 10 years, but am very happy it made 8 (actually nearly 9 - Nyrissa is slain in Neth 4718 and they started at the beginning of 4710). Towards the end it was hard to extend the timeline (pretty much from the end of book 4 onwards really), but there's certainly a lot of time in the early books - in fact we agreed to allow 2-3 years between the books at the beginning - giving lots of time to build the kingdom. This appealed to the players because they could also create items, and get involved in subplots - as well as the most 'trivial' of things (arranging a birthday party for the Leveton children, or creating a festival to acknowledge the founding of the Kingdom, etc.)
One thing that I'm glad I did was have Oleg and Svetlana have children in year one (there was even a rumour - as per the Kingdom events that one of the PCs was the father!). If nothing else, it's a great way to 'track' the passing of the years (Stasya's first word was..."Briar" - this was long before they knew of the sword :D )
By the end, there were various children of various ages. I resisted the temptation to target them (no kidnapping by fey etc) - there were threats though, and that was enough to motivate the PCs into action.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Great stories. Glad you enjoyed the adventures and had fun with Ultimate Battle and the Ultimate Campaign version of the kingdom rules.
I forget how long in game time my Kingmaker campaign ran, but it definitely covered at least six years or so. Probably 3+ years in real time. It's a great campaign for adding in bits and pieces.
I found a lot of stuff from Rise of the Runelords was a great fit. We used the haunted house and clock tower from Skinsaw Murders on the creepy island with the will-o-wisps in Rivers Run Red. We used Hook Mountain Massacre to account for the missing fourth colony off to the west and what had happened to it, although the part with the dam and Black Magga we moved over to Varnhold Vanishing and made it part of the ancient cyclops ruins. We also (for a variety of reasons) switched Varnhold Vanishing to happen much later in the campaign, after War of the River Kings, and we had Vordakai's destruction of Varnhold be much more complete, using "Shadows Of Gallowspire" from Carrion Crown to represent the destroyed Varnhold after V had unleashed his power on it. Very memorable campaign and a lot of fun.
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Great stories. Glad you enjoyed the adventures and had fun with Ultimate Battle and the Ultimate Campaign version of the kingdom rules.
Thanks The Ultimate Battle made a really positive difference to the 'feel' of the battles in parts 5 and 6! :) (Thanks again!)
I forget how long in game time my Kingmaker campaign ran, but it definitely covered at least six years or so. Probably 3+ years in real time. It's a great campaign for adding in bits and pieces.
I found a lot of stuff from Rise of the Runelords was a great fit. We used the haunted house and clock tower from Skinsaw Murders on the creepy island with the will-o-wisps in Rivers Run Red. We used Hook Mountain Massacre to account for the missing fourth colony off to the west and what had happened to it, although the part with the dam and Black Magga we moved over to Varnhold Vanishing and made it part of the ancient cyclops ruins. We also (for a variety of reasons) switched Varnhold Vanishing to happen much later in the campaign, after War of the River Kings, and we had Vordakai's destruction of Varnhold be much more complete, using "Shadows Of Gallowspire" from Carrion Crown to represent the destroyed Varnhold after V had unleashed his power on it. Very memorable campaign and a lot of fun.
I can well imagine ROTRL would - though we've been alternating between the two APs (I'm playing in ROTRL) and we start part 6 next week!
On the subject of the Island. I forgot to mention that I did something fun with that. In fact, the players were so concerned about the island (because of the spooky lights on it) that they avoided in for a number of levels - to the point that it was the only unexplored hex in their Kingdom. When they finally decided that they were ready to venture across to it in a boat I used the map from the Shore to Sea module. I decided it was an Azlant university (including some liquid metal professors of learning) but had been destroyed by a Colour out of Space that came Golarion about the time of the Starstone. The PCs explored the weird island, encountered some Mi-Go (I decided to draw on and extend the Lovecraft influence inferred in the KM AP) who were experimenting with a planal orerry which had been drawing the will-o-wisps. Once the PCs dispatched the Mi-Go they had to learn out to use the Orrery from the memories of the Azlanti magi, and disable the orrery. Finally they had to deal with the Colour (a NASTY monster in Pathfinder!) they finally sent it fleeing to space...
The party's wizard claimed the island and build a magical school on it. The party druid spent the rest of the campaign trying to re-vitalise the soil that had been drained by the Colour. At the end of the campaign he had finally managed to get life to return to the island.
Glad to hear it went well, I should finally be starting my KM campaign next month and I love hearing how others handled things. I think you really hit the nail on the head about making the campaign the player's own by tailoring it to their characters. Adding in additional content is a great idea too.
Just out of curiosity, how did you handle the hexploration later in the campaign? It seems like one of those things that's pretty fun early on, but that would get rather tedious later.
Just out of curiosity, how did you handle the hexploration later in the campaign? It seems like one of those things that's pretty fun early on, but that would get rather tedious later.
I remember asking this exact question a while back, and most of the responses I received were that hexploration does get boring, and many people ended up hand-waving it, eventually.
Just out of curiosity, how did you handle the hexploration later in the campaign? It seems like one of those things that's pretty fun early on, but that would get rather tedious later.I remember asking this exact question a while back, and most of the responses I received were that hexploration does get boring, and many people ended up hand-waving it, eventually.
Aye, pretty much my thought and what I have heard from others, just curious how others handled it is all. More to the point, looking to see if any groups actually ended up enjoying it.
My current group are low enough level that hexploration is the core game Everything is new and a challenge :)
My previous Kingmaker group used their military to Scout areas and deal with minor issues. That let me feed back story tid-bits which I could use to push the PCs to go deal with 'interesting' areas.
My group loved the hexploring throughout
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Later on in the campaign Hexploration basically became a background feature, we still did it, but didn't focus on it as much - certainly random encounters were more focused and less 'random' We found that by book 5 there was very little.
What I did do was give the players the Kingmaker Maps later on. They came across them in various places and, though they didn't know the specifics they knew generally where to go.
They airwalked to Whiterose Abbey for example, and and pretty much took magical means to get everywhere. The wizard had Greater teleport so it was never really an issue. In fact it made the campaign feel suitably high-magic as they swiftly moved about it. Of course their armies couldn't but they could take a more strategic view.
It all worked out.
They never hexplored the Forest of Thousand Voice - wasn't ever a problem.
toast to you and your group
Very informative, I am going to use these ideas when I run my own kingmaker game.
Thanks.