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As a GM I really enjoy the roleplaying aspect of tabletop gaming. Becoming different characters comes easily for me and I know my players love seeing me go from gruff old man one minute to tiny cute fey the next. Something I've used in other campaigns to aid in this endeavor is the Face Cards product from Paizo. Unfortunately there wasn't such a product for Kingmaker. I'm guessing this adventure path came out well before all those kinds of accessories became commonplace for later campaigns. I have, however, gotten somewhat lucky and I wish to share this luck with you.
I found an online campaign journal thrown up by another GM with very interesting face art for all the major nobles and other important NPCs. Example of such face art here. The circular borders around the faces are very detailed but I can't seem to find them anywhere online. If anyone recognizes these borders, let me know so I can collect the rest. For now I'm planning on using these to represent the heads of each noble house as the players reach Rivers Run Red.
We're using
Erik Freund's Venture Capital and Redcelt's Game of Thrones in Brevoy, so knowing who they are talking to as well as what they look like and which noble house they belong to will be very useful.
Has anyone else used face cards or similar representations other than miniatures to represent characters during roleplay for Kingmaker? My group has a tendency to ask questions first and fight later so we end up roleplaying a lot and running combat only when necessary.
I don't know if they released any face cards for Kingmaker. If they did, they must be hidden in the Friends & Foes deck. That set is long sold out, though. I do enjoy using facecards whenever possible, especially when running Pathfinder Society missions. Having a face to go with the name really gives the players a clear understanding of the NPCs.
If you want to use face cards for Kingmaker, I'd suggest just using whichever card best approximate the characters you want to represent. As long as you're consistent, it doesn't matter whether or not it's an official card for that character.
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For the first book I was able to get away with using minis for most NPCs. I use paper minis, most of which I use the official art from the books to make. So when a player picks up and looks at Happs Bydon, for example, they recognize him. But now that we're getting into the Political side of things I didn't want to have miniatures for all the nobles. If it can stand on the map then it is assumed they can fight it. If it is just a face and name on a card, then it pushes them to roleplay (or at least that is my hope). I really don't need to worry about this with my current group, they talk to everything and everyone from bandits to kobolds to a wyvern.
The online campaign journal I linked to has some really decent art including family crests for each art. I'll report after next session as to how the players like it.
Believe it or not, but the Beginner's Box has a few pawns from Kingmaker art. Not enough to make it a must buy, but if you want a few pawns from the AP, they are there.
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The Face Cards I developed from the online campaign journal worked amazingly well. Normally my group meets bi-weekly but after this past regular session we decided to meet back up two days later (today). The idea was that they had to meet with the Swordlords, the Nobility, and the Churches of Brevoy to ask for Build Points to get their kingdom started. Yes, they had a charter giving them the rights to claim a new kingdom but they were without funding, people, or resources. Using the face cards really brought the NPCs to life and got everyone involved in the session. When I would take a break from the table for food, drink, or other human body needs, the group would suddenly lean in on the table and heavily debate what their next move was. Mind you, my group usually just goes with a simple but well thought out approach for most things. But with the political angle mixed in they really came together and started caring about what was going on. I don't have the words, but giving faces to the names MADE my game.