Pathfinder 2e Kingdom Building Rules Major Problem 5: Capital's Urban Grid

[VanceMadrox]

Major Problem #5: Low Level Urban Grid Restrictions on the Capital:
Problem Analysis #5:

Like Major Problem 4, this is not an issue for any groups using automatic or Milestone leveling for the Kingdom can ignore this problem. As written Kingdoms cannot Build towns until 3rd level, Cities until 9th level, and Metropolises until 15th level. Our tests showed that this can easily result in a settlement filling all of its allowed lots long before reaching the level requirement to grow a higher category. Filling 4 lots in the Capital can easily be done after the 2nd Kingdom turn if the Capital starts with a Town Hall. This would leave the Capital unable to build any structures until 3rd level, which is simply not fun. Filling 4 lots can easily be done by Level 5, leaving 4 whole levels of being unable to build structures in the Capital. The issue wasn't too bad in later settlements, we only filled one up around level 8 so waiting until 9th wasn't too bad there.

[VanceMadrox]

Solution 1: Allow the Capital to Grow earlier:

The Capital is allowed to grow one (and only one) size Category bigger than the normal restrictions. This does not increase the Max. Item Bonus or Influence of the Capital until the normal Level requirement is met.

[VanceMadrox]

Solution 2: Increase the Influence of the Capital at the lowest Levels:

This isn’t strictly necessary but we saw a lot of complaints from people on message boards about being unable to use Establish Farmland until Level 3 when you have a Town. If your group wants to be able to have Farmland before level 3, we recommend simply stating that the Capital’s influence is minimum 1.