Changing main villains / plot points?

[Billeth0]

I am currently about to start running Kingmaker for our group, some of the players are familiar with either the original adventure or the video game.

With that in mind, I am planning to make some changes to the adventure to ensure there are some twists and turns for those players.

I already have some NPCs/Companions I plan to adjust, but those, either do not impact the main plot(s), or they are in self-contained in side plots.

I have been looking at possibly adjusting the Lantern King/Nyrissa, or their motivations. I am leaning towards possibly having the Lantern King infected/influenced by one of the Old Gods. That would allow Nyrissa to be nearly totally unchanged. And still have the Fey/First World influences, but I can slip in some weird Old God flavorings occasionally.

I am curious if anyone here has made any changes like these or has ideas on things I can/should change, or things I should be careful about changing.

My goal isn't to make sweeping changes, but enough that players with experience do not know the motivations or the minor details and still have surprises.

I look forward to learning from everyone's experiences.

[Goblin Slayer in Brevoy]

Good ideas. You probably don't want the players knowing everything and not being at all surprised. I also know that one of my players has finished kingmaker, so I don't want to just paint by the numbers for him either.

I'm making Hargulka much more powerful, and a major player tied to at least some of the pcs (they were settlers that had to flee the advance of the trolls). Adding in some more enemy factions that could somewhat quickly be knocked over, and adding more allies or rival factions for the players to meet and perhaps join (rangers, wizards, etc). This gives them continue options if there is a tpk later on.

Pitax will be more active, and there are plenty of posts on that (people have done the work).

Something like Nyrissa you could really keep her in the background for longer, or change her up quite a bit.

Oh, and the rival factions have secrets to unearth, and the wizards are indeed up to all sorts of chicanery, including harming other factions. Add some drama and novelty, and they will forget a bit about the main kingmaker plot, enough to be surprised later with what you do reveal from your hat.

[Chris_Fougere]

I made a couple of changes, and likely more as we play to better fit our game.

1. I've set it so Nyrissa has a hand in a bunch of pies, pushing for one Kingdom to rise above and become worthy. Tartuk (see below), The Stag Lord, Hargulka, Pitax and more. Basically everything that could be conceivably viewed as a kingdom or a kingdom in the making. She's hedging her bets.

2. I hate the Tartuccio/Tartuk plot. In our game there's simply no time to develop Tartuccio into an adversary. He's at the dinner, you get through that and then the party is off exploring and settling. So in our game Tartuk is a kobold influenced by Nyrissa in much the same way Hargulka is to form a kingdom. It's a super early way to hint that there are bigger forces at play.

3. Each of the "kingdoms" the PCs interact with have a token of Nyrissa's affection - a hand mirror with a vine entwined handle. So now they have a link between Tartuk and the Stag Lord but not idea what it means.

[Goblin Slayer in Brevoy]

3 is excellent, and I will steal it. Gifts are a perfect opportunity for surveillance and casting spells through them as well. If the pcs (I have two parties) work out what is going on, they will probably destroy them and seek more of the gifts out.

Tartuccio I will strengthen and make him an assassin (he poisons another npc party, starts fires, and so on). I don't like the Tartuk transformation, but Nyrissa trying to use Kobolds fits.

Could give him Irovetti's hand mirror, which gives him a few illusion spells in the vein of the One Ring (as well as he is always being spied upon and influenced). Irovetti knows what's up (being both brave and smart in equal measure), and is patsying Tartuccio, turning him into a petty lordling and Irovetti is thus escaping the influence of the mirror. That then means when the players get a hold of it, I can give them all sorts of hints via feelings and glimpses... then they find another one later, and can realise the significance. They have, of course, attracted Nyrissa's attention by dealing with Tartuccio.

Physical items can always serve to help a plot make sense.