DragonStryk72
First Post
I've been running a Pathfinder game of late, and the party is doing really spelndidly. They've preformed above and beyond anything I could have expected of them. I have three characters now with the Leadership feat, naming their cohorts as proxies for them in case they get held up during their admin week, as well as using them to further the kingdom, such as Maia's Druid council she's brought together for the region, something that was sorely lacking before. For those that don't play Pathfinder: Start playing it.
Pathfinder is set on the world of Golarion, in a region referred to as The Inner Sea. I am running an Adventure Path (A full campaign in six books) called Kingmaker, and in it, the PCs are sent by the Swordlords of Restov to stop the banditry in The Stolen Lands, as well as to establish a kingdom there to help keep the peace. In truth, Restov is a conquered nation, being held by Brevoy, and they are trying to use the party as an end-around way of obtaining greater power in the Brevoy government. As the PCs kingdom grows, however, Brevoy will take an increasingly negative view of the group, coming to see them as eventual threats to their own sovereignty, while an ancient Fae called Nyrissa plots in the shadows on how to rid The Stolen Lands of the PCs for once and for all.
Well, the party succeeded in capturing The Stag's Lord Keep, deposing the Stag Lord in a very Ocean's Eleven sort of way. The Stag Lord is head of the bandits of the region, but he's also a raging alcoholic. The group manages to jack a full load of his booze, along with getting the passphrase to allow them entrance. So armed, they are able to enter the keep with weapons and armor fully intact. The Stag Lord proceeds to get himself fall down drunk, and retreats to his quarters. This is when they send Naraina, the group's Elven Ranger in after him, with her passing it off as her trying to sleep with the boss to get ahead, while the party fans out around the keep to get in position to take them down. Once in the Stag Lord's room, Naraina whip her Elven Curved Blade out of the Efficient Quiver, and coup de graces him, a check he fails. When she steps back outside, it's the signal, and Naraina's already got her bow ready. From there it goes downhill pretty swiftly, claiming a new ally in a former bandit named Akiros Ismort.
Well, now, two years in game later, The group's king/bard has come to a decision, one he has yet to share with anyone in the party: having looked through the Inner Sea guide, he has realized just how screwed up the world is, and now believes that to bring Golarion back from the brink, he must, by needs, begin taking down kingdoms. Between the seriously evil kingdoms, and all the ones that are on the brink of chaos, I can kind of see his point.
He's already been making good with the Dwarves, and the Elves, setting up an elven community in the Narlmarches, the forest to their northwest that holds an ancient elven keep, and to the southwest, he plans to convert a dwarven stronghold to create a dwarven community. There are even plans for a halfling community in the hills to the south. He already has a small tribe of kobolds, so things could get interesting here. He's even reached out to the goodly fae of the Narlmarches, and helped them several times over now.
As well, the party's level continues to rise, and eventually, they'll have to deal with Brevoy anyhow, as it's part of the campaign, and it's a war I see them winning at the current rate. They've taken to tracking down Wyverns to bring over to their side so that they can create an air corps, by offering the Wyverns regular foods, a proper rookery, and pay for them, along with breeding Thylacines to help patrol the borderlands (Combination of Rangers and Druids working together to that end).
With the help of the Druids, the crop yield of the kingdom is a third higher than normal, and that looks to keep growing as the party's level continues to improve. They've taken to taking the winter months off of exploration in order to take care of things around the kingdom, and allow the Druids to go about and do their plant growth thing to enrich the soil.
This is the most fun I've had GMing in a long time, so no, I'm not bringing this to a grinding halt. Oh sure, I'm gonna mess with them, I've made them bleed, and made them bury 5 of their companions so far, don't get me wrong, but I've talked about this on the Paizo forums, and one poster referred to their actions as "antics", and asked how long I would let them "get away" with this, and suggested a ton of ways I could destroy all the extra progress they've made, despite reading about how much work, effort, and role-playing they've done to actually get there.
Pathfinder is set on the world of Golarion, in a region referred to as The Inner Sea. I am running an Adventure Path (A full campaign in six books) called Kingmaker, and in it, the PCs are sent by the Swordlords of Restov to stop the banditry in The Stolen Lands, as well as to establish a kingdom there to help keep the peace. In truth, Restov is a conquered nation, being held by Brevoy, and they are trying to use the party as an end-around way of obtaining greater power in the Brevoy government. As the PCs kingdom grows, however, Brevoy will take an increasingly negative view of the group, coming to see them as eventual threats to their own sovereignty, while an ancient Fae called Nyrissa plots in the shadows on how to rid The Stolen Lands of the PCs for once and for all.
Well, the party succeeded in capturing The Stag's Lord Keep, deposing the Stag Lord in a very Ocean's Eleven sort of way. The Stag Lord is head of the bandits of the region, but he's also a raging alcoholic. The group manages to jack a full load of his booze, along with getting the passphrase to allow them entrance. So armed, they are able to enter the keep with weapons and armor fully intact. The Stag Lord proceeds to get himself fall down drunk, and retreats to his quarters. This is when they send Naraina, the group's Elven Ranger in after him, with her passing it off as her trying to sleep with the boss to get ahead, while the party fans out around the keep to get in position to take them down. Once in the Stag Lord's room, Naraina whip her Elven Curved Blade out of the Efficient Quiver, and coup de graces him, a check he fails. When she steps back outside, it's the signal, and Naraina's already got her bow ready. From there it goes downhill pretty swiftly, claiming a new ally in a former bandit named Akiros Ismort.
Well, now, two years in game later, The group's king/bard has come to a decision, one he has yet to share with anyone in the party: having looked through the Inner Sea guide, he has realized just how screwed up the world is, and now believes that to bring Golarion back from the brink, he must, by needs, begin taking down kingdoms. Between the seriously evil kingdoms, and all the ones that are on the brink of chaos, I can kind of see his point.
He's already been making good with the Dwarves, and the Elves, setting up an elven community in the Narlmarches, the forest to their northwest that holds an ancient elven keep, and to the southwest, he plans to convert a dwarven stronghold to create a dwarven community. There are even plans for a halfling community in the hills to the south. He already has a small tribe of kobolds, so things could get interesting here. He's even reached out to the goodly fae of the Narlmarches, and helped them several times over now.
As well, the party's level continues to rise, and eventually, they'll have to deal with Brevoy anyhow, as it's part of the campaign, and it's a war I see them winning at the current rate. They've taken to tracking down Wyverns to bring over to their side so that they can create an air corps, by offering the Wyverns regular foods, a proper rookery, and pay for them, along with breeding Thylacines to help patrol the borderlands (Combination of Rangers and Druids working together to that end).
With the help of the Druids, the crop yield of the kingdom is a third higher than normal, and that looks to keep growing as the party's level continues to improve. They've taken to taking the winter months off of exploration in order to take care of things around the kingdom, and allow the Druids to go about and do their plant growth thing to enrich the soil.
This is the most fun I've had GMing in a long time, so no, I'm not bringing this to a grinding halt. Oh sure, I'm gonna mess with them, I've made them bleed, and made them bury 5 of their companions so far, don't get me wrong, but I've talked about this on the Paizo forums, and one poster referred to their actions as "antics", and asked how long I would let them "get away" with this, and suggested a ton of ways I could destroy all the extra progress they've made, despite reading about how much work, effort, and role-playing they've done to actually get there.
