3 out of 5 rating for Kingmaker Adventure Path
Let me start by saying I wish I could give this a higher rating. There is the seed of a very good campaign here, but it requires a lot of work by a dedicated and experienced DM to bring it out.What do I mean....Parts one and two are a sandbox where the players try to carve a kingdom out of the wilds. It's actually not a bad sandbox too. As with all sandboxes, A good DM that can take basic outdoor encounters and bring the monsters/NPCs to life based on some basic info is needed to keep this section from feeling like an MMO. But overall, if you DM is willing to put in some work and go along with the PCs crazy plans, the first couple books are a blast.However it should be noted: This part also introduces some of the rules designed to abstract out the running and economy of a kingdom. At first this isn't too bad, as the players probably will have fun building a little kingdom. However they do suffer from the same economic problems inherent in all of D&D 3.x systems and as such the system as written is very easy to break given a little thought or some bad luck. This can quickly lead to a significant drag on the fun for any of the players who are not accountants.The second part of the adventure path (books 3 and 4) are more of what I consider a loose form adventure. Outside events start to put more pressure on the PCs and make this less of a sandbox, and more about the PCs reacting to those events. The game does make some assumptions about what the PCs did in their sandbox, and the events start to become more plot driven (rather then feeling PC driven) but overall I also found this section to be reasonably well done. I do have some questions about the execution choices here (like part 3 funneling the PCs to the hardest encounters at the very start of the adventure, rather then the end), but as long as you read advice from people who have run these before and can adjust a bit, these are also very solid entries.The last 3rd of the AP is where the biggest problems comes from. Part 5 makes extensive use of some questionable mass combat rules, and other then that really removes all sandbox style elements from the path in favor of a more plot driven structure. Part 6 pretty much comes completely out of left field for the players unless the DM goes way out of his way to expose the metaplot of the AP in books 3 to 5 far more then it is currently written in. While not a bad adventure per say, 6 is just totally a different tone/feel from the past books, and that is not foreshadowed well at all.So overall, if you have a DM who is willing to put in the time and effort this could easily become a 5 star effort, but as written there are just too many problems to give this more then 3 stars.
Let me start by saying I wish I could give this a higher rating. There is the seed of a very good campaign here, but it requires a lot of work by a dedicated and experienced DM to bring it out.What do I mean....Parts one and two are a sandbox where the players try to carve a kingdom out of the wilds. It's actually not a bad sandbox too. As with all sandboxes, A good DM that can take basic outdoor encounters and bring the monsters/NPCs to life based on some basic info is needed to keep this section from feeling like an MMO. But overall, if you DM is willing to put in some work and go along with the PCs crazy plans, the first couple books are a blast.However it should be noted: This part also introduces some of the rules designed to abstract out the running and economy of a kingdom. At first this isn't too bad, as the players probably will have fun building a little kingdom. However they do suffer from the same economic problems inherent in all of D&D 3.x systems and as such the system as written is very easy to break given a little thought or some bad luck. This can quickly lead to a significant drag on the fun for any of the players who are not accountants.The second part of the adventure path (books 3 and 4) are more of what I consider a loose form adventure. Outside events start to put more pressure on the PCs and make this less of a sandbox, and more about the PCs reacting to those events. The game does make some assumptions about what the PCs did in their sandbox, and the events start to become more plot driven (rather then feeling PC driven) but overall I also found this section to be reasonably well done. I do have some questions about the execution choices here (like part 3 funneling the PCs to the hardest encounters at the very start of the adventure, rather then the end), but as long as you read advice from people who have run these before and can adjust a bit, these are also very solid entries.The last 3rd of the AP is where the biggest problems comes from. Part 5 makes extensive use of some questionable mass combat rules, and other then that really removes all sandbox style elements from the path in favor of a more plot driven structure. Part 6 pretty much comes completely out of left field for the players unless the DM goes way out of his way to expose the metaplot of the AP in books 3 to 5 far more then it is currently written in. While not a bad adventure per say, 6 is just totally a different tone/feel from the past books, and that is not foreshadowed well at all.So overall, if you have a DM who is willing to put in the time and effort this could easily become a 5 star effort, but as written there are just too many problems to give this more then 3 stars.
