Merging Paizo's Kingmaker into an existing 4E game?

[NewJeffCT]

I am running a 4E game where the PCs have gone from level 1-6 so far and have a few more scenarios to go in my game. By the time that is done, they should be around level 8. The setting is kind of on the border of 3 different nations, with a sort of "no man's land" to the North. The PCs are mostly from Kingdom A, which is at war with Kingdom C. Kingdom B is steadfastly neutral. The war is not always a "hot" war and the PCs are in a region where the war will not directly impact them any time soon.

I do not own the Kingmaker adventure path series, but I am intrigued that it is supposedly a lot more sand-boxy than most modules out there. From what I have read, the PCs are sent to a no man's land type of area, and they can conquer it and make it their own and set up their own kingdom there and deal with threats as needed.

So, I have some questions:
1) Has anybody done similar? (run Kingmaker for 4E)

2) How do you like Kingmaker overall (even if running PF or another system)

3) Is Kingmaker something I can easily merge into an existing game, even if it is 4E? I know I'll have to change the encounters around to make them suitable for 4E, but I'd have to tweak any standard module anyways, as I have a large gaming group.

4) Would I be able to start with Kingmaker 1 and just up the encounter difficulty? Or, should I set some things up in game and start them off with (for example) Kingmaker 3?

5) Any other suggestions? Am I crazy to consider doing this? The game is at the point where I'd like to get some sort of unifying campaign idea together.

Thanks for any input.

 

[S'mon]

I found Kingmaker-1 not very generic. You might like to look at Rob S Conley's "Points of Light" from Goodman Games, it contains several hex-mapped wilderness areas. "Southland" sounds particularly suitable for your purposes. They are:

1. Part of a civilised nation/empire in civil war.
2. A Dark Ages "5th century AD" type setting in the aftermath of barbarian invasion & societal collapse.
3. Southland - A wilderness area with remnants of a fallen empire, with a border kingdom beginning to expand into it.
4. (Half length) an outer-planar swamp/deity lair.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Thanks S'mon - I'll take a look. I must spread XP around before awarding more to you.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The first four Kingmaker modules work well (I'm unimpressed with 5 and won't be buying 6). 1 is all about our band of PCs carving out a kingdom based on untamed wilderness (with poor topography - the rivers flow away from the plains and into the hills (and I have players who notice this sort of detail). 2 is wide open hexcrawling; you have your land and some people coming to settle. What next? 3 is something going seriously pear-shaped in the next area over. 4 starts with a rival local lord making a play to either get some of your territory or get his most annoying knights chopped up by your guys. (Win/Win until your guys visit his capital). And it's pretty easy to merge.

 

[NewJeffCT]

The first four Kingmaker modules work well (I'm unimpressed with 5 and won't be buying 6). 1 is all about our band of PCs carving out a kingdom based on untamed wilderness (with poor topography - the rivers flow away from the plains and into the hills (and I have players who notice this sort of detail). 2 is wide open hexcrawling; you have your land and some people coming to settle. What next? 3 is something going seriously pear-shaped in the next area over. 4 starts with a rival local lord making a play to either get some of your territory or get his most annoying knights chopped up by your guys. (Win/Win until your guys visit his capital). And it's pretty easy to merge.

Thanks - so, I have one vote for easy to merge and one vote for not easy to merge.

What was bad about #5?

 

[deinol]

The sandbox nature of the adventures would make them easy to convert. Even if you don't want to run them straight, the first couple books are excellent examples of how to set up a wilderness campaign.

There are basically a lot of isolated wilderness encounters, plus several mini-dungeon sites. Later books start having more specific events and adventures to run, but you could easily swap in other adventures as you go. I plan on putting the Caves of Chaos [Keep on the Borderlands] on the map for my group to take care of when they get around to it. I also plan on sprinkling adventures from Open Design's Tales of Margreve [Pathfinder].

The last two adventures are more railroady than the early books. They expect that the wilderness exploration is pretty much done by that point. The kingdom will have borders and start to have to deal with the neighbors more. So this is the point where it would make the most sense for a campaign to diverge if the GM wants to take things in a different direction.

I recommend picking up the first 1-2 books to start with and see how you like them. They are definitely worthwhile toolboxes to assist in a wilderness campaign. Either you will fall in love with them and want more, or you'll just steal ideas and do your own thing.

 

[czak]

Dannager might have a conversion blog kicking around.

Edit - sorry, looks like he's working on the first two aps.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Dannager might have a conversion blog kicking around.

Edit - sorry, looks like he's working on the first two aps.

first two adventure paths you mean?

 

[czak]

Yeah, Rise of The Runelords (http://rustydragon.blogspot.com/) and Curse of the Crimson Throne (http://longlivekorvosa.blogspot.com/).

 

[NewJeffCT]

Yeah, Rise of The Runelords (Tales from the Rusty Dragon) and Curse of the Crimson Throne (Long Live Korvosa).

The Rise of the Runelords conversion has been on hold for well over a year now, I believe, though.