Pathfinder 1E Paizo re-invents Hexcrawling

[Krensky]

Other than the simplicity it may offer, I do not quite understand why a " hexcrawling " type of game actually requires hexes...

Two things primarily. The center of a hex is equidistant from the centers of the surrounding hexes. Hence, no 1, 2, 1, 2 to move diagonally. The other is tradition. It's what Outdoor Survival used, it's what Traveler used, and it's been the standard in wargames since the sixties.

 

[Arthedain]

This is the MAIN reason we do stuff like this. Because readers will always have the time and passion to do cooler stuff for their games than we ever could. Flexibility and the ability to customize what we create to make it the perfect fit for your group and game will always be a big part of our business, and if you ever have any questions about how to do things like this, suggestions for how we can do things better, or are just intrigued and want to get ideas that might work for you, we've got a active, shall we say, "mod-ing" community over on the Paizo message boards and a very attentive web team.

Also, I'd love to see how this looks and I'm sure a ton of other players would to. If you ever get a chance, take a few pictures and link them over on the Paizo boards, folks will flip! Thanks a ton Arthedain!

For those who might be interested I've posted a few slides over on the Paizo boards. http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePath/crimsonThrone/inIntroductionToCurseOfTheCrimsonThroneAndGolarion&page=1#0

*returns to lurking mode*

 

[WesSchneider]

For those who might be interested I've posted a few slides over on the Paizo boards. http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboard...ToCurseOfTheCrimsonThroneAndGolarion&page=1#0

Very, very cool man! These look great! Thanks for showing them off.

 

[WesSchneider]

Do the kingdom rules feed back into adventuring at all?

For example, can you get a dwarven artificer in your kingdom to make you a magical warhammer? Can you "level up" a trusted squire into a knight so, when your PC dies, you can play him instead of starting back at square one? Henchmen that you can grab from the kingdom to help you out on your adventure...

In a lot of ways, yes, though perhaps not in exactly the way you're thinking here. Not to give the whole system away - you'll have to see Pathfinder #31 and #32 for that - as you explore hexes you reveal encounters there, which often relate to a resource your kingdom can use. Back in your community, you can manipulate your resources with the Kingdom building rules - selecting new buildings and features to improve the city. As your city grows - to address your question here and among other things - the magic items it has access too and you can buy do improve.

It's not so much a system that says "Today 5 half-elven expert 1 (bakers) and 1 dwarf bard 2 (danceaholic) show up in town." Rather, you build and the decisions you make and folks you put in charge of your kingdom (whether the PCs or others) cause your community and your resources to improve. There is also a strong roleplaying aspect in there, as NPCs start to show up with the potential to come from your populace (or elsewhere if you just ignore all the kingdom building stuff). Heck you can even send out adventurers of your own and build guards and eventually raise troops. While these characters aren't defined by the rules as "Joe McPaladin" and "Sally Sorceress," there's nothing stopping a GM from getting into those details (honestly that sounds pretty cool - I always wondered who the adventurers I was always sending out in the old SSI Fantasy Empires PC game were).

Overall, there's a lot in there, but even better, it's a very permissive system, so if there's any detail you or your players latch onto or want more of, its all there for you to make your own. That's kind of the neatest part of doing such a sandboxy game, we know what the main thrust of the adventures are, but I'm really excited to start hearing about adventures from "Jacobston" and "Mona Marsh."

 

[Gort]

Man, convert this to 4e and I would be all over it.

 

[LostSoul]

I don't know if I'm being too clear...

Let's say I decide to build an arena, a gladiator's pit, in my town. Now there's a rule attached to that building that says, "If you build an arena in your town, you can take the Feat Dirty Trick."

That sort of thing - where which buildings you choose to construct make a difference when you're in a dungeon killing trolls.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Sorry man, creating content for games we don't produce is just not in the cards. However, you should find the rules quite flexible. Those for exploration show up in Pathfinder #31, for City Building in Pathfinder #32, and then details on handing mass combat show up later in the series.

Oh, and did anyone mention that we've got Ed Greenwood writing a big article on locations in the Kingmaker region and creating monsters for every volume of Kingmaker? And for Golarion fans, in Pathfinder #33 Stephen Schend takes the first step off our campaign setting's bit map, revealing the realm of Iobaria to the west. (And, going even deeper into world continuity, we've also got an article coming that finally details the crazed realm known as the First World.)

So there's a lot going on in this series, whether you want innovative new rules or just awesome old school storytelling from some of the best storytellers in RPG history.

And, as has been said, if you want a teaser of what's to come, totally check out the free Kingmaker Players Guide!

I must say Paizo is doing the right thing, supporting Pathfinder with lots and lots of modules and campaigns. I don't have the time to make things from scratch anymore.

I might pick some of it up just to see what you have been plotting.

 

[Smeelbo]

Increasing my PathFinder KingMaker Pre-Order

After reading this thread, I called my Alliance sales representative, and increased my pre-order for KingMaker, and e-mailed him the link to this thread. I plan on running this myself, and I will be aggresively selling this. Maybe this can be our in-store PF campaign 1/month.

PF Adventure Path sales have dropped dramaticly here, but I expect to do well with KingMaker. We sell a lot of PF Core, Bestiary, etc., but no so much APs recently.

Thank you, Paizo.
Smeelbo