Zardnaar
Legend
New 5E players, they know a little bit about the sword coast nothing about Golarion. Keep it simple. It's an option using FR or Greyhawk God's.
5E Kingmaker
- Thread starter Zardnaar
- Start date
New 5E players, they know a little bit about the sword coast nothing about Golarion. Keep it simple. It's an option using FR or Greyhawk God's.
chunkosauruswrex
First Post
I guess to me investing in the Golarion lore is better because then if you so choose you can easily run more of the awesome APs using 5e. I'm also just not a fan of Faerun in general with all the God NPCs around.
Zardnaar
Legend
Most of the good NPCs are gone with the time jump. The north is a bit more 1E in feel.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
New 5e players can play in any settings imo, why limit yourself to FR?
FurtiveNoise
First Post
I can't help you much with moving the setting, as I have enjoyed running my last few 5ed campaigns in Golarion, but here's my perspective as someone who has been running the adventure in 5th ed for the last couple years, players are almost level 10. I DM'ed Pathfinder years ago, but not with Kingmaker rules.
The Ultimate Campaign Kingdom Building rules seem to work quite well and don't directly interact with 5th ed mechanics too much so they work without much change. You'll want to make sure you really absorb these rules, because pausing to look them up for too long in game will kill momentum and enthusiasm for using these mechanics. Also, even players that take interest in the mechanics of running the kingdom will rely on you to keep the rules straight. Make sure you have players that are interested in this subsystem, though if you've run the campaign you know what to expect.
I have noticed a few differences to keep in mind where the system does interact with 5th edition and its bounded accuracy. One boost to your kingdom's stats come from your various leaders/counselors stat modifiers, which in general don't increase as high as in Pathfinder and are mostly capped at +5 (20 in that stat). I recommend including events or rewards that will increase kingdom stats or grant free buildings to make up for this over the course of the campaign.
Economy/Loyalty/Stability all work, but some of the secondary Settlement Stats (Society, Crime, etc.) from buildings are supposed to grant bonuses to specific skill checks made in that city or town. Enough of these bonuses may break the bounded accuracy of 5th ed. Skill checks, especially if a lot of adventuring is done in town. To be honest, this hasn't come up yet my game as I haven't been using the settlement bonuses.. I'd need to assign them to the reduced 5th ed. Skill list, and it just has seemed an unnecessary complication. If you reach a good solution, let me know.
I'm pretty ad-hoc with magic item shops (generating low level scrolls and wondrous items) and have been stingier with money and magic items because Pathfinder adventures tend to give them out in droves and everyone doesn't need a +1 sword in 5th. Some buildings increase the 'base value' of items in that town, but I have ignored this stat, magic item prices are much looser in my world and don't translate to pathfinder ones.
The nature of the adventure really calls for creating your own content and customizing things based on your PC's. Much of the map based hex exploration is isolated pockets of dangerous wildlife or lone beasts. With ample opportunity to rest, these 1-2 fights per day will not challenge the average 5th edition party, or mesh well with the 6 encounters a day design philosophy. After the party was past the first module (and thus high enough level to survive multiple fights) I glossed over or abbreviated some of the hex exploration. I use the 'gritty rest' variant where you don't auto-heal to full each night, but still, the wilderness combats they do have tend to be lethal, tougher challenges because I know they'll rest soon; looking back I think I'd tell my players they could only long rest inside their kingdom, and throw out exceptions for certain isolated dungeons. I didn't want to change up rules once the game was underway. I made up a lot of content tailored to what my party was interested in.
Make sure you include BP's in loot or give players ways to mitigate too much unrest or consumption if you find the math working against them too much. One thing I tried, since I wanted to try a more political campaign at times with different factions to oppose or ally with, was to vary the way they receive their starting Build Points once they get the kingdom building underway. Instead of a lump sum of 50 or whatever the normal starting amount was, I gave them 25 and arranged for small list of factions that would give them more depending on what they intended or promised to do with their new lands. These factions were different nobles from Brevoy (which has an interesting political situation underused in the main adventure), different churches, and other influential figures. Credit for this idea goes to someone on the Paizo forums, which probably hold a lot of good ideas for the campaign but are unlikely to offer much 5th ed help. Good luck!
The Ultimate Campaign Kingdom Building rules seem to work quite well and don't directly interact with 5th ed mechanics too much so they work without much change. You'll want to make sure you really absorb these rules, because pausing to look them up for too long in game will kill momentum and enthusiasm for using these mechanics. Also, even players that take interest in the mechanics of running the kingdom will rely on you to keep the rules straight. Make sure you have players that are interested in this subsystem, though if you've run the campaign you know what to expect.
I have noticed a few differences to keep in mind where the system does interact with 5th edition and its bounded accuracy. One boost to your kingdom's stats come from your various leaders/counselors stat modifiers, which in general don't increase as high as in Pathfinder and are mostly capped at +5 (20 in that stat). I recommend including events or rewards that will increase kingdom stats or grant free buildings to make up for this over the course of the campaign.
Economy/Loyalty/Stability all work, but some of the secondary Settlement Stats (Society, Crime, etc.) from buildings are supposed to grant bonuses to specific skill checks made in that city or town. Enough of these bonuses may break the bounded accuracy of 5th ed. Skill checks, especially if a lot of adventuring is done in town. To be honest, this hasn't come up yet my game as I haven't been using the settlement bonuses.. I'd need to assign them to the reduced 5th ed. Skill list, and it just has seemed an unnecessary complication. If you reach a good solution, let me know.
I'm pretty ad-hoc with magic item shops (generating low level scrolls and wondrous items) and have been stingier with money and magic items because Pathfinder adventures tend to give them out in droves and everyone doesn't need a +1 sword in 5th. Some buildings increase the 'base value' of items in that town, but I have ignored this stat, magic item prices are much looser in my world and don't translate to pathfinder ones.
The nature of the adventure really calls for creating your own content and customizing things based on your PC's. Much of the map based hex exploration is isolated pockets of dangerous wildlife or lone beasts. With ample opportunity to rest, these 1-2 fights per day will not challenge the average 5th edition party, or mesh well with the 6 encounters a day design philosophy. After the party was past the first module (and thus high enough level to survive multiple fights) I glossed over or abbreviated some of the hex exploration. I use the 'gritty rest' variant where you don't auto-heal to full each night, but still, the wilderness combats they do have tend to be lethal, tougher challenges because I know they'll rest soon; looking back I think I'd tell my players they could only long rest inside their kingdom, and throw out exceptions for certain isolated dungeons. I didn't want to change up rules once the game was underway. I made up a lot of content tailored to what my party was interested in.
Make sure you include BP's in loot or give players ways to mitigate too much unrest or consumption if you find the math working against them too much. One thing I tried, since I wanted to try a more political campaign at times with different factions to oppose or ally with, was to vary the way they receive their starting Build Points once they get the kingdom building underway. Instead of a lump sum of 50 or whatever the normal starting amount was, I gave them 25 and arranged for small list of factions that would give them more depending on what they intended or promised to do with their new lands. These factions were different nobles from Brevoy (which has an interesting political situation underused in the main adventure), different churches, and other influential figures. Credit for this idea goes to someone on the Paizo forums, which probably hold a lot of good ideas for the campaign but are unlikely to offer much 5th ed help. Good luck!
Similar Threads
AD6_gamerati_skyscraper
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
April 16 2024 -
May 31 2024 -
June 3 2024 -
June 4 2024 -
June 18 2024 -
July 16 2024 -
September 17 2024 -
October 1 2024 -
November 12 2024 -
February 18 2025
