D&D 5E (2024) Kingmaker AP in 5E With Bastions?

Distracted DM · Sep 2, 2025

I started using the Bastion because the events section inspired me, reminding me of Birthright, but once our group started actually trying to use the Bastion rules they just... didn't feel relevant. For context, I've used A5E's stronghold rules and MCDM's Strongholds & Followers previously. A5E's stronghold rules are more about giving the characters features (A5E, so many features!) and the S&F strongholds enhance the characters by class and by the type of stronghold.

I guess the bastion defender stuff, the little crafting bonuses, research... all this stuff felt inconsequential compared to regular Xanathars/A5E downtime rules used. Like, it isn't really doing anything new for the PCs that the PCs can't already do themselves.

haakon1 · Sep 3, 2025

For what it’s worth, when I played Pathfinder Kingmaker on Xbox, I was intrigued to found a town and get it running, and then a second village in my little barony.

But when the game insisted on giving me time-sensitive adventure quests after that, I was like “can’t I assign this to lower level parties - I’m a Baron, not a murder hobo! I have an old man in a cloak to give out quests, me and my advisors don’t have time for this.” And eventually I did a nope-out on the game. I wanted it to become more of a Baron sim, like Castles 2, but it didn’t.

Castles II: Siege and Conquest - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sounds like the conflict between being Conan the Barbarian versus King Conan was there in tabletop games too.

touc · Sep 4, 2025

haakon1 said:
Castles II: Siege and Conquest - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Nostalgia hit of unseating the Pope. Fortunately the RPG Kingmaker is in no way bound by such strict time limits, so if the DM were so inclined, folks could play "kingdom building" for a few years and return to adventuring.

Paul Farquhar · Sep 4, 2025

How simulationist do you want it to be? Actually running a kingdom involves a huge amount of dull repetitive work. Why would anyone want to do it rather than travelling round the countryside killing monsters and stealing their stuff?! I found it a enough of a dull chore simply running a school Science department.

The timescale could be extended, so decades pass between incidents. Would work better if the PCs are longer lived species but the settlers are mostly shorter lived species. See Foundation.

Zardnaar · Sep 4, 2025

Paul Farquhar said:
How simulationist do you want it to be? Actually running a kingdom involves a huge amount of dull repetitive work. Why would anyone want to do it rather than travelling round the countryside killing monsters and stealing their stuff?! I found it a enough of a dull chore simply running a school Science department.

The timescale could be extended, so decades pass between incidents. Would work better if the PCs are longer lived species but the settlers are mostly shorter lived species. See Foundation.

Well its something sone of them want to try.

Early kingdom building was fun but larger it got the more tedious it was.

It was also a long time ago.

Paul Farquhar · Sep 4, 2025

Zardnaar said:
Early kingdom building was fun but larger it got the more tedious it was.

That's life. You prove yourself good at doing one boring admin job and you get promoted to a bigger one with more responsibility and more tedium, and so on. It was just the same a long time ago.

Vakarr · 2026-03-23T06:25:38+0000

Amphytrion said:
1. Yes, ran it up to 9th level.

2. I didn’t, but this campaign started long before we had Bastion Rules.

3. I used neither. I used a much more narrative approach to kingdom building. I wouldn’t defend my approach—it’s wobbly—but it’s not time consuming at least.

Happy to answer any other questions.

I am planning to run the kingdom rules in 5.5 with a more narrative approach as well, how did you approach it?

Vakarr · 2026-03-23T06:27:21+0000

Amphytrion said:
1. Yes, ran it up to 9th level.

2. I didn’t, but this campaign started long before we had Bastion Rules.

3. I used neither. I used a much more narrative approach to kingdom building. I wouldn’t defend my approach—it’s wobbly—but it’s not time consuming at least.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Hey I wanted to run kingmaker in 5e with a narrative approach to the kingdom rules, how did you go about it?

Zardnaar · 2026-03-23T06:58:29+0000

Update. I placed Olegs near Tilverton.

One player placed a bastion there.

4 others nearby Barony of the stonelands.

Probably abstract it from here on out.

Started planning this a while ago. Bastions built on Sunday.