Version 1.0: starter notes, Book #1 (in the history section)
Version 1.1: Book #2 notes
Wow, where to begin. I'm putting my notes in installments. Kingmaker, if fixed up a bit, is just plain awesome. There's a kingdom on the brink of civil war that sponsors a group of adventurers to reclaim "stolen lands" and form a kingdom/barony, and the most active forum in the gaming world to make this more awesome.
As with any conversion, it's not all about stats. Run as-is, Kingmaker is above average, nothing more. Run as it should be, with political intrigue, fey politics, a wealth of NPCs and the life of running a kingdom, and it can be amazing. I've attached a ton of side material that may or may not be needed (e.g. a side adventure into "Tyr Gwydd" when a character died and PCs friendly with fey found a way to go to the original source of the reincarnation spell; faerie tales). Foreshadowing is huge. I will drop material about NPCs, faerie tales, and so on that doesn't come into play until months (real time) later.
The first installment is #1, Stolen Lands (in which the PCs at 1st-3rd level explore, charter, and conquer the frontier).
Because I could write a short novel on how Kingmaker has changed my life as a DM (made me better by reading what others have done), I'll put my material up and link to the Paizo forums, which is the #1 adventure forum in the world as I can tell. From there, enjoy:
Otherwise, Session 0 was political roleplay using Song of Fire and Ice's "Wedding Knight." From its random events grew the reason why the PCs, to the exclusion of all others, were chosen for the Greenbelt charter. We use a Celtic pantheon and calendar (it's fun to say "a year ago this day, Stumpy the 3-legged dog helped defend against the goblin incursion"), as the Celtic environment really helped fit the lore of a fey-heavy setting.
Installment #2 will be Rivers Run Red, where thanks to Paizo forums (the idea was so amazing that it was incorporated into the Kingmaker computer game) a DM came up with the idea of a rival monster kingdom. Warfare comes into play. My only early advice is that Kingmaker's kingdom building rules (in the modules) are not great, Paizo's Ultimate Campaign fixes that, and about halfway thru RRR module, you should abandon kingdom building rules because it becomes a horrible time consuming math game that at best 1 person in your group will still like. I used a fantastic supplement, "Snow White (3rd edition compatible), a gift from a buddy I thought I'd never use, to help build the town as the PCs grew their town (it has a town with businesses, so if they opened an Inn or built a shop, I picked one out, and they got to meet the owner, get a sales pitch). After awhile, we threw kingdom building into the background using Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers.
Version 1.1: Book #2 notes
Wow, where to begin. I'm putting my notes in installments. Kingmaker, if fixed up a bit, is just plain awesome. There's a kingdom on the brink of civil war that sponsors a group of adventurers to reclaim "stolen lands" and form a kingdom/barony, and the most active forum in the gaming world to make this more awesome.
As with any conversion, it's not all about stats. Run as-is, Kingmaker is above average, nothing more. Run as it should be, with political intrigue, fey politics, a wealth of NPCs and the life of running a kingdom, and it can be amazing. I've attached a ton of side material that may or may not be needed (e.g. a side adventure into "Tyr Gwydd" when a character died and PCs friendly with fey found a way to go to the original source of the reincarnation spell; faerie tales). Foreshadowing is huge. I will drop material about NPCs, faerie tales, and so on that doesn't come into play until months (real time) later.
The first installment is #1, Stolen Lands (in which the PCs at 1st-3rd level explore, charter, and conquer the frontier).
Because I could write a short novel on how Kingmaker has changed my life as a DM (made me better by reading what others have done), I'll put my material up and link to the Paizo forums, which is the #1 adventure forum in the world as I can tell. From there, enjoy:
Otherwise, Session 0 was political roleplay using Song of Fire and Ice's "Wedding Knight." From its random events grew the reason why the PCs, to the exclusion of all others, were chosen for the Greenbelt charter. We use a Celtic pantheon and calendar (it's fun to say "a year ago this day, Stumpy the 3-legged dog helped defend against the goblin incursion"), as the Celtic environment really helped fit the lore of a fey-heavy setting.
Installment #2 will be Rivers Run Red, where thanks to Paizo forums (the idea was so amazing that it was incorporated into the Kingmaker computer game) a DM came up with the idea of a rival monster kingdom. Warfare comes into play. My only early advice is that Kingmaker's kingdom building rules (in the modules) are not great, Paizo's Ultimate Campaign fixes that, and about halfway thru RRR module, you should abandon kingdom building rules because it becomes a horrible time consuming math game that at best 1 person in your group will still like. I used a fantastic supplement, "Snow White (3rd edition compatible), a gift from a buddy I thought I'd never use, to help build the town as the PCs grew their town (it has a town with businesses, so if they opened an Inn or built a shop, I picked one out, and they got to meet the owner, get a sales pitch). After awhile, we threw kingdom building into the background using Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers.
