Kingmaker: Your City and Kingdom

[TarionzCousin]

Spoiler Alert: This thread contains spoilers for the Kingmaker Adventure Path.

The finished map from Kingmaker: The Stolen Lands is below. I couldn't get the resolution any higher, but maybe that's a good thing. People who have already played the first module should recognize what things are, and people who haven't might not be able to discern what the writing says.

I began labeling all of the hexes, but stopped. Hexes continue in the pattern implied, so Oleg's Outpost is in Hex A5.

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Please reply and list:
1. Where your group built your first city and why;
2. The name of your first city and why;
3. The name of your kingdom and why you chose it;
4. What you developed/built first; and
5. Whatever else you deem relevant, such as the locations of any subsequent cities or important structures.

 

[TarionzCousin]

My group's choices, so far. We are nine months into the building phase of the second Kingmaker module.*

1. Our first city is located inside the bend of the river at the conjunction of hexes C7, D7, and D8--upriver a bit from Nettle's Crossing. Defensability was our first reason. The city is within reach of the Sootscale Caverns, too, for mining silver, tin, copper, etc.

2. Ravengard. We had an extremely difficult time choosing names. The city was called "Riverbend" for the first two sessions but everyone knew that was a temporary name. Ultimately, we settled on the raven because its heraldic charge meaning is "One who, having derived little from his ancestors, has through Providence become the architect of his own fortunes."

3. Viridian. The word is a synonym of "green," and we struggled for almost a month before choosing this.

4. We first built a road to Oleg's. At the same time we built a couple farms and began work on a watchtower and bridge. Aside from some more farms and housing, we subsequently aired out the Sootscale caverns so they could be mined, built up the entrance for defense, and built a road there from our city.

5. We are halfway done with a church in town, just finished a brewery, and will finish our first tavern next session.

*I should note that our DM designed his own rules for building, based on the given rules but altered almost beyond recognition. They are significantly more complex and flexible.

 

[Crothian]

1. Where your group built your first city and why;

WE built on the Staglord Fort. We like the area, we liked that it is on the water and has a big lake there, plus we got a free Castle for building there.

2. The name of your first city and why;

Haven. We knew that our kingdom was going to be a haven for all sorts of people. We have openly aligned with the fey in the region and as long as people don;t cause major issues they are welcome in our lands.

3. The name of your kingdom and why you chose it;

Kingdom of Haven. It seemed simplest.

4. What you developed/built first;

It has been over a year and a half of real time. I think we started with houses, watch tower, and buildings that the Castle made cheaper.

5. Whatever else you deem relevant, such as the locations of any subsequent cities or important structures.

We built cities on places that gave us a free or cheaper main large building. Otherwise we didn't build many cities.

 

[Jacob Marley]

1. Where your group built your first city and why? We built our first city at the Stag Lord's keep. Our first priority was to find a defensible location; our second was trade and commerce. The Stag Lord's keep -- we felt -- was a was a very defensible location due to it's location near the lake AND due to it's location on the lake, it would eventually become a center of commerce along the waterways.

2. The name of your first city and why? Summit. We kept referring to the Greenbelt as the Grainbelt and decided to go with a beer-themed kingdom.

3. The name of your kingdom and why you chose it? Grainbelt. See above. (Our kingdom was also ruled by a Grand Poobah. So, I guess, we had ourselves a grand poobahdom. )

4. What you developed/built first? We figured that any threats to our kingdom could be handled by our party, npc allies and hirelings so our priority was to ramp up our economy.

5. Whatever else you deem relevant, such as the locations of any subsequent cities or important structures. We built a second city at Nettle's Crossing that we named Newcastle and a road to connect to Oleg's. Unfortunately, the game came to an end not long after we built Newcastle.

 

[Lwaxy]

1. Where your group built your first city and why

Stag Lord's Keep, same reason as above.

2. The name of your first city and why

Refuge. We wanted it to be a refuge for all those who had no peace in other lands.

3. The name of your kingdom and why you chose it

Kingdom of the Holy Might. Mostly dedicated to Iomedae and Desna, our clerics kind of insisted in that name.

4. What you developed/built first

We went to boost economy first. didn't get much further yet.

 

[TarionzCousin]

After reading these posts, I'm feeling a bit put off. See, my DM didn't give us the option to build our first city on the Stag Lord's Keep. He drew up a huge map and that place was expressly off the edge of the paper.

I didn't even know that location was an option until I read your replies. It's the obvious starting location.

 

[Lwaxy]

Yeah it is very obvious. I wonder if anyone who was given the option build anywhere else.

 

[Crothian]

I wanted to build on the abandon temple to Erastil because I'm playing a Paladin of Erastil but was out voted.

 

[Kaodi]

I kind of feel like the Temple of Erastil, while thematic, is an absolutely horrible place to build your first settlement. You really need to be able to turn your second claimed hex into a farm, and you cannot do that from there. Oleg's Trading Post, or anywhere in the plains, is not too bad, because you can get your first settlement moving a little faster, and cheaper farmlands are immediately available. The Stag Lord's Fort really is the best spot though, by a fair amount. It has everything you need.

 

[Spatula]

You also get a lot more mechanical benefits from building on the Stag Lord's fort vs any other site. 1/2 cost castle, and I think +1 econ & stability?