Kingmaker: Pathfinder

[Rabbit]

The below is a part of a review for a Pathfinder campaign "Kingmakers." Sounds pretty fun. As players, I noticed our group likes to kingdom build, collect followers, and establish organizations in our games. (I know I tend to do that.) This series is completly built for that kind of game.

There is also a player's guide that is free to download that helps players build characters custom for the setting. Looking through that it seems you build settlements (after ousting the local monsters and bandits) building by building and that helps sculp what kind of towns you have. Do you have a local alchemist? Did you build an arena? What are your defenses like?

I would be interested in seeing just how the numbers work but that is in the GM's book. And I don't want to look at that in case someone decides to run this series.

Paizo’s newest adventure path is a marked departure from their earlier efforts. Previous paths have had six closely linked adventures with a more or less linear plot leading PCs from 1st to 15th (or so) level, where they then meet and (we hope) defeat the evil mastermind behind the vast majority of the trouble they have faced. The key point is that these followed a more or less fixed story: the PCs’ actions did not significantly affect future episodes, or even really the order in which they experienced the story elements.

Kingmaker instead follows the recent vogue in “sandbox” adventures, where PCs have more or less free reign to go in whatever direction they would like. Overarching stories recede into the background, although certainly some of the encounters build upon each other, and the adventure does have a conclusion.

The particular conceit of Kingmaker is that the PCs get the opportunity to explore new territory (known as “hexcrawling” to the grognards) and to found their own kingdom there. They must first clear out the existing inhabitants and then protect their domain from the depredations of their neighbors and other supernatural threats.

As a result, this adventure path has a very different feel from others. Rather than a rapid-fire and world-shattering sequence of events that move inexorably to a climax, the players have the luxury of time to build up their kingdom and play both politics and architect (through a novel city-building minigame). They can, in many cases, meander through the encounters at their own pace.

The introductory adventure, taking characters from 1st to 4th level, sets the stage for by sending the PCs to explore the “Stolen Land,” where their kingdom will eventually be centered.

THE GAME DESCRIPTION
paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/kingmaker

PLAYERS GUIDE
paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/paizo/pathfinderAdventurePath/kingmaker/v5748btpy8dqh

[michael]

That looks really cool! I'd totally be down for playing someday, or perhaps trying my hand at running it. Not soon, mind you, but this is a great thing to keep in mind for down the road.

[reefwood]

I've been getting the weekly Pathfinder "newsletter" emails since I got the PDF before War Stories and noticed when this series came out. I haven't looked at it closely. Not enough to know more than what was already mentioned, but it does look like it could be fun and different, and I would definitely play a Pathfinder game that someone else ran

Also, I picked up a couple books from the Council of Thieves series this winter when they were on sale at Powells. Not sure what, if anything, I'll do with them as a series, but each one has elements that I think are kind of neat, so I may at least use those parts for something someday. Actually, the setting takes place in a city that is somewhat devouted to a LE god, but it's not an entirely Evil city. I think it's more Lawful, but I guess it's willing to impose law with Evil more than Good. And there are a lot tieflings around. I'm getting off subject now, but I like the idea of people following deities but not embracing everything about that deity but still being somewhat affected by its taint. It hasn't come up too much in War Stories, but since a deity has multiple domains, I like to think that some people can focus on a couple domains without necessarily embracing all of them, but there may still be some alignment influence based on the domains followed and the connection to the deity (i.e. Commoner vs Cleric).