Pathfinder Path: Kingmaker

[Lost Demiurge]

I'm looking at this series of adventures with interest. Has anyone played through or run the Kingmaker Path for Pathfinder? If so, what can you tell me about it? Is it good? What are some things to watch out for? Favorite moments? General advice?

[Kol Korran]

i haven't played it myself, but have known 2 groups who tried. in one they knew what they were going for, and had a blast (they played till the end of the second adventure, and for some reason their group broke up)

however, in the second group, once the stag lord was dead, some really, really didn't like the idea of managing a kingdom. they didn't sign up for a {"strategy game" was their term, but role play. so just make sure people know what they are up for. i've heard many people talking about it, all liking it, but very very few (if any) getting past the second adventure.

again, i know VERY little about the adventure path, so i'm not one to advise.

[potatocubed]

I've read the adventure path but not played it, and my impression is that while it's altogether pretty good, the metaplot seems to arrive with the speed of an unexpected bullet train in the last two adventures.

It may work out differently in actual play, though.

[Maxios]

I haven't ran or played that Adventure Path, but I've heard it's a good one

[The Gilded Duke]

I'm running it for.. technically three groups right now?
It is amazingly well done. Only run the adventure part for the first module, and the kingdom building part for the second module.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the random encounters can be deadly, but that this can add to the fun of the campaign. You might want to have backup characters ready should the party encounter something too difficult and lose a few members.

The wisp is especially notorious.

The background setting for the adventure works wonderfully, and there isn't much I would change about the encounters or plot hooks themselves. Starting with the second book you will have to do some adapting to make it fit with the Kingdom your players create.

At the end of the recommended 12 months of kingdom management some of my players were starting to get a little tired of it and eager to get back to adventuring. From what I can tell from this point on it alternates between kingdom and adventuring so that should help with that.

I have had a lot of fun working the plot hooks in with one the players have built and set up, and they have had fun building in specific things to their capital city that aren't quite represented by the rules. One of the players is paranoid that werewolves and vampires are everywhere... after the group randomly encountered a werewolf, the rest of the group decided that he must be right.

So some of the defenses they have set up in their capital city:
Cobblestones are marked with the holy symbol of Desna the god of birds, roads and travelers.
All interior doors in the castle have silver doorknobs. Silver razor blades have been built into the wooden doors themselves, in case any creature tries to sunder the door with natural weapons.
The two houseplants found throughout the castle are Belladona and Garlic.
They quickly worked on assimilating the Kobolds to get access to the silver mine.

At the entrance to every building, as mandated by law, the following words are carved above the door.

"If you are a vampire, you do not have permission to enter. - By Order of the Surgeon General."

We modified some of the titles to better fit the characters. The Magus is now the Surgeon General, the Spymaster is now the Secretary of the Interior and so on.

[Arutema]

Some of the encounters can be quite lethal. We've survived a few of them only because the ranger took Diehard at 3.

As for the kingdom-building, my DM is running that portion as play-by-email so that we can spend our normal sessions adventuring.

[Mecharious]

I'm running it as well. Just started the second part.

As for encounter difficulty, I'm really not seeing that much, especially considering I have 3 players in the party and I'm not pulling any punches.

Running the kingdom can be fun, and it's really cool knowing your actions shape the environment, but if you stay in the kingdom building stage for too long, players can get very bored.

[Ravens_cry]

Having played all but the last session, DM had to move, I can say I like the idea. The Kingmaking itself is loads of sandboxy Sim City style fun. You're having an impact on the world, yipee! No more fetch quests, no more bear asses, no more . . .wait, Peasant #2 wants me to do, what?!
Yeah, it gives you this wonderful sense of authority and grand scope, then gives you typical 'go do this and slay that' quests.
Where is my court intrigue, my diplomatic back and forth with local nations and tribes?
Le sigh.
I would personally just buy the PDF with the special Kingmaker rules and come up with different meta-plot and mini-quests.

[molten_dragon]

I'm running it right now, and just started the 4th book out of 6.

It's a pretty fun module and my players seem to enjoy it. Not all of them are into the kingdom building parts, so I usually have the two that are come over a half hour early to get that out of the way before the others get here.

The second book wasn't really all that much fun. There's no real plot to it so the players just end up wandering around exploring their new kingdom, and it kind of makes the whole book feel like one huge random encounter.

The kingdom building rules have a few issues and are not completely consistent with other things that show up in the module (population is an especially bad culprit).

Overall though, it's a fun module and I recommend it.