Kingmaker 5E Conversion notes 1.1

Wow, this one occupied us for over 6 months, easy, and about 10% of it was from the module as written. Several roleplay days with not one die rolled, and everyone lived it. So where's where I went.

Leveling up, Milestones. I needed the PCs to get levels 5-7 here. But, there'd be days where we just roleplayed. I really wanted to slow it down, have some fun, and it was. So, each level was a major threat resolved + 3 side quests. The major ones were Hargulka, Candlemere, and Carnival of Tears/Fellnight (the fey threat). I didn't tell them what the major threats were, but over time they figured them out.

• Capital Venture. A great idea from Paizo forums for PCs to rub shoulders in Restov and secure financing for their new barony. Everyone has an agenda. I have the Deals + Visual of who is there + a handout for PCs after they negotiated a bit. The PCs had to select a Baron/ess at this point, raised by the King-Regent. The only caveat is these deals rely on the Kingmaker building rules, and some of the deals are really tough to actually accomplish. Plus, we eventually abandoned the building rules once they got too cumbersome. Still, we had consequences (DM created) when they broke a deal or asked for more time. It's easy to make too many deals, and the NPCs or advisors should probably confront them about making unreal promises.
  • Many NPCs wanted on their council, but all should be temporary to make sure investments are going well. They aren't loyal or intending to settle down.
• Kingdom Building. Unrest can build up pretty quickly with a few bad rolls. So, I had a side quest. Nyrissa, in the reboot, is cursed until she can make 1000 kingdoms rise and fall uniquely. That's why we are seeing weird things in this one like Tartuk raising a kobold kingdom only to dash it in revenge, and Hargulka (she needs him to rise and fall as well), and the barbarians. The only thing she doesn't really have a hand in is Vordakai (later). So, she needs the PC barony to rise up, and fall in a special way. In my setting, the PC Baron married Rhoswen from the module Fellnight Queen. She had his child, the Moonlit Prince (a creepy guy who walked between worlds and grew up in a few weeks), and then once she had her bridge to the Second World, she used it to escape her prison by putting her realm down in a new land. This foreshadows where Nyrissa is heading. Even if she doesn't, you can introduce this entire line through someone else (perhaps Kesten, or Akiros, etc.) Realm of the Fellnight Queen was run after Hargulka was repulsed and the Carnival of Tears occurred.
• The starting rules to build a kingdom are fun. I had them meet the new owner of the Inn (who became a quest giver and major NPC), the new shops, and so on. That's a better way to introduce side quests than "random NPC approaches you..." Seeing your little village grow, slowly but surely, was great. You should use any supplement that's gathering dust on your shelves to introduce unique shops and side adventures. I had a great mapped out city from a 3rd edition adventure I'll never run, so I imported its businesses.
  • I also used the Jason Nelson Legendary Games stuff. It's WAAAY more math than we needed, but it added some cool stuff. Again, it's all cool until kingdom management becomes a chore (and it will no matter what you do). That happens generally when you're 1/2 way to filling up your first district sheet. You could buy a computer program (we used a free, cheap excel document when I first did this), but if something is so complicated you need a computer to run it, yikes.
  • The kingdom rules should generate roleplay opportunities. Final. When it fails to do so, then abandon them. I did so around 5th level for Colville's Strongholds and Fortresses, where building an actual castle gives useful benefits and it has a simpler army system.
  • I scripted out events to start that I wanted to run, but I had to abandon the timeline and just go with the flow. Attached as well.
• And the random events and roleplay led to some crazy improv plots. For example, the Gyronna cult leader married a retired PC character who settled in town, had a child with him (that she sacrificed and shifted blame onto the Old Beldame), and manipulated the PCs quite a bit into almost killing the Old Beldame (she fears the old hag who was once one of them). She was quite convincing, helpful, the midwife, and eventually ended up on their council.
• Hexploration. Still fresh at this time, so still worth doing, but moreso that things need done rather than aimlessly wandering around. I added a lot of fey stuff, foreshadowed Oakbrown from Fellnight, and even added what ended up being a popular quest to put a rusulka to rest (bonus points if you know the computer game I took this from).
• Rushlight Festival and Pitax. I moved this up WAAAY earlier. Once the PCs got some notoriety (they fended off a Hargulka goblin slave attack), they got an invite. And they won! And they got a reward, which has a slight twist in that Irrovetti can tell when the Rod is being used and trap the users in it till the duration runs out. He'll use this when invading much, much later. The Boasting was probably the best part, and the only downside is you need to find a way to get everyone involved simultaneously so it isn't all about 1 person for the next 20 minutes.
• Tairseach. My attempt at a legacy weapon. The PCs can find both parts of the broken weapon, which expands the Lonely Warrior story. I also attached one for a warlock/sorcerer, which we had at the time before his untimely demise.
• Carnival of Tears. This module really fits well. You need to foreshadow it. The carnival passed through the region on the way to Pitax/Daggermark but didn't set up because the Barony was too small. Still, they got to meet the personas. Have the carnival become a regular thing eventually until the fey rage takes over.
• Mass Combat. I didn't use the default rules. Instead, once kingdom building appeared to be a given success and was getting a bit boring, I went to Colville's. The players randomly rolled their starting army, the monsters sent theirs, and we were off. I should have had the PCs doing side quests during the battle to help out, but other than that, it was a fun diversion. Every PC should control a unit, though, and name it. It's not fun sitting on the sidelines. We had 2 mass combats: 1 when the castle was finished (mostly slaves and expendable allies), and 2 when Hargulka felt secure enough to invade (given he's got Pitax on his rear).
• Hargulka fortress. He took over an old castle. That's better than a hole in the wall. He's a king after all. I finished it with Talonquake, the size of godzilla, coming out (Nyrissa gets two birds with one stone), and the ghostly charge of the barbarians that once ruled these lands and faced it down.
  • To make things interesting, I side-quested at this point and statted up their favorite NPC leaders and personalities, who were at the Inn during an assassination attempt. Hence Stumpy the 3 legged dog.
  • Stumpy was purely a background prop during Grigori's talks where he'd get oohs and aahs from the town's favorite stray mutt, the 3-legged dog (using animal friendship). Then, Stumpy survived the dragon attack when they cut a deal to deal with unrest, and he just became a symbol for everyone. After the battle, the town demanded a statue be built of the mutt.
• Candlemere. The module lacks good old fashioned dungeon crawls, so this is it. I used the Paizo Carrion King adventure path to borrow the Harrowstone prison story, put some ghosts who still wandered the lands around it that were killed when the spirits got free, and went. That's the danger of it: the murderous ghosts got free once and killed the entire kingdom that preceded the PCs. They got sealed in, but they're trying again... Highly recommend the adventure from Carrion King series; it's a really unique one even if you don't use the rest of the module. As to why go here, people started bringing disturbing news of disturbing things, letters in blood, and seeing ghosts (or the PCs may simply stumble across these on their own).
• Brevoy. It's not scripted, but I used the political notes from my primary notes to have all sorts of Brevoy politics. For example, when the PCs made a deal with a dragon per the Unrest document, this got attention. King Regent Surtova called for all banners to defeat it (and who could say no). This empowered him because even his enemies had to send troops, and so the PCs actions almost led to an invasion and removal of power as it appeared the PCs were repeating Choral the Conqueror's path and using dragons.
  • Neighbors. I also had a lot of Maegar Varn and his daughter, who gets older and shares her wisdoms. It needs to feel real when he vanishes later.

So WOW that's a lot of notes. I felt this is the heart of Kingmaker. There's just a ton to do here, and it should go slowly.