Kingdoms (back)
| Kingdom Building |
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| Ruling a kingdom is a complex and difficult task, one undertaken only by the very ambitious. Many PCs are content to live as mercenaries or treasure hunters, no interest in being responsible for the health and well-being of subjects; for these characters, a kingdom is simply a place they pass through on the way to the next adventure. However, characters who are keen to spread their wings and forge a place of power and influence in the world can use this chapter to create a different sort of campaign. If the PCs are interested in ruling only a single town or castle and the small region around it, kingdom building can focus primarily on the settlement and the PCs' personal demesne. If the PCs have larger goals, such as carving out a new, independent kingdom, these rules allow them to build cities and engage in trade, diplomacy, and war. |
Some heroes found kingdoms, driving out hostile monsters to make room for peaceful settlers. Others lead soldiers into battle, waging great and terrible wars. The rules presented here are for building a kingdom and waging wars that focus on the larger tactics of city planning and troop strategy rather than managing details of individual settlers and soldiers.
These rules use "kingdom" as a universal term to represent all kinds of domains, regardless of size, form of government, and gender of the ruler. Most of the decisions are in the hands of the players, and these rules are written with that assumption, using terms like "your kingdom" and "your army."
The GM is still in charge of the campaign, and is expected to make judgments about the repercussions of player decisions. These rules assume that all of the kingdom's leaders are focused on making the kingdom prosperous and stable, rather than oppressing the citizens and stealing from the treasury. Likewise, the rules assume that the leaders are working together, not competing with each other or working at odds. If the campaign begins to step into those areas, the GM is free to introduce new rules to deal with these activities.
Players running a kingdom should be allowed to read these rules (having them do so makes much of the kingdom building easier for the GM), but the players shouldn't think they can abuse these rules to exploit weird corner cases. For example, players may decide to construct a city full of graveyards because of the bonuses they provide to the city, but if the GM believes that is unreasonable, he could decide that the city is prone to frequent undead attacks. Likewise, a settlement with more magic shops than houses and businesses may slowly become a ghost town as all the normal citizens move elsewhere out of superstitious fear. As with a normal campaign, the GM is the final arbiter of the rules, and can make adjustments to events as necessary for the campaign.
Overview of Founding a Kingdom
First, the party will explore and claim an area, start a treasury, and establish a settlement. When building a kingdom, you begin by exploring and claiming an initial area and founding a small village or town. Later you will expand your territory outward, claim nearby hexes, begin additional settlements, and construct buildings within those settlements. The hexes you claim and what you choose to build with your kingdom's resources affects the economy of your kingdom, the loyalty of your citizens, the stability of the government, and the likeliness that kingdom will fall into chaos when citizens worry about monster attacks and other threats.
Once you have your first settlement, you have the start of a kingdom. You'll need to make some other initial decisions that affect your kingdom's statistics, and record them.
Choose Your Kingdom's Alignment. Your kingdom's alignment helps determine how loyal, prosperous, and stable your kingdom is. Your kingdom may be a lawful good bastion against a nearby land of devil worshipers, or a chaotic neutral territory of cutthroat traders whose government does very little to interfere with the rights of its citizens.
Choose Leadership Roles. You and the other PCs take specific roles in leading your kingdom, such as Ruler, High Priest, General, and so on. The leaders provide bonuses on rolls you make to manage the kingdom's economy and other important issues. For example, having a High Priest makes your kingdom more stable and your citizens more loyal, and having a Treasurer makes your kingdom more profitable. Assign the leadership roles for all PCs and NPCs involved in running the kingdom, such as Ruler, General, and High Priest.
Determine Your Kingdom's Attributes. Your initial Economy, Loyalty, and Stability scores are based on the kingdom's alignment and the buildings your settlement has. (If you start with more than one settlement, include all the settlements in this reckoning.) Your Size, Consumption, and the Control DC of the Kingdom Checks that you make are based on the number of Settlements and settled Hexes in your kingdom.
Proceed with Kingdom Turn Sequence. Running a kingdom takes place over a series of turns, similar to how combat takes place over a series of rounds. A kingdom turn takes 1 month of game time. Each turn has four phases which you resolve in order: the Upkeep phase, where you pay the kingdom's bills; the Edict phase, where you levy taxes and build improvements; the Income phase, where you collect taxes; and the Events phase, where you see if something especially good or bad happens to your kingdom.
