House Rules and Rule Summaries

[Kavonde]

The following is a collection of house and optional rules we're using in this game. It will be expanded and added to as we go.

Official Optional Rules

• Free Archetype, a.k.a. the Oh, This Should Have Been Built Into the Base Game Rule. Every even-numbered level, you get a feat you can spend on either a dedication or archetype feat.
• Ancestry Paragon, which means an additional ancestry feat at level 1 and additional ones as you level.
• Gradual Ability Boost, which gives you a single ability boost most levels, rather than four at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20.

 

Play-By-Post Quality of Life Improvements

• When it's time for initiative, I'll roll everyone's initiative on Forge and take the average of everyone's rolls. I'll do the same for the bad guys. That way, all the PCs will have a chance to act or react in a group, rather than relying on people to be available to post in a specific order.
• Because of the above, reactions will refresh at the top of each round, rather than at the beginning of each character's turns.

 

Critical Successes and Failures

• If a PC or companion rolls a critical success with an ability that does not have a specified critical success effect, they can specify either a minor additional effect (such as a status effect) or dictate something about the immediate area that would be interesting, useful and/or funny.

 

Movement

• Rules as written, a character cannot crawl in difficult terrain. This is very silly. Even in rough terrain, any character can crawl 5' per action.

 

Misc.

• The Natural Medicine feat allows you to qualify for Medicine skill feats using your proficiency rank in Nature instead of Medicine. (IE, an Expert in Nature with Natural Medicine could take Ward Medic.) Medicine will still be used to Recall Knowledge about viruses, poisons, etc., and to perform forensic examinations; however, given the changes to the Chirurgeon Alchemist that let them use Crafting to become eligible for Medicine feats, it makes sense that Natural Medicine could do something similar.
• Resting only requires 6 hours of sleep for a character to earn the full benefit, not 8.
• It will be possible, through the use of the Weapon Proficiency General feat and certain requirements being met by your kingdom, to acquire proficiency with specific advanced weapons (such as Aldori dueling swords) that will scale with your martial weapon proficiency.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Kavonde (see edit history)

[Kavonde]

CAMPING RULES

The Kingmaker Companion Guide includes rules for making camp, cooking stat-boosting meals, and hanging out with NPC buddies. Fortunately, someone has already gone to the trouble of transcribing the whole chapter from the book, so I'll just summarize.

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STEP 1: PREPARE A CAMPSITE

Prepare Campsite
Concentrate, Exploration, Move
You spend 2 hours searching the hex for a safe and secure location to make camp and then setting up the campsite itself by attempting a Survival check against the Zone DC of the region you're locating in. Once a campsite is prepared, you can use the Prepare Campsite activity in this same hex again in the future to automatically achieve the dsame degree of success with only an hour of work.

Critical Success You find the perfect spot for a camp. Flat checks to determine encounters at the campsite for the next 24 hours have a DC 2 higher than normal, and the first hour spent performing Camping activities does not include the usual flat check for random encounters. 

Success You find a serviceable spot for a camp and for Camping activities.

Failure Your campsite will work, but it's not the best. Campsite activities that require checks take a -2 penalty.

Critical Failure The campsite is a mess. You can use it to rest and to perform daily preparations, but it isn't good enough to allow for Campsite activities at all. Worse, your attempt to secure a campsite has possibly attracted unwanted attention--attempt a flat check against the zone's Encounter DC. If successful, a random encounter automatically occurs.
 

STEP 2: CAMPING ACTIVITIES

Once the PCs finish preparing their campsite, they can simply head to bed immediately, consuming rations and skipping straight on to Step 3, or (if the check to Prepare the Campsite wasn't a critical failure) they can spend time attempting Camping activities. These activities can help to bolster them for the coming day, strengthen their campsite against possible attacks, build bonds between themselves or their NPC companions, allow time to craft while in the wild, and so on. Camping activities are each undertaken by a single PC, and each takes 2 hours to complete. Multiple PCs can perform their chosen Camping activity simultaneously, but no two PCs may attempt the same Camping activity at the same time. Once any PC has achieved at least a success on a particular Camping activity, that activity cannot be attempted again by any PC until the next camping session. The PCs can take up to four Camping activities each day as long as they aren’t fatigued and as long as there’s enough time in the day before watches begin.

Other Exploration activities (such as Identify Magic, Repair, or Treat Wounds) can also be performed during this time; these are not limited to one success per camping session and take the normal amount of time that activity takes to perform. PCs can also attempt to use the Influence or Discover activities to learn more about their NPC companions who are at the camp; each such attempt to Influence or Discover takes an hour and isn’t limited to one success per camping session. [We haven't been and won't be using the NPC influence system; it's all down to roleplay.]

Camping activities increase the risk of attracting a random encounter, as someone or something comes to investigate all of the activity. At the end of each hour that anyone in the party undertakes a Camping activity, attempt a flat check against the zone’s Encounter DC (see the Camping Zones table on page 107); on a success, a random encounter occurs. (If the check to Prepare the Campsite was a critical success, skip it for the first hour.) Each successive hour you attempt this check, the Encounter DC decreases by 1; once the PCs finish their daily preparations, or once an encounter occurs, the Encounter DC resets to its original value.

CAMPING ACTIVITIES:

Blend into the Night	Discover Special Meal	Provide Aid
Camouflage Campsite	Hunt and Gather	Relax
Cook Basic Meal	Learn From a Companion	Tell Campfire Story
Cook Special Meal	Organize Watch

(The complete list, including NPC abilities, can be found here.)

STEP 3: EATING

Once all Camping activities have been resolved, the PCs eat their meals. Each PC chooses their own meal, and the party collectively chooses the meals for any companion NPCs camping with them.

If anyone performed the Cook Basic Meal or Cook Special Meal Camping activity, those servings are available meal choices; after all characters have selected their meals, those performing the Cook Meal activities roll checks to determine the effect of the meal they cooked.

Characters may instead choose to consume their own rations, use the Subsist downtime activity for food, or receive magical sustenance (such as a create food spell, a heroes’ feast ritual, a ring of sustenance, and so on).

A PC gains the effects of the only first meal they eat at this time; they cannot gain additional effects from additional meals during the same camping session.

STEP 4: RESTING

Once the party has eaten, it’s time to rest, as detailed on page 499 of the Core Rulebook. The table above summarizes how long the group needs to set aside for rest, assuming rotating watch assignments of equal length. This table reprints and expands on the table on page 500 of the Core Rulebook, as the PCs’ campsite in a Kingmaker campaign can include a number of NPC companions as well.

During this period, check for random encounters once every 4 hours by attempting a flat check against the zone’s Encounter DC (see the Camping Zones table on page 107). [I'm not sure if I'll run random encounters at all, given the PBP format. But if I do, there certainly won't be a chance of multiple happening per night.] Any adjustments made to this DC from additional hours spent pursuing Camping activities persist. After an encounter occurs, the Encounter DC resets to its original value.

STEP 5: DAILY PREPARATIONS

This final step includes time spent to prepare for the adventuring day, as detailed on page 500 of the Core Rulebook. You can assume menial tasks like breaking down the campsite are included in this step without impacting how long it takes for the PCs to prepare for the day. Daily preparations take 30 minutes to complete. The zone’s Encounter DC returns to its original DC. If the PCs wish to continue camping at this same location, they must use the Prepare Campsite activity again (though it takes only 1 hour to Prepare a Campsite that has been used before).

Edited April 15, 2023 by Kavonde (see edit history)

[Kavonde]

HEXPLORATION RULES

The Gamemastery Guide has the rules for hex-based exploration, which we'll be using pretty much straight.

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RUNNING HEXPLORATION

Each day, the PCs decide how they plan on exploring, either learning more about their current hex or traversing a new hex. They do this by declaring one or more hexploration activities for the day. These activities take two forms: group or individual. The number of hexploration activities a group can accomplish each day is based on the Speed of their slowest member. If a group is willing to split up, faster members can perform more hexploration activities based on their own Speed, but such a decision may be deadly given the threat of random encounters. A group moving at a Speed of 10 feet or less is so slow it can’t even traverse an open hex in a single day; it takes such a group 2 days for each hexploration activity.

Table 3–6: Hexploration Activities Per Day

Speed	Activities per Day
10 feet or less	1/2
15–25 feet	1
30–40 feet	2
45–55 feet	3
60 feet or more	4

This rate assumes the PCs are taking time to camp and rest at healthy intervals. When a new day of hexploration begins, the group can decide to take a forced march as long as no one in the group is fatigued. Doing so allows them to gain an extra Travel activity (or perform a full Travel activity each day if their Speed is 10 feet or less), but this is the only activity they can perform that day. A character can participate in a forced march safely for a number of days equal to the character’s Constitution modifier (minimum 1 day). Any additional days of forced march make the character fatigued until they spend an entire day of downtime resting.

TL;DR: When you're riding in Sija's wagon, you get 2 hexploration activities per day. On foot, you'll only have 1.

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TYPES OF TERRAIN

The following are examples of the types of terrain you can use when creating your hexploration map. Each section provides the difficulty of traversing that terrain (either open, difficult, or greater difficult terrain) and the potential resources and secrets found there.
 

Aquatic

Terrain typically requires a boat or a swim speed; depends on the strengths of currents and the weather
Resources seafood, coral, pearls, shipwrecks
Secrets remote islands filled with monsters, isolated communities, pirates, flooded or underwater cities of aquatic creatures
 

Arctic

Terrain typically difficult or greater difficult terrain
Resources scarce food (broken ice floes that allow for fishing, breeding grounds for seals or whales)
Secret thawed passes that allow ship travel, hidden caverns, isolated communities of arctic dwellers
 

Desert

Terrain typically difficult or greater difficult terrain
Resources water sources (underground springs, oases, and streams), mineral wealth
Secrets forgotten civilizations beneath the dunes
 

Forest

Terrain typically difficult terrain, or greater difficult terrain for a dense jungle
Resources diverse flora and fauna, natural remedies, plentiful game
Secrets bandit encampment, druid’s henge, fey-touched glade or mushroom circle
 

Mountain

Terrain typically greater difficult terrain, or difficult terrain for hills
Resources minerals (including gold, silver, and gemstones)
Secrets hidden pass, watchtower or waypoint constructed by a nearby empire, dragon’s lair, bandit hideout
 

Plain

Terrain open terrain
Resources useful plants (flax or cotton)
Secrets artifacts abandoned after a historic battle, valuables buried by outlaws for later retrieval
 

Swamp

Terrain typically greater difficult terrain
Resources materials useful for medicine or poison
Secrets river raider camps, remains and gear of unlucky travelers, sites of mystic significance

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GROUP ACTIVITIES

Group activities require the entire party to work together in order to be effective; these activities each count as one of the day’s hexploration activities for the whole group. For instance, if the group had 2 hexploration activities per day and decided to Travel and Reconnoiter, no one would have any additional hexploration activities that day. There are two group activities: Travel and Reconnoiter.

TRAVEL

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You progress toward moving into an adjacent hex. In open terrain, like a plain, using 1 Travel activity allows you to move from one hex to an adjacent hex. Traversing a hex with difficult terrain (such as a typical forest or desert) requires 2 Travel activities, and hexes of greater difficult terrain (such as a steep mountain or typical swamp) require 3 Travel activities to traverse. Traveling along a road uses a terrain type one step better than the surrounding terrain. For example, if you are traveling on a road over a mountain pass, the terrain is difficult terrain instead of greater difficult terrain.

The Travel activity assumes you are walking overland. If you are flying or traveling on water, most hexes are open terrain, though there are exceptions. Flying into storms or high winds count as difficult or greater difficult terrain. Traveling down a river is open terrain, but traveling upriver is difficult or greater difficult terrain.

RECONNOITER

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You spend time surveying and exploring a specific area, getting the lay of the land and looking for unusual features and specific sites. Reconnoitering a single hex takes a number of hexploration activities equal to the number of Travel activities necessary to traverse the hex—1 for open terrain, 2 for difficult terrain, and 3 for greater difficult terrain. Traveling on roads doesn’t lessen the time required to Reconnoiter. Once the hex has been Reconnoitered, you can Map the Area to reduce your chance of getting lost in that hex (see below). You automatically find any special feature that doesn’t require a check to find, and you attempt the appropriate checks to find hidden special features.

For instance, if you were looking for an obvious rock formation among some hills, you would spend 2 hexploration activities to Reconnoiter the hex, and you’d find the rock formation. But if you were looking for a hidden tengu monastery somewhere in some deep forests, after spending 2 activities to Reconnoiter the forest hex, you would have to succeed at a Perception check as part of your Reconnoiter activity to find the monastery.
 

INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES

Not all hexploration activities need to be accomplished as a group. In place of using a hexploration activity to Travel or Reconnoiter, each individual group member can instead perform one of these individual activities.

FORTIFY CAMP

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You can spend time fortifying your camp for defense with a successful Crafting check (typically at a trained or expert DC). Anyone keeping watch or defending the camp gains a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative rolls and Perception checks to Seek creatures attempting to sneak up on the camp.

MAP THE AREA

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As long as your group has successfully Reconnoitered the hex, you can use this activity to create an accurate map of the hex with a successful Survival check (typically at a trained or expert DC). When you have an accurate map of the hex, the DC of any check to navigate that hex is reduced by 2.
 

EXISTING ACTIVITIES

Characters can use the Subsist downtime activity, which follows the same rules but assumes they’re using it after 8 hours or less of exploration. Any skill feats or other abilities that apply to Subsist normally still apply here. In general, the various exploration activities found in the sidebar on page 498 of the Core Rulebook (except Hustle) can be used as individual hexploration activities, as can skill actions in Chapter 4 of the Core Rulebook, at the GM’s discretion.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Kavonde (see edit history)