Alternative Mechanics for the Kingdoms RPG

14 Oct, 2023

Excuse any typos in this one. It's far to long for proofreading.

Since both my ItO groups reached a point that's suitable for puting that system at a hiatus, I'm planning to try out Kingdoms with one of them. As I have mentioned before I have problems with some of the logistics of playing online. So I had to come up with some changes to the mechanics in order to better capture our style of playing. Primarily I had to get rid of the hexmap. Don't tell anyone, but I hate hexmaps. This is the write-up of this alternative ideas. Only ideas for now, nothing used in practice yet.

Abstract mapping to replace the Hexmap-methode

There are three different classes of places:

1. Locations: More or less the equivalent to a single hex. Can be used for encounters (roll the table according to the regions biome, that this location is ... well, located in), or to place a settlement.\

2. Regions: Contain a set of locations. When first discovered d6+1 Locations in here can already be travelled to. More can be discovered by using the Mapping Downtime-Action, up to a maximum of 12 / region. Unless dictated otherwise by the Mapping Action or another event, all locations in a region share the same biome, which is determined randomly, when the region is discovered for the first time.\

3. Continent: Contains several regions (maybe d10 + 10?). The way to other continents is always very difficult (e.g. A dangerous voyage across a storming sea or by-passing a sky-high mountain range)

This is abstract so there is no fix place of the regions as in a hex map. Every region on a continent can be reached from any of the other regions there. Think in child's logic (the better logic anyway). When a child in Germany says to you let's go through that forest and we end up in Portugal, you wouldn't be saying "Naw-uh, first we have to go through the Netherlands and france, then we have to cross the Pyrenees, then ...". That would be mean and not fun. Don't be like that.

Region Characteristics:

You can probably come up with a cooler methode for this, but for now this is good enough for me. Everytime a new region is visited for the first time roll to determine what biome it has and if it contains water.

Biomes:
Roll a d10
1-2: Black Mountains
3-4: Marble Flats
5-6: The Wild Grass
7-8: Silent Shrublands
9-10: Tangled Woods\

After 10 regions have been found on\
a continent roll a d12 instead\
1-2: Black Mountains\
3-4: Marble Flats\
5-6: The Wild Grass\
7-8: Silent Shrublands\
9-10: Tangled Woods\
11-12: Frozen Isolation\

**Water:**\
Roll a d10, on a 1-2 the Region\
contains water.\
Roll the d10 again\
1-5: River\
6-8: Lake\
9-10: Coast\

Every location in that region is\
connected to the water.\

Coastlines are the only way to\
reach the open sea.\

**The open sea:**\
Regions of the open sea contain d6 locations.\
Unlike other regions, you have to visit every\
location here before you can cross to the next\
region. Everytime you visit a location roll\
a d10\

1: An awe inspiring view\
2-5: Vast, but calm waters\
6-7: An Island\
8-10: A Hazard or encounter\

After you visited the last location in this region\
roll another d10\

1-7: Blue desert. The next region is also open sea\
8-10: Land ho! The next region is on another continent.

Movement:

1. between locations: If you travel by foot between the locations within a region you need d3 days. By using horses or some other sort of mount, you'll need one day less (minimum 1 day). If you are traveling between settlements within a region and the road was already invented, you only need 1 day. Same goes for regions with water after the invention of boats.\

2. between regions: If you travel to another region, you'll have to declare one of it's locations as your destination. By default you need d6 days to travel into another region (as long as it is on the same continent). If you are traveling from a settlement in one region to a settlement in another region and the train was already invented it only takes d2 days. Same goes for settlements in regions with water after the invention of boats.\

3. between continents: Traveling to a region on another continent should take at least d6 months. This will be an incredibly dangerous journey. Be sure to make appropriate preparations beforehand.

How to handle War in this methode:

Mostly the same rules as in the book. Units spawn on the same places as described (capitol & military districts)

Movement of a unit takes the same amount of time as described above (d6 between regions, d3 between locations of one region, unless modified by transport, e.g. horse, road, train, boat)

Borderdistricts give plus 2 on the war roll, as described in the book.

If you are marching into a region, that has border districts, you have to declare one of the border districts as your first destination. After you've been in a border district, you can choose any of the region's locations as your next destination.

Special events that'd normally target Hexes:

This needs a bit of improvisation, but can be easily converted to locations or regions.

1. Settle in a new region: Placing a settlement in a region, where you don't have any districts yet, costs 5 power instead of the regular 3. The choosen location can't be already occupied by another players settlement, but multiple players can have settlements in the same regions if there are enough locations.\

2. Assimilation in the culture roll: I would say a district only counts as neighbouring if it is in the same region as your district.\

3. The colonization action in the rulership downtime activity: Just take a free location in another region where you haven't had a settlement/district before.\

In general, play a bit around with the rulings to find out what makes the most fun, when it comes to the equivalent to hexes.

The Mapping activity:

"You travel into the dark and the wilds to steal their secrets. With longitudes and latitudes you trap them on paper."

Choose a region and roll up a new location within it's boundaries (no region can have more then 12 locations).

The strange geography of the dark clings to your mind. Terrible things are to come. You get one random Omen.
You caught a strange illness while traveling the land. Roll a random disease.
An unexpected sight. The location has a different biome then the rest of the region (determine randomly)
Hard to reach. The new location can only be traveled to from locations in the same region.
Hidden passages. Choose one location in another region. You can always reach it in just one day from the new location you've just found.
Ancient foundation. You find the ruins of an ancient city. It only costs 1 power to establish a settlement here.
Beyond the horizon there is even more. You find an additional location.
A calm devil. The smartest beast of the region has turned this location into it's lair and ... it wants to talk to you. What do you make of this?

Abstract movement in combats

Not so much a real change, but more a condensation. The original system relies on a grid-map. The SPD (speed) of a PC or enemy defines how much grids (or boxes) can be moved in one turn. The problem that I have with this is the high number of grids. Most Beasts have between 7 and 10 SPD, some beasts even have 15, when flying. Since I don't use any fancy map tools for online play, this number is way to high and my players will most likely be lost, when I say "You are in Grid 1 and the beast is in Grid 115". So I will condense the gridmap down into a smaller number of zones.

The SPD value stays, but becomes a measure of how much zones a character can move in one turn. Use the following translation:

1-3 SPD: Slow. You can move one Zone/turn
4-7 SPD: Quick. You can move two zones/turn.
8-10 SPD: Fast. You can move three zones/turn.
11 + SPD: Super fast. You can move four zones/turn.

This allows me to keep battle-maps at a maximum of 4x4 zones. Which is still a lot, but way less then 15x15 Grids.

Replacing Traumas with Omen

Not saying that using phobias, tourettes or schizophrenia as a game mechanic is automatically a bad thing, but such things need a lot of sensitivity to not get really uncomfortable or hurtful very quick. And since Traumas are a thing that might come up rather often in a session of Kingdoms, I fear that this might put a lot of pressure on me and my players and will most likely end bad. Therefore I will replace them with Omens. Fantasy weirdness that makes your character more odd and gives them interesting obstacles.

The Night Change: At the end of each day you shed your skin like an insect larva. Roll a d6, on a 1 you'll turn into a random beast and attack the next target.
Anti-Torch: Any light source near you will slowly be extinguished. Moths seek you in swarms.
The Truth: Your Shadow will turn bright red, everytime you lie to someone.
The Croaking: Everytime you speak in the presence of metal, there is a 1/6 chance that it will rust away.
The Listening: You can hear the thoughts of others all the time. If you are around more then two persons, everything you do is at disadvantage.
The Stone Ink: At the end of each day you have to write down everything you've done this day on paper or one of your limbs will turn into black stone.
The Spawn: Every child you get from now on, will look the same and have one shared mind. They will turn into green moss and fungi after they die.
The Twin: Roll up the stats and traits for a different character. You will turn into this character every night. Children of your night-character will inherit their stats and traits instead of yours.
The Prowling Swamp: Everytime you stay in one location for more then a day, the environment will slowly turn into a swamp that tries to swollow you.
The Frost: The cold of the dark settles into you. If you spend a week outside of the Mountains, you turn to ice.
The Coiling Paths: Everytime when you kill someone or something, the earth will swollow you and spit you out at a random location.
The Hunger: Every lifestep you have to sacrifice something very important to you, or else your land will suffer a terrible famine.
The Returning: Dead members of your family will settle into your home and try to interfere with your dominion.
The Blossoming: Strange flowers with confusing patterns begin to sprout from your skin. Animals love them, but people hate them.
The Call: Everytime you cross water make a WIL-Save. If you fail you dive-in to join those that sing below.
The Phoenix: A terrible bargain. You can burn yourself to turn one of your children into a younger version of yourself, effectively replacing them with your clone.
The Tree: Your body slowly begins to grow and never stops. Every month from now, you loose one DEX and gain one STR. This stops once you've reached 18 STR. However, if you reach 0 DEX before, you turn into a tree.
The Sleeping Gate: You are plagued by terrible nightmares. Everytime you sleep, their is a 1/6 chance that one of them will escape into reality.
The Banquet: A Company of strange figures follows you and tries to make you join their eerie banquet.
The Day Change: You shed your skin and emerge rejuvinated with golden nails and theeth. You are back to the Young Adult Lifestage and get + 1 in every Stat, even beyond 18.

The Passing of time

This is taken from Mythic Bastionland and only serves to make the passing of time a bit more structured for me.

Days are separated into 3 phases:
Morning
Afternoon
Night

A year is separated into 3 seasons:
Make them up with your players. They don't have to be oriented at the four seasons of the temperate regions or the seasons of the tropics. This is make-belief, do what you want.
Give every season ...

A short descriptor
An event that marks it's beginning
An event that marks the middle of the season.

There are 5 lifestages as described in the original rules:
Infant
Child
Young adult
Adult
Elder

Not much to change here.

If your players finish a session of active play (making expeditions, hunting beasts, die alone in the dark, etc.) ask them how much time they want to pass:

None: No lifestep. Pick up where you left off.
Weeks: No lifestep. Pick up at the next seasonal event.
Months: No lifestep. Move to the next season.
Years: Advance all characters one lifestage and let them make downtime activities according to the book. Don't advance the tech step.
Ages: Advance all characters down the lifestages until either the current Infant generation dies of old age or you or your players want to stop. Let everybody make their downtime activities. Advance the tech step by one.

Aaaaaand thats it! I don't know when I will be trying this out, but I hope it will work just fine.
We'll see ...

#Kingdoms #cobwebs