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Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen
Kingdoms and War / Kingdom Building

Kingdom Turn Sequence

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 205
A kingdom’s growth occurs during four phases, which together make up 1 kingdom turn (1 month of game time). The four phases are as follows:

Phase 1—Upkeep: Check your kingdom’s stability, pay costs, and deal with Unrest.

If your kingdom controls 0 hexes, skip the Upkeep phase and proceed to the Edict phase.

Phase 2—Edict: Declare official proclamations about taxes, diplomacy, and other kingdom-wide decisions.

Phase 3—Income: Add to your Treasury by collecting taxes and converting gp into BP, or withdraw BP from your kingdom for your personal use.

Phase 4—Event: Check whether any unusual events occur that require attention. Some are beneficial, such as an economic boom, good weather, or the discovery of remarkable treasure. Others are detrimental, such as foul weather, a plague, or a rampaging monster.

These phases are always undertaken in the above order. Many steps allow you to perform an action once per kingdom turn; this means once for the entire kingdom, not once per leader.

Kingdom Upkeep Phase

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 206
During the Upkeep phase, you adjust your kingdom’s scores based on what’s happened in the past month, how happy the people are, how much they’ve consumed and are taxed, and so on.



Step 1—Determine Kingdom Stability: Attempt a Stability check. If you succeed, Unrest decreases by 1 (if this would reduce Unrest below 0, add 1 BP to your Treasury instead). If you fail by 4 or less, Unrest increases by 1; if you fail by 5 or more, Unrest increases by 1d4.

Step 2—Pay Consumption: Subtract your kingdom’s Consumption from the kingdom’s Treasury. If your Treasury is negative after paying Consumption, Unrest increases by 2.

Step 3—Fill Vacant Magic Item Slots: If any of your settlement districts have buildings that produce magic items (such as a Caster’s Tower or Herbalist) with vacant magic item slots, there is a chance of those slots filling with new items (see the Magic Items in Settlements section).

Step 4—Modify Unrest: Unrest increases by 1 for each kingdom attribute (Economy, Loyalty, or Stability) that is a negative number.

The Royal Enforcer may attempt to reduce Unrest during this step.

If the kingdom’s Unrest is 11 or higher, it loses 1 hex (the leaders choose which hex). See Losing Hexes for more information.

If your kingdom’s Unrest ever reaches 20, the kingdom falls into anarchy. While in anarchy, your kingdom can take no action and treats all Economy, Loyalty, and Stability check results as 0. Restoring order once a kingdom falls into anarchy typically requires a number of quests and lengthy adventures by you and the other would-be leaders to restore the people’s faith in you.

Example: Jessica is the Ruler of a kingdom with a Size of 30 and a Control DC of 60. Based on leadership role bonuses, kingdom alignment bonuses, and buildings in her settlements, the kingdom’s Economy is 52, its Loyalty is 45, and its Stability is 56. Its Unrest is currently 5, its Consumption is 5, and the Treasury has 12 BP. In Step 1 of the Upkeep phase, Adam, the Warden, attempts a Stability check to determine the kingdom’s stability. Adam rolls a 19, adds the kingdom’s Stability (56), and subtracts its Unrest (5), for a total of 70; that’s a success, so Unrest decreases by 1. In Step 2, the kingdom pays 5 BP for Consumption. None of the kingdom’s magic item slots are empty, so they skip Step 3. In Step 4, none of the attributes are negative, so Unrest doesn’t increase. Mark, the Royal Enforcer, doesn’t want to risk reducing the kingdom’s Loyalty, so he doesn’t use his leadership role to reduce Unrest. At the end of this phase, the kingdom has Economy 52, Loyalty 45, Stability 56, Unrest 4, Consumption 5, and Treasury 7 BP.

Kingdom Edict Phase

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 206
The Edict phase is when you make proclamations on expansion, improvements, taxation, holidays, and so on.

Step 1—Assign Leadership: Assign PCs or NPCs to any vacant leadership roles or change the roles being filled by particular PCs or closely allied NPCs (see Leadership Roles).

Step 2—Claim and Abandon Hexes: For your kingdom to grow, you must claim additional hexes. You can only claim a hex that is adjacent to at least 1 other hex in your kingdom. Before you can claim it, the hex must first be explored, then cleared of monsters and dangerous hazards (see Steps 2 and 3 of Founding a Settlement for more details). Then, to claim the hex, spend 1 BP; this establishes the hex as part of your kingdom and increases your kingdom’s Size by 1. Table 4–4: Improvement Edicts tells you the maximum number of hexes you can claim per turn.

You may abandon any number of hexes to reduce your kingdom’s Size (which you may wish to do to manage Consumption). Doing so increases Unrest by 1 for each hex abandoned (or by 4 if the hex contained a settlement). This otherwise functions like losing a hex due to unrest (see Step 4 of the Upkeep phase).

Step 4—Build Terrain Improvements: You may spend BP to build terrain improvements like Farms, Forts, Roads, Mines, and Quarries (see Terrain Improvements).

You may also prepare a hex for constructing a settlement. Depending on the site, this may involve clearing trees, moving boulders, digging sanitation trenches, and so on. See the Preparation Cost column on Table 4–6: Terrain and Terrain Improvements to determine how many BP this requires.

Table 4–4: Improvement Edicts tells you the maximum number of terrain improvements you can make per turn.

Step 5—Create and Improve Settlements: You may create a settlement in a claimed hex (see Founding a Settlement). Table 4–4: Improvement Edicts tells you the maximum number of settlements you can establish per turn.

You may construct a building in any settlement in your kingdom. The list of available building types can be found here. When a building is completed, apply its modifiers to your kingdom sheet. Table 4–4: Improvement Edicts tells you the maximum number of buildings you can construct in your kingdom per turn. The first House, Mansion, Noble Villa, or Tenement your kingdom builds each turn does not count against that limit.

Step 6—Create Army Units: You may create, expand, equip, or repair army units (see Mass Combat on page 234).

Step 7—Issue Edicts: Select or adjust your edict levels (see Edicts).

Example: Jessica’s kingdom has no vacant leadership roles, so nothing happens in Step 1. The leaders don’t want to spend BP and increase Size right now, so in Step 2 they don’t claim any hexes. In Step 3, the leaders construct a Farm in one of the kingdom’s prepared hexes (Consumption –2, Treasury –2 BP). In Steps 5 and 6, the leaders continue to be frugal and do not construct settlement improvements or create armies. In Step 7, the leaders issue a Holiday edict of one national holiday (Loyalty +1, Consumption +1) and set the Promotion edict level to “none” (Stability –1, Consumption +0). Looking ahead to the Income phase, Jessica realizes that an average roll for her Economy check would be a failure (10 on the 1d20 + 52 Economy – 4 Unrest = 58, less than the Control DC of 60), which means there’s a good chance the kingdom won’t generate any BP this turn. She decides to set the Taxation edict to “heavy” (Economy +3, Loyalty –4). At the end of this phase, the kingdom has Economy 55, Loyalty 42, Stability 55, Unrest 4, Consumption 4, and Treasury 5 BP.

Kingdom Income Phase

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 207
During the Income phase, you may add to or withdraw from the Treasury as well as collect taxes.

Step 1—Make Withdrawals from the Treasury: The kingdom-building rules allow you to expend BP on things related to running the kingdom. If you want to spend some of the kingdom’s resources on something for your own personal benefit (such as a new magic item), you may withdraw BP from the Treasury and convert it into gp once per turn, but there is a penalty for doing so.

Each time you withdraw BP for your personal use, Unrest increases by the number of BP withdrawn. Each BP you withdraw this way converts to 2,000 gp of personal funds.

Step 2—Make Deposits to the Treasury: You can add funds to a kingdom’s Treasury by donating your personal wealth to the kingdom—coins, gems, jewelry, weapons, armor, magic items, and other valuables you find while adventuring, as long as they are individually worth 4,000 gp or less. For every full 4,000 gp in value of the deposit, increase your kingdom’s BP by 1.

If you want to donate an item that is worth more than 4,000 gp, refer to Step 3 instead.

Step 3—Sell Expensive Items for BP: You can attempt to sell expensive personal items (that is, items worth more than 4,000 gp each) through your kingdom’s markets to add to your Treasury. You may sell one item per settlement district per turn. You must choose the settlement where you want to sell the item, and the item cannot be worth more than the base value of that settlement (see page 212). To sell an item, divide its price by half (as if selling it to an NPC for gp), divide the result by 4,000 (rounded down), and add that many BP to your Treasury.

You cannot use this step to sell magic items held or created by buildings in your settlements; those items are the property of the owners of those businesses. (See Magic Items in Settlements for more information on this topic.)

Step 4—Collect Taxes: Attempt an Economy check, divide the result by 3 (round down), and add a number of BP to your Treasury equal to the result.

Example: Jessica and the other leaders need to keep BP in the kingdom for future plans, so they skip Step 1 of the Income phase. They are worried that they won’t collect enough taxes this turn, so just in case, in Step 2 they deposit 8,000 gp worth of coins, gems, and small magic items (Treasury +2 BP). The leaders aren’t selling any expensive items, so nothing happens in Step 3. In Step 4, Rob, the Treasurer, rolls the Economy check to collect taxes. Rob rolls a 9 on the 1d20, adds the kingdom’s Economy score (55), and subtracts Unrest (4) for a total of 60, which means the kingdom adds 20 BP (the Economy check result of 60, divided by 3) to the Treasury. At the end of this phase, the kingdom has Economy 55, Loyalty 42, Stability 55, Unrest 4, Consumption 4, and Treasury 27 BP.

Kingdom Event Phase

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 208
In the Event phase, a random event may affect your kingdom as a whole or a single settlement or hex.

There is a 25% chance of an event occurring (see Events). If no event occurred during the last turn, this chance increases to 75%. Some events can be negated, ended, or compensated for with some kind of kingdom check. Others, such as a rampaging monster, require you to complete an adventure or deal with a problem in a way not covered by the kingdom-building rules.

In addition, the GM may have an adventure- or campaign-specific event take place. Other events may also happen during this phase, such as independence or unification.

Example: The GM rolls on one of the event tables and determines that a monster is attacking one of the kingdom’s hexes. Instead of attempting a Stability check to deal with the monster (risking increasing Unrest if it fails), Jessica and the other leaders go on a quest to deal with the monster personally. They defeat the monster, so the event does not generate any Unrest. At the end of this phase, the kingdom’s scores are unchanged: Economy 55, Loyalty 42, Stability 55, Unrest 4, Consumption 4, and Treasury 27 BP.