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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide

Chapter 2: Camping

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 107
As the PCs explore the Stolen Lands, they'll eventually reach a point where the adventuring day is over and it's time to rest—but the closest bed is miles and miles away! In this case, they'll need to make camp and sleep under the stars. At this point, you have a few options as the GM. You can simply assume the PCs know what they're doing and let them rest the night away in peace. You can ask them to attempt a Survival check to Subsist with a DC based on the relative dangers in the area. Or you can use the rules presented in this chapter to make the experience of camping more rewarding, entertaining, and even dangerous!

Campsites

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 107
Camping isn't just a matter of lying on the ground wherever and falling asleep. You need to locate a site for the camp, set it up, prepare and eat food, and address any other basic needs, including allowing some time for relaxation before sleep!

The dangers facing campers in the Stolen Lands vary greatly depending on where the camp is set. To quantify these dangers, each zone of the Stolen Lands (as defined in Chapter 2 of the Kingmaker Adventure Path) has its own values. The table below lists all 20 zones of the Stolen Lands, organized by level from 0 to 19. The Zone DC is the base DC required for success at any skill check involved with securing the campsite or performing most campsite activities; these DCs closely follow the expected DCs by level but some of them have been adjusted upward or downward to account for that zone's additional dangers (or lack thereof). The Encounter DC indicates the flat check DC of a random encounter occurring during the camping session. And the number listed under the Encounter Chart column lists the Kingmaker Adventure Path page number for that zone's random encounter table.

Camping Zones

ZoneNameZone DCEncounter DCPage
0Brevoy141250
1Rostland Hinterlands151251
2Greenbelt161458
3Tuskwater181269
4Kamelands191278
5Narlmarches201482
6Sellen Hills201284
7Dunsward181287
8Nomen Heights241290
9Tors of Levenies281691
10Hooktongue321494
11Drelev2812103
12Tiger Lords2812105
13Rushlight2612108
14Glenebon Lowlands3012108
15Pitax2912109
16Glenebon Uplands3512110
17Numeria3612112
18Thousand Voices4314115
19Branthlend Mountains4116117

Step 1: Prepare a Campsite

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 107
In order to locate a safe place to set up a campsite while hexploring the Stolen Lands, the PCs must perform the Prepare Campsite exploration activity. While one PC performs this activity, others can attempt the following Exploration activities: Decipher Writing, Identify Alchemy, Identify Magic, Repair, or Treat Wounds. They can also attempt to Influence an NPC companion or attempt to Aid the PC Preparing the Campsite.

Step 2: Camping Activities

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 108
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.

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 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.

Step 3: Eating

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 108
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

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 108
Once the party has eaten, it's time to rest, as detailed under Resting. 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 Table 10-3 from 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). 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.

Watches and Rest

Group SizeTotal TimeDuration of Each Watch
216 hours8 hours
312 hours4 hours
410 hours, 40 minutes2 hours, 40 minutes
510 hours2 hours
69 hours, 36 minutes1 hour, 36 minutes
79 hours, 20 minutes1 hour, 20 minutes
89 hours, 9 minutes1 hour, 9 minutes
9+9 hours1 hour

Step 5: Daily Preparations

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 109
This final step includes time spent to prepare for the adventuring day, as detailed under Daily Preparations. 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).

Camping Activities

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 109
When camping in the wilderness, the PCs may perform a number of different Camping activities; see Step 2: Camping Activities for detailed rules. Many of them require checks against the Zone DC for the area the party is camping in; see the Camping Zones table.

Ingredients

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 109
The two cooking activities presented here—Cook Basic Meal and Cook Special Meal—require the use of ingredients in addition to rations, or provisions you gain by Subsisting. Both basic and special meals always use basic ingredients; special meals sometimes also require special ingredients.

Basic ingredients and rations are relatively easy to come by, and generally won't need to be tracked. If the PCs wish to stock up on basic ingredients, they can procure them by attempting the Hunt and Gather Camping activity—even a critical failure finds some, and they can buy rations at the regular price.

Special ingredients are exceptionally rare or dangerous to gather, and so should be tracked as regular consumable items—a single special ingredient is level 3 and Bulk L. Special ingredients are normally acquired only by succeeding at the Hunt and Gather Camping activity; optionally, you may allow the PCs to obtain a number of special ingredients equal to the party's level once per month as part of the perks of ruling a kingdom.

While specific ingredients aren't called out in recipes, at your discretion you can allow the PCs to harvest such ingredients after encounters with appropriate creatures. Since this requires players to track individual ingredients, the additional paperwork may not be to the taste of all groups. To harvest ingredients from a creature, a character must succeed at a Survival check against the standard DC set by the creature's level. A success generates 1 special ingredient usable for that specific recipe (or 2 special ingredients on a critical success). Only one attempt can be made per creature; each attempt takes 10 minutes of work.

Special Campsite Meals

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 113
With the Cook Special Meal activity, a character can prepare servings of a wide range of meals that have longer-lasting and more significant effects than simple nourishment. These special campsite meals must be eaten during the same camping session that they are prepared, as the benefits one gains from them are as much from the morale-boosting effect of enjoying a delicious meal in the wild as they are from the food itself. A character can only be under the effect of one special campsite meal at a time—that of the first one they eat during a camping session. The effects of the meal itself are determined by a skill check rolled by the cook when the meal is eaten, and they apply equally to all characters who eat servings of that particular meal.

Favorite Meals

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 113
Each character may designate a favorite meal. Whenever they consume that meal and gain either its success or critical success benefit, they also gain its favorite meal benefit. Unless the meal's description says otherwise, the favorite meal benefit lasts as long as the meal's usual benefit.

PCs may declare a favorite meal after experiencing that meal's success effect twice or its critical success once; they can then gain its favorite meal benefit starting the next time they consume that meal. A character can only ever have one favorite meal. They may change their favorite meal to a new meal, but they must first experience the new meal's critical success effect twice.

Each NPC companion has a favorite meal, listed on the following table. NPC companions never change their favorite meal.

Favorite Meals

CompanionFavorite Meal
AmiriMonster casserole
EkundayoHunter's roast
HarrimHaggis
JaethalJeweled rice
JubilostOnion soup
KalikkeChocolate ice cream
KanerahSeasoned wings and thighs
LinziSweet pancakes
Nok-NokBaked spider legs
OctaviaRice-n-nut pudding
RegongarSucculent sausages
TristianKameberry pie
ValerieWhiterose oysters

Meal Recipes

Source Kingmaker Companion Guide pg. 113
A wide range of unique and special meals are available to those camping in the Stolen Lands, but before a character can attempt to cook one of them, they must find or purchase the meal's recipe or discover it using the Discover Special Meal activity. You can augment treasures found throughout the Stolen Lands with meal recipes if you wish, dropping them into rewards in the form of scrolls or books, or you can even have them taught by friendly allies.

Common recipes (those without either the uncommon or rare trait) can be purchased in any settlement in the same way other formulas can be purchased. Uncommon recipes are available for purchase in most settlements of Town or larger size. Rare recipes should be given out as quest rewards, discovered (be it via the Discover Special Meal activity or by finding the recipe on a scroll or in a book), taught from rescued or allied NPCs, or something equivalent. At your discretion, a rare recipe must still be purchased after the PCs discover someone who knows it.

The stat block for the following meals are presented in the following format.

Meal NameMeal [Level]

Traits
Recipe Price The price to purchase the meal's recipe.
Ingredients This entry lists the quantity of basic ingredients and special ingredients (if any) required to cook a single serving of the meal.
Preparation A special meal can be cooked with a Survival check or a Cooking Lore check, and its recipe can be discovered with a Cooking Lore check. The DCs to Cook or Discover the Special Meal are presented here.
Requirements If a meal has any other special requirements for its preparation (such as the cook's ability to cast divine spells or a proficiency rank in a specific skill), that requirement is listed here. This entry is omitted if the meal has no additional requirements.
Favorite Meal The additional benefit a character can gain from the meal being their favorite meal is presented here.
A description of the meal, including notes on how it is prepared, is followed by the meal's effects on a Cook Special Meal activity's critical success, success, or critical failure. A special meal that has a failure grants no additional benefits or penalties, but still prevents starvation.
Many special meal effects persist for a full 24 hours, but a character can only benefit from one special meal effect at a time. If the PCs are camping daily, you can rule that existing special meal effects end once the party takes step 3 of camping (Eating), even if technically 24 hours hasn't passed since the last time they gained bonuses from special meals, so that new effects from new meals can take their place going forward.