4. Kingdom Skills
As a kingdom levels up, it can acquire training in additional skills and increase proficiencies to expert, master, or legendary.
Attempting Kingdom Skill Checks
During a Kingdom turn, the PCs attempt Kingdom skill checks. A skill check for a kingdom works just like a skill check for a PC.
One of the players—typically the one playing the PC whose key attribute or role is most appropriate—rolls 1d20 and adds the appropriate skill modifier, which consists of the kingdom’s ability modifier for the ability associated with the skill plus any other applicable modifiers, including the kingdom’s proficiency bonus in that skill and any other situational bonuses and penalties that might arise.
Check result = d20 roll + skill modifier
Skill modifier = key ability score modifier + proficiency bonus + other bonuses – penalties
| Proficiency Rank | Proficiency Bonus |
|---|---|
| Untrained | +0 |
| Trained | Kingdom's Level + 2 |
| Expert | Kingdom's Level + 4 |
| Master | Kingdom's Level + 6 |
| Legendary | Kingdom's Level + 8 |
Critically succeeding (or failing) still counts as succeeding (or failing), but if the situation that required the check describes specific results for criticals, apply only the more specific result.
Whenever a Kingdom skill check results in a critical success, the kingdom gains 1 Fame/Infamy point. A kingdom cannot acquire Fame/Infamy beyond its maximum allotment.
The five different types of modifiers (bonuses or penalties) that can apply to Kingdom skill checks are described below. When different types of modifier apply to the same check, add them all. But when multiple modifiers of the same type apply, use only the highest bonus and the worst penalty of that type.
Proficiency Bonus. Modifiers determined by a kingdom’s proficiency with a skill, using the Proficiency Bonuses table above.
Circumstance Modifiers. The result of something that happens during a kingdom event, of an activity, or of an ability granted by the kingdom’s level.
Item Modifiers. Granted by settlement structures or Ruin penalties. Item bonuses granted by structures are typically very specific in their application and only apply to events that take place within the influence area of the settlement in which they are located, although structures in a capital apply their item bonuses to the entire kingdom. Item bonuses granted by structures have special rules for stacking. Ruin can inflict long-lasting item penalties to a kingdom.
Status Modifiers. From leadership expertise in skills related to their role, from Kingdom feats, and from long-term events. Unrest is the most common status penalty for a kingdom.
Vacancy Modifiers. Always penalties. They occur when leadership roles are left vacant, or when leaders don’t spend the necessary time attending to their duties.
Many activities call for a basic skill check—a skill check where the DC is your kingdom’s Control DC.
Skill Descriptions
Each skill grouping begins with the name of the skill, followed in parentheses by that skill’s key ability. Then a brief description of the skill is provided.
Within each skill grouping, untrained activities (activities that can be used even if the kingdom doesn’t have proficiency ranks in the associated skill) are listed before trained activities (activities that cannot be used until the kingdom has at least the trained proficiency rank in the associated skill).
In each entry, the name of each activity is followed by a list of its traits, with the most notable being Civic, Commerce, Leadership, Region, and Upkeep.
Activities can be undertaken only during the steps of the Activity phase that correspond with these traits. The trait list is followed by a description of the action(s) that must be completed to undertake the activity, including (but not limited to) a skill check.
Each entry ends with a list of possible results for the skill check and any additional information unique to that activity.
Some of these activities require the expenditure or generation of resources, using the kingdom’s Resource Dice and its resource points (RP).
Most skill activities are associated with only one skill; general skill activities are associated with more than one. Each indicates which skills may be used with it. Some skills may only be used in specific circumstances.
Untrained. Abandon Hex, Build Structure, Claim Hex, Clear Hex, Establish Settlement, Establish Trade Agreement, Focused Attention, New Leadership, Quell Unrest, Rest and Relax, Retrain
Trained. Pledge of Fealty, Repair Reputation, Take Charge
Agriculture measures the kingdom’s ability to cultivate the land, bringing forth crops, flocks, and livestock.
Untrained. Establish Farmland, Harvest Crops
Arts measure the kingdom’s devotion to entertainment, artwork, and public works such as monuments.
Untrained. Craft Luxuries
Trained. Create a Masterpiece
Boating reflects the kingdom’s affinity for navigating rivers and lakes, or for using waterways to bolster trade, exploration, or even conquest.
Untrained. Go Fishing
Defense measures the kingdom’s ability to police and protect itself and its citizens from bandits, monsters, criminals, outside incursions, and pestilence or plague, but not natural disasters. It includes both physical fortifications and barriers as well as dedicated individuals guarding the land.
Untrained. Fortify Hex, Provide Care
Engineering measures the kingdom’s ability to alter the physical landscape of its territory.
Untrained. Build Roads, Demolish, Establish Work Site
Trained. Irrigation
Exploration measures the kingdom’s ability to look outward and see what lies beyond its own borders, and to closely examine claimed territory to discover secrets.
Untrained. Hire Adventurers
Folklore measures the kingdom’s connection with faiths and customs of all kinds. It also indicates how deeply tradition affects public life and the prominence of faith, worship, and culturally traditional activities.
Untrained. Celebrate Holiday
Industry measures the kingdom’s devotion to the business of building and making things, from basic necessities to luxury goods for trade. It puts people to work creating a prosperous future.
Untrained. Trade Commodities
Trained. Relocate Capital
Intrigue measures the kingdom’s mastery of the hidden forces of politics. It includes manipulation of factions within a country and espionage beyond its borders, as well as investigations into criminal activities.
Untrained. Infiltration
Trained. Clandestine Business
Magic measures the kingdom’s affinity for the mystic arts, whether arcane, divine, occult, or primal. It may reflect the breadth of natural magical talent among the people or it may represent the study of ancient secrets and magical theory.
Untrained. Supernatural Solution
Trained. Prognostication
Politics measures a kingdom’s embrace of civic life of all kinds, from deeply rooted local traditions to cosmopolitan cross-cultural connections. It also reflects the importance of the citizenry’s shared values, whether they are dedicated to freedom and justice or to more unsavory ethics.
Untrained. Improve Lifestyle
Scholarship measures the kingdom’s interest in teaching and training its citizens to learn about the world around them. It also includes researching answers to problems in every field, from history and medicine to alchemy and philosophy.
Untrained. Creative Solution
Statecraft measures the kingdom’s ability to engage and interact with other nations, Freeholds, and political powers in above-the board political manners, including its trustworthiness in the eyes of other nations and its own citizens.
Untrained. Tap Treasury
Trained. Request Foreign Aid, Send Diplomatic Envoy
Trade measures a kingdom’s involvement in commerce of every kind, but especially in moving goods from one place to another and in the health of its market. You take a cumulative –1 item penalty on Trade checks for each settlement in your kingdom that has no Land Borders, unless it has at least one Water Border with a Bridge.
Untrained. Capital Investment, Manage Trade Agreements, Purchase Commodities
Trained. Collect Taxes
Warfare reflects a kingdom’s readiness to mobilize its military forces against its enemies—be they lone rampaging monsters or entire armies bent on invasion. Warfare has no exclusive skill activities as presented in this appendix, though it can be used with some general skill activities. Warfare is used extensively to resolve mass combat.
Wilderness measures how well the kingdom manages its natural resources, integrates with the natural ecosystem, and handles dangerous wildlife. It also reflects the kingdom’s ability to anticipate, prevent, and recover from natural disasters, in much the same way the Defense skill protects against other threats.
Untrained. Gather Livestock, Reconnoiter Hex