Pathfinder: Kingmaker now on Kickstarter, with Chris Avellone on team

The Game World 

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the first single-player computer RPG based on the acclaimed Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The game invites players to Golarion, a world rich with history, mystery, and conflict, and gives players the chance to claim part of this world as their own.

"Follow the white rabbit, Baron"

Pathfinder has considerable depth, not only in its lore, but also in its game mechanics, and in the freedom it offers you to develop your own unique character. You can customize your character with a wide range of classes and powers including specialized archetypes, powerful arcane and divine spells, choosing from a multitude of class abilities, skills and feats. Pathfinder allows players to create heroes (or villains) that fit both their individual gameplay styles and their personalities.

Use night to your advantage – and see the world change.

The Story

In the north lies the Stolen Lands, a region that has been contested territory for centuries. Hundreds of kingdoms have risen and fallen in these lands, and now it is time for you to make your mark—by building your own kingdom! To do so, you’ll need to survive the harsh wilderness and the threat of rival nations… as well as threats within your own court.

The only easy day was yesterday.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is based on Paizo’s award-winning Pathfinder Adventure Path of the same name. You certainly don’t need to be familiar with the story, but if you are, you will encounter characters you know and love. Either way, you will experience a host of brand-new events, companions, allies, and threats that expand and enhance the original Adventure Path. With help from Paizo and their authors, the story and quests have been expanded by RPG writer Chris Avellone and the Owlcat team, allowing for even more adventure in the already rich narrative of the Stolen Lands.

While Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a single-player game, you won’t be adventuring alone. Pathfinder: Kingmaker features a diverse cast of companions and NPCs, including iconic characters from the Pathfinder setting itself. You’ll need to decide who to trust and who to watch carefully, as each companion has an agenda, alignment, and goals that may differ from yours. Your journey will become their journey, and you’ll help shape their lives both in the moment and well into the future.

More than 10 companions to watch your back… or stick a knife in it.

Your Kingdom 

We chose to adapt the Kingmaker adventure path because it features a host of open-world mechanics, allowing players to experience the story at their own pace as they explore the Stolen Lands, which will challenge you as both an adventurer and a ruler.

You never know what's around the next bend.

Most importantly, the game allows you to claim these lands as your own, letting you carve your own kingdom from the wilderness. While classic dungeon crawling and exploration lie at the heart of this adventure, diplomacy, politics, and the ability to lead troops in the field are also part of the challenge. Choose your allies well, and keep them close while exploring ancient tombs and ruins—and while dealing with politics in your own court.

There are many ways to manage your Kingdom, and many rewards to be gained.

 As you’ll discover, building a kingdom goes beyond simply building a stronghold: Your kingdom is a reflection of your character and your choices throughout the game. It is a living thing shaped by your alignment, your allies, and your ability to lead your people. Not only can your kingdom expand, opening up new territories and allowing you to build new towns and communities, but your capital city will physically change based on your decisions, your policies, and even whom you choose to ally with. As your kingdom grows, a number of factions and neighboring countries will come to you to seek favor—and to test your strength.

If you fail, your kingdom will be destroyed, but if you succeed, you’ll have made a nation where countless others have failed.  

Your kingdom awaits! Do you have the strength to rule it?

Are you a benevolent ruler or a ruthless tyrant?

 Expanding depth and richness of kingdom gameplay is so important to us that we’ve made it our initial goal for the Kickstarter. Every pledge made toward our initial funding target will result in more features, more content, and more polish for your growing nation. Our goal is to let you build a kingdom that fits your play style. Perhaps you want to control every single activity in your kingdom by yourself, or perhaps you are more of a top-level ruler who wants to spend time exploring the wilderness and fighting dangerous beasts. Either way, we will give you the life you want to live. You are a king, after all!

We are excited about the kingdom mechanics and we have carefully planned all the features we would love to implement if you support us. All funds will be distributed according to the following pie chart:

Expanding the kingdom is our first goal for the Kickstarter, but it’s not going to be our only goal. With your support, we can improve every aspect of game. We’re prepared to announce additional stretch goals to diversify the characters you’ll be able to build, including the introduction of archetypes (at least a couple for each of the classes), additional classes (we have been asked about Magus several times—and some Owlcats really want to play this class!), and additional races. We also want to develop the storyline further, expanding it beyond the Adventure Path, and we would like to include even more companions, each with their own alignment and agenda (including a companion that’s dear to hearts of Pathfinder fans). We also want to bring you even more locations to visit, including an epic dungeon. We want to enhance our game with more voiceover and music. And we want more players to experience our game by adding additional language localizations, and support for OS X and Linux!

Owlcat Games was formed by developers who have the experience, resources, and - above all - the passion required to make Pathfinder: Kingmaker a truly amazing game.

 We are a new studio, but we are not new to the industry. Many of us worked on these games as part of Nival Interactive and My.com:

We can't deny ourselves the pleasure to name just a few games Chris Avellone worked on:

Owlcat Games team.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker has an existing schedule, an existing scope, and an existing budget, and that budget will allow us to achieve that scope on schedule. We already have a full team of people working on it, and we're committed to doing it regardless of what happens with this Kickstarter. So why are we asking for your help? The answer is YOU—we need YOU to decide how big Pathfinder: Kingmaker is going to be. Success in this Kickstarter will allow us to increase the budget and the scope, delivering a bigger and deeper game on the same schedule.  

All of us—RPG fans and developers alike—deserve a game that demonstrates the richness of the Pathfinder universe. There are so many interesting things in the world and in the rules that we can’t fit into the current budget, yet our desire to add them to the game is practically unbearable. We dream of more companions with added depths to their stories, new classes, new dungeons, more wilderness to explore, more kingdom events, and even brand-new quests and custom content by famous Pathfinder and CRPG authors. With this Kickstarter, our only limit is your support and your faith in us. Help us make Pathfinder: Kingmaker the product we all want it to be. Help us kick the epicness to the stratosphere!