Edicts
In the original version of the kingdom building rules, the effects of the edicts just did not measure up to the impact they should have, especially once the game got past the first few turns of kingdom building. The revised published versions improve both the effect and variety of edicts for use in building your kingdom, but this section provides several alternative versions of standard monthly edicts as well as several additional options for special edicts.

Standard Edicts

These edicts offer somewhat more flexibility than the published versions, including greater opportunity to trade negatives in one area for positives in another.

Expansion: These edicts replace the standard promotion edicts and represent how aggressive your domain is in terms of enlarging its territory and claiming new subjects, sometimes at the expense of consolidating the ground you already hold, or whether you focus on slow and incremental growth.

Holiday: These edicts replace the standard holiday edicts and represent regular observances and nationwide celebrations taking place throughout the kingdom. The BP expenditure is paid per month and includes logistical preparations for holidays throughout the year in addition to funding the actual celebrations. The monthly expenses vary but represent an average spread across the entire year. If the kingdom’s rulers reduce the amount of holidays they fund at any point during a calendar year, they take a -2 penalty to Loyalty for the remainder of the year for each step by which holiday funding is reduced.

Taxation: These edicts replace the standard taxation edicts and allow you to calibrate your ability to realize increased income at the expense of stagnating business and angering your population versus sacrificing some income to make your citizens happier.

Table A1: Expansion Edicts
|Attitude|Hex Claims|Stability|Loyalty|Economy|Consumption|
|Isolationist| -1| +2| +1| -2| -1 BP|
|Cautious|standard| +1| -| -1| -|
|Standard|standard| -| -| -| -|
|Aggressive| +1| -1| -1| +1| 1d4 BP|
|Imperialist| +2| -2| -2| +2| 2d4 BP|

Table A2: Alternative Holiday Edicts
Frequency Consumption Economy Loyalty
None – -2 -4
Annual 1 BP -1 -2
Quarterly 1d3 BP 0 0
Monthly 1d6 BP +1 +2
Weekly 1d12 BP +2 +4

Table A3: Alternative Taxation Edicts
Tax Level Consumption Economy Loyalty
Minimal Economy check/5 +2 +2
Light Economy check/4 +1 +1
Normal Economy check/3 – -
Heavy Economy check/2.5 -2 -4
Crushing Economy check/2 -4 -8

Special Edicts
In addition to the standard edicts, whether using the official published versions or the alternative versions outlined above, the revised kingdom rules introduce the concept of special edicts. These edicts may affect an entire kingdom or a single city in your domain or in another country. In addition to the diplomatic, exploration, trade, and vassalage edicts, Ultimate Rulership offers several more special edicts for your country to use, as described below. Regardless of which special edict you choose, you may issue only one special edict per kingdom turn. The effects of special edicts are resolved after you issue your standard edicts for the month.

Commission Edicts: These edicts allow the kingdom’s leaders to have magical items or buildings constructed at their request.

Endowment Edicts: These edicts allow the kingdom to sponsor the construction of a great edifice for the arts and learning, gaining them local and international prestige.

Espionage Edicts: These edicts allow you to spy out the secrets of neighboring kingdoms, gathering information and fomenting unrest.

Festival Edicts: These edicts represent the calling of a special local festival in one particular place in your kingdom, from athletic competitions to religious pilgrimages to celebrations of history, culture, or anything else.

Recruitment Edicts: These edicts reflect your degree of military mobilization, including how much of your nation’s population you are willing to devote to the necessities of war.

Commission Edicts
The rulers of your domain can commission a magic item to be made (or an existing magic item improved) for their personal use with a Commission Edict. The city where the Commission Edict is issued must contain a building capable of producing a magical item of the appropriate category; for this purpose, minor items are those whose price is 8,000 gp or less, medium items are 8,001-24,000 gp, and major items are over 24,000 gp. Leaders must pay full price for commissioned items. The commissioned item takes the place of one item slot of that category for as long as it takes to craft (or improve) the item, including any month or portion of a month in which it is being crafted. During this time, no other item can be generated to fill that slot. The kingdom’s rulers can commission more than one item within that city as part of the same Commission Edict, but all items must be crafted within that city and no building within that city can be compelled to craft more than one item with this edict. Commissioning more than one item with the same Commission Edict generates 1 point of Unrest for each item after the first (not including potions or scrolls with a cost under 1,000 gp), representing the anger and resentment of other wealthy customers caused by their own requests being superseded by those of the country’s rulers, and of the crafters themselves for being forced to work on demand. A Commission Edict can instead divert the magical resources of medium and major item slots for one month, reducing construction cost for buildings in the same city or terrain improvements in adjacent hexes by 2 BP for each major slot commissioned, 1 BP for each medium slot, though commissioning multiple slots causes Unrest as described above.

Endowment Edicts
An Endowment Edict represents the focused attention of the crowned heads of state on matters of arts and learning, in part for the betterment of the kingdom and its culture but equally (if not more so) for the purpose of garnering prestige both domestically and abroad. Rulers and citizens alike can take pride in their grand edifices to posterity, sparing no expense in spectacular architecture, resplendent artistic embellishment, and the finest collections of artifacts, animals, artists, scholars, or whatever else the endowed building proffers to the world. Kingdoms of size 100 or less usually refer to endowed buildings by name, typically naming them after one of the kingdom’s leaders (especially one whose role correlates with the building in question) or a wealthy NPC patron. Countries of size 101-200 may use a personal name associated with the building or may simply refer to it as the Royal Library, Museum, etc., while those of size 201 or more call them Imperial buildings.

Cost: Endowing a building costs 100 gp times the building’s cost in BP, which can be paid by withdrawing BP from the Treasury and converting it into gp, or the endowment can be paid directly by a PC or NPC from their own personal funds. Maintaining each endowed building and its collections and staff increases the kingdom’s Consumption by 1.

Special: If you roll the Noblesse Oblige kingdom event, you can treat that as an Endowment edict, having the nobles endow a building in their name rather than constructing a Monument or Park, paying both the up-front cost and the ongoing Consumption.

Benefit: Each Endowment edict that you issue gives your kingdom a +1 bonus to Fame and Loyalty as long as its Consumption is paid. If Consumption is not paid, these bonuses are lost and you gain 1 point of Unrest unless you succeed at a Loyalty check.

Types of Endowments: Each of the following buildings can be sponsored with an Endowment edict: Academy, Arena, Assembly, Bardic College, Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Hospital, Library, Magical Academy, Menagerie, Military Academy, Museum, Observatory, Theater. You may endow only one building of each type in your entire kingdom. If you capture a city from another kingdom that contains one or more endowed buildings, you gain a +1 bonus to Fame but no bonus to Loyalty for each building as long as you pay their Consumption. Alternatively, you may destroy the endowed buildings of your enemy, gaining 2 points of Infamy for each endowed building you destroy.

Espionage Edicts
Espionage Edicts are used by one kingdom to uncover confidential information about other kingdoms and their leaders, or factions and power groups within them (including religious groups, noble houses, merchant consortiums, or other organizations), and sometimes to use that information aggressively to foment unrest and spread sedition within that nation.

Cost: The cost to issue an Espionage Edict varies, depending on the sensitivity of the information being sought or the danger level of the acts of insurrection being attempted:

Table A4: Espionage Edicts
Cost Type of Espionage
1d4 BP Gather public information
1d6 BP Discover minor secrets
2d6 BP Discover major secrets
3d6 BP Discover vital secrets
1+ BP Other acts of espionage (The base cost is increased by 1d4 BP for every 5 points of the DC modifier listed below; hence, fomenting unrest (DC 5) would cost 1d41 BP, while inducing mercenaries to switch sides (10 DC) costs 2d41 BP)

The target DC for an Espionage Edict is impacted by the Corruption, Law, Lore, and Society modifiers in the city or country being investigated. A positive Corruption, Lore, or Society modifier decreases the DC and a negative modifier increases it; contrariwise, a negative Law modifier decreases the DC and a positive modifier increases it.

Benefits: Examples of the above-listed types of espionage follow and should be used as a guideline for the difficulty (and cost) of other similar acts of espionage PCs may attempt. The success of an Espionage Edict is determined by Economy, Loyalty, and Stability checks. If all three checks are successful, the mission is a great success and the PCs’ kingdom gains two pieces of information from the category below, or their espionage has double the listed effect. If two checks succeed, the mission meets its objectives, acquiring the desired piece of information or having the desired effect. If only one check succeeds, the mission fails. If all three checks fail, the mission fails and your spies are caught (see below). In addition, if any check results in a natural 1, your spies are caught even if the mission succeeds.

Gather Public Information (DC -5): Obtain a list of all buildings in one settlement; the location and size of all settlements in the target kingdom; the target kingdom’s size, borders, and major landforms and bodies of water (any terrain that occupies three or more contiguous hexes); the names of the target kingdom’s leaders.

Discover Minor Secrets (DC +0): Obtain a list of Embassies, Treaties, and Allies of a kingdom; a list of Trade Routes (type and destination) in that kingdom; the Settlement Alignment, Government, Qualities, Statistics, and Disadvantages of a settlement; the location of terrain improvements, Landmarks, and Special Resources in the target kingdom; the level of Unrest in the target kingdom; or uncover minor trade secrets that grant your kingdom a +1d2 bonus to Economy for 1d4 months (doubled if you have a Treaty or Trade Route with the target kingdom).

Discover Major Secrets (DC +10): Obtain a list of armies located in a city; discover the attitude of the kingdom toward other countries; discover the character classes of the target kingdom’s leaders; discover the target kingdom’s current Economy, Loyalty, and Stability modifiers, as well as its kingdom-wide Corruption, Crime, Law, Lore, Productivity, and Society modifiers; obtain significant trade secrets providing your kingdom with a +1d4 bonus to Economy for 2d4 months (doubled if you have a Treaty or Trade Route with the target kingdom).

Discover Vital Secrets (DC +20): Discover the class levels and alignment of kingdom leaders; discover the most valuable or powerful magic item of 1d4 kingdom leaders; discover the location of all of the target kingdom’s armies; discover secret ways into or out a fortified settlement (or a Fort or Watchtower terrain improvement), allowing your armies to ignore half of the total Defense value of that fortification; obtain major trade secrets granting your kingdom a +2d4 bonus to Economy for 2d6 months (doubled if you have a Treaty or Trade Route with the target kingdom).

Bribe Mercenaries (DC +0 to demoralize, DC +5 for desertion, +10 for treason; these DC modifiers are doubled if your kingdom is at war with the mercenaries’ present employer): The target mercenary army loses 1d3 points of Morale (sap morale), deserts their present employer and flees (desertion), or switches sides to join your armies (treason). Using this type of Espionage Edict requires a cash bribe of 1000 gp times the army’s AR.

Foment Unrest (DC +5): Your spies add 1d3 Unrest in the target kingdom.

Organize Crime Spree (DC +5): Your agents reduce Economy by 1 and increase Crime by 1 in the target kingdom, which also loses 1d6 BP from its Treasury.

Sabotage Building or Improvement (DC +5 for Terrain Improvement, +10 for building in a village, +15 in a town, +20 in a city or metropolis): Your saboteurs damage one building or terrain improvement, rendering it nonfunctional until repaired at half the building cost. If you achieve complete success with three successful checks for this Espionage Edict, you may choose to damage two improvements or buildings or completely destroy one. This has no effect on buildings that provide a Defense bonus.

Spread Rumor and Scandal (DC +5): Your agents start a whispering campaign that breeds mistrust and gossip, reducing Loyalty and Society by 1 and also decreasing the target kingdom’s Fame or increasing its Infamy by 1.

Risks: If your spies are caught, your kingdom must succeed at a Loyalty check, which is adjusted by all modifiers listed above that applied to the Espionage Edict you attempted. If the Loyalty check succeeds, your spy is imprisoned or executed but does not reveal your involvement. If the Loyalty check fails, the spy breaks under questioning and tells who sent him and why. This revelation increases your kingdom’s Corruption and Infamy by 1, decreases your Loyalty by 1, and causes you to gain 1 point of Unrest. In addition, the target kingdom (or other similar group) has its attitude towards you shifted by one step in a negative direction for 1 year. Likewise, citizens of the target kingdom have their attitude shifted towards any PC or NPC affiliated with the government of your kingdom adjusted negatively by one step. If the target kingdom is one with whom you have an Embassy, Treaty, or Alliance, the above modifiers are doubled and you lose 1d4 points of Fame and must make one Loyalty check each for your Embassy, Treaty, and Alliance. Each failed check causes your kingdom to lose 1 additional point of Fame and cancels your highest Diplomatic Edict with that country. Hence, if you are caught spying upon a country with whom you have an Alliance, one failed check reduces your relationship to a Treaty, two failed checks to an Embassy, and three failed checks causes that kingdom to sever all diplomatic relations with your kingdom).

Festival Edicts

A Festival Edict is a special edict distinct from the broader Holiday Edict. Whereas a Holiday Edict declares days to celebrate on the calendar across the length and breadth of your kingdom, a Festival Edict is a specific, one-time event (though it could be repeated later) focused in a particular place at a particular time for a particular purpose. A Festival may be called for any reason or for no reason at all and include tournaments, games, music, dancing, feasting, drinking, parades, fireworks or magical displays, and similar entertainments of all kinds, but everyone undertaken with special magnificence. Festival Edicts bring great crowds of people together to celebrate and are normally held in the same hex as a settlement, to facilitate easy access for crowds to reach the festival grounds. Festivals can, however, be hosted at any Landmark special terrain. Festivals may be either civic or religious in nature.

Cost: Festivals require a great deal of resources to pull off. A festival costs 1d2 BP if held at a Landmark in the countryside, 1d4 BP if held in a village, 1d8 BP if held in a town, and 2d6 BP per city district if held in a city.

Benefit: A festival celebrated at a Landmark in the countryside increases the Landmark’s bonus to Loyalty by +1 for 1 year. Festivals celebrated in cities, towns, and villages have the following effects.

Civic Festival: A civic festival celebrates local traditions, events, heroes, or culture, including athletic and artistic competitions. Requires Tavern (village), Theater (town), Arena (city), or Landmark (located in the same hex as the settlement). Effect For one month, your kingdom gains a +2 bonus to Crime and Society, and the civic festival increases the effects (see below) of Arenas, Black Markets, Bordellos, Dance Halls, Gambling Dens, Inns, Luxury Shops, Markets, Monuments, Palaces, Parks, Shops, and Taverns in that city.

Religious Festival: A religious festival produces an outpouring of piety and pilgrimage, sometimes marked with great solemnity and other times with great rejoicing. Requires Shrine (village), Temple (town), Cathedral (city), or Landmark (located in the same hex as the settlement). Effect For one month, your kingdom gains a +2 bonus to Law and Society, and the religious festival increases the effects of Cathedrals, Graveyards, Inns, Luxury Shops, Markets, Monuments, Parks, Shops, Shrines, and Temples in that settlement are increased (see Risks).

Determining Success: When you issue a Festival Edict, make Economy, Loyalty, and Stability checks. If all three succeed, the Festival is a resounding success, doubling the effects of the buildings listed above; in addition, you gain the benefits of an Outstanding Success (01-50), Visiting Celebrity (51-95), or both (96-00) kingdom events. If two checks succeed, the Festival is a modest success, increasing the effects of the listed buildings by 50% for one month. Total the bonuses for all listed buildings in the settlement together before applying the 50% increase, rounding down; do not apply the 50% increase separately to each building. When buildings effects are increased (whether doubled or by 50%), this increase includes not only kingdom and settlement attribute modifiers like Economy and Lore; it also includes a doubling of Base Value and magic item creation during that month. This increase allows a settlement to exceed the normal maximum Base Value for a settlement of its size (either doubling or increasing it by 50%, as appropriate) for that month. It likewise creates temporary magic item slots that are filled immediately and can be used just like any other magic item slots in the kingdom. However, any magic items created in this fashion are available only during the month of the Festival Edict and the items and their slots disappear when the festival ends, being taken home by the crafters and merchants who brought them to the festival. If only one check or no checks succeed, see Risks below.

Risks: Regardless of the overall success of the festival, the great influx of human(oid) and mercantile traffic involved creates the potential for enemy infiltration in the guise of pilgrims and festival-goers, or discord and strife between foreigners and locals or different groups coming together in one place, or just general drunkenness and mayhem should celebrants get out of control and overwhelm the ability of the settlement or the kingdom’s ability to handle so many people in such a small space. During any month when a Festival Edict is issued, the entire kingdom takes a -2 Stability penalty, and any Stability checks required for the settlement or hex where the Festival is held take a -4 penalty (this does not apply to the Stability check to determine the success of the festival, but it does apply to any kingdom events triggered by the festival).

Unsuccessful Festivals: If only one check succeeds, the Festival is unsuccessful and grants no benefits; in addition, there is a 50% chance that disgruntled citizens issue a Building Demand (as the kingdom event), blaming the lack of success on the absence (or presence, if they demand demolition) of that building. If all three checks fail, the Festival is a disaster, providing no benefits. The kingdom loses 1 point of Fame and gains 1d4-1 points of Unrest, and disaffected locals bankrupted by the festival and lingering troublemakers in the wake of the festival become Squatters (01-50), Vandals (51-95), or both (96-00), triggering kingdom events of the appropriate type.

Natural 1: A natural 1 is always a failure on any kingdom roll, and each time you roll a natural 1 on any of the three kingdom checks to determine the success of the Festival Edict there is a 25% non-cumulative chance of triggering a dangerous settlement event. This event may be of any type, but only one such event can be triggered, even if you roll more than one natural 1.

Recruitment Edicts
A Recruitment Edict represents your kingdom’s commitment to militarism, whether for aggression or for defense. The published rules allow you to substitute the creation of armies for the founding of settlements as part of your monthly Improvement Edict. A Recruitment Edict does not replace this rule; instead, it supplements it. It represents another way to build up your military forces, but it also helps define your kingdom’s attitude about its military and the face it presents to the world. A Recruitment Edict requires a Loyalty check to successfully create an army in any Fort (terrain improvement) or in a settlement with a barracks (Medium or smaller armies only), Castle, or Garrison. You can create more than one army with a single Recruitment Edict, but each army requires a separate Loyalty check to create, and the DC increases by 5 for each army after the first, and each additional army you raise in a kingdom turn generates 1 point of Unrest.

Table A5: Recruitment Edicts
Militarism Manpower Elites Fame/Infamy Defense Economy Society
Pacifist 1% 0% +2 Fame -1 +2 +2
Peaceful 5% 0% +1 Fame – +1 +1
Normal 10% 1% – - - -
Aggressive 15% 3% +1 Infamy – -1 -1
Warlike 20% 5% +2 Infamy +1 -2 -2

Mercenaries: In addition to conscripting its own citizens, a kingdom can hire mercenaries, which do not count against its Manpower limit (see below). However, the kingdom takes a -1 penalty to Loyalty for each mercenary army the kingdom employs. This penalty disappears when a mercenary army is destroyed or released from service. If a mercenary army is induced to desert or betray your kingdom by an enemy’s Espionage Edict, your kingdom gains 1 Unrest.

Militarism: As part of a Recruitment Edict, you can shift your kingdom’s attitude toward military service among the citizenry. Changing your level of militarism requires a new Recruitment Edict (you do not need to create a new army) to change militarism by one step. You can change it by more than one step by making a Loyalty check with a -5 penalty for each step beyond the first. If the check fails, your kingdom’s militarism level does not change and you gain 1 point of Unrest for each step that you attempted to shift your militarism level.

Manpower: This number represents the percentage of your population that can be recruited as regular army soldiers (2nd-level fighters), and the same number that can be recruited as ordinary militia (1st-level warriors). Hence, in Any armies you recruit over this limit (except for Elites, as described below) are treated as emergency conscripts (1st-level commoners that automatically gain the shaken condition in combat). In addition to representing the total available soldiers of each type, manpower represents the percentage of your population that you can keep under arms on an ongoing basis without impacting your kingdom’s morale. A kingdom can keep a percentage of its citizens, including all units belonging to all armies, of up to its manpower. For every percentage point above its manpower limit, it takes a -1 penalty to Loyalty checks.

Example: A kingdom with 10,000 people and a normal level of militarism, your kingdom could potentially recruit up to 1,000 soldiers and 1,000 militia. However, since the kingdom’s manpower limit is 10%, if it kept its full complement of 1,000 soldiers and 1,000 militia as a standing army, it would take a -10 penalty to Loyalty checks, since those two armies combined represent 20% of the kingdom’s population. If it maintained 500 soldiers and 500 militia (1,000 total; 10% of its total population of 10,000), it would take no penalty to Loyalty. If you decrease your militarism level to a level where the standing armies you have in the field exceed your allowed manpower (e.g., if the sample kingdom above shifted to a peaceful level of militarism while retaining a standing army of 1,000 soldiers), you must split, reform, or disband those standing armies to conform to your new militarism level. If you do not do this, your kingdom gains 1 point of Unrest and each army over the limit loses 1 point of Morale for every percentage point by which you exceed your manpower percentage.

Elites: This percentage functions like manpower but represents the total number of your population that can be recruited as 3rd-level warriors or 2nd-level barbarians, cavaliers (including samurai), monks, paladins (including antipaladins), rangers, or rogues (other PC classes may be available at the GM’s discretion). Unlike manpower, you cannot exceed this percentage. Additional elite soldiers simply do not exist to be recruited. At the GM’s option, other PC classes may be recruited as elites. Higher-level elites (including fighters above 2nd level) can also be recruited, though this reduces the number of available elite soldiers as follows:

Level This Replaces Kingdom Size
3rd 2 Normal Elites 11 Hexes
4th 3 Normal Elites 26 Hexes
5th 5 Normal Elites 51 Hexes
6th 7 Normal Elites 101 Hexes
7th 10 Normal Elites 201 Hexes

An army comprised of characters with PC class levels gains the appropriate special abilities based on the class and level of the characters comprising it, as described in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Campaign. Building Requirements: Recruiting elite soldiers must be done in a settlement, not a Fort, and requires one or more additional buildings to be present in that settlement, in addition to a Barracks, Castle, or Garrison.

Alchemist Alchemist
Antipaladin Military Acadamy plus Cathedral or Temple, kingdom alignment CE or NE
Barbarian Tavern
Bard Bardic College
Cavalier Military Academy, Noble Villa, or Stable
Cleric Cathedral or Temple
Druid Sacred Grove and Military Academy
Fighter Garrison or Military Academy
Gunslinger Exotic Artisan and Military Academy
Inquisitor Temple plus Courthouse or Town Hall
Magus Magical Academy and Military Academy
Monk Foreign Quarter or Monastery
Ninja Foreign Quarter
Paladin Military Academy, plus Cathedral or Temple, kingdom alignment LG or NG
Ranger Menagerie or Military Academy
Rogue Black Market or Gambling Den*
Samurai Foreign Quarter plus Military Academy or Noble Villa
Sorcerer Caster’s Tower and Military Academy
Summoner Caster’s Tower and Military Academy
Wizard Magical Academy and Military Academy

Fame/Infamy: Nations known to be aggressive in building their military gain Infamy while peaceful nations gain Fame. This modifier is based on a nation’s current level of militarism and changes whenever militarism does.

Defense: The greater military readiness of a highly militarized kingdom increases the Defense bonus of any fortifications in the kingdom by 1, while the less vigorous vigilance of pacifist kingdoms decreases the Defense bonus of any fortifications by 1. This adjustment applies to the total Defense bonus of a settlement, Fort, or Watchtower, not to individual buildings that combine to provide a settlement’s Defense bonus.

Economy: Peaceful kingdoms are able to devote their efforts toward business and prosperity rather than preparations for war, creating a more robust and diverse economy than highly militarized kingdoms.

Society: Peaceful kingdoms are generally more friendly, tolerant, and open to outsiders than militarized nations, while aggressive kingdoms are less apt to trust foreigners and usually see them as potential threats.