First...accept that the game has a scissors-approach towards the kindom-part, if you're behind the expected value you have a harder time to solve the events, more fails slow down or stop your kingdomprogress, making it even harder, then you start to get events that create unrest...unrest give you a debuff to all advisor-rolls and so on.
If you need a avarage roll of 15+ for events you most likly allready loosed, luck or savescumming might help to survive some time but earlier then later the next major problem rises and chances are high that your kingdom crumbles while you deal with it.

If..on the other hand you can stay ahead of the expected development, you will solve most problems and start getting more&more thriumphs=bonusrewads (stats and sometimes even BP), that will raise your stats faster, unlock projects that give your kingsdom buff/new buildings/ways to generate income...

Important Basics:
Unrest
If any of the Kingdom-stats, including the BP, reach zero or below you get a unrestlevel, each level of unrest gives a -1debuff to all kingdom rolls, additionally, as far as i observed it, you gain a higher chance for unrestevent=events
that generate more unrest if the appear, most but not all unrestevents "heal" some unrest if solved but it's a fast road to hell.
You can't avoid unrest completly because there's a number of scripted events&quests that generate unrest even if dealt with asap.

Some people will now tell you to just activate the option invincible kingdom at the difficulty settings, think twice about it, invincible kingdom will save you from gameover via unrestlevel&unrestevents..nothing more...if your kingdom is
allready in bad shape, now you get a -4 to all rolls+more negative events and the next major problem rises, chances are high that your kingdom will fail during this crisis.

There is no real way to deal with unrest, if you fall below -3 you will get events that alow you to "heal" one level of unrest for 1k BP but thats it.
Overall,sad but true, if you get unrest through a unlucky advisor roll it's best to reroll/reload, otherwise it can add up fast with a bit of bad luck.

Aligment Buildings
Several Buildings are tied to the Aligment of the Baranoy/kingdom, your Baranoy/kingdom has the aligment you had while being raised to nobility.
Lawfull and evil Aligment get Buildings that make all province events easier.
The Aligment of your Baranoy/Kingdom wan't change if your Aligment change.

Buying BP
One of the Merchant at your capital(mainsquare) sells BP, use it

Controlling your Kingdom
You can controll your Kingdom from the travelmap, als long as you stay withing your borders, if you leave the area you can't give orders and more important you don't get any messages about kingdomevents

Advisors
There're three Advisors for most positions, each position is tied to a kingdom stat, for every 20 stat-points a new rank is unlocked.
A new rang allows to "level up" the rank via project, each rank give a bonus to the rolls for that advisor+unlocks new projects from time to time that might help your kingdom+raises your BP-Income. Some Advisor-positions are blocked at the start, they're unlocked by raising the basic stats to 60+ and storyprogress.

The non-companion-advisors are tied to alliances/questdecions=you will never have all of them.
There's no way to get more advisors

Every Advisor-position has a attribute tied to it, the attribute-bonus of the advisor together with the rankbonus is the "skill" of this Kingdomstat, non-companion-advsiors get a project every few ranks to upgrade their attributes.

This lead to a important desicion, exp-sharing&equipment for unused companions, if you disable expsharing&sell all surplus-equipment your party will be stronger but your kingdom weaker and the other way around.
This leads to

Is my Kingdom of any use
If they fix the royal artisans you get some items from time to time, these items are usefull early&midgame if you get the artisans to work early, aside from this the kingdom is only there to cause you trouble and drain your funds/time.

You can build a army that is feared by all known countrys, create a trade network that bring exotic goods from all over the world back to your kingdom, you can raise the arcane power of your kingdom to such heights that you have factorys that outfit even the common soldiers with magic equipment...but..thats only flavor text and stats.

Dreamed about sending worker to claim the loot you could not carry, using teleportation or magic communication,...or hoped that you at last could send the workers to that iron deposit you found&cleared...nope, npc(foes, friends and sometimes even your own underlings) can do a way more then you do, you allways stay the little erandboy that just started his adventure, one of your artisans wishes a bottle of wine..well..run king run, a might be thief claims to be innocent and that a witness at your capital can proof it..run king run...no way that you order the guardsman to check it...

So, long story cut short...you have to develop your kingdom as good&fast as you can to avoid game over and reduce the pain as much as possible but don't expect to get something back

Development Preparations during Chapter 1
Chapter1 has is own timelimit that is not tied to the kingdom, i made some testing with the first kingdomcrisis and noticed that the kingdomtimer(s) start after you're raised to nobility.
This means...make good use of the time you have. Follow the two mainquests first, until the point you're ready to beat the staglord. Now...explore the map as far as the mist allows, beat all optional areas if you can,
gather all loot...even the stuff with bad weight/price-tag..this will give you around 15% additional gold and if you're patient run around at the worldmap for some random encounters..but..the combatexp and the loot you can get are just bad

Raise to nobility Idea by InEffect
Directly after your raise to nobility you get the offer of a 500 BP loan.
Take into mind..it's not a gift, it's a Highrisk-loan. In most cases, esp. during the frist Playthrough
it will be more of a drawback then a help.

Your own barony, lets start
First the "Don't do it(s)"

-Hunting
seriously..don't hun't, cooking&camouflage takes one hour and is done at the same time, resting take 10 hours max , hunting take up to 8hours per roll after the first one and at barren areas you might get zero rations/roll, worst case for me was 24h to gather those 6 rations.
About the Rations weight, you can get several items that allow you to carry more stuff, animal companions carry stuff and one of the companions has a campspecial that reduces the number of rations you need.
Overall i had the impression that carrying enough ration is the easiest and fatest way to travel&rest.

Edit:Info/different opinion from InEffect,
about resting. hunting is fine but keep some supplies handy and always check use supplies, unless you are going into a long dungeon. having a good Lore: Nature guy will almost guarantee you will get 5-6 rations every time. it doesn't work as you described afaik. you only waste time if you hunt for more than you get in one roll. also supply weight will cost you more time traveling, than hunting would if you would not hunt at all. My go-to is 12 supplies. 6 for travel and 6 if I would need a nap in dungeon.

-Delaying Mainquests/crisis
After you get you barony you're fighting to stay ahead of the timeline, with a few expections the maincrises-quests/event work like start at day x after raise to nobility,some sidequests and questdecions modify it but overall you wan't to deal with it as fast as possible for two reasons

I.Crisisevents, again a scissors-approach, with one expection all event-chains start with some medicore problem-events for your kingdom but number&difficulty of the problems raise fast
II:Timeline, as allready mentioned the game has a timeline, modified+/- depending at the things you did, the longer you need to solve a problem the less time you have to develop you kingdom and explore the land you claimed until the next major crisis hit you.

-Traveling overloaded
If you take a look at the lower right of the shared inventory and hover over the medium&heavy encumberance you will see that it reduces your travelspeed, at least during crisisevent you should aim to stay at light encumberance if
possible.

-Exploring/Sidequests during Times of crises
Just don't do it, aside from delaying the Mainquest is a bad idea after you claimed the area you can explore&quest while still managing your Kingdom

-Ignoring Kingdom/Companionquests
Several Quests fail after some Time, Kingdomquests&Companion quest might start a recurring bad event after some time if ignored instead of failing

Doing research-projects
Sadly...most researchprojects only give a minor statgain that is a joke compared to the BP and more important advisor-time you have to invest, just using the adivsor to solve events will give you much more for free.
A few unlock additional buildings ore give a buff that give you statpoints under very special conditions but nothing came close to justify the ammount of time it need...

Spamming Kingdomprojects and Advisorupgrade-projects
Projetcs that make it easier to solve Problems or that improve advisors you use are good, the two immunity-buffs are good...everything else has to be checked very carefully.
I really hated it to see the projects pile up...but...whats the use of a 5% discount-project for some buildings if the project is so expensive that you need to build 20+ of them just to get the BP-investment back

Now the "Do it'(s)"

-Keep a BP-reserve
As mentioned, if your BP drop tp zero you get a unrestlevel and there're many ways the game reduce your BP...a number of events where Bandits/thiefes/...steal you some, some dialogoptions remove BP(without mentioning it,
advisors&companions that use them for their own goals and so on. From my experience 100+50*(chapter*2) is save, otherwise keep 150 until thiefes start to show up, then keep 500+ in reserve

-Earing BP
You get a development assistance early on but don't count on it longterm
You get a BP for every kingdom rank up to the rank of your economy
Tradedeals give you BP but do the math, the game last 5 years(max)
Several Buidlings give BP/week, again..do the math, after the frist building the price raise 50%, so take into mind how long it takes to earn the mony back
Later on you get BP for every region claimed and more if you improved the region
Later you can get interest for stored BP

-Build what you need, not what you can
Most Buidlings, esp. the early ones have bad Return of investment, 30 BP for one Statpoint or 15 with the right placement and you use a buildtile, even early events give 3+statpoints if solved for free,most Kingdomressources are +3 or higher and cost only 15BP without using a tile. Build Buildings that help to solve problem-events first, then build stuff that raise your BP directly if available, if you have problems to keep economy your highest rank build some economy building and last but not least build stuff that raise culture/stability and espionage if you have free BP because those advisors are unlocked last and can use a speed up

-Invest in your Kindgom
As i told you...you wan't get back much..so why investing in this bottemless monster.
I.Because it's gameover if you don't care about your Kingdom
II. Because you reduce the pain and get still something in return
Expect for stat-buffing items that are needed to make you unused companions better advisors and supportitems like potions/scrolls/staffs/... sell everything, don't keep that masterwork kama because you might use it or might meet another companion that could use it..sell everything and buy BP, claim new provinces, build if you have too but until chapter 3 most of your money should go into your Kingdom
The reasons are
I.On claimed Land you can control your Kingdom even while traveling/exploring
II.Many of the provinces that can be claimed early unlock a artisan/craftsman, after their quest is done&their workshop is build they start producing items one every two month on average, even their basic stuff is strong early on and still usefull at the early midgame and if you upgrade their workshop&do their quests you can get some nice stuff that might carry you through the midgame(if fixed :)...even if you don't need the items...most items are worth quite some gold..that can be used to buy more BP or items for your party It's again a siccors-approach if you get it very early those items are powerfull and/or precious, they make your party stronger or speed the development up...if you get them to late...you wasted time
III. immunity-buffs, only two kingdombuffs are really usefull but those are powerfull...even if most difficult fights are outside your claimed lands

Settlements
After you claimed a region build a settlement as fast as possible and upgrade Settlements as fast as possible.
BUT don't do it mindless
Placement matters
I.If you place a settlement close to a river the seperate buildtiles are transformed to special rivertiles that allow you to build some special buildings like docks..but..you loose the seperate tiles that are needed to build several of the more usefull buildings..like one that produces 1 BP/Week and cost only 30 BP. Until they rework the Kingdommanagment..don't build close to a river.
II.Added by InEffect
If you place the settlements as close to your capital as possible it will save you time during several sidequests
III.
Or...you place them with a plan to use them as Restock/rest-bases
Overall, long story cut short...place them with a plan in mind

aww,,, I was hoping for information what are stats useful for, except for promotions. guess you are just in the dark on that as I am(except from obvious military/espionage/community/economy). otherwise I approve of most everything you wrote.
minor nitpicks:
-get Provinces asap. invest money if you need, but get em. and build masters buildings asap, even with gold. masters gifts will easily pay for any investments and then some.

-Upgrade villages to towns asap till you do season of the bloom. To not spoil much: you will get a town at the end and if you didn't upgrade in time you will miss 1 town in your kingdom.

-about resting. hunting is fine but keep some supplies handy and always check use supplies, unless you are going into a long dungeon. having a good Lore: Nature guy will almost guarantee you will get 5-6 rations every time. it doesn't work as you described afaik. you only waste time if you hunt for more than you get in one roll. also supply weight will cost you more time traveling, than hunting would if you would not hunt at all. My go-to is 12 supplies. 6 for travel and 6 if I would need a nap in dungeon.

Think you missed the NOT ever taking a deal for 500BP.

I was thinking of writing up something in this nature, now I don't have to. take my fake internet points xD. Good job.

What do the words siccors and rang mean?

Scissors and rank probably?



To anybody who knows, how can I upgrade village to a town? I have upgraded my capital to town, but I cannot find a way how to do it for my villages.

google: pathfinder wiki villages:

"Settlements are the backbone of your realm. Every three villages acquired in your domain will enable you to upgrade one of them to the town level, provided that 6 or more slots are occupied in that village. The first upgrade must take place in the capital. "

@InEffect
Stats: they are needed to rank up, rank unlock projects/buffs/Events, it seems they block some problems(i never had a bandit event after stability 6) and they decide the outcome of your kingdom after your victory but as far as i can say it's totally bugged. The Last playthrough it told me that Oleg's Trading Post was turning into a border-Fortress, a savehaven and grow to a city, then it told me that olegs Tradepost had to given up because of the civil War in Brevoy^^
Aside from this...As far as i can say stats do nothing, only the ranks count..but only a personal impression

Villages/Town
For sure it's good to have a extra village early but are you sure you miss a town?
Because, many provinces can't be claimed before act 4 and in the long run you should allways have 2 Citys and 3 town. Still it's very good to upgrade one as early as you can...for the upgrade of the artisans alone.

Hunting/Resting
Hmm, frist...you get 3 minor pouches and one normal, and there're two items that give more weight reduction. Even a party without pets and can carry 24+ rations and stay on light encunberance, if you're party has pets or use the camp-special of the rangercompanion it even easier to mange the rations. Carrying the loot is normaly no problem because most the time you rest one after reaching your destination and then after X fights..freeing up weight because you use the rations. Additionally..without spoils anything, if you don't relay on hunting you spare you some nasty surprises.

The 500BP-deal
I did not mention it because it can be used f you know what you're doing and otherwise you will notice it fast and can reload. It's not the kind...you're kingdom isdead at chapter 3 but want notice it before chapter 5 Every 3 provinces claimed after your Homeprovince allows to upgrade one village, it should unlock a project to do it and after the project you can select a province at the map-tab and upgrade it. Kepp in mind that this village need to have 6 buildings(walls don't count)...if you have no village with 6 buildings it might not show up.
Sometimes the project get lost between the research and building-projects.

@alcaray/Jumbik
Scissors/rang, Ups, youre right...sorry i will change it.

yeah if you don do the town project and apply it before varnhold joins that project vanishes. and as it counts as a town you will not get to upgrade one of your villages. I will probably be negated later with development but it does cost you tempo.

about resting it really depends on how much STR your party sports. the more you have the easier it is. for the 1st half of the game at least hunting is a viable way to move faster. If you have party encumbrance affects speed off I would totally agree to never hunt. as a blanket "don't do that" it is incorrect, imo.

500BP deal is awful as it costs loads of time to negate and 500BP is just 40k gold. not that much even by act2 standards.

also there is "you should place settlements close to your capital as it would cut time to do master quests dramatically". part missing

I also am pretty sure one of your small bags of holding is due to a bug with oleg restocking. that was fixed by now.

I added your advice about the 500 BP deal and your opinion about resting.
You can buy minor Bags of Holding:
1 from Oleg, 1 from a Pilgrimmerchant at the "restored" temple and 1 from a optional advisor after you saved him but before you appoint him. I read there should be 4. one from the merchant you can save during a encounter if you make him to set up shop at your capital but he never show up for me even if he promises to do so.

Edit:
Added some Info about Settlementplacement, i seems self-evident to me to place them with a plan but you're right that it should be added...even...if i used a different plan ;)

don't think pilgrim merchant has it unless she addds stock later. never visited it again after I checked it first. she does have energy source ring, that's nice, but no bags there, unless she adds stock later.

As i said, after rebuilding the temple i bought one from him(during my first playthough, my 2. was a dark prist and for rpg-resons i did not rebuid the temple and couldn't buy it)..but..it might be one of the many bugs.
Edit:
I will check it if i start a new playthough but to be honest, imo i am a bit tired of the bugs and loading times in later chapters

Aside from this..i just read that you could buy 2 bags from the Delgado if you trade with him while he stading outside and later after he changed his location^^

Sometimes if have the feeling the game has more bugs then stuff that works like intended

Edit II:
You get the free town after dealing with Vordakai, not after dealing with the bloom

yeah I got those swapped in my mind. either way it is good practice to get masters asap so you can get at least some of your investments back. and town just comes as a bonus.

and yeah bugs are plenty. I hope 1.1 changes things to the better and comes with some kingdom changes as well.

It's an exploit but you can turn off XP sharingTurningit back on before you talk to each new Companion untill you have a party of six. (then turm on sharing) It amounts to +13 levels or so in the early game. and all NPCs are at pc XP level

Once you progress far enough in the story to reach Economy 6+, your economic advisor will offer you a dialog option where choosing the Chaotic Neutral option gives you a completely OP project that gives you BP every week and moves you up one stage of unrest every month

Never got this, during my 2 finished playthroughs i reached 10 for all stats expect espionage and the only project i got that affect unrest is the Hellknight pact that gives you Stability each week(?) and a chance to raise unrest if at -2 or below. Was it a aligment locked option?