King of Dragon Pass - Guide Index

This blog was created to concentrate information and propaganda about KoDP - To entice you to give it a try and set you on your path to success and fun.

Or are you here for the threads? Click HERE

The guide is seperated in several sections;

What is King of Dragon Pass?

Installation instructions & Download link

Screenshots gallery

Starting guide - User Interface

How to start a successful clan
 
Game mechanics (spoilers! [in the works])

How to start a successful clan

First things first

Since you start the game with a very small resevoir of clan magic, you should focus on the bare minimum. It's recommended to gain a decent food stockpile as early as possible - so surprises early on won't send your clan starving. In this tutorial we will play together a year of game time and see how far we get. Mind that I am skipping the events to save time - I can't help you developing a good sense for what's right, wrong, rational and insane in the world and culture of this game. You will have to learn to understand Orlanthi culture and how things work on your own, by heeding your advisors' advice, reading up on lore and other things.

Take heed of the Forecast on the left side - it's generally good advice on what to do or avoid during the year.








Now you finally have control of your clan, but you're not done setting everything up yet. You will most likely have to Reorganize your clan ring's member composition to get the most skilled advisors. We will go through this together, step by step.

We sort the thanes by skills through clicking on the appropirate skills on the top bar.
Our clan's main deity is Orlanth, and our thane with the highest Leadership is too old (60), so we opted for the second best choice, who is only one level behind on Leadership.


But before we continue, keep the following in mind:


Firstly, the clan chieftain (far left) should worship your clan's main deity, which you defined during the clan creation (first question, there were 3 choices) and he should have the highsest Leadership skill possible. It's also favourable if he or she is young.
Secondly, you should have 7 different deities represented on your ring.
Last but not least, you should employ a Trickster.

If you follow these simple rules, you have the highest chance of success during Hero Quests, get more clan magic during Sacred Time, enjoy the choice of unique solutions through trickster magic, and the areas you can allocate magic to are more balanced and diverse.

We continue.

Leika was already the best choice for Animals, - which helps mantaining the herds and their health - manning the second ring seat, but we have to go against the first choice in Bargaining, the third seat - we already have an Orlanth worshipper on the ring, the chieftain. It turns out that the second choice has the same level of skill in Bargaining, and even more.

We continue with Combat.

Coincidentally, our most skilled (non-Orlanth worshipping) warrior happens to be a worshipper of Eurmal - a trickster. We gladly take him into the ring.
It's important to note that  the most skilled warrior tends to get caught up in heroic battle events during raids, where there is a chance of wounding. We can't employ trickster magic when our trickster is wounded, or worse.

We continue with Customs.
Our best Customs candidate is already on the ring, for organization's sake we will just move him to the 5th seat, after our combat thane.

The highest ranking Customs thane assumes the role of the Lawspeaker. You should always consider his advice during disputes, accusations etc., as he will be the one who attempts to settle them.

We skip Leadership (already have a chieftain) and continue with Magic.

Having a decent Magic ring member is good for a number of things, of which most are background area and nothing for us to work with.
But this thane will have the most competent advice on supernatural, or magical scenarios - like divinations, spirits and curses.

We continue to the last relevant skill - Plants. Obviously, this one helps mantain healthy crops etc.
The best choice was already selected, so we are mostly done here.

This scenario is rather rare - We employed our most skilled thanes, one for each field, and yet have a spot open. Usually a  trickster would fill the last spot, but in this case, we have the choice to reinforce our clan's expertise for free.

Even though we got a free card, the selection of thanes was limited to but a few; We have to keep a diversity of deities in our clan ring after all.

This lady can still improve our herding abilities and is a capable warrior herself.







In a few minutes our clan ring went from THIS to THIS.

What now? - Recommended first steps

This game has incredibly much to do, but on the beginning, you should only focus on a few things. I recommend checking on the farmer situation - how is your food income doing?

Checking all our advisors' opinions (clicking their portraits) tells us we have nothing to worry about. We have a surplus on farmers, so it would be possible to convert some of them into crafters.
Crafters are vital in increasing clan wealth and mantaining the shrine/temple sacrifices.

Before we do that, we will discuss things you see in that screenshot.



Clicking Farmers simply gives you a menu where you can attempt to recruit more people into your clan.
Clicking Weaponthanes allows you to recruit more Weaponthanes, but beware, you need horses to do that.
Your pool of regular nobles/thanes will not increase without horses either.
Hunters are a secondary, yet very small source of food. Their main purpose seems to be reinforcing patrols.
Without hunters, it's easier to sneak on your tula.

And finally, the crafters.

There are a few things to know:
Crafters do not take part in mantaining the crop fields or fighting.
You have limited 'points of direction', the number can be increased in a number of ways though.
Having too many crafters causes a hit on clan mood, since crafters get special treatment. The points can be treated as such; Every point produces X number of goods in the chosen category per crafter.



That means the crafters will produce roughly 3 times as many plain goods as fancy ones.
The difference between plain, fancy and later on special goods is the price they fetch on the market and the reliability of return. The plain goods will always fetch approximately the same price each year, while the fancy goods are valued more, but may return less profit when the market is saturated.

In this tutorial, we will raise the crafters' number to 25 to stock up on Goods early on.

Fire season

Fire season is traditionally raiding season. Raiding is honourable and expected - Raiding during Fire season actually raises the weaponthanes' mood. As you can see here, there are two ways to raid another a clan. Actually Raiding is mobilizing your farmers and weaponthanes and slapping some serious shit, while Cattle Raiding involves sending a small token force to stealthily lead away some cattle from one of your neighbours. Cattle Raiding, in Orlanthi culture, is not a sign of aggression and should not damage your reputation amongst your chosen victims, provided you don't get caught and wound or kill someone during your escape.

We are eager to test our warriors, so we choose to go on a Raid.

Since we just started here, we have no idea which clans are hostile to us. We clicked through all the known clans until we found one with the tag "We're feuding with them". Additionally, we are calling on one of our allies. Taking allies to raids strenghtens the bond between the two of you, assuming you succeed. It also forces you to share the plunder. If they send 1 warrior for every 5 you have, a 6th of the total plunder goes to your allies.

Take note that we are not sending our entire force; We need some men and women to stay behind and guard our herds - Other clans might seize the opportunity and steal some cattle while we are away, otherwise.

Our force was spotted by our foe's patrols and they managed to mobilize every single able bodied warrior for defense. We have very low clan magic reserves, so I'd rather save it up for emergencies or events. We are choosing the tactic Charge with the goal to Plunder as much as our warriors can carry with them.

To fully understand the difference between the tactics and goals, read them up on the wiki.

Brotip: Clan Vidja succeeded on sticking to Skirmish on Defense and Charge on Offense. The reason behind this is simple: If both sides choose Skirmish, there won't be an actual battle; Both sides throw missiles and then leave - wasting the attacker's turn and chance to acquire loot. Maneuvers are risky because they are countered by Charges - Which is the most common tactic.

Not sacrificing apparently netted us a slight advantage - The enemy has the blessings of the gods they managed to reach, though.

A Heroic Battle event ensued. They can be very varied and have outcomes that may vary on dozens of factors, known and unknown, and often influence the end of the battle significantly. To play it safe, but still try to seize the opportunity, we opt for the neutral choice - #2 - which brought us to a success - albeit that didn't help.

Our first raid ended in failure. On the other hand, another raid with the exact same conditions and choices might have succeeded - A lot of things are based on luck. Winning the battle's initial clash, putting magic into War during Sacred Time, sacrificing before battle and succeeding or failing Heroic Battle events just influences where luck strikes more likely.
Some of our women were captured, the situation is being dealt with here. For the sake of the tutorial, we will not attept to free them in a follow-up raid, but pay the ransom.

Cattle Raids are pretty straight-forward.
Taking more warriors might increase the number of livestock they can bring back, but also increases the chance to get spotted by patrols.

The Cattle Raid was spotted - We are hopelessly outnmbered and have no reason to believe we could put up a fight. Survival + Evade will pull us out of the battle and minimize losses.

Luckily, they did not give in to pursuit.

Earth season

Earth Season is when the clans are busy with their harvest. We are free to engage in trade, diplomacy, exploration or other things. In this tutorial, we will look through interesting blessings, rites and exploration.

We found an interesting blessing we can take advantage of. Vinga's Pathfinder blessing enhances our exploration expeditions and keeps them safe.

How much we should sacrifice depends on the deity, how the deity thinks of us, wheter we allocated magic into Mysteries or not, and other things. We will attempt to learn one of her blessings anyway.

As you can see, the ring members have their own opinions and personalities, although it's the trickster's holy duty to troll his clan and trick people. This can net you some advantages, as well as trouble down the path.

Vinga blessed us with knowledge of the Frydwomen blessing, which permits women to take part in defending our tula and posessions if we get raided.

To utilize this blessing, we have to build a Shrine dedicated to Vinga by clicking "Build" when we have her selected. Now you can see why it's important to keep healthy herds of non-cow livestock and a stock of crafters in your clan.



If we were to learn Vinga's Pathfinder blessing and wanted to use both her blessings simultaneously, we would have to upgrade the Shrine to a Temple, which increases the sacrifical costs.

Dark season

Heavy snowfall makes it nearly impossible to send off caravans or raid. Dark season is often used for managing clan-internal things, like learning more blessings or secrets, recruiting new weaponthanes and the like. In this tutorial, we will attempt to learn and utilize Vinga's second blessing, Pathfinder, to prepare for the next season, where we can send off explorers.

As you can see, we are back in the Sacrifice menu.

Keep in mind, there are deities that don't list all of their powers when you scroll through them in the deity list. Some powers they provide are simply not blessings you can build a shrine for, but curses to lay down on your enemies. So do your research well, look at every deity and what they have to offer in this Sacrificial menu and then decide what to spend your time and resources on.

Sadly, Vinga has not heard us out this time.

It's still Dark season and we lost a few weaponthanes in the past. We could enlarge our patrols and hire a few more. It's generally not necessary to gift them additional goods, unless you want to raise weaponthane mood. This is mostly for attracting weaponthanes from outside of the clan. Again, keep in mind that if you can't hire more weaponthanes, it might either be because your clan simply can't support more full-time warriors, or you are lacking horses.

Storm season

The year's final season. The snow is melting again, it's safe to send trade missions, even to raid again. In this tutorial we will explore our own tula and the south a little to go through some exploration mechanics.

To explore our own tula, simply don't move the yellow cross after clicking Explore on the map menu.

Assign guards and additional eyes to the expedition leader and tell them how much time they should take travelling. Since we are exploring our own tula, there is no need for haste - they will return instantly. We will set it to Slowly to maximize the chances of finding something interesting.

Our party returned with an interesting find.

When exploring our own tula, we can find sources for special crafting resources, which will be explained now.

Special resources like ivory will allow you to allocate a point into them in the crafting screen - but like fancy goods, their price is not stable. Other clans will hear of your discovery and try to obtain access through trade and diplomacy. If you are not planning on utilizing the resource, sell access for an annual fee or do a one time deal for a few wagonloads - at the cost of clan mood, your crafters would become jealous.

Our second expedition goes to a land-mark - the Quivin Mountains - which is likely to have unique and interesting events in wait for us. Since there is a distance between our tula and the mountain range, it might take a few seasons for our explorers to return. This is important to keep in mind if you are sending away valueable weaponthanes. For the sake of the tutorial we set the Travel speed to Quickly. This greatly reduces their chances of finding something, but they will return sooner. Indeed, they managed to return instantly.

This makes clear what kind of benefits a Trickster on your ring can bring your clan. He managed to obtain the wyrm's treasure, a bunch of goods, with his wits and without having to invest any of your own resources.
Charming fellow.

This concludes the year - Sacred Time broke in.
Here you see a write-up of your approximate success, comparing your herds to last year.
Next up comes the magic allocation menu, and everything repeats.

I hope you gained a good understanding of how to manage a clan in the early stages. There are rarely bad choices, only bad planning or poor priority setting.

Writing  a proper end for the guide and a checklist for new clans when I have time.

Threads on /v/ - Might as well bookmark this

I am surprised, to say the least
Next thread MIGHT be cancelled due to familiary events. If that is not the case, same time as always
15:00/3 PM 4Chan time // 21:00/9 PM GMT+1, 27th of April

Warning: These times are not reliable, as I'm busy as fuck outside of KoDP

Twentieth thread recap coming soon

Everything sinking in a sea of shit, oh dear

 Went to explore Kero Fin, since Orlanth told us to
RIPKILL got a magic boost from that while tripping balls
One of our carls was openly murdered
We sent weaponthanes to kill the two murderers
Failed one cattle raid after the other
Farmer assholes are on strike again, we promise to lessen the raids
Blue Jays asked us to help them in a raid and we lost that battle
Discussion about Cavestory+ ensued
Eurmal gave AIDS to two of our people
Jerending clan failed to pay their annual tribute, so they're free game again
Loads of exploration
Pig herder clan nobles came to our tula and said they would kill as many of us as possible
Then they proceeded to wound most of our ring in an event
THEN their pig king died, leaving us with the kingship vote without an Orlanth candidate
We summoned a tribal moot and demanded the pig fuckers pay reparations
They had to pay 11 cows to every other clan in the tribe and the moot forced them to make peace with us
Since our ring leaders are wounded for the most part, we were left with an Ernalda worshipper
She had a lovely skillset and actually made it, she was crowned queen
Failed even more cattle raids
As if the lack of fresh cattle wasn't fucking with us already, a drought broke out
We attempted the combat heavy Hero Quest with RIPKILL, since our Backup Leader, like the rest of the ring majority, was still wounded
Captain RIPKILLBURN proceeded to tear ass in the god plane, until a dark lady scratched his feet or something, wounding him
We lost ~200 cattle to that drought
Random lady showed up, who apparently is part of a prophecy
She told us she wanted to unite all tribes under her crown, we were nice to her but promised her nothing
The drought struck again, killing only a few cows, but we defeated it by sacrificng to the rain god
Suddenly, Pharaoh asshole agents
They demanded to know where some clan we never heard about is, we tried to lie to them
Their bullshit magical trinkets seem to detect lies and they attacked us
We slapped their shit and got their magical instruments as loot
Farmers were despairing again, despite not doing any fucking work during half of the year
We were forced to undertake Ernalda's Quest again, to fix the mood
We sent our Queen, who sports that amazing skillset and just happens to be an Ernalda worshipper
She gets fucking killed by Daga, and this might cause another drought soon
The scorcerer instruments turned out to be cursed as well
Fuck this thread

Nineteenth thread recap coming soon

Getting our shit together - The Thread - The second sequel no one wanted

Eighteenth thread recap

Getting our shit together - The Thread - The Sequel

Hired more farmers
Put Trickster back on his rightful place
Had to kill a huge pig raping boar
Slapped Jerending shit so hard, they came begging for peace
Young noble distinguished himself, he'll be future king
RIPKILL captured some elves again
Like last time, we just let them starve to death in an attempt to provocate an elven attack
Sent Future King to explore, he came back with a spirit in tow
Said spirit lives in a shrine in our village now, protecting children from death
Learned some blessings
Slapped Wolf shit hard, they wanted peace as well
Farmer mood turned out to be stable
What kind of witchcraft is this?
Found a Dragonnewt corpse and decided to make a magical armour of it
Plebian knaves destroyed it in the progress
Sent Satar away for a year to gather more weaponthanes
Snakes EVERYWHERE
Sacrificing to Eralda made them fuck off
Stole a magical steed from the Horse-Spawn
We actually broke even on the farmers needed to mantain all our shit
Learned more blessings
Future King pulled off Hero Quest and was strenghtened
Survivors of the Fire Quartz clan bought the magical steed from earlier for 60 cows and 30 silver

Seventeenth thread recap
Getting our shit together - The Thread

Some anon dropped by, giving sound advice on various topics
Learned the Resurrection ritual
Recruited some more farmers
Stole some cattle from the Ernaldori, they raided us in return
Despite them outnumbering us, they got their shit slapped
White Horse clan came to us asking for information about someone in our tribe
We didn't manage to give them correct information and everyone got mad at each other
Eagle bros came by and wanted one of our babies
She had a birth mark on her forehead, as their prophecy proclaimed
To make everyone happy, we let the Eagle clan raise her, but she was to remain one of our clan
Learned the Oath blessing, amongst some other Humakt related things
Wolf clan keeps cursing our weaponthanes so that their sword-arms go limp
Trickster magic keeps those evil spirits at bay
Trolls decided to raid us and BadassMcMotherfucker murdered them in great numbers
Bratty kid threw shit all over our new Great Temple of Humakt
Shamans found out that he was NOT posessed, just a fucking asshole
Got loads of goods from ransoming 38 Horse-Spawn
Farmers got all uppity and butthurt because they think weaponthanes got better treatment
Decided to do last thread's Hero Quest again, saving their mood
Badgers slapped our shit with 100 more warriors than we had
Losses were minimal though, just many wounded
Some boy's family got slaughtered by Prax raider assholes
We tried to comfort him with a poem to honour the fallen, but Satar fucked it up
Pig Queen died of happiness when her daughter gave birth to triplets
We decided to chill and support whoever paid us the most
Attempting the Uralda Quest in an desperate grab for more cows ended with a dead Ernalda worshipper

Sixteenth thread recap
All dem losses. Time to get our shit together.

Learned Plowsong ritual and found out we have to choose between Vigor and Plowsong
That deity only has shrines in its name, no temples
Raided Jerendings, their numbers are hilariously tiny
Weaponthanes bitched about there not being enough warriors
Sent Satar away for two seasons to look for more
Thief from another clan tried to steal our Humakt banner
Decided to stay civil and we just ransomed his ass back
Farmers fucking revolt, a lot of them try to leave for the Badger clan with our cattle
We ordered our weaponthanes to beat the shit out of the traitors and get our cattle back
RIPKILL proved his sneaky Kommando skills in a Horse-Spawn raid
Eurmal was laughing his ass off and said we have to replace half the clan ring, then our shitty luck would stop
Replaced most people against common sense, will fix it back to normal when someone on the ring dies
Farmers came to complain about constant raiding, we promised them to cut back on raids
We are trying to focus on cattle raids now, to help raise the farmer mood
Jerendings tried to raid us with 80 swordsmen
What the fuck
Cabbage Ducks and Jerendings jointly assaulted the undead, ducks came to ask us for supporting them via Humakt sacrifice
We helped them and they succeeded
Our second cattle raid was uncovered, and we managed to beat the shit out of the Badger patrol and steal cattle despite picking Survival/Evasion
Learned secrets of Ernalde feeds the Tribe Quest to rise farmer mood
Ducks demanded 60 silver for three duck thanes one of our nobles supposedly murdered
Told them to back their lying feathered asses off
We succeeded at the Hero Quest, raising farmer mood from Despairing to Resolved, fuck yeah
Beastfolk decided to raid our shit, stole some horses for sexy times, left 50 of ours wounded and a dozen dead

Fifteenth thread recap

Holy shit, all those things that happened, all that raiding, all that gold, we managed to go from ~200 to 500 (after sacrifices) goods like it was nothing. Kestald may have died, but his death came with a surprise

Kicked the crap out of some Horse-Spawn
Learned Friend of Yinkin, reducing food spoilage
Loads'a raiding fun
First tribe intern food fight
Bandit women nicked two of our married men
We cockblocked their orgy and "saved" them before adultery happened
Got raided by trolls a couple of times
ALL THE OTHER CLANS that were not in a tribe gathered together to form new tribes. In every single new tribe we have one ally and one asshole clan we're feuding with. Shit's getting complicated.
In response to this event, we tried to entice the Dragonnewts to raid another tribe
Motherfucking FLYING wind lords came to our clan asking for help
We sent 10 weaponthanes with them
Explored elf-infested Stinking Forest, massive treasures there
Captain RIPKILLBURN took insane risks during a defense against the Jerendings
He utterly destroyed them in battle
Dragonnewts actually listened to us and raided a clan from another tribe, it was brutal
We ignored them, knowing we will have an advantage against this tribe
The trader that sold us Ernalda's Oven and other stuff was killed by bandits
We helped the Blue Jays raid the Squat Oaks, tribe intern warfare, yay
Kestald died, but we have a trickster now
Kestald will be remembered fondly

Fourteenth thread recap 
Hot damn, what progress. Too many things happened to comment them here, but I'm happy with how most things went.

Some exploration
Decided to fuck up Fire Quartz some more, since this is our clan-intern sport or something
Unintentionally spent most of our clan magic helping defeat a drought via Hero Quest sponsoring
Tusk Riders actually banded to together and gathered at our tula's border to slap our shit
Before aforementioned shit-slapping commenced, our cursed bro Thadart rode out to them and convinced/tricked them into raiding the Fire Quartz instead
There was another secret murder on our tula
We opted for just sending Kestald to the Fire Quartz to make a legal accusation against them
They flat out denied having involvment in the murder of our girl
The people were outraged at their lies, but we let it rest
Lolnope - Fire Quartz retaliation rape commenced
Warriors interrogated Fire Quartz scum and they confessed that one of theirs murdered our farm girl, but he was killed in that raid - Blood justice was done
That beating was too severe for their baby butts to hold together
Their asses were torn apart and disbanded like their clan, we actually drove them out of Dragon Pass
Several attempts to form an alliance with Squat Oaks failed during  the thread. Those fucking assholes.
News reached us that the Squat Oak clan lost goods worth 152(!) cows to a fire
They shouldn't have denied our friendship
Wounded Storm Bull warrior showed up again
We patched him up and sent warriors away with him
Turns out this time there actually was a nest of chaos to root, and they have done so successfully
Pissed off lady wants a divorce and demands the EXACT SAME 10 cows she gifted to him as weeding dowry over a decade ago
We told her to fuck off with her ridiculous demands
She left our clan and swore that her home clan will avenge her strong independent womyn fury
TRIBE TIME! - Voted to name the Tribe "Estavos", after our god-emporer
Started inviting clans, one by one
Farmers went on a strike, we promised them to purchase more cattle
Obtained even MORE land than we can already manage, our tula is so massive, we could 4 or 5 tulas of other clans inside it
We had the conference (called moot) and got every clan to agree to the demands of the others
Pig herder clan won kingship, we enjoyed the occasion and had a good meal

Thirteenth thread recap

Amazing progress, lovely participation. Tribe is due next thread.

Lads that gave us "Iron Spike" for safekeeping returned
We honoured our deal and we got loads'a DOSH
Found a magical dude who cursed Fire Quartz herds, killing off a lot of their livestock, for 50 silver
Raided Fire Quartz because they're down on the ground
They decided to send a peace delegation
Not falling for that shit again, we take their tribute and immediately go slap their shit again, because we can
Prophet came by, to make a tribe with us
We told him to come back later, we have yet to expand our tula
RIPKILL got wounded the 393rd time
Fire Quartz raid us
Technically, they "won" the battle, but they have thrice the losses and only stole 2 horses
Wolf clan followed, promptly got their shit slapped
Some sacrifices to learn new blessings
Helped Uralda cultists save cows from a plague
After a few raids in that year, we seized land from the Squat Oaks
Then we managed to ally ourselves with them, they are seriously chill about losing 300 men and 80% of their tula
Decided to raid Fire Quartz and Wolf scum
RIPKILL got wounded in a raid YET AGAIN
Fire Quartz paid mercs to fuck up our clan chieftain hall
We retaliated to find 28(!) defenders on their claim
We attempt to burn their shit, but end up stealing cattle and silver instead

Twelth thread recap

Quite nice thread. Had great participation, but our Heroic level Trader lass died. On the other hand, we managed to explore more of the world and finished the tribe making Hero Quest. Next time the prophet shows up, we're getting a tribe.

Some exploration, uncovered the Dragonnewt Wildlands
Captain RIPKILLBURN managed to get wounded several times
>Arrow to the neck, hit by a lightning bolt (lolwut), set on fire by asshole doing hero quest mid battle
Loads of fun raiding
Bug loaded event ensued
Basically, chieftain's daughter got kidnapped by Fire Quartz, who we had a non-aggression pact with
We decided to raid their shit, the battle was set to Kill, yet there was not a single wound or death despite us winning
Event claimed we lost the battle and failed to recover her
Bandit assholes disturbing trade routes
Got their asses driven out of our tula
During raiding, we lost some women, which we recovered again immediately
During a raid, the badass trader lass died, oh noes
Some carl bought magical wine without consulting the ring first
We confiscated the wine
Loads of sacrifices to learn the tribe making Quest
Xbox-hueg black wyrm attacked Jerending clan, they came pleading for warriors
Instead, we sent a delegation to reason with the wyrm
We brofisted and he quit harassing humans
Pulled off the Making of the Strom Tribe-Quest with bravado

Eleventh thread recap

Absolutely lovely. Made some progress, had a few minor fuck ups, but all in good fun. That Hero Quest was meh to do in the thread, but at least we pulled it through. Going to repeat that soonish and explore the possibilities more.

 That Storm bull asshole murdered our ex-outlaw bro we took in
Couldn't find him
Bought a statue that changes shape every season, keeps the clan mood high
Fire Quartz clan came begging for peace
They pay us 15 cows a year for a non-aggression pact
Wolf clan got raped when they tried to raid us
This ruind their harvest
Yinkin cultists blessed our cats so they can hunt diseased vermin better
Our weaponthanes and chieftain made it back, loads'a loot was had
We may have a non-agression pact with the Fire Cuntz, but a few of our thanes threw dirt or something at their main god's temple
We told them to fuck off and that our god could beat the shit out of their god, strenghtening our clan magic
Fire Quartz chieftain literally died from being too filthy, from "a terrible wasting disease"
We rescued our last clanskin and the two thanes from the Horse Spawn
Diplomat from the northern Kingdom tried to pay us in foreign coins, not cows, as promised
We made him take that shit back and come back with cows
Some thralls escaped from another clan, we bought them for cheap and told them they're free
Squat Oak clan's Prize Bull got raped by a dragonnewt
Literally raped
We bought Eurmal's balls
Yes, we own the trickster god's juggling balls
Dude returned with our promised cows
Half of the cows were sickly and weak from the travel
Decided to fuck with him and demand healthy cows
He wanted to duel our asses, but then we opted to apologize, so he left
Half the cattle died, leaving us with 75 cows to add to our herds
Humakt cultists came to our tula demanding warriors
We sent a bunch of weaponthanes, who returned without loot, but victory
The asshole clan we sent gifts earlier decided to raid us
They got their shit slapped, and their cropland was promplty cursed
Our magical fire gem was burnt to ashes, damn shame
Another Battle Kite festival, where we decided to throw a feast for the other clans
After we raided the Wolf clan they wanted to make peace
We told them to fuck off
Some young lass came to our clan, begging for help
She is to be married to a man that dishonoured her
We decided to marry her to one of our nobles
We bought a Hate Torch, fuck yeah
Guy that dishonoured the girl from earlier wants her back
Kestald told him what's up and he buggered off
Managed to pull off the Issaries Hero Quest, improving our trader
She is now a Heroic level bargainer
Exploration party was pulled into a historical battle and impressed the wind spirits
We can now call on the wind spirits once
Captain RIPKILLBURN took an arrow to the neck during a raid, but survived

Tenth thread recap

Incredible thread, both in participation and progress for clan Vidja. I think we've never done so well, even the (few) failures were rebounded by success and interesting content.

Found artifact that greatly enhances Skirmish tactic
Reduced Wildlands, increased cropland and pastures to test elves
They stayed the fuck out of our business
Horse-Spawn raid, they fucked off quick
Fire Quartz was raided for loads'a cattle and goods
Fire Quartz immediately retaliates and we just end up throwing shit at each other
Storm Bull got wounded, we patched him up and sent weaponthanes to go hunt chaos with  him
Dude got bored and wandered off
We took in an outlaw who wouldn't talk about why he was outlawed
Learned a lot of stuff abotu Issaries, trade deity, and his blessings
Tusk Raider curse was lifted, apparently - Second child was curse- & tusk free
PISSED OFF Storm Bull came to us, he demanded that outlaw
Decided to protect our lad and drive him out, he killed some of our weaponthanes and swore revenge on the outlaw
Fire Quartz surprised us, but we ripped off their heads
Wolf clan follows immediately, a coordinated attack, it would seem
In total, over 100 enemies died on our tula that day
Korol got high as shit and met a talking bear or some shit
Boosted his animal and plant skills a little
Korol still remains an useless twat
Bought a treasure that's supposed to be a great help in Hero Quests when we do them in reaction to a disaster, like a drought
Loads'a exploration, all over the thread
Explorers found artifact that scares the shit out of horses
Took in some more ex-Horse Spawn thralls
Utterly butt-destroyed the Wolf clan, leaving them with THIRTY farmers for the harvest
Horse-Spawn magicians came for their thralls
We decided to attack them
They killed like half our weaponthanes and nicked three of our thanes, two of those were ring members, one of them being Captain KILLRIPBURN
Expedition to holy mountain had a rap battle with some other clan's explorers
White calf was born
Decided to have the herder keep it, that increased our herds' size and made everyone happy
Some random-ass clan got their ass handed to them when they tried to raid us
We voted to make peace with them, we already have two bitches
Chieftain's exploration party found one of our thanes with other random thralls
We liberated the shit out of them, Satar returned, two more thanes to go
Diplomat from northern kingdom hired 3/4 of our weaponthanes (and our chieftain) as mercs against the "Lunar empire"
Nearby ducks thought it was a good idea to steal cattle while most of our weaponthanes left
Kestald turned into Judge Dredd and lawyered them
Duck chieftain made thieves bring back stolen cattle and extra goods to boot

Ninth thread recap coming when I can get arsed to write it up

Eighth thread recap

Without doubt the most disastrous year for clan Vidja. The choices weren't bad and we never trailed off good form, but the luck to everything was horrifying. We must have lost at least a 100 men, apart from losing those battles and oh so many exploration squads.

Wolf clan raided us, got their shit slapped
Found a war banner from Humakt
Using it guarantees victory, but the standard bearer dies
Vampire molested one of our youths again
Sacrificed to Humakt to protect from
Learned some new blessings
Tusk Raider cursed carl got a baby, baby is afflicted by the curse as well
Decided to sacrifice to the spirits so that his future children remain uncursed
Failed a Fire Quartz raid, hard
45 of our women were captured
Dinosaur dude came around AGAIN
Decided to feed him again
Freed the women again, using the banner
Had to sacrifice a ring noble, since the weaponthanes refused to carry it to battle
Fire Quartz retaliated, got their shit slapped
Restocked on weaponthanes and farmers
Wandering shaman duo offered us their services
Decided to cast a curse on the Fire Quartz that makes their sword arms stiff
NO WANKING FOR YOU, FIRE QUARTZ
Replaced dead ring member with a young, badass Humakt worshipper
Trolls attacked us, got their dicks slapped
Decided to fuck up the Fire Quartz again
BadassMcMotherfucker lead us to victory
Konthasos clan invited one of our weaponthanes to dine in their chieftain hall
Gave him rotten food, while the others had lavish meals
When he wasked for a rag to clean himself up with, they give him a smelly, old one with lots of holes
Our lawspeaker Kestald wrote a satirical poem about the clan
Poem made its round and was very well received, Konthasos clan earned the name "Dirty Rag Clan"

Seventh thread recap 

Great thread, lovely progress. Instead of two hours, as planned, we ended up going 4.

Neighbours came for help
Fire Quartz raid left them too weak to fight off a chaos creature, a land-octopus (or something)
Badass Chieftain lead our weaponthanes to victory
Raided  Fire Quartz, because they are assholes
Wolf clan raided us, many wounds on our side
Wandering healing priestess patched up most of our warriors
We raided in retaliation
Dude that got his face uglified by tusk raider god got treated like shit
We made the clan feel bad for thinking less of him
Later on, we helped him find a wife. D'awww.
Looked up new blessings and rituals, learned a whole bunch
Including "Blast Earth", which ruins an enemy's soil
Managed to buy artifact rattle from Captain Jizzbeard so that our children would grow up faster
Storm Bull berserker got rid of a Broos infestation in our herd
Tried out "Blast Earth" on Fire Quartz for shits and giggles
It turned out to be HILARIOUS
To enhance the HILARITY we stole their damn cattle as well
To further enhance the HILARITY we raided their asses right after they came begging for a break, giving us some of their cattle
The humiliation was perfect when our Chieftain, BadassMcMotherfucker got into a fight with a FLYING Fire Quartz hero. He was playing with the enemy, laughed him right in his stupid face, mid battle, then ended him as if he was worthless
New Chieftain is now Estavos' son because clan Vidja said so
Orlanthi from the old country visited us
They gave us an artifact, "Iron Spike", for safekeeping. It helps defend against our sworn enemies, the trolls.
They will later return for it and reward us greatly
After the last Fire Quartz raid, Wolf clan raided us
Fucking stegosaurus earthshaker thing decided to chill on our tula and eat our hay
Weaponthane managed to corner him, or something
Decided to feed the dinosaur, he was pretty chill and left when he was full
Failed to enter realm of gods on newly learned Hero Quest
Fire Quartz raided us again, and as expected, paid dearly

Sixth thread recap

Amazing thread and participation

New badass on the block - Heorl. Like Estavos his only useful skill is combat, but he is very young
Heorl avenged relatives that were killed during feuds TWICE - mid battle, in 1 on 1 duels
Fire Quartz raided us
Estavos showed first signs of his age during the battle, but he pulled through and lead us to victory
Second vampire attack, failed to find the vampire
Sent Estavos off to explore
Estavos died of old age
Found wind spirits on the mountain, failed to convince them to move into one of our shrines
Failed a rainbow raid
Raided Fire Quartz and Wolf clan
Sent useless nobles to their deaths
One of our ring members hada skirt with chaos runes on them, she fell ill
Failed to make out the assholes who gave it to her
Bought an artifact that increases food yield, a magic oven
Had a prophet visit who said we would be kings

Fifth thread recap

Great thread, had loads'a fun. Feeling very motivated.

Raided the Wolf Clan
Estavos was being a badass, murdering god-talkers left and right
We won some battle kite event
Cowardly Wolf cubs tried to make peace
FUCKING ELF MAGIC BULLSHIT
Useless noble died during Quest
Some trader bitched about one of our ring members selling her diseased cows
Kestald laid down the fucking LAW on her, and she left peacefully
Forest nymph fucked three of our men
Wolf clan scum murdered our horses again
One of our clansmen got a STD from the forest nymph, flora just exploded out of him
We fucked up the Wolf clan for their horse murders
A Fire Quartz half-wit murdered one of our women
We raided in retaliation and murdered dozens, Estavos was being a badass again
People rejoiced when their kin-sister was avenged
Dragonnewts showed up, doing some kind of ritual for 12 hours straight
Decided to just silently watch them, but then they fucked off after another 2 hours
What the fuck, dude
Some noble motherfucker named Vastyr riled up the clansmen against the GREAT AND ALMIGHTY ESTAVOS
Vastyr was promptly sent to the undead marshes
That pain in the ass survived and brought a treasure we can sell
Sent him far away, again
He got his face kicked in, but still lives
Squat Oaks declined our request for an alliance
The Wolf scum raided us, surprisingly, and failed - They lost like 40 men 

Fourth thread recap

Shitty time to make a thread, but I thought couldn't pull off two hours for the rest of the day
Ended up playing with myself for the most part

Fucking elven magic. The forest is growing rapidly, swallowing our fields
We sent gifts to the Blue Jays
We found an old golden cart, clearly made by dragon worshippers
We decided to display it at our village
Fucking elven magic again
Attracted some new cottars
Raided the Wolf clan
Elven attack again
We bros with Blue Jays now, they like our clan a lot
A drought happened, we failed to fight it, it killed off ~300 of our livestock
We were raided by the Fire Quartz, killing a grand 40 of them, wounding 70 more
Somehow, we captured 6 of their warriors. We ended up executing those scum

Third thread recap

I apologize for this thread, I was tired and rushed things a little halfway through.
We still made great progress.

Replaced missing ring member
Encountered fairy-looking spirit, seemed friendly
Sacrificed to spirit, turned out to be evil, still waiting for this to come back to us
Sent out an exploration team that never returned and was pronounced dead after a year or so
More raiding the Fire Quartz clan
Chieftain died during raid, in a daring encounter
Estavos is now chieftain
Took in a refugee as a new thane
Sold off a weaponthane into marriage for glorious 50 cows and some goods
Suffered another ambush by the elves, they got their dicks kicked
Failed to reach the realm of gods in an attempted Hero Quest
Some troll raids
Vigilant Justice by two Fire Quartz lowlifes was met with a glorious raid during Storm season
Women of the clan complained about Estavo being a good leader, he convinced them otherwise, barely
A new trade route
More rading the Fire Quartz clan
Fire Quartz showed up, trying to make peace
Told them to fuck off, they hired Wolf clan mercs in turn
Converted some wildlands into pastures to support our massive herds
Fire Quartz sent a spirit to haunt one of our steads
Failed to make it gtfo, raided the Fire Quartz in retaliation
Glorious battle was had, failed to burn their steads, made the spirit leave, still
Fire Quartz attempted a cattle raid, were spotted and driven off
They had to walk back home, since we somehow stole their horses
Wolf clan murdered some more of our horses
Tall-ass dinosaur came to our tula, asked which virtue was the most important to our clan
We decided on "Justice"
Grew tired of Fire Quartz bullshit and stole their land
They moved to the South East of our tula, we are not touching borders though
Will need to befriend the Blue Jay clan for free passage
Ring member grabbed some Weaponthanes and captured three elves alive
Tried to set up an ambush, no elves ever came to rescue them
Prisoners decided to starve to death
Raiding the Fire Quartz's new home
Evastos proved to be major alpha and made one of FQ's heroes step the fuck down
Failed the Storm hero quest due to bad luck or lack of combat aptitude on part of the quester

Second thread recap

Found a treasure that helps us one time against trolls in battle
Warded off ice demons by sacrificng to their enemies
Found some earthshaker bones, sold them off
Gigantic rat things with fangs and shit were pestering us, had the trickster lead them into Fire Quartz territory
Patched up a wounded warrior from another tribe
More raiding the Fire Quartz, a shitty year
We lost 21 women to the Fire Quartz, decided against paying the ransom
Defended ourselves against numerous counter-raids
Failed a hero quest, twice, got a treasure out of it though
The second time, the Uralda worshipping ring member died
Trickster gifted away 50 cows because they were "funny looking"
Learned some new blessings to aid us in battle, and some other things
Trickster cheated some other clan in gamble, won us lots of food
Built defenses
Took in thralls from foreign riders
Said riders wanted to know where their thralls are, successfully lied to them and had them wreck the Fire Quartz' shit
Beat the shit out of some bad-mouthing trader, made friends with a strange merchant lady
Made contact with marsh ducks, they need help keeping the undead at bay
Held off chaos
Rescued our 21 women again in a good year, loads of dead Fire Quartz, we even burnt their homes down
Trickster died of old age, NEVER FORGET
Wolf clan keeps murdering our horses
Had loads of fun with /v/

First thread recap

Picked out the Fire Quartz clan to bully around, many raids happened.
Did some exploration of our own tula.
Took in some adventuring party consisting of a twisted beastman, a duck, a thin, yet very tall black dude, some random shaman lady, and a tapir wizard or something. They had no idea how to behave themselves, some of our men were pissed off, so we slapped their shit. The beast-man escaped, the rest was killed. They dropped 4 treasures, 2 of which are really neat.
Did a little bit of exploration to the north, found some strange foreigners with weird mounts, some of them may be of chaos. They turned out to be chill and we traded treasures.
More raping the Fire Quartz clan.
Oh, and our children are sometimes growing beards. Fire Quartz assholes are hiring shamans to curse our children, "so that no one will ever want to marry them", another reason to keep the raiding up.
We failed some Hero Quest, managed to gain some new blessings through Sacrifice, though.
Killed off some serial rapist boar.
Then some escaped thralls ran to us, clan Wolf was treating them like shit, so they killed some people and escaped into the woods. We tried reasoning with the Wolf thanes, since our ancestors were nice to thralls, but they didn't want to hear any of that hippie shit. Later, we found some horses that had their throats slit and their corpses filled with shit. Our ancestors confirmed that clan Wolf was behind this - we tried to make a legal claim, but they just denied having anything to do with this.
Wolf clan is the first to go down as soon as Fire Quartz is finished.

Starter Guide

Defining a new clan

You decide to leave your homeland - torn apart by war and strife - behind you, and set out to Dragon Pass.

Before you can settle, you have to decide on your clan's history.

 

The game gives you a short lesson of the world's history, how things came to be, and the deities, gods and god-like individuals that are important and revered by your people, all the while you make choices that define your clan. For a detailed explanation of what each choice influences, visit the wiki page on Clan Creation.

Keep in mind, many of those choices have an impact on your clan's attitude and reactions to choices you make throughout the game. Going against your ancestral spirits by not tearing elf ass whenever you have the chance, while your clan used to battle elves for as long as they can remember, will result in a negative clan mood and losing  some of your clan's magic resevoir.

Brotip: When asked which deity your god-talkers contacted first, I recommend awakening Uralda, the cow mother. You will start with some knowledge of Uralda, most likely one of her blessings, of which both are very beneficial to both feeding your clan and sustaining a powerful herd.

Starting out in your new home

What you are looking at is Sacred Time. The year is divided in 4 seasons, additionally to Sacred Time, which is used to reflect on your posessions compared to last year's Sacred Time, and preparing your clan's magic to influence the oncoming year.

The annual Forecast is nothing to be ignored. It tells you when raiding will be especially successful, when to save up food stocks and many more things. In the center you can see your level of reputation. The goal of the game is to unite or subdue all clans throughout Dragon Pass and be voted King, eventually. Most importantly, you can decide where you clan should focus its magic rituals, which will influence the entire coming year, on the right.

The Magic set here will influence all things you do and happen to you, both active (Raiding, trade missions) and passive (Wounds in batle, recovery speed of the sick). It's always recommended to invest some Magic into the Crops and Herds - These should increase your food & livestock gain and even help ward bad things from your cattle.

Managment UI

We will go through all menus from left to right.

Farming

Here you have a summary of your Tula (the land your clan owns), its herds, how you use the land and everything food related.

Usually you don't touch the sliders on "Land", unless you happen to acquire so many cows and other livestock, that your hides of pasture can't support feeding them all - Or you gained so many farmers that they are boring themselves. "Cops Planted" will be explained later on, but can usually be left in peace as well.

Relationships

In the center, under "Relation", you can sort all the clans you know by various criteria. In the screenshot, you see all the clans that owe a Favour to your clan. Favours can be obtained or owned to other clans through a variety of events, through trade, or helping out each other. 

By clicking on "Emisssary" can also send a diplomat  for various things.

Trade

You should check here at least once every 1-2 years. It lists your treasures, worth often more than 50 cows each, and clans that you have constant trade with. You can send caravans by clicking on "Mission", which allows you a great number of things - to keep your clan wealthy, well fed or rich in artifacts. Establishing a stable trade route is also very beneficial, and will be discussed later.

War

This menu lists your village's fortifications, able bodied farmers that can aid you in raids and defense, Weaponthanes (full time warriors, think of soldiers instead of militia), patrols and raids conducted by and against you. It's important to keep the weaponthans busy with patrols, it makes them feel like they have a purpose. Additionally, patrols warn your village against incoming raiders, and keep cattle thieves at bay.

Brotip: When deciding to raid another clan, do not send 100% of your weaponthans and able bodied warriors, another clan might take the chance and steal cattle from you. Auxiliaries are mostly women that support your warriors and tend to the wounded. In the screenshot, we are asking another clan (who owes us a favour) to send warriors to support the raid.

Clan

On the left side, you can manage how your clan mates should spend their time. Clicking on Weaponthanes allows you to recruit or dismiss weaponthanes. Clicking on Farmers lets you bolster your clan's numbers, which can be very important when too many of your warriors were wounded and can't tend to the fields and the livestock any more.

You can also give a feast or spoil your clan with gifts to raise the mood.

Magic & Gods

On the left side you have a list of Deities you can worship, on the right side you see which blessings or spells this God can bestow on your clan or your enemies. To learn of new magic, you have to "Sacrifice" to the god. In my case, my clan succeeded and we learned the Woad ritual. Our clan already knows the Rain ritual and has a Shrine to sacrifice to Orlanth to take advantage of it.



We can either de-select rain and select Woad, or we expand the shrine and increase the annual sacrifices to Orlanth to support both blessings.

Hero Quests will be explained later, in the Game Mechanics page.

Map

Here you can see the terrain known to your clan, where other clans are situated, the land claims of Tribes (Clans that bro'd it up) and trade route.
The most interesting thing on here is the "Explore" button, though. You can send one of your nobles with an entourage to scout out your tula, landmarks and other points of interest.
Leaving the yellow cross where it is means you are exploring your own tula for holy sites & special resources.

Brotip: Exploration speed should always be set to "slow" - your exploration party will take its time to scout out everything thoroughly - unless you are sending them far, far away; You might be missing a ring member and some weaponthanes for several seasons.

Lore & Customs

A great resource of your people's history, what makes them tick and to understand their opinions.
Mostly self explanatory, (double-) click through everything that seems interesting to you. Check the borders of the Lorescrolls - The UI design there is not the most obvious one.
Hitting the Space-key lets you see the background art of both the lore-scrolls and events & encounters.

Saga

The last icon brings you to your own clan's saga scroll. You can re-read significant happenings and your God-Talkers' forecasts.

What is King of Dragon Pass?

Introduction to the game

The gameplay mechanics prove to be an interesting and unique combination of RPG-, Civilization managment-, Choose your own Adventure-elements.

The only downside comes from the game's age - The resolution is low. Luckily, the graphics don't matter, everything is represented in still images and the managment UI - It's similar to looking at a picture book. If the small game screen and the font still bother you, you could buy the HD version for iPhone/iPad and support the developers.

The learning curve is laid back, yet engaging; Even though some things can seem overwhelming at first, getting into the game is as easy as trying everything yourself, explorig all the possibilites and exchanging experiences with other people. Understanding the mechanics to optimize your playstyle requires some reading of the ingame Lorebook, the game manual and the inofficial wiki - Which will be taken together & reduced to this guide - for your convenience.

What's the story?

The setting is a low fantasy/magic world where you manage a colony of norse badasses who fled their home country, which was invaded and taken over by an evil warlord who openly allied himself with scum like trolls, and attempts to oppress, or force your people into submission.

Many other clans chose to do the same, and you're to unite them all under your banner - To become the new king of your people. Your main concerns will be taming the wilderness, sending exploration parties to scout out your land claim (Tula) and other landmarks, keeping your clan well fed, interacting with the other clans via peace & trade or warfare, resolving in-clan or inter-clan disputes, leading your people through hardships and getting to know the spirits of the land, your deities and worship.

The mythic, magic part of the game has its roots in real life norse mythology, ancient cultures and other influences. You can read about it here.

Interesting points of Gameplay

You can do all the things mentioned above and so much more. While you manage your leadership, conquer and expand for your clan, you're constantly beset with events you click through like in a Choose-your-own-adventure book, may they be random occurence or a result of a choice you've made earlier in your game.

Additionally, there will always be your council's nobles (The Ring) giving you advice and their opinions of situations at hand. All these nobles have their own skillsets, so having a noble who knows how to take care of livestock will be able to tell you wheter your pastures are plentliful enough or not.

Apart from an entertaining village managment component, KoDP has a rather extensive deity & spirit system. Ignoring your ancestors and the spirits of the lands - There are god-like individuals that are very important to your people.

 As an example, we will take Uralda - The mother of Cows.

You can worship her, sacrifice cattle and goods to her; She will bless your clan with mysteries, knowledge which you can further investigate. When you clan has full knowledge of a story, you will be able to build shrines dedicated to her and introduce annual sacrifices to get her blessings. Uralda has two blessings to provide, one that increases the yield, and the other that increases the fertility of your cattle. Additionally to her blessings, you can perform a Hero Quest. In this screenshot you can see that the Hero Quest for Uralda has several benefits, but we cannot send a Ring member to attempt it because we do not have uncovered enough knowledge about Uralda's story.

Hero Quests, again, can be compared to more extensive Choose-Your-Own-Adventure episodes. Actually reading the stories and lore is important - You are not trying to "win", but rather reenact Uralda's story. You will have to figure out what Uralda would have done, or did, in the situations you are confronted with. Failure is likely, the champion you sent might not have a strong affiliation with Uralda, you got unlucky in persuading someone, or your champion tripped during a combat sequence. Success however is greatly rewarded. Artifacts, knowledge, and other effects, like know-how, conveyed to your champion, are common rewards.

Part of the fun is that you can only squeeze so few things into your schedule. Perhaps you prepare a ritual, then go on a raid - Suddenly the season's over already, and you have to do less manpower-intensive tasks to make sure your clan can focus on the harvest.

King of Dragon Pass is an excellent and captivating time waster, with some depth, random elements, an outlandish settings - with all its customs and kinks - that is yet somehow relateable, uniquely mixed game mechanics and a product of love.

A lot of scenarios, story paths and outcomes will only spawn from failures, depend on your clan's hertiage or randomness, so the replay value, not solely attributed to the fun and comprehensive managment capabilities in this game, is considerable.