Both of my kids (middle school age) have recently started showing a lot of interest in my sourcebooks so I thought it would be a good time to get them started by running a campaign for them. Naturally, I have some questions which I hope the combined experiences of players on this board can help me answer. They want their first characters to be an Inquisitor and a Druid.
1) Do I need to give their party 1 or more NPCs for balance? I've never done much with NPCs accompanying a party and could use tips on the best way to work it.
2) Any ideas for a good way to let both of them use their abilities? I'd normally tend Urban for the Inquisitor and Wilderness for the Druid.
3) Should I help them optimize or just let them grab what they want and tailor everything to their power levels?
4) Any other advice? This is completely new territory for me.
Thanks in advance!
1) Do I need to give their party 1 or more NPCs for balance? I've never done much with NPCs accompanying a party and could use tips on the best way to work it.
I tend to shy away from adding to their party unless they request it. You definitely don't want a 'DM PC' so that your kids feel like "it's Daddy's adventure were just along for the ride."
Bread's idea about having an NPC provide advice is well-taken, but you don't want to seem like the party leader. Perhaps an adviser that isn't combat-ready NPC to guide them but not to actually do anything.
2) Any ideas for a good way to let both of them use their abilities? I'd normally tend Urban for the Inquisitor and Wilderness for the Druid.
I don't necessarily see the Inquisitor as strictly urban. Think about the class in the abstract; knowledge(nature) and monster lore point to well beyond the church inquisitor archetype. Having the Inquisitor serve the Druids will go a long way to helping group cohesiveness.
Seeing the party as a balancing force for nature will mean they have to fight evil fey in the forest and destructive business interests in town.
3) Should I help them optimize or just let them grab what they want and tailor everything to their power levels?
Again, I would say unless they ask for help let them build the character they want to play. The real difficulty will be if one optimizes for combat while the other doesn't. That will lead to a division of how much combat plays a part in the adventure.
4) Any other advice? This is completely new territory for me.
Find out what kind of adventure they want. It doesn't pay to build an intricate game world of political intrigue if all they want to do is smash goblins.
My first thought is to have the wizened old crone of their tribe call the two together to serve Nature from the many forces that threaten the harmony of forest.
Now, they have an NPC they can go to for advice and that can send them on adventures if needed. Make the old crone have a crystal ball to scry upon them and be able to use sending to provide them hints if needed. If they don't need the help, great. If they do, you have an in game method of why and how the old crone helps them.
Also, as we all know those old crones are touched in the head and often talk in riddles and half-truths so you don't have to spoon feed them a laundry list of tasks either.
Both of my kids (middle school age) have recently started showing a lot of interest in my sourcebooks so I thought it would be a good time to get them started by running a campaign for them. Naturally, I have some questions which I hope the combined experiences of players on this board can help me answer. They want their first characters to be an Inquisitor and a Druid.
1) Do I need to give their party 1 or more NPCs for balance? I've never done much with NPCs accompanying a party and could use tips on the best way to work it.
I would say yes, they lack a primary front line guy, and an npc fighter might be a simple addition to the party. Include him like you would any player character, just run by you to help out. With that combined I think you have a pretty solid party even with just 3 characters.
2) Any ideas for a good way to let both of them use their abilities? I'd normally tend Urban for the Inquisitor and Wilderness for the Druid.
Actually both of these character types work well in the wilderness. The inquisitor is an excellent tracker/hunter of monsters, and a very substancial skill set. Both would be good at hunting down monsters in any kind of terrain. Have them hunt down monsters (that the inquisitor can track and use knowledge about) that are causing problems in the druid's territory (the woods or what have you).
3) Should I help them optimize or just let them grab what they want and tailor everything to their power levels?
Help them optimize at least a little. Nothing will drive them away faster then failing at doing stuff all the time. Make sure they are well built to do what the kids want them to do. I recommend this for any new players, but especially younger children. You want them to feel awesome to some degree, particularly the first time around.
Thanks in advance!4) Any other advice? This is completely new territory for me.
Keep things simple at first. Defeat the monsters, save the village, that sort of stuff. Let them slowly get used to the system before you start to get complicated.
Great advice, thanks so much!
Both of my kids (middle school age) have recently started showing a lot of interest in my sourcebooks so I thought it would be a good time to get them started by running a campaign for them. Naturally, I have some questions which I hope the combined experiences of players on this board can help me answer. They want their first characters to be an Inquisitor and a Druid.
Playing RPGs with your family can be a great experience. I started playing D&D with my younger brother when he was around 4 or 5. The adventures were simple, but he enjoyed them. His first character was Wallace Van'tiel, noble fighter, knight extraordinaire. Slayer of the ogre, and giver of gold to old ladies.
Lots of good memories could await.
1) Do I need to give their party 1 or more NPCs for balance? I've never done much with NPCs accompanying a party and could use tips on the best way to work it.
NPCs in the party can be a great asset from not only a mechanical aspect, but a roleplaying aspect. I've frequently used a single NPC in games that were light on players. It can give a character to become fond of, get to know, or even romance while pursuing the main story.
I would recommend making the NPC fairly friendly. They can be PC-classed, and lightly optimized as desired. You'll probably have the best results with some sort of support role (such as a buffing wizard), or to fill a niche (such as a tank, healer, etc), depending on the character. It can be a bit of a balancing act trying to make certain that the NPC doesn't step on anyone's toes, but if you emphasize the NPC's character rather than statistics, they will love them for it.
Example: In one of my fun online games, which only had 2 player characters, they met an NPC very early on named Riv'era. She was an enchanter, trained in magic because her father thought it would be useful, and they rescued her. She was fairly strong as an enchanter goes, and was built very much like a standard PC-character.
She appreciated the rescue and helped the party with whatever she could while they were on the way to return her to town. Sometime during the adventure, she decided that she was going to stick around with them, and later ended up in the beginnings of a romance with one of the party members.
In combat, she functioned just as a wizard would have been expected to. She didn't hesitate to cast stuff like sleep to take out groups of enemies, which some might feel was "stealing the show". However, the main difference is in the execution.
If she cast sleep, it wouldn't be like "Riv'era casts sleep and takes them all out in a single swoop", it would be more like "Riv'era looses her spell and sets the bandits to rest. She then turns and says Phew...we'd better be careful. Maybe you should take the lead, in case more are about? I'd feel safer that way.".
The end result is the same, but one brings the players into the scene, because they are being included in a dialog, while the other could make the NPC seem like a lone wolf in a pack.
2) Any ideas for a good way to let both of them use their abilities? I'd normally tend Urban for the Inquisitor and Wilderness for the Druid.
Why not make the first adventure about hunting down a criminal? Maybe some guy who did something really bad in a city, and escaped into the countryside? You could have plenty of NPC interaction in villages and such, while also keeping a very rural adventure going that would be ideal for both of them. Plus, wilderness areas have more opportunity for surprises.
3) Should I help them optimize or just let them grab what they want and tailor everything to their power levels?
I'd help them with a bit of practical optimization. Make sure they don't do anything like want to wield a greatsword with 9 strength. My Practical Optimization thread might give some ideas for making believable characters that are simple and effective. Knowing how to build your character is a good piece of knowledge for a gamer.
However, since there's only two of them, even with a third NPC, consider reducing encounters by a similar amount. Cutting your XP budget on CRs by about 25% would be a good deal. Stuff like 2 goblins instead of 3, and that sort of thing. Avoid using higher CR enemies, and focus more on a few low-CR enemies that would help you raise the bar softly.
4) Any other advice? This is completely new territory for me.
Thanks in advance!
I'd say let them be them. New players, especially young children, will do things that many of us gamers find strange. My younger brother was very much the pure heart, and he gave most of his treasures from his adventures to peasants and such. He bought an old lady a house, just because he could. He was acting like the truest of Paladins, but he was just a fairly optimized Fighter with a Horse and a Lance.
If your kids do this sort of thing, let 'em. As the GM, you can make sure they get some nice shinnies later on, and it's a good chance for them to see what it feels like to help others.
Also, try to captivate their imaginations. A +1 longsword that produces light (as many magic weapons do) is nice, but if you describe it a silvery blade etched with the constellations down the blade, with all the little stars on the blade shining brightly in the darkness...
Well, that's just darn cool. ^_^
You could always have them gestalt. The whole point of gestalt builds is to make playing D&D possible with around two people, so why not go for it?
New players are probably going to have enough trouble keeping track of one classes abilities, much less two.
I think a big, dumb fighter is what that duo needs. He is not going to steal the spotlight in social encounters (dump CHA) and lacks "flashy" powers. So he shouldn't be stepping on the PCs toes.
Having a DNPC gives you voice in character to help guide things. When the PCs are gung ho to head straight into the Pit of Massive Evil, the big lug can chime in with a "I think that's a bad idea, let's see if we can help the blacksmith out with anything so we at least have better weapons and armor before we head in." TPK avoided. By having the DNPC be an idiot, you don't have the problem of the PCs always asking his advice. But when HE notices that it's a bad idea, the players might want to try another route.
You can tailor the fights to the amount of optimization in the characters. Things can be ramped up later. As for builds, I would ask them what they want to do and make suggestions. There should be no need for hyper-optimized characters. Another option would be to build the characters for them, so leveling is just an exercise in telling them what new abilities they have unlocked. A lot of this depends on how comfortable (or interested) they are with the nuts and bold mechanics.