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My wife is enjoying Pathfinder Society. Originally she had a Druid, but she didn't care for being a 'hippy'. Then she went with a Ranger character, but that really didn't grab her interest.
Then she went Barbarian.
And she liked it.
While we are playing PFS, she has a Barbarian for it, my wife would like to continue playing in a Solo-Campaign. http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19905354/Lessons_from_DMi ng_with_my_GF is fantastic inspiration, and I'm going to just go with it. It is our opportunity to learn together, as well as spending time with one another.
I did ask her questions to get a general feel for what she is looking for. She likes the play and balance with Pathfinder Society, so the content and tone will be in keeping with 'as if' we were playing a Legal published PFS game, just no chronicle sheets or credit. We are using Hero Labs and Pathfinder rules.
My wife is starting out as a Level 1 Kellid, and both of us are reading up to become familiar as much as possible with Mammoth Lands people and lore. I have the Inner Sea World guide as well as People of the North. She picked Garra for her name, I believe it is pronounced with the stress on Gar-RA, as if she is in the process of ripping someone's head off. It suits her fine. :)
I am building a ferret that will do a Sorc/ Rogue multi-class. I'm not quite clear on the best way to go about that, but as a DMPC I plan to have to be carried, and while I may be able to cast I certainly can't be a meat shield. That's Garra's job. Mine as the DMPC will be to handle magic and advise when Garra needs 'int' power. I'm going to see if I can make it work. If it fails, I'll learn through failing.
I do have a copy of, "The Noble Wild" for Pathfinder, but I'm not comfortable with how it handled some of the things. It didn't come across as "Pathfinder-y". I asked her why she's a fighter, given how in her Kellid culture women don't do that. She replied she was the only child and learned how to fight like a boy. Creatures attacked her village, and she doesn't remember much of the battle as she was in a rage. She was the only one left alive, and that is where her story starts.
My plan is for her to awaken with a ferret who chirps at her, but she understands what he has to say and he claims his name is Romaq. He doesn't know any more than she does, but both of them have the wounds of battle. Romaq knows he has 'unusual power', it is new, and he has insight he didn't have. In something of a dream, a man and woman happen upon the battle. The man in iron glories in the fighting. The woman takes pity on the barbarian maid in this dream, and calls upon the ferret to help. Both the maid and the ferret awaken with this hazy memory, but nothing is clear. And thus the story begins.
I still have to cook up the ferret stats and get the campaign details together. Both of us have to know the Kellid people and the region. Romaq will be smart enough to grasp money, he'll know he needs it, and that he can't possibly carry it. I think I'm going to have to give him Supernatural Abilities to convert standard wands and magic consumables into forms he can use. Mage Hand is a given. I'm glad as a level 0 it is at will.
I welcome discussion and advice pertaining to Kellid culture and if it is thought Ferrets of some form would be in the climate. I could also use advice on how to create a "Ferret Spellthief" I can maintain in Hero Lab, and how to handle the campaign so it is workable for a single-player campaign. While their shared dream will not explicitly state it, I am planning it as Gorum 'blessing' Garra with battle ferocity on a whim and as a joke upon the Kellid people. Desna, taking pity and mercy, awakened the ferret as a magic guardian and companion. Together, Garra and Romaq begin their adventure.
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Having run a solo campaign for a dear friend of mine, I can offer a few crunchy bits from a DM perspective, if they might help:
1) You'll want to design encounters with the following key points in mind:
a) CR will be = to APL -3. My player was a druid with a hippo companion, and at 1st level I had her facing mites and kobolds, as well as low-level vermin, and single monster encounters. She did well and that kept the challenge at a reasonable level. (CR 1/4 at 1st, for example)
b) as stated in Gamemastery Guide, be extremely careful with traps. Obstacle traps like a portucullis trap probably wouldn't slow a barbarian down much, but magical traps are going to be brutal.
c) seed treasure with plenty of disposable goods, especially potions. Giving a solo PC extra treasure in the form of disposable goods doesn't break the game, and helps off-set other class abilities that are missing as well.
d) monster selection is best done by comparing character ability vs. special attacks and defenses, as well as movement modes. A spell resistance and attacks vs. Fortitude won't matter much to a Barbarian, but you put her up against a spellcaster who knows fly and Will-based spells, and it's game over. Pay special attention to her combat style and play to that. Pay close attention to her feat selections, and use that to guide enemy selection.
e) although this may sound like cheating, always give her the option of some sort of escape plan. When you have a mastermind villian you'd like reappear in another adventure, you give them an escape route since they are unique, and in a solo game, it's the PC that is unique, and should have an option of escape for self-preservation.
2) I can't help much with Kellids as it sounds like you have a wealth of info anyway, but you might look at Humans of Golarion if you haven't yet.
3) Just as an idea, the ferret could begin with an altered bag of holding-type pouch that the characters awaken with as a "blessing" that doubles as its home to prevent it from being sold. A bag of holding is a useful, but not overly powerful item that won't break the game, and solves a few problems for you.
Here's just a few ideas and lessons I've learned to get the ball rolling :). BEST OF LUCK!! Hope you have a blast with it! :D
The Pale :)
I am building a ferret that will do a Sorc/ Rogue multi-class. I'm not quite clear on the best way to go about that, but as a DMPC I plan to have to be carried, and while I may be able to cast I certainly can't be a meat shield. That's Garra's job. Mine as the DMPC will be to handle magic and advise when Garra needs 'int' power. I'm going to see if I can make it work. If it fails, I'll learn through failing.
I have a bit of experience with Awakened animals. First you take the base animal then you add everything that the Awaken spell indicates, including 3d6 Intelligence, +1d3 Charisma, and +2 HD. Using a Weasel as the base for your ferret you end up with a 3HD magical beast with a fairly low CHA (don't know who wrote up the Weasel stats but that sounds wrong to me). Personally, I would fudge it a bit and maybe even use the Race Builder out of ARG. If you continue with the Awakened animal concept you would start out as a level 3 monster and then add any new levels with whatever class you choose. There is an alternate set of rules (not RAW) that every three levels gained in a class you can replace one of your monster levels with a class level... and that is what I would recommend for you. Starting out the ferret would actually rival the barbarian, but in a couple levels it will balance out.
Having run a solo campaign for a dear friend of mine, I can offer a few crunchy bits from a DM perspective, if they might help:
Thank you. Yeah, I want to be careful with the math and exercise it properly, kicking some things around so it stretches without being brutal.
On Magical Traps, that's where Romaq comes into play, though likely I'll mostly try to avoid them or create them so she has to help with the navigation of them. I'z tiny, I can't reach or "mage hand" won't help. This is also where the Rogue portion of a spell-thief comes in.
Yeah, disposables. Neither she nor I are interested in cheating ourselves. So if something appears to be breaking the game, we'll discuss it and fix it. If we grant ourselves gear that removes the challenge, what would be the point, and what would we learn we can use for PFS play? Then there's the trick of getting to the next supply point with resources on hand. :D
"monster selection is best done by comparing character ability vs. special attacks and defenses, as well as movement modes."
Yup. I also want to avoid having her pull the ferret out like I'm a gun, point & squeeze me at the flying Sorc. :p
"... escape plan..."
That's where Romaq comes in, as far as having her think of escapes, which is something a ferret would be mindful of anyway. I just have to find the balance between the characters being brain and brawn, and her leaning on the DMPC too much as a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card. I think that part will be tricky. :(
The 'bag of holding' sounds like gear used for animal companions, a cage that is something like a genie bottle for them. That's a detail I plan to work out just before we begin the game. Mostly, though, I plan to hang out on my ride like I'm just another one of her furs, and hope to escape attention, or pass myself off as "just a pet". I'll have to speak and be heard to talk until we earn the feats for me to speak mind-to-mind.
3d6 Intelligence, +1d3 Charisma, and +2 HD
Yeah, I tried to go with plain weasels stats and nearly cried myself to sleep last night. I'll go with what you suggest. A ferret ought to have high charisma, but there has to be a balance in there somewhere.
Thank you both for your suggestions!
Thank you for your polite response! I am delighted to have been of help :) Best of luck! :)
The Pale :)
I was going to post something pretty similar to what The Pale Grin did, so, I'll have to rethink my post, now, if anything.
Looks like you have a pretty good handle on things, though.
We have a vacation coming up, so I don't plan to start the campaign until *after* the vacation. So for now I want to put together the basic mechanics that get it off to a good start, then have several "getting started" quests planned. I also have to read up on the deities and get general background info. Right now it looks like Garra's village was killed by demons from the World Wound, which should mesh quite nicely with the new season in PFS. :)
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While I have no direct advice for the campaign, I do want to add an endorsement of doing solo games with your spouse.
I met my wife in '86 as she was running the game group I came into (Champions in this case, not D&D). We were dating within a few months and married a bit later (just had 23rd anniversary).
When her friends and her started D&D (77 Holmes basic moving to AD&D) - she was the GM. She has been GMing from then on.
I run solo games for her, and she runs them for me. We get a lot more non-action/non-mystery roleplaying in - a lot of character development type stuff. That is also how we check out new systems - she is running Pathfinder for me, and I'm running Dresden Files (Fate) for her, and our main group is Hero.
It has been the best and most fufilling gaming I've ever done, as player or GM.
Enjoy.
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"Dear Pathfinder, I never thought it could happen to me..."
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You should generally avoid monsters and casters that can make you lose with a single failed save, like the basilisk. Even if it is "much lower CR" than her character, natural 1's happen, it's basically just a random % chance of auto-dying. Such enemies are not nearly as much of a hassle when you have a full party to take down the monster should you fall and to fix you up afterwards.
Yeah. She's a meat-shield, she needs to fight meat-shield-ish stuff. And we may come across some sort of 'luck charm' given Romaq's association with Desna that allows Carol, the PC, to invoke limited rerolls. Something like wearing the right T-Shirt at a PFS game. And if the characters die, we start fresh somewhere else. Since it's just her and I, it's negotiable.
She already read http://paizo.com/products/btpy8v37 Called to Darkness, featuring a Barbarian Warrior of the Mammoth Lord Realm, and now it is my turn. It appears the Warrior gets a shaman companion, and I'll see how the book form works out, and what kinds of thinks the Romaq character will have to be mindful of. I considered having Romaq be a "shaman", but I'm still very much invested in having Romaq be a Spellthief. But I've heard it said if you can't take a joke, you shouldn't GM. I think reading "Called to Darkness" may help me decide. The book Protagonist is definitely in the lead, and it looks pretty much like she's enjoying a "solo campaign". I've no clue if she builds up a party later, but she's absolutely the one in charge.
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Use Hero points so your wife has an emergency resource for getting her character out of a jam.
Do yourself a favor, never actually call her a "meat-shield" in person. :P
Also, does she like more light-hearted comedy romps, or does she like to mutilate foes and, like, find new ways to twist their arms around their neck and stuff?
@Thac20: I've never dealt with those, I'll have to look at it. I saw the option in Hero Lab, and I think we'll lean pretty heavy on the software.
@Vamptastic: I'z a ferret, soft & squishy. I'll likely call her "pack human" and "steed" too. :D
I think the nature of our relationship will be how we kick this off. So far, we are planning on the content and tone to be more like PFS play. Neither one of us are really in for 'mutilation' stuff. And... as I mentioned, I'z a ferret. So "light-hearted comedy" will be a happy factor in it. But I would love to achieve in our game something like http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0464.html
"I can live with that." And then she died.
The comic is funny, but scenes like that one simply make it rock. And I want a game that rocks.
EDIT: Content Filter kicked on a short word for "Pack Horse", so I replaced it.
So, putting this in Zelda terms, are you kind of like her Navi?
Oh, that reminds me, if you design dungeons and stuff, design them for a Barbarian. It's like when you're playing a Legend of Zelda game, and you go to a new dungeon, it's kind of designed for Link to solve with the right gadgets and what have you. Sometimes the answers are obvious, and sometimes the answers make you cry blood out of your eyeballs and rip at your fingernails, but they're still designed for you.
However, what if you came into a room, but it was designed for, like, Superman? Or it was something that a high tech person had to hack through to solve? That would be horrible. And I imagine it would be no less horrible in a tabletop campaign. Of course, this being a roleplaying game with a live DM, things aren't always so mechanical and black and white, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.
@Vamptastic: I'm not familiar with Zelda, but if I grasp it correctly I would be like the pixie, only I would be riding the back of her neck or in a satchel.
As far as the campaign design, my plan is to start in Mammoth Lord lands, set the initial conditions, then let her decide where to go and what to do. She is the story protagonist. If she goes after a heavy magic opponent, The Ferret will strongly recommend against doing so, at least not without having the funds and having a serious magic caster. And that simply isn't going to happen for a long while as she gets the money to do so. That just adds more NPCs I would have to manage, which I would also tell her the impact upon the game. But I don't see her going that route anyway. I won't stop her from going after heavy magic, but doing so would be ... unwise. :) And of course there will be some encounters where running away bravely is a good plan.
@Tempestorm: Thank you. I'll look at Gestalts after I'm comfortable with hero points. I think I would want to keep Garra and Romaq as separate characters for her to have a PC 'audience', even if it is a DMPC, and also not confuse her with having to play the two different roles, even if she is a single entity that happens to have the best parts of two classes. I'll look into it, but if I understand correctly what you suggest I do not think it would work so well for Carol to manage, and again that independent ferret will have it be more fun for her.
As an aside, for inspirational material for tone, ideas and a guideline for a lone barbarian campaign, be sure to read the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. The Kull of Atlantis stories are great too. A lot of the monsters and foes Conan and Kull faced work excellent in Pathfinder.
The Pale :)
I might, but PFS "Year of the Demon" is coming up, and we will likely either be taking part in the festivities from our perspective (not as PFS credit) or getting the heck OUT of there. I've not read the Conan stories, though I might. I don't think Carol would read them even if I did. But I have been teasing her about Kellids being Canadian. :D
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As someone who met his wife at a game and did a One PC game with her during our dating and marriage, I have a few bits of advice:
There's going to be a lot more RP. You want to start collecting NPCs with memorable RP hooks--NOT BUILDS--that will help you when you need a chef, a fence, a dotty wizard, a guardsman, etc.
Always have a few different threads to get to the important places you need the character to go. You would not believe how demanding making all the decisions and having no one to brainstorm with is. So, the ferret's a good start to have someone to brainstorm with, but don't be afraid to add more companions, especially ones that you can dramatically kill in combat.
Kill a beloved NPC early. Don't make it a punishment for bad decision-making, but do it in a relatively important combat to show that there are stakes in these combats.
You've got your comic relief. Start giving options for your romantic B-plot. You want stereotypes of the rom-com romantic triangle here: the bad boy, the devoted one, the funny one, the rich one, sexy evil tempting one, the one that brings out the nurturer in her, etc. And you absolutely cannot be offended if her character sleeps with them all, cheats on her significant others, etc. This is a fantasy, not what she'd really do.
There's an obvious upside for you as DM if you design the romance plots well. Just sayin'.
The companion NPCs you build are NOT DMPCs. Never think of them that way. They are there to put the PC in the spotlight and support them. The build should always be inferior. Use "under the hood" feats that improve stats rather than complicated builds with lots of combat options. You want feats like Weapon Focus, Iron Will, Dodge. Try to stick to core-only for helper characters. You have WAY too much on your hands to be playing a complicated sidekick. And again, it makes your wife's PC the star, as she should be.
I recommend using an ancestral weapon that gets better as you do, rather than constantly looting the dead. It's cool and it allows the player to custom design their character. See here for a 3.5 way of doing it: http://dndtools.eu/feats/book-of-exalted-deeds--52/ancestral-relic--70/
Have some backup side adventures, in case she takes the left turn at a plot choice.
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Thank you, Roguerouge. I plan to throw "romantic" options out there, but I'm not sure she will take those. I'll have to see.
Carol was raised in Kamloops, BC. On a cursory reading of Steppes, the Kamloops area fits that mode. Throw some wolly mammoths in there, I think you have a close enough approximation of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. So Garra (Carol's PC) has no 'village', they just camp and move around.
My current thinking is to have her go a session of 'daily life' where she starts, and has a few battle encounters to get her XP up and to get to know her clan. For some reason she leaves, and it doesn't necessarily have to be everyone but her in the camp gets killed. Perhaps she gets sent on a quest for the camp. I need to consider options because I want her to care about 'home' rather than, "Well, they are all just going to die so my character leaves so I don't have to care about the NPCs."
By having Garra start with her familiar people, she gets an opportunity to get some XP and gear in.
I'm still thinking of the line, "So Gorrum and Desna were taking a walk along the Steppes when they came across..."
Is it unreasonable they would do that?
I still have family in the Kamloops area. Small world.
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I apologize if this has already been suggested, I am in a hurry and had to skim the thread. I suggest allowing a gestalt build so she has access to both combat and utility such as trapfinding. Also, if she does not choose cleric as part of her build to let her have access to healing wands that she can use without Use Magic Device. The APL-3 is a good thing to keep in mind too though with gestalt you should be able to make encounters with more variety and she will still have fun.
As has been said, solo games can be a lot of fun and I have enjoyed the ones I have run for my current and past girlfriends though expect a lot of roleplaying and don't ever call her a meatshield. lol
I read over Gestalt builds. For our purpose, I think it overly complicates and confuses things for both of us. I even have to rethink SpellThief for Romaq since I don't think I can do that in Hero Labs on Pathfinder. Lots to think about.
I also have to look up maps for Mammoth Realm Lords lands. If I can order it ahead of time, I can have it before we begin play.
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Ok, back from vacation and rested. I worked out a plan. When discussing my ideas with a person at a PFS game, he suggested that Gorum and Desna hate one another. Seeing 'a' god would be rare. Seeing two together at a time would be more rare than rare. I understand that, which is why I am making the story hook in the form of a dream Garrah (my wife's PC) experiences. Did it really happen? Was it luck? Who can say, and does it really matter?
So Garrah is 'out there', some big fight happens. How do we get to this big battle? Originally, I thought of World Wound demons destroying her home village. The problem is destroying Garrah's home town is rather impersonal for the fact she expects it to be destroyed, and has no need to care. I want my wife to care. I want her to be emotionally hurt by the battle, to be angry about it and emotionally invested as a plot hook. Them bastards are gonna pay! I mean... "Barbarian", right?
My wife also has memories of hunting with her real life father, and she lost him a few years ago. So I can see Garrah's story of traveling with her father before "the event". Why are they traveling? Kellid scouts will guide a Tian party from Icestair to Hillcross per http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Icestair
Garrah's father Dron leads a Tian party. The Tian party is an Arcane Sorceress Hiriko who happens to have a sable ferret companion, Romaq. The party is ambushed by a single babau. The demon attacks and kills Dron first as he's on watch, and rips through the party. Hiriko attempts to defeat the demon, but ... looking at the stats for that thing, it looks like it only takes one to ruin your day.
Garrah remembers the initial attack and vision of her father as he suffers a particularly gruesome death that Garrah blocks from her mind. Before she blacks out, she sees a huge man in spiked armor, and a stately woman riding an elk beside him. She screams in anger as they argue unconcerned of the fight, and her vision fades to red, and then to black.
Garrah awakens to a small peeping sound as that of a clucking chicken, and a wet, fuzzy nuzzling and licking upon her cheek. Somehow she understands she is being asked to wake up, and danger is about. Then she sees it is that ferret looking expectantly, and while she doesn't hear him speak with an actual voice, he chuffs and makes whining noises and she clearly knows, "We are in danger, we need to get to my friend!"
I plan to write that as prose to give to my wife, and then drop her on a map of the aftermath of the battle. She has wounds and acid burns she recalls nothing about. The Ferret will have the Awakened template applied and he can speak clearly, though nobody else can hear him beyond typical ferret noises, and she can not understand any OTHER ferrets. I'm considering having the babau sufficiently wounded that she can finish him off, and the only reason he hasn't killed her is that he was so weakened as to be at '0' but stable, and that in the 'red-out' period just before the game start, Garrah and Romaq were able to bring the babau to that point by Desna granting awakening to the ferret and 'extraordinary' power both until her 'rage' ran out, and let what come may. Gorrum thought it would be fun to watch the battle, as he was complaining to Desna about how it would be over too quickly. Desna blessed the woman and the ferret with luck, but the luck ended in a stalemate. Both deities have moved on by the time the game actually starts to avoid the notice of the other gods and charges of 'meddling' in affairs far too humble to be worth their notice in the first place.
So I have a level 1 Barbarian and a level 1 ... well, I don't have "Spellthief" in Hero Lab, so I'm thinking to alternate between Sorc and Rogue applied to the Awakened Weasel template, starting off with Sorc. Or starting us both out at level 2 to make up for the fact it's only the two of us, and I've a DMPC that should really be kept out of the front-and-center action. Anyway...
So I drop these two on the mat with a torn up camp, dead bodies, and somewhere on the map is Hiriko's body and a "mostly dead" babau. As I understand how it works, once 'killed' the babau returns to the demonic plane, correct? Any recommendations for slighting the stats of the babau to where they have a chance to imprison it? I don't want it to return to the Demonic plane because I want another demon to try to track the party down later, so I don't want word to get back to the 'powers that be' any time soon. Is there a containment trap I should look for that would work?
Hiriko's body has a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChekhovsGun in the form of a shiny bracelet of http://paizo.com/prd/spells/comprehendLanguages.html (specifically, *TIAN*) along with a note to get the bracelet to ... there is a half-orc bard in the NPC Codex. I need to get that and I will use that bard from the Codex, but I'll place her in Wyvernsting. The Chekhov's Bracelet has a small bell, and I see the small bell as having a "bag of holding" effect. Within the bell is an artifact that can later be used as a key piece to make weapon of some sort, later to be determined, in repelling the World Wound invasion.
Some spying is in effect so the demons are aware of the artifact, and they will make 'some' effort to prevent the artifact from being used in the weapon, but at this time not a big deal of effort to stop them. The one babau should have been more than plenty. It doesn't report back, send another (or one geared for tracking) to discover what happened.
From this initial game, Garrah and Romaq have to recover enough supplies to make it to some place nearby and decide what to do. They will have the bracelet, they will know to look for this half-orc in Wyvernsting, and that half-orc will likely try to capture and interrogate them to find out about the Tians she is expecting.
I plan to RP out the journey with side adventures and travel time so we can both get a feel for how our characters work independently and as a team. I can also throw in natural, non-magical battles for working up a few levels before we reach Wyvernsting. By that time, I hope to get a better idea of what my wife Carol will want to do. Will she want to take the Chekhov's Bracelet to a particular city such as Absalom or Magnimar to let them deal with it so she can explore somewhere else? Will she want to hurry and get the artifact to the weapon and get back to kicking demonic butt? I don't want to fixate on too much ahead not knowing where our interests will take us, but I'll keep notes here and see what suggestions people might have while we take this journey together.
Thank you for following the journey with me. :)
Here's a game tweak for running one-on-one campaigns. I tried it recently with my daughter and it worked well - The hack adjusts monster damage and HP (so you can fight more than one), and allows for 'luck' when dealing with traps, spell effects, etc (so a sleep spell doesn't do you in). It also allows a cleave-like effect of using 'leftover' damage in combat to injure adjacent monsters.
As with anything - you can pick and choose as needed to fit your needs.
I'll take a look at that one, thank you. Part of the trouble I'm running into is that I'm working four 12 hr a week, then we use the other three days for recovering. I'm very, very new to managing all this stuff, and I'm trying to get my brain to work on pulling up material for this.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19905314/Guide_to_Solo_Ca mpaigns appears to have some good advice for me to work through also. I'm going to nudge my wife into making her character sheet and have some detail to work with.
http://www.freewebs.com/bluemoonaurora/significantotherduet.htm is a useful reference.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pvlu?GM-with-Babau-questions is a thread I worked on specific to the start-up of the game. It's pretty clear the demon will have to be *dead*-dead, along with everyone else of the party. I'm going to sort out a map with some distances to nearby cities, then plan natural (non-magic) low-level hazards for opportunities for XP and resource gain. I don't plan on having fish with gold coins in their mouths very often, or "roach coaches" in the middle of the steppes for buying rations and gear. Romaq can catch small game, or help flush out game. I'll sort things out from there based upon feedback from her and ideas from the above links. Tons of reading, never enough hours in the day. :)
Ok, so after this year's quarter I've moved things further along. I have a HUGE Chessex mat, and I've reproduced the Realm of the Mammoth Lords on the hex side of it. I plan to post pictures for the curious, as well as a low-rez map useless to use, but it will give people an idea.
I have also purchased Ultimate Campaign and the GameMastery guide as well as the NPC Codex. Getting Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition has also been very helpful just in giving me ideas to work from on how a published campaign flows. We are getting closer to an actual start to it, but the time spent going over material ... oh yeah, Inner Sea World Guide... this has been a huge help for ideas and helping me feel more solid on the feel of the campaign.
Dotting. I've been curious about how one on one games work out.
You may want to look at Wrath of the Righteous for inspiration, since you're thinking World Wound Demons.
Also, williamoak, in my experience, they've run rather well.
Well tacticslion, I can imagine they have several advantages: namely, it must be a lot easier to maintain immersion when you dont have a gaggle of people competing for attention. Dont exactly have anybody to do it for though.
Well tacticslion, I can imagine they have several advantages: namely, it must be a lot easier to maintain immersion when you dont have a gaggle of people competing for attention. Dont exactly have anybody to do it for though.
There are advantages, though almost all of those come from heavy interaction and role-playing flexibility. It's really great!
Mechanically speaking, though, it can become a bit of a challenge, as you need (in "typical games" typified by APs or pre-published adventures or even the basic CR system) to bump the player's abilities, or to nerf the enemies' capabilities, or to provide "back up" characters for the party.
We usually buff the player's abilities and/or provide back-up characters.
In a spousal-situation (which mine is) providing back-up characters actually produces a large array of situations and options to generate romance, which can be really fun!
In a friendly situation (which I've run a couple times) it can be slightly less awesome, but can still be really fun, regardless.
In any event, I'm also following this thread, because I'm hoping things go well for Romaq and am interested in seeing it. :)
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I've invested quite a bit of time learning more about Golarion. The Quests book mentioned the destroyed Shield of Aroden, which I could read more about in the ISWG. So... I have a chunk of wood from one of the pallets at work to make a nice prop for that. I got the Racebuilder license for Hero Lab and built up a "Ferret Sapien", so "Romaq" the character is an awakened ferret. As soon as I can sort out how to have Hero Labs handle a Mounted Fury Barbarian with a proper scaled 'medium' Mammoth. I already have the map, she doesn't know it but she passed not getting lost... she doesn't read this forum so I'm safe to post here. The opening scene is written in my mind. She comes to with a ferret licking her face and begging her to wake up. All the company pack animals are slaughtered, everything is in disarray, and everyone is dead or dying. She gets a moment to say goodbye to her dying father, then she, the newly awakened ferret and her baby mammoth Huff are off on the adventure to find out about the mysterious chunk of wood.
She did not get to say goodbye to her real life father, and I already talked with her about that so she's ok. I also have NPCs (that glorious NPC Codex) she will encounter and try to force her to stay with them. Her role is to be 'barefoot & pregnant', that is a woman's role as a Kellid. Her father was there to protect her, but now he's gone.
She should make it to Hillcross within several game days, then she gets to decide among Magnimar, Nerosyan and Karcau as destinations, and each is a glorious bucket of 'adventure'. Or she could ditch the wood as it isn't her problem, and take up jobs building up XP while exploring and fighting nasties. I'm nervous, but reading all this material has me pretty confident in the adventure I can put together in Golarion.
As far as 'romantic' interest, I'm not sure how that will pan out. She is likely to run up against her first major villain who will sweet talk her, but in otherwise typical Kellid fashion will play "Gaston" from Beauty & The Beast. My read of 'Kellid' pretty much has her trapped if she seeks any romance there, and the campaign will be over with her 'barefoot & pregnant'. I don't think she'll go for that at all.
Once I get her heading towards some destination of her choice and away from "Gaston the Kellid", we shall see. My read of her is that she won't take to it, but I am willing to be surprised. This is *her* story, though Romaq will be busy trying to get published in the Pathfinder Chronicles and get himself a field promotion out of it. Fun fun!
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Prolog
The first thing I remember that day was the sound of terrified screaming. I was asleep, and at this point I can't be sure if the screams were of people or animals. I was a tad busy at that moment because the tent collapsed and my cage was smashed. Fortunately I wasn't pinned in the debris and I was able to slip out. I couldn't quite see, but I could smell blood and terror. My mistress! Lady Mai Reika was casting at this … thing. I couldn't really tell what it was, but I saw the flash of light and power. I didn't understand then, so I can't say now what spell was used. But I saw her clearly in the powerful light that enveloped her and took her life. My Lady died, and to the screams of everyone else around I added my own.
In the midst of the clan of metal, the incantations, the terror and the booming sounds of raw power, I could swear I sensed more than saw to shapes in the distance. I recall a huge man in dark iron appearing to argue with a woman riding an elk. He laughed at her, and pointed at one of those tribal women. The woman grabbed a warhammer and began to scream and beat the monster that killed my Lady Reika. The Woman on the Elk shook her head, upset, and then she saw me.
I saw her eyes, and somehow it was if I was looking into a field of stars and the eyes were twin moons. I thought how all this must be a dream, and then I wondered to think I knew what a dream was. And THEN I wondered how it was I thought to wonder. It was all a dream, and in this dream I was a great sorcerer. I turned towards the beast as he was laughing and casting his spell to destroy the brave tribal woman who sought to slay him with a hammer. I knew how to disrupt his spell, and I could sense how weak he really was after the battle to destroy our small party. I cast … I can't remember what I cast in this dream, but I could feel the power flow from within me. I weakened him even as I disrupted his spell. He hesitated as the raging woman pounded the beast. I cast some spell of power again as the woman roared her defiance and smashed her foe. Together, we destroyed the beast in a flash of light and fury. Then the woman collapsed. In the dream, I felt myself weak, and my vision wavered. I looked for the Man of Iron and the Lady of the Elk, but they were gone as if they were never there. I wanted to look for them, I wanted to understand what happened. But I found dreams are odd like that. My wavering vision was lost to me, and in the darkness behind my closed eyes I could feel the cold seeping into my very bones. “So very cold,” I thought, and then I woke from the dream.
Things you should know as we begin the campaign:
1) You are several days ride away from Hillcross where your father was going to collect his pay for getting the party there safely.
2) You and your father served as guides for Lady Mai Reika, a Pathfinder from Tian Xia who arrived last month over the Ice Stair eager to pay for expedited passage Hillcross.
3) She did not state her business, and as your father Et would say, “Our only business is to see them safe at Hillcross. We are People, and we People have our own worries without meddling in the affairs of those weak savages.”
4) You know your Dad may not have quite practiced what he preached, as he would be called in to council both with those he guided and with the Greattusk, and sometimes even the Bearpelt elders. But he was careful to pretend he knew nothing, and he encouraged you to pretend along with him.
5) Lady Reika was a sorceress who had a ferret named Romaq as a companion. The ferret was often quite curious and playful, but he did not appear to be very different from any other small beast.
6) At this moment, you remember as some sort of dream your camp being destroyed by some walking beast. You saw your mounts slaughtered, and the guards as well as your father being savaged by the beast. You saw Lady Reika being destroyed by the beasts obscene magic, and at that point everything became dream-like. In a red haze, you grabbed your warhammer to attack the beast. You felt power flow through you, as if you were made of iron. The beast laughed at you, echoing in the distance. You knew you would die, but you demanded the beast follow you to death. The beast was distracted by someone in the camp casting more of that foul magic, and you continued to strike the foe. The beast tried to cast as you continued to hammer him, not letting up your fury. In a flash of light and heat, the foul creature vanished. It was over, and you felt the embrace of nothingness claim you as the world faded to black.
7) In your slumber, you feel tiny claws gently scratching your face, a wet nose and a tiny tongue licking your cheek. A soft voice begs you to wake up.
Rats... can't edit the post to correct mistakes and grammar. That does not matter so much, anyway. This is not the appropriate place to document the campaign as it goes.
We did kick off the campaign, which I am documenting and making into a "Pathfinder" story that Romaq (the character) will be writing to send to the Pathfinder Society. He aspires to become a Pathfinder, you see. :)
Would anyone have a specific spot in the forum on Paizo I should post the story to invite comment as we go? I can keep the mechanical stuff here in this thread.
Speaking of duet campaign mechanics, I am finding http://www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=duets useful. Someone may have already pointed it out to me here, but this message thread has been some time 'unmoving' until recent. The time between when I started and now has mostly been filled with acquiring a better background on Golarion as well as hardcopy and PDFs of material. I also have a VERY nice map image to help me resolve where we are within The Realm, as well as where to pin the locations for my ideas and keep track of things.
I am very eager... pins & needles, actually, waiting on Realm Works by Lone Wolf Development (the makers of Hero Lab). I have a very young copper dragon by the name of Cecil getting a message from the Night Monarch to watch for a Kellid woman and a ferret. He enlists the help of some white kobold from the Icerender Tribe on loan to him from Lydek. Shaking down caravans for a cut of the loot is all fun and games, but reports from the Worldwound out east are bad for business. Something Must Be Done. Preferably by someone else, at someone else's expense. Lydek doesn't care as long as she gets her cut of the loot with occasional traders to torment for sport. Cecil, though young, though copper, aspires to learn patience and to keep focused on the long view of things. The Realm of the Mammoth Lords offers no real opposition should the demons wish to simply roll across the Tundra. Resistance needs to be cultivated here.
Meanwhile, a disgraced Aspis agent is looking for a Tian Pathfinder sorceress by the name of Reika Mai who has a ferret familiar. She is expected to show up within a week or two at Hillcross, so he is stuck in that mountain mud-hole, then figure out a way to nab the ferret and his decorative collar without raising a fuss. It should look as if the ferret wandered off and got lost. It doesn't matter if the ferret is dead, the collar is of interest. Or maybe he's just being toyed with for sport by his handler. Hard to tell.
Meanwhile, Torg is hanging around expecting to see Et and his daughter, Garra. Torg could use a good, sturdy wife to tend to food and keeping his gear and clothing clean. Garra has fight in her, but Torg is confident he can put a leash on her and put that fire to good use. He just needs to convince Et is daughter isn't getting any younger, and it is really about time she settle down with a good man. Like Torg.
Meanwhile, Arweena Melkoreth anxiously awaiting fellow Pathfinder agent Mai Reika from Tian Xia with an artifact hidden in the collar of a pet ferret. Arweena has to get that collar a Pathfinder Lodge without raising suspicion as to what it contains. There are three different lodges, each path a disaster. Worst of all, Arweena has no way to identify herself to Lady Reika in disguise, and appearing as a half-orc is the best way to attract attention to "something going on."
In other words... ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! And that is without the random terrain effects, random weather effects and random encounters on the way to Hillcross. I plan to keep things in such a way as I can be surprised by what the dice cook up for us. So far, Garra is heading in the right direction, but she *can* get lost, and some of the NPCs are looking for the wrong person who is now deceased. And I have no clue, really, what nearly killed everyone in the camp, but whatever sent it is likely waiting for news and is going to be unhappy that chunk of the Shattered Shield of Arnisant is not safely tucked away into irrelevance.
Thank you all again for watching over this and your suggestions on how to keep it interesting for the both of us.
We did a bit of a game, but she was exhausted. I'm also finding my wife just can't wrap her mind around role-play, so I'm going to have to rethink my strategy. I would still prefer to GM Rise of the Runelords to get experience in GM'ing with a good documented campaign. I think once I have that behind me, as well as for her enjoying that game with me and three or four others, then we will both be in a better position for a duet campaign.