|
Hello everyone.
I've finally introduced my 10 year old daughter to the wonderful of role-playing games. We played the heck out of Basic Fantasy, but now she's ready to try something a bit more involved. So now we're playing Pathfinder. She's created a 1st level Vudrani Monk from Jalmeray. She's fascinated with indian culture, so she was immediately drawn to the vudrani humans in The Inner Sea World Guide.
My question is, what kind of adventures should I run for her? I need ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, we're starting off in Osirion. I have all the hard back books for Pathfinder and most of the smaller soft cover books as well.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
...non-archetype monk? I don't think even a father-daughter relationship could survive running a real campaign on her like that.
I kid, if she really likes Indian culture and the monk-esque mysticism, you could run something that tests her character's discipline and mental strength, something the older monks of her order do when an initiate reaches a certain age.
And I just remembered she's 10 years old. Really depends on how mature she is, I guess. Does she just want to punch stuff? Ask her a little bit.
|
|
...non-archetype monk? I don't think even a father-daughter relationship could survive running a real campaign on her like that.
I kid, if she really likes Indian culture and the monk-esque mysticism, you could run something that tests her character's discipline and mental strength, something the older monks of her order do when an initiate reaches a certain age.
And I just remembered she's 10 years old. Really depends on how mature she is, I guess. Does she just want to punch stuff? Ask her a little bit.
That's a really good idea. A coming of age trial might be a lot of fun. She's very much a role-player and less of a "roll-player". She's very mature for her age. Probably because she's our only child. When I was running basic fantasy for her, her favorite parts were interacting with the various NPC's. It's fun to run for her. It reminds me of when I was first learning the ropes of D&D. It's very refreshing to run for someone who sees so much wonder in the campaign setting. I'll probably do that though. Some sort of challenge and a mentor in the form of an older monk in the same order as her.
Also, she is a non-archetype. She's just using the corebook and ultimate equipment for her character at the moment.
The Monk requires a lot of system mastery to get off the ground. My first character was a Monk and it was not a good experience. My second Monk, who I built much later after I had learned the game, has been a lot of fun and very rewarding.
Playing alone is going to hurt, and playing alone with a subpar class is going to hurt more. I can't see her getting through any of the published AP's with what she has at her disposal. At the very least, you should build a GMPC to help cover the bases she won't be able to (I recommend an Alchemist, great utility class).
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Did you ever watch the TV show Kung Fu with David Carradine? It's based around an exiled Shaolin monk travelling through the American West getting into adventures that are usually solved by conflict avoidance, compromise, Zen philosophy and (very rarely) Kung Fu. It liberally uses flashbacks to the protagonist's training with his master to fill in backstory and teach moral lessons.
If you've never watched it and you're playing a solo monk campaign with your daughter then for the love of all that's good get hold of the DVDs.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hehe, I watched the DVDs when I was in college and had far too much time on my hands. It seems like too good an opportunity to miss! You can steal storylines and mix in all kinds of interesting moral quandries.
|
|
Yeah. I'm not really needing advice on how to run a solo player game. That's not really a problem. Just trying to come up with some good adventure ideas. While Arachnofiend's concerns are valid, they won't be an issue with me. I've been GMing since 89. So I'm good there. I've just never run for a solo monk before, and want to keep the sessions interesting. :D
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Have you considered giving her a slight boost via Gestalt (letting her be two classes at 1st level that advance simultaneously)?
It really helps in solo campaigns since she'd be able to handle more of the challenges you wanted to throw at her. It all depends on whether she wants to be a pure Monk or wouldn't mind having a little extra stuff to play with (a Monk/Cleric makes an interesting Mystic Warrior type of thing, for example).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'd agree that a big initiation mission would be a great launch to the story.
Maybe the best model would be the Lone Wolf books by Joe Dever. Start her with some initiation stuff to get the core tenets of the order's teachings down, then BBEGs come in and knock the place to the ground. She's the only one to survive, has to notify the nearby Lord of the problem.
My two cents!
Guess it's really time to pull out all those old kung-fu movies as source material!
The wandering martial artist as mentioned by Corvino is a good one.
On somewhat the other end of the spectrum you could do something akin to Avatar: the Last Airbender, incorporating the themes of a character being reborn every generation and having to travel to various lands/temples/teachers to relearn *insert martial art or philosophy here*. That may play well with an Indian themed single player campaign.
Guess it's really time to pull out all those old kung-fu movies as source material!
The wandering martial artist as mentioned by Corvino is a good one.
On somewhat the other end of the spectrum you could do something akin to Avatar: the Last Airbender, incorporating the themes of a character being reborn every generation and having to travel to various lands/temples/teachers to relearn *insert martial art or philosophy here*. That may play well with an Indian themed single player campaign.
Ooooooh, yeah! Make her the Avatar. She was born under such and such star, displayed whatever traits, and they determined she was the second coming of kung-fu Jesus. That is a great story to be told that usually won't work in a multi-player campaign. Great chance to do so now.
|
I'll put in another vote for the avatar-type campaign. Single-player campaigns, while difficult for the GM to make, do lend themselves very well to the "chosen one" kind of stories.
And as a solution to the whole lower surviveability issue, you can take that right out of old kung-fu movies too! Instead of just being dead at the standard -con HP, you'd get knocked out/down and can't get up, villain gives monologue and leaves you for dead, hero is found by kindly farmer/village elder/etc who nurses them back to health, hero realizes they need another training montage/secret ability then challenges BBEG to a rematch! Basically just ignore the difference between lethal and nonlethal damage, and use defeat as a learning experience.
The alignment thing makes me sit there and think for a bit. "Chosen one" stories almost always have the good guy literally be Good, but being LN...hmmm...you might be able to make Balance be a big theme of your campaign. After all, the shadow is greatest when you stand closest to the light...
Use Traits to give her extra class skills, especially UMD.
Give her a sidekick, such as a trained war dog, a Homunculus or even a Figurine of Wondrous Power.
Then run big city adventures, like the PF Society ones set in Absalom, where she's never far from a place to rest or purchase healing magic services.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A monk has physical skills, some "rogue" skills, a couple of knowledge skills, fighting ability, the potential for strong defenses, and self-healing. I say go for it. The need for social skills (or any other mechanical element) is completely dependent upon what kind of game you want to run. Perhaps social encounters are decided completely through role-playing, with no dice. If you want to include rolls for social skills, to encourage learning of the system, you could let her choose some traits.
As for a story, I would gravitate towards beginning the story in a monastery, if you think your daughter would find that appealing. She nears the time when the masters can teach her no more, and before she is allowed to spend the remainder of her years in meditation and then teaching, she must walk the earth, that she may have experiences to contemplate in the future.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Perhaps you could do an investigation type run. Local city has fallen ill (have to discover contaminated water source). Part of the local plant life is dying. Town has been poisoned, monk has to go out and collect the ingredients for the cure.
|
|
I am absolutely in favor of "fighting is not the answer" type encounters.
Retrieve a certain flower from the mountain top that requires acrobatics and perception checks, etc.
But also, create a fighting encounter that allows the monk class to shine. Since monks can be so defensive, I see this as a..."can the monk make the Evil NPC fight for at least 10 rounds?" ...type of objective. Maybe the monk has to hold the line so villagers retreat, or something like that.
Is there a temple that will taker her in? Is there a temple that sees her as a threat to their way of life? What do you think about monk/druid multiclass NPCs based off of Kung Fu Panda?
