Help: Solo Player Games + Ninja Class

One of the players who used to play in my regular weekend game can no longer play, but through a bizarre set of circumstances, he and I are now working together at the same company. He mentioned that he would like to keep playing and asked if I would DM him through some solo adventures in the same campaign world during lunch a few times a week.

While I like the idea, I've never played in or DM'd a solo game before.

Here's where I need help:

1) What are some good solo adventures for 3.0/3.5 I can use? I know that Wyvern's Claw (which seems to be out-of-business?) had a couple that got decent reviews. Anyone have experience using these? What other solo adventures exist?

2) What pitfalls have you found with solo adventuring?

3) He wants to play a rogue/ninja type and I was toying with using the Ninja core class from the Dragon 3.5 Oriental Adventures update issue (April 2004 - forgot the issue number). Anyone use this? Any problems or concerns?

In general, just looking for tips, advice, etc. from anyone with history running or playing solo games.

Thanks!

Nothing?

Samothdm said:

Nothing?

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Relax. The evenings tend to be a bit slow on the boards sometimes. Make sure you bump the thread in the morning and you'll get plenty of input. If you don't, run a quick search on "solo adventuring" and there are plenty of threads with good advice about it.

The key thing I think you need to remember is that if he is truly doing the "solo thing" (meaning no supporting NPC's along for the ride) then he is flying without a net when it comes to combat. A few unlucky rolls and he's going to be dead or at least at the mercy of his enemies.

Given that he's playing a rogue/ninja type, I suspect that most battles he fights will be decided on the surprise round/first round of combat while the enemy is still flat footed. If he does poorly during that portion of the battle then he is probably better off fleeing and re-engaging later at a more opportune time. That could mean that combat will seem very quick and possibly boring compared to the standard fare.

If he's doing the sneaky assassin thing and you want there to be some more involved battles then it might be better if he has a primary target surrounded by a lot of mooks. If he can take out the primary on the first round then he gets the pleasure of duking it out with the mooks for a few rounds. He had probably better have a good supply of minor magic tricks up his sleeve, including some potions of Healing and maybe Invisibility.

That said, this could be a very rewarding campaign. I've played in a couple and run several solo games and the amount of focus on the story of a single character can be very fun for both GM and player. Be prepared to roleplay the important NPC's in the character's life. And you can have very intricate plots with the criminal underworld with such a character as your only PC.

I think you'll find it a lot of fun. Good luck.

With regards to balance, I think you might find it a lot easier to balance encounters -- you know exactly what he can do and can't do! So don't worry too much about that, or even giving him non-standard powers and things -- a lot of balance problems are intra-party balance and niche invasion... nothing to worry about in that regard for solo gaming!
I just started running a solo game as well, and the first session was quite fun. But I guess you aren't worried about that.
I've heard there's, what is it, a specific solo gaming oriented towards thieves (not ninjas...) I believe it's called "Joining the Watchers" ? You might want to check out reviews of that. I'm sure that there's a solo gaming module for a thief.
G'luck, have fun!

Just another idea: I converted the solo adventure: Cleric's Challenge II to the 3e rules a while back. It is posted in the downloads (conversions) section of this site.

The storyline of the adventure is great and requires a lot of investigation to solve the mystery. The players I ran through the adventure had a blast. The ultimate villian might be a bit of a challenge for a rogue-type though (so you might need to do a nip and tuck toward the end).

If interested, you can purchase the adventure in .pdf format if you don't have it already from svgames.com (it might be at rpgnow as well).

Rel said:

Relax. The evenings tend to be a bit slow on the boards sometimes. Make sure you bump the thread in the morning and you'll get plenty of input.

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Yeah, you're right. I was just having a bad case of "Nobody picked me for the kickball team" flashbacks.

If you don't, run a quick search on "solo adventuring" and there are plenty of threads with good advice about it.

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I always forget I can do that.

The key thing I think you need to remember is that if he is truly doing the "solo thing" (meaning no supporting NPC's along for the ride) then he is flying without a net when it comes to combat. A few unlucky rolls and he's going to be dead or at least at the mercy of his enemies.

Given that he's playing a rogue/ninja type, I suspect that most battles he fights will be decided on the surprise round/first round of combat while the enemy is still flat footed. If he does poorly during that portion of the battle then he is probably better off fleeing and re-engaging later at a more opportune time. That could mean that combat will seem very quick and possibly boring compared to the standard fare.

If he's doing the sneaky assassin thing and you want there to be some more involved battles then it might be better if he has a primary target surrounded by a lot of mooks. If he can take out the primary on the first round then he gets the pleasure of duking it out with the mooks for a few rounds. He had probably better have a good supply of minor magic tricks up his sleeve, including some potions of Healing and maybe Invisibility.

Click to expand...

All very good ideas.

That said, this could be a very rewarding campaign. I've played in a couple and run several solo games and the amount of focus on the story of a single character can be very fun for both GM and player. Be prepared to roleplay the important NPC's in the character's life. And you can have very intricate plots with the criminal underworld with such a character as your only PC.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to it. Between preparing for my regular game, playing in two games, writing for publication, and my "pays the bills" job, though, I just don't have a lot of extra time to put toward making adventures for him. So, I was hoping to find some good advice as to where I could locate solo adventures, too.

Terwox said:

I've heard there's, what is it, a specific solo gaming oriented towards thieves (not ninjas...) I believe it's called "Joining the Watchers" ? You might want to check out reviews of that. I'm sure that there's a solo gaming module for a thief.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. Those are the ones by Wyvern's Claw that I mentioned. Have you or anybody you know used them?

Caudor, thanks - I'll check that out. I think there was one of those for each main class in 2E, right (warrior, wizard, cleric, and thief)?





I think you'll find it a lot of fun. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

It was suggested that I bump this, so...

Back in 2E, I ran a solo ninja campaign with the help of the Complete Ninja's Handbook (if you can track down a copy, I highly recommend it. One of the top 5 D&D books TSR ever put out, IMHO). The PC was the lone survivor of a ninja clan which had been wiped out by a rival ninja clan. He was away on a mission at the time. The other clan didn't know he had survived, so he had the element of surprise in his favor while seeking his revenge. At least at first. It turned out to be a very good campaign.

Others have already hit upon most of the basic advice I would give: give the PC help (NPCs, magic, etc.), don't worry about how powerful he is, scale the encounters to his abilities, etc.

Another suggestion is to create an urban campaign taking place in a fairly large city. There are plenty of commercial settings available, if you don't have the time to create your own. I once ran a solo campaign like this for a rogue character. I like to improvise and create the adventure on the fly, which was very easy to do with this type of campaign. In a city, it's fairly easy to give the PC supporting NPCs, hideouts, access to healing and magic, etc. With a rogue/ninja character, there are plenty of intrigue/espionage/assassination/sabotauge missions for him to go on.

Cool - thanks for the advice and tips. Keep 'em coming!

He kind of wants to do basically the intrigue/political machinations/espionage thing. He's envisioning kind of a "East India Trading Company" type organization that he works for (instead of the traditional ninja family) and they send him on missions to bring down the other powerful merchant houses of the major city that he'll be in. He's thinking kind of Venice-like during the middle ages with lots of different areas all ruled mainly by commerce.

I think it's an interesting angle and I think it will work well with a intrigue/espionage thing. Given that, as a solo player, direct one-to-one combat is not really going to be an option 95% of the time, I think his character choice is a good one.

If you have Unearthed Arcana, you should consider using Gestalt classes. A gestalt fighter/rogue or ranger/rogue would be just about right for a ninja. In a solo campaign, the free Rokugan ninja might also be good (full BAB and sneak attack). If you have Arcana Unearthed, the unfettered makes a great ninja and there's a beautifully customizable ninja at www.diamondthrone.com/displaycontent.cfm?iCatId=11&iConID=206