Eberron Campaign, Solo PC, need help/advice

[technomancer420]

Hi everyone! I'm a first time DM building an Eberron Campaign for my teenage brother. We don't really have anyone else to play with(right now) so it's gonna be a solo PC campaign. He's gonna be playing a Gnome Artificer with the Mark of Making and I have a few general ideas but would welcome any and all help. I thought I would have him travelling the Five Nations taking on quests from various people and/or organizations until he reached a certain level of notoriety at which point a larger quest would present itself. (Thought I'd have him stop some group from causing another Day of Mourning as an end to the Heroic Tier) Thanks in advance for any and all help offered!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Sounds good. Obviously you have to approach encounter building a bit differently in this setup. Your PC is a leader, so presumably it would be a good idea for him to have someone to exercise those abilities on. That would suggest the design of some Companion Characters (there are rules for these in DMG2, but they amount to making a simple purpose-built monster-like statblock which does what you want). So for instance you might have a 'sidekick' and a 'butler' for your hero. The sidekick maybe does certain types of things well, perhaps sneaking, pilfering, etc, or he could be a holy man, whatever (I was envisaging perhaps someone slightly incompetent but who of course always manages to bumble in a constructive fashion, but you can play this many ways). The 'butler' might also be the 'muscle' of the party, silent but tough and able to deal with the more unsavory sorts in an appropriate fashion (this would be a defenderish sort of guy I'd think).

That gives your PC leader something to work with and some backup. I'd expect their adventures would be mostly investigative and 'fixing things' in nature, so there probably won't be a lot of out-and-out full-scale melees, but 3 characters can easily handle a little back-alley scuffle, etc.

One thing I like to remember about 4e is that it is a bit of an action-adventure, and ultimately supers-like, sort of game. It works well when there's lots of 'Indiana Jones' type action. Intrigue is fine, but plenty of crazy lightning train fight scenes are good too! (well, don't be bound by the idea that they are primarily fights, they can be escapes, rescues, whatever).

 

[technomancer420]

Thanks! I'll look into that in the dmg2 this is gonna be fun

 

[Tony Vargas]

) so it's gonna be a solo PC campaign. He's gonna be playing a Gnome

Normally, when asked about solo play, I recommend playing a Controller, they have few powers or features that require allies and often powers that allies can get in the way of. But...

. Your PC is a leader, so presumably it would be a good idea for him to have someone to exercise those abilities on. That would suggest the design of some Companion Characters.

What he said.

So for instance you might have a 'sidekick' and a 'butler' for your hero. The sidekick maybe does certain types of things well, ... The 'butler' might also be the 'muscle' of the party, silent but tough

I immediately thought of Baron Munchausen and his super-human servants.

Another option would be one or two warforged companions, either that he made or that the master Artificer he learned from did.

Another, 'nother option might be a cast that changes with the quest. He's hired to make/identify/fix something, and that leads to adventures with the client...

... that could make him the perennial un-sung hero who helps other win game & glory.

One thing I like to remember about 4e is that it is a bit of an action-adventure, and ultimately supers-like, sort of game. It works well when there's lots of 'Indiana Jones' type action. Intrigue is fine, but plenty of crazy lightning train fight scenes are good too! (well, don't be bound by the idea that they are primarily fights, they can be escapes, rescues, whatever).

Also good advice.

 

[MoutonRustique]

Another option would be one or two warforged companions, either that he made or that the master Artificer he learned from did.

This is a very cool idea! There are tons of story potential in there. TONS!

Another, 'nother option might be a cast that changes with the quest. He's hired to make/identify/fix something, and that leads to adventures with the client...

... that could make him the perennial un-sung hero who helps other win game & glory.

If you push this a bit further, you could have adventure/episodes be with different groups (allies) but with recurring ones once in a while.

Then you can get that awesome : "I don't like you, but we got to do this..." which is rife for RP and cool twists.

I'm seeing something like the start of the adventures are meetings with "here's your objective" and "here are the people you'll be working with". Man... That's awesome - I wan't to run a game like that now! (I recently saw Atomic Blonde )

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, you could switch up PCs too. Make it a sort of 'troupe play' thing. The right guy goes out, does something, gains a level, then level up ALL the PCs with whatever action the others handled being assumed, or if its relevant it can be brought in as back story. Its a cool concept because a lot of the overall campaign ark can play out as flashbacks, or vignettes, or just brought in as needed. The character of the week has his version of things, and they might not even match up, or know much individually, but the player of course will be like a sort of semi omniscient observer, playing out just the most key parts of the story.

And of course at some point if more people ever join, then the scenario can evolve to more of a party. The logic for the whole thing could simply be that the characters are all part of some really secretive group. Maybe the world is being overrun by some secret evil, and they fight it, but because it is so dangerous and corrupting everyone operates in a compartmentalized way, thus there's never a 5 man 'party' as such (but you can have the rotating cast of a couple CCs that make up other 'cell members' or whatever).