A two-PC, rogue-centric campaign: looking for advice

[Shades of Green]

I am currently starting a campaign for two beginning players, one of whom is playing a rogue (she's a Thief [the computer game] fan and a sneaky thinker at that ), and the other hasn't decided yet on his character, though he is leaning towards the stealthy ways on his own, possibly as a Druid of a sneaky goddess (one "aspect" of my campaign worlds's One Mother). My two questions are: first, does any of you have experience with a rogue-centric campaign, and if so, how well did it go? Second, if a monster (or trap) is bypassed by stealth (i.e. successful Hide and Move Silently checks, when failure would have meant confrontation), do the players recieve full XP for it? And third, how dfo you handle CRs and XP for a two-player party?

 

[Thunderfoot]

Well met!
I can answer your questions three. I have run a rogue centric campaign and they are a lot of fun! Be ready for the not so normal adventures though. There is a list of questions you have to answer and then make some direction decisions based on your answers. Firstly, do the characters belong to a guild? If the answer is yes, then how the characters get their adventures is fairly obvious. Each job is dictated by the guild handler. If you go this route might I suggest picking up a copy of the AD&D 2E supp "Den of Thieves." Though the mechanics are outdated, the set up of a guild is priceless and invaluable material!

Also, do you envision lots of "classic" dungeons or are your restricting (loosely of course) your vision to mostly urban areas? If the second character decides on a druid, your first character should look to be a bandit and resort to highway robbery. (Literally) Meaning your guild would be a bandit camp. This could be in the vein of "Robin Hood" or something more a kin to every bad guy camp you have every created as a GM. If the second player chooses a more contemporary rogue, I would read "The Fafarhd and Grey Mouser" Books or "Sanctuary - Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn" to get some ideas of stealthy plot lines.

Political intrigue is also a very good plot device for stealth related campaigns so reading dramas and thrillers based on crime and the legal system (ala John Grissom (sp?)) may be worth noting as well. "The West Wing" may also provide some inspiration as well as watching C-Span and the nightly news. A good example is the moment in "Braveheart" where William Wallace fights the lone British Soldier only to find out that it is Robert the Bruce. A great "WHAT!!!??!!" moment, historically inaccurate, but great story, which brings me to point four...

Historical accuracy in this kind of campaign may not be your friend. I am always railing about the historical inaccuracies of campaigns that I play in and run mine fairly close to reality to give it that "gritty" lived-in feel, with this sort of campaign, you may actually want to go as far from reality as possible, because many of your games will be story driven. Actions and adventure yes, but without a cohesive and in depth plot, it quickly becomes, steal gold, kill people, run from law, which gets old and boring after about 6 or 7 games.

And speaking of law or in their case Law - don't forget that your players are playing characters on the "wrong side" of the law, their reality will be skewed from day to day reality. Paladins don't like law breakers and the town guard may have posted notices (Wanted posters) for the player's arrests. Bounty hunters looking to get rich off their pain and the young adventurers' (reverse the normal "go kill the bandits for some cash" scenario and roll up some parties to go after your anti-heroes) will always be a pain in the butts.

To answer your second question - yes full XP - overcoming is overcoming, be it by sword, brain or luck.

And your third - very carefully! Remember that technically you have an underpowered party. (I have the opposite problem I have 11 players) You may have to just play around a bit and be lenient at first in order to figure out what really works. Don't go easy on them, but understand that if they are in over their heads because of YOUR mistake, give them some grace. (Being dumb and doing something stupid of course is fair play and TPKs are always welcome. ) There is a formula somewhere in the DMG, but since I don't have my books at hand at the moment I can't quote it. (someone have that one handy?)

Hopefully you find this helpful, just my two coppers. Happy Gaming!

 

[Whimsical]

Whenever deciding if a PC or party should receive XP by using an unconventional tactic, ask yourself: what was the price of failure? If the price of failure was fighting the monster, for example, then they should receive full XP because they chose to risk that cost instead of simply walking away. Same if they Diplomise/Bluff/Intimidate it. Same if they overcame a trap or obstacle with skill use.

 

[Whimsical]

You should also pick up these adventures from Wyvern's Claw Design
Thievery 101: Joining the Watchers
Thievery 101: The Periapt of Famidon

Also Thieves' World Player’s Manual has just come out. Looks really good!

 

[Shades of Green]

Well met!
I can answer your questions three. I have run a rogue centric campaign and they are a lot of fun! Be ready for the not so normal adventures though. There is a list of questions you have to answer and then make some direction decisions based on your answers. Firstly, do the characters belong to a guild? If the answer is yes, then how the characters get their adventures is fairly obvious. Each job is dictated by the guild handler. If you go this route might I suggest picking up a copy of the AD&D 2E supp "Den of Thieves." Though the mechanics are outdated, the set up of a guild is priceless and invaluable material!

Yes, the characters belong to a "guild" of sorts, which is more of a resistance movement - the local land, Renya, is under the colonial yoke of the Argexan Empire (which isn't very evil but IS somewhat opressive and exploitative). Ofcourse, the "resistance" steals from various Argexan offcials and enterpnours (sp?) to fund itself and give a portion to the local poor (Robin Hood style). So yes, it is a guild, but a politically motivated one.

Also, do you envision lots of "classic" dungeons or are your restricting (loosely of course) your vision to mostly urban areas? If the second character decides on a druid, your first character should look to be a bandit and resort to highway robbery. (Literally) Meaning your guild would be a bandit camp. This could be in the vein of "Robin Hood" or something more a kin to every bad guy camp you have every created as a GM. If the second player chooses a more contemporary rogue, I would read "The Fafarhd and Grey Mouser" Books or "Sanctuary - Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn" to get some ideas of stealthy plot lines.

Urban or semi-urban (the starting place is a mining town) mainly, with wilderness and dungeon adventures thrown in for variety, as well as quasi-military scouting/sabotage from time to time and a lfew assassinations. The "druid" class in question is actually more of an "urban druid" - it is an early Steampunk campaign, and most urban areas have their own ecologies (especially in the sewers ) to support local druids - I'll be using Sorcery and Steam moderately, Urban Druids included.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Yes, the characters belong to a "guild" of sorts, which is more of a resistance movement - the local land, Renya, is under the colonial yoke of the Argexan Empire (which isn't very evil but IS somewhat opressive and exploitative). Ofcourse, the "resistance" steals from various Argexan offcials and enterpnours (sp?) to fund itself and give a portion to the local poor (Robin Hood style). So yes, it is a guild, but a politically motivated one.

Then my recommendation for "Den of Thieves" becomes a near absolute. There are a lot of really interesting ideas and the organization chart will really get you thinking about what it really takes to run a "business of shadows"

Urban or semi-urban (the starting place is a mining town) mainly, with wilderness and dungeon adventures thrown in for variety, as well as quasi-military scouting/sabotage from time to time and a lfew assassinations. The "druid" class in question is actually more of an "urban druid" - it is an early Steampunk campaign, and most urban areas have their own ecologies (especially in the sewers ) to support local druids - I'll be using Sorcery and Steam moderately, Urban Druids included.

Good, you've cut your creation time down by half. I hope you've put in the hours to create a vibrant city, because it is obviously going to be your backdrop. (This is the reason for the Sanctuary recommendation, the series is written by several authors and about different characters, but you find that it is the CITY that is the main character and is a great study of how point of view skews the outcome of events) NPCs become more than just Joe and Bob, they are a living vital part of your campaign, which if you have never used them to this extent will test you and force you to grow in a lot of ways. I think you're going to have a great time running this, probably as much or more than the players if you do it right. I could only run 6 adventure before three of the players had to suddenly move (mom and two kids) but it was a blast and quite the dramatic stretch. The different characters had different points of view on gaining the same goals and often, that was as entertaining as the actual adventure. Good luck with this and post here every once in while after it gets going. I for one am really interested in seeing how this goes.

 

[Whimsical]

If you have access to Dragon magazine #317, it has an excellent urban druid, which is a variant version of the durid with a different spell list and class abilities adapted to match the idea of "caretaker of the cityscape".

The Dungeon Master's Guide II has Saltmarch, a ready-made town in it with many NPCs and sites written up, each with a potential adventure hook. It's great if you want to open your game up to proactive playing.

 

[Bastoche]

My easy answer to question 2: it depends how fast you want them to level. It really comes down to this. I've been a strong advocate in my gaming group of "let's forget about dog gamn XP and when we deserve it or not and simply decide we level each X sessions (X being between 2-5 approx)". We all agree but the DM but nevertheless we still level each 4 sessions or so.

 

[Steverooo]

Allow each Rogue to Gestalt with another class (sounds like one will take Cleric or Druid). Since they're "half a party", ignore the +2 CR for Gestalt, and just run them into encounters with their CR (adding in a little extra magic, if things are too tough). That allows almost all slots to be filled, even with two PCs (although they'll still be less powerful than four PCs, due to fewer attacks and actions per round).

Also, either give them weapons of Undead/Construct slaying, or avoid these and Oozes, except when you want a REALLY tough challenge!