Advice for DM-ing an "old school" solo campaign

[Rel]

Neat idea.

The only drawback to the hammer in particular is that it might encourage combat to recover from combat, if you know what I mean.

It is possible. The effect I'd think it would tend to have is that she is a bit less damaged at the end of a fight than she would otherwise be. That means she could move ahead in the adventure with less (or even no) use of other means of healing, thus decreasing how often you need to plop in the Healing Potions as treasure or force her to go back to town to buy them.

This is essentially the same effect that the summoned Lantern Archon is having on my wife's character. It doesn't prevent her from getting damaged, but it provides a bit of "cushion" so she isn't as damaged as she otherwise might be. It also provides an interesting plot hook.

The Lantern Archon (his name is Virsa) is, of course, Lawful Good. If my wife's character strays too far from that then he can't be called to her aid. This makes her evaluate her choices more carefully. She has also taken a distinct liking to Virsa and wants to find a way to free him from the staff someday (being bound to the staff has robbed him of some of his special abilities such as Damage Reduction).

Perhaps in the case of the Hammer of Healing, the hammer is not as benevolent as your wife's dwarf first thinks. Maybe it is Vampiric and it is simply giving a bit of that drained life force back to the wielder. Perhaps she ultimately determines this and is forced to confront whether she wants to give up the hammer (or possibly destroy it) or continue to benefit from what it does.

What I'm getting at is that of course you could just toss an NPC cleric in the game with her to tag along and solve the healing problem. Same thing with a wizard. But because a solo campaign lets you get away with doing things that you can't do as easily with a regular game (i.e. give somewhat powerful magical items with complicated backstories requiring resolution, to low level characters), I like to partake in those sorts of things.

Let us know how it goes. I'm particularly interested since I could apply some of your other ideas and lessons learned to my own situation.

 

[diaglo]

teach her the principle of run early run often.

and make healing a long drawn out process.

it will take time (in the campaign). lots of time. but since she is a dwarf that shouldn't matter.

have reoccuring NPCs.

build on her background as she adventures.

perhaps after she does something heroic someone talks about another dwarf they know.

or perhaps they tell someone about her. and later in the campaign (as her legend spreads) a clan member comes looking for her.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

- Lots of cheap healing potions.

- Encourage hirelings, or maybe a cohort to help out.

- Lots of town-based adventures are good for solo PCs with a roleplaying focus -- the "town troubleshooter" can have lots of short adventures helping out the locals, retriving lost heirlooms, solving disputes, and the like.

 

[kengar]

Had the first "real" session last night.

It went pretty well, though she spent a lot less time talking to NPCs than I thought she would. She was eager to go after the kid right away and didn't wait around to talk to the townsfolk very much.

After finding a staute of a halfling (petrified) and killing a giant spider, she managed to find the goblins but not before they had turned the kid over to the ogre. She was wounded in the fight with the goblins, but won. She got some info out of the one survivor (location of the ogre's island in swamp, etc.). She then trekked back to the town and got cured by the blind priest and was giving a healing salve. That's where we left off.

I planted a few magic items here and there in the adventure which may be useful to her down the road (but she hasn't yet found). One is a tarnished bronze ring with a single charge of Remove Curse it will restore the halfling if she puts it on the satue's finger. He'll serve her out of gratitude.

The other is a magic warhammer. It's +1 Throwing/Returning, which would give her a much-needed missle weapon (and magic v. the ghoul she may meet later on).

It's uncertain how likely she is to come across either of those since the ring was on the goblin she let live and the other is in the ogre's stash, but you never know.

There is a silversmith in town who will give her a silver dagger in thanks if she saves the boy (which would also help with the ghoul and other undead who haunt the ruins). If she decides to explore the ruins, the priest will also give her a flask of holy water and recommend she take some sort of fire (oil or torches).

I may also change the location of the ring to one of the dead goblins. She forgot to loot their bodies while running after the third one, though, so we'll see if she goes back to check them or not.

The Basic rules are quite a change from 3e, but it was a blast! We improvised things like untrained silent movement, disarming and grappling attacks, etc. She was great and played her character to the hilt, never metagaming and staying in character almost the whole time. I'm glad she didn't get the dwarf klilled taking on all three goblins at once (one was collecting firewood, but she failed to take him down before the others were alerted and ran up). Three goblins v. a lone 1st level BD&D dwarf is a tough fight!

EDIT: Wheee! 1000 posts!

 

[Kyramus]

-grins-

hmm she has started with the kid.
make the village look to her as a investigator/retreiver/detective type person.

a cow wandered off and needs rescuing and brought back.

a hermit's pet frog is missing.

the mayor went for a ride with his new girlfriend. both hasn't returned.

an empty wagon arrives to town but there are signs that it was once inhabited, horses look tired and spooked.

a new comer is trying to establish an herbalist store, needs supplies and sends dwarf on a scavenger hunt.

Dwarf finds a rock with a rune on it, dwarven in nature. somewhere near to the village is an old dwarven camp (underground).

if dwarf has no relatives, perhaps the rune is her last name and seeking the camp might give her a better idea of who she is. or find out what destroyed the camp (leads to a whole slew of away from the village adventures, including possibly underground).

 

[grodog]

For a good model on pacing, CR, etc., you may want to check out the d20 solo rogues modules published by Wyverns Claw Designs. They're quite good adventures (though 3e and rogue-focused), but you could probably adapt they without too much difficulty.

Check them out on rpg.now at
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?cPath=260_269&products_id=23&
and
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?cPath=260_269&products_id=24&

 

[Sanackranib]

ideas

have the swamp witch sell cheap potions of healing (perhaps with unexpected side effects)

give the ghoul a +1 weapon that can cast cure lt. once per day but only if the alignment matches (lawfull) I would make it a hammer or axe

 

[Ed Cha]

-grins-

hmm she has started with the kid.
make the village look to her as a investigator/retreiver/detective type person.

a cow wandered off and needs rescuing and brought back.

a hermit's pet frog is missing.

the mayor went for a ride with his new girlfriend. both hasn't returned.

an empty wagon arrives to town but there are signs that it was once inhabited, horses look tired and spooked.

a new comer is trying to establish an herbalist store, needs supplies and sends dwarf on a scavenger hunt.

Dwarf finds a rock with a rune on it, dwarven in nature. somewhere near to the village is an old dwarven camp (underground).

if dwarf has no relatives, perhaps the rune is her last name and seeking the camp might give her a better idea of who she is. or find out what destroyed the camp (leads to a whole slew of away from the village adventures, including possibly underground).

Looks like you've got some great ideas! I remember someone here (I think alsih2o) posted a real life news story about a "sorceror" in Africa who kept captive a sea turtle and abused it. He suggested that this could be an adventure hook like say to rescue the turtle. I love plotlines like that!

At some point, you may want to consider doing a dungeon crawl. You may think that this would be too dangerous for a solo game, but if you have say an abandoned temple with an underground occupied by a single monster or a monster in one room and another in another room, it could work.

Also, you could always have a friendly NPC or henchman accompany her down there.

Anyhow, this sounds like a lot of fun, so keep us posted!

 

[Goodsport]

good sport