Developing a One-on-One Campaign (stay away SkyOdin)

[TwinBahamut]

I have been wanting to get a good 4E campaign going for several months now, but I have been having some problems because of a lack of players. Right now, the only reliable player I have is my brother, which would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that I don't think 4E works well with only a single PC. I tried that a while back, and it just didn't play like I wanted it to. So, I am doing something a bit experimental.

Basically, I am trying to let my brother run an entire party of PCs by himself... sorta. Actually, he will only control the team in combat, the rest of the time he will be controlling only a single PC, and the rest of the team will essentially cease to exist. In other words, he will summon a team of phantasmal warriors to fight with him in every combat, and they will be dispelled when battle ends. And yes, my brother has already made the requisite Pokemon joke, so it is not necessary for anyone else to do so. To be honest, the real inspiration is the Einherjar system from the videogame Valkyrie Profile.

I already have a pretty good idea for how I want that system to work, so I don't really need a lot of help there. Rather, I could use some help defining the setting and campaign details. Here is what I have so far:

A large part of the plot will center around a set of magical artifacts, each a powerful gem designed to fuse with a human host and imbue that person with incredible magical powers. One of these gems is going to be the source of the hero's "hero summoning" powers, but I want there to be several others to be important to the story as well. The list of inspirations for these gems include Suikoden's True Runes, the Ra-Seru from Legend of Legaia, the Gold Armlet from Beyond Oasis, the Scepter from Granstream Saga, and the Eyes of Moirel from Sagiro's excellent story hour. What can I say, I am a videogame fan...

From what I have thought up so far, the setting will be based around a group of three or so relatively small but diverse kingdoms, all located in the region around a massive tower. These nations and their borders would be somewhat unstable, leaving a lot of room for political intrigue and full-scale war. The tower is truly immense, reaching above the clouds, and is mysterious, ancient, and its interior is mostly unknown to the people who live in its shadow. Essentially, it is a gigantic dungeon crawl that reaches into the sky, and is probably filled with incredible dangers and lots of monsters. I want the tower to represent some kind of threat to the people of the lands surrounding it, but not necessarily an active or overwhelming one.

The problems are that I am having a bit of trouble linking some of these different plot threads together into a coherent whole, and I am struggling to develop some good villains that work in such a setting. A good structure to the campaign is eluding me, and I could use some advice.

Also, if anyone has some good advice for running one-on-one campaigns, I could use that too.

 

[Ydars]

Hi TwinBahamat!

I am not sure if I can help you, but here is one story that could tie some of the elements you are thinking about into a coherent story that could serve as the basis for an epic adventure.

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Long ago, the Gods cast one of their number, I will call him Trakis, out of the heavens and he fell to earth. Trakis swore revenge and determined to re-enter the heavens and destroy the gods.

To this end, he began harvesting the souls of mortals to re-gain the powers he had lost, at first murdering individuals and harvesting their essences into an Urn of Souls. As the ages past, he gradually gained in power and influence until he controlled whole Races and he used his power to set them to war and harvested the souls of all those who died into the Urn.

After many centuries, the world was a shattered remnant; he had destroyed the Kingdoms of the Dragonborn by pitting them against the Teiflings and later ended Nerath by nefarious means so that all the ancient Kingdoms of old lay in ruins.

And then Trakis gathered his powers and began building a tower to pierce the mantle of the sky and let him re-enter heaven. The tower was created by the will of Trakis alone; as he slept at its apex the tower grew like an evil vine from the ground. This has continued for over a century so that the tower is now vast and its summit is lost in the clouds, its baleful shadow a broad stripe of darkness that arcs across the land.

The will of Trakis also acted as a beacon to all that was hateful and filled with spite, so that all manner of evil creatures were drawn to his tower and sequestered within; a legion with which he would assault heaven.

His will also incarnated some of the tortured souls he had captured down through the ages and they were given shattered bodies, becoming terrible undead monsters or else he forced them into the metal or stone forms of guardians and golems, all slaves to his will.

In the last hundred years, the last few mortal Kingdoms have gathered around the base of the tower as the area seems free of monsters,(those monsters close to the tower are drawn into it and cannot escape).

What the world does not realise is that once Trakis' tower is high enough, it will pierce the mantle of the sky and shatter it, raining down destruction upon the world and allowing Trakis and his legions to enter heaven for a final battle.

But the gods are not fools and have seen their doom; yet they cannot avert it or they themselves would shatter the mantle of the sky were they to place their hands upon the face of the world. So they have dropped from the skies, 4 artefacts of legend, to be gathered by their servants. They have also released the souls of great heroes of past ages to be their avatars and some wear the clothed forms of mortals again, though they begin with no knowledge of Trakis or of his fell plan.

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I hope this helps.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

Actually 4th does very well with one player combat. Just look up the XP totals in the DMG for one monster, and use a LOT of minions. Give that one guy alot of buffs for a solo fight, and you're good to go.

I'm not knocking what you've done, but it is an idea..

 

[Prisoner6]

I ran a one-player campaign awhile back. My solution was to do this:

a) give the PC a companion or sidekick. A Robin to his Batman. A Tonto to his Lone Ranger. It helps if the sidekick has some healing abilities, but that doesn't mean the sidekick is all healing.

b) give the PC some extra-special powers. That could be an innate power, or just a special magical item that gives the PC an edge. Basically the PC needs some super special ability to kick in when the going gets *really* bad. For example, when the PC gets below half HP, he can summon a wolf to come fight for him. Or, once per day his sword can cast some kind of healing spell, but only on the wielder.

It sounds like you're well on your way with this, with his summoning powers, so I'm just adding this for completeness. I just want to add that he needs a "safety net" power that kicks in when things go bad.

(What happens to his phantom warriors when they die? Are the replaced, or gone forever?)

c) Make the story completely centered on the PC. There are no other party members, so there's no chance of him hogging the spotlight. Make the PC a prince, say. In a game with 4 players, letting one of them be a prince might give him an advantage over the other players. With just one player, there's no imbalance. (He could just as easily be the son of Zeus, which might explain the special powers).

c2) Make the story completely centered on the PC. The villains, they are after HIM. He's not just some random adventurer that got hired to retrieve a McGuffin. He *is* the story. The bad guys are after *his* girlfriend, say. Or maybe the bad guy needs a drop of *his* blood to complete some dark ritual (after all, the PC is a prince, or the son of Zeus, or whatever).

In other words, make every story line as personal as possible. No "there's a dungeon full of monsters terrorizing the village" adventures. Make it "your sister has been kidnapped by monsters! They were paid off by your rival Dr. M, who is striking back at your family because your father banished him from the kingdom."

d) Give him a mortal enemy. A Joker to his Batman. A rival. There's one guy who desperately wants to stop him for whatever reason. That bad guy doesn't need to show up every adventure, but should show up frequently.

e) Give the PC a mentor. A Yoda to his Luke.

f) break the rules like crazy. In a 4 or 5 player game, if you break the rules for one character, you have to break them for all characters, and things get out of hand fast. With only one player, you can go nuts. Sacrifice the rules for the benefit of the story ... or to save the character's butt.

I hope some of this helps. Good luck with your game.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Hi TwinBahamat!

I am not sure if I can help you, but here is one story that could tie some of the elements you are thinking about into a coherent story that could serve as the basis for an epic adventure.

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*snipped for space*

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I hope this helps.

It certainly helps at least a bit. I have been wanting to link that tower to some kind of dark god figure, but I had been coming up blank when it came to create some detail about that figure. Trakis, huh... Thanks for the idea. I may have to change a few things around, since I wanted the tower to be a bit more inhabited and I don't want the area around the tower to be particularly safe compared to the rest of the world, but there are some good ideas there.

One thing in particular that you probably didn't quite realize was so perfect was the idea of the "Urn of Souls". You see, I decided earlier that the artifacts I was going to use as a focus of the campaign (including the one used by the hero) work by absorbing spirits and the souls of the dead and giving the artifact's owner the power to incarnate these souls into new forms. According to what I have I created already, this is a kind of magic forbidden by the gods that was taken away from mortals and sealed into the artifacts. In other words, they work quite a bit like the Urn of Souls.

Combining the ideas together a bit... Tarkis was cast out from the heavens because he came to the world and gave mortal beings a forbidden power over life and death. This makes him into a dark promethean figure, making it much more plausible that mortal races would be willing to serve and worship him (which gives me more villains). When he was banished from heaven, the power he gave the mortals was sealed away with him. He still has control over the greatest share of this power, the Urn of Souls, but tied to him and that power are the other artifacts, the Avatar Gems.

Thanks to your idea, I may very well have just solved my biggest hurdle regarding this campign: unifying the artifact plot with the tower setting. Thank you.

Actually 4th does very well with one player combat. Just look up the XP totals in the DMG for one monster, and use a LOT of minions. Give that one guy alot of buffs for a solo fight, and you're good to go.

I'm not knocking what you've done, but it is an idea..

Well, I know it certainly works a lot better than 3E in this regard, and I do believe that it can work this way, but I don't think it will for me, at least under present circumstances. As I think I mentioned, I did give that method of using lots of minions and small enemy groups a try earlier, but it didn't quite work out to my satisfaction. It just seemed too swingy, with either the hero winning quickly, or getting totally locked down and reduced to helplessness because of debilitating conditions (curse you, Goblin Hexer). What is more, it just didn't seem to emphasize the kind of team tactics that 4E is really built around, which limits some of the game's fun.

Anyways, the team has been built, so I may as well post some preliminary data.

My brother will be playing a Human Wizard as his character, using a staff implement and multi-classing into Cleric. I am a bit worried because the most important character is a bit frail, but I think it can work. I am giving him boosts to his skills that correspond to each of his allies in order to make him a bit more well-rounded, but other than that he is a normal level 1 PC right now.

The four summoned heroes are:

A male Dwarf Paladin (protecting)

A male Eladrin Ranger (two-blade)

A female Human Warlord (inspiring)

And a male Dragonborn Barbarian (using the playtest info, rageblood for now but probably thaneblood when I get the PHBII)

I still don't have names for them (I hate that part), and I only have some sketchy background information for all them. They are tied to the artifact named "Martyr", and are all the incarnated souls of heroes who died and left some important battle incomplete. I know the Warlord was a princess who died in some past war between still-existing kingdoms, the Barbarian was the chief of a savage Dragonborn tribe, and the Paladin had to endure a great deal of suffering over a period of time, but I don't have anything on the Ranger and I am still missing a lot of detail.

I hope that team works well...

If anyone has advice for any aspect of this campaign, I am all ears.

 

[TwinBahamut]

It sounds like you're well on your way with this, with his summoning powers, so I'm just adding this for completeness. I just want to add that he needs a "safety net" power that kicks in when things go bad.

(What happens to his phantom warriors when they die? Are the replaced, or gone forever?)

A safety net, huh? I have a few back-up plans in case my brother's PC dies, but I have not given much thought to what I could do to actually prevent that death... I think the abilities of his phantom teammates goes a long way towards this, but I'm a bit uncertain now.

As for the phantom teammates, I was thinking that if they "died", I would require the hero to perform some kind of Ritual in order to restore them. It would probably be cheaper than Raise Dead, but still would have some kind of cost. Also, there is room for the team to change and for new phantom allies to join, particularly if the hero's artifact absorbs a new soul or some older soul emerges to the forefront, so I am not worried if some of them are defeated.

I hope some of this helps. Good luck with your game.

Thanks for the advice.

There is one thing in particular you said that is making me think. Give him a mortal enemy, huh? There was one villain I have had in mind since I created the "Avatar Gem" concept (long before I decided to run it in this form), but now I am thinking that I should make him a bit more recurring and visible. Actually, almost every other user of an Avatar Gem would probably fit into this role, once actually come up with more ideas for other Gems and their owners.

Still, since it is on my mind... Does anyone have any idea on how to implement a subplot about a person who starts as an acquaintance or friend of the hero, but ends up "turning to the dark side" and becoming a major rival and villain?

 

[Prisoner6]

Still, since it is on my mind... Does anyone have any idea on how to implement a subplot about a person who starts as an acquaintance or friend of the hero, but ends up "turning to the dark side" and becoming a major rival and villain?

That can be tricky because you don't know what the player(s) are going to do between now and the time the NPC turns to the dark side. If you're like me, then the campaign isn't planned out more than a few sentences beyond the current adventure either.

I think I would just write in my notes "so-and-so will turn to the dark side in the future" and wait until my ideas became more clear. Given a month or two to think about it, I might actually come up with something good.

Deep down, I suppose you have to ask yourself why does anyone do anything? What motivations does the NPC have to begin with? What would the NPC get out of going over to the dark side? Love? Money? Power?

Start by writing down a personality trait or two, and then working it toward evil.

Maybe the NPC is an animal rights activest who starts out by releasing sheep from pens, but goes on to murdering farmers! Maybe the NPC is a lover of art who becomes heartbroken when the PC destroys a priceless antique to recover a hidden treasure within. Maybe the NPC contracts a rare disease that can only be cured by drinking the blood of children! Maybe the NPC gets so obsessed with a cause that he doesn't care HOW he achieves the result.

 

[Ydars]

I am glad my musings were of some help. Please change anything and everything I wrote; I just did it to give you a sounding board since getting past the "blank page" is always the hard part in campaign design. Once you have something to interact with (I like that, I don't like that) then it is always easier and you start to see what you want.

I love the idea of Trakis as a Promethian figure since I was thinking a little of that story when I wrote the above. Perhaps he was banished to the Shadowfell and found his way into the mortal realm later, bringing with him his dark power and the Urn of souls? And if you would like some moral ambiguiity, perhaps he is not (or was not) evil but only sought to give mortals immortality like the gods enjoy (perhaps he had a mortal lover?).

I actually had another idea about the tower; that is is growing from the Shadowfell, through this world to bridge all the worlds to the heavens. The tower is actually created out of the souls of the dead.

If you want the area around the Tower to be more inhabited, how about creating a religion that centres around the worship of Trakis, who is known as the "Lord Harvester" and his religion is the "Sacred Stair"; most Kingdoms send tribute to him and his priests and their families live at the base of the tower. I am not talking about an openly evil religion, but maybe something subtly wrong or corrupt. So first the PC should not know that the religion is all lies (or perhaps there is some truth to it all but it is twisted).

Perhaps Trakis demands that all the dead from all the remaining nations must be given to him or else, according to the religion, they will not be re-born in the next world. This could be a central tenent of the religion, that the tower is the gateway to the next world. You could even have the lower levels of the tower as parts of several cities so that people come and go freely but that the upper levels become progressively more horrifying and are secret.

The other nations also believe it is safer near the tower, but the monsters drawn by the will of Trakis actually make it much less safe.
Then the campaign could start with monster bashing outside the tower and the gradually the PC will see that the tower is the source of the problem, not a beacon of safety as everyone thinks.

I just like messing with the player's heads and if you establish something as FACT at the beginning of the campaign (the old gods were evil and left mortals to die, but the Lord Harvester created the sacred stair where the souls of the dead could reside until they could journey to the next world), then you can make finding the truth about Trakis and what he has done a part of the main thread running through the campaign.

Good luck with it and hope you will come back if you have any other story needs.

 

[Ydars]

If you want someone close to the PC become evil, then you have the following possibilities that I can think of;

1) The use of one of your 4 artefacts or others, working off forbidden magic, actually corrupts the user slowly. So this character gradually becomes more and more corrupted until they hear the call of Trakis themselves and begin to dream of him; at that point madness is only a short dance away.

2) Someone or something the person loves/cherishes is threatened and they come to see the Sacred Stair as their saviour for some reason. If this character's wife has been driven mad, perhaps the character has been promised healing for her if the characters serves the Lord Harvester. Once the PC starts to question the Sacred Stair religion then this character will be instructed to watch and report on the PC. If you want a reason why this character's actions don't immediately get the party killed, perhaps Trakis instructs the Sacred Stair not slay the party as he sees them as future servants (given that they wield power akin to his).

3) The character is just very afraid of death and does not want to die. He wants to believe in the religion of the sacred stair and as the PC finds out more, he becomes more and more vocal and always tries to explain what the PC has found, dismissing their evidence. As time goes on this character will report the PC to the Sacred Stair, perhaps thinking that they are doing good by helping the PC. A reward of a magic item from the stair might lead to this character becoming evil via the corruption noted in 1.

All I have time for now.