Fudging Dice and the Fear of Death

[dreaded_beast]

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, the last 2-3 encounters I ran for my player, I ended up fudging the dice in her favor.

We are playing a solo-campaign in the FR, and she has grown attached to her character, but the last 2-3 encounters were tougher than I imagined, so I had to fudge the dice to make sure she survived.

I think my player was genuinely scared, but I don't know how much I want to keep fudging the dice. I don't want her to eventually think that, she can't die because I keep fudging the dice for her. On the otherhand, this is a solo-campaign and the encounters are tending to lean on the tough side.

I want to put the fear of death in her, but if she is adventuring all alone, I can't think of a plausible explanation as to why someone would find her, let alone getting her to a cleric that can raise her.

The campaign area is composed of wilderness "hamlet" that has her home (a monk monastery), a wizard's tower, and a shrine to selune.

Any suggestions on fudging dice and putting the fear of death in a player in a solo-campaign?

 

[Whisper72]

Hmmm... is it a solo campaign because you only deal with a single PLAYER, or has a player out of a group decided to go on a little solo adventure.

In the first case, let her find some NPC companion. One who is significantly lower in power / skills / intelligence etc. such that the main drive will still be the player, but that way, should an encounter go poorly, this NPC can bring her back to life (or at least, back to some temple). In this way, if the NPC needs to stay alive a bit, you can fudge a few dice and monster-tactical decisions such that the main baddies go for the player and that the NPC gets the easy stuff to deal with.

Otherwise, have her die, and let her spirit arise. Now she has to roleplay as an uncorporeal ghost to try to convince a group of NPC adventurers to retrieve her body. Naturally, she will have to guide them, and play her part in any encounters, but now hampered as an undead of sorts with limited power in the 'real' world.

Just some thoughts...

 

[Mac Callum]

I run a solo campaign for my wife. There's always an NPC or three who has common cause with her quest du jour. Only one NPC has stuck with her throughout the campaign so far; most come and go. Even that one NPC has a story arc of his own, and when it moves away from my wife's character's story, he will move on too.

The point though is that there's always an NPC or two who can be counted on to revive her if she goes negative or to retreat with her body for raising. It takes a lot of stress off me as the DM too, since I can roll in the open and not fudge dice. She knows she's in danger because she's seen her allies go negative a lot, and has herself once - and she can see that I'm not pulling punches with the rolls.

 

[Mac Callum]

double post - sorry

 

[Umbran]

Any suggestions on fudging dice and putting the fear of death in a player in a solo-campaign?

Well, first off, never tell her when you're fudging. And if you feel you have to fudge, only do the absolute minimum - don't fudge so that death becomes a shinging victory. Fudge so that death turns into ignominious deafeat just sort of death.

There's always the (perhaps slightly retroactive) approach of saying that at the last moment, the opponent switches from using real damage to subdual damage, knoks the highly injured character out, and captures them - leaving the path to further adventure open.

In general, if you have a group of PCs if one dies you can maintain some form of continuity in the story. If a solo dies, though, continuity goes out the window, so occasionally fudging may seem necessary. But, for the solo, there's other things to fear aside from death. Capture, blackmail, loss of honor, loss of family - threat to anything the character holds near and dear can work to instill fear and a sense that there are consequences to actions. Once you know the PC's mootivations, you can manipulate them and make them sorry they messed up without killing them.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Don't tell her you're fudging. I know, me personally, I'd hate that. I am attached to my PC, but I also like to play by the rules.

Have you considered bringing in an NPC? Someone who travels with her , or if she dies, maybe set it so it happens somewhere that a traveling caravan or something could feasibly happen along and find her?

 

[FireLance]

As previously mentioned, NPC companions can help save a solo PC. Some kind of Action Point, Luck Point or Fate Point system could also get the PC through tight situations.

One final point about solo campaigns. As a DM, your margin for error is quite small, so it's always better to err on the side of a weaker challenge. Bad dice will happen often enough that a weaker challenge seems exciting, and it's also easier to add a challenge (a new enemy arrives on the scene) than to come up with a reason for taking away an existing challenge.

 

[S'mon]

Running it more like a TV show (eg Xena) than standard D&D tactical combat game might be a good idea. Eg: avoid min-maxing NPCs. Why shouldn't the bandits be unarmoured and armed with shortbows, clubs & hatchets? If there's an ogre, emphasise its huge size and terrifying power, let the player know that avoiding it might be smart. Don't expect the PC to have to hack through 4 encounters/session to 'win'. Let her fight a couple of CR 1/4 goblins rather than CR 2 bugbears. If she does fight a bugbear make it seem a scary 'boss monster' commanding the goblin hordes. Consider using more Story XP than Challenge XP - the CR system is balanced for a 4-person group, it doesn't work so well for solo play.

 

[Steverooo]

Simply change when death occurs. -50 HPs instead of -10 allows for plenty of time to stabilize, and doesn't remove all the bad consequences of failure. By the time the PC regains consciousness, they will be starving, weak, and in severe need of healing... but won't hafta roll up a new character!

 

[Driddle]

"Sweetie, according to the dice, your character has just died.

"... Now, I'm going to give you an option: I can 'fudge' the roll by just enough so that she can live to fight another day, OR we can let her pass away and decide what to do next. If you opt for the adjustment, I'm OK with that. And as a matter of fact, I'll even give you one more life-or-death 'Reality Warp' you can use for the same thing one more time in the future. But just one more; after that, dead is dead.

"If we let her die, I'm sure we can come up with something interesting if we sit down and discuss it over lunch or coffee ..."