Running for a Solo Player

[Shades of Green]

I'm currently planning a single or semi-single (the second player isn't a regular) rogue-centric game; the main player plays a Rogue, the second an Urban Druid, and when hes absent I think I'll use an NPCin his place - maybe a Bard, maybe something else (who else could sneak well besides a Rogue asnd an Urban Druid?)

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm currently planning a single or semi-single (the second player isn't a regular) rogue-centric game; the main player plays a Rogue, the second an Urban Druid, and when hes absent I think I'll use an NPCin his place - maybe a Bard, maybe something else (who else could sneak well besides a Rogue asnd an Urban Druid?)

An Urban Ranger would sneak well and fit in wonderfully, being a warrior with a Track ability. Depending on how high your characters are, you might consider making the Ranger a Watch Detective (found in the Masters of the Wild splatbook) and go all CSI: Cormyr or what have you.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Use reserve hit points form Unearthed Arcana.

Use Fort Save from unearthed Arcana or just "fade to black" when hit points go below 0.

The player is going to have to shine in most combats to insure that his resources aren't consumed by equal strength foes. This means in game terms that most opponents should be much weaker than the character.

The real solution would be to find more players in my opinion. That's the root cause of the issue here. It's hard and even living in Chicago, a city with millions of people, I've been gameless on several occassions.

 

[Rel]

It sounds like you've got an almost perfect setup here with the whole "Pirate" thing. Since I've been playing the Sid Meier's Pirates! computer game, I've got several ideas you can steal from that:

Have the PC be a young prince of an island nation. His father dies (or is assassinated) and an evil advisor plots to have the rest of the family, including the PC, his sisters, mother and maybe an aunt and uncle thrown into the dungeons so that he might take over the throne. The PC manages to escape and flees to the docks where he stows away on a ship leaving port.

He is discovered shortly thereafter and spends the next several years growing into manhood while being forcibly made to serve aboard ship as payment for his "passage". He learns to be tough, learns to sail, learns to fight. He is even growing rather content with his life at sea when one day a friendly but sad looking older man books passage on the ship.

It turns out that this fellow was once an entertainer loyal to the PC's father. He tried to fight against the usurper but failed and had to flee the island nation as well. He has spent the last several years moving from one port to another, always leaving before any of the new king's agents can catch up with him. But he recognizes the man who he knew to be the prince and sees an opportunity to stop running.

He reveals his identity to the prince and uses his charm to win over the majority of the crew. The PC is presented with an opportunity to lead the crew in a mutiny whereupon he takes over control of the ship. And now he and the bard are on a mission to discover the location of his surviving family and topple the current king so that he might retake his father's throne.

For adventure ideas you can have this character chasing all over the ocean looking for his family, sinking the ships of the False King, fighting other pirates, finding treasure to finance his revolt against the usurper and so forth. Watch some Pirates of the Carribean and Count of Monte Cristo and the stories almost write themselves!

You'll want a good set of ship to ship combat rules that suit the player's style (does he prefer to use his sailing skills to attack the enemy at range or ram and board?) and decide if you want to have gunpowder or something similar (magical cannons?). It'll be a swashbuckler's dream!

 

[Evilhalfling]

Rel that sounds like a great campign plot.
It even gives nearly all the characters foes a reason to capture rather than kill him.
One of the big problems with single character games is that you cant loose fights. If everyone tries to capture him then prisnor/escape plots are a good possibility, write one up early and use it when needed.
some other considerations:
Since he is a fighter type you will want to tone down the magic avalible to his enemies, In ship to ship combat, manuvering and boarding can loose out quickly to the fly and fireball approach. Make wizards rare and sorcerers only a legend.
Divine spell casters are less of a problem until they get flame strike, and priests of 9th+ can be saddled down with temple responsibilites.
This will also mean that arcane magic items will be more rare, while divinely created items fill in the gaps.

Your actually going to use a swashbuckler? better skills, but you loose a lot in feats. The SA of swashbuckler look mediocre - a fighter/thief is a better build for the concept.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Suggestions: A character can handle encounters of their level -4 with 20% resource depletion just like a party does. So start the PC at 5th level and try a 1st level module.

Also, you could try having NPCs use the Craft Contingent Spell feat on healing spells on the PCs.