Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jarval" data-source="post: 1698567" data-attributes="member: 421">Hi Krug, just been directed to this thread by Brother S <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  You've been given a fair amount of background on my game, but I'll probably repeat a fair amount of it.  Brother S, thanks for covering for me while I was away <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />As has been said, I'm running the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83132" target="_blank">Strife in Sokara</a> game for Brother Shatterstone.  It's set in the world of Fabled Lands game books (an English series that died an unfortunately early death), with the Book of the Righteous pantheon and cosmology.  We're also using a fairly large raft of variant rules from Unearthed Arcana.I'm really taken with solo PbP games, for various reasons.  From the player's perspective, it means you can have your character in the limelight all the time with no worries of upsetting the other characters.  It's much easier to follow character specific goals.  You can go where you like, when you like, picking up on or passing by plot hooks as you see fit.  And you can play much more exotic or specialized character concepts with no worries about game balance.From the DM's perspective, it means you've got much more control over the game.  You've only got one PC to focus on, which gives you a lot more room for basing adventures around what's personally important to that character.  You can run freeform improvised adventures more easily.  You can give the PC the companions they need for the adventure, without worrying about having a permanent party structure.  For example, in my Strife in Sokara game, Brother Shatterstone's character is normally accompanied by two NPCs, a holy warrior (a BotR paladin variant) and a cleric.  But for the current part of the adventure, they needed some other skills that weren't covered by any of the party, so I brought in more NPCs to cover the gap (to be specific two Mormekim holy warriors and a locksmith).  I don't intend to make most of these NPCs a permanent part of the party, but they did provide vital skills when needed.  Because there's only one PC, I could still keep the focus firmly on the player, without worrying about the NPCs stealing their thunder.Another advantage for the DM is the freedom to use whatever books you want.  When you've got a group of PCs, it can sometimes be a little tricky to introduce new material into the game.  If you buy a sourcebook on divine magic, the wizards and sorcerers might feel they've now got fewer options (and are therefore weaker) than any paladins, clerics and druids that the group might have.  In a solo game, there's much less comparison going on between the main character and the NPCs that there would be between a group of PCs.Note that I don't consider solo games superior to group games, they're just different.  You do miss out on some things.  In a solo game, there's none of the spontaneous banter and intra-party role-playing that you get with a full group.  You don't have the group problem solving skills, being entirely reliant on just one person to figure out all the puzzles you throw at them.  And you've only got two people putting their ideas into the game, rather than the five or more that make up most groups.As for time, it can take more work to run a solo game, but OTOH, you can also set the pace to suit yourself more easily.  For the first month or so of the Strife in Sokara game, me and Brother Shatterstone were posting four to seven times a day, and the game was flying along at a rate far faster than any group game is likely to achieve.  However, recently I've had less time to devote to PbP gaming, so I've scaled things back to one or two updates a day from me.  After my exams in October, I should have plenty of time again, and I hope to pick up the pace once more.The amount of time and work it takes is also somewhat dependant on your personal style of DMing.  Myself, I like nothing better than making and playing characters, so having a world full of NPCs is great for me.  I'm intending the Strife in Sokara game to be less action focused than a standard D&D game (although there's still likely to be combat aplenty at times <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />), allowing me to do what I feel I do best, play NPCs.  For me, writing dialogue takes less time than writing descriptive passages, and certainly much less time than writing up a combat update.  Any solo game is going to involve the DM in more character interaction than a group game, as every comment made or question asked by the PC is going to be directed towards an NPC.  If you're going to run a solo game, you've got to enjoy writing dialogue.Picking up on a point of Ghostknight's, if you're running a solo game as a truly solo game (that is, one PC and no supporting NPCs in the party), as a DM you are going to have to put in a lot more work on combat encounters.  The CR system is very, very heavily biased towards a party of four, to the extent that even a three character party can struggle with what by the numbers seems to be an appropriate challenge.  If you've just got the one PC, avoid creatures with insta-kill abilities.  Even things like a ghoul's paralyzing attack can be deadly to a single PC with not support.  Conversely, so attacks are less dangerous.  Any attack with a large AoE is much less depleting on resources to a single PC than it is to a group.  Drop a fireball on one person, and they'll take damage.  Drop a fireball on a group of four, and the amount of healing magic you're going to need has just quadrupled.Right, I think that's a plenty long enough post to expect anyone to read.  If you've got any more questions Krug, feel free to throw 'em my way <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification