Solo game for a first-time roleplayer [Archive] - Wizards Community

Solo game for a first-time roleplayer [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Weezel
12-15-07, 01:28 AM I was somewhat inspired by reading about Oaksparr's solo campaign for his girlfriend, and decided that I might propose the idea of playing a solo campaign to a friend of mine who has never played in a roleplaying game before. Clearly as this post exists she agreed, and so I shall be posting some writeups here in the hopes of getting some comments and/or feedback.

I tried to give as little prompting as possible for the character creation process and background, and I realize some of the ideas therein are not entirely original as such, but they are all from the mind of the first-time player so it's original at least for her ;)

Here's what we ended up with (note that attributes were rolled, not point-buy).

CHIQUITA
Elven Druid 1
Chaotic Neutral
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 13
HP 10, AC 15 (+3 dex +2 leather), Init +3
Saves; Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +5
Skills; Concentration +5, HandleAnimal +2, Heal +2, Kn:Nature +4,
Listen +6, Spot +6, Ride +4, Spellcraft +3, Survival +8, Search +2.
Feats; Scribe Scrolls
Features; Animal Companion (Dire Rat), Nature Sense, Wild Empathy

Gear; Leather Armour, Shortbow, Quiver with 30 arrows, Sickle,
Spear, Cold Weather Clothing, Block/Tackle, 3 Fishing Hooks,
Waterskin, Wetstone, Flint/Steel.

Note: We have given elves in this game a tribal feel, somewhat similar to the american-indian tribes. They live in the snow-covered lands in the far north of the gameworld and only have extremely limited contact with other races.

Chiquita is a young elf from the Forest Rat tribe, who's territories strech along the icy tundras and through the forests that are home to the giant dire rats from which the tribe gains it's name. She has been gifted with a link to the natural world, and spends much of her time away from the tribe in the wilds meditating and playing with animals. Pointedly refusing to learn a proper craft she prefers to hunt and forage in the forests with her dire rat companion Tigger (try and forgive the choice of name!). Still young and rebellious, Chiquita was off on one of her regular trips into the woods when a huge snowstorm blew over. Taking cover in the woods she was unharmed, but as soon as it had passed she rushed back to her village to find it had been wiped out by the blizzard....
Weezel
12-15-07, 01:38 AM EPISODE 1

After seeing a huge snowstorm suddenly sweep across the tundra while she was meditating in the woods, Chiquita returned to the site of her village to find it totally covered with sleet and snow. Realising there would be no point digging down to the remains of the buildings, as anybody within would be crushed or frozen to death, the young elf quickly scoured the area for the tracks of any survivors.

Unable to find any sign of survivors, there were several fairly recent tracks of small humanoids, that Chiquita reasoned with her knowledge of the area were probably left by snow goblin scavengers. Quickly reasoning that clearly nobody had survived the storm, she set out on a journey through the rat forests to the east, trying to reach the nearest elven tribe whose territory ranged across the other side of the forests.

By nightfall Chiquita had returned to the edge of the woods where she had been meditating, and was getting pretty hungry from the walking. Realising she had no food with her, she made her way to a partly frozen stream nearby where she sometimes fished, cut a small hole in the ice with her sickle and set up a fishing line. After a few hours and no luck with the fishing, she gave up and settled into her nightly meditation (aka "elf trance").

Having decided not to start a fire for the night, the young druid was freezing cold by the time she awoke from her meditative trance, but quickly shook off the effects of the cold and set about trying to fish once again before the sun came up. Seeing a few fish poke around the lure but not bite just added to her frustration, and she decided to leave the line tied to a shrub by the side of the river and go out hunting for small game.

Easily spotting some rabbit tracks not too far from the campsite, Chiquita and her faithfull dire rat stalked up close to a pair of rabbits without difficulty and shot the larger of the two with an arrow from her shortbow. Tigger didn't hesitate to charge through the scrub and finish off the limping rabbit, biting a chunk out of it's neck and chewing away happily on it.

Back at the stream a small fish has been snared on the line, and Chiquita eagerly skinned the rabbit, started up a small fire and put it on a spit to cook. Just as it was about ready to take off and eat, a crude small javelin came out of the nearby scrub and jabbed into Tigger's flank causing him to screech in pain.

It seemed some of the snow goblin scavengers had been attracted by the fire or the smell of cooking food and found the druid's camp! Chiquita's elven reflexes prevailed and she quickly noted at least several of the little creatures lurking in the scrub with javelins ready to throw. Just managing to call Tigger to heel before he charged into their attackers, she invoked the power of the spirits and spread an obscuring mist around herself.

Hearing the goblins cursing in their own tounge, her keen elven ears could also make out sound of their movements, indicating they were circling around the mist trying to figure out where she was. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the spit and the fish from the fire, and along with her companion scampered up a closeby pine tree. Climbing to just above the level of the mist, she couldn't see the goblins but could still hear them below. Figuring they were now stumbling around in the mist looking for her, she decided to wait for them to give up, which after about 5 minutes of searching the area and finding nothing except for the small fire, they did. To be on the safe side Chiquita decided to stay perched up in the tree for a while longer, so she and her companion had their meal up there. She also looked over Tigger's wound and found it to be only minor. The wound was easily closed up with the most minor of curing magic.

Several days of travelling and hunting for small game, still shaking off the effects of the freezing cold hours of meditation, the pair reached the edge of the forests, now moving into unfamiliar lands. During the day, having just finished off the remainder of their food and not relishing trying to find more on the open tundra, Chiquita spotted a humanoid figure on the horizon, dressed in white. Deciding to openly approach, this turned out to be another of the snow elves, dressed in the same manner of tribal leather as Chiquita but bearing the tatoos of a warrior. He was not happy to hear that her tribe had been destroyed, and questioned her about soldiers attacking the village, which was a suprise to her because she had never heard of any soldiers near her homeland. The elf introduced himself as Wintermoon and was very interested to know if she thought the storms that had destroyed the village were natural or not. Again this question came as a suprise to the young druid who, from what she had seen of it, thought the storms seemed sudden but not unnatural in any way.

Wintermoon warned her that there were strange creatures and soldiers about in the tundra, and that it was not safe to travel alone in the area. He suggested that she let him lead her back to his village so that the elders could discuss with her what had been happening recently in the area and what she wished to do now that her own tribe was gone. Since this was pretty much exactly why she had travelled in this direction in the first place, she happily agreed. Wintermoon mentioned that she didn't have any food with her, but it so happened he was planning to travel a lot longer had he not seen her so there was probably enough in his pack for them all on the trip back.

Several days of quiet travelling, with the elf warrior saying little, they arrived at a small valley which concealed a village of half a dozen wooden buildings from the surrounding terrain. Wintermoon pointed out the largest of the buildings where he said the tribe's wisewoman lived. He tersely said that the other elders had been lost in recent attacks so she now lead the tribe, and then walked off without waiting for a reply.

Chiquita went straight down to the wisewoman's hut, taking little notice of the several dozen elves going about their buisiness around the village, and found the hut to be filled with a sweet-smelling smoke but also very dingy. An elderly elf woman with many bones and feathers threaded into her long white hair sat on the floor with a gnarled staff placed across her knees, she waved for Chiquita to come closer, then to sit on some skins opposite her. The old wisewoman gave her a good looking over, then waved some holly in her direction and incanted some words in Sylvan, which Chiquita correctly identified as a spell for detecting magic.

Seeming satisfied with what she saw, the old woman told the young druid that in the last few passings of the seasons many of the tribes further to the west had fallen into enslavement by a sorceress who is known as the Ice Queen. It seemed that this so-called queen used potent magics to enslave the minds of others, and had brought creatures from the ice-covered mountains to attack the tribes that resisted her rule. She warned that there were elves who were under the queen's control, albiet not willingly, and also dangerous creatures that she called "wolves who walk as men". These "wolfmen" where noted to be fast and very ferocious, and it seemed that many of the tribe's warriors had been killed in fights with them already.

The wisewoman also told Chiquita that she was not certain that it would be possible for the tribe to hold out against these attacks, and that they may have to give up their homes and flee. She then offered the choice - stay and help fight to defend the village, or leave while it was still possible.

Chiquita had begun to suspect that the storm that killed her family and friends might have been caused by the Ice Queen to stop her people from helping their kin to the west, and so immediately agreed to stay and help fight. Thoughts of revenge were already buzzing in her mind.

The wisewoman smiled and finally introduced herself as Fallbreeze. She told Chiquita that she could stay with her, as there would be much to discuss about her gifts and how they could be used to help defend the village.

DOWNTIME
Chiquita gained 300xp for quite cunningly overcoming 3 goblins.
Fallbreeze has stores of unusual natural and magical substances, and let's Chiquita use some to scribe a few scrolls of the coming days. Having three days free she choses to make scrolls of Cure Light Wounds, Entangle and Speak with Animals.
During that time Fallbreeze also casts Goodberry on a few berries (4 to be precise) and gives them to Chiquita in case anything should happen to her.

THOUGHTS
The fight with the goblins went well - despite totally failing her listen rolls to hear the approaching goblins Chiquita's obscuring mist + climb a tree combo worked perfectly. I was planning on a short fight where the goblins would give up in favour of easier prey if any of them got badly injured, but the result here was even better. I had mentioned when the tracks were found that snow goblins were not considered particularly dangerous and that they normally would not dare attack elves, but alone it could be dangerous to fight several.

Chiquita's player plans on using the Speak with Animals spell next session to scout the area and check out if any local animals have seen their enemies. She is pretty keen to get some revenge for the death of her tribe (even if she doesn't really know whether the storm was caused by this sorceress or if that's just a co-incidence!).
Kelmourne
12-15-07, 05:27 PM First-time roleplayers often play solo for their first campaign. I did.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Weezel 12-15-07, 01:28 AM	I was somewhat inspired by reading about Oaksparr's solo campaign for his girlfriend, and decided that I might propose the idea of playing a solo campaign to a friend of mine who has never played in a roleplaying game before. Clearly as this post exists she agreed, and so I shall be posting some writeups here in the hopes of getting some comments and/or feedback. I tried to give as little prompting as possible for the character creation process and background, and I realize some of the ideas therein are not entirely original as such, but they are all from the mind of the first-time player so it's original at least for her ;) Here's what we ended up with (note that attributes were rolled, not point-buy). CHIQUITA Elven Druid 1 Chaotic Neutral Str 10 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 13 HP 10, AC 15 (+3 dex +2 leather), Init +3 Saves; Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +5 Skills; Concentration +5, HandleAnimal +2, Heal +2, Kn:Nature +4, Listen +6, Spot +6, Ride +4, Spellcraft +3, Survival +8, Search +2. Feats; Scribe Scrolls Features; Animal Companion (Dire Rat), Nature Sense, Wild Empathy Gear; Leather Armour, Shortbow, Quiver with 30 arrows, Sickle, Spear, Cold Weather Clothing, Block/Tackle, 3 Fishing Hooks, Waterskin, Wetstone, Flint/Steel. Note: We have given elves in this game a tribal feel, somewhat similar to the american-indian tribes. They live in the snow-covered lands in the far north of the gameworld and only have extremely limited contact with other races. Chiquita is a young elf from the Forest Rat tribe, who's territories strech along the icy tundras and through the forests that are home to the giant dire rats from which the tribe gains it's name. She has been gifted with a link to the natural world, and spends much of her time away from the tribe in the wilds meditating and playing with animals. Pointedly refusing to learn a proper craft she prefers to hunt and forage in the forests with her dire rat companion Tigger (try and forgive the choice of name!). Still young and rebellious, Chiquita was off on one of her regular trips into the woods when a huge snowstorm blew over. Taking cover in the woods she was unharmed, but as soon as it had passed she rushed back to her village to find it had been wiped out by the blizzard....
Weezel 12-15-07, 01:38 AM	EPISODE 1 After seeing a huge snowstorm suddenly sweep across the tundra while she was meditating in the woods, Chiquita returned to the site of her village to find it totally covered with sleet and snow. Realising there would be no point digging down to the remains of the buildings, as anybody within would be crushed or frozen to death, the young elf quickly scoured the area for the tracks of any survivors. Unable to find any sign of survivors, there were several fairly recent tracks of small humanoids, that Chiquita reasoned with her knowledge of the area were probably left by snow goblin scavengers. Quickly reasoning that clearly nobody had survived the storm, she set out on a journey through the rat forests to the east, trying to reach the nearest elven tribe whose territory ranged across the other side of the forests. By nightfall Chiquita had returned to the edge of the woods where she had been meditating, and was getting pretty hungry from the walking. Realising she had no food with her, she made her way to a partly frozen stream nearby where she sometimes fished, cut a small hole in the ice with her sickle and set up a fishing line. After a few hours and no luck with the fishing, she gave up and settled into her nightly meditation (aka "elf trance"). Having decided not to start a fire for the night, the young druid was freezing cold by the time she awoke from her meditative trance, but quickly shook off the effects of the cold and set about trying to fish once again before the sun came up. Seeing a few fish poke around the lure but not bite just added to her frustration, and she decided to leave the line tied to a shrub by the side of the river and go out hunting for small game. Easily spotting some rabbit tracks not too far from the campsite, Chiquita and her faithfull dire rat stalked up close to a pair of rabbits without difficulty and shot the larger of the two with an arrow from her shortbow. Tigger didn't hesitate to charge through the scrub and finish off the limping rabbit, biting a chunk out of it's neck and chewing away happily on it. Back at the stream a small fish has been snared on the line, and Chiquita eagerly skinned the rabbit, started up a small fire and put it on a spit to cook. Just as it was about ready to take off and eat, a crude small javelin came out of the nearby scrub and jabbed into Tigger's flank causing him to screech in pain. It seemed some of the snow goblin scavengers had been attracted by the fire or the smell of cooking food and found the druid's camp! Chiquita's elven reflexes prevailed and she quickly noted at least several of the little creatures lurking in the scrub with javelins ready to throw. Just managing to call Tigger to heel before he charged into their attackers, she invoked the power of the spirits and spread an obscuring mist around herself. Hearing the goblins cursing in their own tounge, her keen elven ears could also make out sound of their movements, indicating they were circling around the mist trying to figure out where she was. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the spit and the fish from the fire, and along with her companion scampered up a closeby pine tree. Climbing to just above the level of the mist, she couldn't see the goblins but could still hear them below. Figuring they were now stumbling around in the mist looking for her, she decided to wait for them to give up, which after about 5 minutes of searching the area and finding nothing except for the small fire, they did. To be on the safe side Chiquita decided to stay perched up in the tree for a while longer, so she and her companion had their meal up there. She also looked over Tigger's wound and found it to be only minor. The wound was easily closed up with the most minor of curing magic. Several days of travelling and hunting for small game, still shaking off the effects of the freezing cold hours of meditation, the pair reached the edge of the forests, now moving into unfamiliar lands. During the day, having just finished off the remainder of their food and not relishing trying to find more on the open tundra, Chiquita spotted a humanoid figure on the horizon, dressed in white. Deciding to openly approach, this turned out to be another of the snow elves, dressed in the same manner of tribal leather as Chiquita but bearing the tatoos of a warrior. He was not happy to hear that her tribe had been destroyed, and questioned her about soldiers attacking the village, which was a suprise to her because she had never heard of any soldiers near her homeland. The elf introduced himself as Wintermoon and was very interested to know if she thought the storms that had destroyed the village were natural or not. Again this question came as a suprise to the young druid who, from what she had seen of it, thought the storms seemed sudden but not unnatural in any way. Wintermoon warned her that there were strange creatures and soldiers about in the tundra, and that it was not safe to travel alone in the area. He suggested that she let him lead her back to his village so that the elders could discuss with her what had been happening recently in the area and what she wished to do now that her own tribe was gone. Since this was pretty much exactly why she had travelled in this direction in the first place, she happily agreed. Wintermoon mentioned that she didn't have any food with her, but it so happened he was planning to travel a lot longer had he not seen her so there was probably enough in his pack for them all on the trip back. Several days of quiet travelling, with the elf warrior saying little, they arrived at a small valley which concealed a village of half a dozen wooden buildings from the surrounding terrain. Wintermoon pointed out the largest of the buildings where he said the tribe's wisewoman lived. He tersely said that the other elders had been lost in recent attacks so she now lead the tribe, and then walked off without waiting for a reply. Chiquita went straight down to the wisewoman's hut, taking little notice of the several dozen elves going about their buisiness around the village, and found the hut to be filled with a sweet-smelling smoke but also very dingy. An elderly elf woman with many bones and feathers threaded into her long white hair sat on the floor with a gnarled staff placed across her knees, she waved for Chiquita to come closer, then to sit on some skins opposite her. The old wisewoman gave her a good looking over, then waved some holly in her direction and incanted some words in Sylvan, which Chiquita correctly identified as a spell for detecting magic. Seeming satisfied with what she saw, the old woman told the young druid that in the last few passings of the seasons many of the tribes further to the west had fallen into enslavement by a sorceress who is known as the Ice Queen. It seemed that this so-called queen used potent magics to enslave the minds of others, and had brought creatures from the ice-covered mountains to attack the tribes that resisted her rule. She warned that there were elves who were under the queen's control, albiet not willingly, and also dangerous creatures that she called "wolves who walk as men". These "wolfmen" where noted to be fast and very ferocious, and it seemed that many of the tribe's warriors had been killed in fights with them already. The wisewoman also told Chiquita that she was not certain that it would be possible for the tribe to hold out against these attacks, and that they may have to give up their homes and flee. She then offered the choice - stay and help fight to defend the village, or leave while it was still possible. Chiquita had begun to suspect that the storm that killed her family and friends might have been caused by the Ice Queen to stop her people from helping their kin to the west, and so immediately agreed to stay and help fight. Thoughts of revenge were already buzzing in her mind. The wisewoman smiled and finally introduced herself as Fallbreeze. She told Chiquita that she could stay with her, as there would be much to discuss about her gifts and how they could be used to help defend the village. DOWNTIME Chiquita gained 300xp for quite cunningly overcoming 3 goblins. Fallbreeze has stores of unusual natural and magical substances, and let's Chiquita use some to scribe a few scrolls of the coming days. Having three days free she choses to make scrolls of Cure Light Wounds, Entangle and Speak with Animals. During that time Fallbreeze also casts Goodberry on a few berries (4 to be precise) and gives them to Chiquita in case anything should happen to her. THOUGHTS The fight with the goblins went well - despite totally failing her listen rolls to hear the approaching goblins Chiquita's obscuring mist + climb a tree combo worked perfectly. I was planning on a short fight where the goblins would give up in favour of easier prey if any of them got badly injured, but the result here was even better. I had mentioned when the tracks were found that snow goblins were not considered particularly dangerous and that they normally would not dare attack elves, but alone it could be dangerous to fight several. Chiquita's player plans on using the Speak with Animals spell next session to scout the area and check out if any local animals have seen their enemies. She is pretty keen to get some revenge for the death of her tribe (even if she doesn't really know whether the storm was caused by this sorceress or if that's just a co-incidence!).
Kelmourne 12-15-07, 05:27 PM	First-time roleplayers often play solo for their first campaign. I did.