Falkovnia solo help.

[Epically]

Hey guys, haven't posted here in a while as my partner and I have been busy with our newborn, but I'm getting back into the swing of things.

I'm going to be running a solo campaign for my partner, and I was hoping for some tips.

I normally DM a group, so I'm not sure how to suit a campaign to a solo player. It's going to start in Falkovnia, since I'm most familiar with it, and I was hoping for some tips, or adventure ideas for solo play.

Thanks in advance and good to be back!

[HuManBing]

For a solo character, flexibility is a huge asset. You can tailor every aspect of the campaign to your player's single motive and curiosity.

Does your player want to be a force for liberation (in a rotten oppressive state, like Falkovnia)? Put in NPCs and a secret underground movement that they can try to help overthrow the tyrant. Watch their backs! Ferret out double agents! Lure the leadership into a theater and immolate them all! etc.

Or maybe your PC wants to rise in the ranks and stay as neutral as possible, seeking only the fresh purity of battle - pit them against Gondegal's bandits, or set them on an undercover investigation to smoke out Vladimir Ludzig, or raise their swords for some good old-fashioned kobold-stomping against the Children of the Dragon!

Or maybe your PC wants to flirt with the forces of oppression, and embrace the violent militant culture of the state. Anything they want can happen - just be sure to give them choices and options. This can be as flavorful as allegiance, or as "crunchy" as switching character classes midway with the right patrons to train you (e.g. in magic, thieves' skills, etc.).

My personal pet plot arc for Falkovnia involved Darkonian agents plotting to blackmail the Spy Minister (Yuri Mitrovic) into defecting, and then further draw out Vigo Drakov into the open where he could be kidnapped or killed. By the end of the plot arc, Falkovnia had one defected Falkfuhrer, one dead Falkfuhrer, and its plans for another invasion were knocked back about a decade or so as Drakov purged his leadership once more. Link to summary.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Hi Epically,

Congratulations regarding the new player-to-be.
Given that this is a solo adventure in such a hostile place as Falkovnia, you might want to try something against type. Perhaps something more noir mystery?
The player wakes up covered in blood – which is fairly common, since he or she is actually a member of the army. Their memories of the past forty eight hours are a blank, but they do know their identity – an up and coming office in Eagle’s Watch, the urban policing wing of the army.
Being stationed in the big city near the border, they’ve managed to advance far without having to dirty their hands too much. Despite the odds, they’ve made sure that the guilty are punished, justice rendered, and the innocent are relatively unharmed. Now they have a chance to get promoted, climb out of this urban cesspool and settle into a cushy position in the countryside. One more big case will clinch it.

Lately, there’s been a series of bestial murders. People being torn apart – pretty standard for a Saturday. Most of those killed have been demihumans, and beneath the notice of the Watch, but lately the killer has set their sights on foreign merchants. That means that the killer is costing the king-fuehrer money. The talons have promised to not let a single witness untortured, but the Eagle Watch has first dibs, at least for twelve more hours.

The watch chief and the city council are all screaming at the player for results. Their only remaining leads are their notebook, with several pages torn out, and several broken syringes which they book says were found at the scene of the murders. The player has command of a squad of Watch soldiers, and can requisition generally anything he or she needs, but they’ll have to use their wits to deal with their social superiors.
There is one more thing – an accidental ink spill reveals an impression the player must have made when they scribbled on one of the now missing pages. Its only four words, but they speak volumes. They are simply:
“Vjorn Horstman. Primal serum.”

The player is drawn into a conspiracy of scheming scientists, ruthless freedom fighters, and a terrible new weapon. The past victims of the killer are merely the first victims of a disgusting new form of warfare – unsuspecting suspects infected with the Primal Serum and released. A pre-set stimulus causes them to transform into ravenous werebeasts and wreak terrible havoc. A band of revolutionaries, including a number of City Councillors, have obtained a stock of the serum, and are using it cause chaos. They hope to force the neighbouring kingdoms to intervene and invade, so they can control the city. But the revolutionaries are merely pawns themselves. Their leader is actually one of the Talons, who wants to humiliate the Eagle Watch and City Council, and place the city under their direct control.

The player must follow the clues, reveal the revolutionaries, and the Talon involvement, before the literal dead-line. Were all that bad enough, the player will learn that they too have been infected, and might become a ravenous animal at any minute.

[Mangrum]

What system will you be using?

[Epically]

Thanks for the input. I'll be using 2nd ed.

[Jimsolo]

I ran a solo campaign for my wife for over a year, and enjoyed it immensely. It can offer some great opportunities to break the mold of traditional groups.

Something I feared was the monsters which would traditionally be seen in a D&D game would eat her alive. She was a fairly new (extremely new!) player, so I also wanted to give her someone to help her out. I introduced a small stable of NPCs as friends (through trial and error, some of the NPCs I introduced for this purpose wound up being people she didn't like, and so later returned as enemies...) that she could travel with. Not a whole group, mind you, but having more than one gave me the flexibility to pair her up with the right NPC for the right storyline. For those stories that could see use out of multiple NPCs, I set the story up in such a fashion as to let her pick which NPC to roll around with.

A group of NPC-PCs like these can really help you and your partner get more out of your games.

Take advantage of the one-on-one by the way! This is a great opportunity for you as a DM to tailor some stories to your audience. Hopefully you've got a good grasp of the sort of stories he/she likes, so you can apply those concepts to Ravenloft.

I'd be happy to add some specifics. What sorts of stories does your partner enjoy? Is he/she a gamer with any experience? What kinds of books/movies/TV shows/games does he or she enjoy? If your partner does any writing (or game running) on their own, what kinds of stories do they create?

And as a side note, congratulations! Today was my wife's due date, but we're still waiting. Good luck both with your little one and with your game!

[The Giamarga]

So what race/class/kit/backstory/occupation PC does she want to run? How is her system mastery? Will you start at lvl 1 or a bit higher? Give her a short introduction to Falkovnia and the Lands of the Mists, and ask her in what direction she'd like the campaign tone heading.

Then let us know here and there'll be plenty of tips& ideas...

Deepshadow ran a Falkovnia campaign with all female PCs. They were members of a secret spy organization working in cells and iirc based in Falkovnia: Kara's Daughters (here's a forum searchsearch for Kara's daughters, getting quite a few interesting threads). Maybe she can become a new recruit for them. He made heavy use of Van Richten's Guide to Doppelgangers and even had a doppleganger PC iirc.

Being a member or at least having support/contact with a secret society would be great for a solo campaign imho. You have a patron of sorts, gain contacts, allies, enemies, safe houses, equipment, gear, conspiracies, anagenda, missions.

Also soloing is all about versatility: in 2e you could have her roll for psionic power, multiclass, dual class, play a monster (i.e. vampire, werewolf, doppelgänger,...) race, start at high level, give her a familiar/imp/intelligent animal companion/sidekick or at least play a more well rounded or self-sufficient class/kit. Also give her access to some interesting magic items and/or perhaps a companion or two, or at least some regular helpful NPC contacts. Make sure to have her be much higher level than any group adventure calls for if using any prewritten ones.

There are a few 2e solo adventures in Dungeon and elsewhere, but afaik no Ravenloft specific ones. So you'll have to come up with your own or adapt generic adventures. See this old ENWorld threadfor general solo advice and a list of some 1E/2E/3E solo adventures and a link to a good Dungeon index.

[Epically]

Ok, so i changed things up a little bit. This is what she said when I asked what she wanted to play. "I want to be a street rat orphan, who wants to help people so they never have to go through what I did. I want to dual-wield swords and have a pet wolf."

When asked why she likes Ravenloft and what type of gameplay she likes, "I really like the scary stuff, and I like puzzle adventures, and I love when a lot of small stories or adventures eventually tie into a huge plot and when you realise that, you're like ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh".

So to suit how I wanted to start, we played a little bit last night. We ended up starting in Darkon instead, so she could wield a weapon in plain sight without being apart of the military. She has a kit that I made up, called the Shadow Wolf, which basically she attracts a wolf from lvl 1-5 (if it dies, another one turns up in a week), at lvl 6 she can summon a shadow wolf, and at lvl 10 she can turn into a shadow wolf with a few extra cool stuff. Lvls and fights as a warrior.

[Jimsolo]

Cool.

I'd start her out with a few underhand lobs to get her warmed up. On the streets of whatever city you're in, there is lots of opportunities to gauge both what kind of player she is as well as how she wants to run this character.

Try throwing a few casual encounters at her while letting her wander the city, doing her own thing. Examples include:

1. A thief being arrested for picking pockets. He's obviously poor, but the law officer isn't being unfairly brutal. If she witnessed the crime, then the officer can even ask for her testimony. This gives her the opportunity to help the law, the thief, herself, or no one. It gives you a great idea of where she wants to go.
2. A beggar passed out in an alley, with money still in his cup.
3. A prostitute being beaten by her pimp.
4. A fence purchasing stolen goods.
5. A travelling priest, working for the good of the downtrodden, asking for donations. (He's on the up and up.)
6. A cat with it's foot trapped in a rat trap. (You can even see how far the wolf can push it's demands on her. Will she let it eat the cat, or will she deny her animal companion this snack?)
7. A little child lost on the streets. The child is obviously wealthy, and if she doesn't get an escort home, it's unlikely she will survive the night.
8. Two drunks ganging up on a third drunk. The odd man out is obviously taking a beating. If the PC provides him with an opportunity, he pulls a knife on the other two, and although they were only going to thrash him, he aims to kill them.
9. A gender appropriate paramour, who meets the PC in a tavern and strikes up a conversation. Aiming to show the PC a good time, they are of course trying to arrange a hook-up. At some point, the PC will notice the wedding ring (or appropriate indicator) revealing the paramour's intent to step out on their spouse.
10. An illicit tryst between two members of rival gangs. The PC can be informed of her recognition of the gang colors if you prefer, giving her full knowledge of what has to be happening.

There's lots of ways in these examples for her to act in ways that are both good and evil, lawful and chaotic, heroic or selfish. It gives you a good gauge of the kind of dynamic you're going to have, as well as warming her up for the game. I would keep narrative punishments light or nonexistent at this point. (Let her get away with her crimes and villainy, in other words, at least for now .)

I'd try to throw her small, one-off stories until you figure out what your main plot is. You can always write back-door connections from the stories you've already done into the bigger one later. It sounds like those sorts of connections are things your partner would enjoy.

Definitely keep us updated, by the way! I always relish the chance to help someone else out when I can! Good luck with your game, and again, with the little one!

[Epically]

Thank you all for the ideas so far. We had a short game the other night, and this is how it started:

Her character, a 19 year old (birthday the day we started) man, has been on the streets for almost all his life. On this particular day, not eaten for a few days, a wolf appeared and seemed generally very friendly to him and and even followed a few simple commands.
Shortly after, a man approached named Krom and Julz (my partner) asked him if the wolf was his. He said no, and asked how old he was. After finding out it was his birthday, the man gave him 1g, which was the most he'd ever had in his hand.

He then went to go buy some food and passed a smithy shop on the way. Something drew him into the shop and to a worn out, very old long sword. After inspecting it, he saw that it had his last name on it. Asking the smithy about it, he said it was sold to him many years ago by a gentleman who had the same description as his father.
When she picked it up, you felt an instant connection with it, having a few practice swings like he'd been a swordsman for quite some time.

He asked how much it was, to which the smithy enquired if he could actually afford it. He said he has 1g, but was rather hoping to use it for food. The smithy said he'd make him a deal - he could have the sword for free, as well as an old leather armor piece, if he dealt with the rat problem in the basement.

Long fighting story short, he and the wolf went to a makeshift cavern through a crack in the wall in the basement, killed some rats, a giant spider, and a big momma rat. In the cavern, he found two rings, one ring of protection +1 and a family insignia ring. He asked the smithy about them, to which he mentioned there was a wealthy lord who was in the shop a month ago who had mentioned he had dropped the insignia ring and he would really appreciate it if he brought it back to him. The ring was his to keep as he did such a good job. (plus he didn't know it was magical).

So that's all that happened in the game, only went for about an hour, hour and a half (babies........).

But here's the backstory I got so far for it:
Julz charactor is a shadow wolf. A distant cousin of the werewolf. His father was one, and shared a long blood line. On your 19th birthday, in this bloodline, you get a pet wolf.
Julz has been on the streets most of her life, with her younger 15 year old brother. Her mother died during childbirth with her brother, and her father passed away when she was 12 from malnurishment and a fever he couldn't break.
However, what actually happened is a lot different.
She was born in Mordent. Julz actually had a twin sister, who had died shortly after their birth. Completely devasted, the mother went a little crazy. She spent years researching necromancy (unbeknownst to her husband) to try and bring her daughter back. The younger brother, was a failed necromancy experiment in which she was attempting to "rebirth" her daughter. After this failure, she delved deeper into her studies and found and ancient summoning ritual which summons an ancient and powerful demon, who can grant wishes (with devasting results). One of the requirements is "blood of your blood" requiring a human sacrifice of your own child.
Planning to sacrifice her "fail" child, her husband discovered her plans and fled to darkon, in the hopes of losing all memories, and living on the streets, so they would never recall the terrible things their mother did and so the children wouldn't go exert their revenge, or search for her in general.
To be honest, I'm still fleshing that last part out.

Her father was a fairly famous adventurer. I have things floating around my head with his former adventure buddies, but this is all I got so far.

[Epically]

Oh, and goodluck to when your little one comes! If it's your first, be prepared for a large shock lol.

[The Giamarga]

Nice. Your shadow wolf reminds me of the Bloodknife Ravenloft gamebook which incidently played through with my spouse. Its a nice if somewhat cheesy story somehow like an old Gypsy tale similar to the excellent Kulchek story.

The protagonist in there learns of his mysterious past (he's a half?-vistani iirc), develops some psionic powers (the clairsentience powers object reading and sensitivity to psychic impressions as a means of figuring out his mysterious past ) and gets an intelligent telepathic wolf companion with strange powers (a greyhawk mist wolf without breathweapon but with a normal woking detect evil would be quite fitting) who later turns out to be his transformed lost brother I believe. The details are in the thread I linked to above.

The Bloodknife is also detailed in the 3e RL Van Richtens Arsenal. I don't know it's powers without looking the up but it's destined to destroy a vampire darklord in an obscure pocket domain in the Sea of Sorrows and needs to be united with a "sunstone" iirc. It's currently on display in the Guignol museum. For how it go there and how events differed from the pick a path book check out this BTH post.

You could adapt a bit of this story to flesh out your campaign. Maybe your wife's PC is a reincarnation of this gypsy her but having grown up in Darkon is completely unaware of this.


Another more general idea is to make the sword of her father a more potent weapon than a simple +1 and she slowly finds out its powers. (So that the weapon grows with her in power and can also introduce backstory/plot) maybe it's an intelligent weapon that only slowly reveals all its powers, maybe its a luckblade (bolstering her saves) with one wish left, maybe its only a +1/+3 vs shapechangers weapon. An intelligent weapon will round out her abilities some more and can provide advice and plot/hooks/background info. Ditto with a few psionic wild talents. The same can be done with the ring and even the armor and any other items she picks up too... She still needs a second sword to dual wield


Do you already have some ideas about her father's history?

[The Giamarga]

I see you have already a few ideas...

Was her mother perhaps a (half-)vistana? For added drama...

How exactly was her brother "made" and in how far does this make him special? (I.e. is he a clone or a changeling or a half fiend or does he manifest some strange powers?)

Did she actually summon a demon after her husband left with the kids? And perhaps send him to search them? Perhaps the demon killed the father but never found the kids...

Who is the man who gave her the gold piece and why is he secretly guiding her along? (The gold piece, the sword, ring and armour it is a little too convenient to not be a setup)

Is he perhaps an old adventuring buddy of her fathers? Does he have ulterior motives?

Or was it the demon in disguise ? Whats his hidden agenda ? Perhaps he needs the son to get at an item, say his soul receptacle or a mighty artifact that remains hidden from him and was in the possession of the father/mother/adventuring group?

Also the whole resurrecting her daughter by demon summoning must be a demon ruse. What did the demon really guide her into?

Planning to sacrifice her "fail" child, her husband discovered her plans and fled to darkon, in the hopes of losing all memories, and living on the streets, so they would never recall the terrible things their mother did and so the children wouldn't go exert their revenge, or search for her in general.
To be honest, I'm still fleshing that last part out.

Her father was a fairly famous adventurer. I have things floating around my head with his former adventure buddies, but this is all I got so far.

Hmm.. Why did he flee instead of confronting her. He's a famous powerful adventurer after all...
He probably did confront her, perhaps even killed her. But the demon was already summoned. But she cursed him.

Also while I somehow like the plan of going to Darkon to make the kids forget (which makes him a well travelled and in the know adventurer, maybe he was friends with Van Richten?) , he probably did not plan for them to over on the streets. That should be the result of the original plan going bad:

Hunted by mordentish law and a demon on the loose he hastily sends his kids off to Darkon with a trusted contact and some items, money etc. , evading the lawmen and confronting the Demon with a few dventuring buddies. Father and most buddies get killed. But he made a few more arrangements for the kids. A lot goes wrong but some things are still there waiting to be found. The kids get to Mordent but on that end something goes wrong too so they live in the streets.

I think fleshing out her father, her mother, the adventuring group and at least the last few of their adventures would help.

Also of course the Demon.

[The Giamarga]

Btw what exactly is a shadow wolf and where is it from? (The monster not the kit)

[Epically]

It came from something that sounded cool in my head lol.

Yeah a lot of the whole story isn't fleshed out, and any help would be appreciated. Julz doesn't know anything of the back story yet, so everything that I wrote is subject to change.