After much convincing work I got my girlfriend into playing a DnD Solo adventure with me. the problem is, I never really thought about the concequences of that, especially in regards of combat possibilities. She decided to play a bard style character which makes that part especially difficuilt 😅
My generall plan for this adventure was to make her the deciding force for history in the region she will be playing in, which I can use as lore for later adventures, so I want her to have some heroic impacton different factions in this area, possibly the kings court or the democratic republic next to him, possibly make her rediscover an artifact, that she could use to rewrite the story od this region.
the Question now is:
does anyone of you have any good ideas how to balance a Solo-Adventure in regards of possible combat interactions, and do you have some inspiration Ideas for non combat encounters, that can be brought out and adapted?
i‘m very thankful for every advice you couls offer.
You could give her a sidekick? A fan, perhaps? Alternatively, rather than the typical fighting a lot of monsters, you could do something like criminal investigations and mysteries. That way the challenges could be about sneaking around gathering evidence, there could be chase challenges to aprehend the suspects and if she has to fught then it can be one on one until she is high enough level to fight several low cr ones. There could be trap challenges on secret passages.
So for her to be someone who influences the region, it could be courtly intrigue, her investigating a murder of a clerk that discovered corruption among nobles, proving the innocence of some courtier, recovering a stolen artifact from the treasury... Maybe there is a crisis of sucession and the possible heirs are trying to discredit each other. Since she is a bard, she could be there to play for a feast, then crime happens, a npc she met is arrested and another (the sidekick) asks for help in proving their innocence. Maybe get inspiration from the Three Musketeers, The Stolen Letter, The Man with the Iron Mask, etc?
I have run several solo adventures for various players. I usually give them the option of joining with various companions that offsets their weaknesses or going solo, I just cycle out companions throughout their travels and it gives them the option to go "oh, soandso was good with a sword, I can ask them for help". I also tend to be more liberal with magical items and potions, while being a little less strict with attunement slots. An NPC patron works as well, supplying them with adventure opportunities and mentorship. With a bard, you can invite them to join a secret organization, like the Harpers or equivalent, and have that organization send them on missions containing lots of courtly intrigues, politics, spy missions, and infiltration. Just watch a bunch of movies with spies and con-artists and "borrow" their plots and apply them to your world. Also, use minions in your combat encounters were applicable, it is a 4th edition rule that works well with solo adventures.
Few encounter ideas:
Break into an office during a party or costume ball to either steal or plant some specific information.
Woo a foreign Lord or ambassador and attempt to coerce information out of them, with or without magic.
Infiltrate the rebellious faction and work from within to find out their plans and alert proper authorities, or help them overthrow a corrupt Lord.
Murder Mystery of an important Lord/Lady/Merchant, either find out who did it or find out why they were targeted.
Impersonate a local musician or use a persona that they have created to get close to a Noble or Merchant to either poison or pickpocket them.
On top of that, if you are concerned about their survivability, you could let them create a Gestalt character. This is a character that takes a level in two classes each time they level instead of one, just google search it, and will give you an idea. This works fine with a solo campaign.
Hope this helps, I find solo adventures to be very fun and rewarding for both the player and the DM. It can be a lot of NPCs to keep track of as a DM however and don't let the plot get overly complicated or convoluted.
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Hello everybody,
After much convincing work I got my girlfriend into playing a DnD Solo adventure with me.
the problem is, I never really thought about the concequences of that, especially in regards of combat possibilities. She decided to play a bard style character which makes that part especially difficuilt 😅
My generall plan for this adventure was to make her the deciding force for history in the region she will be playing in, which I can use as lore for later adventures, so I want her to have some heroic impacton different factions in this area, possibly the kings court or the democratic republic next to him, possibly make her rediscover an artifact, that she could use to rewrite the story od this region.
the Question now is:
does anyone of you have any good ideas how to balance a Solo-Adventure in regards of possible combat interactions, and do you have some inspiration Ideas for non combat encounters, that can be brought out and adapted?
i‘m very thankful for every advice you couls offer.
You could give her a sidekick? A fan, perhaps? Alternatively, rather than the typical fighting a lot of monsters, you could do something like criminal investigations and mysteries. That way the challenges could be about sneaking around gathering evidence, there could be chase challenges to aprehend the suspects and if she has to fught then it can be one on one until she is high enough level to fight several low cr ones. There could be trap challenges on secret passages.
So for her to be someone who influences the region, it could be courtly intrigue, her investigating a murder of a clerk that discovered corruption among nobles, proving the innocence of some courtier, recovering a stolen artifact from the treasury... Maybe there is a crisis of sucession and the possible heirs are trying to discredit each other. Since she is a bard, she could be there to play for a feast, then crime happens, a npc she met is arrested and another (the sidekick) asks for help in proving their innocence. Maybe get inspiration from the Three Musketeers, The Stolen Letter, The Man with the Iron Mask, etc?
I have run several solo adventures for various players. I usually give them the option of joining with various companions that offsets their weaknesses or going solo, I just cycle out companions throughout their travels and it gives them the option to go "oh, soandso was good with a sword, I can ask them for help". I also tend to be more liberal with magical items and potions, while being a little less strict with attunement slots. An NPC patron works as well, supplying them with adventure opportunities and mentorship. With a bard, you can invite them to join a secret organization, like the Harpers or equivalent, and have that organization send them on missions containing lots of courtly intrigues, politics, spy missions, and infiltration. Just watch a bunch of movies with spies and con-artists and "borrow" their plots and apply them to your world. Also, use minions in your combat encounters were applicable, it is a 4th edition rule that works well with solo adventures.
Few encounter ideas:
On top of that, if you are concerned about their survivability, you could let them create a Gestalt character. This is a character that takes a level in two classes each time they level instead of one, just google search it, and will give you an idea. This works fine with a solo campaign.
Hope this helps, I find solo adventures to be very fun and rewarding for both the player and the DM. It can be a lot of NPCs to keep track of as a DM however and don't let the plot get overly complicated or convoluted.