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SteelDeth]1) Am I doing the right thing by letting her play a sorcerer and not an "easier" class. (I mean no offense to any other classes...but managing a spell list, spell components, and other details required of a sorcerer can be challenging for a first-time player.)

I agree with Illion, in fact, in my group campaigns I pretty much ignore spell components as if everyone has Eschew Material Components. Basically, I just assume everyone has enough of the inexpensive components to cast their spells. Components in general are an annoyance and I only worry about the expensive ones.

Also the Sorcerer is pretty easy for a spell-caster, only so many spells you need to know the mechanics for, so this is a far better class than clerics, druids, or a wizard with a penchant for acquiring new spells.

My only concern is with having her running an Aventi, but see #3 for some ideas on this.

1) Am I doing the right thing by letting her play a sorcerer and not an "easier" class. (I mean no offense to any other classes...but managing a spell list, spell components, and other details required of a sorcerer can be challenging for a first-time player.)[/quote]
I agree with Illion, in fact, in my group campaigns I pretty much ignore spell components as if everyone has Eschew Material Components. Basically, I just assume everyone has enough of the inexpensive components to cast their spells. Components in general are an annoyance and I only worry about the expensive ones.

Also the Sorcerer is pretty easy for a spell-caster, only so many spells you need to know the mechanics for, so this is a far better class than clerics, druids, or a wizard with a penchant for acquiring new spells.

My only concern is with having her running an Aventi, but see #3 for some ideas on this.

SteelDeth]2) Does the campaign sound interesting? I feel that I can provide motivation for her from her "tribe" back home. Her people need her to succeed and stop this menace. Also, some revenge motivators may come into play from time to time. I considered having her village attacked but I don't want to have that come of as gratuitious "plot-forcing".

Once again I second Illion about pacing and challenge. You do not want to overwhelm her with too much pressure or information, you may need to do plot-forcing, but be patient. The concept sounds good, quests are always good, but go slow at the beginning and a few small encounters to introduce the rules is a good idea.

I run my own campaign worlds, but the Realms is my favorite of the published campaign settings, your concepts and ideas sound good, I also love using Netheril as well and nothing beats a dwarf NPC. Seriously, you have made some good choices. I have Stormwrack and my wife loved the Aventi too, I talked her out of playing one, but we introduced them into my campaign worlds. So conceptually I know all the stuff you are using and it's all good.

2) Does the campaign sound interesting? I feel that I can provide motivation for her from her "tribe" back home. Her people need her to succeed and stop this menace. Also, some revenge motivators may come into play from time to time. I considered having her village attacked but I don't want to have that come of as gratuitious "plot-forcing".[/quote]
Once again I second Illion about pacing and challenge. You do not want to overwhelm her with too much pressure or information, you may need to do plot-forcing, but be patient. The concept sounds good, quests are always good, but go slow at the beginning and a few small encounters to introduce the rules is a good idea.

I run my own campaign worlds, but the Realms is my favorite of the published campaign settings, your concepts and ideas sound good, I also love using Netheril as well and nothing beats a dwarf NPC. Seriously, you have made some good choices. I have Stormwrack and my wife loved the Aventi too, I talked her out of playing one, but we introduced them into my campaign worlds. So conceptually I know all the stuff you are using and it's all good.

SteelDeth]3) What other advice can you give for me both in regards to the campaign and running a solo-campaign with a first-time player? This is probably the biggest question and the most challenging aspect of what I'm up against.

Your biggest challenge will be immersion, I have three bits of advice.

First, think about what type of books, movies, and television your wife likes, this is a great clue to what sort of campaign she would most enjoy. Tailor things to her preferences, but make sure you put in some stuff to keep you interested as well.

Second, playing humans is tough, non-humans difficult, and amphibious
humanoids really, really, hard. The main problem is that the player (and DM) may struggle to grasp the concepts and culture involved to really make the PC playable and fun. Make sure you have an idea how it all works and have a few encounters designed to show her the specific cultural and conceptual ideas that make Aventi really neat. Stormwrack has lots of info on them, so play that up and give her a few traditions to follow. I would key onto their honorable nature and unique history, maybe she always needs to give a warning to her opponents before battle or leaves a shell with a fallen enemy to ensure the passage of their soul to the afterlife. This will help her get into character and help you clarify the Aventi in your mind.

Third, and this depends upon your wife, but you could have her draw up her family and community. She may even come up with ideas about the Aventi. This gives her a vested interest in the campaign as she contributed to it. The downside is that you have to use what she draws up and it may be...well, quite different from your expectations. Usually, though I have found that players can come up with great ideas that make your campaign world richer.

Hope that helps, will be more than happy to answer anymore que wrote:

I first wanted to thank you guys for this thread. Seems that it adresses most of the concerns I had about runing a solo campaign. It is definitely going to stuck in my dmg for some time .

I have a few questions though. It's in fact my first experience as a dm, and I have little experience as a player (I started playing some time ago while abroad, when I came back home I could not manage to find a group thus I decided just to form mine, and try to dm. Turn out that I'm running a solo campaign with my cousin's boyfriend, who never roleplayed before).

He decided to be a druid, and I let him speak about his background (I planned to set up a story out of the information he was giving.). I just told me that as far as he remembered, he always lived in the forest. He's got a very pale skin and red eyes, but he's human anyway. He just want to leave the forest he knows well to explore the surroundings.

Out of that, I decided he had been living in the forests north of archendale. I chose to use the forgotten realms as background (deities, countries, guilds, ...), but I just follow the basic rules. To explain his strange features, I'm planning to make him the son of a drow and a dragon (btw, he incidentally chose to be called darvin dundragon... and speak draconic. I suppose he wants his story to be related to dragons...). I'm not sure it is really valid since he's human (maybe a half-elf would be more accurate, if I consider the dragon to take a human form). So my first question is: does this story make sense? He's not yet aware of anything related to his origin so I can change my story if needed.

We haven't been playing a lot yet, just a few sessions. Darvin (the character) encountered first a few kobolds and then a party of commoners, led by the local militia warrior, caught him while he was about heading to the forest's edge. The guys were patrolling the forest in search for some kobolds that had been reported in the vicinity. They were extremelly nervous because of the drows living in that forest and, seeing the strange look of the adventurer, decided that he was some kind of drow himself and beated him and fastened his hands. There idea was to drag him to the village and decide his fate later. They did not find the kobolds but eventually met the dreaded drows who simply killed them all. The drow leader, after some reflection on the adventurer's look (man, it's true this guy looks strange), just chose to stab him and leave him dead there (although not quite dead).

After some time, Darvin wakes up and sees in front of him a old bearded guy (in fact Silvanus) with a wolf. Silvanus asks him if he was not happy in the forest, etc..., and finally says that if his will his to leave the forest, he won't try to impeach it, but instead asks him for some help, in return for the care after the battle. He asks to steal some fire items for him (Silvanus hates fire items). At the end Silvanus says that he should go to Archenbridge and get in touch with a druid there. To help him in those tasks, he gives Darvin a wolf (Fenris...) (I liked the idea not just to start with a companion but to have kind of story related to it).

Then, my adventurer went along the road toward archenbridge, avoided a few adventure hooks , eventually met a would-be sorcerer (that will certainly reappear at some point), met a chauntea cleric and reached the cleric's village where people want to expell him because first of his wolf (after all, there is a wolf pack attacking the flocks every night) and then because of his strange face (seems that people are quite racist in this part of the world). He's about to run away when the cleric appears again, calm down people saying that Darvin's there to help them and takes the adventurer to his place. There, he asks for the druid's help in a case of water poisoning (I'm using a modified burning plague adventure's now). The villagers come again and say that if Darvin does not try to protect the flocks form the wolves, the will expell him and slaughter Fenris.

Darvin agrees to go to the fields during the night to see if something can be done. There, a pack of wolf eventually appears. Its leader feels the threat of a big wolf for his charge and attacks. Fenris manages to kill him and the pack somehow consider it as their new leader. When they head toward the village, the whole pack seem to be reluctant to walk nearer and the run away, except another wolf that just imitate everything Fenris is doing.

Finally, in the last session Darvin undertook the quest of the burning plague.

OOOOpff. Quite a long story (sorry if a bit boring). My second question is the following:

Do you think I could let Darvin have two animal companions? I read it'd be ok to have a character more powerfull than in a normal campaign. In fact, Darvin is not really controlling the new wolf. This one just does whatever Fenris is doing.

A question related to dm in general: I have some ideas for a few plots involving guilds and knightly orders, especially one of paladins that could be somehow related to Darvin (like one knight is his brother, etc...). Do I need to have a very definite idea of the guild, with leaders, etc... at this moment or I'll need to think about it when he first meet one of those guys?

Finally, I wonder if anyone has some nice house rules about supply. I don't really want to bother about food and ammunition (it's already difficult enough for my poor dm experience to master all the rest) but neither do I want to have my adventurer spending two weeks in a complete desert without being concerned about food and water.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

GilGaer

PS: I apologize for any weired expression and poor english.

GilGaer]PS: I apologize for any weired expression and poor english.

I always find it amusing how non-native English speakers apologize for their language when they are typically better writers than most of the Americans on these boards.

PS: I apologize for any weired expression and poor english.[/quote]
I always find it amusing how non-native English speakers apologize for their language when they are typically better writers than most of the Americans on these boards.

GilGaer]So my first question is: does this story make sense? He's not yet aware of anything related to his origin so I can change my story if needed.

OK what is the child of a dragon and a human...well a half-dragon...now if that half-dragon made friends with a drow...their child would be a half-elf with dragon blood...now this freak meets a cute human and they have a child...it would be...the PC. Just make it up, D&D biology and genetics is for the outrageous not the realistic. I would say that great grandpa was a dragon and that grandma was a drow and there you go a freaky human with interesting ancestry.

I would run with his weird appearance, maybe there are prophecies of the pale fire-eyed one who would do something of great importance. This may be why Silvanus has an interest in this druid, he is key to some important event that could change the Realms.

Remember what the player believes about his background may not necessarily be true, which gives the DM some wiggle room to make adjustments as the campaign goes on. Nothing is set in stone for a clever DM who can maintain consistency with inconsistency. What you have created is reasonable and not outrageous, but don't be afraid to change things as the campaign develops.

So my first question is: does this story make sense? He's not yet aware of anything related to his origin so I can change my story if needed.[/quote]
OK what is the child of a dragon and a human...well a half-dragon...now if that half-dragon made friends with a drow...their child would be a half-elf with dragon blood...now this freak meets a cute human and they have a child...it would be...the PC. Just make it up, D&D biology and genetics is for the outrageous not the realistic. I would say that great grandpa was a dragon and that grandma was a drow and there you go a freaky human with interesting ancestry.

I would run with his weird appearance, maybe there are prophecies of the pale fire-eyed one who would do something of great importance. This may be why Silvanus has an interest in this druid, he is key to some important event that could change the Realms.

Remember what the player believes about his background may not necessarily be true, which gives the DM some wiggle room to make adjustments as the campaign goes on. Nothing is set in stone for a clever DM who can maintain consistency with inconsistency. What you have created is reasonable and not outrageous, but don't be afraid to change things as the campaign develops.

GilGaer]My second question is the following:Do you think I could let Darvin have two animal companions? I read it'd be ok to have a character more powerfull than in a normal campaign. In fact, Darvin is not really controlling the new wolf. This one just does whatever Fenris is doing.

I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes too distracting to the player, which I don't imagine will be the case. An extra animal companion is a very reasonable boost to a Solo PC, this druid could have a party of animals. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. That said I think you may need a genuine NPC to travel with the Solo PC, I say this because this new player is missing adventure hooks and it sounds like he is struggling a little from prejudice and poor planning. A NPC could help by giving him someone to bounce ideas off and who can make suggestions sometimes (both good and bad suggestions).

My second question is the following:Do you think I could let Darvin have two animal companions? I read it'd be ok to have a character more powerfull than in a normal campaign. In fact, Darvin is not really controlling the new wolf. This one just does whatever Fenris is doing.[/quote]
I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes too distracting to the player, which I don't imagine will be the case. An extra animal companion is a very reasonable boost to a Solo PC, this druid could have a party of animals. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. That said I think you may need a genuine NPC to travel with the Solo PC, I say this because this new player is missing adventure hooks and it sounds like he is struggling a little from prejudice and poor planning. A NPC could help by giving him someone to bounce ideas off and who can make suggestions sometimes (both good and bad suggestions).

GilGaer]A question related to dm in general: I have some ideas for a few plots involving guilds and knightly orders, especially one of paladins that could be somehow related to Darvin (like one knight is his brother, etc...). Do I need to have a very definite idea of the guild, with leaders, etc... at this moment or I'll need to think about it when he first meet one of those guys?

I find you need to have a basic idea about the guild so consider these questions. Who is in charge? Why does it exist? How does one join? Does it have special resources? Are there any unique traditions? All you need is a few sentences on these and you will be more than fine.

Here is an example from my campaigns (admittedly an evil order): Knights of Misery. The Sovereign of Misery (20th level Death Knight Black Guard) commands this order which is dedicated to the restoration of the dead Shadow Dragon King, a very evil deity. One is asked to join if one is dedicated to death, evil, seeks undeath, and can follow orders, if you refuse to join you are killed. The seat of the order is the Citadel of Shadows on the Negative Energy Plane, but only the undead members of the order can survive at this site there are lesser sites on the Prime Material Plane. They speak of the Shadow Dragon King as alive and present and show no mercy in battle and revel in death and worship undeath, which is the goal of all members. If you fall in battle you will be raised as a undead warrior if you succeed you may be made into greater undead. I think this is all you need to get started, you can add more later of course, but a paragraph like this is more than enough.

Here is a caveat. I had a DM way back in college who was brilliant and did most everything impromptu. Well one day he decided to design his own campaign world, it had flying ships and cities all controlled by an fabulously powerful elven empire. Well one of our group, not usually known for his piercing questions, asked:what is the name of the Emperor? The DM looked blank and was stunned by this obvious question, the campaign fell apart a few sessions later as the DM never really got back on track after that. The lesson here is not to have answers for every question, but to give answers to every question.

A DM should never say I don't know. When my players ask me a question I haven't considered I look down at my notes and roll dice which gives me a second to come up with a name or an answer to a question. Nowadays my players known I roll dice to stall, so I have had to drop that part of the ritual for shuffling through my papers as if there is an answer. Of course a lot of times you can tell the players they don't know stuff, but if they ask a real basic question you need to give an answer.

This is also why I recommend having a list of names whenever you DM so you don't get stumped when the players ask for the name of the funny and amusing NPC merchant they just met.

A question related to dm in general: I have some ideas for a few plots involving guilds and knightly orders, especially one of paladins that could be somehow related to Darvin (like one knight is his brother, etc...). Do I need to have a very definite idea of the guild, with leaders, etc... at this moment or I'll need to think about it when he first meet one of those guys?[/quote]
I find you need to have a basic idea about the guild so consider these questions. Who is in charge? Why does it exist? How does one join? Does it have special resources? Are there any unique traditions? All you need is a few sentences on these and you will be more than fine.

Here is an example from my campaigns (admittedly an evil order): Knights of Misery. The Sovereign of Misery (20th level Death Knight Black Guard) commands this order which is dedicated to the restoration of the dead Shadow Dragon King, a very evil deity. One is asked to join if one is dedicated to death, evil, seeks undeath, and can follow orders, if you refuse to join you are killed. The seat of the order is the Citadel of Shadows on the Negative Energy Plane, but only the undead members of the order can survive at this site there are lesser sites on the Prime Material Plane. They speak of the Shadow Dragon King as alive and present and show no mercy in battle and revel in death and worship undeath, which is the goal of all members. If you fall in battle you will be raised as a undead warrior if you succeed you may be made into greater undead. I think this is all you need to get started, you can add more later of course, but a paragraph like this is more than enough.

Here is a caveat. I had a DM way back in college who was brilliant and did most everything impromptu. Well one day he decided to design his own campaign world, it had flying ships and cities all controlled by an fabulously powerful elven empire. Well one of our group, not usually known for his piercing questions, asked:what is the name of the Emperor? The DM looked blank and was stunned by this obvious question, the campaign fell apart a few sessions later as the DM never really got back on track after that. The lesson here is not to have answers for every question, but to give answers to every question.

A DM should never say I don't know. When my players ask me a question I haven't considered I look down at my notes and roll dice which gives me a second to come up with a name or an answer to a question. Nowadays my players known I roll dice to stall, so I have had to drop that part of the ritual for shuffling through my papers as if there is an answer. Of course a lot of times you can tell the players they don't know stuff, but if they ask a real basic question you need to give an answer.

This is also why I recommend having a list of names whenever you DM so you don't get stumped when the players ask for the name of the funny and amusing NPC merchant they just met.

GilGaer]Finally, I wonder if anyone has some nice house rules about supply. I don't really want to bother about food and ammunition (it's already difficult enough for my poor dm experience to master all the rest) but neither do I want to have my adventurer spending two weeks in a complete desert without being concerned about food and water.

I charge my players the rates in the DMG for cost of living, they tell me how they wish to live and I have them pay that amount every month. This handles food and housing without having to go through every meal. I just tell them when a new month is beginning.

As for ammunition that is the responsibility of the PC, if he is not keeping track of his ammunition they say he runs out. You should not have to worry about. For NPCs I assume that they usually have sufficient ammunition unless it is an extreme situation like a lengthy battle against many goblins or orcs.

As for food and water, just figure how many days the PC has and have him check it off as the days pass. Though a druid with a high survival check will probably be fine in even the most inhospitable locations...though his animal companions might not be so fortunate.

In these situations put the burden on the PC to keep these records, but also be generous if he makes mi wrote:

Thank you for your (quick ) help.

I was thinking of having a NPC joining him from time to time (having the chauntea cleric and a commoner coming to the burning plague's mine for instance). That's why I introduce the sorcerer. However, I am still a bit concerned on losing the focus on the player. I just need to be carefull with that I suppose (consider having npc like in the examples with serena and sabrina).

Illion the Red]Adding a second animal companion is a fine idea and fits perfectly in with the "special abilities" concept. I would suggest that you come up with a reason why the other wolf joins. One idea is to make it a female wolf who has latched onto Fenris as her Alpha. In time she sees how Fenris defers to the PC and will come to treat him as the Alpha wolf.

I did not think about it, it is definitely a nice idea (and could be some good adventure hook). I was just planning to have the second wolf follow Fenris who follows Darvin, now I could have Fenris disappear for some reason.

Adding a second animal companion is a fine idea and fits perfectly in with the "special abilities" concept. I would suggest that you come up with a reason why the other wolf joins. One idea is to make it a female wolf who has latched onto Fenris as her Alpha. In time she sees how Fenris defers to the PC and will come to treat him as the Alpha wolf.[/quote]
I did not think about it, it is definitely a nice idea (and could be some good adventure hook). I was just planning to have the second wolf follow Fenris who follows Darvin, now I could have Fenris disappear for some reason.

Illion the Red]Knightly Orders: You certainly don't need to have the entire order fleshed out beforehand, but you will want to know some things about the Order. Who founded it? Why was it founded? What are the current goals for the Order? What does all of this have to do with the PC? I would be cautious about throwing in as direct a relative as a brother as such siblings require a lot of thought and planning to give them sufficient depth.

For his brother I wonder if he would not just be a normal NPC, as they never lived together. Do you think the very fact of being his brother would cause some t wrote:

As for the NPC issue, keeping the spotlight on the PC can be helped by an NPC, especially if that NPC looks to the PC for inspiration and leadership. But you do have a valid concern to not use the NPC too much as the DM to herd the PC, there is no reason to rush into using an NPC if you have this concern. Though I find that any DM who has this concern to begin with will have no problems running NPCs.

Siblings are always difficult. Layers upon layers of issues and like Illion says they are hard to develop to make them really effective. They can be great tools for roleplaying, but I find keeping them as secondary characters is usually best. You don't want the sibling relationship distracting from other character elements, though there are always exceptions.

My wife has ran me in a few solo campaigns and she does a good job of creating and using siblings, which is funny as she is a only child in real life. She uses stereotypes, older siblings a little domineering, younger siblings a little spoiled, and middle siblings mediators. She also plays up family loyalty and duty, which is good to establish bonds between the characters. But then she gives the siblings serious character flaws to make sure they don't overshadow the PC. It is an art and with a little practice it is a great DM tool to have as many PCs like the idea of having siblings in one form or another and they can be great adventure hooks.

Now in your situation the two never lived together and have had next to no contact, which realistically would create all manner of issues as to why they were never together. Something to consider. Guessing about your PC I would make his brother friendly as it seems that if the brother comes in with too many issues your PC may ignore his brother.