Solo campaign

[SDragon]

This is intended to be a record of an extremely intermitant solo campaign I'm running to teach my father how to play d&d.


When we started, I showed him the very basics of character creation, allowing him a human fighter. I chose the race and class, explaining to him that this combo is considered the easiest to learn.

I started by having him roll ability scores, using 4d6 drop lowest die, which produced scores of 10, 13, 13, 14, 14, and 15. With very minimal help from me, he arranged the scores as [spoiler=such]
STR 15
DEX 13
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 14
CHA 10[/spoiler]


I decided it would be easier if I filled out his HP, AC, saves, and initiative myself, but explained how I got the numbers. I gave his character a bastard sword (I assumed proficiency), to limit the different types of dice he needed. As a fighter, of couse, he was already using a d10.

From there, we went to feats, where he had a little bit of trouble. I explained to him that we wouldn't be dealing in skills yet, so he should avoid any feat that enhanced skills. With a little bit of, "Is this one any good? How about this one?", he decided on Combat Expertise, Lightening Reflexes, and Power Attack. considering that I only explained what each one does, He had a pretty decent pick of feats, for his first character.

Then, I explained the extreme basic mechanic of d20, and had him try it out by rolling initiative.

To keep things simple and as "tutorial" as possible, I had him fight 3 kobolds, allowing him to recoup 2hp between kobolds, and a full HP regain after the last. At one point, a kobold crit'ed and would have killed his fighter, had I not fudged the roll so it didn't crit. We decided that killing the third kobold (I was ignoring negative HP rules, for simplicity's sake) would be a good ending point for the night.

Tonight, a few months later, we decided to pick the campaign back up. I had already done preparing in little bits and pieces since we last played, so that wasn't an issue. Normally I'm not the best at pre-planning, but this went fairly well.

Since it had been so long, I decided to send another kobold at his character ("Samurai" Sam; OK, so I'm not going to credit him much on imaginative naming), to see how much he remembered about playing. Suprisingly, it all came back to him quite quickly. I also decided that, for "training" purposes, it might help if the first level was nothing but pure face-to-face combat. As such, there was no story yet. After the one kobold, I decided to change things up a bit and send three kobolds at him. There was quite a bit of "pro wrestling" combat (IE: "You swing and chop the air over it's head. He attacks but misses you completely. You attack again, but stumble just enough to be harmless..."), but he did end up triumphant over all three kobolds. He lost 1hp in doing so, but I decided not to let him heal for that.

He had incredible rolls here, having multiple crit's in this fight. Dealing 26 damage against kobold #2, the kobold managed to call out, as his last words, "Iit's just a fleesshh woouuunnndd!", while his torso flew in one direction and his legs in another.

After the three kobolds, he saw a norker ( CR1/2 stony-skinned goblinoid from Dragon). Winning initiative, Sam managed to kill the norker before the creature had a chance to attack. We decided to take a break after that.

Before starting again, I took the time to explain Skill Points to my father. The first couple of times I had confused him, but he eventually had an understanding of what I meant. I explained maxing out skills, and advised this as the best option; The skills he chose were Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, and Swim.

Once my dad got a light grasp on skills (which I imagine I'll have to explain again. He still hasn't had any demonstrations of his feats yet), we went back into the game.

Having just taken care of his first norker, Sam turned around only to find another. This one was a bit dodgier then the first, but he was also off-balance enough to not get in any decent hits. After a couple good hits, though, Sam managed to take down the second norker. A man nearby had noticed Sam, and commended Sam's bravery for having faced a total of 7 kobolds and 2 norkers, then offered Sam a drink at the tavern and a bed for the night, both in a nearby town.

The man had explained to Sam that the town recently was having an infestation of kobolds and goblinoids. The man also expressed some concern about where the creatures were coming from. Sam then went to bed.

During Sam's rest, I informed my dad that he could level up at this point. I reminded him that he gained one rank in each of his skills, and explained gaining the new HD. I then had him look up the Fighter progression, so that he would know about the bonus feat. After some initial frustration, he settled on Dodge. He updated his character sheet at this point.

Sam then woke up, and found all his gear (Chain shirt, bastard sword, and clothes), as well as 550gp, a shortbow, 20 arrows, a backpack, sack, bedroll, waterskin, 2 days of trail rations, and a flint and steel.

More to come later, but I can't guess the next time we get the chance to continue this campaign.

[Hibou]

Sounds like fun.

The skills he chose were Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Rise, and Swim.

While reading that line, I couldn't help but get the image of Darth Vader in his cyborgish body, with Sidious going "Rise, Lord Vader." :)

[SDragon]

It is fun, so far. I rarely get the chance for any IRL campaigns, and this is not only a chance for that, but also a chance to teach the game, and a bit of a father/son bonding experience, too.


And I corrected the typo. thanks :)

That said, I guess the Jump skill is Rise...