C&C one on one campaign

[Heavy_Crossbow]

So it's been a busy couple of weeks in college land. Two of my friends have moved to California, one never wants to roleplay, and the other is always busy with school. So I have one player left. The campaign I was playing in fizzled out, so I was getting pretty desperate for some C&C. So I picked up Assault on Blacktooth Ridge the other night and I ran a game for my brother.

"A one-on-one C&C game? You must be mad!"

Yes, while C&C is a group-oriented game, it is possible to cater to solo players with open-ended supplements like AoBR. But for survivability, I suggested a cleric, a druid, or maybe a barbarian. But he chose to be a knight. We manufactured a past for him together, saying that he had recently returned from a successful war in the southlands known as Stygia (thank you, Conan), when he had recieved a letter from the leader of Bodkinburg asking all local nobles for assistance. So he travelled north with his trusy squire.

So the cast is Duncan Caldwell, a 1st level knight and his horse, Saturn. The squire was named Quintus. So they travelled north. After a few days of travel, they reached some abandoned huts. They were a few leagues before Botkinburg, and night was falling, so Duncan decided that they would make camp in one of the huts. For caution's sake, they didn't build a fire. In the night, they were awakened by the hushed voices of several men outside of their hut, and a soft glow of lanter light. Duncan silently grabbed his crossbow and awakened his squire. Then he maneuvered near a window to see what was going on.

By the combined light from the lantern and the moon, Duncan saw five figures clad in rough chainmail with blades at their hips. They were obviously no patrolling guardsmen. They were bandits. They were trying to remove his belongings from Saturn's saddlebags. Duncan took a bad step and accidentally knocked over an old clay pot. The bandits were startled, and went inside to investigate. Outlined against the lighted doorway, the bandit was an easy target. Duncan moved in from the darkness, placing his crossbow to the belly of the theif in the doorway.

Duncan threatened the bandits, telling them that if he left he'd spare their lives. The rear bandits were impatient, though the front bandit was willing to cooperate. Eventually, a bad-tempered rogue ran his own mate through to clear the door way. A combat quickly began.

Duncan won the initiative, followed by the bandits, followed by Quintus. Duncan ventilated the next bandit with a crossbow bolt straight to the gut, and he called out for Quintus to grab his sword. The second bandit had been holding a lantern , which in his death he cast to the middle of the room. The next bandit withdrew a short sword and began swinging at Duncan, who was able to easily avoid the blows despite having no armor on. Quintus dashed for the sword and brought it to Duncan. Duncan drew the sword and slashed in the same motion, decapitating the short-sword wielding bandit. There were two angry bandits left. Duncan's purse was heavy with coin, so they weren't about to surrender. One bandit began to swing wildly with his shortsword, one of his swings clipping Duncan on the arm. The other bandit moved into position and drew a boot-knife. Quintus was busy trying to put out the quickly growing flames; they had brought a bunch of hay from outside to sleep on, and it fueled the rapidly-growing flames. Duncan swung his sword at head level at the Bandit, but the crafty rogue ducked under the blow, swinging at Duncan's legs. Duncan jumped just in time to avoid having his leg cleaved off. The bandit with the boot knife hurled his dagger from the shadows, striking Quintus in the chest. Gasping, he fell backwards to the opposite end of the room. The room was almost completely ablaze by now. Duncan ran the bandit through. As the bandit still swung feebly at him from the end of the sword, Duncan finished him with a fierce head-butt, crushing the bandit's nose and his life. The final bandit fled to save his own skin from both Duncan and the roaring flames. Desperate to save his squire, Duncan staggered through thick smoke to rescue his companion. But the smoke got the better of him, and he collapsed into a welcoming blackness.

Duncan awoke the next day, resting against a tree. He was near a smoldering camp fire. Saturn was grazing nearby. A set of gear that was not his was leaning up against a log, near a large hyena that was contentedly snapping a ham-bone. Confused, Duncan looked for his rescuer. A few moments later, a dwarf with a blunderbuss (in my campaign Dwarves have primitive firearms) and a few pheasants came out of a nearby copse of trees. He explained that he had rescued him from the burning building, but hadn't rescued the squire. he didn't know anyone else was in the flaming hut. He introduced himself as Carnagy, describing himself as an outcast. The hyena was named Jester. Duncan thanked the dwarf, and they parted ways. Carnagy said that he would be staying in the area, so if Duncan needed help with anything he could come talk to him.

Duncan joined a passing caravan, reaching Botkinburg in another hour. On his way to reach the keep where Clement Botkin resided, a halfling stopped him in his path, requesting tha tthe noble knight please search for the halfling's brother who had gone exploring an old crumbling tower east of the village. Duncan agreed, and set out once more to find this halfling. He found the tower without trouble, but it was inhabited by seven stirges and a few hatchlings. He climbed up the tower boldly and took a step on the top floor. The floor crumbled and sent him falling 25 feet. The fall damage suggested is 6d6, which is completely ridiculous in my opinion. That would kill anyone of first or second level. I reduced it to 2d6. With the wind knocked out of him, he was frustrated. He took his grapple hook and scored a lucky break, wrapping it around one of the few remaining support beams. He then tied the rope to Saturn's harness, and urged him to pull. Saturn's mighty strength easily demolished the crumbling tower.

I had the stirges make saves to avoid being crushed inside the tower. I figured that they had a dex-prime and probably a modifier of +2 or 3. Ballparking it, I said that they needed a 9+ to save. Luckily for Duncan, four of them died in the collapse, along with the nestlings. He charged towards the remaining stirges, who quickly went for the horse for a meal. As two plunged into Saturn's flank, Duncan felled the third that strayed too close to his swinging blade. He spurred Saturn forward, causing one stirge to fly off. The other had it's beak broken by the sudden jarring movement, and died. Dismounting, Duncan hid in some bushes, leaving Saturn as bait for a surprise attack. As the stirge circled close to get a bit of blood from the horse, Duncan leapt from the bushes, used the large horse as a stepping stone, and launched himself at the winged assailant. He sliced the creature down the middle, landing in some more bushes safely.

Searching the remains of the tower, Duncan found many shiny baubles that the creatures had collected such as coins and jewelry, even an ivory statue. He also found several ominously small skeletons: halflings? Duncan returned to town after his successful endeavor, renting a room at the only inn in town. He saw the halfling drinking nervously at the bar, and honestly told him the story of his battle with the stirges. The halfling still believes his brother is alive, though, and thanks Duncan for his efforts.

That's all for now. More to come later.
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Scientists will never understand that the world doesn't have to adhere to laws. A world where Firefly gets cancelled and Nip/Tuck thrives clearly obeys powers not known to us.

[Treebore]

Very cool story! My best RPG experiences are in "One on One" games because you get to totally focus on that one character, whet they do, and have them interact much more with NPC's.

As for the 6d6 thing, yeah, do whatever you have to do to make it work and be fair.
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

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[Maliki]

Good start, 1 on 1 games can be great, back in the old days I ran a lot of games for one character.
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Never throw rocks at a man with a Vorpal Sword!

[Heavy_Crossbow]

Yeah. Definitely more roleplay-intensive. The great thing that my player hasn't taken into consideration is the possibility that his squire may still be alive. I'll post more soon. Gotta study for a psychology (more like suckology. Heh. Heh. Juvenile humor.) final tonight. But tomorrow night I'm continuing the game.
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Scientists will never understand that the world doesn't have to adhere to laws. A world where Firefly gets cancelled and Nip/Tuck thrives clearly obeys powers not known to us.