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DiscipleofBob
2007-11-13, 01:59 AM
Over Thanksgiving break, I will be running a campaign for my brother and his wife. My girlfriend will also be joining, but obviously cannot join for the first session over Thanksgiving break, so she'll join later.

Now, above all, I want everyone to be able to play what they want to, not just what the group needs. My brother mentioned a warforged warblade, while his wife would be a duskblade (If she did, I would require her to be an elf). Neither of these are truly confirmed, and could change before we start.

I'm thinking about starting it in level 1 on Eberron, a setting I'm very familiar with, but I've never even played in a game with so few people, let alone DMed one. Any suggestions for proper encounter strength, what items I should let them start out with, etc.?

Zincorium
2007-11-13, 02:25 AM
First off, if your party is really that small, you might want to add in NPCs or, if you're feeling really confident, allow the gestalt variant rules (available in the online SRD).

With small groups, you pretty much have to tailor things exactly to the party's strengths and weaknesses or the game can end quickly and badly. Always go for just a bit underpowered as far as challenges, you can always toughen things up if need be. Avoid weapons with high critical multipliers and save-or-die effects.

With regards to items, quantity over quality is a good bet. Large amounts of potions and possibly scrolls, as well as other lesser trinkets, can help give the players expendable resources to, well, expend, and probably won't affect the long term game as much as permanent items.

Toliudar
2007-11-13, 04:05 AM
With a pair of martial characters, it might be best to tailor a campaign to be a mix of melee-type encounters, plot/strategy work and some light roleplay. Relaxing the usual rules for roleplay to acknowledge the fact that neither of these two is likely to be hugely charismatic "face" types will help.

I like city environments for low level characters. It's easy to retreat from many situations, so they're less likely to be overwhelmed. It's easier to justify a deux ex machina if they get in over their head. And there's lots of plot hooks and social interactions possible.

I echo Zincorium in suggesting a metric ton of healing potions etc be available to them.

The VP
2007-11-13, 04:42 AM
I'll echo Zincorium's suggestion to add NPCs. I'm currently running a campaign for just three players (two martial classes and a cleric) and they've greatly benefited from the three NPCs (two random ones they've met along the way and one gained through leadership) they've convinced to accompany them. It's given the party some much-needed versatility in-game by adding both an arcane caster and a rogue and out-of-game by allowing each of the players to play two different characters, so they each can do more. The players like it better than the first couple sessions with just the 3 PCs for the above-mentioned reasons, and it makes my job more fun as I can throw tougher challenges at them.

Blanks
2007-11-13, 06:54 AM
Over Thanksgiving break, I will be running a campaign for my brother and his wife. My girlfriend will also be joining
I read it as my brother and my wife + my girlfriend and just thought "im totally bookmarking this thread!" :smallbiggrin:

Sorry for total thread derailment, but imagining the size of the balls that would take blew my mind :)

mostlyharmful
2007-11-13, 07:12 AM
With small campaigns covering the basic roles and eliminating one-trick pony characters is key. With a warforged artifacer you pretty much don't need a healbot (since hp is easy to wand away and you aren't susseptable to much else), and you can cover lots of the spellcasting requirements. The duskblade is a good choice for the other slot, throw in a beguiler and you've got most roles filled.

If you're high enough level then this is exactly what leadership is for, and make sure to give access to NPC spellcasting to round out the magic access.

nerulean
2007-11-13, 10:24 AM
With a small party, no one usually minds a small amount of DM fudging to fill in a blank spot and make the game more enjoyable for all concerned, such as our party's Wand of Cleric Replacement that dishes out healing to the whole party rather than requiring us to limp back to a temple after every wilderness encounter that goes south.

Definitely tailor events to the characters, and for the first session go for opponents in groups of equal or slightly higher number to the party at lower power levels to get the hang of how they play (and for them to get the hang of their new characters!) to limit the chances of eliminating 1/3 of their power with a single lucky shot. As all of you get used to the characters, you can give them more appropriate challenges.

Also, go for things that are fairly low power levels, but need ingenuity to get round, a common example being Tucker's Kobolds. Just because a party has no diplomancer doesn't mean they should never have to RP to get anything.

The J Pizzel
2007-11-13, 10:31 AM
I propose you give everyone Healing Belts early on. Not at the very begining, but around level 3. They'll need them. My group is 5 players strong with no healer. Everyone single one of them have Healing Belts and it since you can use it on other people, it pretty much makes the team one big heal-bot family. They can be found in the MiC.

JP

BardicDuelist
2007-11-13, 11:07 AM
How about playing a Gestalt Campaign? It works really well with small groups. The players can play what they want, but the party roles can be filled rather easily as well.

Crow
2007-11-13, 12:43 PM
My girlfriend will also be joining, but obviously cannot join for the first session over Thanksgiving break, so she'll join later.

Well of course, obviously.


Sorry. It sounds like you have close to a full group. Just run things normally. It will be a little tense, since the encounters will be a little harder, but it will be fun. Don't feel obligated to give them 4 encounters per day, especially if they're left hurting pretty badly after the first or second.

Zincorium
2007-11-13, 02:05 PM
How about playing a Gestalt Campaign? It works really well with small groups. The players can play what they want, but the party roles can be filled rather easily as well.

Like I said, good idea, but it takes some more DM oversight than just fudging it.

If you do go this route DoB, take the time to first figure out how you're going to play gestalt out. The actual rules for it are incredibly sparse for what is a very distinct gaming style. Decide what classes are usable, whether they can play races with LA, etc.

Second, explain that you're bringing in gestalt so that the players can fulfill multiple roles well, not so they can specialize and be overpowered. A fighter/cleric and wizard/rogue (or similar classes) will fulfill all four 'roles' without adding in additional NPCs.