Pathfinder for One

Conventional wisdom holds that you need a minimum of two people to play a table top role-playing game.  A two person game might not be great, but it is doable.  Three participants are better than just two, but still not really the game you’re looking for. 

Most people agree that the optimum number at the table is somewhere between five and seven.  A game master, and four to six players.  That’s what you want.  You can play a game with fewer, but as I said above, no fewer than two.  

But if that’s the case, then… why is the title of this post ‘Pathfinder for One’?

Old School D&D Solitaire

I’m not exactly sure when it happened.  Early-to-mid 90s is as close as I can pin it down. 

I wanted to play D&D.  But there were a limited number of potential players available to me, and I knew that if I assembled a group comprised of those people, I would end up in the role of Dungeon Master.  Which isn’t what I wanted.  I didn’t want to run the game, I wanted to play it. 

Since I was in a D&D mood, I rolled up a couple of characters.  Not with the intention of playing them, but rather just to generate them, and then add them to the ubiquitous stack of unplayed characters that many gamers have in a drawer somewhere. 

I’m can’t really describe what happened to me next.  I must have been seized by some sort of madness.  Because the next thing I knew, I had my dice out, the monster manual was open, and my character was fighting some generic low level enemy.  Was I playing D&D?  Not really.  But sort of, yeah.  (Maybe?) 

I continued fighting generic low level enemies until I had enough experience points to level up.  I kept going.  I’d occasionally award myself some treasure.  Maybe a magic item here and there.  Before I knew it, a lot of time had passed and/or been wasted, and my character was now level 20. 

Was what I had just done fun for me?  Not really.  But it wasn’t exactly ‘not fun’, either.  It occupied my time for awhile.  Which is good, I guess.  But the whole thing was kind of pointless.  It certainly wasn’t ever something I was ever going to do again. 

No, not ever. 

The Adept Dungeoneer

If a D&D character can be referred to as a dungeoneer, then the characters that I tended to play (on the occasions that I was a player and not the dungeon master) should probably be referred to as adept dungeoneers.  More competent, smarter, better trained, and just overall superior than your run-of-the-mill RPG characters.  And this was because of how I learned to play the game. 

I read the rulebook on my own, but my friend Bob taught me the finer points of the game.  As his older brother Paul had taught him.  And while I have no proof of this, I suspect that the players at Paul’s table were pretty much all power gamers. 

There have always been a variety of dice rolling methods used to randomly generate your character’s basic stats.  Some of these methods give you more average scores across the board, and some of these methods are weighted slightly more to the upper end of the range.  The method I was taught to use was one of those that was more generous to the character. 

My friend Chad developed his own method of determining character stats, and it was a method that no same dungeon master would allow in their game.  This method produced what we ended up calling the super dungeoneer.  (That term was coined before adept dungeoneer was, and is in fact what inspired it.) 

When D&D 3^rd edition rolled around, there was another mechanic that added to the adeptness of my adept dungeoneers.  A little something called the Gestalt Character. 

The gestalt rules were developed for D&D groups with a less than optimum number of players.  At character creation (and every time you gain a level), instead of picking a single character class, you pick two.  For any variable benefit held by both classes (hit points, skill points, saving throw bonuses, etc.) you choose whichever class has the higher total for that benefit.  For any abilities unique to a class, you take all of them from both classes. 

A gestalt character isn’t twice as powerful as a non-gestalt character.  It’s more like one and a half times as powerful.  There are only so many things that a character can do on their turn, and being gestalt doesn’t grant you more time in which to do things.  So you have to carefully pick and choose what you’re doing. 

But basically, you can have a game with a dungeon master and only two players, and still have their two characters cover the standard group representation of fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard.  Both players just use the gestalt rules to double up on their roles. 

Gestalt was a D&D 3.0 rule that never officially found it’s way into Pathfinder… but that doesn’t stop a lot of Pathfinder players from incorporating it into their games. 

Pathfinder Solitaire

When D&D moved from 3.5 to 4^th edition, I moved from D&D to Pathfinder (which in the early days, promoted itself as being D&D 3.75).  I absolutely love the game, but have never found a group to play with.  

 

Which brings me to Pathfinder Solitaire.  Once again, I started rolling up characters, and then… playing them.  Sort of.  All by myself. 

Once again, these were very adept dungeoneers.  High ability scores, and each and every one was a gestalt character.  And Paizo (Pathfinder’s publisher) released several books of leveled-up and equipped enemies for you to fight besides the simple monsters found in their Bestiaries.  Which made it much easier for my characters to have combat and gain experience points. 

It still wasn’t really a role-playing game.  Sure, my characters had well developed personalities in my head.  But it was really just combat and the collection of treasure and experience points.  And there were no surprises.  I was the one deciding what was going to happen (as the dungeon master) so I already knew what was going to happen (as a player). 

Despite these insufficiencies, I have to admit I played a fair amount of Pathfinder Solitaire. 

TTRPGs vs. Covid-19

And then of course, in March of 2020, the world changed.  The world, and nearly everything in it.  Including TTRPGs. 

A lot of friendly local games suddenly went virtual.  They discovered Virtual Table Tops (VTTs).  Platforms like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds both of which existed pre-Covid, but neither of which were nearly as popular as they are now that the gaming community has been through quarantine.  Other VTTs started cropping up as well. 

Now finding enough local players for a group was unnecessary.  You could organize your gaming group all over the world via the internet.  Play your tabletop games online. 

Solo RPG

Earlier this year, I discovered that there is an actual movement within the gamer community devoted to playing what’s called the Solo RPG.  They’ve taken the basic idea of a one-player TTRPG and turned it into something… playable.  Not at all the crappy version that I’ve been doing for countless years now. 

And similar to the VTT boom, while the pandemic helped to popularize the solo RPG trend, it’s actually been going on for awhile now.  I vaguely remember having seen some old single-player adventures (for the Tunnels & Trolls RPG, I think) way back in the 80s.  I always assumed that they were designed in similar fashion to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, but wasn’t curious enough to investigate. 

But now, in addition to the odd solo adventure for an RPG there are entire RPGs designed specifically for solo play.  But I really don’t want to buy and learn a new RPG system, I want to play Pathfinder.  Luckily for me…

There are also rulesets (actually more like guidelinesets, but you know what I mean) for playing traditionally multiplayer RPGs solo.  Most of these involve the use of something called an oracle. 

An oracle basically acts as a virtual dungeon master.  (A very simplistic, almost binary dungeon master that only answers ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, but a dungeon master nevertheless.) 

Most oracles are composed of a chart and some dice.  You ask the oracle a question that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and then you roll a six-sided die.  The basic answers you get are, ‘Yes, and…’, ‘Yes’, ‘Yes, but…’, ‘No, but…’, ‘No’, and ‘No, and…’. 

‘Yes’ and ‘No’ are just that.  Yes and no.  ‘Yes, but…’ is yes, but there’s a complication of some sort.  ‘Yes, and…’ is yes, plus, there’s an added benefit.  ‘No, but…’ is no, but it’s not as bad as you might at first think,  And ‘No, and…’ is the equivalent of the oracle’s evil laughter.  Not only is the answer no, but this other horrible thing happens as well.  (For the ‘and’ and ‘but’ augmented answers, there are more dice rolls, and other sections of the chart to consult.) 

Obviously, there are ways to cheat the system.  Your questions have to be within the realm of plausibility.  A question with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer gives you basically a 50/50 chance.  So if you ask, “Does a large sack full of platinum coins fall from the sky and land at my feet?” you’ve got roughly a 50 percent chance of becoming suddenly rich. And if you keep on asking that question until the answer is yes, then what’s the point of even playing the game? 

Most of the other rules/guidelines/pieces of advice for running solo games include playing a somewhat adept character (like maybe a gestalt character with high ability scores), and including a ‘helper’ character.  Akin to the classic NPC under the control of the dungeon master, this person is there to boost the ‘skills’ of your party. 

It all sounded good to me. 

Into the Depths of the (Randomly Generated) Dungeon

So, I decided that I was going to try playing Solo Pathfinder.  Legit Solo Pathfinder, not the piss-poor, half-assed Pathfinder Solitaire that I’d been playing. 

I started rolling up a character for myself, while figuring out exactly where this character would be adventuring.  The oracle was there to referee the game, but wasn’t about to think up an adventure for me. 

That’s when I remembered donjon.  Donjon is a website full of random content generators for RPGs.  Including a random dungeon generator. 

For a random dungeon, you enter in a bunch of modifiers (including what game system you’re playing in, the size and general shape of the dungeon, and how densely packed with rooms the place is) and then click the ‘construct dungeon’ button. 

What you get is a completely random map of a dungeon, with each of its rooms numbered.  Below the map is a listing of each room.  That list includes things like traps to avoid, monsters to fight, and treasure to loot. 

It certainly looked like everything was starting to come together for me.  I had a character to play, a potential environment to play in, and was just a step or two away from having a ‘helper’ character at my side.  But there was something nagging at me…  Something in the back of my mind…

I suddenly realized that these weren’t the droids I was looking for.  (Sorry, wrong mythos.  I mean, these weren’t the characters that I really wanted to play.) 

I’ve had a character concept that I’d been holding onto for years and years now.  A character that I didn’t want to waste on a game of Pathfinder Solitaire.  Someone that I wanted to play in an actual game. 

Was it likely that I was ever going to be in a Pathfinder game played with other real flesh-and-blood humans?  No.  So is Solo Pathfinder going to be as close as I’ll ever come?  Probably. 

The only problem with using this other character was that he wasn’t a typical dungeoneer.  He would most likely never travel through the wilderness to raid a lost temple or fight his way through monster infested ruins.  No, this guy was a character for an urban campaign.  And that’s something I couldn’t find a random generator for on donjon. 

Straumgate – the Urban Campaign

Traditionally, the big city is where you go in between adventures.  Sell off treasure, purchase new equipment, follow up on clues that will lead to your next adventure. 

But sometimes, the big city is where you adventure.  It takes a different type of character to thrive there.  Urban adventures are less hack-and-slash and more intrigue and social maneuvering.  Oh, there’s still combat, to be sure, but there also things like laws against killing the citizens. 

I needed a big city, and within a day of realizing that, the fantasy metropolis of Straumgate had taken up residence in my brain.  A major trade hub.  Governed by a city council, but influenced by the thirteen houses (mostly the nobility, but a few merchant houses as well).  Rival thieves’ guilds battling for territory, the city watch, the city militia, wizard academies, all sorts of things. 

Rather than placing Straumgate in my usual campaign world (the Esciem Realms), this city was built in what was at the time a newly discovered plane of reality.  It shares ancestry (and pantheons) with the Esciem Realms, but is a wholly different animal. 

Banter & Antic

So, just what is this beloved character concept of mine that I’ve been saving for an actual game?  The elevator pitch for the character is simply, “Zorro.  But instead of a black mask, he wears clown makeup.”

His name is Banter, and he’s a swashbuckling clown.  Accompanied by his pet monkey Antic.  Banter (and Antic) fight the good fight, working against the most corrupt members of the nobility, and fighting for the commoner. 

I’ve got Banter’s level progression mostly figured out up through level 20.  About half of his gestaltness will be taken up with levels in either swashbuckler or duelist, making him a master swordsman with a rapier. The other half is primarily levels in vigilante.  

(Pathfinder’s vigilante class gives you two separate identities.  A boring Clark Kent-like social identity, and a masked vigilante identity.  Allowing Banter to be a simple shopkeep by day and a swashbuckling clown by night.)  

Other Characters

Knowing that Banter would need a ‘helper’ character, I began putting together another character concept I’ve had my eye on for awhile.  At the beginning, she’s just Hudson Hulman, (mostly) human alchemist.  But as she progresses in levels, she gains the ability to turn into Mad Brutus, who is a (mostly) orc male barbarian. 

No, it’s not a new idea.  Jekyll and Hyde, Banner and Hulk, it’s been done before.  But I wanted to put a couple of my own twists on it. 

But I quickly realized that for all of her/his talents, Hudson/Brutus didn’t really have many complementary skills that Banter would need.  So I set them aside for a later game. 

I had a pro-wrestler-themed character concept that pretty much required the urban setting, but again, not a good match for Banter. 

I also discarded an idea for a sorcerer/kineticist (a fire control expert) for similar reasons. 

That’s when I realized what Banter needed.  Another clown. 

The Straumgate Cavalcade

Mischief starts out as a minor noblewoman who becomes enamored with Banter, and clowns herself up in order to join him on his adventures.  She’s a cleric with the temple of Roatus (the god of physical pleasure) and a rogue, so she’s got some sneaky thief-type skills. 

Banter and Mischief seemed like the pairing I needed.  Two clowns.  Excellent.  But then…

Then I was perusing the Archives of Nethys (the online version of the Pathfinder game rules), and found an alternate version of the bard called the juggler, and suddenly I discovered that I had Jinx the Juggler pretty much fully formed in my mind.  A juggling, thrown-weapons expert living on the streets that Banter takes in and trains as a third for him and Mischief. 

I even gave the trio a name.  The Straumgate Cavalcade.  (Long ago I tried to find out what the collective noun for a group of clowns was, and there either wasn’t one, or it was so well hidden that I couldn’t find it.  So I arbitrarily decided that henceforth, a group of clowns would be called a cavalcade.) 

Then I put my foot down and declared no more clowns.  (After which I created two more clowns.  But Scion and Lucky are both minor characters, and each is only with the core trio for at most a level.) 

Having the stats for these characters was good, but I wanted something more substantial.  I wanted a picture of them.  I started looking online for an artist who accepted commissions for RPG character art.  And that search led me to the incredibly talented Claudine. 

So I scoured the internet for reference images, wrote up detailed descriptions, and commissioned Claudine to illustrate my new prides and joys.  

Want to commission some original Claudine art of your own?  She can be contacted at artclauart@gmail.com.

The Present Situation

So, I’ve got my characters, I’ve got a city for them to adventure in… have I actually played yet? 

No.  No I have not. 

But I’m getting there.  September looks very weird to me, schedule wise, but I’m hoping to break out my bag of dice and begin the solo campaign in October.  Wish me luck!