[Caravan To Ein Arris] Single PC Romp, Any Suggestions?

Mulsiphix · 07-31-2012, 02:10 AM

Long story short, I am new to GURPS. My wife and I have played some training exercises but nothing with story yet. I've decided to go ahead and give Caravan To Ein Arris a whirl as our first real adventure and will be reading it today. The reason I am here is that I need suggestions from those who have played the adventure.

She will be a lone PC and I want to make sure I run a decently balanced adventure for her. What would you guys suggest as far as achieving this? Upping her character points, scaling any encounters, giving her henchmen or a support PC/NPC? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Blind Mapmaker · 07-31-2012, 03:30 AM

Good to see you found some time for another introductory session. I've run Caravan to Ein Arris two times and I would suggest to give your PC at least two low-powered NPC as companions. The combat encounters are not the most important bits of the adventure, but they are certainly scaled for more than one character. The final battle described under the Vigil also makes more sense, if there are more than two defenders (the scaling used there is alright, though). The second tax collector encounter can quickly turn nasty if the PC thinks they're scoundrels and attacks them. Of course, it's hard to say how the adventure scales to one PC without knowing her stats. A lone 125-points character is definitely in over her head, but a 250-points character has a much better chance. Can you give us a point total or, even better, some general combat stats?

If you want to have some quick NPCs, you can just at Farvaro's skills to those of the fighters given on p. 13. I do, however, have a couple of NPCs for this adventure lying around. If you can give me a deadline, I'll see whether I could translate two of those for you. They were quite funny to run at cons.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the adventure lives a bit by the threat of treachery. If you got more NPCs, you can just say that the one your PC trusted the most (or the least) turns out to be a traitor in the end. Without NPCs you lose that option.

The most important change I would make is to change the campaign assumption that there is no magic. Just say it is rare and most people only get to use alchemy, if anything. Then give your PC a healing potion or two. Otherwise it's possible to lose them quickly on the mission to contact the brigands. Resting takes too much time.

07-31-2012, 02:10 AM	#1
Mulsiphix Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Wylie, TX	[Caravan To Ein Arris] Single PC Romp, Any Suggestions? Long story short, I am new to GURPS. My wife and I have played some training exercises but nothing with story yet. I've decided to go ahead and give Caravan To Ein Arris a whirl as our first real adventure and will be reading it today. The reason I am here is that I need suggestions from those who have played the adventure. She will be a lone PC and I want to make sure I run a decently balanced adventure for her. What would you guys suggest as far as achieving this? Upping her character points, scaling any encounters, giving her henchmen or a support PC/NPC? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! __________________ Be Thankful For Everything For Soon There Will Be Nothing!

07-31-2012, 03:30 AM	#2
Blind Mapmaker Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Mannheim, Baden	Re: [Caravan To Ein Arris] Single PC Romp, Any Suggestions? Good to see you found some time for another introductory session. I've run Caravan to Ein Arris two times and I would suggest to give your PC at least two low-powered NPC as companions. The combat encounters are not the most important bits of the adventure, but they are certainly scaled for more than one character. The final battle described under the Vigil also makes more sense, if there are more than two defenders (the scaling used there is alright, though). The second tax collector encounter can quickly turn nasty if the PC thinks they're scoundrels and attacks them. Of course, it's hard to say how the adventure scales to one PC without knowing her stats. A lone 125-points character is definitely in over her head, but a 250-points character has a much better chance. Can you give us a point total or, even better, some general combat stats? If you want to have some quick NPCs, you can just at Farvaro's skills to those of the fighters given on p. 13. I do, however, have a couple of NPCs for this adventure lying around. If you can give me a deadline, I'll see whether I could translate two of those for you. They were quite funny to run at cons. One other thing to keep in mind is that the adventure lives a bit by the threat of treachery. If you got more NPCs, you can just say that the one your PC trusted the most (or the least) turns out to be a traitor in the end. Without NPCs you lose that option. The most important change I would make is to change the campaign assumption that there is no magic. Just say it is rare and most people only get to use alchemy, if anything. Then give your PC a healing potion or two. Otherwise it's possible to lose them quickly on the mission to contact the brigands. Resting takes too much time. Last edited by Blind Mapmaker; 07-31-2012 at 05:55 AM.