Are you an effective team? -Sally, Oblivion
Introduction
So you've discovered the hero you're going to journey with. Amazing! But before you actually, you know, start adventuring, you've got a decision to make. You're going to have to decide whether you're going it alone, or if you're going to journey with like-minded Earth Realm adventurers.
Choosing a Path
I have lived most of my life surrounded by enemies. I will be grateful to die among my friends. - Gamora, Guardian of the Galaxy
Whether you're rocking main character energy or you're looking to be part of a team, we've got you!
So, what path are you going to choose?
Team Up - Adventurers Assemble! Let's make a team that can save all of the things!
Solo Adventurer - I am the Main Protagonist, my only companion is my weapon and my fabulous hair.
Teaming Up
We are a more effective team. - Jack Harper, Oblivion
You're paying us here to get our help, so our honest opinion is that you'll do better and have a lot more fun if you can find a team of adventurers you can trust. Adventuring in Faerun is hard enough under normal Story Mode circumstances... Honor Mode, like real life, means no take backs.1
Advantages
Fewer People to Manage - Every hero has their own strengths and weaknesses, and being an expert on their... well... everything is vital to surviving Honor Mode. Every Earth Realm person you add to your party reduces the number of people you, personally, have to manage. For example, when we adventure together we are each responsible for two heroes. Knowing two people's abilities intimately is much easier than keeping track of four.
| As the tactician, I still need to understand everyone's abilties... but because I can trust Vul to know her skills too, I only need to know her heroes well enough to know their general skills. |
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She still learns them all, though. Arcanists are extra as fuck. |
Style Variations -If you went through our super fun and not at all opinionated walkthrough to determine your adventuring style, you'll probably have realized that there are lots of ways to approach adventuring. You are, of course, going to be sort of stuck being whatever you are. If you're a style switch then you might be a little bit better off, but you're still sort of... you.
When you adventure as part of a team, though, you are more likely to have a mix of styles, meaning that you'll have more perspectives on how to solve difficult problems. making your team more flexible in the face of... well... most things.
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Elle and I balance each other out really well. Elle is a tactical thinker who likes to avoid fighting and I'm into venting my rage on shitty people physically. She tempers my temper, I encourage her violent side! |
Inspiration in a Crisis - How many times have you been adventuring and been like "oh gods, I'm so screwed, what should I do?" Probably more than once if you're like us. Having others to bounce ideas off of or who can call out actions to you when you need them means you might actually get an answer! Two (or three or four) heads are better than one!
| Wait, is this a low key dig because I talk to myself a lot? Fking rude. |
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Fun - Okay this is absolutely just us, but we think that adventuring is, at its core, a team effort. Going solo just doesn't feel the same; it's not wrong, really, it just feels... lonelier. That doesn't mean that solo adventuring isn't also amazing, it just means that when it comes down to it, misery loves company it just feels better to share the experience with a friend.2
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You can rage together, cry together, pee yourselves in fear together... |
| Gross. |
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Disadvantages
Less Control - If you're the sort of person who wants to be able to direct the entire story, team adventuring is probably not for you. Introducing other people will mean that... well, other people will want to do their own thing sometimes. They're going to want to handle situations in their own way, no matter how reasonable your suggestion might be. It can be diifcult to let other people lead sometimes, especially if you're not really used to being on a team.
| I've adventured (and dated) control freaks before. If you're that person, cool, but maybe try not to be entirely extra if you want to be on a team. |
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Clashing Styles - Look, we don't think there are really any adventuring styles that are incompatible, as long as the party members are okay letting other people shine sometimes. But if you're so into non-violent solutions that you can't ever consider that violence might be better, and your partner is so into smashing evil that they never want to talk, well.... your party isn't likely to work out.
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It's okay not to enjoy adventuring a certain way. Just talk about expectations before you begin so no one ends up with hurt feelings and a broken controller! |
Skill Differences - It kind of sucks to have to say this, but... if you're a super experienced adventurer and your party members are not, you might find adventuring with them in Honor Mode somewhere between frustrating and infuriating. They're not going to know how to use their abilties. They're going to make mistakes. And, if you can't compensate for them, they're going to get you killed. And if you're the new one? Same, in reverse.
We're not saying don't adventure with people who are more or less skilled than you... we're just saying to go into it with the right expectations.
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Elle knew more about D&D than I did when we started, but we had both played other adventure games before so we were pretty evenly matched. |
| I'm good at IRL adventure so I kind of had a little bit of a background, lol. |
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Availability - Lastly, you might end up not adventuring when people cancel, drop out, or just vanish. If they drop out mid-adventure, that could leave you having to learn a whole lot of people's skills very quickly, something that solo adventurers rarely have to consider.
| Talk to your party before you start to decide what happens if someone stops showing up or stops being consistent. It might not mitigate all of the bad feels, but it should mitigate some. |
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Choosing Fellow Adventurers
Rule number zero of adventuring club: Don't be a condescending asshole. - Elle
Awesome, you're recruiting a team! Let's talk about our five core rules for building a team, shall we?
Rule One: Don't Adventure with Assholes
Okay, adventurers to be, this is the most important rule you will ever, ever learn when it comes to saving worlds... whether we're talking about Toril or Krynn or Oerth or Runeterra or any world out there that needs a motley group of adventurers to stand firm in the face of evil. Why make your life more complicated by recruiting someone who is going to make your life miserable along the way?
Look, we promise you that you'll have plenty to worry about in Honor Mode. Do you really want Edgar Edgelord in your party, treating everyone else like trash, stealing all of the good gear, and killing the innocent people of Faerun? Of course you don't. You're here to save worlds, not pander to the fragile ego of a Wild Edgelord.
But, we get it. Sometimes Edgar is your friend, your bestie, your partner. You feel like giving them a chance. But... hero?
Are you paying attention?
Don't. Adventure. With.. Assholes.
| There was this boy who I had to adventure with. He absolutely loved to pick on the women,... making borderline creepy comments, harassing us, and basically making things super unpleasant. But I was always like... well, I have no choice. So I understand if it's hard to follow this rule. But tbh, you'll be better off if you do. I was, when I finally grew a spine and left. |
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Rule Two: Trust is Bae
You'll want to select people you can trust to join your party. Ideally, you'll have gone on other adventures with them, maybe in Balanced Mode so you know they've got your back, you know? Because when it comes to it, you need to know that you're partnered with people who will stand by you, who won't betray the plan for personal gain or 'for the lulz.' And yes, hero, there are people out there who will join your quest just to sabotage you at critical moments.
So if they seems to be too good to be true? It probably is.
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The good news is that most sketchy people are impatient. Try playing with them in a different mode first, or a different game, and see how they do. If they're horrible people. they'll self destruct pretty quickly. |
Rule Three: Flexy is Sexy
We sort of covered this already, but it is useful to say it again:
Pick people who are happy to let other people shine, sometimes. If someone is insisting that you do it their way every time, then they're probably not going to work well as a party member. They'll either quit, make you quit, or just make the entire experience miserable until one of you makes a fatal mistake and your Faerun is lost.
You need people who can work with others. Who can work with you. If they're a "my way or the Risen Road" kind of person, then it's probably best to politely suggest that solo adventuring might be for them.
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Yeah we have all adventured with people like that. Usually they're assholes too so Rule One, but sometimes they are good people who are bullies when they adventure. Some people just can't work well on a team. |
Rule Four: Different Preferred Classes
This is not so much a rule as a survival tip, but you do need to be aware of what sorts of roles your fellow heroes prefer and what classes they intend to choose.3 If everyone chooses the same class, or the same role, you're going to have problems pretty quickly. You might want the challenge later, but for your first quest... probably best if you're well-balanced.
| This is not as much of a problem if you're just working with one other person, because you have two other party members to work with. Like for example, Vul was working with a War Cleric and I was working with Shadowheart as a Life Cleric. But we had two other party members, so we filled those gaps with the skills (and roles) we knew we'd need. |
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Rule Five: Availability
Lastly, make sure your fellow heroes are available to... you know... adventure. I know this seems like a silly rule, but if everyone has weird, different schedules then you're never going to get to finish saving Faerun. So like any adventure, make sure your party can be available to adventure consistently.
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Basically you want to avoid flakes. In my last adventuring party we'd have people just not show up. That's not only a dick move, it's basically screwing everyone else who is trying to save the world. |
Solo Adventuring
It's dangerous to go alone! Take this. - Old Man, Zelda
Advantages
We've both done solo adventures in other worlds and we've done fine. Sometimes, that's the only option. And sometimes, you're just more down with solo action, you know? Whether you prefer solo adventuring or it's your only choice... that's okay too! We want you to succeed no matter if you group or solo. And if you get stuck, we're always here to help.
Sole Decider - As a solo adventurer, you get to call all of the shots. There's no one telling you what to do, no one messing up your interactions, and no one guilting you saving Minthara, if booting her down a spider hole is what you want to do. You're as free as a lotto winner, with all the agency and joy that comes with it!
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Absolutely kick that bitch down the spider hole. |
Flexible Schedule - When you're the main character, you can adventure pretty much whenever you like. Wake up at three in the morning and can't go back to sleep? Do some advemturing. Want to adventure before work, when everyone else is off doing boring as fuck things? Do some adventuring. Want to ignore your partner's texts to finish that last quest. Rude, but your time is your own!
| Just be careful of your pre-work gaming. I've... forgotten to keep track of the time before and ended up taking the day off out of sheer embarassment. |
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Solo Glory - If you're the only adventurer on the quest, whether you win or lose is entirely on you. If you win, no one can really say that you were just carried to victory by your allies because you didn't have any! Bigger risk, bigger reward?
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Or bigger death. But at least if you get TPKed in solo mode, there are no witnesses left ro laught about your failure! |
Disadvantages
Sole Decider - Yes, this is also a disadvantage. As the sole decider, you do get to make all of the decisions... but you also... have to make all of the decisions, and you have to do it without friends and party members to guide you. Freedom to choose also means the burden of having to choose.
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It is too easy to get one-tracked if you're adventuring alone. You know, when you get so fixated on one way to do things that you miss the obvious? A partner helps with that. |
Single Style - As a solo adventurer, you're stuck with your approach. Team adventurers have their friends' style to complement them, but you're pretty much stuck with your own approach. This isn't necessarily bad... it just means that you don't get the benefit of other people's perspectives when you're in difficult situations.
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You can always ask us, though... just find us on Mastodon and |
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Again with the souls?! |
| Oh come on, everyone knows I'm just joking! |
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