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Hi all,
So a buddy and I are the last two in the area of a group that lasted a couple years. We have been trying to find some more players in the area but with no success. (WV Eastern Panhandle if you are in the area let me know! )
So I was thinking of running a 1 on 1 game for my friend and probably incorporate the new mythic adventures in it to make his character more a focus / give some more power when fighting alone.
I was just wondering if anyone else has some experience with 1 on 1s and was wondering if anyone had some advice.
We do play over VTT sometimes with friends but its not the same as people in the same room. (just incase someone was gonna mention VTTs)
Typical advice is: Saving throws become very dangerous, CRs need to be lowered quite a bit, depletion of resources happens quickly, and hirelings/animal companions/NPCs are your friends...
I understand your pain; I was never able to play before discovering roll20, cause finding people who wanted to play was a nightmare where I am (in the great white north). Dont know much about 1 on 1 games though.
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I've played a fair number of one-on-ones. You can tell a completely different kind of story this way, with a playstyle to match.
Assuming you don't want to depart too terribly much from the usual playstyle, there are a number of options. You can allow the player to control multiple characters, PCs and NPCs alike. A single character can potentially deal a good amount of damage, but they can be overwhelmed very easily. Use lots of low-powered mooks. You can also use a variant HP system that allows a character to recover some amount of HP more quickly.
A good thing to remember is that, when you only have one player, party balance doesn't mean squat. You don't have to worry about making a character too weak or too strong, and the GM can tailor encounters much more easily, as you should easily be able to predict what options the player has available.
I've played a fair number of one-on-ones. You can tell a completely different kind of story this way, with a playstyle to match.
Assuming you don't want to depart too terribly much from the usual playstyle, there are a number of options. You can allow the player to control multiple characters, PCs and NPCs alike. A single character can potentially deal a good amount of damage, but they can be overwhelmed very easily. Use lots of low-powered mooks. You can also use a variant HP system that allows a character to recover some amount of HP more quickly.
A good thing to remember is that, when you only have one player, party balance doesn't mean squat. You don't have to worry about making a character too weak or too strong, and the GM can tailor encounters much more easily, as you should easily be able to predict what options the player has available.
I second this, let the player make a team of 3-4 characters and play them all.
Having never played it that way, my first thought would be , wouldnt this feel awkward? one person RPing a group?
It ends up playing a lot more like a final fantasy or other group/team based RPG. The best way to do it is to make sure all of your characters have distinct roles which help keep their actions and personalities separate.
You could allow him to gain an animal companion *some rule bending required possibly*. I wrote a legitimate enough backstory for my Sorcerer that at level 10 he had a Griffin companion; we began play at level 10 mind you.
One really good thing for 1 person adventures are the gestalt rules from 3.5. Basically the characters gets the benefits of 2 classes at each level. In particular combining that with the pet classes (IE the druid or the summoner). This helps with the action economy problem. In fact I think a ninja/summoner is probably the perfect 1 person party. The eidolon can front line, the summoner can heal the eidolon and take umd to heal him self, has the ninjas skills and the summoners buffs and control spells.
Druid also works, something like a druid urban ranger for instance.
You could then add in a dmnpc (also gestalt) that travels around with him as a buddy/companion/side kick, and you have a pretty descent party. Give them a fairly high point buy and they can probably take on standard adventures without too much difficulty.
The key is to focus more on character relationships, if you go with the dmnpc, make them start the game connected and focus on their story, and on the player's interactions with other npcs. Unlike in a group, the player has all the face time in the world, and no one is going to be bored if you spend alot of time exploring his personal storylines.
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The first several years of my gamer life was 1-on-1. It's a great opportunity to have a deep campaign. My piece of advice is have the PC be the main character and NPC companions join his adventures.
One of my fondest memories when I as DMing growing up is when the PC's halfling thief got caught trying to rob a tower. Back then, thieves had a skill called climb walls. As a prisoner was then thrown into the area where he battled for his life and made friends with a minotaur fighter. Soon they escaped together. Somewhere along the lines, a werebear ranger joined them too. Good times.
on the point about the one player making a party of groups im currently running a homebrew campaign where the players are in a guild and they end up spliting and making there own guild so to flesh the guild out over the course of the quests im having them make multiple characters to fill out the guild
So my advice is if you do something like this have him make all the characters unique in their own ways so you dont get them confused
I have run a lot of 1 on 1 games over the years. I have seen a lot of the tricks and tactics that I have used to make them work for the player.
Remember the most important rule of all when running a roleplaying game and that is have fun!
If you remember that rule it will work out well for you and your friend. Also you may need to cheat the set up of the adventures a bit and or the rolls.
In my normal campaigns I have been able to throw out hints and clues that 4-5 PCs have been able to solve. When playing 1-1 with my daughter, I find that she is sometimes stymied by situations that a group could easily solve. Be prepared to provide less subtle clues to help a single player get through situations where the player obviously gets stuck.
Just play Legend of Zelda, Pathfinder Edition.