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I am currently running a group game of Kingmaker and seriously considering a second group game of Jade Regent. But I would like to run a game just for my wife but not sure which of the APs would be the easiest or best for that.
She is a gamer (not trying to convert) and plays in my Kingmaker and she quite enjoys role-playing aspects as well as the combat which is why I want a very personalized game to run for her.
I was thinking of Carrion Crown and allowing her to be a Gestalt (someting I have never used before) with a NPC. Is this doable ot are there better suited APs?
As a side note, has anyone actually run a single player AP? How did it go?
Any AP you pick is going to require a LOT of rework. I do remember there were some regular board members who used to do it though.
That said, I think that the story and thematic elements of Council of Thieves might be worth a look at for a single character.
I've run some adventures (notably the Absalom and Falcon's Hollow series) with my GF as a player. We're about to start in the River Kingdoms, running Trial of the Beast moved to a new town (Lengport, a Ustalavian town on the shore of the lake). She created her character and "recruited" a group of semi-NPCs to act as the rest of the party. She's basically running one character with three assistants. And it works pretty well. I created about 20 NPCs with personalities and let her pick the nes she wanted to adventure with, and when the NPCs level up, she helps pick their changes...effectively 4 PCs (now 5 with the Kobold...)
As for the adventuring itself, its both eaiser and harder with one player...once you know your player (and I hope you do as shes your wife) you can tailor the AP or module to fit her preferences. For examply, my GF doesn;t like long Dungeon Crawls but always explores towns in detail, so I expect her to interact with a lot of NPCs and I tend to cut the duegoen parts about in half. (The lack of combat XP is made up for it with lots of extra RP encounters).
The drawback is not lack of character power, its the fact that with one PC/1 GM, all of the Roleplay interaction is between two people, you don't ge tthe extra input that three or more other players add or the interaction between players. Even when she interacts with the other NPCs in the party, its going to be just you and her. And if your player can't come up wiht a good solution for a problem, there isn;t anyone else to give hints. SO be prepared to fully flesh out your NPCS (of course, you may already know all of this).
Other than that, I don;t see any problems with running an AP with less than 4 players. Just include extra NPCs...
(Oh, and I always let the Players roll all of the dice for Party NPCs...)
I'm going to vote for Council of Thieves also, with the caveat that it will be a lot of work.
Kingmaker would be my first choice, actually, because the PC could be the ruler and that would actually let you fill in a large cast of NPCs pretty well. Pity you're already running it.
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Thank's guys for the input.
Running 1 player isn't an issue, my early RP days were almost all 1 on 1 and I quite enjoy it due to the personal nature of it.
I also don't mind having NPCs and I used to have dozens created that were friends, cohorts or others that drop in out as needed for the player.
I will start checking out Council of Thieves as I have a feeling Carrion Crown may have to many creatures with draining, save or bleh or other nasty abilities that could take a 1 player party out in 1 round.
My wife is a bit like your partner gigglestick, not big on the dungeon crawl. She still likes killing things real good but prefers open areas and town games.
Thanks again guys, off to the game store for some books.
I urge you not to use Council of Thieves: it's got serious problems in the first module, then uses none of the really interesting features of Cheliax as its primary antagonists. I was seriously underwhelmed and it generally rates in the middle-low of the APs. The play, however, is awesome.
If your wife likes intrigue and combat, I'd suggest doing Crimson Throne. It's an urban campaign that you can flesh out easily. It rates well on the boards. It's wonderfully flavorful with a variety of options. It's got an awesome antagonist and some great set pieces.
The one caveat is that I would suggest that you ditch the fifth module, give them the plot coupon you're supposed to get at the end of it, and spend those levels having the PCs run La Resistance, which will segue nicely into the 6th module. The fifth module is just this huge undead-heavy dungeon crawl. Lots of threads on those boards show games flaming out during that section.
Although I think that the disdain for Council of Thieves is overblown (not a knock against RogeeRouge, I know a lot of people around here share his opinion), I totally agree that Crimson Throne would be the best choice. There are dungeon-crawly adventures in it, as well, but let's face it: in all of Paizo's AP's there is an adventure or two that is primarily a dungeon crawl.
My second vote would be Legacy of Fire, perhaps?
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Thankfully, I have not yet a chance to go to the game store.
I had looked at the synopsis for Legacy of Fire and my wife said it wasn't something she interested in.
I am now looking hard at Curse of the Crimson Throne thanks to your input but are the Council of Thieves still worth picking up for general looting of ideas, npcs and locations?
Looking back, Kingmaker would have been great as the solo game so my wife could let her megalomania run free :) (She doesn't come on these boards).
I'd like to see an AP specifically written for one, or at least just a couple, characters. A lot of people struggle with only being able to put together small gaming groups, and frankly I like smaller ones anyway - 6 PCs = less roleplaying. Makes a more interesting dynamic.
Soon they're going to have to start ranging more widely to experiment with APs as they complete all the big iconic things, and that would be good. I enjoyed a lot of the 2e-era solo modules (*'s Challenge), and I think it would be worthwhile for them to publish some stuff specifically for 1-2 players instead of a whole gang.
I will say that there's many cool PARTS to Council of Thieves. I'll be using their nuclear reactor, all of the second module, and the stat blocks in the last two modules. It's a useful series at least.