The majority of my experience with Pathfinder 2e so far has been running Strength of Thousands as a one-on-one game for my fiancé, and we’ve been having a blast. It’s an adventure path that lends itself well to a single PC being the “main character” in lieu of a whole party tackling the story. We’ve been playing with the dual class rules, with an NPC always acting as her “sidekick” and the weak template applied to all enemies to make combats balanced for a party of 2 dual-classed characters. We’ve gotten all the way through book 4, and it’s been working out great! However, we’re now looking ahead to what other APs could function well for this same format.
I’ve been eyeing up both Kingmaker and Hell’s Rebels as potential stories where it seems like they’d still work with a singular “main character”, but I haven’t dug too deep into them. So I wanted to get people’s thoughts on what adventure paths best fit the way we’ve been playing SoT. For background, I’m pretty familiar with every AP that’s come out in 2e so far, and I’m more curious about 1e adventure paths that I could convert to 2e (or in the case of Kingmaker, wait for the official conversion to come out).
I’ve been eyeing up both Kingmaker and Hell’s Rebels as potential stories where it seems like they’d still work with a singular “main character”, but I haven’t dug too deep into them.
I think Kingmaker could work pretty well. I'm assuming that you're already making adjustments to certain encounters, so if you're reviewing KM, perhaps allow for more encounters to be resolved with diplomacy, which is thematic.
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I've done this many times before! What you want is a narrative that lends itself well to why this particular character should be in charge of all the decisions - a reason everyone should follow their lead - as well as making them the clear centre of the story.
We've done this with Jade Regent, putting the solo PC as the invented-position Vizier to would-be Empress Ameiko. In retrospect, I'd have replaced Ameiko -with- the PC, making the PC the would-be Empress/Emperor and the centre of the arc. This one works well.
We've done it with Kingmaker, and it works perfectly. The arc here is very easy - most councillors and NPCs will directly owe their lives to the King PC, and that puts them in sole charge of the decisions. It's also got an entire subsystem of kingdom building if that appeals to your player, which moves smoother without having to debate between players about the best course of action. If you like actual play podcasts, we have our duet one-on-one game recorded at RPGMP3.
Future ones I've looked at are Skull and Shackles (PC is the Pirate Captain and liberator of NPCs), and Wrath of the Righteous (PC is the divinely chosen one).
Thank you all for the excellent advice! I figured Kingmaker would be easy by basically making the solo player the sole king. Jade Regent is one I hadn’t looked into, but looks like a great fit for this type of campaign, and Wrath of the Righteous looks amazing since my fiancé has always wanted to do more a chosen one narrative!
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My husband and I have done Mummy's Mask and are currently doing CotCT.
I know he has done a few solo games and loved them with another GM. I think they have done Hell's Vengeance, Strange Aeons and Strength of Thousands.
I love a solo campaign as you can develop the one character and their relationships in so much detail!
CotCT is one I’d love to run as a solo game one day! Was Mummy’s Mask very combat heavy? I’ve realized as we’re going through Hell’s Rebels that the best two ingredients for a strong solo game (at least for us) is:
1. A lack of areas where it’s just a lot of combat with little room for roleplay or exploration in between, and
2. A rich cast of NPCs to work with.
Strength of Thousands and Hell’s Rebels have both fit our two criteria pretty solidly, and I think now we have a much better idea of what we’re looking for in a solo game going forward.
I’m planning on seeing if Blood Lords fits our criteria next as it starts to release, although my fiancé is so excited for that one we might end up playing it as a solo game regardless. Other ones on my shortlist are:
-Kingmaker (already planning to run solo after Blood Lords since my main group didn’t show any interest in it)
-Wrath of the Righteous
-Curse of the Crimson Throne
-War for the Crown
-Carrion Crown (this one I’ve heard has a lot of opportunities for roleplay, but not sure if that person knew what they were talking about?)
-Jade Regent
-Strange Aeons (probably won’t end up running this solo because my fiancé isn’t big into horror and I have a group I think would like it more)
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All of them, in my opinion.
AP's I've run with just myself and my wife playing/managing a party of 4-6:
Age of Ashes
Abomination Vaults
Quest For the Frozen Flame
Outlaws of Alkenstar (part 1)
and a crapton of Starfinder ones.
CotCT is one I’d love to run as a solo game one day! Was Mummy’s Mask very combat heavy? I’ve realized as we’re going through Hell’s Rebels that the best two ingredients for a strong solo game (at least for us) is:
1. A lack of areas where it’s just a lot of combat with little room for roleplay or exploration in between, and
2. A rich cast of NPCs to work with.Strength of Thousands and Hell’s Rebels have both fit our two criteria pretty solidly, and I think now we have a much better idea of what we’re looking for in a solo game going forward.
I’m planning on seeing if Blood Lords fits our criteria next as it starts to release, although my fiancé is so excited for that one we might end up playing it as a solo game regardless. Other ones on my shortlist are:
-Kingmaker (already planning to run solo after Blood Lords since my main group didn’t show any interest in it)
-Wrath of the Righteous
-Curse of the Crimson Throne
-War for the Crown
-Carrion Crown (this one I’ve heard has a lot of opportunities for roleplay, but not sure if that person knew what they were talking about?)
-Jade Regent
-Strange Aeons (probably won’t end up running this solo because my fiancé isn’t big into horror and I have a group I think would like it more)
Mummy's mask can be combat heavy but we ar eboth known to edit a lot of combats out of an adventure.
CotCT was definitely a good choice. We are now playing Kingmaker 2E at home, and having a great time. Im the player and I can pick up however many NPCs I want to join as per the rules, however we have made a rule I can only take 3 with me when I go adventuring (like dragon age) so that I can use them to help with combat.