1-on-1 First Edition Adventures?

[Space_Titanium]

tl;dr - Has anyone produced some single player adventures for 1e D&D? I need to find some 1-on-1 stuff to play.

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I know this is an odd request, but I run a club at my school teaching kids to play D&D and have had some success with some young students I never even expected to participate. Since Christmas just passed by, many of the parents of these kids went out and got some forms of D&D products (with varying degrees of success). One of these parents used to play 1e back in the day so he bought a copy of the reprinted books to have a game he's familiar with to play with his son.

Anyway, he was asking me if there were any one-on-one adventures that exist for 1e, which I'm not overly familiar with. I know that there have been some released for PF, which is a bit complex for the kid's age group and would require some learning on the part of the Dad. Barring that, are there any really kid-oriented systems out there that would be easy for a parent fallen out of the hobby to learn?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Jan van Leyden]

2e had a series of modules call "[Classname] Challenge" for each opf the four main classes.

BECMI had something similar, too. I do know about "The Staff and the Minotaur" (or something similar) and think there was one more module.

 

[steeldragons]

Isn't "the Blizzard Pass" a one-on-one...or a solo? And yes, "Maze of the Riddling Minotaur" also.

Ah. A quicky google search to the D&D wiki reveals both of those are "Solo" adventures. But I see no reason you couldn't DM for a single player.

"One-on-One" modules, labeled as O1 and O2, respectively, are listed as "The Gem and the Staff" and "Blade of Vengence"...though I've never heard of either of these.

All of these are "set in Mystara" which leads me to think they are for Basic/B-X/BECM and not 1e...but, as we all know, converting from one to the other is practically non-existent other than separating class from race.

 

[Halivar]

Finally, a place for the elven Ftr/Mu/Thf to shine.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"One-on-One" modules, labeled as O1 and O2, respectively, are listed as "The Gem and the Staff" and "Blade of Vengence"...though I've never heard of either of these.

I owned and have DMed O1. It's a former convention module, built around a pre-gen thief character. It's probably portable to another character, but it's not a very flexible module in that regard.

 

[the Jester]

I played one of the solo or one-on-one adventures back in the last 80s. Even then, I could tell it was terrible. Don't remember which one- I was a thief, I remember that- and I don't know how the rest of those are, but yeah, I wouldn't have high hopes; most of them came out at a pretty low point for adventures.

 

[Halivar]

I would suggest a small troupe of henchmen to cover the PC's blind spots and then offering a normal, homebrew adventure. Or you could take a published adventure and maybe scale it down or offer alternatives to combat for some conflicts.

 

[Luce]

May I also suggest looking into adventure gamebooks. Those combine a branching plot novel with simple rp system. Some examples series: Bloodsword (A 5 book mini campaign to save the world, could use the provided 5 classes system for battle or use 1e with little twinging),

Lone Wolf (good vs evil, protagonist is warrior-monk, the link leads to legal online copy of the more then 26 books),

The way of the Tiger (6 books, OA 1e inspired story, the text of the first book provided from the kickstarter page- not a plug just wanted to site sources)

Endless Quest (These books (~50) were the result of an Educational department established by TSR to develop curriculum programs for reading, math, history, and problem solving. IMO while not bad and may be the closest to "pure" D&D experience, those books are branching- novels. That is to say: no dice rolling, no battles, no continuity from book to book. Might be a good place to start for the younger readers, but The book "Claws of the Dragon" had been recently republished by WOC link)

Honestly, I like starting younger (or even some new) players on gamebooks.
1) An open choice campaign can be sometime intimidating and result in analysis-paralysis. The good ones can give you variety of choices, but still keep you on task. For example, the protagonist needs to get into a temple and there is a sentry. He could: A) Attack from a distance with a poison needle B) Try to sneak and silence him mano-a-mano C) Climb a wall to get to a window.
2) Improvement of reading level and vocabulary as well as gentle ease in. That is there is a lot of specific terminology both game and epoch specific, which I find those books take the time to explain without detracting from the narrative.
3) Re-playability. Some of those books have branching paths (which usually converge back at some point) Such as do you want to get from point A to B by land or by sea. Make a deal with fraction X instead of Y. The ability to explore different options can be very satisfying for new players.

Also since it is a book one read and play during any spare time without of the need of a DM. Also I am not advocating to limit oneself to gamebooks exclusively, just that I find them a good gateway. And while I would not use those for bedtime stories (especially if there is dice rolling involved) I think them a good choice if one wishes to read to/with their children.

Finally there are some of the solo adventures in Dungeon magazine:

issue#9
DJINNI'S RING, THE
D&D Solo adventure, level 3 elf character
11 pages

Description: In DUNGEON's first solo adventure, Moonstone the elf must free a djinni trapped inside a magical ring.

issue#12

SCEPTRE OF THE UNDERWORLD
AD&D Solo adventure, level 12 human fighter
14 pages

Description: A human fighter is hired to recover the sceptre of the underworld from an evil temple.


issue#20
WHITE FANG
AD&D Solo adventure, level 10 human thief
15 pages

Description: To get his hands on a vast treasure, Lykan the thief braves the dangers of White Fang, fighting off wolves and other fierce guardians.


Hope that helps.