D&D 4E Designing 4e adventures for a single character?

[Verdande]

You've got three options, as far as I see it.

Focus more on non-combat encounters. You'll probably notice that in stories and books that focus on one person, their day-to-day travails, exploration, and dialogue takes precedence over hack and slash combat. Xorn hit this one right on the head, and this is where I would, and have, gone with single-player campaigns. There's an opportunity for character development and deep roleplaying that simply isn't possible when you've got a group of four or five people clamoring for attention and treasure and attention.

Have some people follow the PC around. Maybe he's a minor noble with bodyguards, or maybe he's a member of an artifact recovery team. Have the NPCs that are with him have distinct personalities and battle styles- in essence, roleplay all the other characters and let the PC take just the one.

Let the player have multiple characters. There's nothing wrong with one player handling an entire party, if that's what you think they're up for.

 

[krakenstar]

I have a few suggestions:

1 - start him/her at higher level, 8th?
2 - storyline heavy, combat light. Focus on character/plot development, problem solving, stealth, politics, intrigue, drama rather than combat.
3 - Run a DMPC so its a 2 character party.
4 - combat gotta happen eventually I guess or its not really D&D. stagger the bad guys is a great idea as other posters have mentioned. I'd also take ideas from movies where there are only 1 main action hero in the film: such as Indiana Jones, Die Hard, Blade Runner.

 

[Ophidimancer]

Notice where an Intimidate check allows a character to "cow a target into taking some other action?"

Let players be creative with that and Bluff or Diplomacy checks.

I'd also allow the character to "defeat" enemies socially and still get experience.

Maybe an Intimidate check to cow a bunch of minions and force the leader into single combat. Then the fight would be one on one, and judicious use of Bluff for Combat Advantage and other tricks could win the day. The Diplomacy or more Intimidate checks could force the minions to run away or even turn over loot.

Not all heroes are well suited for this, of course.

 

[Surgoshan]

I think a 1 PC game could look something like Prince of Persia, only all at once. Make the environment incredibly active so that the PC spends as much time maneuvering foes into traps as he does actually hitting them. Otherwise it becomes boring fighting minions all the time.