1 DM, 1 Player. Full party?

[Ashrem Bayle]

I had a thought on the drive home from work. I remembered the Temple of Elemental Evil PC game, and even some of the older games. In those, the player could create his entire party, running the whole group through the adventure.

So why not do that with the pen and paper game? Sure, the computer does a lot of the calculations for you, making this easier on a PC. But 4e doesn't look as bad as the older games in that regard.

So what do you think? 1 DM. 1 Player. The player runs the entire party of five PCs himself.

 

[Jack99]

I would say there would most likely be a distinct lack of roleplaying within the party. But from a combat perspective, it is certainly doable, if you are very well organized and know the rules. I wouldn't recommend it for a first campaign.

 

[darkadelphia]

While I was at Penn State, my buddy and I did this with First Edition Random Dungeon Generation. It plays much different than "real" D&D, but is very fun in its own way.

First off--things move pretty quickly. With one player controlling all PCs, there's no debate over which of the identical doors to open (also a function of random dungeon though).

Secondly--I wouldn't say there was NO roleplaying, but it was definitely different. Characters developed their own very simple personalities. It was also a very deadly game, so surviving to level 2 made you a legend at the staging area.

Thirdly--it allowed for interesting scenarios that wouldn't be likely to come up in a regularly scheduled group game. For example, my buddy rolled up a so/so Halfling Thief. He decided to just delve as deep into the dungeon as he could, got lucky and stole lots of treasure, which, in 1e, meant tons of xp. Being able to play a Halfling Thief solo in a random dungeon generation environment allowed it to shine in ways it never would in a normal game.

So yeah, one player multi-character D&D is possible and can be fun. Just don't expect it to be like the familiar "PCs develop close relationships while saving the world" kinda game. We tended to think of it as the world's most needlessly complicated board game ;-)

 

[Dormain1]

Just using pregens we did a swap

I ran the PC's and he ran the monsters, then he ran the PC's and I ran the monsters

It give you a good feel for the different classes and a great way to kill 3 hrs and a few bottles

He also ran his wife, daughter and myself through an adventure where they had 2 PC's and I had 3 or 4, they tend to burr a bit with time

Good times but not recommended for a Campaign, it just gets weird talking to yourself and getting an answer

 

[Novem5er]

My fiancee and I did this for 3.5, and ran through most of the Shattered Gates of Slaughtergard. 3.5 modules were written for 4 member parties, so she ran 2 characters and I ran 2, plus I DMed and ran the monsters.

There was almost no roleplaying, but it made for a good (and quick) dungeon crawl. I think a more experienced player could run all 4 (or 5) PCs themselves.

4e might even be easier to do this with b/c the class roles are more clearly defined, the mechanics are streamlined, and characters have more options per combat (to make it more interesting).

Good luck!

 

[Hammerhead]

I'd recommend doing this by having the player "play" one main character, probably a Warlord or something. The other characters are under his control, but tend to be quiet, supportive, and with relatively simple personalities or backstories. Sort of like a CRPG. The Warlord is the commander and actual leader of his group of mercs.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I think this can succeed either as a standard D&D game where the inter-party role-play will be reduced a bit, or as what is essentially a skirmish game with one player running the monsters and the other the PCs.

Have fun!

 

[hong]

You will essentially be recreating the classic single-player CRPG setup. Have one designated protagonist, and everyone else is his henchmen. Character interaction can take place by the DM playing the parts of the henchmen, as well as regular NPCs (those with blue circles around their feet).

 

[Kaodi]

Tactical Role Playing Game, hehehe...

I think though, that playing five PCs at once is like catching flies with chopsticks. If you can pull it off, you roleplay anything, hehehe... Or like training in 10x, 25x or 100x gravity, like a certain monkey man...

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I'd recommend doing this by having the player "play" one main character, probably a Warlord or something. The other characters are under his control, but tend to be quiet, supportive, and with relatively simple personalities or backstories. Sort of like a CRPG. The Warlord is the commander and actual leader of his group of mercs.

This is how things tended to work out for me. I've been doing solo stuff for years, and how we handled it was that I ran two formal characters, and they had followers and whatnot (alternately, I ran two characters, but under 3.5 they had some extra feats and were gestalt) There wasn't a whole lot of RPing in the dungeon, but once we hit town, the two would split up and do their own ways, and would just be solo RPing.

It worked well for us.