2-player D&D?

[bardoom]

Hello all. I'm new to the community and this is my first post. I hope it's not somewhere else in the forums. I am trying to set up a 2-player campaign. But we are concerned about how exactly to handle the DMing aspect of it. How can two people play a campaign when one will always know the outcome? Does anyone have any experience with this. We need out fix as it were and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Chainsaw]

Growing up we had plenty of campaigns where I DM'd either one person or two people. They always worked really well. Was easy to coordinate schedules. Was easy for the player/players to keep the game focused where they found the most interest. There was plenty of opportunity for time on adventures that weren't suited for big groups (if they needed help for anything, they just hired some NPCs). Combat was always fast and everyone got to act quickly and frequently. Come to think of it, I may actually really prefer a very small group to a table of 6-8 people all screwing around, taking forever to do anything at all.

 

[Rel]

Welcome to the forums!

It sounds like you're talking about a game where one person runs the game and runs a character while the other simply plays, rather than a one-on-one game with a GM and single player. Personally I've run several one-on-one games and I've found them really great for the reasons that Chainsaw mentions.

If you feel like you want to have a game where the GM is also playing one of the characters then I'd suggest having the GMPC take a back seat to the other character. Sort of a Knight/Squire relationship or something similar. That way the GMPC can help out during combat but isn't really calling the shots the way the other PC is.

 

[Chainsaw]

Ahhh, reading Rel's post I have a better understanding of what you mean. As Rel says, if the DM has a PC, he needs to be careful to let the player make the important decisions. We tried this a few times and it worked fine for the player, but didn't do much for me as the DM. Eventually I ended up ditching my DM PC, because not being involved in any of the life/death and adventure puzzle/hook decisions sort of defeated the purpose of the PC.

What we never really tried, but maybe should have, was alternating DM's. This might make the DM PC more relevant and less interchangeable with an NPC, because I'd actually get to run him when it was the other guy's turn to DM.

Also, welcome!

 

[lamia]

I just posted a lot of this in another thread yesterday, but I will happily share what tips I can on running a solo game. Please keep in mind that I play 3.5, and some of these tips may be utterly useless to you!
1. Keep your DMPC in the background as others above me said. It helps to play the strong and stupid type. Nobody asks the party's 7 INT barbarian what they think the solution to the puzzle is. You are really just there to help the player survive.
2. They might consider playing a druid or a bard, as these in my experience work best for solo play. Druids are particularly nice, because you can bend the rules a bit and give them a sturdy companion to start out with. This way, they are in essence running two characters, but it's not confusing because the animal companion is not complicated to run or ever speaking.
3. Try to make sure every problem has multiple solutions. Some puzzles and such may be easy for five brains, but can grind the game to a halt with only one. I usually aimed for at least three.
4. Highlight the social aspects of the game. Fabulously interesting NPCs to interact with, intelligent enemies that don't necessarily have to be fought. Bluffing your way out of a battle in the solo I ran was a perfectly legit way to get experience. Or diplomacy, or intimidation, etc.
I hope at least a little of this is helpful, and good luck!

 

[SquareKnot]

I played in a 1 DM 1 Player game for about 2 years. It was a lot of fun.

There is a good site talking about RPG "Duets", games with two players, here at the Blue Moon Aurora blog. It might give you some ideas.

Good Luck.

 

[kitsune9]

Hello all. I'm new to the community and this is my first post. I hope it's not somewhere else in the forums. I am trying to set up a 2-player campaign. But we are concerned about how exactly to handle the DMing aspect of it. How can two people play a campaign when one will always know the outcome? Does anyone have any experience with this. We need out fix as it were and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

So my take where you have one player and you're playing a NPC party member can make for a fast game. I used to run my Top Secret S.I. games with only one or two players at the most.

Here's my take:

1. Your NPC's only serves to help the player move forward when he's stuck. Once your player is moving along, the NPC is just joyriding.
2. Your NPC's fills a role that the player lacks. For example, if your friend chooses to roleplay a wizard, you probably need a fighter in there.
3. Since you're starting with a less than optimal party, remember standard encounters can be really lethal so it's best to keep them underpowered in order to be challenging.
4. If you want the two characters to be able to handle cool challenges, consider some houserules like extra hp per level, a bump on the attack or damage output, fate points, healing surges as free actions (if you're doing 4E), and so on.
5. Standard duties for players are usually one person maps, one person keeps track of treasure, one person takes notes, and the rest are wall flowers. So instead of having your player handle all these duties, it will probably befall to you. You can mitigate this kind of book keeping if when you run your adventure, you divvy up treasure as you go on (or create treasure that's fairly easy to divvy up), handle note taking in the form of handouts, and then settle who will handle map making.

Welcome!

 

[leishusheng]

Welcome to the forums!

It sounds like you're talking about a game where one person runs the game and runs a character while the other simply plays.

 

[bardoom]

Wow. I'm amazed by all the responses. I want to thank you everyone for all the great information. After all of this I think we may start a small test campaign today.