Best way to cope with less than 4 players?

[Herobizkit]

I voted for Gestalt PC's, being my current alt rule of choice.

I have also used extra NPC/cohorts to excellent effect. I place their tactical decisions (and character sheets) in the hands of the players, but RP them to the hilt myself.

My player and I usually enjoy making tougher-than-average PC's (usually handwaving LA and such), so we usually count on adventures being run as is. More monsters = more blood with which to paint the walls of our vast coffers.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I tell 'em to suck it up and play.

 

[Talic]

Personally, I hate running more than one PC at a time. I have enough trouble really getting into character with 1, much less trying to bounce between 2.

As a DM, I dont like running party NPCs either. Its just more work for me, and we all know DMs do enough. Plus players tend to look to the NPC instead of figuring things out or making decisions themselves. Letting the players controll the NPC isnt much of an improvement.

I prefer encounters be adjusted to the number of players. It has the advantage too of easily making encounters that show off the skills of your few players. If you've got a rogue, its easy to plan for sneaky encounters since he's less likely to drag around a heavy party with him, and you dont have to worry about sharing the spotlight so much. Its especially useful if the characters compliment each others skills. For example an of Rogue/Ranger/Monk, or Ranger/Druid etc.

Gestalt could be a fun option too, but I think you'd still have to adjust the encounter somewhat.

 

[glass]

I voted 'gestalt', because I am playing in a two-player gestalt game at the moment and it's great, but any of them can work AFAIAC (except running 2 PCs at once: I hate that).


glass.

 

[Mandeville]

My group has been reduced to three players. So at this time everyone is running two characters; one “story character” and one other. This has worked out well and the group does not die every other game.

There are a couple things to be careful about. The “story character” is the main character, the character that the player would be playing in a normal sized group. It is the character that is assumed to be speaking when a player speakes and it is the character I, as the DM, craft the story around. The problem comes in when the player starts to grow attached to the second character; then you might start to get “Ettin Syndrome” (where the player starts talking to himself in character). The other big problem could arise depending on the make-up of the two characters a player is running. We ended up with a situation where one player is running a sorcerer and a cleric. Through no fault of his own the game comes to a crashing halt as he pours through the myriad options before him. And they both have low initiative so they almost always follow each other in combat which takes away any prep time in between.

This is not optimal, but it is making the best of a less then great situation. Even if I have a full compliment of players I try to encourage someone to play a second npc character in combat. This way I have a voice in the party if that is needed. More importantly we have a “spare tire” in case a character goes down in combat; so no one has to sit around doing nothing.

 

[Pyrex]

I'll use any of the options above except for gestalt NPCs.

Gestalt isn't necessarily that bad, especially if you a) don't have outrageously large point-buy and b) clamp down on a few of the sillier combinations.

For example, I ran a game for three people. Part of the setup for the game indicitated that the party members were highly trained members of a renowned mercenary company.

Hence, the three PC's all had gestalt Ftr levels.

Worked great.

I'd love to do a similar game where instead of the whole party being Ftr/x they were all Wiz/x.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I mostly just adjust the adventure to fit the party.
I do want to try Gestalt out though.

 

[Dracorat]

It gives me a chance as a DM to be a hero every once in a while and I love it. (I play a DM-PC which I consider a bit more than your typical run-of-the-mill NPC)