Few PC's...

[Terraism]

I'd thought I'd read this before in the DMG, but, on looking back, I can't find it - and I don't think it's going to answer it as well as I'd like anyway. I've got a player who, at this point, is going to be the only one (well, we might have another, but I wouldn't bet on it,) for the next six months or so. We'd like to run a 1 on 1 campaign, but I'm not sure what I should do about gauging things. First impulse would be to say that he's about three levels higher than suggested, to balance things out - but would that really work? Beyond that, there'd be some pretty bad problems with versatility, I'd think. The stereotypical party is the archetype for a reason, after all.

Now, we've talked this out and decided to run a city-based campaign, rather than a dungeon-crawl type, to minimize what problems we can, but I'm still a bit leery. Any suggestions? I can eyeball some things, but I really would like to be able to rely on some basic 'rules' for this. [Yeah, I'm a 'follow the instructions' kinda guy. ] Oh, and one thing - I'm not going to send an NPC with him, unless he picks up the leadership feat. Having me DM and run a character never seems to work... aside from that though, I'm open to ideas.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

As I have only ran a long-running solo game in GURPS, all I can suggest is theme/plot relatedand not mechanics related. Doing a solo game lets you really center on the main character and I suggest you for the duration that the protagonist adventures alone to design the campaign to be character-centered. Also, you might want to have a few temples handy for healing to be bought just in case the protagonist is badly wounded. IIRC, there were some modules from 2E that were meant to be played for one on one campaigns, so you might want to try to find and convert them.

 

[Dagger75]

I have been running a solo star wars for a few years now, (we convertered to d20 for those whoe care) and it is best to have a character type that is almost made for solo adventures. For our star wars game my player is a smuggler.

For a solo D&D game the city based is a great idea. I would suggest a thief, or a bard possibly a cleric for the character class. You might also to have some friends fleshed out for the PC. A nice Innkeeper who will let the PC hide for a while. A reliable merchant, a child hood friend who is now a cleric.

I would also go combat light, maybe 1 or 2 combat encounters per session. I had a few solo missions with thieves. We spent the entire session just making move silent and hide checks. Was basically robbing a manor house.

Those are my suggestions. Have fun!!

 

[TalonComics]

I love NPCs so in a solo game I would be using those to help him back things up a little. I'm not talking player character NPCs but just someone to has his back.

A good example of this is Batman. Batman is a solo character but he has his whole Bat family backing him up. In fact I dan't know if Batman realizes it or not but he *is* a team player. He says he isn't but when you have Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Oracle and even Alfred coving things in the background you're on a team.

Don't worry about Leadership as to me it's just an excuse to play more than one character (which I hate players to do). Allow your player to establish his own supporting cast. To me, that's the trick.

~Derek

 

[Terraism]

Good ideas - thanks. Yes, the player's going to be running a thief (err, 'rogue' ) character, and he'll likely have some backup NPC's in the form of other guild members. I'm thinking of running the campaign in the Bluffside book, but - does anyone know much about it? I've read the review on the site, but I'm looking for more 'tried and tested' views. I don't have shops that'll just be carrying a copy, so it'll have to be a special order - meaning I can't check it out beforehand... Ah, well. Oh, and Talon - I feel the same way about Leadership, but, provided the player can run the other character the same way (as in, stylistically, not personality-wise) as his main character, I let it go...

 

[Wicht]

To get to what I think you might be asking in the original post, aim for CR's of about 1/3 the PC's level for a normal fight. A CR of about 1/2 the PC's level will be more challenging and a CR equal to the PC's level has a 50/50 chance of killing the PC. That is the rule of thumb I have used for my 1 on 1 games and it seems to work out alright.

 

[Terraism]

To get to what I think you might be asking in the original post, aim for CR's of about 1/3 the PC's level for a normal fight. A CR of about 1/2 the PC's level will be more challenging and a CR equal to the PC's level has a 50/50 chance of killing the PC. That is the rule of thumb I have used for my 1 on 1 games and it seems to work out alright.

Thanks, Wicht. The other advice has been useful - definitely things that're nice to know, but this is exactly what I've been looking for. I should've been able to extrapolate that, but something just didn't seem right. I was a little worried about [accidentaly] butchering his character, in all honesty.

 

[Doc_Subtlety]

He's playing a Rogue, eh? Good call. Tell him to max out Use Magic Device. That'll help in the long term.