Gaming for two?

[EximiusNero]

Hi, I'm fairly inexperienced at the game but I'm taking on the role of DM. Currently I could only get one more person to join in the gaming (and I figure it will be easier to teach myself and one other guy, then myself and four other guys). So what I'm asking is how do you run succesful adventures with one DM and one player?

In our first (and only session so far) he played two characters and I played two as NPC's. The biggest downside that I can see to this playstyle is that the player has no one to discuss and form plans with, other than a DM who knows all the answers. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this, or is the game just going to be really hampered until I get at least one more guy?

 

[ValhallaGH]

Things to consider:

• While the DM knows all the answers, the NPCs do not. Think about what they know and have them give advice and perform actions based on that knowledge.
• You've got a lot of characters to run. Every single character that's not the PC(s). My advice is to figure out a couple of good henchmen types, give them solid personalities and the game mechanics to fill in as support for the PC, and make them his lackeys and friends. Sometimes they will outshine him, mostly because they are doing their specialty while he does his, but mostly they are helpful and secondary. I've had a lot of success with this one, including stories that are told some five years later.
• Don't feel restricted to using four-man parties. It's a lot easier when you can cover all the bases, but you're running things, and can tailor the challenges to fit the PC's abilities.
• Give the single PC a lot of outs. Think of the game like a movie, adventure novel, or James Bond story; there's only one character, so you shouldn't kill him except in a meaningful moment. Instead knock him out, take him prisoner, take away his stuff, and make the character's life hell when he fails, but only kill him when it really fits the story and would be a cool moment.
• Encourage the Cool. Crazy, creative, but cool ideas should be fostered, by letting him try against DCs that he has a shot against.
• Only allow a roll if you want to allow for success or failure. If you absolutely don't want the character to fail, or absolutely don't want him to succeed, then don't let the player roll the dice. If you let him roll the dice, be ready to accept the results and adapt accordingly. Anything else leaves your players feeling cheated.
  

Good Luck.
If you'd like something expanded on, something else, or have other questions then feel free to ask. I'll help as I can.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

My first 3E experience was my friend's first stab at DMing. I actually played 4 PCs all by myself, and gave them personalities that clashed with each other so I could have some easy character interaction. Not saying you need to do that, but if he can handle the multitasking, you could give him multiple characters to handle instead of having to run NPCs in his party on top of everything else yourself.

Mostly agree with Valhalla. If you do want to just have it as a single PC with no party, it can work out if you accomodate the situation. Consider the gestalt rules so he can play two classes in one and cover more roles and be a little hardier. In a regular D&D game, I often lament that an unfrtunate consequence of the party-focus is that you generally can't have awesome duels and other single PC limelight moments too often. Screw that in a 1 player game, he's the only one you have to entertain! Most boss fights should be in a duel format, 1 on 1. Feel free to bend the rules to make it seem more cinematic and let him do crazy things that an action hero movie character might pull off. Of course, also feel free to give him an occasional huge group of weak enemies to cut down if he has any means at all to get multiple attacks (or Cleave) or use area effects.

 

[Dandu]

Make the PC a druid...

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I ran a 3.5 game with 2 players and each played 2 PCs. It worked out well and since they started at 1st-lvl they didn't feel overwhelmed.

There are a lot of synergies to having a player run 2 PCs because instead of getting 4 players to agree you only have to get 2 to agree.