RPG Duets Best Practices and Pitfalls?

[The Soloist]

Soon, I will start a Dragonbane campaign with my wife as a single player and me as the GM. She is an experienced role-player having participated in my AD&D 2e to D&D 5e campaigns. I'm thinking of giving her character a sidekick or an animal companion. She played with two characters in a group game without any difficulty.

If you have experience with such a Duet, what are the best practices and pitfalls to avoid?

 

[Arilyn]

I've found that with Duet play, it can be really awesome because the single player character can be the main character. No spotlight bouncing. This is also a drawback, because it's a lot on the solo character's shoulders. Sidekicks are fantastic for bouncing ideas off.

The sessions tend to be a little more intense because of the single player spotlight, so we usually have shorter sessions. There are times, however, where the single player gets so wrapped up in the scenario, that session times get much longer, as we lose track of time.

 

[aramis erak]

While there is little role protection in the system, casters are a decidedly limited role. This means the character archetype should shape your choice of foes...

 

[Laurefindel]

Like @Arilyn said, focus is always on the main character so it’s both a boon and a challenge, both for DM and player. Play is also a lot more intimate, which can become discomforting (maybe less so in OP’s situation).

« Duet » campaigns tend to be less action-oriented, both because occasions for roleplay and mundane interactions are more frequent, and because action becomes very binary. Either the PC succeeds in a task or they fail, whereas in a group, characters work together toward success and mitigate failures. A group of PC also have a wider range of skills and specialties. In combat, this results in total wins and complete losses, and the DM must be ready to come up with different consequences than death.

Having NPCs tag along partially fixes the issue, but then your PC ends up having to be saved by NPCs over an over, which can lead to feelings of ineptitude. I’ve found that the other way around works well; having the PC apprentice to a stronger NPC and over time, equal or surpass the master. In a jedi/padawan duet game, the PC should be the padawan.

 

[aco175]

When my son first started to play we had a campaign where he had the main character and I ran the sidekick NPC that followed his lead. It was clear that the NPC was going to follow what the PC wanted to do and was there to help with combats and skills to search and such to help with more than just one chance to do things.

I also had a magic item that allowed for a couple cures per day since there was no cleric.

This was a new player though and maybe having the experienced player play both would work. Or she have two PCs and you still throw in a NPC tag-along.

 

[The Soloist]

Having NPCs tag along partially fixes the issue, but then your PC ends up having to be saved by NPCs over an over, which can lead to feelings of ineptitude. I’ve found that the other way around works well; having the PC apprentice to a stronger NPC and over time, equal or surpass the master. In a jedi/padawan duet game, the PC should be the padawan.

Bold: very good insight.

 

[pemerton]

If you have experience with such a Duet, what are the best practices and pitfalls to avoid?

I don't know the Dragonbane RPG, but have done this sort of play a reasonable amount.

Most successfully, I've played quite a bit of two-person Burning Wheel, some with a single GM/single player arrangement, and some with the two of us playing and GMing simultaneously (in this latter case, each of us is in charge of framing the situations and establishing failure consequences for the other).

When I've GMed for my friend, he has played a single PC but with a developed cast of NPCs around. When he's GMed for me, I've played my PC with a companion (as per the BW wheels for creating an apprentice/sidekick). Generally I play the companion as well as my PC, but when the two characters argue the GM has played the companion (within the limits/context of my characterisation of that character).

When we play two GMs/two players, there are our two PCs, sometimes in a cooperative relationship and sometimes somewhat adversarial.

I think Burning Wheel is well-suited for this sort of play because of its character-driven approach to how situations and consequences are established. But I've also done more adventure-based RPGing in one player/one PC mode. I've run Classic Traveller for single players, each with a single PC. It does rely on the player being fairly proactive in picking up on cues and using their character to drive the action.

I think any GM-controlled NPCs definitely need to be secondary/background/responsive-rather-than-leading in this sort of play. Otherwise it really risks being the GM playing solo, with the player as audience and occasional contributor.

 

[sevenbastard]

I did a long 1e Duets game and having a few NPC side kicks really helped. I let the player run them in combat ( not hard in 1e to run multiple charachters) and I would role play them out of combat.

One thing I found is that with only one player the game moves faster. No pauses while a group determines what they are going to do or hashes out a plan. An adventure that would take three sessions with 5 players might take two sessions as a duet. I had to do a lot more prep each week because of that.