D&D 5E Running 5E for two players?

[Weiley31]

Tasha's Sidekick rules for lesser/no name NPCs. UA Sidekick rules/Class features for named/Important NPCs.

 

[aco175]

I have run for two players and once gave them a minor item that could heal with a bonus action something like 3/day. It helped since they played a fighter and thief. Also, anytime you have more monsters than party members they is a higher chance for dead PCs. With 4-5 PCs you can have some encounter with this, but with 2 you need 1 monster and maybe a little monster with him.

I would most likely add a DMPC/NPC/sidekick/whatever you want to call it. I tend to make them with monster stats to make them easy to run.

 

[Scott Christian]

Don't do anything. No DMPC, no sidekicks. Just deal with 2 PCs. It's perfectly fine like that. I regularly run for just 1 PC. Sometimes there are NPC allies helping them, that's up to the PC. But I never plan or worry about more than the one.

This. Two players can be sooooooo much fun. The danger is more prevalent, and it often forces the PC's to react more naturally. When you don't have five or six or seven people backing you up, things change. Also, you can dive into some great RPing, and delve into their backgrounds much easier.

 

[Quickleaf]

I've been running some D&D for my nephew and his friend. A lot of it has been ad lib. I've been cutting monster HP by half, been lax on the action economy, give them ample opportunity to gain advantage, try to include a "trick" to most combats so if they're thinking they can find a way to win the combat without slogging it out to the bitter end, and whenever they roll the same initiative I let them come up with some kind of teamwork combo that breaks the rules.

They're 3rd level now (storm herald barbarian with belt of fire giant strength, and fiend/pact blade warlock with necklace of fireballs) and fighting an enchantress (20 hp mage with illusion & enchantment & transmutation spells and a special reaction teleport) who has control of a gang of 8 trolls (40 hp) who were illusioned to appear as men and are controlled by a magic crystal she wears. They talked their way in, so they managed to slip past half the trolls, talked one troll down (cause they helped him scratch his nose earlier), and are facing the enchantress, 2 trolls, and Verdigris the "war" troll (who has an axe, a magic eye that hexes, and 84 hp).

 

[el-remmen]

One thing we are trying is a tweak on the inspiration rules, where you can have more than "one" inspiration - up to a number equal to your level - and you can still use them for yourself or an ally - they are granted by the DM either when XP is given and/or in-play for a specifically cool scene or plan or action.

EDIT to add that I forgot to mention we also instituted a limit of using one "inspiration" per scene no matter how many you have.

 

[Rune]

I've been running some D&D for my nephew and his friend. A lot of it has been ad lib. I've been cutting monster HP by half, been lax on the action economy, give them ample opportunity to gain advantage, try to include a "trick" to most combats so if they're thinking they can find a way to win the combat without slogging it out to the bitter end, and whenever they roll the same initiative I let them come up with some kind of teamwork combo that breaks the rules.

They're 3rd level now (storm herald barbarian with belt of fire giant strength, and fiend/pact blade warlock with necklace of fireballs) and fighting an enchantress (20 hp mage with illusion & enchantment & transmutation spells and a special reaction teleport) who has control of a gang of 8 trolls (40 hp) who were illusioned to appear as men and are controlled by a magic crystal she wears. They talked their way in, so they managed to slip past half the trolls, talked one troll down (cause they helped him scratch his nose earlier), and are facing the enchantress, 2 trolls, and Verdigris the "war" troll (who has an axe, a magic eye that hexes, and 84 hp).

Another thing that might work is to take a cue from dungeon world and only give monsters actions/bonus actions when characters miss with an attack or succeed marginally – within, I dunno, 2? 5? I think I’d give a full routine to a failed attack and a single act to a marginal success.

Of course, monsters succeeding on saves would also trigger.

 

[cmad1977]

One thing we are trying is a tweak on the inspiration rules, where you can have more than "one" inspiration - up to a number equal to your level - and you can still use them for yourself or an ally - they are granted by the DM either when XP is given and/or in-play for a specifically cool scene or plan or action.

EDIT to add that I forgot to mention we also instituted a limit of using one "inspiration" per scene no matter how many you have.

Something we’ve been doing is:
Inspiration can be triggered by taking an action linked to one of your Ideals/Bonds/Flaws. Once per adventure(this may change somewhat.)

 

[Rune]

Something we’ve been doing is:
Inspiration can be triggered by taking an action linked to one of your Ideals/Bonds/Flaws. Once per adventure(this may change somewhat.)

You know, as a tangent, there’s something that bugs me about how inspiration is handle in the rules. I think it’s that, fundamentally, it shifts the burden of deciding when to award it (and even that language causes problems – it should be a tool, not a prize) to the DM who, frankly, has better things to do than try to remember to grade players’ role-playing.

In my experience, this means people who have it rarely use it (or remember they have it) and, consequently, the DM (usually me) is even less likely to remember to “reward” it. And, yeah, I know that players could award it to each other, but that never happens, either. Resource management isn’t supposed to work that way!

Your adaptation takes (some of) the subjectivity out of it, which is good (also, it reminds me a bit of Angry DM’s solution, although that has players earn inspiration by voluntarily taking on disadvantage). Personally, I prefer to replace it with something I don’t need to remember or remind people of (like giving all PCs a free variant lucky feat as described earlier).

Which is not to say that I don’t think your adaptation is good; if I had a DM who used it, that would be cool. But I think I’d more likely not take advantage of it (so to speak) than constantly call attention to how I’m roleplaying my character. I just prefer to be more subtle in that arena.

 

[cmad1977]

You know, as a tangent, there’s something that bugs me about how inspiration is handle in the rules. I think it’s that, fundamentally, it shifts the burden of deciding when to award it (and even that language causes problems – it should be a tool, not a prize) to the DM who, frankly, has better things to do than try to remember to grade players’ role-playing.

In my experience, this means people who have it rarely use it (or remember they have it) and, consequently, the DM (usually me) is even less likely to remember to “reward” it. And, yeah, I know that players could award it to each other, but that never happens, either. Resource management isn’t supposed to work that way!

Your adaptation takes (some of) the subjectivity out of it, which is good (also, it reminds me a bit of Angry DM’s solution, although that has players earn inspiration by voluntarily taking on disadvantage). Personally, I prefer to replace it with something I don’t need to remember or remind people of (like giving all PCs a free variant lucky feat as described earlier).

Which is not to say that I don’t think your adaptation is good; if I had a DM who used it, that would be cool. But I think I’d more likely not take advantage of it (so to speak) than constantly call attention to how I’m roleplaying my character. I just prefer to be more subtle in that arena.

Fair enough. Everyone role plays all the time anyways. But it does give them a chance to let a character trait shine.
Ultimately I like that it’s NOT in my hands as the DM, which I agree is annoying.

 

[Rune]

Oh, yeah. I definitely see the utility. I just doubt I’d use it often myself as a player.