Joshua Randall
Legend
I'm going to run counter to the crowd here and state that I think single-player campaigns work better without all the extraneous NPCs / henchmen / cohorts tagging along. I think that if you're going to DM a single-player campaign, then you should really embrace that dynamic and have the PC be, well, solo.
Now obviously if the PC spends a feat on Leadership, then he gets a cohort. But otherwise, ditch the idea of creating a pseudo-party by tacking on a bunch of NPCs -- because either you or the player would have to control all those NPCs, and because it detracts from the focus on the player's PC.
Instead, come up with challenges appropriate to a solo PC. As people have mentioned, diplomacy, intrigue, and mystery stories work well. Combat is fine; just go for ELs about 2-3 lower than the PC's level -- and probably scale down the EL ratio as the PC gets stronger, because higher-EL encounters have more probability of leading to PC death. In other words, a 3rd level PC might get an EL 1 encounter while a 10th level PC might get an EL 6 or even EL 5 encounter.
The other thing you can do with combats is have a lot of one-on-one fights. So instead of the PC facing a mob of kobolds, he faces a single kobold champion. Not only is this easier to run, it makes the combat more fun as both the monster (DM) and the PC (player) can trade insults, indulge in outrageous combat stunts, and generally make it a memorable fight instead of just another hack'n'slash.
Allow plenty of down time for the PC to rest, gather information, make items, shop, and so on. You should avoid time-constrained adventures, because the solo PC cannot quickly recover from resource-draining encounters. A non-divine-caster PC will be solely relying on resting to heal wounds at low levels, so you need to factor that into your game. I actually like this aspect of the solo PC game, because it gives a somewhat grittier feel to the game without actually making it, y'know, GRITTY.
Finally, be sure to communicate a lot with the player to see what he wants out of the campaign. Try to make things as much fun as possible for the player, and encourage him to speak up if something isn't fun.
Now obviously if the PC spends a feat on Leadership, then he gets a cohort. But otherwise, ditch the idea of creating a pseudo-party by tacking on a bunch of NPCs -- because either you or the player would have to control all those NPCs, and because it detracts from the focus on the player's PC.
Instead, come up with challenges appropriate to a solo PC. As people have mentioned, diplomacy, intrigue, and mystery stories work well. Combat is fine; just go for ELs about 2-3 lower than the PC's level -- and probably scale down the EL ratio as the PC gets stronger, because higher-EL encounters have more probability of leading to PC death. In other words, a 3rd level PC might get an EL 1 encounter while a 10th level PC might get an EL 6 or even EL 5 encounter.
The other thing you can do with combats is have a lot of one-on-one fights. So instead of the PC facing a mob of kobolds, he faces a single kobold champion. Not only is this easier to run, it makes the combat more fun as both the monster (DM) and the PC (player) can trade insults, indulge in outrageous combat stunts, and generally make it a memorable fight instead of just another hack'n'slash.
Allow plenty of down time for the PC to rest, gather information, make items, shop, and so on. You should avoid time-constrained adventures, because the solo PC cannot quickly recover from resource-draining encounters. A non-divine-caster PC will be solely relying on resting to heal wounds at low levels, so you need to factor that into your game. I actually like this aspect of the solo PC game, because it gives a somewhat grittier feel to the game without actually making it, y'know, GRITTY.
Finally, be sure to communicate a lot with the player to see what he wants out of the campaign. Try to make things as much fun as possible for the player, and encourage him to speak up if something isn't fun.
Hey, I sometimes like to buy games, you know.
