Running a one-player campaign

[Ed Cha]

I've never ran an entirely solo campaign, but I imagine it would be highly effective and fast-pace, but also more serious losing that "joking around with the rest of the group" element.

 

[JBowtie]

Another point worth making is that you can throw out all pretense of balance out the window. Miracle saves, divine intervention, and uber-powers work just find when you don't have to worry about stealing the limelight from others. In addition, only having to worry about the viewpoint/saves of a single character makes illusions and cover *far* more effective and scary (even if there's henchmen, they're NPCs so you can handwave those).

In a solo campaign I ran for my wife a while back:

* She was saved from death by a nymph - and permanently blinded when peeking.
* Gained a unicorn cohort and (unknowingly, since she was blind) a vampire henchman.
* Raised as a vampire the next time she died, with the side effect of having her blindness restored and losing her cohort.

All at relatively low levels (1-5, IIRC). It was a blast and I could pull out all the stops.

 

[Quickleaf]

Totally indulge your player's style of gaming. If they want a good story, give it to them. If they want power, give them that too. If they want intense method-acting, or tactical planning...yes, yes, YES!

I get to pull all the stops. Flashbacks. Cut scenes. And best of all, there is no rail-roading, because the whole point of the game is focusing on the PC's goals.

In return, as a GM I would expect the player to have a juicy background, good grasp of their character's attitude, and a really well done character (rules-wise). Hopefully, I would be involved with the character, and we could come up with custom feats/classes/rules together.

My last word of advice: Take good notes! With one player, inconsistencies are more obvious. They're obviouser.

 

[philreed]

A book on this subject would be very appreciated. I used to play in a lot of solo games and always had a lot of fun -- sometimes more than with a larger group.

 

[Lawrence of Arabica]

DM'd a single-player campaign once. The player wanted to try playing a Paladin. I decided that the Paladin's church would assign a Paladin a small squad of underlings: a wizard, a cleric, and a couple of fighters. These all had much more average stats than the Paladin. The player could order them around, though I reserved the right to consider morale and have them refuse something unreasonable. I also wouldn't allow apparently telepathic communication during melee. Experience was awarded on the success of the group overall. Thus he got a lot less after the session in which one of the fighters died.

This worked pretty well, but you need an experienced player.

 

[Emongnome]

It was hinted at above, but you should avoid certain spells or effects that are ok against a party but deadly against a solo opponent. For instance, hold person, sleep, color spray or basically anything that prevents the character from acting or otherwise defending himself/herself.

Also, it is suitable to place opponents that match up with the character's strengths. Putting a hoard of undead up against a rogue that focuses on his or her sneak attack ability and improving critical hits will have a hard time of things. And will probably get quite bored with it.

All in all, I'd suggest no combat (or very little) up until 3rd level or so. A standard orc with a lucky shot can take down any 1st level character.

Has anybody tried a solo campaign over long distances? I've kinda got something going on like this with somebody but we live about 3 hours apart (and only get together for our regular game every other month). Was just wondering if anybody has found a way to make this work over email, chat room, or other software. Lengthy phone calls aren't an option, at least with any regularity.

 

[Crothian]

A book on this subject would be very appreciated. I used to play in a lot of solo games and always had a lot of fun -- sometimes more than with a larger group.

Get one it!!

One thing about the solo game is the sheer amount of things that can get done. I'd cover what would take a normal group 5 sessions in one session of the solo game. THings go faster with out all those players there. The games tended to be more focuses and very little if any out of character talking. Solo games actually were great for me as a DM as it taught me to prepare lots of material for a game.

 

[Raflar]

It was hinted at above, but you should avoid certain spells or effects that are ok against a party but deadly against a solo opponent. For instance, hold person, sleep, color spray or basically anything that prevents the character from acting or otherwise defending himself/herself.

Although if you do somehow take out the player, don't feel that all the bad guys go straight for the kill. I've had a recurring scenario that drives my (solo) player crazy because it keeps happening. Master Vampire keeps 'dominating' her and ordering her to 'go away'... he then leaves only to toy with her another day.. she can't wait to kill this guy. (except he's become pretty intriguing and interesting that she's secretly wanting him to stick around).

Basically with Solo Adventures you can have the Villian 'play' with the PC for awhile before he/she/it goes for the kill. Remember you (as DM) need to have fun too.

 

[Crothian]

Has anybody tried a solo campaign over long distances? I've kinda got something going on like this with somebody but we live about 3 hours apart (and only get together for our regular game every other month). Was just wondering if anybody has found a way to make this work over email, chat room, or other software. Lengthy phone calls aren't an option, at least with any regularity.

I ran an 8 year bi monthly solo game. Then we did the same thing with Buffy and then d20, though those were only a few years long. Like you we at the time lived about 3 hours apart. Every other month one would visit the other for an extended weekend and we'd have mind numbingly long gaming sessions. Basically we condensed 3 months of weekly gaming into a weekend.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I'm just beginning to DM a solo campaign myself. It has been somewhat tricky, but it has been pretty fun so far.

I second the suggestion to go with the Unearthed Arcana Gestalt rules. It accomplishes a number of things to make up for the problems caused by lacking a party. It buffs the hero's power so he won't die as easily, gves him more flexibility so he can do a wider variety of things on his own, and also makes it so that I can throw in a normal character at the same level as an ally, without any chance the ally will overshadow the hero.

I'm also using reserve hit points and accelerated feat acquisition, but that is more because of the setting than because of the solo campaign. I might very well run Iron Heroes in this setting after all, and so I am using something of a similar feel.