Solo Campaigns

[Tinker Gnome]

I know there have been threads on this in the past but...

What are your experiences with Solo games(1 GM and 1 Player) of any system?

 

[Crothian]

I ran solo games on and off for about ten years. System in my experience was less important then the people playing. we played Rift, D&D, WoD, Buffy, and other games as solos. Heck, we even soloed the World Largest Dungeon and got all the way through it.

For us the most important thing was the PC. He had to be very well defined as that was the lynch pin of the story. We needed a solid backstory with good motivation. The campaigns had a lot more role playing as encounters rarely went combat. It was much more enjoyable for us to talk through encounters even with the bad guys.

 

[Jack7]

It depends upon exactly what you mean by this Galeros.

We have played campaigns in the past which went quite well where I was DM and one player ran two or more characters. We both really enjoyed those situations, depending on the campaign of course. If a single player wants to undertake a campaign by himself then I usually write and build a certain type of campaign for this situation.


We have also, and more often in the past, played Solo campaigns where I was DM, and the player played only a single character. Those though were special campaigns where the player utilized a character who was a Vadder, or an Acer or a Sharper, or sometimes an Acer or Sharper who was also a Vadder. Because those types of characters are better suited to operating solo and are more likely to survive solo missions and campaigns.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I've played in solo games with the Wife for almost 20 years. It can be a blast.

The biggest things - the campaign is for that character. It's not a campaign where that character happens to be (like in a lot of group games). The character creation has to be a little bit different too, as the character has to cover more skills and abilities than normal - and this is no matter what the system.

We usually used Hero where you could build a pretty efficient solo character. In 4E, where the assumption is a group, and we prefer to lean on published modules, we take a slightly different route - The player has one character, usually built with some strange extra stuff (in our case using the Class Template in the DMG on the character to represent true multiclassing), and have a number of NPCs that the player runs in combat, but that the GM runs in roleplaying situations. Sort of a group of followers or henchmen. It's worked out for us.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

When I said "Solo Campaigns" I meant a game in which the players controls only one PC. It is sort of a "Dream Game" for me to be in one of these.

 

[jlac]

I used to do that all the time back in the 1E/2E days of D&D. I would DM for my buddy, and every so often he'd switch and DM for me (though only very rarely did the characters meet). It was a blast (literally, since both our solos were wizards), because with only one PC we were able to deck them out with crazy stuff and not have to worry too much about balance. They'd tromp around the Realms (the Forgotten ones) and do whatever they wanted, depending on what their goal was at the time. The adventures were largely driven by the desires of the PC, with very little prep on the DM's part. Our characters were "sort of evil" too, which was pretty fun at the time.

Hell, we still fondly mention those characters 20 years later. I think its just as possible to do in 4E now (and 3.x, which I don't care for and never invested time/money/energy in). Hopefully, I'll get the opportunity to try it some day.

 

[Crothian]

When I said "Solo Campaigns" I meant a game in which the players controls only one PC. It is sort of a "Dream Game" for me to be in one of these.

I think that's just most games at this point. I haven't seen a player want to control more then one character at a time in well over a decade. Most people i imagine think one player one DM when you talk about solo games.

 

[Umbran]

So far, I've found solo games to lack the social complexity that is the hallmark of good tabletop play. For the folks I've worked with, the group dynamic was a large part of the reason to play, and the solo stuff didn't scratch that itch.

Thus, how good it is depends strongly on what you want to get out of it.

 

[dm4hire]

I've found that the best Solo play is between group sessions when you want to run something for the thief, such as getting into the guild, or one of the other class specific aspects surrounding background.

 

[S'mon]

I ran several successfully. The most memorable was one using 1e AD&D rules and the Mystara setting, the PC began as a 1st level Fighter, a legionary in the army of Thyatis, and we played through 45 years of game-time, with the Thyatian conquest of Alphatia and the PC becoming a jarl in Soderfjord and eventual ruler of a unified Norse kingdom. Pre-3e A/D&D PCs are robust at higher levels and work fine in solo campaigns; they have lots of hp relative to enemy attacks; they will usually make their saving throws.

I did some solo stuff with high level 3e but it bore no resemblance to regular 3e gaming, it was mostly political with the PC King leading armies of conquest; when combat occurred it was mostly either handwaved or for flavour, eg storming the ramparts and 18th level Fighter-Warlord PC hacking down the CR 8 Grey Render etc.