Tips for DMing a solo game

[Slapzilla]

Avoid doing hp or ability damage. Harder to recover from on a solo.

Incapacitation = death.

Always allow the player to avoid combat in some way, but still get done what needs to get done.

Work hard to give him/her situational advantages, like if the PC has lowlight or darkvision, pit him/her against humans or halflings in the dark who only have candles at best. Give the Magic Oil of (Enemy)Bane-guaranteed for six hits or your money back! Sniper positioning. Things like that.

Puzzles and roleplaying quests (mysteries, negotiations etc.).

Connections, contacts and friendlies all over the place.

 

[Rechan]

Usually when you have a party, all the loot is divided by the members of the party.

The PC is going to be getting all that loot. So, don't be worried if the PC gets excess cash or equipment. That is fine to compensate.

 

[Zzyzx]

I ran a game like this, knew that my player wanted a fey/forest-based campaign, gave her a unicorn to help with melee fighting and healing to balance out her bow-focused ranger. Personalization makes it better than a group sometimes, but not having back-up party members makes it harder to balance combat.

 

[Tetsubo]

I've run a few myself. I think this type of game really lends itself to a "mystery" style of play. Since you only have one PC to worry about you never have to fear "boring" other players.

I ran a Gamma World game once where the PC wakes up covered in blood (his own) and surrounded by bodies. He has to figure out that he is a bounty hunter searching for his target. The bodies were mooks hired to stop him. He has memory problems from a head wound (actual brain damage) but survived due to an uber-high regeneration mutation (think Wolverine). It was fun seeing the player pick up clues along the way and "discovering" the characters mutations. Think of it as a first person shooter tabletop game...

 

[Ry]

OK, this may sound weird but here it is:

What are you trying to do with the game? Is there something about 3.5e that will help you do that? Because I'm not sure it's the game for soloing - you get a lot of stuff you won't use and it may take you to places (like player death) that neither you nor your player want to go.

 

[messy]

allo

a couple of major things i've learned:

1. there is a very fine line between "challenging fight" and "TPK." be very, very careful with the baddies you send the PC's way.

2. the player isn't able to collaborate with other players in solving mysteries, puzzles, and the like. an NPC can help, but you don't want an NPC to steal the PC's thunder, so for the most part, the player is on his/her own.

messy

 

[S'mon]

For a solo high level (10th) PC, take a guide from the likes of James Bond, Highlander, Indiana Jones - the PC is The Star, and much more competent than almost everyone else; only the occasional arch-villain/nemesis even comes close (say 8th level). Eberron NPC demographics & themes suit this pulp-heroics approach well. Most 'threat' NPCs should be no more than ca 5th level - mooks 1st-3rd. The biggest threat in this paradigm will probably be from save-or-stopped attacks like 'Hold Person', so use them very sparingly. Have sidekick/support NPCs who are competent but don't threaten to overshadow the PC, say Felix Leiter 6th-8th level to James Bond's 10th.

 

[gunderval]

There are probably much better systems for solo play than D&D. D&D has a whack of assumptions built into its system about a group, about combat being focus etc.

Systems that broaden range of conflicts to include social, offer avenues to lose other than death, are better for 1:1. Also for GM, since the # of players falls the amount of variability/interest from different players falls so you want something that will get the player to contribute/author more.

Trollbabe (as is or hacked to be Conan etc. based) is a good light system for 1:1 play (google Trollbabe + Conan and you'll find AP threads). Burning Wheel is a crunchy system that is probably easier for a D&D player to grasp and has lots of mechanics for things other than fighting to the death. The Shadow of Yesterday (which is all online for free if you don't want to spring for book, though book is nice) is a "player controls lethal dial" system that is also likely easier to jump to from D&D.

If running D&D, add on Ryan S.'s "raising the stakes" and "death flag" rules to build in the insurance against death frankly rather than just "hand waving it".

 

[roguerouge]

Some suggestions:

Save or die should be replaced with save or unconscious. Always have a reason why any creature using such an effect would capture rather than slaughter immediately.

Use action points. Action points give the player a chance to mitigate weaknesses. They can use them to go for the heroic moment. And I allow my PC to use them to automatically stablize.

I'd argue that you shouldn't use gestalt. Part of the appeal of the 1 PC campaign is that the player, not the system, has to make up for weaknesses, either through recruiting friends, followers, hirelings. Leadership feat should be taken at 6th level.

You don't care any more about what's unbalanced. You don't have to worry about other players getting jealous. You don't have to worry about whether it will make monsters pushovers, because the PC still gets just one standard action a round.

Steal liberally from modules or published settings. In my experience, you'll be doing EXPONENTIALLY more work fleshing out characters. My one PC campaign is an intense, immersive experience. If your player likes games of diplomacy and social interaction and plays a bard or rogue or enchantress, be prepared for several sessions of role playing in a row. You'll need complex social worlds to play in. I feel like I've bought every module with a fully fleshed out town in it and I still want more of them.

Have your player set some ground rules. What are her boundaries? What kind of campaign does SHE want to be in: high fantasy, low magic, grim and gritty, survival, diplomacy, hack n slash, spies R us, romance?

If romance, post a separate thread on this board for how to DM that. Basic important ideas: give romantic choices with several different suitors, give romantic obstacles, make sure the love interest does not become a DMPC, have rivals for affections, have a BFF, include a ball or dance as an entire evening's skill adventure, get the parents involved.

If you use romance in your one PC game, do not LARP without warning.

Go shopping. Give out items that the player or her compadres can use or are cool. Better one cool item with some potions than three boring "realistic" +2 swords of genericness. Think about using ancestral weapons as a free feat to start the game.

Have memorable villains. In a regular game, their goal is to rule the world or some such nonsense. If YOUR one PC game, their goal is to rule the world and, in doing so, mess with your PC or their loved ones... Give a lot of thought to your adventure seeds and hooks.

 

[jgbrowning]

I'm about to start running a solo game, and I'd love to hear what advice you have! Things to do, things to avoid, potential pitfalls and some solutions for them, etc.
-blarg

Blargney, we've got 10 adventures designed for one player and one GM called the 1 on 1 Adventures line. They show what we think works well for solo play in d20 gaming.

Also, we haven't told anyone yet but we're days away from putting up 1 on 1 Adventures #2: Star of Olindor as a free product to celebrate Your Games Now's 1st anniversary. It's the first of a trilogy and you'll be able to pick it up free starting in January along with a couple of other Your Games Now member's products.

Normally I don't plug our products at the message boards very much, but I thought that everyone likes a freebie...

joe b.