When there's only two players...

[HLHartman]

Hey gang. I still haven't found the time to actually start my campaign, but I have been thinking a great deal about C&C and the various ways I could best implement the system for two players (CK plus a player).

One idea that occurred to me was to run the game around the life of an assassin. Not sure if the wife will dig playing one, though, so I am wondering how you guys have played or ran games with assassins.

Also, any ideas for classes or scenarios that make for interesting two player campaigns?

Thanks!
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A boy named Sue.

[Megamanfan]

I dreamed up a character once who was a rogue who worked for a wizard. Well, worked not so much by choice since he was caught breaking into his tower. The wizard was so impressed by his ability to skip past hi arcane traps that instead of killing him he hired him. Now he goes around collecting spell components, arcane items, etc. I always thought that that would make a good solo character/campaign.

[Luther]

The best sort of campaign in this situation, IMO, is to run a Conan-esque type campaign where the player is the main character but meets 'guest stars' or makes friends who help him out for one or two adventures. These character wil have their own motivations and might even turn on the PC at some point, so he has to be careful and will never have the full comfort and assurances that the typical PC (unrealistically) does when it comes to his party. As an added bonus, the death's of these NPCs can provode a bit of drama or motivation for the PC.

Another example would be Felix & Gotrek. There are always side characters that make their adventures more complicated or interesting by helping or hindering. In one adventure they pick up a traditional adventuring party even.

For a true one on one set-up, however, I'd suggest looking into the BD&D O Series. These were specifically designed for one player, one DM. The best advice to come out of these is to start your PC at a higher level (roughly 1.5 to 2x the max suggested level) and run hm through lower level adventures. So, start a PC at Level 4-6 and run them through something like Keep on the Borderlands, for instance.

From AD&D we have the Challenge Series, where you have a Wizard's Challenge, Fighter's Challenge, etc. where one particualr character class is put through an adventure on their own. You might get some great ideas on how to tailor adventures towards class from these modules.

As for Assassin type missions, I'd base them on the Thief computer game.

Hope that helps...

[Turanil]

HLHartman wrote:
One idea that occurred to me was to run the game around the life of an assassin. I am wondering how you guys have played or ran games with assassins.

I have been doing this actually!

-- Back in the day I did play an AD&D 1e assassin for a long time. My character did spend his time keeping secret his assassin skills, so the other PCs wouldn't know. This wasn't a very clever idea however, as my character then could not use his special abilities often.

-- I have run some C&C games where one of the players was an assassin. It works very well. However, he but played an adventurer using his skills to the best of the situation, not a murderer for hire belonging to a guild.

-- In the last days of AD&D 2e, I ran a mini campaign with a friend: only him and me. It was indeed the life of an assassin (in fact a thief with an appropriate kit), who much later dual-classed as a priest of a dark god. We really had a blast with this one. This was an evil campaign, revolving about the power struggle between competing thieves' guilds and some other factions, in a city. Here is an example of how it went:

The assassin PC had a sister (a NPC) who was a prostitute. As retaliation against some of the PC's deeds, the opposing guild kidnapped the sister, gave him to beggars for rape and abuse, then did cut one of her fingers and sent it to the PC with a very insulting and humiliating letter. The letter said something like: "Do as we order or we will now cut your sister's arms; not that it will make a difference where her trade is concerned though; maybe even better now we removed her teeth as she wanted to bite, the bitch". Anyway, the player answered that his PC (who was NE) "decided" that her sister was already dead. As such, he wouldn't do as ordered by the kidnappers, but instead would avenge himself "and his honor". Finally, the PC got his sister's head delivered in a box, and later met with her ghost... Yeah, this was an evil campaign.
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[Go0gleplex]

You could also do a pretty good run with a bard character as well solo.
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[serleran]

It depends a great deal on the player (if they're experienced) and what you throw them up against -- when my fiance firts started to play, she had had some light experience with d20 (it was a weird amalgam of d20 / 2e) but was not an "experienced gamer" so, I told her to create whatever character she wanted, and she picked a halfling monk. I let her meet some elfs who joined and helped along the way, but stayed mostly in the background. The adventurers were pretty basic stuff -- go here, find this, kill those goblins... until she'd played about 10 games or so, and then... the town was attacked. She ran away. We didn't get to play that one anymore since we'd found our own game with other people... but, basically, I'm just saying it can be done -- you just have to start off smaller than you might otherwise, and, if you don't, give them some "outs."

[Aladar]

I have always found that clerics seem to do o.k. one-on-one. Just throw in some NPCs to help now and then.

I once ran a friend's cleric through a couple of small adventures with a NPC fighter who was sent along by the cleric's temple to aid in the quest, plus a henchman to carry, cook, and clean. I had to tone down the magic (i.e. wizards) and traps a little. The cleric also eventually picked up an NPC thief down the road, who he was always trying to reform (think of Ladyhawk). Overall it worked out pretty well and my friend and I had a blast.
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[Morgrus]

I guess it all depends on the type of campaign you want. My wife and me do 1on1 games on occasion. Good sir luthers guest stars do work well as do side kicks. For us we are using a 2 weapon style elfin druid, with animal company and squirrel people(think podo/kodo from beast master) from an old MC annual as side kicks. Our other possible picks were cleric or monk.
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[Barrataria]

I highly recommend a druid... perhaps with an elf wizard NPC, and (of course) a wolf or other pet. Others here have recommended monks as good companions for druids.

In general I like the player to run a spellcaster, and fill the ranks with redshirt men-at-arms. CnC gives some nice flexibility in that seemingly odd character classes can combine.

In large part this also depends on your player getting to play what she likes. If puzzles, mysteries, etc. figure prominently, it makes sense for the main character to be a wizard. If thievery or espionage is fun for her, then it would make sense for her to run a thief, perhaps travelling along with a very small merchant caravan.

Remember that these games are descended from wargames, so there were often multiple men-at-arms, henchmen, etc. Who, of course, had to be replaced frequently
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[Lord Dynel]

I'll throw my vote for the "guest stars" approach to the game. A one player game can actually be a lot of fun, but one thing you must remember, especially if you use recurring help/contacts/what not is that you need to be careful to not let the player feel like they cannot be effective or need to rely on the aforementioned NPCs. I ran a one person, "dark hero," style GURPS game (and I'm about to run another one) and I learned that relying too much on NPCs to appear as guest stars really took some of the spotlight away from the PC. As long as you keep that in mind there will be little problem with this approach, IMHO.

Enjoy your game!

[Taranthyll]

I think that any class can work well in a solo campaign. Rogue or assassin would be excellent choices for a game that is set in a static urban locality, with lots of interesting recurring NPC's. A monk might be an interesting character for a solo campaign, too. Your wife could travel from place to place helping people and having adventures and you could mine old episodes of Kung Fu for story ideas.

[Luther]

Taranthyll wrote:
A monk might be an interesting character for a solo campaign, too. Your wife could travel from place to place helping people and having adventures and you could mine old episodes of Kung Fu for story ideas.

'When you can snatch the D20 from my hand, then you will be ready... '

And what would be more appropriate than a Halfling Monk named 'Grasshopper.'

I'm sorry, but someone had to crack those jokes...

[Joe]

I tend to think one player is better than 2. reason being, with two players you are busy trying to play a normal campaign and adding npc's and such.

With only one player you can play a truly deep immersive game in which the personalities and relations are fully explored.

I think you can run ANY class of your choosing.

Make it more plot heavy rather than dungeon crawly...if that makes any sense.

I ran a one player game for my daughter.

She was a druid that saved a child goblin's life. By doing so, she convinced the goblin tribe that not all elves were going to kill them like their bully overlord had told them. We were well on the way of causing a goblin uprising against the evil overlord when we had to stop.

The Conan approach is good if you wish to have the character travelling and wandering, but the character could be a wandering cleric, paladin, fighter for hire, thief or what not.

For one player games I personally prefer to keep the pc in one home base and develop strong pc/npc relationships.
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'Nosce te Ipsum' -Delphic Maxim

'Follow your bliss.' -Joseph Campbell

[Robilar]

This is a great question. I started D&D with the blue box and have always lived in areas where getting a group together is difficult. Thus, I was forced to be extremely creative. I played a ten year long Greyhawk campaign with two players -- which became quite epic. One ended up as a 18th level fighter, the other a 19th level magic user. This was straight up 1e mayhem -- no feats, no specialization; if something wasn't covered by the rules, we'd agree on a rational d20 roll and let it fly (which is why I adore C&C).

The players sometimes traveled as a pair, Fahfrd and Gray Mouser style, but I also gave them complementary companions and henchmen to form real parties for extended wilderness/dungeon crawls. It was a blast. Just as typical NPcs take on lives, so did the companion NPCs to the point they had personal histories that led to plot complications, heroic quests and Greek tragedies. I was simply careful to keep the spotlight on the players and not allow the NPCs to bail them out or make decisions.

I had another two year campaign with two new players -- same thing. My thought is this can work with one player of any class; just provide two or three supporting class NPCs and scale the challenges accordingly. The other tactic I've used to good effect in a single player campaign is giving the PC lord level and a barony, making the administration of the land central to the game. The PC can assign his many henchmen and retainers to keep order while personally role playing any juicy bits, or even temporarily taking on the role of the scout sent to investigate trouble in a distant village, etc..

My two pennies.

[Joe]

Quote:
Hey gang. I still haven't found the time to actually start my campaign

And you never will unless you MAKE the effort to TAKE the time. Our priorities are what we make of them.

It is my belief that a person finds the time if they have enough desire.

I have someone that continues to consistently NOT attend a game despite how much he claims to miss gaming. He claims he is busy with a lot of work and overtime. How many people realistically spend their entire weekends working after working all week?

I called him once and he sounded bored. When I inquired he started asking what part of town I was in...what time it was starting, etc. Well I live in a small town that takes about 7-10 minutes to get from one side to the other. IMHO he was spending more effort looking for a reason why he could NOT play rather than why he COULD.

How much time do you and your wife spend in idle time...perhaps reading or watching the tv? Could not 2 hours of that time be spent gaming together?
I work full time.

I am also a full time student.

I am busy designing a new rules system.

I am planning a wedding.

I attend my child's sports games.

I sometimes even have to work weekends.

And yet I still "find" time to run a weekly game and play in a biweekly game.

So perhaps I am not the most sympathetic when someone claims to not have the time.
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'Nosce te Ipsum' -Delphic Maxim

'Follow your bliss.' -Joseph Campbell