How would you do a one-player game?

[danzibr]

Well, my wife and I were thinking of playing some D&D. In fact, a friend of mine planned on DMing. Six of us got in on it (so five players and the DM) but week after week after week the schedules just don't line up and people don't want to play with someone missing. The final result is... no game!

I was thinking of DMing for her (or vice versa). Would you suggest having the lone player gestalt? Or run multiple characters? Or running one character and having the DM run others?

[Honest Tiefling]

Have you seen this? (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19905354/Lessons_from_DMing_with_my_GF?pg=1)

It is the account of a guy trying to get his girlfriend into DnD. Your wife sounds like she's played before, but there might be some good advice in there anyway, if you can dig around the tangents.

[Gardener]

Gestalt or a very flexible character class is usually a good idea for solo play. You want to be able to deal with a very broad range of situations using only the one character's abilities, so giving them a bit more power than normal is a good idea.

Tone down encounters. A "level appropriate" encounter is appropriate for four people; often, one character could be swamped under the weight of actions even if the individual opponents aren't much of a threat. And without a party for support, being incapacitated by any means is a potential wipe, so don't push them too hard on the small stuff.

Offer alternate resolutions to killing everything. Sometimes, it's just not worth the expenditure to kill something when you have a perfectly good way of bypassing them. Remember to reward a PC appropriately for avoiding an encounter if they still achieve their goals - sneaking past the monster guarding the treasure or scaring an opponent into a quick surrender is still overcoming an encounter and should be rewarded as such.

Finally, don't be too stingy with loot, especially consumable items. One character is simply not going to be able to cover everything a party can, gestalt or no, before about 15th-17th level. Consumables let you bypass things that can't be dealt with any other way, and using them is a real cost - you've got one less of whatever you used to get out. I'm not saying put magic shops on every corner, but potions or wands of spells like cure light wounds, fly or blur might be available in major cities as needed. If that's not going to be the case, let the player know in advance so they don't go relying on healing or buffs that simply won't be available.

[danzibr]

Hmm, that link was interesting. I read the first couple pages. Definitely good DM advice.

And how about the ideas of letting her use multiple characters? Too much bookkeeping? How about me using one or two?

[BillyBobJoe]

Dude, we play solo games all the time. Set it up just like you would a normal game, and include other adventurers or whatever into the party, though it requires tons of bookkeeping on your part.