Tips for DMing for a single player?

[Sajiri]

First time DM coming up, I've been wanting to give my own DM a chance to be a player for a change so I'm going to be attempting to run a game based loosely off of Baldur's Gate series.

I see plenty of tips for new DMs, but advice on solo player games seems much harder to come by. I'm wanting to make it an ongoing game for when our usual group is missing members/we just can't make time to run his game online being that it's so slow via text (we live together so not hard for just the two of us) so we're likely going to be starting low level. Advice I've been given so far is a high point buy and NPCs to fill in the gaps of what his character is incapable of doing.

It will likely be pathfinder since that's what I have most experience with, though I'm considering 3.5 as well. He hasn't decided on a class yet, though he took me by surprise since he seems to be leaning toward making a cleric, whereas he normally likes classes like bard. I am a little worried he's only choosing it because of CoDzilla and want him to understand he can play any class he wants, being that from stories he's told me of his past groups (I've never been in a group with him as a player) he would often have to fill the role of whatever the rest of the group needed after they chose what they wanted, rather than what he actually wanted to play. Of course he may well want to play cleric too, it's just not something he'd ever shown interest in before, and he made a point of saying cleric or druid to be strong.

So any tips, tricks and advice for running a game with only one player would be greatly appreciated :)

[AttilaTheGeek]

Be sure to emphasize the fact that he can play any class he wants and you'll make it work. It seems like he's feeling shoehorned into good soloing classes, but if you want to make him feel able to choose any class (which you should), I'd recommend generous house rules (depending on class) in order to ensure that anything is viable. For example, if he plays a Summoner, you shouldn't need to change anything, but if he wants to play a Barbarian then you might want to give him a bigger point buy. Maybe let him take Leadership, or give it to him for free.

A big pitfall in single-player campaigns is save-or-suck spells cast by NPCs. If one person out of 6 rolls a natural 1, then the party can still function. But if he's in a dungeon alone and blows a will save, then there goes the campaign. To remedy that, you could either let him have multiple characters if he has the charisma to "recruit" them IC (i.e, a lv10 PC, two level 7s, and three lv4s, or what have you), and/or just try not to have enemy casters.

[Sajiri]

I was considering having NPCs from the actual BG games show up and be recruited as needed, although not permanently sticking around like in those games. He usually likes social classes with a lot of tricks, so I was also thinking of letting him recruit help from guilds if need be/it works.

[AttilaTheGeek]

The guilds idea is a good idea- maybe recruit an NPC or two from the [class]'s guild to supplement him in combat, but I'm iffy about BG because he might have played it before, or even if he hasn't, if/when he does later he will have realized that you've stolen all the characters.

[Sajiri]

He's never played BG before and made it pretty clear he doesnt intend to (I've been trying to get him into it for a long time, but he doesn't like the old edition rules) which is why I'm doing it this way. I wouldnt want to use all the characters, and I would make no claim that they were MY characters. All he really knows about them is he's seen some of their in game portraits, asked me their names, and knows that I absolutely hated Anomen.

Although I'd likely still stick with the guild recruitment.

[ericgrau]

Agreed that natural 1s can end a campaign. It's less of a problem at low levels though as long as you keep the difficulty low to account for other kinds of bad luck. He might start alone and recruit later.

I've seen a lot of popular threads with in depth roleplaying for solo campaigns. Especially when the DM and player were close. "Codzilla" implies that he may have a greater focus elsewhere. Try to steer him more to RP or mix both RP and power. You might introduce the types of scenarios that he likes to encourage it. It can go very well.

[Sajiri]

Agreed that natural 1s can end a campaign. It's less of a problem at low levels though as long as you keep the difficulty low to account for other kinds of bad luck. He might start alone and recruit later.

I've seen a lot of popular threads with in depth roleplaying for solo campaigns. Especially when the DM and player were close. "Codzilla" implies that he may have a greater focus elsewhere. Try to steer him more to RP or mix both RP and power. You might introduce the types of scenarios that he likes to encourage it. It can go very well.

Well, I'd say we're pretty close considering we are married IRL :p I know he likes roleplay, and there's been all these different builds he's told me he'd love to play someday. I also know the sort of way he likes to play, namely using a lot of items and outsmarting the DM, but since he started DMing he's been all about making his campaigns HARD for the players via tactics rather than roleplay, and hasnt seemed willing to find a way to work out how to play it when we are missing players. I think he is just extending that thought to this game of 'if I don't have others with me, I have to do EVERYTHING on my own'.

If he wants to play a character that can do everything that's fine with me, but I just didnt want him to have to play something purely because he thinks he should, rather than because he wants to.

As per some advice I got a few weeks ago, I'm thinking of offering him a larger point buy, and/or a free template if he plays something of a lower tier. I guess the overall advice so far is make sure there are options to make up for him missing features, and focus more on RP.

[Crake]

I don't think I saw this here but maybe let him gestalt?

[Sajiri]

I don't think I saw this here but maybe let him gestalt?

I had considered gestalt in the past but was advised against it (I cant recall why now though), and neither of us have used gestalt characters before. I'm still playing with the idea though, just unsure if it's a good idea or not now.

[ericgrau]

Well, I'd say we're pretty close considering we are married IRL :p I know he likes roleplay, and there's been all these different builds he's told me he'd love to play someday.
Aha knew it was something. I've seen a few 100 page boyfriend-girlfriend/etc. game threads with such an in depth story that everyone else was following along.

If he won't play another concept b/c it's weaker then homebrew is a good way to do pretty much any concept you want and still have it be just as effective. Homebrew feats, spells, magic items, etc. Alternate class features get a little iffy and entire classes are even harder to pull off well. Nice individual packages that you can compare against existing stuff that you think is fair. Where "fair" = however powerful he makes his other stuff without getting smacked. Littler things like that are easy enough to make.

Gestalt won't be that much stronger but it'll bring in even more character building craziness to deal with.

[Pilo]

I think you could let him play the whole party like 3 characters or less, it will be easier for you than adding a few NPC, you can however let him make one character and provide some pregenerated sidekicks for him.

[Malroth]

yeah having him roleplay a small party of 2 or 3 characters from a related backstory is a good thing and can keep the game going even if the "main" character dies.

[Sajiri]

We tried have multiple characters each in another game he DM'd once, I liked it but he didnt seem too big on it. I'll probably have it he can control hirelings during battles at least. Talked about the class thing last night again, he admitted yes he is just choosing cleric because it's strong solo but he's okay to play it. I'll give him the option of gestalt anyway just for more in depth characterization if he wants it.

So, class and npc help out of the way some other advice on DMing for one player would be appreciated :p

[GnomeGninjas]

The PC will die, a lot, like seriously a lot. Having an NPC rez them can be nice but if it constantly happens then the level loss gets tedious and the sense of challenge gets lost because he knows he'll just come back to life. When he gets a new character you will want a way to get the new character up to speed on the plot. Spending a session getting your new character to figure out what your old character knew is incredible annoying. I haven't come up with a satisfactory way to deal with this problem, maybe the character keeps a journal of his adventures and the new character stumbles across it?

[AttilaTheGeek]

We tried have multiple characters each in another game he DM'd once, I liked it but he didnt seem too big on it. I'll probably have it he can control hirelings during battles at least.

That seems cool, if he's going more for the "tactician" type of feel. Remember to sort of gloss over the hirelings' turns, especially if they're casters; he's the star of the show, not them.

[Sajiri]

Im sort of worried about the death thing, being the basis of BG is the fact the player is a bhaalspawn...if he dies and can't be rezzed thats it. I guess he could just move on to playing a different bhaalspawn but if that happens repeatedly it kind of loses it's special...ness..(its too early in the morning here for me to think of better words =_= )

I'm thinking of making it more roleplay centric and have more town/city adventures rather than deep dungeons, at least if he doesnt have much help with him.

[Lonely Tylenol]

I envy you. (My group numbers ten right now! And that's after shrinkage! :smalleek:)

Don't start at level 1. At this point, a single ill-placed hit can kill most adventurers, and a critical hit can kill the rest. Worse yet, at this point your lone adventurer won't have the resources to truly prevent this from happening (via, say, magic items or spells). Anybody who tells you hit points don't matter compared to conditions is ignoring the fact that you become staggered at 0, unconscious and dying at -1, and dead at -10, and these are ALL CONDITIONS YOU WANT TO AVOID. If your player plays alone, there's nobody to stabilize him if he falls to the negatives, or cover him until Color Spray wears off. Best if you start at level 3 or higher, as a consequence.

If you do include long-term NPC assistance (a la the DMPC), make sure that they are weaker than him. If you need to include a second character into the mix, make sure you're the Robin to his Batman, otherwise you're really DMing for yourself.

[Crake]

If you're worried about him being vulnerable to things that negate his actions, such as daze or stun, or getting reduced to negative HP, perhaps introduce some kind of mechanic based around him being a bhaalspawn, where he goes berserk.

For example, when he would normally become stunned, he instead transforms as his inner demon breaks loose while he is incapable of controlling his actions for the duration of the stun, and when he is reduced to negative hp the same thing happens, perhaps making the transformation last for the remainder of the encounter and give it fast healing to essentially auto-stabilize (Maybe even give it DR for damage that would normally reduce it to, or taken while at negative HP for extra survival). Maybe have it as something he is unaware of, and these rounds are done quickly to bring it back to him, leaving him suddenly covered in blood when last he remembers he had just been stabbed and left for dead. A little cliche I suppose, but it makes the player more resilient and less dependent on needing NPCs around.

[Sajiri]

If you're worried about him being vulnerable to things that negate his actions, such as daze or stun, or getting reduced to negative HP, perhaps introduce some kind of mechanic based around him being a bhaalspawn, where he goes berserk.

For example, when he would normally become stunned, he instead transforms as his inner demon breaks loose while he is incapable of controlling his actions for the duration of the stun, and when he is reduced to negative hp the same thing happens, perhaps making the transformation last for the remainder of the encounter and give it fast healing to essentially auto-stabilize (Maybe even give it DR for damage that would normally reduce it to, or taken while at negative HP for extra survival). Maybe have it as something he is unaware of, and these rounds are done quickly to bring it back to him, leaving him suddenly covered in blood when last he remembers he had just been stabbed and left for dead. A little cliche I suppose, but it makes the player more resilient and less dependent on needing NPCs around.

Wow, I really like that idea! I'd probably only do something like that if he was dying, but I will definitely keep that in mind.

[Paulcynic]

Agreed that natural 1s can end a campaign. It's less of a problem at low levels though as long as you keep the difficulty low to account for other kinds of bad luck. He might start alone and recruit later.

You would probably want to use the Power Points system developed by Pathfinder. This allows for those 'oh damn, you're dead' moments without having to modify the system itself.


I don't think I saw this here but maybe let him gestalt?

And this :) Gestalting is old school style multi-classing, and since he's alone, this shouldn't create any intra-party balance conflicts ;)


I had considered gestalt in the past but was advised against it (I cant recall why now though), and neither of us have used gestalt characters before. I'm still playing with the idea though, just unsure if it's a good idea or not now.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Gestalt especially when there are 3 or fewer players in the group. Fundamentally the D20 system assumes a 4 person group, where certain roles are covered, such as 'tank' 'healer' 'buffer' 'skill monkey' 'martial dps' 'spell dps' 'debuffer/controller' etc. Some classes have multiples of these roles already (thus higher Tier designations), while some are only good at one thing (thus lower).

Your guy will appreciate the additional options, but because of action economy, he will still be forced to choose the best one each round, or suffer the consequences ;P

And Power Points for a solo campaign seems the most streamlined way of dealing with SoS and SoD.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Gestalt is much better suited to smaller games (typically 1 or 2 people), and becomes significantly less appealing with each additional person, because Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup) (and gestalt makes everybody two people, essentially).

In a solo game, it can be useful for shoring up a character's weaknesses. For instance, a Crusader//Bard has 3 good saves, d10 Hit Dice, full BAB, 6+INT skills, martial maneuvers (up to 9th) and spells (arcane up to 6th), some built-in healing and defensive abilities (Devoted Spirit strikes, Indomitable Will), and so on and so forth. By contrast, a Crusader alone isn't as skillful, and a Bard alone isn't as combat-effective.

Intriguingly, gestalt is, in my opinion, about a break-even as far as accessibility for newer players goes: it's more abilities for a new person to learn, but it's also more idiot-proof due to the better all-around survivability of a gestalt character.

[Sajiri]

He has considerably more experience than I do with both PF and 3.5. He changed his mind and plans to make a necromancer now. I brought up gestalt so he is considering necro//cleric or something in place of the cleric if we go with that.