Advice for DMing a solo game

[Drakeburn]

For a while, I've been wanting to run a D&D game. So far, I managed to get my little sister interested, but when she tries to get her friends interested in playing............. Let's just say that she's having a hard time with that.

So, she wants to play as an eladrin wizard. What I have in mind is that in order to prove herself (by that I mean her character) worthy of being accepted into a prestigious magic school, she needs to become more powerful through experience, and earn a few accomplishments to add to her application.

So her first opportunity happens to be at a distant wizard's guild, where they are studying the ruins of an ancient magocracy. I figure that there should be a Mercenary guild where she can hire some NPC allies to tag along. I also plan to have her face minion encounters, or single monster encounters for more important parts of the campaign/adventure.

What I want to ask from you guys is there anything else I need to consider to make this D&D game fun for a one-on-one game? Are there any helpful hints and tricks on pulling off this kind of game?

[Mr.Sandman]

Action Economy is very important in a solo game, and usually goes in the opposite direction than a party based game. Take careful consideration of how many enemies you send after a lone Hero, because the more attacks they get the more likely that hero is to die quickly.

[MirthTheBard]

You might want to consider making a character yourself or have an NPC(s) that accompany her(maybe they're on a similar mission). The whole idea behind this is that she will have help in her tasks(though of course it should be in moderation and be carefully used not to accidentally expose plot points or solutions that wouldn't otherwise be known) and could keep her from being stuck in very bad situations that an early level character might find him or herself in.
(TLDR: NPCs with her/your own character; be mindful of plot exposure)

Another way that you could do this is by adding some additional rules, be they homebrew or from D&D(or pathfinder, the Mythic rules are pretty neat).

The biggest trick is probably to make sure that your sister's character has options when it comes to completing tasks and taking on baddies, because in a group scenario there's multiple people thinking about the situation, but alone a solution that might even be simple could be hard to think of yourself, so just consider not to have tasks that have have very few solutions.
(TLDR: Try to avoid tasks with too few/narrowly executed solutions. More options to complete a task can change up the pace and keep the adventure exciting!)

Good luck!

[inexorabletruth]

My wife and I live in a pocket of the world that doesn't seem to know what D&D is and don't care to know. So, we play a lot of one-on-ones.

By my experience, they're not much different from any other type of campaign… it's just more streamlined, so the demands on the DM are harder, because he/she is only waiting on one persons decision to say what happens next. A lot of the game-play advice that I would give would depend on the experience level of the person playing.

But you have a good plot idea, and I think it's smart to include money for hirelings. Otherwise, when you introduce encounters, try not to think so hard about combat strategy. Rather, focus on combat RP.

Read the blurbs on how certain creatures fight. Let's look at a D&D classic- the OwlBear.

Combat:

Owlbears attack prey--any creature bigger than a mouse--on sight, always fighting to the death. They slash with claws and beak, trying to grab their prey and rip it apart.

Their INT is 2, and they do not appear to have an advanced combat strategy, compared to, say, an ogre. They're just stupid, lumbering beasts that kill when their hungry. No ambushing, no using cover, no readying attacks, no using magical items. Just charge and shred. They're Large, so highly visible, and a PC with at least no penalty to Spot should be able to easily see one a few hundred feet away… more than enough time to prepare a spell or set up a strategy before the monster can close the distance.

But that's just one example. If you look at the COMBAT paragraph on each monster, it will tell you how they fight. Most of them are far less capable of good combat strategy than you are. So by dumbing down your combat, you can create the same exciting encounters with one PC as you would with 4.

Lastly, if the gameplay dries up, or if the pacing is too hectic, pop a recruitment thread on PbP. Your game sounds fun and my wife and I would gladly join!