Running a game with 1-3 players.

[Tzi]

This may be a silly question but my chronic inability to get four reliable players to run any sort of campaign has forced a bit of innovation.

I am running a 5e game and would like to focus more on horror, mystery and perhaps intrigue so I figure it shouldn't be too hard to run a campaign with low player count. BUT does anyone have specific tips for this to keep things in order. I really don't want to kill the players, on the other hand I don't want to make it too easy.

[Jay R]

Cohorts, henchmen and followers.

The number of players does not limit the size of the party.

[Mastikator]

Players who show up less than 2/3rds of the time are automatically guest players. Treat them as such. If you only have guest players then you can only do 1 session campaigns. Model the session so that they are episodic rather than serial. (they can build up to a bigger whole, but each session needs to be self contained)

[Temperjoke]

Cohorts, henchmen and followers.

The number of players does not limit the size of the party.

Yeah, what this person said. You could give them an NPC guide that helps out in combat, for example, by filling a role that your players might need. It may not be a huge issue if your players have a balanced party. Don't forget, you also control who the enemies attack, where they move, things like that.

[NRSASD]

When we're short people and want to run a fleshed out party, we each play two characters. But, I recommend this with the utmost caution, as it can cause a lot of issues with player vs character knowledge, and even character vs character knowledge. Also, it gets a bit difficult to roleplay both characters to their full potential. It can be done, but it can be very hard to do well.

In general, I'd recommend NPCs and henchmen. They're very adept at filling out the gaps and don't need nearly as much character development to run.

[GungHo]

Two PCs for one player is fine. It's better done with one of the more experienced players, though, and even better if they're somewhat "simple" to play. The biggest worry is screen hogging doubling up. Also, someone having a conversation with himself isn't that fun to watch, particularly when he's basically just laughing at his own jokes.

[legomaster00156]

I'm running a campaign with only a Ranger and a Paladin. I won't lie, it's difficult. If you don't give them extra NPC's to control, you must tone down the encounters. A CR 6 encounter is (supposedly) a relatively easy fight for a group of 4-5 level 5 PC's, but it's a quite difficult one for 2 level 5 PC's.