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View Full Version : DM help for a single player campaign?



Zedar
2008-06-05, 08:29 PM
OK, I haven't DMd in a while and I'be never actualy tried running a campaign for just one player but now I'm about to start on just that venture. Any pointers or advice from someone with experience would be apreciated.

I suppose there's allways cohorts and minions if the player takes leadership but thats mainly what springs to mind so far.

sonofzeal
2008-06-05, 08:49 PM
Actually, heads-up D&D works surprisingly well. If you're doing a module they'll need to be a gestalt or have allies/cohorts/etc. I'm doing one right now, and I have a DMNPC (actually, a straight up PC from a campaign with her same character when someone else was DMing) that I roleplay but let them control in combat.

Ugh, that was tortured. Let me rephrase - both our characters (her PC and my DMNPC) were origionally characters in a different campain by a different DM, but we got along great and want to continue, so now we take turns running modules/homebrews for eachother, tailored to the abilities/strengths of the one who's currently the PC, with the one who's currently technically the DMNPC taking a backseat roll unless the player specifically takes control of them for combat or something particularly inventive. So far it's worked pretty well, and we've finished a few mini-modules (like the ones from Sandstorm) and some homebrews, and are working on The Demonweb pits. The only problem is that most combats are either really easy (her character is a Warlock who has flight, deflect arrows, and never misses with Eldritch Blast), or really painful (if the enemies can fly, she's in for some serious pain and there's not much she can do about it). We're just getting started on Demonweb pits, and the first two encounters couldn't even touch her, but the third (against a Vrock) was near-lethal despite the CR being on the low side for her.

And that's generally the way of things with 1 PC - either they'll be suited to an encounter (whether it's combat, skills, or social) and can pass with ease, or it negates their abilities and causes huge pain. Walking that balancing act is part of the art. Still, I've found DMing for single players to be rewarding and in many ways more productive and easier to stay in-character for than DMing with a party. Tailoring is also easier, and you don't need to worry about other players getting bored and/or disruptive and/or discussing tactics for hours before kicking in the doors like they always do. So yeah, go heavy on the RP, and if you use a DMNPC make it via the same character creation rules you gave them, and hand them its charsheet to treat it like a cohort that you RP for.

Pironious
2008-06-05, 08:55 PM
My advice would be primarily make it believable.

When I run games, and especially when I run solo games, my games tend to lean towards survival. The low HD demon (Savage Species) running a muck on the world isn't going to have a cakewalk. In the end, she ran into a small group of Paladins and failed to run away fast enough. The decision to stay and try and talk to them lead to her death because once they used detect evil and saw "strong evil", they didn't care what she had to say.

Basically, have a player who trusts you, have a believable plotline, and don't make it cakewalk for them. Personally I don't like the idea of having a small party of NPCs to follow them around, but on the other hand if your player's character can convince people to travel with them, don't automatically disallow it. For a while said 2 HD demon had a 5th level cleric in toe because she spent a lot of effort into getting said cleric.