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Adventures for DM and One Player?
- Thread starter Melkor
- Start date
Tony Vargas
Legend
Nothing leaps to mind.
[sblock="If you'd consider modifying an adventure"]
You /could/ run a published adventure for a single player using several characters, or even run one for a sole PC of much higher level than the adventure calls for. Controllers, IMHO, work well as solo PCs in that sort of scenario. The idea is that the level gap makes up for the Controller's lesser durability and damage potential, while the controllers' AEs, conditions, and general versatility help it to overcome the set-piece battles that whole parties are usually required to handle.
A similar option is to take a normal adventure and downgrade standards to minions, Elites to underleveled standards, and Solos to same-level Standards. The result should match the encounter budget for a single PC, without radically changing the structure of the adventure.
One big thing you have to watch out for with a solo PC, of course, is lockdown. Being shut down for even a round could doom a lone PC. Have 'fail forward' scenarios in mind for such an eventuality. Like if the lone PC gets stunned, fails his first save, and everything in the encounter CdGs him, take him prisoner and have the BBEG try to get information or recruit him (and give away some of his plans) before an escape opportunity presents itself.
The other serious danger is the action economy. Numbers can tell, even minions, and if the adventure includes a complex challenge where players have to decide between combat and related non-combat actions, the solo PC faces a real catch-22.
Finally, if you're willing to more substantially re-write the adventure, consider making combats that are mostly 1:1 duels. With skill checks and challenges that the player can work towards his strengths. This works really well with a Striker PC.
A ranger tracking a villain with a hostage through the wilderness, a rogue breaking into an estate to commit a theft or carry out an assassination, that sort of thing.[/quote]
[sblock="If you'd consider modifying an adventure"]
You /could/ run a published adventure for a single player using several characters, or even run one for a sole PC of much higher level than the adventure calls for. Controllers, IMHO, work well as solo PCs in that sort of scenario. The idea is that the level gap makes up for the Controller's lesser durability and damage potential, while the controllers' AEs, conditions, and general versatility help it to overcome the set-piece battles that whole parties are usually required to handle.
A similar option is to take a normal adventure and downgrade standards to minions, Elites to underleveled standards, and Solos to same-level Standards. The result should match the encounter budget for a single PC, without radically changing the structure of the adventure.
One big thing you have to watch out for with a solo PC, of course, is lockdown. Being shut down for even a round could doom a lone PC. Have 'fail forward' scenarios in mind for such an eventuality. Like if the lone PC gets stunned, fails his first save, and everything in the encounter CdGs him, take him prisoner and have the BBEG try to get information or recruit him (and give away some of his plans) before an escape opportunity presents itself.
The other serious danger is the action economy. Numbers can tell, even minions, and if the adventure includes a complex challenge where players have to decide between combat and related non-combat actions, the solo PC faces a real catch-22.
Finally, if you're willing to more substantially re-write the adventure, consider making combats that are mostly 1:1 duels. With skill checks and challenges that the player can work towards his strengths. This works really well with a Striker PC.
A ranger tracking a villain with a hostage through the wilderness, a rogue breaking into an estate to commit a theft or carry out an assassination, that sort of thing.[/quote]
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