D&D 5E Any good adventures for two players?

[El Gallo Negro]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anybody knows of any published campaigns or adventures that work well with parties of 2? As of now, there are only two people I have who will consistently play. Occasionally a third person shows up, but not frequently enough to be relied upon. I've downloaded some good single session stuff off of the DMs guild. But I'd like to see if I can find a larger storyline. I'm just thinking more experienced players and DMs might be able to point me in a good direction.


Thanks

 

[Ath'kethin]

How confident are you in your ability to run/adapt the game? My preferred group size is 2-3 (that is, me plus 2-3 players), but I have run groups of one, and I have never had any real trouble.

The key is being adaptable and thinking your way around stuff, and having players who don't assume they need to confront and kill everything.

That said, there were some 2nd edition modules designed for single-player campaigns (one DM, one player) that might work for you, assuming you can either convert on the fly or put the time in to make it work. They were called the Challenge series: Fighter's Challenge, Thief's Challenge, etc. I think they're all available on DTRPG. Those are all intended for single-sessions, though. Of course, years ago campaigns often consisted of a tring of "single-session" adventures, all loosely connected by a travel narrative (supplied by the DM), so that might work for you anyway.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Double post.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

Dan Hass Endeavors has two adventure series that are scaled for 1-8 players: Dimgaard and Drow Conspiracy. They are available on DTRPG. I like the Dimgaard adventures better, although I'm not a fan of the wider world setting for those, so I made changes in that regard. It's easy enough to do, as Dan Hass is explicit about the points where you will need to adjust if you don't want to work with the specifics of his world. I did find I had to go through them carefully and make adjustments for our group's playing style: the encounters were too deadly for new players, and the treasure more meager than we preferred, etc. But they've formed a good backbone for us.

Some other approaches to consider:

-players could run 2 characters each. This has its drawbacks. My daughter is double playing in our two family adventures, and while it works game-wise, she finds it hard to juggle two personalities. My husband is doing the same in the one game he's part of, and it seems to work for him, but he's not as invested in really getting into character as our daughter is.

-as DM you could run a character. I do this is the game that is just the kids with me as DM. It works o.k., but not great. I'm not really able to focus on personality/roll playing for the character. I am careful to keep her in the background when it comes to decisions, so I'm not influencing the directions they take too much.

-there are provisions in DMG, I believe, for assistant NPCs

-Players might have animal companions who help or assist. Dan Hass suggests a mastif for weak parties. Magic users could have stronger than typical familiars, druids and rangers could have animal companions, etc. I've seen some talk on the forums about letting such animal companions "level up" at half the rate of their "master".

 

[ArwensDaughter]

You might also look at the Adventurer's League adventures available on DMGuild. While not scaled for as few as 2 players, at least the Rage of Demons season pdfs include a table to help you scale the adventures based on number of PCs and their levels, compared to the optimized level of the adventure. (I've not looked at earlier seasons) They only go down to parties of 3 PCs, so you would need to either adjust further or take one of the "other approaches" I list above (or something similar) to get up to 3 PCs.

The other advantage of the AL adventures is that they are designed to allow for changing party make-ups from week to week, thus letting your third player more easily take part when they are available.

 

[El Gallo Negro]

Thanks for the resources!

Ath-kethin -

I think I've gotten much better at adapting the game to be a bit less overwhelming to the players. It's funny that you mentioned players feeling like they have to confront everything. This attitude just ended another campaign in which I was playing. I'm running this campaign for my girlfriend and my younger cousin. They used to bicker about how to approach conflict. As of late, however, my cousin has begun to keep a cooler head rather than go berserk. This has helped us a lot.

ArwensDaughter -

Thanks for the ideas! I think I will give them a chance to befriend some mastiffs when they get to town next. Actually, I was thinking of creating a staff for the wizard that would allow him to summon a Brown Bear. I haven't worked out the math as far as charges for the staff, but I think it would serve them well without being overpowered. I think this will definitely happen soon for them and they will both love it. Thanks!

I tried to give them an NPC for hire and they really didn't like it. I am open, however, to running my own quasi NPC. I love DMing in part because I get to slip into multiple characters. This would also give me a chance to play a dumb brute who won't give away any of my inside knowledge as DM!

Also, I will be sure to check out the AL stuff. If my memory is correct, it's all up for sale now, too.

Cheers

 

[pukunui]

I tried to give them an NPC for hire and they really didn't like it.

Could you please elaborate on this? What is it they don't like about having a hireling?

My players love having NPCs help them, and I've found that it's much easier if I let them control the NPCs themselves (either collectively or individually). It takes a load off my plate, for one thing. For another, it's not that much fun for the players when the DM is having NPCs fight each other (and is, thus, essentially just playing by himself).


*Although I always reserve the right to veto any intended actions that I don't think would be in keeping with the NPC's personality and such.

 

[Morlock]

Yeah giving the players extra characters is a good way to bring your party around to expected balance. You could make the extra characters semi-NPCs that the players only control in combat or when they want to, with DM control the rest of the time.

If they really hate this, they can always "duo" adventures on their own, and you can just let the chips fall where they may. If they're having trouble getting through adventures and complain, you can always bring up the extra PCs/semi-NPCs/NPCs thing again. They might go for it in that case.

Personally, I wouldn't go out of my way to accommodate players the way you're trying to (because extra characters in the party is the natural accommodation). If I'm making the adventure up myself, that's a different story - it's obviously little in the way of extra effort to tailor the challenges to they number of PCs I expect.

 

[El Gallo Negro]

I actually did let the players control the NPC. We used the point buy system and drew him up together. It was actually quite funny because after a couple of hours with the NPC, neither of the players liked him. I scrapped it because the NPC seemed to just get in the way of the players' own characters. They agreed.

I wouldn't really want to run an NPC myself under most circumstances, but given the players' personalities, I think they would actually like this. I think it all depends on the table. Other people I play with would never want anything like this to happen.

In the end, I think I'm going to give them a chance to find some cool items that will help them. I also love the idea of some animal companions. The campaign is Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with it, but it's pretty intense right from the start. One of my friends told me I really need 4-6 players to make it through. The truth is, we started the campaign on a whim and I had no chance to read up on it before we started playing. Luckily, we've made it to a part where the PCs can relax a bit, hit the road with a caravan, and get to know some people. The first few episodes had the players convinced I was trying to kill them!!!

 

[OB1]

I'm running Out of the Abyss for two players right now with great success. Did have them start at 3rd level to help balance.