D&D 5E One-on-one adventuring in 5e

[CanadienneBacon]

I'm considering running a 5e game for only one player. Do you all know of any solo adventure modules?

Separate question: have any of you tried to run a one-on-one game in 5e? If so, how'd it go?

 

[Sunseeker]

Really dependent on who the other person is. I'm currently running one with my wife. The system works fine. I run a DMPC because it's more of a joint game. Don't know of any good adventures, I make everything up on the fly. It's pretty fun, but its VERY personal.

 

[AngryOgre]

My fiance runs a duet game for me and my character has survived 2 1/2 years of real world time and 7 levels. Mainly because being alone or with a NPC I'm attached to makes me think more on my toes. Also, because wizards have low HP and I didn't want him to die.

Anyway if you want to run 1-1 games you should read http://www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=duets they have seriously influenced the way we think about duet style games.

As far as adventures go, there were some for adnd, but you can run any adventure as is, just assume nothing, be open to just about anything, and be prepared for adventures ending in unforseen ways.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Thanks! I think I've read that same article. I agree it was handy. I've run solo adventures for 3.5. I'm really looking for a recommendation for a solo module for 5e, as well as comments from the field about your 5e experience with a one-on-one adventure (from either the DM or player perspective).

A wizard might be a tough sell for a 5e solo adventure. Ways I could combat the mortality rate might be to grant Toughness (or some other feat), supply healing potions, permit the wizard to know and use cure light wounds in her spellbook, tweak an ability check to permit accelerated healing, or to supply an NPC willing to heal the character. I'm certainly open to hearing other suggestions for how to make a solo adventure work in 5e, whether with a wizard or other class.

 

[Nebulous]

I'd go with an NPC who can support the character. Are you talking about a 1st level character? That could be tricky with any class in the game if there's any combat involved, it just get very deadly very fast. I'd be sure to make combat an avoidable threat, and maybe have ways to stack the odds so that the PC is not in personal risk.

 

[AngryOgre]

Sorry, what I was trying to say was from a GM side, allow for a more open ended method of conflict resolution. Negotiating is a great method for over coming opposition. But it only works if the gm gives the NPCs an attainable thing. Usually I would negotiate with a seemingly deadly monster for a side quest so they would give me what I wanted.

Probably the most important thing my DM did for our games was presenting a situation and letting my decisions for things have a lot of narrative weight. Two opposed parties ask me to make a decision or find a comprise about an issue they are having. This was the impetus for the majority of my adventures, which were mainly about discovery and interaction with the setting. The few combats my DM threw at me were really hard but I always made sure I had narrative back up or a method of escape.

From a mechanical angle, max HP every level helps. The player is a leader figure for a military/theocratic/bandit company helps justify a contingent of NPCs as well as guards and back up. Lots of minor magic items like scrolls or potions can help. Just be careful about overwhelming the PC with options and opposition. But if you have run PF duets then all this should be old hat. PF and 5e don't differ from each other too much.

But there aren't a lot of adventures I've seen specifically for duet style games. A lot of the adventures we've done were for a 4 party team, we just allowed for alternate methods of overcoming obstacles and opposition that played to the PCs strengths.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Numbers are so telling in 5e, it would probably be advisable to have a party - have the lone player play a couple characters and have a DMPC tag along. Or go really old-school and let the PC have a number of henchmen and hirelings.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I spent many middle school and high school summers 1:1 gaming, primarily in AD&D 2nd Edition. And more than a few sessions recently, in 5E. As a player, and as a DM.

As others have stated: utilize henchmen and hirelings. This is the classic "Jason and the Argonauts" model. Go watch Clash of the Titans and see if that turns your crank. I love it. As a player, I enjoy seeing to the well-being of my troops, equipping them, promoting or demoting them, making the tough decisions to send them into situations where some will surely die. As a DM, I love the easy leverage over the player. You can instantly and effectively dial up tension by killing a well-fleshed-out, named NPC. Just ask Corporal Dietrich and Private Frost.

Also: consider letting the player play two characters: a primary and a sidekick. This lets the player explore different class options and directly cover more bases (party roles).

Blend the two notions, and you get something like Disney's animated Robin Hood. The main PC is Robin, the sidekick PC is Little John, and the rest of the NPCs are the merry band. Or it's like the Gentleman Bastards: the main PC is Locke Lamora, the sidekick is Jean, the NPCs are the other Gentlemen.

Have fun! 1:1 gaming is a delight, because combat and decisions go much swifter. What you lose in interesting inter-party discussion you gain in plot momentum.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I have done a fair number of Duet campaigns in my time, mostly with 3.5. The general principles would be the same for 5E, I think. I quick search didn't reveal any Duet-style published adventures, however.

The henchpeople route is generally my go-to method of Duet gaming, putting the PC in charge but having NPCs around to fill out the party roles. Another avenue I've explored, which may work well with 5E, is restructuring encounters to take the lone PC into account. If the PC is a wizard, make the encounters ones easily defeated via magic. If the PC is a Fighter, give them plenty of combat, but make it against low CR foes.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I'm running a solo game with my six year old son at the moment - still early days. I'm finding that because 5e is reasonably swingy I am fudging the dice quite a bit. I never fudge with my main gaming group, but it's low level, he's alone and he's six years old. At some point I'll let him go to zero hit points, think he is dead, but wake up captured in a cage.

I remember how attached I became to my first character when I started gaming at the age of eight. I'm not going to ruin that.

I'm not using a published module though, I'm just making it up. Almost no prep and just some encounter outlines in mind.

He's loving it, and I'm loving shamelessly using all the gaming cliches. His first adventure was clearing a basement of giant rats, and now he is in a dungeon that is close to his local town fighting a weird assortment of monsters that should not really be sharing a space and encounters that have been stolen from the Warlock of Firetop Mountain.