One player One GM

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know if there is any good adventures for one player and one GM? Like old D&D Modules or anything like that, also how would the adventure in the rule book fare? I am not really a fan of cutting back monsters as it seems a bit strange to just bump into 3 monsters everywhere. Thanks for any help.

Hi all,

You could try some of the Adventures in Filibar range, as some of them are designed for 1 on 1 play and may even be a mini campaign, and also there was some D&D modules that were one offs.

Simon

1:1 in Torchbearer will be pretty tough.

In the original 1974 dungeon and dragons game Gygax and Arneson mention, in the building your own dungeon section, that encounters should be based on the size of the group and level in the dungeon. The example is of a goblin. If there is one character on level 1 of the dungeon, the monster is one goblin (though it is mentioned some monsters are most always in groups). Modules were designed for tournament or large group play, so all # encountered are increased by quite a bit.

This is a good start, take a module and make it 1 monster at a time instead of whatever is listed. Be warned that, like D&D, a low level solo campaign is difficult, but if the player wisely cheats the goblin out of his shiny gem, or whatnot instead of going into a kill conflict, it could be ok. I ran a 1:1 session with my nephew. We only ran into a problem when it took an hour to resolve a drive off conflict with a gelatenous cube. Conflicts, especially with a solo character can really take a long time if the monster disposition is rather high and the DM scripts creatively.

You could give the character a henchman (p.112 rule book) even though he isn’t a 5th level fighter. Also keeping at the forefront that XP is not gained from killing monsters (although that’s how you’d advance your fight skill), and that there don’t really have to be “monsters” to fight in each room, rather obstacles to overcome and beliefs, instincts and traits to use against your character. If one room in the Caves of Chaos has the orc chieftain and a bunch of orcs, lowering the stakes and focusing on a verbal conflict about a bag of gold between the chieftain (not a kill conflict with chief+8 orcs) and the players character can allow “failure” to simply be a setback instead of death sentence. Just because there are 8 other monsters in the room, the GM doesn’t have to have them all help the chieftain in the verbal conflict against the player, or even in a “duel” if it comes to a drive-off conflict. The player should definitely describe to live.