Those of you who have played one-on-one games, how did you award Workhorse? What sorts of things have you awarded it for?
We’ve been unsure how to reckon this when there’s only the one PC. It seems weird to expect the PC to “slave away behind the scenes” when there’s nobody else but NPCs to take the spotlight.
We don’t give out a lot of workhorse in my one on one games. However it does happen. When we give workhorse it is for putting in a lot of effort to achieve a goal. When a lot of rolls have to happen just for one thing to work. Forget about behind the scenes. When mass effort is expended toward one end award workhorse. On the same note, award MVP for big rolls that save someone bacon. I once got upwards of 16 successes on a 5D roll because I used a fate point and the 6’s just wouldn’t stop coming. That is worth MVP. If the player needs 5 successes and only has 5D then gets them, that could be worth MVP is the failure consequence is adequately proportionate.
http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?14460-Actual-Play-Podcast-BWG-One-on-One
This will lead you to two different one on one games that I livestream and record. If you are interested I think it would be helpful. We come across lots of challenges that are unique to one on one games. Hope it helps, and if you have any more questions don’t be shy.
I went back through our AP thread and I think we’re averaging one workhorse every 10 sessions.
The way we play one-on-one, you get a Workhorse point when you just slog through a bunch of stuff to make things happen without much fuss, for the benefit of more than just yourself. So typically sessions where you have allies but you do all the legwork and solve all the problems to get to your shared victory.
Cool. Thanks, guys. I think that’ll help.