I am going to be running a one-to-one game of dnd with my fiancee and she's going to be playing a fire genasi sorcerer, starting at level 2 so she can learn the class and make a decision at level 3 from there.
I have a rough outline of the game already, but I'm looking for advice on the running of a game with one player and a squishy character!
I have thought to create an NPC follower who will be a fighter to fill the gap there, and I'll have them be level 2 as well, but they won't level up (they aren't a hero, after all) so she can steadily leave followers behind and pick up new ones. This will keep me from becoming invested in a character and ending up playing with myself!
Is there any other advice for a 1 to 1 dnd session that I should know before I get going?
1) Having the player become invested in an active organization. As they gain renown they will also gain access to recourses that will cover the skill gap from not having a full party. As well as the benefit of NPC official types to move the storyline forward. 2) No matter how cautious you are its a dangerous world out there. Without strength in numbers the player should feel motivated to put themselves in harms way. Some reassurance of at least one life revival could be helpful. Ties or a charm from a god or temple, Agreement that the harpers will recover your body or attempt to release you from captivity are just a couple ideas that will help motivate your player to throw caution to the wind and prevent inaction. 3)Have fun with it. The benefit of only one player in the game is their freedom to explore. Keeping the game a loose series of misadventures tied to a campaign or not is a lot of fun for the DM and player.
A suggestion for the follower would be to give her a warrior sidekick (from Tasha’s). It should be able to work as a meat shield without overshadowing her character. It should also be easy enough for her to run it, since it’s basically just go up and stand there and swing your sword.
You could make it her sibling, or childhood friend, to get her more invested in keeping them alive. By RAW, it doesn’t even have to be a person, it could be a wolf, or really re-skinned to be whatever she likes.
Probably, you’ll want to throw a lot of healing potions at her, since unless she goes divine soul, she won’t have magical healing.
Sidekicks are really the way to go with a one on one D&D session. Sidekicks keep the player alive, provide interesting role-play, and prevent the goblins from just mauling the player's unconscious body whilst they make their death saves.
You can scale/cater a game so you don't need the Sidekick for utility or skillsets, but having sidekick(s) as a RP sounding board is valuable. That and other tips on 1:1 sessions are discussed in the below video which both affirmed my own instincts/confidence as well as gave me more to think about:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thankyou all for the advice! I'll certainly watch that video when I get the chance as well!
The first session went well. I set the adventure in a small, friendly village called Goldfield (which is unknowingly built above an ancient dungeon wherein is imprisoned the withered still-living husk of a necromancer who was vanquished in the forgotten past, but it's also won "best kept village" 3 years in a row, so there's that). The village is holding its annual Harvest Moon Festival, which involves stalls offering prizes to people who can do various things (throw barrels over the bar faster than Gert, who was named because he was huge when he was born, and never stopped, or make it across a ditch filled with straw over a greased pole, or guess the mystery of the mystery cup, or get a ball in a bucket (this game is fixed, but you can extort money from the guy running it if you notice), have your fortune taken, have a dance-off with someone, guess the weight of the giant pumpkin, tie a wish to the wicker man who's going to be burnt later that night). In short, there's skill checks for any proficiency with a chance of winning gold or prizes.
I introduced a character called Jorven who's a fighter, and he's a heroic loyal type person, and he's now accompanying the sorceress around to soak up some hits.
For the sake of interest and safety, I have introduced a special ale which is served only on this festival, which invigorates whoever drinks it - it allows you to short rest for 20 minutes or long rest for 1 hour, which will work for the fast-paced game I need to run which all has to take place over one night - it'd suck if they used all their spell slots and then got deaded!
Thus far the mayor has been found dead (Jorven was asked to go check on him, and asked Torvi (PC) to come with) and then the two of them were attacked by a shadow, which they managed to kill. They have just made it out of the mayor's house and are going to have to make their way back to the village, but it's getting dark and there's a very large field of barley between here & there...
I am going to be running a one-to-one game of dnd with my fiancee and she's going to be playing a fire genasi sorcerer, starting at level 2 so she can learn the class and make a decision at level 3 from there.
I have a rough outline of the game already, but I'm looking for advice on the running of a game with one player and a squishy character!
I have thought to create an NPC follower who will be a fighter to fill the gap there, and I'll have them be level 2 as well, but they won't level up (they aren't a hero, after all) so she can steadily leave followers behind and pick up new ones. This will keep me from becoming invested in a character and ending up playing with myself!
Is there any other advice for a 1 to 1 dnd session that I should know before I get going?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
A few suggestions that might help.
1) Having the player become invested in an active organization. As they gain renown they will also gain access to recourses that will cover the skill gap from not having a full party. As well as the benefit of NPC official types to move the storyline forward. 2) No matter how cautious you are its a dangerous world out there. Without strength in numbers the player should feel motivated to put themselves in harms way. Some reassurance of at least one life revival could be helpful. Ties or a charm from a god or temple, Agreement that the harpers will recover your body or attempt to release you from captivity are just a couple ideas that will help motivate your player to throw caution to the wind and prevent inaction. 3)Have fun with it. The benefit of only one player in the game is their freedom to explore. Keeping the game a loose series of misadventures tied to a campaign or not is a lot of fun for the DM and player.
Hope this helps. Happy gaming.
Honor, Integrity, Valor.
A suggestion for the follower would be to give her a warrior sidekick (from Tasha’s). It should be able to work as a meat shield without overshadowing her character. It should also be easy enough for her to run it, since it’s basically just go up and stand there and swing your sword.
You could make it her sibling, or childhood friend, to get her more invested in keeping them alive. By RAW, it doesn’t even have to be a person, it could be a wolf, or really re-skinned to be whatever she likes.
Probably, you’ll want to throw a lot of healing potions at her, since unless she goes divine soul, she won’t have magical healing.
Sidekicks are really the way to go with a one on one D&D session. Sidekicks keep the player alive, provide interesting role-play, and prevent the goblins from just mauling the player's unconscious body whilst they make their death saves.
You can scale/cater a game so you don't need the Sidekick for utility or skillsets, but having sidekick(s) as a RP sounding board is valuable. That and other tips on 1:1 sessions are discussed in the below video which both affirmed my own instincts/confidence as well as gave me more to think about:
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thankyou all for the advice! I'll certainly watch that video when I get the chance as well!
The first session went well. I set the adventure in a small, friendly village called Goldfield (which is unknowingly built above an ancient dungeon wherein is imprisoned the withered still-living husk of a necromancer who was vanquished in the forgotten past, but it's also won "best kept village" 3 years in a row, so there's that). The village is holding its annual Harvest Moon Festival, which involves stalls offering prizes to people who can do various things (throw barrels over the bar faster than Gert, who was named because he was huge when he was born, and never stopped, or make it across a ditch filled with straw over a greased pole, or guess the mystery of the mystery cup, or get a ball in a bucket (this game is fixed, but you can extort money from the guy running it if you notice), have your fortune taken, have a dance-off with someone, guess the weight of the giant pumpkin, tie a wish to the wicker man who's going to be burnt later that night). In short, there's skill checks for any proficiency with a chance of winning gold or prizes.
I introduced a character called Jorven who's a fighter, and he's a heroic loyal type person, and he's now accompanying the sorceress around to soak up some hits.
For the sake of interest and safety, I have introduced a special ale which is served only on this festival, which invigorates whoever drinks it - it allows you to short rest for 20 minutes or long rest for 1 hour, which will work for the fast-paced game I need to run which all has to take place over one night - it'd suck if they used all their spell slots and then got deaded!
Thus far the mayor has been found dead (Jorven was asked to go check on him, and asked Torvi (PC) to come with) and then the two of them were attacked by a shadow, which they managed to kill. They have just made it out of the mayor's house and are going to have to make their way back to the village, but it's getting dark and there's a very large field of barley between here & there...
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!