D&D General - Solo Adventures : A DM and a Single Player
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This is not a discussion about books in which you are the hero and play by yourself._
The 5e Essentials Kit provides rules to play the adventure booklet with a DM and a single player. This is not the first time D&D has offered this kind of adventure. During the BECMI era the MSOLO series offered two modules. Blizzard Pass and Maze of the Riddling Minotaur. AD&D2e had the HHQ series of 8 modules. Each module was a Challenge for a specific class (Figther, Wizard, Thief or Cleric).
Have you played these modules? Maybe with a friend or a significant other because you couldn't find other players. How did it go? Have you home-brewed a complete campaign / world for a single player?
For my part I started DMing the Essentials Kit with my wife in December. We play on a Sunday afternoon about once a month. Her main characters is a Barbarian. She recruited a Rogue (npc). Together day rescued a wolf from orcs who were mistreating it. It adopted them and vice versa.
In the past I DMed a campaign for only two players but never for a single player.
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I’ve DMed a few homebrew solo sessions with my daughter when we didn’t yet have our full group together. Her Tabaxi Gloomstalker had some childhood friends (NPCs) - a High Elf Diviner and a Dragonborn Fighter - who joined her on a few short quests. I would roleplay their speaking parts when she asked them things, but she would decide what they did most of the time. Sadly her Dragonborn friend, Lex, met an untimely end against some goblins. She had a burial ceremony for him and, as she wrote on her character sheet, her a Tabaxi still wears his bracelet 5 levels later.
I've never needed extra rules to run solo campaigns. As the DM you just need to make sure that adventure/campaign is adjusted accordingly. If the hero doesn't have any healing abilities you have to take that into account (maybe making healing potions more available, maybe just reducing the foes).Sure, you can play with companions, hirelings, followers, pets, etc, but you don't need to.
I never used any of the "one-on-one" adventures, but I have DMed and played a few solo games. I never used any specific rules other than the "fail forward" approach to the game.There are no other players to save, help, or recuperate a situation, so whatever the PC does, especially in cases of failure, brings the PC further in the adventure. A set-back for the character doesn't need to take the adventure backward, or grind it to a halt. A defeat could mean capture, continuing the adventure from the "inside" and from a point of view of the villain's lair/association/allies, etc.
DMing a solo game takes a bit more creative gymnastics, but it led me to some of my most memorable RPG moments.
When running for my wife, I ended up giving her a party of 4. The PC (rogue), a half-orc Champion, a dragonborn Paladin who recruited them for a quest, and then her NPC friend/servant who got kidnapped and made a deal, and is now a GOOlock of slightly lower level.
I haven't tried this (yet) myself, but the one-on-one session between Matt Mercer and Stephen Colbert for charity last year was delightful:
Every game i run is a solo game, but i never needed any adventures designed for solo play. I generally don't use ready adventures, and make my own.
I’m currently working on adapting Curse of Strahd for one-on-one play. Obviously the deadliness needs to be toned down, but otherwise I think it’s a great fit. A big sandbox to play in, tons of NPCs to interact with and potentially ally with, plenty of fun side-quests, and if you put the PC in the role of Tatyana’s reincarnation the villain is motivated to pursue them without actually killing them.
Dug up a copy of MSOLO-1. It is actually a Lone-Wolf adventure without a DM. It includes an invisible ink marker.
I've never really used mods much, I've always just run a home campaign. My wife and I used to work for the same company and would go on remote assignments for weeks or months on end. So we would run games for each other - sometimes while driving.I did adjust things and tailor them for her PC. So the rogue faced a lot of trap-laden locations, didn't get into a ton of direct fights and so on. I'd still rather run for a group, but it was still a fun way to pass the time.
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