Suggestions for a 1 on 1 game.

[Judson]

I and a friend of mine have been playing with a group for a good year and a half. However, as of late he has gotten into a HUGE thing with the DM of said group, and has stopped playing with the group. Though I continue playing with them, I still want to play with him. Gaming groups are hard to come by around here, so we've been trying to play only with one another. Holy crap it's hard. It's really not a ripe enviornment for character development and while I don't suck at DMing, I'm not good enough to make a great experience. So now, I ask you geniuses of the RPPR forums, What the heck should I do to make the play experience better?

[clockworkjoe]

I've heard that Promethean is a great one on one game. You're a monster trying to become human so it's very personal and role playing heavy.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Promethean is awesome. I've never tried to one on one but I have run it in a two player group and it worked well with a smaller number of players.

I'd recommend Monsters and Other Childish Things, actually. Any game that really focuses on a dual identity for a player makes for better 1 on 1 gaming.

Dark Heresey, at higher levels of gameplay where a character has learned enough skills, make for interesting 1 on 1 games because they play like a 40K novel.


Addition-
By the way, if you can pull off a 1 on 1 game with any success at all, my hat is off to you. I've only played 1 on 1 twice before and it wasn't for very long. It's very intense and there's no one you can't push the spotlight off onto somebody else for a breather.

[Mckma]

I'd recommend Monsters and Other Childish Things, actually. Any game that really focuses on a dual identity for a player makes for better 1 on 1 gaming.

I think that would actually work pretty well, or at least be interesting.

[JonHook]

I might be a bit of a one-trick-pony, but I think any game Lovecraftian-based could be a great 1-on-1 game. Most of HPL's stories had a single protagonist, so enhancing that feel in a solo game could go over very well.

Instead of Call of Cthulhu, you might want to try Trail of Cthulhu. I think the Gumshoe system would work great for you.

[Mckma]

I might be a bit of a one-trick-pony, but I think any game Lovecraftian-based could be a great 1-on-1 game. Most of HPL's stories had a single protagonist, so enhancing that feel in a solo game could go over very well.

Instead of Call of Cthulhu, you might want to try Trail of Cthulhu. I think the Gumshoe system would work great for you.

Oh man, if you are looking for a pretty easy game to run that is really interesting in Call of Cthulhu (assuming neither of you are already aware of it), check out "Escape from Innsmouth," based off of "Shadow over Innsmouth" (and CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC game) for more inspiration making it more combat oriented if that is what you desire).  I don't know why, but I really, really, like the story behind Innsmouth...

[Judson]

Wow guys, thanks for the quick responce! I've checked out promethean, looks pretty cool and of course CoC is sweet. I think Ill be trying monsters out first (Ive been wanting to for a while) and see where it goes from there! Thanks alot!

[Tadanori Oyama]

With Promethan you'll want to do some reading ahead. There's many little complexities to the game, the Wasteland effect and Disquiet most notably. Work with your friend in character creation because the type of Promethan he makes will greatly effect how people respond to him.

[Maze]

I've personally found that with one player, you're able to put more focus into details. I use a system with very few dice rolls so must of the focus is on character actions and how he interacts with the universe around him. I do with my group as well, but you get a different atmosphere when it's with only one player. I like the post-apocalypse, especially for the player feeling alone in such a strange and dangerous environment where he can only rely on himself.

I don't know if I wrote this here before, but I've had one of my player get stuck on a small artificial island next to Montreal where we have an amusement park in an empty city save for some mutants. The bridge blew up, so he was stuck going through the subway system with a flashlight. He stole a bicycle and as he was going through, one mutant who fed on rats scarede a whole swarm his way unintentionally. It wasn't an encounter, I just described to him as hundreds and hundreds of rats were running all around him trying to run away from something, the weird screams echoing in the back, and how he had trouble staying on his bike. Oh, and I played John Murphy's "40 weeks Later" soundtrack while doing it. Boy, did he want to get out of there.

He's the guy in one of the anecdotes who burnt his partner alive because he was too scared to go into a building and thought a mutant was imitating his muffled screams.

[Judson]

Hmm, a post-apocalyptic thing sounds interesting. Maybe run it in the CoC system? Provides plenty of scary situations along with a  more story based setting... Ideas are flooding! Now, one more question. I want to run a D&D fantasy game. The D&D world gives a brighter feel often, and alot of the suggestions are fairly dark. So what do you guys think? D20 is tough to run one on one, but I think with a  bit of help from yall I could make it happen. So, have at it!

[Kroack]

Hmm, a post-apocalyptic thing sounds interesting. Maybe run it in the CoC system? Provides plenty of scary situations along with a  more story based setting... Ideas are flooding! Now, one more question. I want to run a D&D fantasy game. The D&D world gives a brighter feel often, and alot of the suggestions are fairly dark. So what do you guys think? D20 is tough to run one on one, but I think with a  bit of help from yall I could make it happen. So, have at it!

I don't pretend to be a master of rpgs but D20 rules are usually written with groups of players in mind. I think that if you plan to do 1 player combat you're going to have to do some modification, like less challenging monsters.

[Maze]

Actually, a lone 4E D&D player character will be able to kick some serious ass (without getting into the whole argument.)

If you want to do that, I'd personally go with 4E. And actually, you could do a character as well. Think about it, two brothers or long-time friends doing various heroic quests to save the world.

The Monster Manual shows you which sort of monsters should be best for encounters depending on what you have in the party. Don't send skirmishers against a lone controller and don't send endless hordes of minions against a striker.

And while playing the games, maybe even show him the ropes of DMing if he never did it before. Make it less story-oriented, and have cliche quests of which most can be accomplished before the end of the session and put the monsters stats he is (or both of you are) fighting on the table where he can see it. Have him control the monsters during one fight at some point, and soon enough, both of you could be running each one a game at a turn.

I've got twin friends who did exactly this.

Also, re-skin everything. It doesn't matter who's stats they are, if this gnoll skirmisher is now a bandit, so be it. Monster manuals don't make good for stories where the opponents are low-level humans.

Anyway, that's my advice.

[Mckma]

Actually, a lone 4E D&D player character will be able to kick some serious ass (without getting into the whole argument.)

If you want to do that, I'd personally go with 4E. And actually, you could do a character as well. Think about it, two brothers or long-time friends doing various heroic quests to save the world.

The Monster Manual shows you which sort of monsters should be best for encounters depending on what you have in the party. Don't send skirmishers against a lone controller and don't send endless hordes of minions against a striker.

And while playing the games, maybe even show him the ropes of DMing if he never did it before. Make it less story-oriented, and have cliche quests of which most can be accomplished before the end of the session and put the monsters stats he is (or both of you are) fighting on the table where he can see it. Have him control the monsters during one fight at some point, and soon enough, both of you could be running each one a game at a turn.

I've got twin friends who did exactly this.

Also, re-skin everything. It doesn't matter who's stats they are, if this gnoll skirmisher is now a bandit, so be it. Monster manuals don't make good for stories where the opponents are low-level humans.

Anyway, that's my advice.

Going along with this, I have come to find that once you get the basics down for 4E, it's pretty easy to improve it a lot.  So yeah, consider doing a co-op game, where you both have characters and one GMs for a session or a few, then the other does.  Depending on your preferred gaming style, this could work really well (like if you prefer episodic play).

[Judson]

So tonight I'm going to test a 4th game with him. I've grabbed the free adventure from GameMastery, Hollow's Last Hope and I've moved some of the encounters down a peg. It's a fun and interesting module. I'll be making a character to assist him. So, I'm gonna try this out. Just a one-shot to see if I can manage a 4th ed game. Wish me luck!

[Sentinel]

In the last few months I've become a 1-on-1 exclusive gamer. It started with running a Necessary Evil campaign in Savage Worlds. The group broke up but one player, a good friend of mine who became attached to her character, wanted to keep playing, so we did. We found the new playstyle to be very personal (it helps to be very close friends). It allows her to hog the spotlight and do all the character development she wanted but was never able to do before because it would have stolen the spotlight from the other characters. It's great for ego because she gets to the be center of the game universe. Everything she does will have an effect on the world, and everything that happens in the world will in turn affect her in some way.

We had so much fun with developing her character's place in the world that she decided to be a GM for me in a one-on-one game of Savage World's Burroughs-inspired Mars setting. It's a pulp world full of larger-than-life characters. I can play a shirtless, Kirk-style captain without any other players complaining about having to play lesser roles in the story.

In any setting and with any rule set you can have a fun, personal adventure. They're far more common in fiction than stories about equally-powerful and important parties of adventurers.