The Gaming Den

How-de-doodley-do there Den!

Here’s my situation: Haven’t played D&D for years, but I got the itch recently to get back into it, and it must be scratched. The only available player is my wife, who has only played a little, and that years ago. She is very experienced with RPG-type computer/platform fantasy games, and understands resource management, strategy, etc. I have at least a decade of DMing under my belt, but the last time I played was just right around when 3.5 was being introduced.

So we’re going to dive into a 1-on-1 game. To even the odds a little, I’m going to let her go gestalt with her character, and start it at mid-levels (7 or 8, something like that). Additionally, she’ll start the game with the Leadership feat to help provide her with her own mooks. I fully expect the mooks to get killed often, but we’ve already got a roleplaying angle to cover it: She’s a noble from a decadent evil-wizard-empire where life is cheap. Even if she wipes out every last follower, they’ll just be replenished before the next session.

So, mainly, I was looking for advice, suggestions, even stories about 1-on-1 games you’ve experienced in the past. House rules to try out, situations to avoid, and other features/pitfalls would be greatly appreciated. I’ve DMd for small groups before, but never just 1 player.

A word about the system I use: As much as I dig on the Tomes, it’s simply too different for me to assimilate just yet. I’m still getting used to 3.5 all over again, so I’ll stick a little closer to that as a base (plus I have a lot of books that I want to get some use out of – I’ve slowly been assembling a decent collection whenever I find a book for cheap). I’ve reviewed Pathfinder, and for the most part all I have to say is “Meh”. There are 3 things that I think they got right, which I fully intend to steal and use:
1. Sneak attack works on damn near everybody
2. Skills should be condensed together to some extent
3. Feats should be available every other level instead of every third level
Also, I tend to beef up the feats a little. Feats are such a limited resource, it seems downright stingy to have one provide no better than a situational +1 or +2 bonus to something. I’ll judge things on a case-by-case basis, but generally I’ll just take some of the more bullshit feats that begin a chain and then roll them together with another not-so-impressive feat in that chain. Or if a player can make a reasonable argument that a feat should provide a slightly better bonus, or some of its restrictions should be lifted, I’m down with that. Especially in this campaign, I’m going to have to play a little fast and loose with the rules to give my one player a bit of an edge.

Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but she has ideas about her character. She isn’t interested in a spellcaster, because she feels that would be too much to keep track of as she’s learning the new system. Her cohort will be a Wizard//Cleric, focusing on buffs and healing – no sense in taking any of the spotlight away from the only player. As for her, since it’s easier to not have to worry about keeping track of uses/day, she wants to play a Warlock. I encouraged her to consider that she will have to be stealthy in many situations just to stay alive, so she’s thinking some combination of Rogue and Swordsage for the other side of the gestalt equation. It’s far from optimized, I know, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be that kind of a campaign.

So, lay it on me. Any advice of any kind would be very helpful in restoring my confidence in being able to do this, and do this well.

I think as long as you're having fun you're doing it right. What kind of direction were you looking for?

Figure out which aspect(s) of the game your wife cares about most: story, manipulating numbers, combat, character creation, etc, and tailor the game to that desire.

I've played lots of one on one games with my husband (usually the DM), and each game serves a purpose. Some games are dice-free because we play while driving from one obscenely far away job locale to another. Some games were dice-full because we're testing classes I wrote up and I'm all about crunching numbers. Some games are for testing plotlines for other games with other friends. Some games are just for bedroom entertainment.

If she doesn't want to play a caster, then does that mean her cohort will be played by you? If so, you may want to consider writing off the leadership feat as story ability rather than character mechanic. In my 1/1 games, thing like cohorts tended to be exactly the same as a recurring NPC, and there's no party to pretend to balance things against, so effects like a wealthy background (for everyday itemry and houses and such), devoted fanboys, and lots of connections end up more like flavor text and less like actual mechanics.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure which direction to go in with this. Based on how she plays computer/console games, I think she is going to enjoy acts of ridiculous heroism and combat against overwhelming odds the most. "Cinematic" fights, as vague as that term can be. She likes the idea of whacking horrible outsiders and lovecraftian aberrations more than fighting other people. But she comes from an evil society and will probably pick an evil alignment, so most traditional "protagonist-as-good-guy" stories would get, uh, complicated.

As for roleplaying... we'll see. She's still pretty new to that. I think killing things is going to be the focus at first, and over time I'll try to steer her toward storytelling and puzzle-solving. Number-crunching and min-maxing is the least of her concerns, which is why I expect this campaign to be looser on rules than even I am used to.

And yes, you are correct in guessing that the cohort spellcaster will be played as an NPC. I am far more familiar with spells and effects than she is, so I'll pick a nice array of choices designed to boost her power and support her in combat, staying strictly away from Save-or-dies and Area-of-effect spells that would steal her thunder.

CryptoSolipsist wrote:As for roleplaying... we'll see. She's still pretty new to that. I think killing things is going to be the focus at first, and over time I'll try to steer her toward storytelling and puzzle-solving.

The last person that I introduced to roleplaying - with a similar story to that of your wife - started the game as a man-hating, axe-wielding barbarianess. Oddly enough, by the middle of the second adventure, she was the "diplomat" of the group - she decided she liked preying on men and cockteasing whatever information she needed out of them.

The freedom allowed in a tabletop is a lot greater than that in a console game, which opens the horizons when a character is actually out of concept mode.

Good luck, and as always - have fun.

Thanks for the advice, Maj. And thanks for taking the time to make me feel welcome here. I'm totally digging your avatar, by the way. She looks... saucy...

Maj wrote:Some games are for testing plotlines for other games with other friends. Some games are just for bedroom entertainment.

...which apparently seems to suit you.

CryptoSolipsist wrote:Honestly, I'm not entirely sure which direction to go in with this. Based on how she plays computer/console games, I think she is going to enjoy acts of ridiculous heroism and combat against overwhelming odds the most. "Cinematic" fights, as vague as that term can be. She likes the idea of whacking horrible outsiders and lovecraftian aberrations more than fighting other people. But she comes from an evil society and will probably pick an evil alignment, so most traditional "protagonist-as-good-guy" stories would get, uh, complicated.

Hey, when Cthulhu comes he eats EVERYONE. That includes the evil people. So fighting the cosmic-evil-from-beyond-time and its bevy of insane cultists can still be a decent storyline so long as she's part of the group that wants to actually have something to lord over, rather than the nihilist nutbars she'll be up against.