D&D GM Advice - 1-person session

Hello Shieldwall, I'm looking for tips/advice on running a D&D session for just one friend. Basically, his birthday is in November and I think it'd be right up his alley (he doesn't play pen and paper, but he loves RPG/mazes/choose-your-own-adventure type stuff and frequently creates his own).


Here's what I have planned so far:

I'm using the Swords & Wizardry rules, which are a free adaptation of the OD&D set from 1974. They leave plenty of things open to interpretation, so I'll have some freedom to get creative, and let him be creative as well.

I'm thinking of a scenario where he's thrown into a dungeon/pit for "crimes", where the prisoners have tried to dig a tunnel out to escape. The tunnel they're digging intersects with some ancient ruins which are then connected to a network of tunnels created by goblin sappers trying to attack the castle.

I'm most concerned with balancing the dungeon so that his lone character has a chance, without letting him be crazy over-powered. So far my ideas are to have one or two friendly "prisoner" NPC that he could work with, or to just take some existing monster types and scale them down a bit.


I've never GM'd before, and am pretty new to pen and paper games in general, but you have to start somewhere, and I have 6+ months!

Does anyone have past experience doing this or similar GMing that would be helpful?

 

I will tell you I did something similar to this with my son, I let him pick a character that he would like to play, then I tried to find something that would be easy for us to do. Then I built another character to support him and ran it as another character, but left the puzzles and things up to him.

 

With a solo adventure it can be difficult to balance things, if you know just what type of character that will be run it is easier to tailor a dungeon, some choices it can be helpful to have NPC's along, but again they need to be the 'your the leader you decide' types They can 'offer' advice or provide clues or background, don't be afraid to let the npc die or live even, if it better helps the story-line.

A solo adventure is one of the hardest to do.

 

My quick recommends:

First, find out in advance what kind of character he wants to play.

Second, create a 2nd character that compliments him, frequently this will be a cleric. And work his as a companion or hireling.

From there, plan the encounters a little on the easy side and supporting HIS abilities. If you are running a solo mage, make them magic oriented, fighter likes combat, etc.

 

Minor clarification points... .was typing too fast.

Work the 2nd character as a hireling or companion (played by you).

If you plan a plot around his character concept or personal experiences, it will be more memorable.

Hit me up if you need help. I only have 150 pages, a new world, and a ton more things I have to get done by November 8) Always happy to help though 8)

 

buy a deck or set of munchkin

 

once he's chosen his class, consider tailoring the encounters to favor his character, both for challenge factor and for usefulness, on the few small party groups I've run I usually add two NPC's to 'round out' the party, if the player's a caster (non-cleric) perhaps a bard and a fighter, if they're a rogue perhaps a wizard and a alchemist (I really prefer to avoid the pocket healer approach, it often trivializes traps and certain encounters, running a bard with limited healing, or an alchemist who has to spend time preparing potions ahead of time makes the player think more before calling for that heal, also consider NPC's with a tangent complimentary capability, such as a rogue and a wizard, it's so often people forget that a wizard can make a rogue -so- much more effective with a few relatively minor spells... choosing a companion that encourages creative thought will help to involve the player more in the campaign, both with their adversaries, as their allies)

 

Hey

I have run a few DnD campaigns over the years, and during the last one I chose the route of allowing each of the 4 players to run a single player adventure running 4 hours each as an intro and to help them get used to the idea of RP gaming, as none had any experience.

My key to success was finding out what character each person wanted to play well in advance to provide some planning time. I was very lucky in that 1 only person wanted to a true combat character, so combat was not to difficult to handle for the most part. (goblins and low level undead are your best bet, you can even just transfer their stats and use diff creature descriptions)

Unless your guy is looking for a hack n slash diablo style adventure don't be afraid to throw in plenty of RP opportunities like meeting NPC's, Environmental challenges ie traps, hidden doors and puzzles. I would even be tempted to throw in a BG2 style riddle moment. Also remember to throw in the odd way to circumvent a battle ie going the long way round/collapsing a tunnel ect.

Also I would personally have him start with no equipment initially, then allow him/her to stumble upon a couple of potions ect but also find a note explaining how long the owner had to save for them to in-still value. The key is to not patronise the player by letting them feel they are playing on easy mode and that there is no challenge or risk of death. Letting them see an NPC die early can help this, especially if the player can see they made a bad choice leading to their demise.

Hope that helps and feel free to PM if you have any questions, I really enjoy helping out with this sort of thing.

 

poor Timmy power gamer, he dies in every adventure...