|
As I've mentioned in my past few columns, I haven't been GM-ing much
lately. Our tiny roleplaying group recently merged with a much larger
group (12-14 people total, since we joined). Even if they weren't
already playing two games, I'd never run a game for this group... the
idea of entertaining and managing that many players is scary! As well,
my on-line group has had to cut back on our gaming, due to bad
work/school schedules all around. So, the only real game I'm running
these days is a little Changeling/Mage/Mummy game for my dear husband
Chris. And so, this month I will discuss the joys of one-on-one gaming.
There are a few good reasons to run a one-on-one game, which I will go
over now.
- You've just picked up the source books for a new game and you want to
try it on a small scale before you run it for your whole group. In this
case, you can get a trusted, experienced gamer to play a mini-campaign
with you, and you two can learn all the rules in a more relaxed setting.
- You have a shy newbie gamer who needs to learn the ropes. A person
like this might feel more relaxed playing in a one-on-one game before
they join a larger group. It's much easier to teach a new gamer in a
personal game like this, as you can focus all of your attention on them.
- You and your significant other don't watch TV and need something fun
to do. Why do you think I'm running Changeling for Chris? A one-on-one
RP campaign is much more mentally stimulating than watching TV or
playing simple board games.
- No one else wants to play! There are several ways this can happen . . .
either you and your fellow player are the only people you know who game,
or maybe the two of you want to try a new system and the rest of your
group only wants to play d20. Or then again, maybe your entire group is
out of town for the holidays, leaving you guys with nothing to do on
Saturday.
- Character background/introduction stories. If you have time, it's
cool to do a little solo RP with each player in your game to flesh out
their character background and get them worked into the story. It helps
the player get a feel for their character before meeting up with the
others, and also serves as a good way to clear up any questions about
the character's abilities.
- Just because you feel like it. I really didn't need to add this one,
but it makes my article look longer!
There are a couple of drawbacks to running a one-on-one game, such as
the need to run more NPCs to make up for the lack of PCs, and also the
fact that in larger groups, it's more likely that someone will come up
with a good idea to get past a trap, puzzle, or other sticky situation.
Many's the hour I spent banging my head over a puzzle in the first
EarthDawn campaign I played, when someone else might have immediately
seen the solution.
On the other hand, what you lose in brainpower, you make up for in
intimacy, for lack of a better word. Oftentimes when I've played in
games with multiple people, it's been difficult to actually roleplay
anything that didn't involve the whole group... if two characters were
having a private conversation, or one character went off to do something
on their own, invariably someone else in the group would get impatient
and try to cut things off. In a one-on-one game, you can take your time
with the roleplaying and really develop your character.
In fact, this brings me up to the subject of character-driven stories.
You can do a character-driven story for a group, but I find that it
works a lot better on a personal basis. Whereas a plot-driven story puts
the characters in a situation that isn't specific to them (ie, they were
hired by the King to slay a dragon, but the King could have hired any
group of heroes to do so), a character-driven story focuses on a single
character and her troubles or goals (for example, looking for a missing
sibling or trying to become the most powerful mage in the world).
The Changeling game that I'm running focuses on the goals of a character
named Dare. I like running a game in which a character has a goal . . . The
character determines the basic plot - I just add the NPCs and throw
obstacles in his path. Oftentimes, the NPCs are the obstacles, since
they're all a part of his goth-band. If his drummer and guitarist aren't
talking to each other, or his flutist nearly gets herself killed while
hunting vampires, Dare has trouble on his hands.
The great thing about a goal-driven game is that you can make a
character do all sorts of things if you convince him that it will help
him achieve his goal. It's a great carrot to dangle to get him to go on
this great side-quest that you've dreamed up (too bad I haven't dreamed
up any great side quests. Oh well. I'll just keep messing with his mind
through his NPCs... bwuhahaha!).
If your player doesn't have a goal for his or her character, you get
stuck with the task of making up the entire story, but that's OK. You
can always find some way to motivate a character to do something. I
recommend getting to them through their friends and family, but that's
because I'm both evil and lazy. Actually, it's much easier to get a
single character involved in a story than to get a whole group together
and interested in the plot. Don't you just HATE falling back on the old
"you all meet in a tavern" shtick?
There are a couple of drawbacks to character-driven games, the main one
being that if the character dies, well, that's the end of the game. A
new character isn't going to step in and take over. You have to be
willing to fudge the rules a bit to make sure that the character doesn't
die, unless they do something overwhelmingly stupid. Of course, you
could be like me and just not have any combat situations in your game
(quick opinion: World of Darkness combat rules suck ass and give me a
headache).
If you don't feel like going to all of the effort to craft a
character-driven story, another fun option is to run a normal game, with
your player playing several characters. I've played as many as 4
characters at once in a one-on-one D&D game and a ridiculous amount in a
free form game, and it's always been fun... of course, I invariably mix
everyone's names up and confuse myself, but it's all good. This is a
great solution for when you just want to run something for a couple of
sessions... have your player make some fun characters, add an NPC or two
if you want, and throw them all in a dungeon or on a small quest. Voila,
instant fun!
Tune in next month when I'll write about something else . . . oooh, exciting!
|