Playing Duets (GM & 1 player)

[Escher]

Has anyone played or is playing a duet (GM & 1 player)?

It would be interesting to hear about your experiences of the game played like this.

I played a brief session with my partner and she loved it playing as The Doctor's companion.

It's very different from a group as it's faster and using the Doc as an NPC you have to structure adventures differently and use him as a plot device and lead-in to various situations the player gets into.

I'm looking forward to GM'ing more like this. Any advice?

[infinitydoctor]

The game is actually well suited to a single or small number of players - even at it's most crowded, I don't think that the TARDIS crew has been larger than 4, including The Doctor.

I must admit, in a single player game, I'd go for the player being the Doctor or a primary timelord-type character, but if its working and you're both enjoying it, I don't really have any advice beyond keep doing what you're doing!

[Craig Oxbrow]

It is indeed faster - a single player making decisions, probably pretty focused, will burn through way more plot and often in more detail than a group of even two, let alone more.

[hgpdoc9]

I actually wanted to play with my Wife, and I did not know how it would go. Thanks for the advice, might make a game night of it!

[Escher]

May 31, 2013 3:47:14 GMT hgpdoc9 said:

I actually wanted to play with my Wife, and I did not know how it would go. Thanks for the advice, might make a game night of it!

This will come in useful:

www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=duets

[Siskoid]

I've done one on one, though not yet with Doctor Who. I find it a pleasant experience. I usually try to do little solo bits (subplots that might grow into bigger stories) in between adventures to advance personal stories, at least, in other games. My players have been pretty available of late, so there just hasn't been time for it. With summer departures on the horizon, the Time Lord may find himself traveling along soon though...

[olegrand]

Well, I've been running an entire campaign (more than 60 scenarios so far) for a single player-character, the Time Lady Penelope Ashworth.

dwaitas.blogspot.fr/

I had already run several single-player campaigns for various games (including Guardians of Order's excellent Ghost Dog rpg, which was more or less designed for single-character play). This formula works very well with DWAITAS; it allows you to focus fully on the character's personality, feelings and decisions as one of the main driving forces of play; I'm a bit skeptical, however, about running an entire campaign with a single-player Companion and the Doctor as an NPC, since the Doctor does tend to be the hero of the story - he would tend to attract the spotlight on himself and act as a living "safety net" or a "GM's PC" always with the right answers and solutions to the problems etc. I've used the Doctor as an NPC in some of my scenarios, but in a different role, more as a mentor, occasional field ally or "guest star", so that he does not steal the player-character's thunder or "main hero status".

[zebaroth]

me my dad use to do this back about oh 15 years ago and i would have him help me out by play some of the npc's
we both had a character that was are pc and we did quite a few story lines