From karl at rpgreview.net Sun May 11 10:37:22 2014 From: karl at rpgreview.net (karl at rpgreview.net) Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 10:37:22 +0000 Subject: [Churchofgaming] One player, one referee Message-ID: <20140511103722.Horde.8TNTAUjN-ldt72-Oum7duw5@webmail.rpgreview.net> Hi all, While we have as many as seven players at our sessions now this opposite situation, one player only, has had some discussion at our sessions of late. I've faced this a few times and am always looking for tips to do better. What are *your* solutions to the three big issues: A) lone player fragility and death B) all the solutions have to come from one player what if they get stumped? C) all the entertainment has to come from two people Also what systems work better? What kinds of adventures, genres, etc? I have some ideas but will leave that until tomorrow... Cheers K From lev at rpgreview.net Sun May 11 11:06:25 2014 From: lev at rpgreview.net (Lev Lafayette) Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 22:06:25 +1100 Subject: [Churchofgaming] One player, one referee In-Reply-To: <20140511103722.Horde.8TNTAUjN-ldt72-Oum7duw5@webmail.rpgreview.net> References: <20140511103722.Horde.8TNTAUjN-ldt72-Oum7duw5@webmail.rpgreview.net> Message-ID: <3e080adbff4ef673cdbb6106ef0dcff8.squirrel@webmail.rpgreview.net> On Sun, May 11, 2014 9:37 pm, karl at rpgreview.net wrote: > > Also what systems work better? > What kinds of adventures, genres, etc? Single player and GM games can really be run with any genre, as there are plenty of examples in speculative literature; Conan in fantasy, Sherlock Holmes in investigative stories, Case from Neuromancer, The Doctor etc. The usual difficulty is that if the single player gets themselves in serious trouble, they may need an NPC to bail them out - usually quite competent in their own right, but not so good to overshadow the PC. Red Sonja, Watson, Molly Millions, and endless stream of the assistants for the doctor (not the least being a tin dog). The worst systems are those which, by design, require a high degree of specialistion in the character. Many early class-based roleplaying systems with absolute limitations (e.g., AD&D) made it almost impossible for a single PC to complete the adventure. Single PCs tend to be at least a little bit competent with a range of skills. -- Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley) mobile: 0432 255 208 RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt http://www.quicksales.com.au/shop/RPG-Review.aspx From karl at rpgreview.net Mon May 12 04:04:17 2014 From: karl at rpgreview.net (karl at rpgreview.net) Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 04:04:17 +0000 Subject: [Churchofgaming] One player, one referee In-Reply-To: <20140511103722.Horde.8TNTAUjN-ldt72-Oum7duw5@webmail.rpgreview.net> References: <20140511103722.Horde.8TNTAUjN-ldt72-Oum7duw5@webmail.rpgreview.net> Message-ID: <20140512040417.Horde.HyP86WomrDEtvloL96_OcA1@webmail.rpgreview.net> I suppose like any communication perhaps the best start is to consider the referee, the player, and the goal. With these in mind picking and choosing from the solutions presented will be easier. An inexperienced referee trying to introduce a new player to rpg in a one off session is a very different situation to two very experienced rpgers who want to meet every firday night for an extended campaign. Further Comments in line. Quoting karl at rpgreview.net: > Hi all, > While we have as many as seven players at our sessions now this > opposite situation, one player only, has had some discussion at our > sessions of late. I've faced this a few times and am always looking > for tips to do better. What are *your* solutions to the three big > issues: > > A) lone player fragility and death Over the years I have heard and trialed several approaches to this problem. i) low combat frequency. The adventures are investigative, political, exploratory, or stealth/hiest so combat is less frequent. This even works in traditionally bloodthirsty genres like sword & sorcery, Young Conan was a thief who relied as much on stealth as he did his blade. ii) weak opponents. Whether it be fighting rats in AD&D or mooks in newer FATE based games you stock the adventure with weak opponents. Never really liked this solution much. Fighting a bunch of rats or pickpockets just isn't very heroic. Making opponents like orcs into tissue-paper-flimsy mooks despite them looking like muscular dangerous foes seems arbitary and unsatifying, your players know their heroes would not be that good in a 'fair' fight. iii) player character power. The character begins with more experience/power/levels making them tougher to kill and giving them more resources to tackle problems. This was most common in older level/class based games mentioned by Lev in his post. This works ok if the player is experienced in the game system. Inexperienced players will be snowed under in the many skills, feats, spells powers or whatever. For longer campaigns this option robs the player of the opportunity to play through those early developmental portions of the character's arc. iv): Helpful NPCs. The PC has friends who save his bacon. My least favourite approach. More work for the referee and the tendency to become a crutch. A related approach used in T&T 5.5 and lower was the assumption that each player control a number characters. V) player character competence. Some systems create characters with broad competence rather than assuming a party of specialists like AD&D did. This is almost the norm for games now. Most FATE games, Fantasy Craft, Conan, and other have character creation rules to ensure this. Others like GURPS and BRP can create broadly competent characters *IF* the player deliberately does so. v) Game system fixes. These are things like the Conan game's *Left for Dead* rule that gives the character a limited number of 'lives' in a way that makes sense in the narrative. 'Where No Man' has a redshirt rule and Paranoia famously used clones. vi) Setting fixes. political/cultural/socail factors lessen danger. For exanmple if goblins are citizen rather than hunted monsters perhaps they'll risk goal to rob but balk at murder for which the penalty is the hangman's noose. Perhaps the PC is a ransomable noble? vii) Bloodshed. Don't try to save the PC at all. Use a game where character generation is fast and write simple action story adventures. Fast generation reduces player investment in the PC and after a couple of deaths the penny (hopefully) drops and the player is ready to heroically throw thier character into the meatgrinder of battle. T&T, Fighting Fantasy, Tunnel Quest, are good choices for this style of play. Player personality and game style are important considerations for this one. > B) all the solutions have to come from one player what if they get stumped? > C) all the entertainment has to come from two people > > Also what systems work better? > What kinds of adventures, genres, etc? > > I have some ideas but will leave that until tomorrow... > > Cheers > K > > > > _______________________________________________ > Churchofgaming mailing list > Churchofgaming at rpgreview.net > http://mail.rpgreview.net/mailman/listinfo/churchofgaming_rpgreview.net From karl at rpgreview.net Thu May 15 09:28:17 2014 From: karl at rpgreview.net (karl at rpgreview.net) Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 09:28:17 +0000 Subject: [Churchofgaming] No Space 1889 this Sunday. Message-ID: <20140515092817.Horde.Y8Lm40bX4l_cTtrzv1PRmA1@webmail.rpgreview.net> Hi all, I can confirm that I will be able to attend this Sunday but will be pretty mentally knackered not not prepared for Space 1889. Any suggestions for games: a board game?, a one-off adventure? Regards, K From lev at rpgreview.net Fri May 16 01:00:17 2014 From: lev at rpgreview.net (Lev Lafayette) Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 12:00:17 +1100 Subject: [Churchofgaming] No Space 1889 this Sunday. In-Reply-To: <20140515092817.Horde.Y8Lm40bX4l_cTtrzv1PRmA1@webmail.rpgreview.net> References: <20140515092817.Horde.Y8Lm40bX4l_cTtrzv1PRmA1@webmail.rpgreview.net> Message-ID: <9cadec50d8a0246a24d5bc8e8c3e933c.squirrel@webmail.rpgreview.net> Hi Karl et al., On Thu, May 15, 2014 8:28 pm, karl at rpgreview.net wrote: > I can confirm that I will be able to attend this Sunday but will be > pretty mentally knackered not not prepared for Space 1889. > Any suggestions for games: a board game?, a one-off adventure? I can bring along Civilization and Diplomacy and we can pick from there. -- Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley) mobile: 0432 255 208 RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt http://www.quicksales.com.au/shop/RPG-Review.aspx From karl at rpgreview.net Fri May 16 02:06:09 2014 From: karl at rpgreview.net (Karl David Brown) Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 12:06:09 +1000 Subject: [Churchofgaming] No Space 1889 this Sunday. In-Reply-To: <9cadec50d8a0246a24d5bc8e8c3e933c.squirrel@webmail.rpgreview.net> References: <20140515092817.Horde.Y8Lm40bX4l_cTtrzv1PRmA1@webmail.rpgreview.net> <9cadec50d8a0246a24d5bc8e8c3e933c.squirrel@webmail.rpgreview.net> Message-ID: Thanks lev. See you then Karl D. Brown BSc (Hon) MPhil PhD Candidate & Senior Research Assistant Surgical Research Unit Centre for Eye Research Australia > On 16 May 2014, at 11:00, "Lev Lafayette" wrote: > > Hi Karl et al., > >> On Thu, May 15, 2014 8:28 pm, karl at rpgreview.net wrote: >> I can confirm that I will be able to attend this Sunday but will be >> pretty mentally knackered not not prepared for Space 1889. >> Any suggestions for games: a board game?, a one-off adventure? > > I can bring along Civilization and Diplomacy and we can pick from there. > > > -- > Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech > Mngmnt) (Chifley) > mobile: 0432 255 208 > RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines > http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt > http://www.quicksales.com.au/shop/RPG-Review.aspx > > > _______________________________________________ > Churchofgaming mailing list > Churchofgaming at rpgreview.net > http://mail.rpgreview.net/mailman/listinfo/churchofgaming_rpgreview.net