Duets
"And Bill's out of town. Sadness, that's two weeks in a row," said Dave.
"Yeah, I guess we can play Axis & Allies or something if you want," said Ron.
"Indeed, but I'm in the mood to game. So can't we just NPC everyone? It would totally teach them a lesson," said Dave hopefully.
"No, we can't do that, but you know what, I could run Elixir Zaan through a side-adventure tonight. The party hadn't left Meadowearth yet for the Drowning Caves of Ouna and I have a couple of ideas," said Ron grabbing the three-ring binder filled with his various campaign notes and pulling out his huge hand-drawn map of Meadowearth and the surrounding countryside.
"Awesome! So it's just me then, that's so cool! Anyway, I want to rob the Lord Warden's mansion since they wouldn't let me last adventure," said Dave pulling out some dice and his character sheet.
"Right, well, while you are planning your assault on the Lord Warden's well-defended and incredibly secure mansion, a young woman comes up to you in the Tipsy Pixie. She looks really sad and as she speaks her voice keeps breaking, 'Are you Elixir Zaan the famed adventurer who solved the Riddle of Cairos? I need your help as my father has been murdered and I need to find out who did it!'", said Ron quietly and trying to project sadness and woe.
"Is she pretty?" asked Dave.
"Ah, yeah, I guess so, sure, she's pretty," said Ron.
"Awesome! I pour on the charm, 'yes, I am Elixir Zaan and I'm more than happy to help you, but what do you know about the Lord Warden's mansion and its defenses?'" asked Dave as he began examining the map to see what buildings were around the Lord Warden's mansion.
A duet is a roleplaying adventure or campaign that involves only two participants: a GM and a player. '1-on-1' and 'solo' are other terms used for duets, but I find '1-on-1' too confrontational and/or kinky a term and 'solo' is best reserved for those games which only have one participant, like computer RPGs and create-your-own adventure-style games. I use the term duet as it better captures the cooperative nature of this style of play that can be musical, almost magical, when it falls into place. Duets can take many forms. It might be a pre-adventure, which is a duet where the GM runs a small scenario for a single PC to introduce them to a campaign, or it might be a side-adventure, like from the narrative at the beginning of this column. Most duets are actually standalone campaigns and they are far more common than you might suppose.
So why run a duet?
The obvious advantage to duets is that they are easier to schedule, especially, as most duets involve couples, siblings, roommates, and the like who can game as much as they want with little hassle over scheduling because they live together. I have run a lot of group campaigns over the years, but duets with my wife have allowed us to log an insane amount of time roleplaying over the last 15 years. This is simply because duets give us the chance to roleplay most evenings. Another advantage is that duets are more intense due to their quicker pace, greater immersion, and increased roleplaying. Duets also allow you to more thoroughly explore a theme or story arc as everything is focused on one player and there is no need to compromise the story for the group. Once you get the hang of duets they really are a wonderful experience, and for some players infinitely preferable to groups.However, in the interest of full disclosure there are some caveats to duets. First, they are a little more complicated to run, well, not so much more complicated, but different and different in often very challenging ways for GM and player alike. The goal of this column is to tackle these issues and share what I have learned over the years on what works and what doesn't with duets. I have run a lot of duet campaigns and a lot of those were incredible failures -- fortunately, you can benefit from my many mistakes. Second, duets are not about social camaraderie as much as traditional groups and if that is the main reason you roleplay then duets might not be a good fit for you. Third, duets often require a strongly self-motivated player as a duet is all about the player. Interestingly, I have seen relatively passive players in a group become decisive and focused in a duet once the other players removed from the equation. It is an interesting phenomenon, but having run duets with probably a score of different players I can say that almost all of them stepped up and really enjoyed not having to share the stage. However, I have GMed some players who just couldn't handle the autonomy of duets, so that does happen.
Ten Tips for Duets
If a duet intrigues you then here are ten tips which can help get you started on the right track. Most of these will be discussed in more detail in future columns, but my basic advice is here to get you started now. I have done a top ten list many times on forums and blogs over the last few years and some of the entries come and go, but the following list I feel covers most of the bases.1. Communication is a necessity. As there are only two people involved in a duet there needs to be communication and compromise for it to work. If the GM wants a gritty post-apocalyptic campaign and the players wants a comical fantasy campaign there is clearly a problem. It is also important to communicate as the campaign progresses. If one or the other gets bored or frustrated discuss the situation and don't take it personally, instead focus on getting things back on track. Everyday a campaign dies simply because someone didn't share their honest feelings about the campaign -- this is the same with duets and group campaigns.
2. Balance isn't important. Balance is a wonderful thing in many situations, but often it gets in the way with duets. Balance exists to promote harmony between players by equalizing their PCs -- there is no need for this in most duets. Additionally, you might need to increase the power of a PC to reflect the fact that the PC is operating without the support of other PCs. Relax a little about the rules and it really can help make a duet more successful and enjoyable for everyone.
3. Earn and keep the trust of one another. Trust is important between GM and players in all types of campaigns, but with duets it is a necessity. The GM has to have confidence in the player to handle difficult challenges and the player has to trust the GM to be fair in how he or she adjudicates the campaign. In a group campaign you can have some competition between GM and players and while I don't think this is a good thing it isn't necessarily a deal breaker, however, with duets such a situation is a recipe for disaster.
4. Experiment and try something new. The range of what you can do in a duet is pretty astounding, because you can explore areas that you can't get away with in a group campaign. Your PC wants to be master of a trade caravan, a noble lord, or maybe just a doctor in a frontier town -- all of these are wonderful duet campaigns, which might not work that well in a group context. Also with one player you can experiment stylistically with flashbacks, dream sequences, and other more exotic GMing tricks.
5. Tailor to the PC. It is important to remember that you have only one PC so you should tailor to the PC. If you have PC who has no piloting skills in a sci-fi campaign then don't design adventures where the most exciting part involves piloting, because either the PC will fail or worse a NPC will steal the glory from the adventure. Go to the PC's strengths when designing adventures and it works better for everyone, this is one advantage with duets compared to groups where you have to juggle a lot to put everyone in the spotlight.
6. Embrace NPCs and learn to talk to yourself. NPCs are the heart of duet campaigns. They make them work. You need to learn how to make engaging NPCs and to run them effectively. This is a very complicated subject, but one trick which is echoed by a lot of GMs who run duets -- learn to talk to yourself. The moment you can successfully run a conversation between the PC and two NPCs with everyone talking to one another you have mastered a powerful technique to bringing your NPCs to life.
7. You have only one PC so be very careful. In most group campaigns if a PC or two dies it isn't necessarily the end of the world, but with a duet it can be catastrophic. In a duet the death of a PC should be decided by the PC by either taking a tremendous risk or making a horrendous mistake, but in both cases the GM should signal to the PC that there is a chance for death. GMs should also avoid situations where a little bad luck could be instantly fatal. Also use NPCs allies to help support the PC, take hits, and contribute to ensuring the success of the PC. A PC adventuring alone can be very heroic, but it can also be catastrophic when the luck turns. Just be careful and very sparingly risk the campaign on a die roll.
8. Take your pacing cues from the player. If your player is really enjoying just talking with NPCs keep going with that. The better you are at reading your player the easier it becomes to run duets. Speed over the boring stuff, linger for the engaging stuff, and keep things moving. Yes, the enjoyment of the GM is important, but as a GM you just need to get in the mood to just enjoy the game and go with the flow. When you can embrace this as a GM you will become a better GM.
9. Alternative rewards are worth more in duets. In most RPG campaigns the rewards are fairly traditional -- wealth and improved abilities, which both aim at increasing the effective power of the PC. This dynamic is great in most situations, because the majority of players see increased power as the goal of RPGs, but with duets sometimes it's the alternative rewards which really wow the player. A new contact, a title of honor, a favor from the king, someone swearing an oath of allegiance to the PC, some gift of greater symbolic value than material wealth, and so on are all rewards that have greater impact in a duet than wealth and improved abilities.
10. Endings aren't bad. All good things must come to an end and so it is with most duets, especially, once the heart of the story has been told. Remember every ending is a new beginning and don't be afraid to wrap things up and move on when momentum drags. Believe it or not, you have the capacity to run hundreds of successful duet campaigns. Of course, if a campaign is working then run with it as long as everyone is happy with it, but when things stall and attempts to jumpstart have faltered then maybe it's time to call it quits.
There you go the basics of duet campaigns. Of course, there are exceptions and counters to every one of the above tips, but they are a good launching point. The next column will deal with more specific tips on how to set up a single PC to survive and flourish in a duet campaign.
