Duet campaigns aren't defined by the grand climactic events but often the little things a narrator sprinkles about that sometimes acquire a life of their own. Think of your favorite movies or books. At least with me, a good climax is great but it's often little scenes or bits of dialogue that stay with me. This is a very distinct difference between group campaigns and duets. Group campaigns are really about the climaxes whereas duets it's the little things that make or break the campaign.

So what do I mean by the "little things"? These are generally people, places, events, and items that are part of the setting and secondary to the major plots created by the narrator. They can become important but begin as vignettes to add a little depth to a setting. The crazy blacksmith, a rundown spaceport, a courtship holiday, and a talking sword are all examples of the "little things". Obviously, these could be major plot points of an adventure but their character can often be mostly ignored by the PC and it won't matter. With duets you have a little more time and incentive to make these "little things" actually work. What follows below are some tricks to consider to how to make the "little things" work.

One caveat: in a duet you may well be flying through "little things" and most of them aren't worth the effort to flesh out. Generally, I think a narrator should aim to make 1-3 "little things" more engaging and leave the rest mostly flat. If you try to make everything engaging then nothing is, so choose carefully. Look for "little things" you might recycle in future adventures or ones that have the most emotional resonance. Narrators need to be economical with their time and effort. With that said here are some suggestions:

Focus!

When you want to make a "little thing' stick you need to focus on what you are trying to accomplish. Typically, this is an emotional reaction from the PC. To get the PC to react you have to hit the true mark: the player. To have any success at this you need to know what you are trying to accomplish. Some reactions are easier than others. To get a PC to hate or dislike a NPC, location, item, etc. is pretty easy. Make the NPC, location, or item rude, violent, dirty, and so forth and you're good to go. Anyone can create a decent villain. The more difficult reactions involve humor, romance, friendship, respect, and other emotions that require a little more nuance to pull off. The best approach is to think about what makes you react in such a way and try to duplicate that.

For example, let's say you want the PC to feel a sense of piety when visiting a shrine. Sure you can describe the shrine in excruciating detail, have some miracle happening, or so forth ñ but economy is the rule. Why not just have one poor family devoutly praying in the shrine? Focus on them and their piety and that will work far better than any grand approach. This is a common trick in fiction I mention all the time. If you want a PC to respect NPC #1 then introduce NPC #2 who already does respect NPC #1. We are influenced by the reactions of others and this is a tool narrators need to use.

Engage, Don't Describe

One of the great sins of narrators is flavor text. It's dreadfully sloppy narrating and a mistake you want to avoid. Describe enough to catch the player's imagination and then engage the PC. So let's say the PC has come to the shrine wishing to meet the priest there. We have introduced the poor family praying to communicate piety. Then you need to engage the PC. One of the young kids of the family comes up to the PC and asks if he's come to pray? Who knows what the PC will say but that doesn't matter ñ what matters is the PC is now engaged in some fashion with the scene. Often the best approach to engage a PC is to come at her sideways. So the PC comes to the shrine to question the priest about some matter and is engaged by some kid unconnected to the adventure. This works and you might be surprised what happens. The PC may want to know what plight brings the family to the shrine and might actually want to do something about it. This family could become retainers or friends of the PCÖ or the scene might just be a little encounter with a kid at a shrine and nothing else. This brings us to the next point.

Decisions, Not Dice Rolls

In my opinion, contemporary game design has done a disservice to roleplaying by trying to foist rules on everything. The less dice rolls, the better. What should be the focus are decisions. If a PC is trying to convince a customs official to not inspect his starship, then make the PC roleplay that out. I know this runs counter to how most RPGs are designed but with duets it's about the roleplaying. Moral, tactical, and political decisions are what drive duets, so embrace them.

For example, instead of a lord giving a PC a magic sword as a set reward have the lord ask the PC what she wants. This can be frightening for narrators but it really puts the ball in the court of the player. When in doubt, put the burden of decisions on the PC and then adjust as necessary to work with the results of those decisions.

Aim for the Jugular

Economy means being brutally efficient and this applies to emotional responses from the PC. Don't take this the wrong way. Nowadays piles of gore, violence, and the like are expected to jar a person in movies and the like. This really isn't that efficient and is sloppy storytelling. Having a young child simply disappear from a village is far, far more frightening than finding a mangled body. It's the same with creating an annoying character: what's more annoying, the loud blowhard or the polite man who is subtly condescending to the PC? The former is easy - sloppy, but easy - while the latter is a character the PC will loath all the more. So my advice here is to hit hard when you want a reaction but make sure that your approach is efficient and precise.

Unexpected Over the Mundane

A talking sword that is a pacifist, an craftsman who doesn't really want to sell his wares, a temple led by priests that aren't that interested in spiritual matters, a courtship holiday where the custom is to avoid members of the opposite sex, and so forth are far more interesting than the expected. My advice is when you want to make something really click then introduce a twist. Twists make things different and fix them to a player's memory. Not don't overdo it, but in general the unexpected jars players and helps get them engaged.

Be Bold

Finally, just be bold sometimes. Push yourself as a narrator a little from time to time. Sometimes you will fall flat, but with the "little things" that's alright! They don't drive the plot and thus are the perfect place to experiment. If the experiment fails, then just chuck them. You should try once an adventure to try to make a "little thing' really work in evoking some emotional response from the PC. This is great practice. In a few years, you will have a huge repertoire of tricks. Obviously, every player is different and that makes duets a little complicated but I have found that a lot of techniques are nearly universal in their effectiveness.