I have run a lot of duets and the majority of them with my wife as player. There are a lot of advantages to having your significant other as your player. The positives of this set up include a high comfort level, good communication, and easy scheduling. I suspect that most successful duets involve a couple. That said, it also creates some difficulties. In 18 years of roleplaying, we have easily started over sixty duets. A lot of those have crashed and burned but a good number have been successful. The problem is that the percentage of successes has been dropping over the years. Finding a campaign that works is now a challenge. We want to capture the success of earlier campaigns with something new. Thatís a lot harder than it sounds due to our limits as players and narrators. There are certain campaigns, settings, and characters we each canít handle and this hems in our options. I suspect this is true of all duets. Everyone has limits and a big challenge of a duet is finding a good campaign within the limits of both the narrator and player. This is one of the reasons I really harp on communication when it comes to duets. Itís not only necessary but it can save a lot of time by preventing a host of false starts.

However, I am going to toss out some of the tricks we have tried over the years to launch a new duet that can be successful despite the pickiness of those involved. So when you hit a stretch where things arenít clicking, try one of these options.

Rekindle the Fire

You can forget how fun roleplaying is if you havenít done it for awhile or, even worst, have experienced a succession of false starts and poor adventures. It might be a good idea to jog your memory. Watch your favorite gaming movies, reread old RPGs and sourcebooks, and try to invoke some recollection of what it is that youíre missing. This is important because the enthusiasm you bring into your first session of a new campaign will be a major factor in determining the success of a new campaign. So if you have lost that spark then try to find it to rekindle your love of roleplaying.

Switch Sides of the Screen

One obvious solution is to switch roles. I would wager that for most couples who run duets, there is one who is narrator 90% of the time. Breaking up this dynamic serves a few purposes. First, itís different and potentially exciting, especially if itís been a few years since you last did this. Second, itís a great reminder to all involved about how the other one normally feels on their typical side of the screen. Players are always more forgiving of their narrators after a few sessions serving as narrators themselves. Narrators also need to be reminded what itís like to be a player. The problem is that this option may actually be impossible.

My wife has served as narrator in the past to great effect but the preparation she requires before narrating is simply too time-consuming. She also has a stressful job so adding more stress is counterproductive. She has little free time or energy to dedicate to preparing adventures. Thus while this has been an option for us in the past, it really isnít possible for the foreseeable future. I suspect this situation is not unique to us. There are a lot of reasons while one part of the couple is always the narrator and the other the player. This is the dynamic of least resistance. In other words, while switching sides of the screen can be a lot of fun, it can only happen when both players are comfortable with such a change. Let me sum this up. If you ask your spouse, ìhey do you want to narrate our next campaign?î and your spouse looks at you as though you need to be committed, then drop it.

One-Shots

Sometimes a change in genre/venue is warranted but most likely there will be resistance from some quarter. One approach is trying a one-shot adventure. I can sometimes convince my wife to try a different system or setting as long as it is a tight adventure that will only last 1-3 sessions. You might get lucky and this could blossom into a successful campaign, though from my experience itís just as likely to crash and burn in some fashion. Still with a one-shot everyone is usually game to give it a go for at least an adventure. Now these can be hard sells. I, for example, keep trying to get some RPGs ërightí and keep wanting to go back to them, but my wife wisely knows that most likely weíre heading for a sorry night of gaming. My advice when facing resistance is to be fair and propose to do two one-shots. Both player and narrator get to pick a one-shot they want to give a go. Part of the deal here is that everyone tries their best with both one-shots.

Sequels

If new ideas arenít coming then try a sequel of an old successful campaign! You can revive an old character or create a new character connected to an old character and try to recapture the spirit of an old campaign. This is a little bit of a cheat and also carries some risks, such as ending up with some disaster that ruins your memories of the original campaign. The trick with sequels is to recapture the spirit of the old campaign but with a new story. The beauty of sequels is that if you kept your notes from the original campaign then you have most of your work already done in terms of setting design. Itís also easy to get back into a campaign that you remember and sequels often start very smoothly. Yet, from my experience sequels have a mixed track record and we havenít had one come close to the original in terms of quality or length, but they generally work enough to give you a modest success in breaking a dry run.

Focus on the Hook

When you finally have agreement to begin a campaign, then the narrator has to make it work. The first adventure is really ëdo or dieí with a campaign sometimes. You need to nail it. Here are a few things to consider:

1. You need to start the PC in the middle of the action.
2. You need to capture the imagination of the PC.
3. You need to set the trajectory of the campaign.

So we recently started a campaign in a homebrew sci-fi fantasy campaign. The concept was to start the PC off on the losing side of a rebellion. Itís a classic plot hook. Fiction loves defeated soldiers who find a new cause, from the Aeneid to Princess of Mars to Firefly/Serenity. The trick is where to begin the story? I decided to begin the PC in a battle and then have her army surrender, more akin to how Firefly began, which is a good approach. The trick is that you have to make the rebellion truly a losing prospect. Sure the PC may win the small battle but you have to signal all the signs that the cause is lost, and the PC has to be willing to go along with that. It helps if youíve discussed the overall concept beforehand. I then tossed in a few gimmicks like the PC seeking asylum with a church and being quickly wrapped up in a quest to find a reincarnation, but the real trick is to have an adventure that moves quickly, invokes the world, and gives the PC plenty of opportunities for adventure.

Now the first adventure went very wellÖthe second adventure less well. It wasnít structured or developed enough and so the momentum I had from the first adventure was diminished. Fortunately, a good adventure buys you 1-3 adventures to hit your mark again. This is why you need to nail your hook, otherwise the campaign is done. You need a good start to buy you some time to get things right.

In Conclusion

If you have ideas about other tricks and techniques to help get you past a dry run, then share them in the comments thread.