Duets
With a larger group if one player can't make it or is in an off-mood, the group can generally still play and maintain campaign momentum. With a duet if one or the other can't play then the whole session is a bust. Any advice on this situation would be welcome. In contrast, I've heard of duet sessions that were IC conversations during a car journey, ten minute planning sessions while waiting for relatives to arrive, etc; basically short bursts of play not possible when a whole group is required. -- Stephen
This is a very good question that touches on some of the fundamental differences between duets and groups. Pacing and continuity are important to provide a campaign with momentum. Momentum reflects the enthusiasm of the GM and player for the campaign. Scheduling difficulties and the obstacles of the real world can impair momentum and this can be catastrophic. Fortunately, I believe that duets present more options for maintaining momentum than group campaigns. This is because duets are all about flexibility. However, flexibility requires two things: adaptability and creativity. If scheduling is an issue, then flexibility is needed to come up with solutions. Hopefully, this article will provide some ideas and tips for how to overcome scheduling problems and maintain momentum.
Momentum
It is said that when something is important one finds time to do it. There is some truth to this but sometimes conflicting obligations make time a very scarce resource. On other occasions, time may not be the real issue. When a GM or player says, "real life is getting in the way and I don't have the time for the campaign" this can mean two things. First, it means exactly what is being said. Second, it means that the person is bored with the campaign and is using the time excuse to get out. Yes, honesty is the best policy, but despite what you see on the Internet most people genuinely care about the feelings of other people. The "time lie" is seen as the least hurtful way to disengage from a campaign. Unfortunately, it's not, as it leaves the other person hanging in the air and it's dishonest and unfair. Just be honest.Now the issue in Stephen's question is momentum and how to maintain it when there are difficulties. I view momentum as enthusiasm and interest. If the player and GM are both engaged in a campaign then they both contribute to its momentum, when one of them loses interest momentum starts to lag. Scheduling difficulties can hurt momentum. Scheduling difficulties can also reflect loss of momentum from the "time lie". GMs have to be able to parse out one from the other, because there are different solutions to each of them. We'll be tackling both problems in this article, but we'll first focus on scheduling problems and how to use the Internet and some fun tricks to keep the campaign going when real life gets in the way.
The Internet
I have run duets by email, play-by-post (PBP), and through chat programs. There are a lot of advantages to using these tools -- one of which is that they make scheduling less of an issue. It's far easier for someone to plop down in front of the computer then to drive to their friend's house across town. With email and PBP, differing schedules isn't really that significant of an impact, though it does slow down the pacing but that can't be helped sometimes.
Running a duet by email has some advantages but in my opinion a lot more problems. The main advantage is that the other person's response is delivered straight to you for your response. The main disadvantage is that email can be a disaster from an organizational perspective. I do use email for a lot of the tricks mentioned further in the article, but I don't use it for campaigns anymore as there are better options -- such as PBP.
I like PBP. All you need is a forum and you're good to go. You have a thread where everything is compiled for easy reference. Scheduling is set by the pace of those involved, this can be frustratingly slow for those used to tabletop, but when the hassles of real life make tabletop impossible it still allows a modest pace for PBP. The trick to play-by-post is to understand its idiosyncrasies, which anyone can learn after taking part in a few campaigns. It is slower than tabletop but the quality of responses is usually superior. The slower pace also makes it great for beginning GMs who have more time to think and frame their responses to the actions of the player. Now there are a lot of tricks to play-by-post but I'm only going to hit some of the big ones:
Be Organized. I have run and played in a lot of PBP campaigns and the biggest factor for success and failure is organization. I see GMs all the time rush to start a campaign and within weeks it falls apart because they didn't have a plan. I'm not talking about a plan for the campaign but about how to run the campaign. There are a lot of decisions that the GM needs to make before he even announces a PBP campaign. How often will he update the thread? For a duet I think 3 times a week is reasonable, less than this and things will be moving too slowly. Where will information like character sheets and names of NPCs be kept? I reserve the first few posts in a thread for this information. It makes it easy to find and if you maintain the information it is less work than trying to find a name in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of posts. How will you handle dice rolling? Personally, I'm fine with the honor system but my players usually prefer to use dice rollers like Invisible Castle. The thing is that you need to have these questions answered before you start.
Pick a forum that works for you. Every forum is different. They are different in functionality and they are different in culture. A lot of this you can figure out in a few minutes checking out the forums. First, look to see which games are being played. Some forums have limits on what games can be played on the forums; limits to me are a warning sign. Some forums aren't that active, some are too active and overly crowded. Some forums aren't that friendly to new members. Follow your gut instincts. If you check out forums and they just don't feel right then don't start a campaign there. There are lots of options out there; just shop around till you find the right fit. It is better to find a good fit then sinking time into a community you will eventually leave anyway.
You might think starting your own forums is a good idea, but there are some caveats to this. Why reinvent the wheel when sites like RPGNet already have forums set up for PBP? However, I do have my own forums and I do run duets on them and it has only been a positive experience for me and my players. Still when you want to run a duet that is a little more eclectic and your small group balks at the idea, go to larger forums. You can pitch the craziest campaign ideas and you will get players -- there is that much desperation out there for new campaigns.
I could drone on and on about PBP, but let's move on to chats. Okay, nowadays you can even set up a chat with voice and video if everyone in the group is so equipped. It is just like tabletop -- except that it's not. Personally, I just use old-fashioned typing for chat and I run a weekly group campaign with players across the country, but I don't run duets on chats anymore. The problem is that chats require scheduling commitments and thus they aren't as flexible as PBP. Still it can work and one trick I used to do was to schedule chat blocks when I would be online and would run casual duet sessions while I was working on other things. It was faster than PBP and it worked alright, but for some reason I was never able to establish sustainable duet campaigns with chat like I can with tabletop and PBP. Though this brings up a point -- experiment with your options and find what works for you. You may hate PBP and love chats for your duets and that's wonderful; everyone has different preferences and it is best for you to find what works for you and use that.
The Internet is a great tool, but it's only a tool or more accurately a venue. It can provide you with more scheduling freedom and with a little practice you can run and maintain excellent duets online, but what about tabletop duet campaigns where real life is getting in the way? Hopefully, the next section will give you some tricks for handling that problem.
Alternative Roleplaying Techniques
Real life can get in the way. Work is crazy and you have to put in longer hours. It's spring break and the kids are home for the week. Your in-laws are visiting and occupying the game room. Life gets hard and you get too tired to roleplay and instead you just want to watch Bollywood movies. This is reality and if you try to fight against it you can end up scuttling a campaign, but there are ways to work with fatiguing times and maintain momentum with a campaign. The goal is to keep everyone thinking about the campaign and what follows are some ideas how to keep everyone engaged.
Conversations
As Stephen mentioned in his question you can hold in-character conversations anywhere. Many a time, my wife and I have held such conversations in long car drives, during walks, and so forth. You can also sometimes just talk over aspects of the campaign, such as trying to figure out political dynamics, mysteries, or just hammering out a plan of action. In these situations, the GM and player talk it over with the GM providing information the PC would know but there simply isn't enough time to go over everything in a game without it getting bogged down. This doesn't have to be done in-character and can also be very useful to the GM to get a heads up on where the PC is going in the campaign. Even a 15-minute pseudo session like this can keep everyone really engaged in the campaign. My only advice is to do what is comfortable and don't talk about certain things in public places. Sure you both are just planning the assassination of the evil high priest, but that probably isn't the best topic of discussion in public places nowadays.
Correspondence
I have become a fan of letters. So I write an in-character letter from a NPC and email it to my player. The player then does the same. I mostly do this with my wife and she writes up responses on the metro going to and from work. The letters can accomplish a lot. They can further romances. They can allow plans and machinations to be put into place. They can also expand the player's knowledge of the campaign. They are also fun if you can get into it. If you can write in different styles and manage to actually get into character when drafting a letter, it is a great roleplaying exercise. The letters also make excellent mementos for a campaign.
Handouts
Related to correspondence are handouts. I have to admit that I am addicted to handouts and have worked hard to reduce the number I create for campaigns. However, handouts are invaluable for complex duets. If you are running a political campaign then you need to have a resource explaining how politics work in the setting for the player. If the PC is running a mercenary unit, you need a handout giving the player pertinent information about the unit. I will also say that the player can make handouts as well. If a PC controls a mercenary unit then the player might have ideas about its organization and management and a handout for the GM would be invaluable. If your duet is going on hold for scheduling reasons then maybe both GM and player should come up with some things they can work on in the interim. The best handout is one that contains needed information, is fun to read, and provides a springboard for future adventures or encounters in the campaign.
Problems
Problems can be incorporated in letters or handouts and are challenges for the PC to confront. You don't roleplay these out -- you present the problem and related information to the player to tackle. This is a great thing to do over email. Some classic problems are strategizing, recruiting, and solving bureaucratic issues. If the PC is in command of an adventuring company that needs to hire a new member, the GM can send the player descriptions of a few candidates. The player can send back questions and tests with the GM providing the responses of the NPCs. This can be a lot of fun and even if you don't have scheduling problems it could be a fun thing to do by email to save time during the actual tabletop session for other things. The best problem is one that presents a moral or emotional choice. Technical problems are limited to the expertise of the player or perhaps to a dice roll and those aren't fun. Remember: the goal with momentum is making the campaign engaging and that is the point of a problem that you present as an aside to the campaign.
Game Design
A lull in the campaign is an opportunity to regroup, draw up some new NPCs, and flesh out some more of the setting, but this should not be a job the GM does alone in a duet. Even if the GM has plenty of time and it's the player with scheduling problems you should still offer to involve the player. If there is an NPC ally who needs to be fleshed out, then who better than the player who might already have a pretty clear idea of who the ally is. Remember: the GM in a duet is aiming for the imagination of the player so why fight that when you can enlist the player in helping you develop the world. Everyone loves drawing up characters, so share the wealth. For instance, if the PC is a priest then give the player the job of describing the faith in more detail. Use what the player creates regardless of whether it fits your view of things; in a duet everything is cooperative and flexibility is a necessity.
The Time Lie
Both GMs and players can become disenchanted with a campaign and that makes finding time nearly impossible. Fixing this is impossible, unless there is communication or the GM is a telepath, but that's pretty rare. Like any campaign where interest flags the goal is to fix the problems and move things forward. Maybe the player is stressed or bored with a current story arc. In a duet, player frustration can happen and the GM needs to watch for this. If you think that is the case then scrap the current story arc and move on: "yes, it appears the Duke had a heart attack last night and is dead so the kingdom is saved!" The amazing thing is that doing this is closer to reality as things can and do change overnight by happenstance. Try something new for the next story arc, though after a lull it's best to fall back to what works. Now if the GM isn't making adjustments and the player isn't communicating then there is a problem -- and both are to blame. I can't say this enough: communication is critical. It is better to be honest and try to salvage things or start a new campaign than just let things fall apart because of a fear of hurting feelings.
