This is the final installment of Duets. I've been running duets for twenty years and writing about them in one form or another for the last nine. The writing began with a mega-thread I started with Doug Lohse on the Wizards of the Coast forums on the topic. We shared our thoughts on the subject and answered questions for GMs. We called duets 'solo campaigns' at that point; it wasn't until I started this column that I settled on the name 'duets' for roleplaying consisting of one GM with one player. The hobby and industry favors the terms 'solo' and 'one-on-one'. 'Solo' is just not accurate as this is not a choose-your-own-adventure approach while 'one-on-one' is very confrontational or kinky sounding and a poor term for the subject. 'Duets' invokes the cooperation and harmony that a one GM with one player roleplaying experience creates; it's a great term for a great aspect of roleplaying and I consider its introduction and promulgation the biggest success of this column.

For myself, duets began as a compromise. I wanted to GM but organizing a group was often more work than it was worth. Frustration led me to focus on small groups of one to three players. Then I discovered something startling: the smaller the group the better the roleplaying. You could accomplish so much more with fewer players. I've run a lot of duets, mostly with my wife, and the pacing, detail, and narratives are vastly more intricate and compelling than nearly all of my group experiences. It's a very different way of roleplaying - more intimate, more demanding, and more frightening. Groups provide a shield for both the GM and the individual players. You deal with the events happening in the setting with a degree of detachment and the group dynamic slows the pace and often absorbs the drama. I'll admit that I've been in some groups where the players fully invest and find a way to harmonize with one another. That doesn't mean their PCs all get along, just that they find a dynamic between their PCs that makes the session engaging and the campaign dynamic. Yet if you compare duets to groups overall the quality of the roleplaying and story development is like night and day.

Why is this? I've theorized a lot on this over the years and come up with two simple reasons. First, in a duet there's less distractions. You have one GM who is focused on one player and you have one player who is completely focused on the adventure. Second, and perhaps this is the cause of the first reason, is that the player has so much time to work with. Let's say you GM a three-hour session with five players. The GM will take up at least half of that time or about 90 minutes. The five remaining players each should get about 18 minutes - which means that only 10% of the entire time of the session a player will get to actually roleplay and interact with the setting. It's no wonder they're distracted and quote movies or fiddle with their phones; they are sitting passively for 162 minutes. With a duet the GM still takes up half the time, though with less repetition and explanation needed, while the player has all the rest of the time to herself. This is the essence of why duets are so effective - they give you more time. Not only that but duets are easy to schedule so not only do you make better use of your time, you can game more often as well.

Now there is something I have not discussed much at all that's perhaps the secret ingredient for duets: the compatibility of GM and player. How well their play styles mesh will define the success of their duet. It's a pretty obvious point, but I've danced around it in various columns preferring to focus on the necessity of communication and compromise. The truth is there is no GM and player who are in perfect harmony. I would posit that even if a role-player could make an exact clone of herself their play styles would be different. We are fickle beings. This is one reason groups have an advantage over duets as the group dynamic waters down play style differences. With duets everything is out on the table and differences will become apparent. Compatibility is not having the same play style; it's being willing to humor each other's play styles. This isn't really compromise so much as finding enjoyment outside of your comfort zone. My point is that when you are lucky enough to find a partner to run duets with whose play style meshes with yours, then cherish that relationship. How do you do that? You go more than half way in humoring and finding enjoyment in their preferences. They'll do the same, and when both of you go beyond halfway then everyone gets an experience that is better than 100% of what they expected. I am extremely fortunate to have a wife who is both my favorite player and GM. Duets made that possible.

I have at this point pretty much exhausted my opinions on the subject of duets. All that remains is to thank everyone who's taken the time to read these columns and especially to those who've taken the time to comment on the forums or send me a private message. It is my sincere hope that this column has helped people start up their own duets as they are truly fantastic experiences. Beyond this, I intend to do a new column starting, hopefully, in January that will be more focused on group roleplaying, though I suspect it will have application to duets as well.

Thanks for reading! Now go start a duet.