28
votes
D&D campaign recomendation for solo/two people
I'm really tired of finding groups of people to play D&D (in person), is there any solo/two people campaign that me and I friend can play with?
Please something simple, I have a little more experience playing it but have never DM'd before, but we're both very creative, so I can think we both can still have fun
Would you consider an alternative system? D&D can work with minimal players, but I feel you'd get more mileage out a system that has two player coop/solo play baked into it.
I didn't realize you were the one who posted this, because I really wanted to comment if there were similar options with Munchkin (which I used to play with an ex... doesn't quite work though, as DND doesn't either).
But I'll totally ride in on your coattails... I think that's the right idiom?
I like munchkin a lot but ya it really doesn't work well without at least 3 players.
I did have a lot of fun with 2-player Gloomhaven though it's a bit more tactical and can be a bit of a commitment to setup.
Far Away is another great 2-player co-op game where you get to role-play the enemies, the missions are much shorter though.
I have an online friend who plays Gloomhaven, but I haven't.
But as I mentioned, my ex and I did manage to do some Munchkin gaming... just this was like over 20 years ago.
Also back the "don't play D&D with 2 players" advice. The game is built for a group of 2 to 5 players and a DM, you'll not have much fun trying to get it to work with 1 player or twist it to be DM-less.
To add to the recommendations, my friend and I played a lot of Ironsworn as a two player thing and it was awesome. It's made to be GM-less and it let's you naturally build a really coherent story. It also rides the line perfectly (imo) between rules light and rules enough.
It has a few different "flavours" for high and low fantasy and a version for sci fi.
Big recommend.
I have zero experience with tabletop RPGs (solo or otherwise), but a colleague/friend of mine recently wrote a blog post about his experience with Ironsworn that goes into a lot of detail about what someone who's interested in it might expect.
Thanks for this blog post - it saved me a LOT of unnecessary confusion: Ironsworn's core book rules DO NOT INCLUDE THE NECESSARY ASSET CARDS AND REFERENCES IN IT TO PLAY THE GAME. This only became apparent to me after skimming this post and seeing a bunch of cards types that are straight up not in the book...
Emberwind is a GMless system that you can try! I always recommend them because the studio developing it is very ADHD and dyslexia friendly. If you're more into combat, Kinfire Chronicles or Gloomhaven might be good too.
The name of the game you're looking for is a "Duet Game". D&D probably isn't the best system since it assumes a 4+ person party in the action economy for combat and a wide distribution of skill options out of combat. If you do decide to go with D&D consider having your player make a gestalt character to make sure that they have enough versatility
I ran a Duet game once, and it was pretty tiring. It made me appreciate how much each additional player adds not a small amount of downtime for the GM to collect themself, think ahead, or just take a quick break from RP. With a Duet it's pretty full on, there's no opportunity for the players to chat with each other!
A big problem having only 1 player in a dnd party is that, once that player is down, its game over, whereas typically another player can jump in and help out.
The starter module "dragon of Icespire peak" is designed for 1-5 players (plus gm) and fixes the aformentioned problem by including a sidekick system, giving a solo player an NPC that can help them out. I personally didnt use the sidekicks but I ran the module and it was pretty fun and rather easy to pickup, so I would definetly recommend giving it a try.
Even me being very anti-AI, I'm almost thinking of letting chatGPT being the dungeon master for both of us, but that would be less fun.
Please consider some of these ttrpg's! I know they're not D&D, but they're not hard to learn, and are made by people with a lot of passion :) Outside of D&D, there is a HUGE community of people creating tabletop rpg's for 1/2 players. Here's some I've bought myself:
Artefact - 1 Player - link
Ex Novo - 1-4 Players - link
MIRU - 1 Player - link
Haxen - 1 Player - link
Runecairn - 2 Players (one DM, one adventurer) - link
Against the Wind - 1 or More Players - link
Koriko: A Magical Year - 1 Player - link
Her Odyssey - 1 Player - link
Kal-Arath - 1 or More Players - link
These spark so much joy for me. I hope you see one you like and give it a try. Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!!
I'm not the op but I've been looking for something to DM that isn't D&D! I only have either one or two players and it's my first time DMing.
Hi! Glad you're interested in getting out side of D&D. Did you check out any of the games I listed? Runecairn might be a good place to start. It explicitly states it's for one DM and one adventurer.
The indie TTRPG world is so big with tons of stuff that supports 1-2 players. What kind of genre/settings do you like?
Yes! I did look at Ruinecairn. I'm also planning to run for 2 people in another session if all goes well with the first one, so I'm still on the lookout.
I tend to prefer sci-fi. But that's me specifically. My players are okay with sci fi, but they're more into fantasy, but the less vanilla sort? I don't know how to explain. Not so much adventurers in an inn.
Not the guy you responded to but I'm really curious about this too! I'd like:
Anything that lands for those?
EDIT in case you come back to this: Ironsworn is looking pretty close to what I'd be interested in... I don't love how the books are laid out though.
Shadowdark (old-school feel with 5e mechanics) has an expansion to the basic rules called Solodark that I've heard good things about (the PDF is even free).
You might be able to use the free Quickstart Set to try out solo play before you buy it.