Good point about not worrying about game balance. You can fiddle around a lot with single player games.

When I was first introduced to roleplaying it was 1978/79 with AD&D 1e. There were three of us at first but one moved away leaving just myself and a neighbor.

I was stationed at a remote missile site in Europe in the late 80s. Not many people to choose from. Ran a few 1 player games.

Just prior to Desert storm, same thing; Two people sitting in a bunker with nothing to look at but dust, rock, and sand. A hand full of dice were all we had. (I was damned if I was going into combat without my favorite d20 in my pocket). The character sheet was a pack of Marlboro Box turned inside out with the classic S-I-W-D-C-CH in grease pencil. Some guessed AC and thac0 and hours and hours of fun times. No books no stats no feats. Just cooperative story-telling with dice and imagination.

Years later my wife and I would game, just the two of us, because we WERE our game group. We didn’t know anyone. (Work moved me around a lot).

There is a lot of fun to be had in 1pc campaigns. Make em powerful, let them have fun. Overthrow despots, and crown gods… and vice versa. Don’t worry over-much about what some book says is a requirement or ‘rule’. Bend them for the PC and have a blast.

Oh, and make healing potions / salves / balms / bandages / binders common items. Binders were an old 1e/2e cheat item ala medicated bandaids. A pack of 50 cloth strips in a pouch or bundle caked in some salve that could be torn off the bundle and applied to a wound for 1d3 hp each. No more than 1 per ‘wound’ (hit). basically wounds = number of times hit in combat.

I’m now playing a 4e game with my 2 cousins, and they’re each playing 2 PCs.
.-= David´s last blog ..Balticon!! =-.

Different strokes, I guess.

-Tourq
.-= Tourq´s last blog ..Quetsen Sisten, the Loyal Slave – Steal this Background =-.

cent 1: If you are worried about the player not having broad enough horizons, consider the Gestalt optional rule from Unearthed Arcana (and also described at d20srd.org). It basically makes it so the character advances in 2 (or more if you want!) classes at a time, getting all their special abilities, and if stat increases and such overlap, use the biggest. The character will not actually be overpowered, since you still have action economy to worry about, but will definitely be a lot more versatile.

cent 2: This would be the perfect time to put the PC in a position of power. With only 1 PC, you will not have a group whining that PC1 got to become king while they didn’t. Maybe not right away, but you can work the PC up the chain of command.