A thought about single-player DW games…

A thought about single-player DW games…

A thought about single-player DW games…

I have run a single-player game for my son, who played a wizard, and now I’m running a single-player game for a friend via e-mail (because reasons), who’s playing a fighter. I gave my son’s wizard several hirelings throughout his campaign, and so far my friend’s Fighter is accompanied by an NPC Cleric (his fighter’s brother).

I just finished the Final Fantasy XII remaster for PS4 (Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age) and I really like how they changed the “license board” so that each character specializes in two “jobs” (i.e. classes) instead of everyone ending up being able to do everything.

So I was thinking about using a “two jobs” method for a single-player game to fill in some party-holes (and although I really like Class Warfare, I don’t want to burden my payer with too many choices), wherein the player chooses his/her character’s main playbook (where all almost everything will come from), and then gets all of the starting moves from a second playbook of his/her choice, with perhaps a little modification (here they’ll get to decide which playbook they wish to take their race and alignment from).

A couple concerns come to mind immediately:

Cleric / Wizard (or Wizard / Cleric): That’s up to the GM to allow

Multiclass Moves: You can only use it for a move from your second playbook.

Wizard / Fighter: Obviously it’ll depend on how you assign your stats as to how effective it will be, but a friend suggested you re-skin Bend Bars, Lift Gates as Telekinesis and let them use INT (I personally like the idea of a Wizard with Signature Weapon… Gandalf carried a magical sword, and you could always add staves and daggers to the list)

I think with a little imagination this would make a character more versatile and fictionally more interesting.

What other concerns should I be thinking about?

Would you allow this in your game?

Would it fit into a multi-player game (to fill some holes in the party)?

Any and all input is welcome!

6 thoughts on “A thought about single-player DW games…”

  3. Check Class Warfare book, and build custom Playbooks as you see fit for you.

    Also, make a good use of Hirelings, so you can have a nice party around your single Hero. This can be useful to overcome difficulties, and to spark cool in-party narrative. Side note: I don’t like the standard DW Hirelings rules, so I suggest you to buy The Perilous Wilds, an awesome addiction for your DW games, that gives you awesome “modules” to enhance exploration, random (and cool) dungeon generation, and last but not least Followers that are sort of “semplified characters” that I love in game, much more than the “one ability and no stats Hireling”.

  4. I’m also a big fan of using items to fill rolls. That is, a wizard with a legendary sword that grants strength in some manner (not necessarily stats). Or a Cleric with an intelligent musical instrument that tells tales and stories or each town you enter.

    These make for exciting moments, keep “balance” and really let the hole quest for awesome gear shine

  5. I’ve been doing a lot of single player games lately, here are my findings sofar:

    Play by post (or email in your case) works great for single player DW. Given how much narrative input you need from the players, doing this ‘live’ 1 on 1 can be a bit intensive.

    Something to watch out for it keeping the balance between asking questions to your player and making stuff up as a GM intact. If in a given situation with 4 players you would ask every player a question and then go from there, you probably do not want to shift to asking all 4 of those questions to your single player.

    It is not strictly needed to have hirelings or NPCs going along with your character. However, they are very useful to have around to broaden your player’s options. If you do have them, keep in mind that you want to be a fan of the PLAYER, not the npcs and/or the hirelings. The PC should still get (most of) the cool stuff to do.

    Don’t be afraid to harm and/or kill npcs or hirelings. This gives the player a chance to be heroic. It also gives you an option to do something with those horrid changes of 6- rolls you will surely get at some point, other than killing your player…

    An alternative to bringing along npcs and hirelings is simply having your player play multiple characters. Play by post is in this case recommended. In one of my current campaigns, my single player is playing 3 characters. At some point the party was completely split up, and it still worked quite well. (thanks to the game being play by post, else it would likely have been a mess)

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