Hello D-worlders, I have been away from RPG for a very long time, about 30 years now. I was going to get back into DnD, but stumbled on Dungeon World, I have read the book and some companion material. I am just reviewing forums for more details about some rules and procedures that have been a little vague.
I am so excited to begin, I am going to attempt sessions with my wife and ask her to play two characters, while i try to use limited Characters in an NPC style. I want to use a Cleric elf and a Barbarian protector. i am thinking the Cleric to be very weak but strong in magic hence the Barbarian as shield. I will use a very strong bond that assures the barbarian is only along to shield the cleric and the cleric is only along to heal the group.
Has anyone tried two player? and thoughts or advice?
Knee jerk reaction? Dungeon World works just fine with a single player and DM. You don’t need to have two fully fleshed out PCs.
Why not let your wife make a PC as usual? You could provide an NPC follower or hireling, but it’s not really necessary.
Thanks for opinion. This is what I love about DW, it is easy to adjust. I am excited to flesh out the NPC, maybe I convince my wife to DM a little and I have two characters ready to go .
You might be interested in the Legacy Weapon Supplement, which is built for two players.
drivethrurpg.com – The Legacy Weapon – A Dungeon World Artifact and One Shot
I’ve played with my wife as a solo character and a hireling. Works just fine. Make the world as dangerous as needed to still be fun. And play in a way that makes the character shine (wizard to wizard things. Barbarian do barbaric things).
My wife played an immolator that loved to burn things to the ground set in a desert area. So it was very chaotic and allot of roaming.
I’m just now seeing this or I would have commented earlier… I ran a one-on-one game with my son playing a wizard that lasted 9 sessions and worked fine. He had an NPC friend who I would role play but he’d run in combat. As Robert Doe said, make the character shine!
Same experiences here. I’ve run DW a lot with just my partner and it works great. Robert Doe gave excellent advice about making the adventure about their individual class. The wizard should be on a wizard adventure to do wizard stuff, not picking locks and tracking rare beasts.
My partner loves playing thief characters, so we set our last campaign in a big intrigue filled city sandbox with loads of people to spy on, steal from, and assassinate. Great fun. In fact, I’ve been knocking around a rough draft for a Blades in the Dark / Dungeon World hybrid thing designed specifically for 2 player games.
Anyway, get stuck in. 2 player DW is boss.
Stephen Karnes Thanks for all the advice, seems I have nothing to worry about really. Love to hear more about the Hybrid idea I am not familiar with Blades of the Dark.
Todd Marion It’s just a notecatcher document in GDocs at the moment, but your post reminded me to do something with it.
Blades in the Dark is a sort of PbtA game about gangs of ne’er-do-wells in a whale punk city. I want to make a rule-set which utilizes the ensemble nature of Blades with the D&D inspired antics of Dungeon World but specifically for 1 GM and 1 PC.
Stephen Karnes Sounds terrific, my wife loved the game session . Would be great to have some more well defined single player scenarios.