One-on-One D&D, Running The Game 

Someone on the subreddit made a template for Retainers based on Jason's art! www.reddit.com/r/mattcolville/comments/ga6eou/i_made_this_sf_retainer_card_template_based_on/

“Sometimes in life the only trick is working hard at something for hours and hours.” Words to live by.

I love doing one-on-one sessions. I've mostly used them as one-shots to add more moving pieces and characters into my world. I've had each of the players in my big game do one-on-one sessions as new characters as a way to tell contained stories, and then they are always excited when those characters show up as NPCs in the campaign. It is a fun way to keep things fresh and add get players invested in certain stakes that aren't directly tied to their main PC.

I would echo Matt’s video of the solo adventures. Once I ran with my friend Steve’s Knight an adventure to save the town from A horrible fiend. It was a doppelgänger, it was tense, dramatic and heroic. Wuz always claimed it was the best adventure ever. Right on Matt!

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED RIGHT NOW

Just started a onevone game with my wife. She's really loving it and so am I. She wanted to let you know Matt that she can never remember what your name is so calls you 'Dude with the good hair'. So it's been the running joke in our house.

Matt, 3 years ago: I don't put ads on my videos. Me: That's cool with me Matt now: Imma monitize my content. Me: That's cool with me

Just thought I'd write this here as a therapeutic exercise. Hi, Matt. When everything got weird, my friend invited me to play D&D for the first time over Discord with him and his brothers. We've played three times a week since March. I ran across your videos - I love your content, I love your attitude, I love your inclusiveness and your willingness to teach and have fun. I'm 33 years old and I've just discovered "table top" D&D for the first time. On Sunday, I'm DMing my first campaign for more friends using your videos as tutelage. Thank you so much for being a positive thing in a weird time and to helping me find this hobby, for allowing for escapism, for introducing me to something normalizing. Keep on doing your thing - I'm rooting for you, and it looks like many, many people are, too. Thank you.

Just gonna add that I’ve been running a 1:1 campaign for my gf on and off for about about four years, and she runs a party of four and it’s great. We did add the new characters so we could have bigger combats, but each character is now a fully fleshed out pc and we are invested in all of them. We started with a solo character and added the others over time, so the increase in complexity was gradual. I recommend this.

I was literally about to work on a one on one that I am doing in an hour, and wanted to know if Matt Colville had anything to say about it. Then, number 1 on my feed, posted 4 hours ago is this video. Praise Bahumat

"Now, yes, we chewed through an entire dungeon in a few hours. It would have taken the party a lot longer to kill their way through that and that meant my prepped content didn't last as long. That's bad. But Wallace later said it was the most fun he'd ever had playing D&D. That's good. " The frogurt is also cursed. That's bad. It's all I could think about at that point. Great video!

Cap: “Tony Stark? I’m Captain America.” Tony: “Hang on, what is this? I met you thinking you were an NPC.” Ah yes, exactly how I remember it.

My thought process here: "Yay! Monday morning MCDM!" "Wait .... is today Wednesday?" "What even is time anymore?"

Just gonna throw this out here in case anyone is interested: Seth Skorkowsky has an excellent video on running mysteries.

Multiple asynchronous solo games that are encouraged to intertwine? That's a god-damned brilliant idea. I'm taking that shit _now._

When u catch a Matt Colville's video still hot from the oven! :3

When I think about about running a one-on-one session: "Eh." After I see Mathhew talk about running it: "AHHHH I WANNA RUN ONE ON ONE DND SO MUCH RIGHT NOW"

i liked Matt Mercers one-on-one shot with Stephen Colbert. a great example of it working well and exciting someone who hasn't played since childhood.

One of my first games was with my brother as the DM and I still remember it almost perfectly. Partially because it was just me, and partially because of all the crazy crap I pulled that made it so memorable. For example, at the very beginning, I was fighting a grizzly bear near a river. I realized I was losing, grabbed the bear around the neck and drowned it in the river. Shortly afterwards, I fought off a group of blights that were attacking a town for a solid in-game minute, winning mostly through weird gimmicks such as lighting one on fire, then throwing it into the rest, killing dozens. Another time, I found a young green dragon in its lair and convinced it to join me. My younger sister joined shortly afterwards as the dragon (And she still asks if she can play a dragon in my games) and when we fought a hydra, we came up with the idea of turning her poison breath into fire breath by holding a torch next to her mouth and lighting the poison on fire. We stopped playing not too long afterwards because I lost my character sheet, but I'm not sure I've ever had that much fun since.

Hi Mr. Colville. Love your videos. I'm a subscriber. I share your work with my friends. I have been running D&D solo, online (through text--no cams/mic) since I was 13 years old. My circumstances growing up and playing D&D were unique in that owing to a conservative household and social milieu, I had no one to play with--but I had the books and I loved roleplaying. I'm always the DM and I always, always run for a single solo player, and the experience is so satisfying for both of us. It feels less like traditional D&D and more like a shared narrative experience. After nearly two decades of playing this way, I like to think I've developed a lot of confidence in my style. A lifetime of playing D&D solo actually helped me land my job, which involves writing for video games. Thank you so much for making this video. It's so rare to see someone recognize this style of playing D&D, because it's the style I grew up with and the style I practice. Thank you also for continuing to be a welcoming, open-hearted role model for D&D enthusiasts and soon-to-be enthusiasts. I respect and admire your role in helping us curate this game that we love.

I'm launching my One-on-One game tonight. Well session zero. This was interesting to listen to and I agree, the risks are great! One thought for not reducing combat to just a single monster is to use 4th edition minions. Still dramatic, but more monsters :)

7:55 "So, I guess this makes this an ad." Oh, jeez. The pain on Matt’s face when he succumbed to that fact. That was very funny.

I was planning to do 1-on-1 with each of my players as a session 0, or 0.1, or whatever. Then I suddenly had four more players than I was planning on, and had to scrap it in favor of actually getting to play the game.

4:39 This discussion about your use of a Terry Pratchett novel as the basis for your adventure brings up an important idea that can never be mentioned too many times. Take the things you like, make it your own, and stick it in your game. Take the things you know backwards and forwards, and stick it in your game. Take the things your players don't know, and stick it in your game. A few months ago, I ran a one-on-one adventure with one of my friends exploring an abandoned tower dungeon as part of a holy pilgrimage. It involved a lot of skill checks, a handful of combat encounters designed for one player, and the meeting of a Githzerai follower for this session. The point is, I lifted a ton of the stuff (the architecture, the scenery, etc.) from a location of a video game that I played a long time ago. I did this because I thought it would be fun to have a cool tower like that in my campaign and it would be easy to recreate since I played the crap out of that game; I knew it inside and out, and I gambled that he didn't. Later he told me that it was the most engaging and exciting adventure that I had ever run, and he hoped that everyone else in the party would be able to have an experience like that.

My father used to DM for just me when I younger we had so much fun together and it was an amazing experience

I've missed you so much. I want more Matt lol.

I have zero experience in D&D, let along DM’ing. I’m trying to get my son into it as I think he would enjoy it. Your video series has helped me immensely. Keep up the awesome content!

When I ran a one on one campaign with my friend, I gave him 2 sidekicks (2 PCs who's players never showed up). Out of combat, I RP'ed them with their intentions and ideas, but in combat the player was running them. I did this for one good reason: If my PC had a great idea and got the kill, I'd be stealing the spotlight from the player, but if I had them doing stupid stuff to not get the kill, the player would catch up to that instantly (that happened actually, and after that I thought about making him run combat). That made it so the player could think tactically in a way that we can't usually do in D&D (of course, that involves meta gaming, but it was fun so who cares?) and I never stole a kill again! 100% recommend, and would do it again

I've done this with my wife. She loved opportunities to blast her AoE Thunderclap on multiple weak enemies. I am an incredibly bad roller, so she walked through bunches of enemies and picked up nice magic items. I had to prod her at times, but overall we had a ton of fun.

Dude, the idea of multiple solo-campaigns crossing over to lead up to a full party campaign sounds amazing. Amazing way to get people super comfortable with their character and really invested in their backstory. Additionally, I’m getting ready to introduce my brothers to D&D, and I think one-on-one campaigning leading to a two PC party might be a good way to go!

One of my best friends ran me through a solo adventure storyline that was set in my character's backstory. You would think that it being set in your own character's past would somehow lower the stakes, but I was terrified and engaged the whole time. Definitely one of my all-time favorite mini campaigns!

This has been my primary TTRPG method for about 26 years give or take. I adore it as a DM/GM, but be warned if you live with the player in question they start to view you as their captive DM. Caveat Emptor!

I remember around the launch of 4e I used to read a really awesome single player campaign on the D&D forums. The character was Joe the Commoner, and he was literally a level 1 commoner from 3.5e, which sounds boring, but was really fascinating to read as seemingly mundane events gradually gave way to more interesting things and his character gradually grew.

Drak Th’n Bolak here, deployed with Red Cross to disaster in NorCal during pandemic times. Maximal stress. This video really brightened my day and reminded me that I get to run D&D again after deployment! Thanks, Matt, you are a River!

A blessed day this is, because there's a new Matt Colville video

“So I guess that makes this an ad” Hey that was funny. I really missed these videos. Thanks for all you do.

His expression when he says "That makes this an ad!" is amazing. The despair.

I have been playing for nearly 25 years, and DMing for 18 of that. And I still learn something great from all these videos. Thank you!

I've been waiting all lockdown for some sweet sweet Colville vids, I love it!

I love Colville! He was part of the inspiration that led Mat and I start our own Channel. It was very interesting to see him take a crack at a topic we've covered in the past. Quite different! A lot on sidekick NPCs and retelling of story while we focused on how one-on-one can elevate your game if you use it in conjunction with a regular party. we tend to restrict ourselves to the topic at hand, but watching this video I learn that, even a tip video can mostly be about retelling events from past game. I guess that is what makes him endearing. Thanks Colville! You are great! -Chris

I ran my fiancée through Curse of Strahd like this-one-on-one, with a Grave Cleric ally, starting at 3rd Level. It was her introduction to D&D, and we both look back fondly on that game. Great advice, great video, and I’m greatly looking forward to the Friday Night Stream!

This is great! I love sessions with only one or two PCs. I especially like your ideas with sidekicks. Here are a few things that I've has some success with involving sidekicks in my games: - consider letting the player roll for the sidekick… sometimes. Not for general rolls or for battle, since that can get tedious and feel like a chore, but more so when the sidekick is doing something especially important. The sidekick is captured and has a chance to lie their way out? The sidekick is the rogue/criminal of the duo and needs to pick an important lock? These are things that might feel too planned or fudged to a player if the DM rolls and succeeds for the sidekick, BUT if the PC is the roller, then it can feel more realistic/earned. Going off of a point Matt made, a failure on this roll shouldn’t mean the quest is now blocked/ended, but they face some sort of setpack. Now, some players like the idea of this while others don’t. Easy solution to that - ask them beforehand if they want you (the DM) to handle all the rolls of the sidekick, or if they’d like to have a chance to roll on important things. - consider giving the sidekick a fear. Not a fear that makes them useless or a block to the player, but rather something where, if the player supports the NPC and rallies behind them, that the NPC is more effective and can help even more. For instance, maybe the player is a large goliath and their sidekick is a small goblin who fears spiders. Now, say you have a magic item that can help them on their quest (but is NOT necessary) hidden in a small, spiderweb-filled crawlspace. Can the PC persuade their goblin friend to overcome their fear and crawl down that tunnel? Getting the sidekick to overcome their fears as a result of a PC’s action is a great bonding moment for them! You’ll find that some PCs don’t even care about or need a reward - they just want to see their buddy prevail! - consider making the sidekick a bard, especially for a martial-focused PC. Now, I don’t mean the kinds of bards that steal the show. Bards are great bases for a support NPC with all of their bardic inspiration, buff/debuff abilities, and pretty solid healing capabilities. Basically make them your PC’s hype man… not the main act. That is, unless the PC is trying to get their more Charisma-based sidekick to do some typical bard stuff, then let them! Your NPCs aren't stealing the show from the PCs if the PCs actively want their sidekick to do something, especially if they had to go out of their way to convince their fearful or stubborn sidekick to do so. Then the sidekick’s win is the PC’s win too! - When in doubt - ASK! Ask the player what kind of sidekick they want. Dnd is all about cooperative storytelling. They don’t need to plan out the sidekick completely (even though that’s okay too!), but they can give you a general sense of if they want a healer, battlefield manipulator, tank, etc. Alternatively, let your PC choose from an assortment of sidekicks in-game. Maybe the PC posted a job ad and a few NPCs showed up. They only have enough money to pay for one, so who do they want? The bloodthirsty barbarian dwarf that spends a little too long at the bar? The shady elven wizard who they’re not sure isn’t a necromancer? The kleptomaniac tabaxi monk that feels a sense of motherly duty toward the PC? It’s up to them to decide! That way, it is more of an active decision than you just handing them an NPC and they are stuck with them. 9 times out of 10, a chosen NPC is better than one forced on the player.

Me: *about to go to bed at midnight so I can get a decent sleep* Matt: *uploads* Me: Me: eh what'd sleep ever do for me?

One way to give your players an advantage in action economy is to give them Legendary Actions. It'll make them feel much more immersed in the combat and gove them a power trip at the same time because of how they're facing multiple threats at the same time.

I was just wondering where you were. I have been watching your “running the game videos” in preparation for Soulbound, the AoS RPG. Keep up the great work.

This video inspired me to write a solo session for one of my seven players. Not the first, and not the last, but you supplied the spark. Thanks, Matt. Sincerely.

Already seen the video, getting recommended it so much suddenly. Algorithm is loving the fact this title has "One D&D" in it I guess.

PERFECT FREAKING TIMING! I AM ABOUT TO DO THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME.

I'm a simple man. I see a new Matt Colville video, I stop what I'm doing and watch.

My greatest peak of being a DM, which occurred after a near party wipe in the Dungeon of the Dead Three in the 'Descent Into Avernus' campaign module: The halfling rogue Ephraim Tumblepotts had barely escaped with his life when servitors of Bane and Bhaal caught his adventuring party. The half-elven sorcerer Davvalor had, in a fit of overconfident zeal, ignited a room full of natural gas with a fire bolt cantrip. Now he, the human paladin Hector Hardwick, and the eladrin ranger Alariel were captives of a death cult. And only a bag of caltrops and quick feet had kept the halfling from suffering the same fate. Now, though, he had a problem. In order to complete his investigation, find a kidnapped (or, more likely, dead) tiefling woman he believed was being kept here, and live to tell about it, he would have to rescue his meat shields - er, invaluable comrades-in-arms. His options were: 1) attempt to stealthily move through the dungeon and free his friends, or 2) go back to his employer, an unscrupulous guard-captain in the Flaming Fist, for help. He didn’t like either option, but decided to go with what’s behind door number 2. And then there was me. See, I knew that at the conclusion of this “adventure”, there was a final encounter: a group of cultists in the service of Tiamat, who were looking for treasure stolen from Tiamat’s personal horde and given to the Dead Three cultists (talk about cajones). And I decided… well, they have been scoping this place out, and here comes a halfling who very much does NOT belong to this death cult, but may be able to lead us through the dungeon to “our Queen’s” treasure… or they might just kill him. So, the dragon cultist leader approached the wary halfling. Ephraim, being a chaotic-neutral rogue with no real depth to his scruples, decided that in this case, the enemy of his enemy was his friend. And he struck a bargain: the cultists helped him recover his friends, and they could help themselves to whatever treasures the dungeon held that belonged to Tiamat. He was really smooth in his roleplaying, and made some great Charisma checks to go with it, so the cultist found this agreeable. Except… halflings can’t really see all that well in the dark, which the dungeon was. The dragon cultist commented on this, and made an offer to Ephraim - until the conclusion of this “little excursion”, he could grant Ephraim “the sight of a dragon”. Ephraim, not seeing anything sinister behind this offer, agreed. He gained darkvision with a 60-foot range, and blindsight to a range of 10 feet (from the statistics of a common wyrmling). This decision, in effect, changed the entire course of my campaign. What Ephraim didn’t know, what he wouldn’t realize until the rest of his party saw him after he had carefully snuck through the dungeon and to where they were being interrogated by a priestess of Bhaal, was that he didn’t just have the sight of a dragon… he had the eyes of a dragon. I described to the other players (and, by extension, to Ephraim’s player) that his eyes were luminous pools of azure and cerulean swirls, with slender black slits where his irises and pupils should be. I don’t think anybody was as surprised as Jeremy, Ephraim’s player, but the other players just asked in disbelief: “What the hell happened while we were unconscious?!” Now comes the climactic moment of drama. After the adventure was over, and Ephraim had saved the party and the NPC tiefling Vendetta Kress, and the party had put a stop to the murderous plots of the cult of the Dead Three, the dragon cultist tells Ephraim that their deal is concluded. He waves his hand in a dismissive motion, and suddenly Ephraim cannot see. His eyes are gone, and only empty sockets are left. The party is furious, but they are significantly weakened after dealing with the threats of the dungeon, while the cultists are fresh and have stronger numbers. The cultist tells Ephraim that he will have to speak with the cultist's lord if he wishes to recover his eyes. Ephraim, seeing not much else in immediately available options, acquiesces. The cultist performs a profane ritual, and Ephraim can see, in his mind’s eye, a tower of obsidian and bone standing against a backdrop of a crimson sky. Ash and flaming meteorites fall from the heavens and smash into a scorched-earth landscape all around. And standing beside the tower is an imposing red dragonborn in black plate armor. His right hand is immediately eye-catching - it is unnatural, the flesh appears to be rotting on it, and it is obviously not his own. There is a clear delineation where the red scales of his forearm end and the putrefied flesh of the Hand begins. The dragonborn introduces himself to the bewildered halfling as the disciple of the “True God”, the dragon queen Tiamat. In his left hand, this one normal, are a pair of eyes - Ephraim’s eyes. Ephraim is tasked with performing a profane duty for Tiamat, who has foreseen that the halfling will soon be traveling in Avernus. Ephraim does not know what this sworn duty is, but he must agree to it if he wants his vision restored. He makes the pact with the mysterious figure, and awakens with his eyes, thankfully, back where they belong. Weeks, if not months, later, the party is traveling in Avernus of the Nine Hells. They come across a traveling bazaar, run by a rakshasa. He greets the party amicably - the customer is king, after all, and asks them about themselves. When Ephraim introduces himself, the rakshasa looks surprised at hearing the name. He bows low, saying, “Ah, the Herald himself! Please, do give my warmest regards to your queen when next you see her.” Ephraim’s player Jeremy is taken aback. He asks the rakshasa: “What do you mean, Herald?” The rakshasa answers, “Surely you jest. The Herald of Tiamat! He who will pave the way for her return to the Material Plane and usher in an eternity of darkness and torment! We are very much excited you have finally arrived.” The party is stunned, and Ephraim Tumblepotts starts to get the first glimpse of what lies ahead for him. This presents a multitude of roleplaying opportunities for Jeremy (and don’t worry, all the other characters got a chance to shine, but Jeremy is the only player to have been in a situation which sort of required a solo adventure), up to and including a face-to-face (to face to face to… you get it, Tiamat has a lot of heads) with the dragon queen herself! Jeremy told me it was the coolest thing he had done as a player or a DM as far back as he could remember, and as a relatively new DM that was the best response I could have received. TL;DR - one-on-one adventuring can be incredibly awesome for both the player and the DM and have super tangible impacts on your entire campaign. Don't be afraid of it!

Recently found you and just wanted to say thanks for getting me over (most) of my DM stage fright. I used to run when I was a teenager, but I got in my own head. Thank you so much! 😀

GREAT video, been looking forward to this one for a while!

I love that all of the advice for one on one D&D is just solid and good DM hygiene when running for a party.

Thank you for this! My boyfriend (a very experienced DM) asked me (a very new DM) to run a one on one game for him. This is exactly what I needed.

Thank you so much, you always have the most thought provoking d&d videos! And this really does tie together allot of your most recent stuff.

I love that you point out players debating/ making plans is a big part of the game. Regarding single player mystery, I recommend Die Hard as inspiration. For single player with a helper NPC, Die Hard With A Vengeance. Yes, Samuel L Jackson is an NPC, his character is pretty much just there.

Brilliant video! One of my favourites already, Its just great how every video you make is a joy to watch! Thanks Matt

I have been looking forward to this one for a while! Thanks Matt

The story of the gladiator being another PC is actually amazing. I've got think of how to incorporate this

Thanks Matthew!! Just what I needed right now. Love your videos!!

Literally just wrapped up a solo session for a player wanting to dona heist during his down time to get in good with the local thieves guild. He got so nervous about being caught that he had to excuse himself to step outside and smoke a cigarette at one point. Matt is sooo right here. He said it was the best session has ever played in and asked if he could do something like this again the next time hus character had some downtime. The player is now secretly an initiate from the other players.

Matt, thank you for this video. I am a newcomer to your channel, but because of this video alone I went ahead and bought your "Strongholds & Followers" book with the PDF. My partner and I met through Roleplaying in Star Wars the Old Republic as I was one of the main storytellers in our guild, but once she moved in with me, work and college forced me away from the private Roleplay that brought us together. We still love the weekly sessions with our pals, but our personnel Roleplays took a hit as I just got bogged down and stressed out and unable to commit the creative energies I once was able to craft to what brought me and her together. Recently TTRPGs have made rekindled my desire for Roleplaying, and my Partner and I try to be in the same campaign, but they are not frequent enough for me and she struggles with other personalities at times. Three days ago from this post, we stumbled onto watching this video ... and I asked her if we want to try this "One on One" D&D setup. Needless to say, she was excited and said we did that anyways with our personnel RPs back in SWTOR. And so, your book has been bought, and your advice heeded. Soon I'll be Dming for her alone through the Dragon of Icespire peak, with the added benefits of the Strongholds & Followers book you made. For me, dropping 70 bucks to a guy is unheard of, so kudos to you on your presentation. Do not become a snake oil salesman, you would be scary good at that >.> So again, thanks Matt, your a cool guy "Evil Matt"

Finally!! Been waiting for this video for SO long! Thank you!

Thank you, Matt! Love your videos! Keep it up!

Your grand repository of experience is always a great help! Thank you for sharing with us

Wooot! Been waiting on this one. Thank you. Time to watch.

Perfect! I was re-watching old Running the games as background while working to keep up my high from an amazing session, and I'm planning on doing a one-on-one for a new player, so this will be really useful!

This had me going down memory lane to when me and my friends at Univeristy HS (not far from you) would do 1 on 1 D&D in 1980. Of course we were kids then and we each got reps for doing "types" of games (my friend Matt Norton went so far as to say "Jeff's games require entire parties made of Clerics for all the undead"). Definitely will pick up Strongholds and Followers once I get my feet wet with FG interface, I'm still rusty on computers in general.

Wow this video was soooo awesome!!!!! Very well done! Loved it! So helpful!!!

Really happy to see you are doing well and are healthy thru all this. Love your videos and insight!

I've been waiting for this video for over a year. Amazing video. Truly a river to his people.

This was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Matt!

Man we need your videos way more often because these are great!!!

A work of art. This video is such a cathartic culmination of the last few RTG videos. Also just so inspiring in terms of giving my game narrative and dramatic direction. Thanks Matt!

I love one-on-one sessions. You can fully dive into the individual quest of the character and experiment and experience in such unique ways. I always outnumber my player but I give so many environmental interactions in the hands of the player, it feels like an action game and the player gets somewhat of an adrenaline rush if done right. And I can be much more descriptive as a DM, because it is far easier to catch the attention of a single player than of 4 or more. I DMed a small campaign for my brother where he played as a barbarian and participated in a colosseum as a gladiator. That was so epic even though he lost at the end and died. We still had so much fun during this story. I think the most important thing for one-on-one sessions is to have a constellation where DM and player trust blindly each other to create an engaging story together.

Thank you so much Matthew! I absolutely love this video. It is just what i was looking for, for my brother and i. Your videos have really helped me become a better DM. Thank you for all the work you put into all of you amazing video.

Amazing vid Matt! Also sound and vid quality are amazing at this setup!

Great to see a new video out here, I know there has been some videos over on Twitch, but I love this series. This was ace content, and I loved the book advice for story building, especially for the mystery adventure. But the asynchronous backstory sessions are so cool sounding.

I'm glad you're still putting out content. You and Mercer taught me most of what I know about running the game.

I started a Duet campaign with a friend. Our campaign involves a player avoiding combat as much as possible and some extra features a player wouldn't normally have (like a rogue who can wildshape with no druid dips or time/animal restriction) After a couple sessions they started their own Duet campaign with their mum. It made me happy to see they enjoyed being a player enough to want to try GMing. Bonus points they also used a bounty I had used (little girl's direwolf dog went missing) because they really liked it, and adapted the ideas I created to something new, something that I really liked. So now it's like we're both inspiring each other. A great module for first time Duets is called "First Blush". My campaign started with that as a dream sequence, and has just flowed on from there. We started from Level 1 and I leveled them rapidly (a level per session), but the first session I used as a dream sequence. A fade to black of potential death had turned out to be that the player was actually hunting food and just zoned out imaging a story, but kept their items.

My favorite campaign I run started as a one on one with my brother. He had a ton of fun, but e eventually did die due to the fateful bad die rolls. We started the adventure back up with the same world and a new character for him, and slowly other players joined in on it. It was an amazing experience, and the party is even now at level 8 and facing world threatening powers. It is so exciting. I am glad you made a video about this, because it is an area I have had fun exploring.

Been waiting for this one!!! Thanks!!!!!! Always great content

I love solo games! One idea we've used is the player rolling up a randomized character on DnDbeyond, being handed the sheet and told that they are waking up in the middle of the forest with no memory of who they are. The DM hopefully knows the player well enough to develop a backstory and character completely to the taste of the player, without being limited in preconceived ideas of their ''ultimate adventure'', which to a seasoned player probably feels too obvious. The character has to find their way to the identity and backstory, as well as solving the mystery of how they lost their memory. It's sooo much fun!

Thank the gods! I needed this for a session this weekend!

I just want to thank you for posting these videos. I ran my first game on Friday and everyone had a great time! I modified some of the encounters on the fly and I honestly never would of thought to do that without your channel!

Hey Matt! Just wanted to let you know that I started watching this series about a month and a half ago whenever I started a campaign with a few players. This series has been awesome, and I purchased strongholds and followers and I’ve been reading and annotating whatever parts fit my players play style best! Thanks for all the amazing advice- really glad to hear how great this channel’s doing!

yeah 1 on 1 was how I learned to DM and is one of my favorite ways to play. awesome stuff Matt

I started running my own DND campaign this month and started with One on One texted based adventures because of quarantine. Thank you Matt for the timeliness of these One on One videos recently. They've really helped me start with the right foundation.

Wow Matt, the video quality is off the charts! Also thanks for the amazing videos on Running the Game.

Matt, this is great. Your initial stream where you did a solo game was the direct inspiration for the way I run the start of all of my campaigns. I run a solo session with every new character to either get them to where the pre existing party already is, or to get all of the members of the party to the same place if it’s the start of the campaign. Thanks for still making these!

Thanks for this! As of writing I'm literally about to run my first one-on-one game in 2 hours. I had a little bit of an inkling of where to take things from your NPC video but this one really helps me too! Time to change my Monk sidekick into a Cleric!

One of my PC's is a substitute teacher, like me. He had to miss a lot of sessions, so I took his player to a different part of the world we played an absolute LOAD of D&D over text chat before schools shut down for COVID-19 (if you're subbing for high school, you basically have to scan the room every 90 seconds to make sure nothing's on fire and otherwise do your own thing). It's some of my favorite D&D I've ever played, in quantity AND quality. So, so, so glad this video's happening.

Hey Matt love the videos. Have been super helpful through all my game running. You talked about understanding encounters and breaking them down, have you done a video for that or if not would be a very interesting one I would think. Thank you for all the knowledge you’ve put out there.

Awesome video. Great tips I needed back when I tried a solo campaign years ago.

I watched this video and it set me in a bit of a d&d binge. Said binge led to me running my gf through a single player little horror adventure. First time as a DM and I quite enjoyed it and so did she which was good. Had to do it over the phone due to lock down but none the less it was very successful. Doing this without any prior experience of the genre and what makes this feat truly epic for me is all I had to work with was the players handbook and xanathars guide, that was it. So the set up the town of (insert name as I didn't actually name it) was once home to foundries and forges with accompanying manufacturing plants for materials for a war that many have forgotten. Her character, a minotaur bard, has just come out of a tavern and after a short while sees a sign on the notice board leader her to a building on the edge of the inhabited area of the town, over looking the abandoned plants etc. The character meets a kobold artificer/collector. He wants them to go into one of these abandoned plants and retrieve some pieces of technology for his collection and study. Her character agrees on the basis that they will get a share of the collector's profits from his discoveries regarding the factory. So they go to the factory, designated DE07. They descend a flight of stairs into an access room, containing a bank of computers and some me crates. The minotaur finds a battery powered lamp in the crates, both lamp and battery old and rusty but still working. The kobold tries to access the computers but to no use. He finds the door access and opens the heavy reinforced locked door into the facility. He says that with no heir to his collection and being a kobold he does not accompany the minotaur and remains in access room. This made her make choices herself with the limited information given. The map I drew up was fairly linear, not going to lie. Generally a handful of corridors though there was a loop included, allowing her character to go through the foundry and forge rather than the central corridor. Now the idea of this place was it was abandoned but not because of the facility itself, but because of what it was producing. It once made warforged drones of sorts to fight aforementioned war. Something happened to them however and they changed in behaviour. The facility was thus abandoned. This thread was prompted by the multiple fail states video as that is something I also included. It people want to know more then I will reply due to the limited size of RU-vid comments :)

I ran a solo 1 on 1 game for my cousin after he got back from a study abroad trip in order to meet up back with the party. It was so much fun. I included more puzzles and talking to NPC's than I usually did during the normal game with the rest of the players. I found myself describing the surroundings much more and the sidekick I added to aid him is still with the party now. The 3 or 4 combat situations we ran into went quickly and were dealt with in clever ways; other than just hack and slash.

I saw this in my sub box, and screamed internally. I missed seeing this man’s face and hearing his humour

This is awesome. Such great advice that we're going to try incorporating. Especially liked the tips about the fail states + making it more about a mystery...

During the first session, i usually play a one-to-one with each player starting form his/her background, while all the others are watching. A sort of a personal prologue for each of them. On the climax, we cut and move the camera on the next player, and go on until each of them had their personal drama, go back on the first and conclude his/her prologue and so on. Usually, bad things happen to them and this lead them meeting in "action". No One have to die, because the game is not started yet. I find this very useful for a series of reasons, most of all it is fun and an unexpected start, then it helps each player to discover his/her own character, and finally help all of them to know every other characters so than when they will meet, the ice will be break easily, there will be no need of weird introductions and they will make the party smootely.

I have been wathcing a lot of your videos lately so that I can start a new campaign with my friends. Thanks to this, I will reuse my past characters as pcs somewhere between the campaign ! Best idea ever !