I have only one player available for a Force and Destiny campaign and was wondering your thoughts or experiences with running for one player in this setting. Personally I think it will be fine, but may have need for some droids or NPC's to assist in space travel and such.

Let me know your thoughts, traps I may fall into as a GM and things to watch for.

Cheers.

The Wise Wizard

The character is going to need a good back story. Definitely a reason to be alone, or in command of troops, or have a personal entourage. Could have a pet too. The background is what will give the character a launch pad for your story.

Then you will have to think about encounter design quite a bit. If the PC is bad at flying a ship then have the Adventures based in a single place, a town, a city, a planet, a space station or a large capital ship.

The PC probably needs at least 1 good combat skill, just to give more encounter options to you.

The PC also probably needs at needs 1 good social skill for the same reason

Basically your going to have to sit down together for a session 0 and come up with the character:

An enigmatic Commodore for the Rebellion, or an incredible squadron leader.

A Wild West style cowboy on Corellia

A Smuggler working out of Nar Shadarr for the Hutts.

A rebel spy masquerading as a famous musician on tour.

A bounty hunter... Last name Fett

A gang leader who unknowingly uses the force to control those around him

An Archiologist who is force sensitive allowing her to get into ancient ruins much easier, last name Croft

Droids are perfect for adding additional skill sets. You probably want to give the PC both a mentor and a Holocron to start, the two additional Career Skills will give the PC a broader skill base to make up for the lack of other PCs.

Unless he wants to be alone for the adventure, I would add at least 3 NPC's to his party. So that almost everything is covered.

Thank you, great ideas. @Richardbuxton I will let you know if he wants to expand his rp skills and play Laura, I doubt it but hey I will let you know.

My first RPG game was a Saga edition campaign where I was The only PC and it was great. Now I must admit sometime I had a squad of soldier with me, but still It is possible to play with one player

Create a master for your PC using the Inquisitor rule and it should be ok.

I would not fill out a full party with NPCs - I'm currently running a 'solo' PbP game (have 2 players on separate paths) and for proper missions, I do give them a spare NPC with minimal stats for combat balance and skills access. If you've played any of KotOR or SW:TOR, the idea of having companion characters is really nice, but overdoing it is extra work for either you (if NPCs) or the player (if they're running the whole stable).

As far as challenges - the general way I approach it, is, if it's something the player or their current companion has, you can use the 2d difficulty rating. If it's off-skill but they should be able to succeed, running it at 1d with a setback or two keeps it a challenge without making them start investing all over.

Focus on what the PC is working on - social skills, piloting, adventuring, etc. Don't put an archaeologist in the middle of a Nar Shaddaa gang war (though having one occurring can complicate their discovery turnins )

Also, do a lot more adventure prep. Without having a full group, adventures are going to move a LOT faster than with a whole group of PCs arguing about where to go, sidetracking with discussions of sports teams, internet memes, etc. I would say go so far as to prep for the whole adventure even if you expect it to take 2-3 sessions.

Also, do a lot more adventure prep. Without having a full group, adventures are going to move a LOT faster than with a whole group of PCs arguing about where to go, sidetracking with discussions of sports teams, internet memes, etc. I would say go so far as to prep for the whole adventure even if you expect it to take 2-3 sessions.

Agree on this. I did nearly three sessions worth of planned content solo when I was the only one (bar the GM) able to make a session a few weeks back.

I've always enjoyed one PC games - and I love the idea of one PC F&D. Reminds me of Obi-Wan's solitary, mid-to-end-of-life adventures on a certain dust-ball planet.

The only suggestion I will give to you, let the player roll 2 Force Dices, instead one, to determine the Destiny Pool. The rest, just have a great game

One of my players is running me through a solo campaign. I currently am a Jedi on a quest for my master. Along the way I have accumulated 3 followers (NPCs). A human ex-stormtrooper (ranged to offset my melee) and two droids. An astromech (because nobody is a pilot) and a protocol droid (because swinging a lightsaber does not mean I can talk my way out of a wet bag). My PC & the ex-ST have turned into BFF and the R2 is our version of Chomper from Rebels. I only just got the Protocol droid so it's an unknown but the GM made it annoyingly helpful so far.

My PC is actually an NPC in the big game I am running so a deep backstory exists since one of the PC's is related to my character.

The sessions are very RP heavy since that is the style we play and a dice only game would fall flat with only one player throwing dice around. Another limitation that my GM is learning is making 3d NPC's. That is not having flat NPCs in play. Since I have been GM'ing for many years I aid him when he has troubles and I have always found the GM shoulders a heavy load with NPCs in solo play. If you can get a NPC generator that has mannerisms and the like it helps. Whether you using it on the fly or build your NPCs in advance. Recently the Order 66 podcast interviewed a GM who patterned his NPCs after famous movie characters.

The benefits of solo play is you can seriously tailor the story to the player. This will get the player deep into it which always make for a fun game. Plus nobody is fighting for your attention.

I think you'll do fine even if you mess up here and there. If it's tough handling NPCs ask the player to come up with mannerisms or have the player describe how the NPC acts like a movie/book character that you are both familiar with.

Cheers