Is it even possible to play this one player, its seems viable but I'm not sure for instance in many ways it reminds me of Shadowrun and Shadowrun could easily for instance take out a dragon with a rocket or large machine gun if he was prepared for it. Is this game as similar as I think or is it not? I know in Dark Heresy there are a lot of more mental attacks from other beings such as demons and such I can see having one person taken over literially ending the game where as if there were multiple player the other players who successfully resisted could protect those other players.

So one player or impossible? Basically I want one agent to be able to play the game every Sat. where I am available then the other players join in every other Sat.

Hi Volomon,

Disclaimer & Warning, their is this dreaded "It depens on..." answer ahead!

One player does not mean one investigator:
I start with this point due to your "possession-example". This thing can be "circumstanced away" if you invest the "solo pc" with the authority over a number of minor npc ("red shirts") which major reason for existence is to go down instead of the player. The player (leading the group through his pc) makes a mistake and the big-bad-thing-in-the-dark acts first? Make it aim at the red shirt first...and design your mission around the concept "the more mistakes you make, the more red shirts are depleted till it is your pc who is next". Give xp boni if the casualties are low and/or have an xp penalty if their are view or no survivors beside the pc.

Low combat & more investigation:
Besides the red shirt approach, I would advise to run missions which are heavy on investigation but slim on combat. If their is combat, it is with "mook" (fodder npc which are taken out easy and are more provided for the feel of combat then as actual opponents) not much combat besides of this. Spare significant combat for "you blew your cover and they are now after you", scenes where the pc "bring the hammer down" and has thereby the support of some Arbites, PDF and/or other red shirts OR this one final duel that is meant as the action-climax. ...or no combat at all! Why not having an action final where the pc flees after he caught the opposition red handed? Or having a pure investigation think where the adventure ends with the pc reporting back and short sum up of what happens after that?

A lot of work for the GM since all official adventure material will be written/"aimed" for a group and you will have to re-write it.

But I think, it is possible. With the mentioned afford.

I have run a one player game pretty much since DH came out, and it is a heck of alot of fun.

It is also a helluva lot of work.

My campaign has been very RP and investigative focused, and I have had the need to completely flesh out a significant number of NPCs. The player has acted as a member of, and then a prime for one of the Inquisitor's teams of acolytes. Initially it required that I know the members of the team, and their interactions very well. It also meant that I had to craft assignments that would play to my PC's strengths, leaving the NPCs to supplement and support the PC's actions. In one way or another I have run all of the published adventures with my player, except the last two installments of the Harlock Legacy. Each published adventure took some tweaking, but each was quite workable and enjoyable.

Once the PC hit rank 9, it became much easier. As the leader of a Cadre, and an Inquisitor, they call the shots for the Cadre. None of the real difficulties of PC rank vs. player democracy that can cause difficulties in a multiplayer game occur. Again preparation is key.

One of the things I did pretty much from the outset of the campaign is kept a log of NPC feelings for the PC in question. Because 100% of the PC's interactions will be with NPCs there is no downtime as a GM during the sessions. By keeping that NPC log, regardless of whom the player wants to talk to, I know what the NPC's general feelings towards the PC are. Particularly given that the cast of NPCs has grown significantly over the 2+ years the campaign has been running. The log started with one section of a notebook, with rough notes, and prior to my archiving everything on a laptop, I would have to scramble through as many as 7 notebooks to find a particularly obscure NPC when the player wanted to consult with them. I am working up to putting everything in a spreadsheet, giving that the solo campaign is now running with a 6 player table, but that is a project that will likely have to wait until my next week of vacation.

The other bit of advice I would give for a one player campaign is to be very involved in the character creation process. Ask questions. Get to know the PC before you sit down for the first session. Play the 20 questions game. Work together on a background. Ask the player what style of campaign they envision, and let them know what you envision. Make it a collaborative effort, and it will be very satisfying.

And for the God-Emperor's sake, make sure your player is aware that they can burn Fate Points to survive when "killed." That has helped me out of a jam on at least a couple of occasions.

nakano said:

Just make sure you have the player describe how they managed to escape "certain dooooom!" when they burn a Fate Point, as that is a very dramatic point in the story, and the player should have a chance at some imput in how fate spared their wretched soul to soldier on another day in the Emperor's service. Plus it spares you as a GM from having to come up with an idea that the player might not think is "cool" or suitable for their character's style.

Example: A volley of lasfire strikes the character solidly in the chest, hurling his smoking body violently back against the nearby wall and then sliding down into an undignified heap, a dark wet stain rapidly spreading across his tunic....

Several minutes later the character groans in obvious pain and stirs some. His big dusty hand reaches slowly inside of his ruined tunic and shakily withdraws the ruined remains of a badly melted and breached flask, then groans and throws the scrap into the gutter with a snarl and a wince of pain as his shoulder rotates. "**** traitor bastards! First they have the gall to turn their backs on the Emperor's grace, then they (profanity) shoot me! That was 200 year old Amasec, you heathen filth!"