I'm a veteran GM but new to WFRP 3e and going to start Gathering Storm in a month or so. I have only 2 players. I'm thinking of either having my players run 2 PCs each (starting around 3rd session) or adding a "helper" GM run character to the party. How many characters are needed (at a minimum) for Gathering Storm without big adjustments? I'm imagining that larger fights would overwhelm only 2 characters without me having to adjust stuff signficantly (something I want to avoid).

Cons of 2 PCs each player would be it could get confusing with all of the piles of cards. It also would not be conducive to role-playing. Will my players be over-whelmed? Cons of me running an NPC would be I could be overtaxed, especially in the 1st session. I'm used to doing excatly this in other systems (Traveller, d20 Star Wars, Song Ice & Fire, 2300AD), but am worried it will be too difficult in WFRP 3e?

Thoughts?

My current campaign plan (unless advised otherwise) -

Session1a and 1b: Short one-on-one "Travel to Stromdorf" adventures for each player (solo) to introduce the system and setting.
Session 2: The players meet in Stromdorf and kick off fthe campaign. First session with both players together.
Session 3+: Add a GM character to the party before getting into the larger battles of Gathering Storm .

I would ad a gm npc (helper) playing 2 characters at one is not fun,you spend to much time managing than rollplaying.

If it were me i would build a a dumb but well versed in combat helper,so the npc would help in a combat but not so much in figering out plot and wont ad much comversation to the grp....In short "the strong silent type"

I would agree that you shouldn't have them run more than a single PC. I would also try to refrain from adding an NPC, unless it is the PCs' decision.

The first thing to keep in mind is how powerful the PCs are. A pair of combat-oriented PCs can probably handle most combat encounters as they are. A pair of social PCs won't be able to handle much at all. You should be able to scale encounters enough. If need be, though, make sure the PCs are aware of having NPCs available to temporarily hire, or something along those lines. You want to be careful that any NPCs don't overshadow the PCs.

I would also recommend running an NPC to assist the players. If you're worried about component bloat on your side of the table, you might want to check out some of the ideas being discussed over at THIS thread, where they've created some interesting ways to run NPCs in an abstract way...might make it easier for you as the GM.

I had 2 players running 2 characters, it wasn't too bad. The up side is that if a character dies, they have another one and keep playing.

The thing I didn't like is that I think a group of 4 is borderline too big. They can focus fire even a tough enemy and take him down in one round.

I probably would prefer a team of 3, so that would go well with 2 players and 1 NPC.

Thanks for the quick responses folks. I actually like small parties so I'm glad to see some of the responses. I think I will stay with the party of 2 players, but wil have an NPC join (not always the same guy) from time-to-time depending on the adventure. This way one NPC won't come to dominate things and I can introduce NPC allies of different types (some recurring). A.i. the players may have a hunter-guide join them to go through the evil forest when I think the baddies are too much for my 2 players.

I may get to add a pet or something when I pick up the right expansions. I've only seen the Rat Catcher's dog so far, are there other pets available? Are they limited to only certain classes (if I don't make up my own) ?

Jup, restricted to the ratcatcher pretty much.

There are other careers that get a horse though, which is somewhat like (not completely) a companion.

You could try (though that will require some serious finetuning), starting the characters off in their second career, and giving them a few more character creation points. And insist on them getting at least 3 toughness.

It would make them more powerful, but mostly it would round them out better. Give them a wider range of skills/abilities to compensate for the lack of a third teammate. You would need to communicate to the players that this could require finetuning after a session or two though...

I would try and limit the helpful NPC input as much as possible, since it sort of takes away from the player's input. It's a story about them after all, not how they helped the GM play his own game.

And multiple characters per player is something I would like to avoid completely, because of the mass of cards that they would have to manage.