Dimension 20 has taken us on several exciting adventures, where Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan guides a party through fun and danger-filled worlds, but he also has a great love for less conventional one on one campaigns. These adventures still offer a way to create and explore an exciting world and story, but you only need two people, which can be far easier to organize than an entire group of friends.
“I think a lot about one on one campaigns,” Brennan begins, “back when I was around middle-school age, I first started playing in normal groups of four to six players and a DM…I had a group of friends who would come over, including my brother on Saturday, and a group of friends and my brother on Sunday as well. [For] me and my brother, that was still not enough D&D.”
The answer lay not in having friends over more often, but in building worlds for each other, “On weeknights, we would sit with one of us at the head of our bed and the other at the foot, with dice, maps, and books spread out and just play D&D until the wee hours of the morning, just one on one.”
If you are surprised to hear about one on one campaigns, you are not alone, “It’s something that doesn’t come up a lot because obviously it puts a tremendous amount of strain on the DM because now you don’t even get those little respites of PC interaction. You are always on. There is one character that is a PC, and the world is moving around them constantly.”
Despite the extra effort required, it is all worth it in the end, as Brennan goes on to state, “There is something extremely cool and satisfying about that solo hero adventure. I will also say one a mechanical level it’s totally game breaking, like even a very powerful character having no other PCs is at a huge disadvantage in combat, but with that being said, it’s so damn cool!”
Despite the challenges that come with creating and executing one on one campaigns, they are something that every RPG fan should check out. Best of all, there are so many resources available to help you, so you can pick up a fully formed campaign from several RPGs, or build your own to give another player the chance to shine in the playstyle they most enjoy.
One of the best parts of one on one campaigns is that you can really lean into building a world that best suits the PC of the other person. Are they partial to creating stealthy rogues? Create an elaborate solo heist! Do they prefer something more direct, like a Ratfolk Barbarian? You can create specific scenarios for combat where they can still shine in all their battle-hardened glory.
Of course, if you want to see a great DM in action, be sure to watch Brennan on Dimension 20, with his newest adventure, Pirates of Leviathan, now halfway through its season. Watching his creative style of storytelling might be just the thing you need to create a special one on one world for you and one other lucky player!
Source: Brennen Lee Mulligan