Has anyone had much experience with running a single player game?  Any particular advice to give?  In particular, any advice as it would relate to your standard 3.5 game featuring a rogue character in a psuedo-Lankhmar kinda place?

You might want to look into these.

If you're into premade adventures, there is a series of them called One-on-One Adventures that are sold through Warehouse23 on the SJG site.

Otherwise, I'd say feel free to use a lot of innate roleplaying skills that can't be effectively done when keeping track of a large group of players.

I've run one on one adventures in 3.5 for a rogue character. I used the old 2nd edition adventures described for inspiration and maps, although I modified the story greatly.

Running 1 on 1 adventures requires a lot more prep time because you cover a lot of ground, and the action happens very quickly. With a big group there can be more down time to look stuff up and such but with 1 on 1 gaming, there really aren't any pauses in the action.

Think about healing in the game. If a character operating by himself gets badly wounded, what then? With no "party" to stabilize wounds and administer healing that could be the end of the character. Either houserule the negative hitpoint rules or else make sure there is a faithful sidekick nearby to attend to the master.

These kind of games are really great for roleplaying plots, conspiracies, intrigue and politics. You don't have to worry about one player hogging the spotlight like you do in a big group. There is plenty of time for in-depth NPC interaction which is where I like to focus these types of games.

Long time ago I ran a one person game for my brother when we flew up to Alaska.  It was 9 hours cause of a lay-over in Seattle.  The thing I took from it was that the level of player input on the situations presented directly impacts how good play is.  As we stumbled through, we learned that the more direct input he had, the more fun we had and the more smoothly things ran.

If any character class would work best for this, I suppose a Rogue would be it. And a Lankhmaresque city setting is ideal for the average Rogue to shine (and survive).

My advice would be to design missions solvable in a number of ways other than (but not excluding) combat. Combat is probably best left to rooftop duels, sniping, assassination, cutting a path through a mob, etc. Computer games such as the Thief series and Deus Ex might provide inspiration in that respect. Or the character could hire an NPC bodyguard--probably a lower-level warrior class, so as not to steal the PC's spotlight. Of course, multiclassing with fighter or sorcerer or such might make up for any perceived deficiency or broaden the options a bit (even Gray Mouser had some small wizardly training), but it shouldn't be necessary if the challenges are designed in the form of missions catered to the character's abilities.

Sounds like fun, anyway. Oh, and yes, I've run my share of single-player games, based on various circumstances. They usually work out fine, as long as you get along with the player in general. You might miss the diverse personalities and input from a group, but it does allow you to get deeper with the single character than you would otherwise. Just try to resist stacking the party with GMPCs and running a "standard" game... But is sounds like you have the right idea, catering the game to the single character and so forth.

Quote from: Black FlagIf any character class would work best for this, I suppose a Rogue would be it. And a Lankhmaresque city setting is ideal for the average Rogue to shine (and survive).

This man speaks great wisdom here.  

I actually cut my roleplaying teeth on these kind of one-on-one games and I almost always tended towards sneaky types rather than fighting types.  You don't have the kind of backup and versatility that can be found in the standard adventuring party, so combat is especially risky for a single character.  As GoOrange has already suggested, it would be good to provide them with an NPC sidekick, obviously in an subordinate role to avoid a GMPC, who can help get them out of a jam or take the arrow, so to speak, allowing the PC to make a getaway.


TGA

Multiclassing as a sorcerer/wizard was something that I had planned on suggesting, but the decision ultimately rests with what my player wants for her character.

One area of concern that's been briefly touched on is the issue of damage and healing.  I've considered houseruling something about wounds healing faster, or perhaps only a fraction of actual HP loss being permenant, physical wounding, but I've come to no real decision yet.  I suppose I can always litter the proceedings with healing potions and for-hire healing via local temples, so as to keep the element of resource management present.

All the advice has been good, and much appreciated.  Thanks.

Ya know, I do this with my wife.  A LOT.

Well, maybe not so often as she'd like.  But I digress.

I can't tell you how to do it, because I just do it in an idiot-savant way and I don't take notes on what worked and what didn't.  If I could give ANY advice which I thought would be, you know, in the general cosmic vicinity of 'useful, it'd be this:

• Resist the temptation to have lots of cool NPCs.  Have two, tops.  You're not the star.


• Take input from the player.  I mean, REALLY take it.  You're entertaining ONE PERSON; make it count at every minute.


• Getchoo a nice, rules-light system so you can get to the meat of task resolution.  If that's not your style, then consider fudging stuff on the fly.

I enjoy running these 1-on-1 games, but I don't like having a bunch of NPCs to take care of all at the same time.  Therefore, I try not to do that -- even if it's sort of what my wife wants.  So find out not only what works for your player but for you, because, baby, you're the engine in your player's Lamborghini, and it won't do for you to crap out in the middle of Ocean Drive, you dig?