Game built for two

[McManus]

Hey all,

I wanted some advice. I have a couple of gamers (2) that want me to run a reserve game for them. By that I mean a game to play when our whole game group can’t get together. The only caveats I have been given so far are no D&D (not sure if the don’t like the system or the genre) and no superheroes (my favorite). I come to you looking for ideas of game types that work well with two main characters and are very episodic rather than long story arcs.

Any suggestions?

[Chuckg]

Cop drama. You've got just the right # of folks for a detective and partner.

(add)

Action Movie Hero. Make them flip coins to see which one gets to be the sidekick. :) Or else, make it one of those buddy movies, where both of them are action heroes, just in different specialties, and they get on each others' nerves, too.

Aw, heck, think of any movie or TV series where there's only one or two protagonists who get the big airtime, and just NPC the supporting cast. ("OK, one of you is Buffy, and one of you is Giles, or Angel, or even Xander if you want him, I'll run the rest.")

[hancock.tom]

Chuck's sig made me think - lots of horror genres work well for 2 players & 1 GM.

Cthulhu style gaming (which is pretty easy with hero or other systems)

Whenever I had small groups, I always ran NPC heavy who is double crossing us types of games. Its hard to do this with a bigger group because the PCs generally can rely on each other, but its great with 2 people. Its also great for big groups if you can convince one or more of the players to double cross the team.

These sorts of games work well for horror or spy/espionage, but they can be done in any setting if you can come up with a group in need of a coverup. I did them using HERO in the aberrant setting a couple years back when Project Utopia had to kill someone that knew too much and a coverup ensued.

[Lamrok]

Once upon a time, I faced the same challenge and decided on an epic-evel Fantasy Hero game. The characters were built on 250 points, and typically fought legions of villains, packs of vampires, cities full of zombies, etc. It was tongue in cheek and very over-the-top. One of the player's driving goal was to someday slay seven ememies with a single sword stroke. He got close but never quite made it.

I never put more than 10 minutes into prep (one of my stated ground rules for the game), but the players loved it.

[Ghost Archer]

I've been involved with a two player 'Star Hero' game for some time.

The premise is a retired Imperial scout found a hulled ship somewhere out on the Rim with a huge treasure aboard. Now if he tells anyone, the Empire will take like 99.9%, so he marks it with an isotope that he can track and lets the ship drift further out into unknown space. The thing is, he’s extremely long lived, but not immortal, so he spends about 75 years as a scout before retiring. When he gets out, he has a good sized mustering out pay and goes looking for a ship to follow the treasure. Thing is, he can afford that much so when a particular ship comes on the market for a ridiculously low price, he buys it. The ship is nearly new but has a horrible reputation for killing her crew and just about everyone in the area. In fact, on her last trip she carried, unknown to the crew, a plague that wiped out a planet. Spacers as a superstitious as you can get so no one will buy her. In desperation the owners, not the crew that brought the plague, put her up for auction in a backwater port. My scout bought her. Now all he needs is a crew. Umm, did I mention the ship ‘kills’ crew? Hard to get ANYONE to hire on, in fact, impossible. What’s a guy to do? He finds himself in the slave market looking for a crew even if he has to buy them. Of course this is very much against everything he’s ever believed but, hey, he’s got his back against the wall and port fees growing.

Now the other character’s a born merchant, traveling from port to port trading whatever they can find. On that ship its just mom, dad and daughter. Problem is, mom’s got a price on her head and bounty hunters looking to collect. They run into one and dad is killed, mom’s head is literally taken and daughter ends up in a cargo pod she rigged up as a life pod. Turns out, even humans (sorta human anyway) can be considered ‘salvage’. Well, she tells her rescuers that she’s a merchant and talented as a tech and pilot and they drop her on the block as a pleasure slave.

The scout buys the girl, and pretty much treats her like dirt. Girl hates slave-buying scout, gets all rebellious and figures she can kill him after they get off-world. He’s a grumpy loner and she’s scared to death of people other than her parents. He just wants to get his treasure and retire; she wants to get away from the more inhabited parts of the Empire. Oh . . . and the same bounty that was on her mother? It’s on her now. A Legacy Bounty?

Well, the scout had freed her the moment he bought her but didn’t bother to tell her so when she’s trying to bargain for her freedom he tells her ‘You aren’t a slave, you were shanghaied.’ After that she stopped trying to figure out how to kill him and agreed to help him find his treasure.

Two players can be a lot more fun then 5 or 6.

[Savinien]

I'm also running a Star Hero game for two people. After my 4th Age Middle Earth Hero game flopped miserably. With two interested players and a decent GM you can have a lot of fun with only two players. The players have to be commited to the game and be 'involved', though.

Otherwise, you don't have the added players to put the group on its back and carry them through the slow times. While I have the same players for my Depths of Space, Star Hero game, they seem to understand and have vested interest in this game. I don't think one is better than the other, but we're having much more fun with the second game, IMO.

My secret to GMing the games? I like to use a lot of lesser powered antagonists. Opposed to the fewer higher-powered antagonists of a larger group. In my opinion it works best in lower powered games, too.

[Old Man]

You know, in our old FH games we often ran two PCs per player, for lethality reasons (i.e. it sucks when your one PC gets KOed, and now you're the one making the fridge runs). It's not a whole lot harder to run two PCs than it is to run one, though a lot of the time one tends to kind of overshadow the other.

[Deejmeister]

The only caveats I have been given so far are no D&D (not sure if the don’t like the system or the genre) and no superheroes (my favorite).

Dude! What kind of sickoes DON'T want to play superheroes? Especially when you only have one other player to share screen time with?!? Sickoes I tell you.

[hancock.tom]

Something else you could look at is a detective campaign. Some people try to lump this genre in with pulp, but it is totally different in tone and feel. Its something that doesn't really work with a big group but could be perfect for a 2 person detective agency. Think Perry Mason, or any one man private eye type from the pulp era. I always liked Eddie Valiant better than Perry Mason, but I'm probably in the minority there.;)

[Vondy]

You could do cop stories: two detective sgts. in a glamorous investigations unit, for instance. Or detective stories.

You could do spy stories ala Alias (also a team in the first two seasons, though sydney is clearly the lead), or ala historical settings.

If they don't like the system and genre, you could ask if a low fantasy setting, or a historical game in the middle ages or ancient world would appeal to them.

The horror genre, or something of a cross between Holmes and Horror, would work for two. If they like ravenloft-esque but not DnD settings you could do gothic horror (also real world).

Small groups sometimes do well as anti-heroes (on a more sustainable level) - what about two roman merchants or senators trying to get ahead?

[McManus]

Cop/detective was my first thought too. Only problems is that one of the players is a security specialist for the military and the other is an Assistant District Attorney so I don’t think I could write a mystery they wouldn’t laugh at. And it might be just like being at work for them. Unless I change it up some.

I think I am going to offer a few choices and let them decide which they might like best.

Nexus Rangers – characters are high powered agents of a multidimensional regulatory body trying to keep the peace in a chaotic environment. Sort of MIB meet Alternate Earths

Ghostbusters by Gaslight – characters are occult detectives in Victorian era.

Vales of Duneden – high powered fantasy adventure

Veterans of the Psychic Wars – Post-apocalyptic Psionic campaign

[Diamond Spear]

Or you could go with "Couples Therapy" the new role-playing sensation that's sweeping the nation! Heck the first gaming session will probably just consist of them arguing who gets to play the wife! :D

[Chimpira]

Well cop drama is a good one but if your players are willing and really good, why don't you flip it. Heist games. Two gentlemen thieves that plan the caper, get to know the mark and then pull off the job. For a overused twist you can have them doing jobs for the government.

[ShinDangaioh]

Occult horror/Occult mystery

Espionage/Superspy(James Bond or Top Secret)

Wild West. A herrif and his partner cleaning up a town. Or if you want to get strange. The Wild Wild West TV show provides a good setting.

Space Opera/Star Wars. Smuggling. If your have ever read Han Solo: Corprote Sectore trilogy, you'll have a good idea.

TORG Nipoon Tech with them being owners of a business. Those rules with stocks and bonds would work for a two player game.

Shadowrun/Cyberpunk/Cyberhero/TORG Cyberpapacy The net rules have always been problematical for having groups of people who have in their team people who cant do a net run.

TOON or Teenagers From Outer Space. Comedic games. For TFOS, I'm quite sure you can come up with some kind of bizzarness that centers around two high school students. Weird Science comes to mind if you use Lisa as an NPC that kicks off the adventures. As for TOON, this is obvious

There is a genre that usually uses only person. Captain N The Game Master, The Adventures of GamePro, and TRON. Pulling someone from the real world into the video game world.

Pokemon. A pair of trainers, instead of a trio or group of four

Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat/King of Fighters/Rival Schools. A pair of Street Fighters having adventures.

[Vondy]

Cop/detective was my first thought too. Only problems is that one of the players is a security specialist for the military and the other is an Assistant District Attorney so I don’t think I could write a mystery they wouldn’t laugh at. And it might be just like being at work for them. Unless I change it up some.



You could always tell them its 80's TV Cop Show Hero and not Law & Order Hero.

[Supreme Serpent]

Ettin HERO - "Pick a head."

Any Which Way but Loose HERO - "Who wants to be the monkey?"

SPY vs SPY HERO - "It's all black and white to me."

More seriously, I agree with Deejmeister.

More helpfully, could have them displaced...somewhere/when...together. John & Dave Carter of Mars. Two Connecticut Yankees in King Arthur's Court. Back to the Future, Together. Buck and Hank Rogers in the 25th Century.