So the girlfriend isn't into RPGs (yet, I hope without much hope), but she has asked me a few times for one-on-one gaming, "just to try, and maybe then do it". Any suggestions, please? What would be a nice game for this, what sort of plot would be best? Any experiences? I have done it before, but with a girl who was already a gamer, so I'm not so sure about it.

Quote from: SunBoy;304419So the girlfriend isn't into RPGs (yet, I hope without much hope), but she has asked me a few times for one-on-one gaming, "just to try, and maybe then do it". Any suggestions, please? What would be a nice game for this, what sort of plot would be best? Any experiences? I have done it before, but with a girl who was already a gamer, so I'm not so sure about it.

There are PLENTY of movie plots you can seal from this . Basically ANY variation on "Die Hard" will work. Heck, I remember there being a low-budget ripoff of Die Hard where the hero was a woman who was also the architect of the building that everybody was trapped inside of.

Other movies that might work for inspiration for 'lone adventurer/investigor" scenarios:

FLIGHTPLAN - starred Jodie Foster

The FORGOTTEN - featured Julianne Mooore as a mother whose world changed drastically around her.

INTO THE NIGHT - starred Michelle Pgeiffer and Jeff  Goldblum as insominiacs who wind up in an adventure. Just switch the genders.

For that matter, most of the James Cameron movies are "Lone woman against incredible Odds" movies. Think the first TERMINATOR and ALIENS. Its either Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley trying to survive.

For another variation , how about COMPROMISING POSITION ? that starred Susan Sarandon as a houswife/former reporter who starts investigating a local muder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromising_Positions


- Ed C.

Dude. I have to confess I never actually considered gender as a starting point. That could work. Yeah, that could really work. Thanks muchly. You know, she's really into murder mysteries and serial killer stuff. We're right know into our fifth "Dexter" ep. this night!
So, any advice on a good system for that kind of stuff? I'd prefer something rules-light, but not so much, to give her a real feeling of the "dice throwing thing" in addition to the actual roleplaying part. Any ideas?

If this might be a prelude to joining your group if she likes it, then i wouldn't make the content of the one-on-one too dissimilar to what your gaming group normally entertains.

Quote from: SunBoy;304431Dude. I have to confess I never actually considered gender as a starting point. That could work. Yeah, that could really work. Thanks muchly. You know, she's really into murder mysteries and serial killer stuff. We're right know into our fifth "Dexter" ep. this night!
So, any advice on a good system for that kind of stuff? I'd prefer something rules-light, but not so much, to give her a real feeling of the "dice throwing thing" in addition to the actual roleplaying part. Any ideas?

Well, of course my first response is to suggest either GURPS-Lite or SAVAGE WORLDS explorer edition.

Another way to think of this is as a TV show thats been on a while. Often they will introduce an interesting character or a recurring character as a jumping off pint for a spin-off series.
 Try to do the opposite with your girlfriend. Her solo one-one-one adventures with you could trake place in the same background setting as your regular game - and at some point her story could merge with theirs for a few sessions. The other times they might hear hints or rumors about the other's adventures.


- Ed C.

There are many different approaches. The right one depends on your girlfiends interests and personality.

One option is to go for a very structured kind of game, like a dungeon crawl. The advantage is that it his very similar conceptually to a boardgame which makes it easier for a novice to graps.

Another approach is to run something very story orientated, more on the lines of Call of Cthulhu, focusing on immersion and keeping the mechanics as much as possible hidden away from her.  

One thing to consider is how much of a geek is she? A lot fo roleplaying games are steeped in geek lore. For someone whose only exposure to fantasy might be having watched the Lord of the Rings movie (once), D&D might be really confusing. On the other hand if she's a Buffy or Star Wars it might be worth focusing on a game in that setting. If she is a total non sci-fi/fantasy geek, perhaps something like the super spy genre or a historical setting might be something she can relate to better.  

Also, consider running an NPC sidekick beside her, a Robin to her Batman or a Willow to her Buffy. Basically you want an npc to partner her who is clearly not in charge and not as competent as her character but who give suggest ideas when she gets stuck and simply someone to talk to in character which is one of the main things missing in a 1-1 game.

In the first one-on-one game I ever ran for my wife, the plot was that she was playing herself and her father had been kidnapped.  She had to rescue him and in the process, she found out that she had super powers.  Also, for NPCs I used the names of her friends.

Basically, I made it hit as close to home for her as possible, and she really got into it.

Quote from: Koltar;304433Her solo one-one-one adventures with you could trake place in the same background setting as your regular game - and at some point her story could merge with theirs for a few sessions. The other times they might hear hints or rumors about the other's adventures.

Nah, I'm not running anything at the moment. Just playing (a lot, but still). And GURPS-lite's cool, yes (I prefer it to the full-fledged thing already).

She's more CSI than LotR or SW, so in that spirit the sidekick would be easy to pull off and actually make sense... and a few demons or vampires a la Buffy to slowly introduce the fantasy thing...
I'm not so sure about "our regular stuff"... not just yet, at least, but little by little, who knows?

Thanks a lot, guys.

World of Darkness could be your thing, then, a mortals game. Maybe some Esoterrorists, which is really similar in mood to CSI. Also, Vampire has always produced excellent one on one games, and is really suited to that.

Hmmm... never really liked WoD that much... never really bothered to read the mortals rules, either. But I'll say this, and don't quote me: You strike me as a sensible guy, so I'll give it some thought. So, how's the 007 going? Maybe some experience there could give me some clues, if you don't mind me asking.

To be honest, I would start with a handwavy system.  You don't want to scare her off with a bunch of numbers and stats that make perfect sense to you, but are often daunting to the newcomer.  Find something with maybe three stats at most and a few skills (or better, broad areas of expertise or skills defined by a class/profession).  Then think about what kind of movies/stories she likes and find (or create) a setting that fits.  Treat it more like storytelling than gaming.  

I did this with my friend's son, just the two of them as pirates.  I let them describe their characters' skills/abilities and background and had them roll every now and then, but by and large if they wanted to do something I just let them do it and created the story around their actions.  The boy ended up playing with his dad's regular group using a more traditional system, but by going ultra rules lite he learned how to get comfortable roleplaying without having to crunch numbers.

Pete

I only have two tips for you:

1. Keep it simple, but not necessarily rules-lite. I just mean don't overwhelm her with a boatload of rules all at once.
2. The particular game or setting you use should be something that won't utterly bore her.  A straightforward fantasy game like FtA! or D&D basic might be good, but only if she's into fantasy.

Actually, what about something like Call of Cthulhu? Is she into horror? You could do an adventure that didn't involve a situation where her character would be likely to explode from seeing Yog-Sothoth, but more like a murder-mystery; a train or an old house, a cast of characters, one of whom is a cultist that brought... something.. in a box, that has now gotten loose and is killing people.

RPGPundit

Well... actually, she slept through Fellowship of the Ring and has nightmares if we watch scary movies... Strangely enough, gory CSI or Dexter eps are fine... This is going to be hard.

Quote from: SunBoy;304515Well... actually, she slept through Fellowship of the Ring...

A LOT of people may have slept through that. Did you see the rant about the LOTR movies in the movie CLERKS II ? Pretty funny - and I LIKE both of those movies.

Quote....and has nightmares if we watch scary movies... Strangely enough, gory CSI or Dexter eps are fine... This is going to be hard.

That actually makes sense in a way. The characters on the CSI-type shows are usually figuring how the 'gory' stuff happened - it isn't normally happening to them .
So, if she is living a tad vicariously through those characters - then there is some measure of control over the scary stuff because the main heroine characters and measuring and quantifying ithe "gore"(or "icky" stuff) to capture a bad guy of some kind. The idea being if you can measure it, count it , quantify it and then use the info to stop it from happening again - then you've "Won!' over the evil stuff or bad guys.

Steve Jackson Games has an excellent pdf (or POD) book called MYSTERIES that might actually help you with this kind of stuff. Even tho they are known for GURPS, this particular book for any GM running an RPG that involves investigations, mysteries, and crimesolving.


- Ed C.

Quote from: SunBoy;304515Well... actually, she slept through Fellowship of the Ring and has nightmares if we watch scary movies... Strangely enough, gory CSI or Dexter eps are fine... This is going to be hard.

CSI would be easier to pull off than Dexter.  The problem you would have is how much CSI knowledge her character knows vs. how much she knows.  If you can build a crime scene around little CSI tidbits/clues that you _know_ she is familiar with it will be much more interesting for her than if she just makes a forensics roll to find out the info.  

I would set up some sort of investigation, leave a ton of clues lying around for her to find (with the assumption that she won't pick up on every single one of them), and then give her the case.  The sidekick mentioned earlier would work well here, especially if you had your CSI agents interviewing witnesses, chasing down leads, etc.  Just make sure to disable him for the climax somehow (he takes the bullet, but gives the old "I'll be fine--just don't let him get away!" speech).  There are a lot of threads on how to set up a good mystery scenario, or you could just buy one and strip out the rules as needed.  

Pete