Duet play: RQG vs. CoC

[coffeeman]

I am curious in giving RuneQuest Glorantha a shot, but as of now the only person I have to play with IRL is my girlfriend. If memory serves from about a decade ago, Call of Cthulhu lends itself well to duet-style play. However, I am unsure about RQG.

Both settings appeal to me, but right now it boils down to picking a starter set and going from there.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or comments.

[smiorgan]

RQG can work pretty well in duet too. The solo adventure in the starter set, with its focus on Vasana's story, can be used as an example/ template for duet adventures.

If you have the corebook use the fully fledged character generation and draw from character background and family history for inspiration for adventure. Make the game about personal development and interaction with the character's family and community.

Alternatively Six Seasons in Sartar from the Jonstown Compendium offers you a campaign that starts at initiation and can be very well adapted to duet play.

Delve into character's cult and worship. Make time pass fast and enjoy the end of season and sacred time mini-game. 

Have her interact with leaders and important people. Role play an audience with Queen Kallyr or Queen Leika, for instance.

Go easy with combat. A simple one on one duel with one decently competent adversary or a combat with two clueless idiots will be already sufficient to create the right tension. Give her an animal sidekick, like an Alynx, a spirit or elemental servant and a cool mount. Avoid human sidekick who are too cumbersome and distracting to use.

If combat goes badly have her taken prisoner and ransomed. It creates an interesting story that is unusual in other rpgs.

Be generous with runic and passion inspiration and spend time to role play them.

 

[soltakss]

What I would do:

• Have 0HPs as not dead, only die when you exceed your full HPs negatively, so someone having 15 HPs only dies at -16 HPs.
• Allow Healing to be used when someone is dead, until the end of the next round.
• Be generous with availability of healing potions and spells.
• Don't make everything about combat, that is not always the best part of the Game.

[g33k]

12 hours ago, smiorgan said:

... The solo adventure in the starter set, with its focus on Vasana's story, can be used as an example/ template for duet adventures ...

+1 for the Solo-adventure.

In case you (or she) is interested, it's available as an online play-through:
https://www.chaosium.com/rq-soloquest-the-battle-of-dangerford/

Also as per @smiorgan, "go easy with combat."  RQ combat can be quite deadly, as a lucky crit can be an instant victory in a 1:1 fight, and is as-likely for the foe as for your PC.  In group play, your allies can rush to your aid; not so much in solo/duet play!  @smiorgan suggests "avoid a human sidekick" but I find that I (as GM) can manage to run a sidekick/ally character, who *vastly* helps in this regard (one of the two can be a healing-centric character, for further survivability).  Last but not least, "taken prisoner for ransom" is another great suggestion.

Edited January 20, 2023 by g33k