[taman]

I've had the SR4E book lying around for a while now, and my itch to do some gaming has risen recently.  I convinced my wife to try it out with me, and we ran the Stuffer Shack scenario, with pre-builts, her with the face and me with the hacker.  It went well, especially considering I have very little experience being a gm and haven't gamed regularly in over 6 years. 
Any advice for when we start to play our real campaign?  She knows she wants to play an elf face, and she'll probably get some gun skills as well.  I was originally thinking a hacker (human) with a little bit of combat skills, but now I'm thinking a big hulking polite troll to sort of be her bodyguard/partner.  Heavy on combat with some hacking on the side. 

Would extra build points be warranted here since it's just the two of us? 
Also, what other tips do you folks have for running with only one pure player character, and the gm basically filling the role of a sidekick/support character.  I definitely want her character to be the main star so she'll have more fun with it. 

[Charybdis]

I've done this, and here's how it worked best for me:

Single Solo PC campaign.

No GM-played character for backup.
No multiple PC's per player

Just the one PC, spotlight solo campaign. And here's why it worked well:
- All action is central to the character. It's their interactive movie
- Smoother interaction between GM and PC. No confusion on whether the GM is saying something, or your bodyguard....
- Any additional muscle/expertise can be negotiated as needed.
- Keep a hacker on remote standby during runs (There's a good fiction series about a Street Sam with an Eye-cam, who keeps the hacker in constant communication with full visual and audio for two-way real-time hacking and research (ie advice)... I'll try and hunt down the link, as it was really cleverly done

Pitfalls and things to prepare for:
- Keep good notes on NPC's. The player will want to be able to refer to a stable roster of NPC's with different talents, and it's handy to have the stats on hand if asking for favours or a little muscle to get a run done.
- Tailor the jobs to the PC's strengths. A face PC is going to be big on social infiltrations and negotiation. The best runs for these are:
   -- Classy functions where important people can be caught via blackmail, smuggling, bug-planting, virus-planting, jewellry theft etc
   -- Negotiations in hostile territory. Brokering deals between warring gangs/indian tribes/criminal syndicates, hell even legitimate businesses
   -- Detailed legwork and detective work, requiring Law-and-Order type interviews with witnesses etc
- It's the PC's story. Make sure they're having fun, in the thick of it all. They should never be sitting on the sidelines...and iof they are, speed up the clock so it get's to their prime time.

[Charybdis]

Would extra build points be warranted here since it's just the two of us? 
Also, what other tips do you folks have for running with only one pure player character, and the gm basically filling the role of a sidekick/support character.  I definitely want her character to be the main star so she'll have more fun with it.

I'd actually recommend building a standard 400BP character, then adding a suitable amount of Karma (and cash), as if the PC has already been running for a while.
A) it feels like a more advanced game (but really just counters the fact there's only one PC)
B) it gives the PC a good advantage, as she'll often be outnumbered

[Ultra Violet]

Neat Advices, Charybdis. (+1 Rep)

In my experience you should let her create the PC that she likes to play, Building Points or Karma Points are only a guideline for campaigns. But you should keep the exact amount in mind, for later play with other players.
In a single player campaign, the PC is the center of the play, and it works a little bit different in some situations. In example, if the PC is overextended with a situation, she can always back out, and that will change course of the whole campaign, because the PC is the Campaign. Without any other player as backup she (the player) has to act smart, in many cases smarter than an average group player would, because her (characters) life and the whole play relies on her decisions.
The GM has to have a Master Plan, but his play is more react on her actions, as railroading her to the end of the campaign. It is a different style, because more free style improvising is needed as usually.

Main NPC and Connections:
Like Charybdis said, you should keep good notes. My favorite way is the 2 ring binders, one for Connections and one for NPC or the bad guys.
One little advice, in my experience single players rely on Contacts and Connections more than group players, and the GM should give more opportunities to get more new friends and contacts, as he would give in a normal adventure play. As usually it depends on your player and her hand for socializing...

In general we (my players and I) use a House Rule for Connections, every PC gets [(CHA + INT) x3] FREE Points to spend for some Connections, but their Loyalty Ratings are capped at [(CHA + INT)/2 (round down)], Connection Rating works as usual.
That tweak brings more color into play because everyone knows someone from their past... Most of the players use the free Connections in a similar way they use free Knowledge Skill points, giving their characters more flavor...
Maybe it is something you can use in your single player campaign, if you like to give her some Contacts to start with.

Connections are also good as payment for a Run in single player campaign, because money is not everything for a single person, and in a single player campaign money should be only a tool not the reason for the characters life on the streets.

I like single player adventures as starter, an adventure before the real adventure or campaign starts, it gives opportunities for player and GM to learn more about the character, and his or her role in life.


Yours faithfully,
UV

[taman]

Thanks for all the great advice!  Not having to play a support character will certainly free up some mental bandwidth.  Another issue I'm slightly worried about is how often should I make her roll social checks since that will be the type of tests that will probably come up the most?  For example, would it be feasible to have her roll more than one test in the same conversation with a PC?  I guess I just have be able to tell when she's going after a new, separate goal during a discussion. 
This is how I see it in my head:  she encounters an unfriendly npc, roll test to make the npc view her more favorably.  Then she wants to convince the npc to do a favor for her (etiquette or con?), roll another test (negotiate?).  She fails the test, so then roll to see if the npc will change it's mind after a little intimidation. 

[Charybdis]

Thanks for all the great advice!  Not having to play a support character will certainly free up some mental bandwidth.  Another issue I'm slightly worried about is how often should I make her roll social checks since that will be the type of tests that will probably come up the most?  For example, would it be feasible to have her roll more than one test in the same conversation with a PC?  I guess I just have be able to tell when she's going after a new, separate goal during a discussion. 
This is how I see it in my head:  she encounters an unfriendly npc, roll test to make the npc view her more favorably.  Then she wants to convince the npc to do a favor for her (etiquette or con?), roll another test (negotiate?).  She fails the test, so then roll to see if the npc will change it's mind after a little intimidation.

There's nothing wrong with multiple checks. With a 1-on-1, you can play out much more detailed social interactions, and basically whenever either side is trying to put one over the other party, a check can be called for.

As long as you're both having fun, it's all legit

[Kot]

I've done a fair share of solo games, and i find them to be very useful. You can easily resolve stuff that bores or excludes other players, like matrix escapades of the Hacker, rigorous training of the Samurai, the Technomancers adventures in the Resonance Realms, and the Mage's astral quests to the Metaplanes. Plus, it's a great tool for developing characters background, personality, or even giving them a chance to drop some of the negative qualities they have. And if they perform excellently, even for free, or with a discount.
I'd be against rewarding players with Karma for such adventures, except for Magicians, and to a smaller extent Technomancers. And even for them it would be story-related, and used to obtain a Spirit Bond, or bind a Focus, or other game tool that has a cost in Karma - like spells, for example.

My style would be dropping the Karma cost entirely and making the player get through one or more solo adventures to pay for the Binding/Spell.  The same can be done with Contacts, and their development (especially for adventures that will increase their Loyalty and Connections rating).

[savaze]

I wish my wife wanted to play ya lucky sob...

[taman]

Lol, yeah, she's pretty cool like that. 

Just thought of a good idea for her to flex her character's social skills:  She's walking home to her apartment building one day and there's police surrounding the building.  Apparently some psycho is holed up there and there's a hostage situation.  I figure she can assist the police in talking the guy down.

[Charybdis]

Just thought of a good idea for her to flex her character's social skills:  She's walking home to her apartment building one day and there's police surrounding the building.  Apparently some psycho is holed up there and there's a hostage situation.  I figure she can assist the police in talking the guy down.

Good idea, and nice to make some Police contacts early.

Just be sure to keep the tension though. She might want to do the right thing, but as a career criminal, hanging around and helping the police in a public setting has very serious identification risks....

[nakano]

My wife and I have run 1 on 1 games on a couple of occasions.  My experiences have always been positive, and she has always enjoyed them.

My general practices while running 1 player games are:

1)  The player is the central point of the game.  Try to avoid putting them on the sidelines, try to keep them in the thick of things.

2)  Keep very careful notes about NPCs.  The player will only be interacting with NPCs.  They are the whole world.  Keeping them straight is critical.

3)  I normally start small, a couple of settings, a few key NPCs and then slowly add to the mix from there.  My most recent 1 player game had my wife's hacker character as a DJ at a local rave bar.  This was the major setting for the first few sessions as she got drawn into the biz.  From there we expanded to several other major sites, and a variety of one shot sites. 

4)  Communication is key.  The thing I love about a solo game is that you have the ability to run the type of game that you and the player will enjoy most.  If you want a chainsaw buzzing killathon perfect.  If you want a sherlock holmes investigation theme that works.  If you want to do heavy roleplay, light roleplay, comedy, whatever you want, it works.  I normally check in on campaign direction once every couple of weeks, and just ask my wife a couple of quick questions.  What she wants more of/less of, npcs she likes/dislikes, settings she likes/dislikes. 

5)  I also take the oppurtunity to give her lots of choice on plot.  I will throw out teasers for 4-5 individual plots and see which ones she jumps on.  It gives the player more control over campaign direction.

Hope this helps.

[Man Who Walks At Night]

The main thing with keeps me from doing 1 on 1 runs with anyone is my style of GM'ing.

IF you have your entire run planned out before hand, then its not a big deal - but I only do a rough draft of my runs before the session, and its CRITICAL to me that the players now and then take time to roleplay or talk amongst themselves, this gives me enough time to adjust my plans, think of new directions of the run and look up stats for something, this of course also means my runs are usually much more open-ended, and they players can do almost anything they want - but also means there is less clues to what is the "right" way to do it, as its up to the players, its not something I recommend for new players/gamemasters.

[Charybdis]

The main thing with keeps me from doing 1 on 1 runs with anyone is my style of GM'ing.

IF you have your entire run planned out before hand, then its not a big deal - but I only do a rough draft of my runs before the session, and its CRITICAL to me that the players now and then take time to roleplay or talk amongst themselves, this gives me enough time to adjust my plans, think of new directions of the run and look up stats for something, this of course also means my runs are usually much more open-ended, and they players can do almost anything they want - but also means there is less clues to what is the "right" way to do it, as its up to the players, its not something I recommend for new players/gamemasters.

Errr....what's the problem?

This sounds like the PERFECT Gm style for a 1:1 campaign.

We're not talking about pre-prepared notes. We're talking about keeping track of what you've made up on the fly
With a 1:1 campaign, if the PC meets Bob the Builder during a construction-site run, then later on they will remember Bob when planning to do some structural damage on another related case, and will want to look him back up.

Also, 1:1 PC's will throw all sorts of weird and wacky ideas into the mix. If you're good to just go with the flow, then this is perfect.

Between you and me (and well, everyone else on the forums) I have honestly GM'ed runs where I had no idea whatsoever as to how the PC's were going to get the job done. I just listened into their ideas, made a few numbers up on the fly and inserted a couple of surprises to mess with them.

Some would say this is cheating, but they had fun, I had fun, and all was right with the world.

I think you're selling yourself short if you think your GM style won't work. I know your exact style has worked for me

[Man Who Walks At Night]

Errr....what's the problem?

This sounds like the PERFECT Gm style for a 1:1 campaign.

We're not talking about pre-prepared notes. We're talking about keeping track of what you've made up on the fly
With a 1:1 campaign, if the PC meets Bob the Builder during a construction-site run, then later on they will remember Bob when planning to do some structural damage on another related case, and will want to look him back up.

Also, 1:1 PC's will throw all sorts of weird and wacky ideas into the mix. If you're good to just go with the flow, then this is perfect.

Between you and me (and well, everyone else on the forums) I have honestly GM'ed runs where I had no idea whatsoever as to how the PC's were going to get the job done. I just listened into their ideas, made a few numbers up on the fly and inserted a couple of surprises to mess with them.

Some would say this is cheating, but they had fun, I had fun, and all was right with the world.

I think you're selling yourself short if you think your GM style won't work. I know your exact style has worked for me

I works great for me for regular sessions, but 1 on 1, the player is not going to use time arguing with him/herself or roleplaying internally in the group, this gives me less time to think

[Charybdis]

I think you're selling yourself short if you think your GM style won't work. I know your exact style has worked for me

I works great for me for regular sessions, but 1 on 1, the player is not going to use time arguing with him/herself or roleplaying internally in the group, this gives me less time to think

Not a big issue:
Give them an NPC or two to argue with. That way you as GM/NPC can be the sounding board to swing the conversation into the ways that your gut says will be more interesting.

This is even better than a normal PC <-> GM conversation, as both parties remain in Character for longer, so the session is much more fluid.