Small group house rules

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FargrimAleheart
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Small group house rules

Post by FargrimAleheart »

Anyone have any special house rules for running small (2 PC) groups? I don’t think my players want a ton of retainers since they are coming from 4e and 5e. I understand it’s part of the old school feel to have them, but I’m trying to meet them somewhere in the middle.

One idea I had was to max their hit points every level. The other was to nerf monster damage by making their damage per hit equal their HD (gnoll has 2 HD, every successful attack = 2 damage).
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teaman
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Re: Small group house rules

Post by teaman »

FargrimAleheart wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 2:03 pm Anyone have any special house rules for running small (2 PC) groups? I don’t think my players want a ton of retainers since they are coming from 4e and 5e. I understand it’s part of the old school feel to have them, but I’m trying to meet them somewhere in the middle.

One idea I had was to max their hit points every level. The other was to nerf monster damage by making their damage per hit equal their HD (gnoll has 2 HD, every successful attack = 2 damage).
One thing to consider is cutting back on the number bad guys. For example, maybe they are adventures hired by a town to flush out a single ogre who is raiding the farms. Tracking down a serial killer like Michael Myers or Jason would work as well.

Just a thought. Might be good to have a friendly NPC cleric in town to patch them up. And extra NPC or two that accompany the party can't hurt and can serve as a backup character in case one of the two gets injured or dead.

Another thought is that they don't have to start at first level. No reason they can be experienced adventurers. Just have them undertake adventures that are rated a but below their levels.

Let us know how it goes. Holmes and Watson, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Eric Estrada and the other guy from CHiPs. Could be epic!
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Dimirag
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Re: Small group house rules

Post by Dimirag »

One way is to let them use 1 main pc + a "tag along" pc, so you can cover the 4 main classes.
Houseruling some animal companions instead of some classes can be helpful but may require a lot of work.

Using the Boosted Classes Supplement may be another option for more "powerful" parties.

As for adventures, cut the amount of enemies and encounters, low level parties are expected to move really cautiously.
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SmootRK
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Re: Small group house rules

Post by SmootRK »

I don't believe you should modify the rules to accommodate your players... instead I think it would be better to modify the encounters by scaling down, either numbers of foes, alternate lower HD foes when possible (instead of Ogre make it a brutish Gnoll, instead of Orcs make them goblins or kobolds, etc), traps do less damage or otherwise less lethal... you get the picture?

Overtly changing the rules probably will not scale well, especially as characters pick up levels... you will find yourself constantly tweaking the mechanics, and players will not generally appreciate this. "that isn't how it worked last week, eh?"
Yes, researching to modify encounters will take effort/time, but your play will not be substantially different. And... if you add another player or two to your group, you don't have to reverse engineer rules... you just get to do less of the encounter scaling bits.
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Beowulf
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Re: Small group house rules

Post by Beowulf »

There are a few things I like to do with small groups. The first is to tailor the adventures to suit just two people. Usually this means heavy and role play and maybe a mystery to solve, with just a little combat. Not every class (or player for that matter) is suitable for this approach but more intrigue and less combat helps keep the PCs alive.

The other is kind of what Dimirag was saying. Have each PC have a tag-along NPC that they co-control with the DM. Alternatively each player could run two full on PCs. That works well if the players are solid, know the rules well and can multitask. It has the advantage that the DM/GM doesn't need to run an NPC and the player is invested in the PC and won't use one for cannon fodder as they might an NPC.

The last option, IMO, is to nerf the baddies or make things easier. That sucks the fun out of things while still leaving the PCs in trouble if one of 'em gets killed.
Seven
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Re: Small group house rules

Post by Seven »

I'd go with non-lethal encounters.
Thugs who beat them up and take their stuff but don't kill them.
That's one way to make them appreciate hirelings.
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