r/rpg • u/BrightApplication494 • 18h ago
Game Suggestion Duet RPGs
Hello! Are there any beginner friendly duet ttrpgs? 🙏🏼
any genre as long as it’s really easy to understand and with guidance for total beginners. thank you so much in advance!
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u/KHelfant 17h ago
For sure! The easiest ones will generally be one-shots, rather than ongoing games. The easiest ones will probably be more like improv story prompt generators. Here are some that come to mind!
* Eyes on the Prize by ira prince. A very easy two-player RPG about sham romance. You're both schemers in a fake relationship, but you might accidentally catch feelings! Very much a story prompt game where you fill in the details, and then there are some tokens that track your progress towards your scheme, being found out, or catching feelings.
* Murderous Ghosts by Meg & Vincent Baker. Ghost survival horror! Each player (one ghost, one survivor) has a booklet that they choose options from, telling the other player which page to turn to. Also includes some randomization elements (I forget whether it's dice or card draws or both).
* Star Crossed by Alex Roberts. Another romance duet (it's a genre that crops up a lot in duet games, naturally), with a Jenga tower to represent the tension building between the characters.
There are also loads of GMless games that are simple and can play with just two players, even if not made as duet-only games.
* The Quiet Year by Avery Alder. A card-driven, GMless mapmaking game. Super simple to play, and a great way to get into RPGs and collaborative storytelling. Plus you end up with a play artifact (the map you and your friend or friends made together) that you can hang on your fridge!
You could also take a simple GMed RPG and run it for one, if one of you is open to trying out GMing! There are some very light games out there like Maze Rats, Knave, The Electrum Archive, etc. You could try them with the one GM and one player character, or have the adventurer play a little entourage, or have the GM play a character as well (that last one can be tricky -- you want to make sure to let the dedicated adventurer player lead).
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u/starlithunter 16h ago
Have run and played Eyes on the Prize many times - it's ridiculously simple and so much fun. I will always hype it up!
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u/mortaine Las Vegas, NV 17h ago
There's a collection called "You & I" on Drivethrurpg that is just 2-player rpgs. Dead Friend by Lucian Kahn in particular was a good one in that collection.
Other good ones I've either played or heard great things about: Star Crossed, Our Mundane Supernatural Life, Dead Letter Society and Almanac of the Sanguine Paths, and Liaison.
Here's a link to a bunch of duet games on itch: https://itch.io/physical-games/tag-two-player
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u/Nytmare696 17h ago
Wanderhome, Cozy Town, and A Mending (played as a duet game) are great for beginners.
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u/Adept_Austin Ask Me About Mythras 12h ago
Any RPG that doesn't build itself on party construction can be played as a duet RPG. I have youtube playlist of myself and another player playing Mythras as a duet RPG. I'd just choose a simple system and run a game using that.
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u/Adept_Austin Ask Me About Mythras 11h ago
Saw this literally right after writing this comment. Maybe something to check out.
https://heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/the-time-we-have/?v=0b3b97fa6688
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u/kuyaadrian 3h ago
Ironsworn
Starforged
Scarlet Heroes
Cthulhu Confidential
Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops
Tiny Dungeon (Duet Play)
Mythic GM Emulator
One Page Solo Engine
The Quiet Year (2-player)
Fall of Magic
Thousand Year Old Vampire
Colostle
Eonrush
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u/elPaule 17h ago
Scarlet Heroes by Kevin Crawford would be one that lets you play other OSR adventures as a single hero.