New Dungeons and Dragons players face a far greater challenge than just learning how to play, and that's finding someone to play with. There are many D&D-curious people out there who are too shy to play with strangers yet don't have a committed group of existing friends to explore the TTRPG with. It's no surprise, then, that publisher Wizards of the Coast has been trying to invent rules for single-player D&D for years.
Dragon Delves, the next book up on the DnD release schedule, marks fifth edition's second official attempt to craft rules for one player, one DM adventures. Thanks to an early copy provided by Wizards of the Coast, I've had a chance to read these new rules and adventures. Overall, Wizards has come up with a simpler, more elegant system for single-character parties, and they've learned to make more thoughtful dungeon design choices when presenting that one D&D player with a dangerous adventure.
First, there were Sidekicks
Before we dig into the rules from this recent DnD book, let's cover the context of what came before. The last time that Wizards of the Coast designed two-player Dungeons and Dragons rules was in 2019 when it released the D&D Essentials Kit. This starter-set-style boxed set introduced rules for Sidekicks, which were essentially simple NPCs that could be controlled by the player or DM to bulk out the player-character's party.
D&D, at its core, is a numbers game. A simple fact of its design is that the side that takes more turns in combat tends to win. Presumably, that was the driving force behind the Sidekick rules, which gave the single player's side enough actions to take on at least one chunky enemy.
The downside of Sidekicks was that they distracted people from learning how to play Dungeons and Dragons. A new player in charge of managing Sidekicks along with their own DnD character sheet could easily become overwhelmed by the responsibility of managing 1.5 characters. On the other hand, if the DM plays as the Sidekicks, the new player gets to spend less time in the spotlight.
The overall consensus was that Sidekicks were hit-and-miss, cumbersome, and could have been balanced better. Unsurprising, then, that Wizards of the Coast would want to take a second stab at two-player rules.
Blessing of the Lone Champion
In Dragon Delves, Wizards' approach to two-player adventures is far simpler. Anyone who braves a dungeon alone acquires the Blessing of the Lone Champion, a feature with the following benefits:
- Whenever you roll initiative or finish a short or long rest, you gain Heroic Inspiration.
- When you gain this blessing and with each DnD level up, you gain temporary hit points equal to 10 times your level.
On paper, both of these appear to be huge buffs to a single-character party. Probability-wise, a reroll with Heroic Inspiration is similar to rolling with advantage, and better mathematicians than me have explained at length just how big of a difference advantage makes to the success of a roll.
Let's say, for example, that we're trying to hit a creature with an armor class of 15, and our attack modifier is +5. The above article states that the probability of rolling a 10 or above on a single die is 0.550. When you roll that second die (either because you have advantage or have chosen to reroll the first), this increases to 0.798.
This means that, in this case, that second roll makes our character 45% more likely to hit their target. The downside is that a character can only have one Heroic Inspiration at a time, so our single player must use it wisely. Regardless, that semi-regular access to rerolls will make them far less likely to be killed or blocked by a failed skill roll.
The second part of Blessing of the Lone Champion is also handy, but it comes with its own drawbacks. The temporary hit points grant a character an extremely tasty buff at the start of the adventure. For example, the average level 3 Fighter 5e will have around 25 hit points. With 30 temporary hit points, they can weather the blows of two Fighters before they're in danger of going down.
The downside here is that, because these hit points are temporary, they're not restored by rolling hit dice or resting. Unless they're handed a level up, this buff is only a short-term solution to combat scenarios where every DnD monster is targeting you.
In many cases, I imagine this won't cause too many hiccups. A conscientious DM will likely give newbie single players scenarios that are low on combat, and they might make the fights they do face distinctly un-deadly. However, it does mean that single-player parties are still unfit for lengthy old-school dungeon crawls.
Dragon Delves' solo adventures
The first two solo adventures in Dragon Delves pull their punches exactly as I've described above. They are largely non-violent, where combat scenarios are unlikely or can be solved with a bit of cunning or persuasion as an alternative. When battle does take place, beefier enemies are likely to retreat early on a trigger, such as reaching a specific number of hit points, or they might take prisoners rather than killing the player-character outright.
Dragon Delves has some novel tricks to stop these two adventures from feeling stale. Whimsical characters, social dilemmas, and a sinking ship set piece help distract from the lack of hostiles in these dungeons. The stories being told leave something to be desired, but at first glance, it seems perfectly possible for a single player to reach their endings.
The last solo adventure appears more threatening, with multiple chunky combat encounters in its dungeon crawl, some of which even have more than one attacker. This is for a level-12 character, though, so it'd be disappointing if we weren't at least in a little danger. However, it's still possible to dodge the most threatening fights with clever social interaction, and the biggest monsters are still unlikely to fight to the death.
One notable design choice in these adventures is that Wizards has avoided monsters that inflict ultra-punishing conditions on player-characters. Plenty of these enemies can restrain, grapple, or frighten the single-player newbie, but conditions that restrict their actions, such as incapacitation, are completely avoided.
Given how cruel it could be to take a single player's actions away from them completely, this is a relief to see. This should be the standard for solo-player games, but it's the kind of oversight that Wizards has absolutely made in previous 5e books, so it's worthy of some praise here.
I'll cover whether these adventures are actually any fun in my impending Dragon Delves review. For now, though, I'll say that these seem like functional solo adventures, capable of showing off the game's core mechanics without disastrous balance issues slowing a single player down.
I don't believe any single-character party will ever accurately convey what a standard game of D&D is like. So much of the experience relies on teamwork, whether that be bouncing off of each other in roleplay or using your abilities to set up the right conditions for an ally in combat.
While a direct recreation for one-player games isn't possible, I think Dragon Delves' solo adventures are a successful compromise. They give solo players a taste of the D&D experience in a controlled environment. They won't overload a beginner with complexity, and they're about as balanced as you can expect a fifth edition combat encounter to be - both signs that Wizards of the Coast has learned from its past mistakes.
Have you got your own system for one player, one DM D&D games? Tell us all about them in the Wargamer Discord. Or, if you'd like to build a character for your first solo adventure, here's all you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races.