Frenemies Dev Diary #1

Most tabletop RPGs are designed for a party of around three to five players. Many can scale up to handle a larger party, but very few scale down neatly for a smaller party.

Most solo and duet TTRPGs, on the other hand, are designed around a single player character. The rest usually try to emulate the classic 3 to 5 player party as established by D&D and other popular games.

So, I was thinking: why not make a game about exactly two characters? It could be a solo game, a two-player co-op game, or a guided game for one to two players, but the point would be to have rules, mechanics, and challenges designed specifically around having two PCs, no more, no less.

One big reason I liked this idea was that I have trouble roleplaying a whole party of 3-5 characters by myself, but just two feels more manageable. On the rules and game complexity side, two PCs is also just enough to introduce more interesting combat tactics and allow different approaches to both combat and non-combat challenges. Compare that to running just a single PC, which often devolves into always leaning on your best stat(s) and straightforwardly trading blows with your opponents.

Next, it occurred to me that a game about two PCs could and should have some interesting mechanics to represent their relationship. Maybe there could be something akin to Momentum in Ironsworn, but shared between the PCs? I decided to call it "Synchronization", or "Sync" for short. You could earn Sync by having the PCs work together, protect each other, set each other up for success, etc., and then have special moves you can only do when your Sync is high enough or spend Sync to improve a roll.

Of course, my friend Entitas rightly pointed out that a Sync mechanic, by itself, would just encourage co-operating all the time, which smart players and characters would be inclined to do anyway. To keep it interesting, there would need to be some reason for the two PCs to not always get along.

That got the wheels turning in my head. I had already been thinking about different kinds of relationships this game could involve, but suddenly it all clicked when a specific word came to mind:

Frenemies 

More than just being about any two characters working together on a quest, this game could be specifically about those dramatic, high-tension relationships where people with conflicting goals or personalities need to work together. Think of your favorite examples of friendly rivalries or foes united by a common enemy. Think of ex-lovers who find themselves recruited to the same team, or family members who need to set aside their bad blood to deal with the bigger picture. Those are the kinds of stories I could focus on. It's a broad enough category and set of tropes to let each player make it their own, yet specific enough to be a niche I doubt any other game designer has yet filled.

I'm feeling inspired. I've got plenty of ideas for more mechanics (such as a Tension track that builds toward explosive conflict if not resolved or defused, and a Trust track that represents the long-term growth of the relationship) and Oracle tables for character creation and plot inspirations ("I must work with my frenemy because...", "Fundamental Disagreements", "Minor annoying traits", etc.). I'm gonna try blogging about my development process as I go and share some of the content I come up with.

At this point, I'm not sure if this is going to be an Ironsworn hack or a standalone game. Maybe the former at first, and then I'll evolve it into the latter? We'll see. Anyway, if you like this idea, or you have any thoughts on it, let me know!