I've run a few 1-on-1 sessions, and haven't really encountered a need for changes to game mechanics. I think that balancing is better done by the GM tweaking the environment, than by making exceptions to the written rules. Combat is usually at the heart of the problem - I think you have 3 basic ways to address it: - Avoid combat entirely - Reduce the difficulty of the encounters - Pump up the power of the player Avoiding combat is my go-to solution. I.e., my 1-on-1 games focus on narrative and investigation. I play closer to mirrorshades than to pink mohawk, so if a player wants to go in guns blazing the have an incentive to either come up with a plan that a solo operative could pull off, or to drum up some NPC support (both of which require roleplaying, and aren't combat in of themselves). Reducing encounter difficulty is also pretty straightforward. Instead of a professional hit team with rail sniper and drone support, you get jumped by a pair of gutter punks who try to brain you with a piece of pipe, etc. Pumping up the player with sweet gear (including speed boosts) works, but only if your player is into that sort of thing. If they don't want to keep track of 12 actions and 4 drones per combat round, don't make them.

The way I see it? A DM that knows what they're doing is all that's really needed. The nice thing about pen and paper RPGs is you have a DM who can tailor the adventure to suit a party's needs. There's no reason to toss more power to the player so they can act like a party of players, when you can just change the encounter itself. Hell, being a solo player opens up opportunities to go more in-depth with certain niche roles that are usually taxing on other members who don't have the right skillset (diplomacy, stealth, shit like that). If all else fails, you can have NPCs to fill in other roles. Heck, maybe let them utilize their networking skill to hire helpers for the job. That's assuming you don't want to go the AI farm route

I have played Eclipse Phase as a 1-on-1 game quite a lot. If you are two people that likes roleplaying, loves Eclipse Phase and has more time than your other friends there's no reason at all why you shouldn't do it. Same goes for other games of course... Giving extra creation points is definitely something you shouldn't be afraid of doing. I once made a character with 1500 CP excluding the morph and while she was certainly a bad-ass character, she still had lots of things she couldn't do and by no means were good at everything. It just meant I could be pretty good at both combat and social stuff at the same time. I'm mostly GMing these things though, and my player's characters always seem to want to do one thing that does help make up for the difference in group size; making her muse into an AGI. Not only does it provide more skills than a regular muse would, it also gives lots of roleplaying opportunities. Likle this: Daria (the player character): Whisper, can you help me hack into this door panel? *silence* Daria: WHISPER! Whisper (the AGI): Wait... what... errr, yes? Daria: What are you doing? Whisper: Uhm... just playing this new multiplayer simulspace game over the mesh, Dragon Quest 4. It's really fun, I can cast spells in it and everything! Daria: But you have a Multi-tasking implant! Whisper: Yes... and... ehm... I made three accounts... it's so hard to find decent people to team up with! Daria: Wait... does this cost anything? Whisper: Yes, they have a monthly fee. Daria: And how did you pay for it, I didn't know you had started earning your own credits yet? Whisper: Well... you know how I have access to all your accounts...? Daria: So you spent my credits on [b]three[/b] accounts to some simulspace game? Whisper: That is... a correct summary of the events. Daria: Alright, fine. Can you at least help me get this door open? Whisper: Hold on, I just need to kill this boss. Daria: NOW! ------------------------- That was for the first solo campaign we had. It worked very well, and there was certainly very little need to avoid combat as Daria was an Infiltration / Spray weapon specialist and had a heavily augmented Ghost. By using stealth to initiate fights she managed to take on some fairly impressive amount of foes at the same time. Yes, lots of speed does help. The current campaign is a lot less combat centric, and almost all damage the player character has done so far has been using psychic stab (with the positive trait that makes it do more damage). So it's definitely possible to run these kind of campaigns in Eclipse Phase. If you need some more detailed advice let me know and I can help you more later.