I might end up running a campaign for one player. Does any of the fanmade stuff include a Lone Wanderer perk? Also, if anyone’s got any ideas about scaling encounters, I’d love to hear them.
I’m running a 1-to-1 with my wife, who loves Fallout, using our home city as the backdrop. I’ve found that scaling encounters is important and similar to those that video game player would experience. Basically a few opponents at a time, max.
I also made sure she has a couple of powerful weapons and decent armor. For example, she earned The One Ring power fist after surviving a vault (a pair of vaults really, one built atop the other) that was a pastiche of Moria and the Fellowships’s travel through it), which is a booming but slow-to-recharge melee weapon. She also has a dog companion, which I’ve assured her under no circumstances will perish that has unlocked its latent mutant power courtesy of Director X and the X-Mutts. So a doggy X-Man. She has access to other companions based on her need (a ghoul of The Shrine, which is a group that provides refuge for all children), a power-armor enhanced Special Delivery Operator of the US Postal Service (a major faction in our game), others. They are typically different kinds of fighting powerhouses.
However, the technique I’ve found is best is always allow a way through challenges that does not require actual combat. She’s become extremely adept at negotiation, ally building, and bluff.
Oh and avoid random encounter fights that don’t serve the narrative. She’ll have the option of engaging them if she wants but again, only if it serves the narrative do I push her toward a fight.
In sum, I’d offer the idea of making the game akin to the single-player experience in the video game. We’ve found that method a blast. A game for a lone wanderer can absolutely work and be fun. Enjoy!
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What Section9 says about scaling encounters with hostiles is really true. I GM for a small group and when I first started what I wanted to be challenging became tedious by using larger groups of hostiles.