Problem Characters: The Lone Wolf

The hero has a thousand faces, and players will bring many of them to the table. But the presence of some character archetypes is the kiss of death for TTRPGs, because TTRPGs are a team sport. Here’s how to spot and handle the most troublesome character of all: The Lone Wolf.

He’s a maverick, a loner on the edge, he doesn’t trust anyone

And that right there is the problem. Unless you are running a solo adventure for this guy (and it is usually a guy) they will play so badly with others that the party can’t form a meaningful dynamic while he is still around.

In fairness, we’ve probably all fallen into the trap of creating The Lone Wolf character. Superficially, a lot of fictional heroes look like this. Dirty Harry, The Man With No Name, Wolverine, Batman. For fiction that follows a single character that’s fine.

The subtext of the story is often them finding that they need other people after all. This is not a dynamic that you can let play out for long at the table unless you are willing to have the Lone Wolf monopolise the spotlight for extended periods, split the party, refuse to participate in group actions and other disruptive activities. You need the Lone Wolf to come back to the pack sooner rather than later.

I’ve ended up finishing the campaign, deliberately killing the character for metagaming reasons, asking the player to rethink or retire them – all of these are corrosive things to player agency and GM enjoyment.

Handling The Lone Wolf

So how do we handle them?

First, be firm at character generation time. Point out that TTRPGs are a team sport. A One Ring game is about Fellowship of the Ring, not about Aragon’s years as a loner in the wilderness. Ask the player to move the character back or forward in their own personal timeline so they will play nicer with others, or simply play a different character.

Reasonable players will of course realise the problem and in the early sessions will hopefully be amenable to nudging the character away from Lone Wolf status.

If you didn’t spot the danger at character generation and Lone Wolfness has emerged a few sessions in, have the campaign villain find the Lone Wolf’s kryptonite. Bring on that “needs others after all” subplot sooner rather than later.

Find a villain or situation that the Lone Wolf cannot handle on their own. The campaign big bad will seek out lieutenants to handle opponents, and if the Lone Wolf looks like a threat, they will send someone who is equipped to handle them.

Something as simple as pummelling them with spells that target their weakest saving throw, some sort of truesight to nullify a Lone Wolf Rogue’s stealth or backstabs, resistance or immunity to the main damage the Lone Wolf hands out, area effect and crowd control spells like entangle that capture or nullify the Lone Wolf without killing them.

Think like the bad guy – the Lone Wolf is a thorn in your side, what tools are there you can deploy? What creature in your game’s bestiary is going to give the Lone Wolf a bad day?

It doesn’t need to be lethal. Just have them come up against the kryptonite the next time “it’s what my character would do” has them splitting off from the rest of the party and going off on their own. The lieutenant has been lying in wait for exactly that opportunity.

Ideally, the party will have to come to the rescue. And ideally the Lone Wolf won’t have been so disruptive that they don’t bother.

Keep it in proportion – a certain amount of Lone Wolfness is tolerable, even expected in someone like a thief who scouts out the situation. Just make them sufficiently cautious that they don’t try to solo the whole adventure yet again while everyone else looks at their phones. Make them need the rest of the party.

This IS a metagame solution of the sort that I normally advise against deploying. It’s definitely best to head the problem off sooner and deal with it via good communications with reasonable players.

But the fact is the Lone Wolf is kinda fun to play, and there are a lot of fictional template characters who work well as the star of a movie but rather less as part of an ensemble piece like Fellowship of the Ring. So sometimes the world needs to bring them to the realisation that they can’t do it all on their own after all.