Lizzie Stark and Bjarke Pedersen’s game To The Bitter End will debut at Fastaval and has already been played at the Future of Storytelling conference (I laid it out for them). In To The Bitter End you play a couple’s journey from initial attraction to the implosion of their relationship. It is sort of intense. Not sure when it will be available but probably by summer.
Recommendations: Two-Player, GM-less/full RPGs ("Duets")
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There’s also A Scoundrel in the Deep, in which the two players pass lit matches back and forth.
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In Let Me Take a Selfie (briebeau.itch.io/let-me-take-a-selfie), there’s Don’t Look at Me, a phone/tablet mechanic role-playing game about a couple who are separated.
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I adore …And Then They Met by Dave Rothfeder. It’s a romance game about two people whose lives intersect in interesting ways, with each of them inadvertently leaving “impressions” of themselves for the other. As the game continues, they become more and more aware of each other, and the game ends as soon as they meet. You then talk about what kind of relationship you think they’ll have. It’s very sweet, very emotional. I love it.
Also: there’s a great chance most people here already own it, because it’s featured in Codex - Love 2:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/251006/Codex--Love-2-Apr-2018
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Cut to the Chase is my two player game of hunter and prey shenanigans. It is part of the You and I: Roleplaying games for Two anthology.
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I’m loving all the games here, so many new ones I haven’t heard about before.
But… I’d love to know if you played, them what that experience was like. What was the emotional core? What separates it from other stuff? What else is it like? If you liked X you’d like this. If you played them multiple times… how it changes with multiple plays.
I definitely don’t have enough time to play all of these… so for better or worse I’m trying to prioritize what would work best for me. So thank you all for all the work you’ve already done and will do for me. 
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I’ve played very few two-player RPGs. I have most of a session of Murderous Ghosts under my belt, along with the game, Trump/Putin by Josh Jordan, which I played for a review.
It was interesting and a little weird at first playing with only one other person. It’s kind of disarming and both games took a scene for us to get comfortable. I’ve no idea how Star-Crossed is going to go, but I’m interested to see what happens.
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Looked into this thread (I don’t know whether I should bring this here, or take to separate thread), as lately we play MH 1:1 with my GF - coMCing it. I wonder whether there are any games that support more long term play - multisession, with more complex social web etc.
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I’ve played Connection Lost from the You & I collection , about an astronaut going down with their damaged satellite and the other person this astronaut is talking to during the last hour before the satellite will be destroyed by entering the atmosphere.
That was a very intense game (I was the astronaut) about dying and facing the stark reality of death.
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Sweet Agatha, also noteworthy because you physically destroy the game as you play. Super interesting and cool.
I’ve played Dogs in the Vineyard one on one and it is pretty intense and fun.
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Dragon/Dragonslayer by Wendy Gorman.
This is a game for two. One of you is a Dragon, the other, a Dragonslayer.
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Would a game designed for one GM and a solo player/protagonist count as specifically intended for 2?
I think it would, in which case games like Scarlet Heroes would apply, right? I have not run this one, but whenever I look into duet games, I tend to be intrigued by the concept.
Since it’s classic sword and sorcery, I suppose it would fit under the Murder category.
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I just got the GO from my girlfriend to play Dragon/Dragonslayer with her. It’s going to be intense.
My absolute favorite TTRPG currently is a two-player game called Random Access Histories. It would go in the “other” section, probably. It’s about a sentient mecha and their neural-linked pilot, and it’s very good. It’s also pretty easy to do in a play-by-post format, as I’ve done that several times.
Also, in the spirit of self-promotion, I wrote a 2-player game (though it has 3- and 4-player variants) about an eldritch god trying to tempt a human into summoning it. It’s called Things, Eldritch and Terrifying and it also would go in the “other” section.
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This looks pretty cool- the idea of a potentially malevolent entity persuading its way towards release reminds me very much of that AI box experiment thing. Was that an influence?
Also, I like the inversion variant you list at the back, with the human courting the terror. Pretty neat how that shifts the tone entirely with only the slightest mechanical change.
For the sake of completion: S/lay w/Me by Ron Edwards. I haven’t played it or read it.
There’s also Cthulhu Confidential, the duet Gumshoe system game, which I guess isn’t really GMless.
Having played these two Emotional Mecha Games, I want to recommend Breach by @Cass and Rev Your Engines by Maayan Priel.
Breach is all about a Mech and its Pilot making a decision about what to do when the rules of engagement conflict with camaraderie. It uses a deck of cards to make the decision impossible and its final move is gutting.
Rev Your Engines brings big scale mechæmotion down to the anime rivalry schoolyard level. Choosing from its nine prompts becomes a lot more difficult when each of them is on a tic-tac-toe board that will determine which one of you comes out on top.
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My upcoming game A Cool and Lonely Courage is designed to play well as a two player GM-less game, although it can be used with up to 5 players. Kickstarting soon! Information here
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I made this microgame for two players a long time ago, about political negotiation and bluffing. It’s made to be played in a Chinese restaurant, where you have to reach a consensus with your sworn enemy over the course of a single meal, or the entire world will be destroyed. (Based on a true story.)
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I created a game called Lonesome World, a Powered by the Apocalypse Western-themed one-on-one game. It’s been through a few play tests and holds up pretty well. The bones are there, but development is on hiatus as I strategize about handling the problematic aspects of late 19th century America.
Rules Summary, Playbooks, and other materials here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g-0371OWpPn6odYLjl3xHKmu89tozaxB
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