Too Much Roleplaying - Not Enough Hacking - keeping the action flowing

[Wulf Ratbane]

There seems to be a lot of this in your game Wulf.

Don't blame me, blame WDB Kenower.

 

[TerraDave]

In my just started campaign I am trying to encourage some play by email between sessions to keep the focus on the action when we do meet. Of course, as others have indicated, that doesn't have to be combat...but in practice it usually includes some.

On the other hand, I am in a PbP game where, even with almost daily turns, we didn't have combat for two weeks, but that is PbP

 

[The Shaman]

WHY, why does action relate to combat? While I do see it important in a game to have balance there are other ways than combat and they can be found in any B movie; the chase, the ticking time bomb, the rope bridge, the ledge walk, etc...

Action is how you present it but yea about one combat a session.

Well-said.

I think that skill-intensive situations can be as interesting as combat encounters, if not more so. To me that is one of the beautiful things about d20.

 

[pogre]

In my just started campaign I am trying to encourage some play by email between sessions to keep the focus on the action when we do meet.

Yeah, I'm doing that this week. I'm pretty sure I'm starting the next session in media res or whatever you say when you throw 'em in the fire

And consistently, it's the lone female gamer at the table who is the most frustrated at "all the talking and shopping crap" and no combat.

God bless 'er.

She has a lot in common with my wife. Mrs. pogre measures adventurers purely on the size of the dead pile and the gore in her beard (she's usually a Dwarf fighter).

 

[satori01]

How long do people typically play for? My sessions generally last from 6-8 hours of play.

My Players can easily weddle away 3 hours "politik-ing" with one faction or another, diplomacy, bluff, sense motive and gather information checks being the bulk of the dice rolling, and we have gone entire sessions without combat due to creative talking by the group.

I generally try to plan for 3 possible combat scenarios and 2 pure interaction scenarios. However with my group you never know what will trigger them, they might talk for hours with the leader of a necromantic theatre group and part friends, and then chase down some NPC from a faction they are opposed to and beat the snot out of them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

How long do people typically play for? My sessions generally last from 6-8 hours of play.

My Players can easily weddle away 3 hours "politik-ing" with one faction or another, diplomacy, bluff, sense motive and gather information checks being the bulk of the dice rolling, and we have gone entire sessions without combat due to creative talking by the group.

I generally try to plan for 3 possible combat scenarios and 2 pure interaction scenarios. However with my group you never know what will trigger them, they might talk for hours with the leader of a necromantic theatre group and part friends, and then chase down some NPC from a faction they are opposed to and beat the snot out of them.

Average for me is about 4 hours

 

[Chingerspy]

I'm running Conan OGL so combat is pretty much the aim of the game. I find that small combat encounters work best though. Like a Japanese meal - lots of small different courses.

To be honest I also prefer running or playing this style of game. I can forsee many good sessions ahead now that I have the mix right for me anf my player

 

[KnowTheToe]

I really like RP heavy games, but also try and have a combat or other dangerous situation 1x a game. But my players refuse to get involved in details of plot. They do not like to talk in character, engage in depth with NPCs, intergrate with society by buying land, etc... They want to fight. So I give them battles loosly strung together with plot. They are has happy as kittens with yarn, but I get bored running it.

After this semester (I live in a college town) I will put my game on hold until Fall semester. Hopefully I will gain some more RP happy characters.

 

[Silver Moon]

I agree that there has to be a balance, and not necessarily with every game but sometimes with the modules themself. For example, back in 1999 I did a module that ran for 40 game nights that was very combat intensive, with at least 20 of those nights being nothing except combat from beginning to end. So what I followed it up with in 2000 was another epic, this one running for 33 game nights. We were half-way through it before we had the first combat encounter. I had provided opportunites for combat before that, but after the previous module the players were happy to just role play. Note - that module was role-playing intense but it did conclude with a major multi-game climax battle (several battles in fact).

 

[kenobi65]

I try to fit in at least one combat per session, even if it doesnt have to do with the plot.

The obigatory band of ruffians always comes in handy.

Back in the days of the RPGA's Living City campaign, we called those the OTA (Obligatory Thug Attack).