TWO sessions with zero encounters!

[JBowtie]

OK, I admit it, I was stalling for time. See, the thing is I sent my players out to Nightfang Spire (from the WOTC adventure of the same name), but realized at the last minute that I needed to rebalance the encounters.

So - I did something completely unexpected: I removed *all* the encounters. No wandering monsters, none of the planned encounters, NOTHING. A completely and utterly abandoned tower in which nothing has moved in.

And it worked! I thought I'd have to pull something out of the Monster Manual, but so far, everyone's having fun exploring the tower. By some miracle I've kept the tension just high enough that nobody cares they haven't killed anything yet.

Now, usage of skills and role-playing have meant that they get some XP, but frankly I'm astounded at how well this has worked. I'll probably arrange an encounter once they've explored most of the tower, so there is some sort of reward for working through this thing, but...TWO sessions so far, and maybe a third next week.

Has anyone else has an experience like this? How long have you been able to milk it?

 

[Ranes]

Not by design, I've done this about once every other campaign, not that many times. The reason for doing so was usually similar to yours, although my health was a major factor on one occasion. It worked on every occasion bar one.

If the surroundings are captivatingly evoked, suspense and mystery can occupy willing players for a session or two. Going beyond that is something of a marathon. I'd quit while you're ahead.

You don't want to overdo it, obviously. Do it again to the same players in the same campaign and you might not get away with it. Even if you wait until the next campaign with these players, they may still start to see it as a motif.

 

[kolikeos]

my old dm did this once, saying that dnd is not all hack n slash, but since hes a poor dm, it was very boring.
(im not saying that sessions with no fighting are always boring, im just ranting a bit about my old dm.)

 

[Bagpuss]

Last session I played was Call of Cthuhlu 1920, we had great fun but considering the entire session only consisted of us talking in character during a uneventful train journey followed by booking into a hotel in Arkham again without incident you have to wonder how long it will take us to actually finish the adventure.