What TTRPGs Excel At Not Having Combat?

Reynard · Oct 30, 2025

I am feeling the need to stretch my GMing skills beyond my comfort zone a little, and since I generally like high concept, high action games, I thought I would ask about games that don't rely on action, especially combat, to be compelling.

Whether it is romance, mystery, horror, politics or just slice of life, what games do you think excel at being engaging and compelling in play without being focused on action adventure or combat?

bsss · Oct 30, 2025

Cypher System can definitely be that game. I just ran a whole session where the group resolved some loose threads, travelled between worlds, established rapport with their followers, did some deals, and planned their next job and long term goals. Lots of rolling and RP, but no action per se.

I would also include the investigative horror games, with the right group and tone --- Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, The Magnus Archives, etc.. Action can happen, but it's often only the end of a thread gone bad.

sevenbastard · Oct 30, 2025

Dallas the role-playing game

Well until someone shots JR.

guachi · Oct 30, 2025

I'll second Call of Cthulu. It's the game you play when you want a bit of 1920s Earth history with your RPG.

Autumnal · Oct 30, 2025

CoC the system definitely doesn’t need combat, but CoC adventures and campaigns pretty much all assume you do, and lots of it. There’s a real lack of good examples to draw on. I would pounce on a book about CoC without fighting that had examples and helpful discussion.

Various universal systems simply don’t have any specific mechanics for combat. Fate has few; QuestWorlds, Over the Edge 3e, and others have none. True also for some solo systems that can also be used in group play like Ironsworn/Starforged and Loner.

zakael19 · Oct 30, 2025

Any forged in the dark game. Combat isn’t its own “thing,” but you can escalate to violence (or have violence as a consequence of your actions) that often resolves in a fictional framing and single dice roll.

Wanderhome is a game that explicitly contains no violence, apart from one of the most poignant takes on war trauma I’ve seen encapsulated into a playbook.

TheAlkaizer · Oct 30, 2025

Burning Wheel has rules for fighting. But I've found out of all the games I've played, it can satisfyingly go on the longest without any combat and still be captivating.

Currently running a 11th century anglo-saxon/viking campaign and we have yet to have a fight.

And if you want to stretch those GM muscles, oh boy will Burning Wheel make you work. It's a whole different philosophy I still having issues grasping.

zarionofarabel · Oct 30, 2025

Yeah, second for Burning Wheel. Definitely a system I could see running an entire campaign without a single combat encounter and it not being even remotely a problem. I think any game that had a decently robust skill system can be used to run a campaign that isn't combat oriented. The more skills a PC has that relate to things outside of combat the more often a player can roll dice and the more opportunities there are for "things to go wrong" which leads to even greater consequences. I also think theme has more to do with it than anything. The mystery and spy genres are probably the first one that come to mind, though setting and system will inform play. I ran a Star Wars game years ago using D6 SW were the players were members of the ISB. I think there was single instance of combat about midway through, when the players decided to defect to the Alliance. Then of course, the campaign ended with a combat where the PCs sacrificed themselves in glorious fashion to save someone's cheese sandwich or something. I also ran a decently long game of Vampire that had zero combat, mostly because none of the PCs were even remotely the kind of people that would get into a fight, much less a shootout. There was some violent interaction with mortals from time to time, but due to judicious use of Disciplines I would be loathe to call what happened "combat" of any recognizable sort. I have never played it cause I don't really understand the system, but I'm lead to believe that if combat were to occure in Brindlewood Bay something has gone drastically wrong. Tales From The Loop is another one that I think would work quite well with no combat seeing as it has no combat engine, and the PCs are kids solving mysteries 80s movies (Goonies) style. I also ran a dozen session game of MouseGuard one time that only featured a single instance of combat with an agitated Owl that fled after the first round cause the PCs got a good roll and "won" the fight straight away (the goal was to make the Owl flee). MG is BW light, so see above, plus the main "antagonist" in MG is the dangers of travel and the environment so combat is much less likely to occur than in your typical adventure game.

mearls · Oct 30, 2025

The Dying Earth RPG has social combat and little to no physical combat. You all play rascals, con artists, and criminals who use social skills and wit to trick NPCs (and other PCs!) into deranged scams, obviously terrible ideas, and unhinged get-rich-quick schemes. The high point of the sample adventure is an eating contest where the goal is to find the most efficient way to cheat.

The Dying Earth RPG

Buy Print on Demand from DriveThruRPG A future, unimaginably distant… The sun, now in its dotage is a swollen maroon orb. It stutters and blinks. At any moment it may finally go out. Earth, immensely old… Dig anywhere and find a buried city or the shore of a vanished sea. Deodand-haunted woods...

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overgeeked · Oct 30, 2025

Definitely recommend Call of Cthulhu.

There are lots of great horror-mystery scenarios out there, but they do often involve combat. Nowhere near the amount of combat you'd find in a D&D module...mostly. But after a few sessions of tracking down clues, research at the library, and trips to the sanitarium to chat with people who know too much, shotgunning some cultists can be a welcome change of pace.

You can remove the combat from the scenarios yourself, with varying levels of difficulty, or run a homebrew mystery. With the advice in the 7E Keeper Rulebook (the core and only book you need), advice like the three-clue rule, and node-based design, it should be fairly easy to do for anyone with experience running games.

Seth Skorkowsky’s YouTube channel is filled with reviews of scenarios and advice on running various games and genres, including Call of Cthulhu, mysteries, and horror.

The Quick Start Rules are free on DriveThru.

ETA: Why not? Since I'm grabbing useful links might as well make another general thread for Call of Cthulhu.

Thread 'Call of Cthulhu General Thread [+]'

Oct 30, 2025

The [+] is to keep things positive and prevent the same old, tired arguments about the style of play, genre, and time periods. There are plenty of other threads to hate on games and play styles you don’t like. Also, this isn’t the place to argue about H. P. Lovecraft’s racism. He was a racist, end of. There’s no need to beat that long-dead horse.

There are a few people on here who play Call of Cthulhu and want to talk about it without the constant negativity of the other threads, so I thought we should have a general [+] thread about...