Adventures without much Hack n slash?

[LcKedovan]

Heya everyone! (long time no see!),

So... been a crazy few years of moving settling in and as of next month I will have settled into a place where I have a dedicated games room. My wife has been bugging the heck out of me to start running D&D again. My problem has been a bit of burnout, but also not as much time as I would like to do planning and organisation. The group I play with prefers less hack n slash, since with 3.5 and using the miniatures, combats can tend to dominate the percentage of any nights gaming session. What I am looking for is suggestions for adventures with more focus on problem solving, riddles, diplomacy and RP. Combat is still important but less is better. I usually have to do the planning and focus on those aspects myself, but without the time to really dedicate to it I would prefer suggestions on adventures that wouldn't require hours of my time to prep and run. Thanks for any suggestions,

-Will

 

[Aus_Snow]

My wife has been bugging the heck out of me to start running D&D again.

Sorry, no suggestions at this time, but that just stood out. It's the kind of problem I'll bet more gamers wish they did have!

 

[kenobi65]

"How about some hack-and-slash, roleplay, puzzles, and hack-and-slash? That doesn't have much hack-and-slash in it."

"I DON'T LIKE HACK-AND-SLASH!!!"

(apologies to Monty Python)

I totally empathize. My wife, too, is one of the people that bugs me to DM more often...and she, too, has a limited appetite for hack-and-slash.

Unfortunately, if you lack the time / motivation to plan a session in advance, the default does tend to be a combat-heavy adventure. It's planning the other stuff that often requires the brainpower.

My advice would be to take a look at Dungeon Magazine. I've found the quality of the adventures in Dungeon to be generally very high, and only rarely are the adventures just combat-fests....they give plenty of hooks for roleplaying and other non-combat encounters.

 

[Lockridge]

Assuming you don't want to create the adventure yourself and that you wish to purchase one, why not take one that you already know is fairly much an investigation/roll playing adventure and simply remove many of the encounters. For the encounters you leave in, make them "lighter" by decreasing the number of baddies.
Most published adventures have encounters that can easily be dropped without any effect on game story. You can even remove most of the non-important rooms in a dungeon.
This would make the adventure more "meaty" in that the players will travel through the plot much quicker while still getting the flavour of the adventure.

Many older players seem to prefer this. The average adventure takes a few months to play. It may have 50 possible encounters while only 6 to 8 actually move the plot. Imagine playing through a favourite adventure in just a few weeks.

 

[LcKedovan]

Sorry, no suggestions at this time, but that just stood out. It's the kind of problem I'll bet more gamers wish they did have!

Did I mention she's a model in her spare time? I admit, I am pretty damn #$%@#^ fortunate. Of course, I rue the day when I kill off her character... heh.

As for the rest of the suggestions so far.. all good. If anyone knows any specific adventures they have run or heard about that would help too. I have almost all the Dungeon's so sorting through all of them is a lot of work .

-W.

 

[Lockridge]

A model by day and a D&D player by night?
You are one lucky son of a *****.
Sorry I can't think of anything offhand - I just had to comment on the model thing.

 

[Crothian]

1 on 1 Adventures #1: Gambler's Quest is a solo adventure for a rogue or bard, but really any class can work. Expeditious Retreat Press has it and other solo adventures that might work.

 

[Huw]

UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave is reputed to be completable without a fight. However, it can seriously ruin campaign continuity, since it mucks about with time, and there are plenty of oppurtunities to fight.

S1 Tomb of Horrors has very few combat encounters. Putting her through that might serious damage your relationship though...

If she likes puzzles, you could try one of the Challenge of the Champions adventures from Dungeon magazine. Can't recall issue numbers off-hand.

 

[kenobi65]

If she likes puzzles, you could try one of the Challenge of the Champions adventures from Dungeon magazine. Can't recall issue numbers off-hand.

Good suggestion. The latest Challenge of Champions just appeared a month or two ago, in Dungeon #138:
http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/2006/138

 

[LcKedovan]

Good suggestion. The latest Challenge of Champions just appeared a month or two ago, in Dungeon #138:
http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/2006/138

Yeah, those ones are definately good. I have run a couple of the older ones before. I'll have to check out 138. The group consists of more than just my wife but the solo adventures might work well for sidequests when others can't be around. Thanks for those tips!

-W.