D&D Session Without Combat

[Numion]

Just when I started to believe that my campaign had drifted into the gray waste of mindless Hack-n-Slash with no return, my players surprised me positively. Last friday we had a standard length D&D session. With no combat whatsoever.

Let me repeat:

D&D session without combat.

Just once before have I had such a session, and that wasn't in D&D. All in all, it was one of the best sessions I've ever run. Somehow the session was serene and intense at the same time. The year was drawing to and end and the PCs were to go to a new years party, while at the same time their relations with the Red Wizards were becoming more strained.

I had planned the session to include at least two ass-kicking scenes: To close down halfling potion smugglers and the main attraction: trip to Abyss. (To kill the demon who was after a beggar they had used to test a Deck of Many Things. It was this former beggars new years' eves party.)

Instead my players decided to screw the Red Wizards' request to attack the halflings, forget the trip to abyss and bought horses and rode out of town.

A great way to start a new year! (Except that it was totally immoral to leave the beggar on the mercy of the demon. But players were just scared of going to abyss. Rightly so. )

There's really no point per se in this post, I'm just happy with the turn of events and wanted to share.

 

[Lizard]

Uhm...unless I decide to toss in a fight scene just for the heck of it, a lot of our gaming sessions have no combat.

 

[Sodalis]

yeah for you...

Yeah- I had one of those days. It always seem to occur during sessions that have celebrations in them. I gues sthe players just need a reason to keep themselves busy.

Mine was a festival for the reelection of the local magistrates.

My PCs ran around the entire day playing random games, trying the food, and gathering info on the kingdom.

I was really happy, except that I wanted them to be fighting too- so I threw in a brute squad that was blatantly trying to start trouble. they wated them with no problem.

It was fun having them run around a kingdom (all planned out) gathering info from various sources. I think this is one of the few times that they received info from somewhere other than th tavern

they went to the library (for history) rogue's hangout (for the downlow) mage's guild (royal news) and talked to the homeless (afetr helping- for corruption news)

I loved that game...

 

[KidCthulhu]

Strange. In all three of the campaigns I play in, we have combat every other session, maybe. Often we go longer without any whacking.

Maybe we all just like the sound of our own voices too much.

 

[Oracular Vision]

The formula is...

One less-challenging fight to suck the resources out of the party for when the more challenging fight occurs (see next line)

One challenging fight for those who like fighting

One encounter that could be a fight or a discussion, depending on how psychotic the party is feeling that night.

Played correctly, the party never knows which of these three things is going to happen, only that there will be a time to fight and a time to talk. This keeps them from taking only one kind of spell, they have to be ready for anything.

An evening of no fighting can be okay, but it's not everyone's idea of a good night.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

We had a session Saturday night where we ran ONE combat that lasted about four hours, and it's still not done. Ah the joys of D&D...

 

[Fenrir]

The last three sessions, in my group, have been nothing but chatter. The party just finished a massive, climactic battle four sessions ago, where a member's love interest was brutally murdered before his eyes, and everyone almost died.

For the last three sessions, it's been basically the same campfire scene, as each character basically reexamines his purpose through conversation with other characters. It's a great image- five friends who've been through hell, all bloody and broken and bandaged, talking about life.

 

[EOL]

Certainly I try to have sessions without any combat, and generally I pull it off, but that happens maybe one in ten sessions, as for the rest my players really enjoy combat so I give them what they want. Sometimes it's just a matter of reading thier body language to know when they've had enough role-playing and (more rarely) when they've had enough combat.

 

[Quickbeam]

We just completed a tweaked version of Gorgoldand'd Gauntlet, and had only one fighting encounter to speak of the entire adventure. Granted, the design is intended to test your wits and mind as opposed to your combat prowess, but we went three straight sessions with nary a battle.

Not knowing what to expect, whether it be combat or traps, negotiations or covert operations, is what makes D&D so fantastic !!

 

[SonOfLilith]

Lol, I remember reading about them testing the deck of many things on that poor sap.