Help with the non-hacky-slashy!

[wittyallusion]

Okay, yes, I'm a. new here and b. new to DMing. What I really need help with right now is figuring out how to run 3-4 hour sessions in D&D 4e that aren't so heavily reliant on combat to make them so long. I'm including skill challenges in the game I have tonight, but for future references, I'm curious to know what the rest of you do to make things not so combaty as I can't seem to figure out how to have players interact with NPCs that doesn't lead to situations of life and death. I figured this forum would be a good spot for this discussion for the reference of other DMs with similar issues.

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

A system-neutral comment would be to make certain that whatever your players get from the non-combat encounters is as important as the combat ones. This can mean XP, treasure, plot progress or other achievement. Fun, I think goes without saying, but the fun of success often comes from meaningful achievement.

So think about where your players are trying to get to, and make some of the bigger obstacles non-combat encounters, and make certain that they recognize what is at stake so they are invested.

Z

 

[Jack7]

Wit, develop a good storyline and plot with a real purpose.

Then have your guys role play and interact with that storyline and the people/NPCs who are also part of that story.

Don't think of the story as being about how the players and NPCs interact, but rather about why they are interacting? To what end, what is the story about?

If you want to move away from mere hack and slash then the players need a story to become involved in.
Then again, let the players role-play in that story.

They will create the story as much as you do.

 

[Gilladian]

It helps if the PCs want to see themselves as non-combat-slashy kinds of people. If your pcs are a fighter who kills things, a rogue who backstabs things, and a cleric who bashes and heals, well, I think they're gonna fight everything they meet.

ASK your players what besides combat their characters want to do. In my current campaign, the fighter is terrified of dogs. He's miffed that every time they fight any kind of dog creature, he fails whatever fear check is involved, and runs away... So when he was able to make friends with a dog at the local inn, and have fun playing with it, it was a big deal to him.

The cleric, on the other hand, really seems to enjoy lecturing other characters about charity. She spends some time everywhere looking for small but interesting good deeds to do. She anonymously hired laborers to help a farm family plow a field once; she had more fun hiring the laborers than killing goblins all night long.

And the wizard loves spell research. He was willing to spend a half hour talking to a librarian convincing her to let him have access to a "reserve room" of special books so he could study a new spell. He still remembers the librarian's name 3 months later.

 

[Jack7]

ASK your players what besides combat their characters want to do.

Excellent point.

 

[fba827]

how well do you know your players? what types of 'player' types do they fall in to?
Some like story, others like combat, others still lean towards enjoyment from roleplaying out interaction, still others don't care as long as they can get together with friends and be silly... a nd so on.

None of your players will enjoy it if you yourself (as the DM) don't show excitment for it... so how about you -- what do you like?

Speaking from experience as an example -- I like plot and story, so I figured out the framework for a storyline that could carry, and then just built everything off the framework. Because I like the story, I'm able to do so enthusiastically and get the players invested in it as well -- so they seem to enjoy the noncombat plot advancement encounters as much as anything else.

So my point -- what about noncombat encounters do YOU like, and how can we exploit that enthusiasm for the players to feed off of as well. And then, what do you know about your players likes?

It doesn't all have to be skill challenges, sometimes just interacting with NPCs (to obtain information that moves the game forward) can be just as rewarding, and you can consider it the XP equivalent of a skill challenge if you so desire.

 

[Bercilac]

If you're just getting started, a lot of the advice here might seem intimidating. (Or maybe not). To make it easy, just make a list of encounters (you don't have to use them all in the adventure). Some will be quite clearly combat encounters, some will be role-playing encounters, a lot will be a mixture of both.

A hypothetical adventure might have:
-Attacked by thieves (combat)
-Shelter at the inn (role-playing)
-Looking for the hide-out (role-playing)
-Buying supplies (role-playing)
-Invading the hide-out (sneaking, possible combat)
-Encounter the bandit king (probably combat, possibly role-playing)
-Free the prisoners (role-playing, combat with the guards)

Prepare what you think you need to for each "scene" in your story, including what the players might get out of it, a little bit of descriptive text (unless you're great at thinking of that stuff on the fly), and a few minor details to make the setting more interesting (cliches like an orc with a scar on his face are fine, so is a merchant with a stutter). You're going to get used to doing a lot of "winging it" (that's a technical term).

If you let them, the players will extend the most minor events into a lot more playing time. If they're walking down the street, a scene you might have written as filler, let them talk to strangers if they ask to. Always keep your eyes going around the table, and if someone looks really intent on the scene, they probably have something to add. At these points just finish your description without changing the scene (so don't get them to their destination yet if it's the journey that's interesting them), and ask "What do you do [while...]?" or "Any questions?" If the answer's no, move along. But often times the answer will be twenty minutes of amazing play experience that hadn't even occurred to you during the design phase.