It has varied over time, depending on the group. Ranging from 1 in 3 to every game. Of course at one time our sessions where 8 to 10 hour each. Military over seas with not much else allowed some long sessions. The group makes the biggest difference. I has groups that spent two to three hours in town gathering information and shopping. On the other hand I had groups that preferred at least one combat every hour back in 1 and 2e.
D&D General How often (on average) do you have D&D sessions with absolutely no combat?
Zio_the_dark
The dark one :)
Almost never. My players like crushing skulls 
Edit: but sometimes I shorten some encounters when they seem to drag a bit to keep them moving. They like crushing skulls but not static crushing except when it's a big monster!
Edit: but sometimes I shorten some encounters when they seem to drag a bit to keep them moving. They like crushing skulls but not static crushing except when it's a big monster!
Puddles
Adventurer
So in my current campaign, we are 12 sessions in and 3 of those featured no combats making it 25% exactly. 2 of those were fun downtime sessions after quests, and 1 was a night of burglary that could have turned into combat but was avoided. I think the next session is likely to be no combat too as they are about to advance to the next tier of play and leave the starting town which I’m finding is taking more time to set up.
My campaign consists of 3 hour long sessions played over video chat. I find if there are 2 combat encounters in a session that generally takes up the entire session and can see some players find it a bit relentless, so sessions that are non-stop combat are about as common as those with zero combat, and usually come back to back. (Session 11 was non-stop combat on the way back from the first big dungeon, so Session 12, was zero to act as a palette cleanser).
I put quite a bit of thought into the pacing and rhythm of the campaign, and will sometimes remove encounters when it is becoming a slog, or add them in when events needs spicing up.
I definitely think the first session of every campaign should have some combat though, starting off things with a bang and letting the players get a feel for their characters.
My campaign consists of 3 hour long sessions played over video chat. I find if there are 2 combat encounters in a session that generally takes up the entire session and can see some players find it a bit relentless, so sessions that are non-stop combat are about as common as those with zero combat, and usually come back to back. (Session 11 was non-stop combat on the way back from the first big dungeon, so Session 12, was zero to act as a palette cleanser).
I put quite a bit of thought into the pacing and rhythm of the campaign, and will sometimes remove encounters when it is becoming a slog, or add them in when events needs spicing up.
I definitely think the first session of every campaign should have some combat though, starting off things with a bang and letting the players get a feel for their characters.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
I was thinking about this thread today because I have been going through and re-reading and editing the compiled story hour docs for my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign from the early 00s and decided to keep a spreadsheet with info about every session, including if there is combat.
So far I am 25 sessions into a campaign that lasted 103 session and six of the 25 featured no combat at all. It will be interesting to see what it ends up at when I am done. Will definitely come back to this thread to post the findings.
So far I am 25 sessions into a campaign that lasted 103 session and six of the 25 featured no combat at all. It will be interesting to see what it ends up at when I am done. Will definitely come back to this thread to post the findings.
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