D&D General How often (on average) do you have D&D sessions with absolutely no combat?

[Richards]

The only times I can recall running an entire gaming session with no combat was the first adventure of a given campaign, when the PCs are just meeting up with each other and we're establishing prominent NPCs and such. Other than that, there's almost certainly going to be combat every adventure, as that's what my players expect and enjoy.

Johnathan

 

[Lanefan]

On average I'd say there's maybe one no-combat session per adventure during the adventure (a typical adventure takes 8-10 sessions, some less, a few vastly more), and usually a couple of non-combat* downtime-treasury-training-restocking sessions between adventures.

In-adventure sessions without combat usually involve either lots of exploring or lots of resting and-or lots of travel.

* - non-combat vs anything I-as-GM produce; occasional in-party combat might arise but I'm not counting that for these purposes.

 

[el-remmen]

I foolishly had not considered that length of session is going to be a huge influence on this, not just play-style and expectations.

My two groups have four and five hour sessions respectively - which are about all I can manage these days, but about two hours shorter than what I ran for years (and about half as often).

 

[Lanefan]

"How often (on average) do you have D&D sessions with absolutely no combat?"

It really depends on whether, and how much, Chad has been drinking before we start.

It's not that we ever plan on the fight breaking out. But you know ... if the game starts with Chad slurring, "Ima roll initiative, and y'all a bunch a no-good mothertruckers" then it's going downhill.

Pretty soon, the minis are flying, and it's just a matter of time before someone is impaled by a d4.

The lesson, as always, is don't be a Chad. And probably don't get blotto before playing.

Getting blotto before or while DMing, however, can sometimes make for a much more memorable game.

 

[TwoSix]

Probably about a third right now. I blame covid, virtual playing requires a little more prep work to get a combat going. During face-to-face play, maybe one session out of 10.

 

[TwoSix]

I foolishly had not considered that length of session is going to be a huge influence on this, not just play-style and expectations.

My two groups have four and five hour sessions respectively - which are about all I can manage these days, but about two hours shorter than what I ran for years (and about half as often).

Oh yea, that’s a huge factor. Our normal sessions used to be 4 hours, but virtual sessions are maybe 2-2.5 hours.

 

[Oofta]

Getting blotto before or while DMing, however, can sometimes make for a much more memorable game.

If you drink enough you won't be remembering much of anything.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

If I limit it to my experience in 5E, I'd say that, depending on the campaign, between 25% to 40ish% of my sessions have no combat in them.

The more action and adventure-focused campaigns always end up having at least one out of four sessions that's in town for players to shop, get rewards for their deeds, talk to characters, explore the city, etc. In more social, investigative or lighter campaigns, the players often end up spending almost half their sessions doing that.

Also, I've seen quite a few threads about the exploration pillar, but exploration and travel takes some time in my campaigns. Not full sessions, but it's not rare that we'll have a solid half-hour for travelling from point A to B, with description, choices, skill challenges, etc.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Mainly we just have non-combat sessions during downtime, but we are currently stuck on the caravan to Waterdeep and the rolled encounters have not included many fights. I keep reminding my players that they can seek out some action by going hunting or patrolling for bandits, but they'd rather handwave a lot of the trip. (I let them choose one action/travelling day, two actions on a rest day.)

We also rarely go over 2.5 hours, because my son has attention issues. Medication may be in his future, but we are working on other contributing factors before making that call.

 

[Nebulous]

yes, our sessions are short, sometimes 1.5 to 2.5 hours. But in person we didn't usually play more than 2-3 anyway. The 4 hour sessions are long gone. I get too tired for that now, unless it's a special occasion.