Non Combat Campaign Ideas

[Silvaris]

I was wondering just how viable it would be to run a campaign where the main conflict isn't combat.

In mulling this around for about a year now. I have only come up with two ideas that seem workable.

1) The party belongs to an air/sea/rescue type organization. This setting gives opportunity for tons of action of all sorts and even potential combat from sharks, lions, pirates etc, occasionally. This is my #1 pick for a non-combat adventure campaign. I am intending to set it on a colony world a hundred years from now.

2) The sport campaign. If the party members are part of a team. Be it Rollerball, Racing, or some other sport. You can have the game/race be the action part while out of game will be more rpging ang intrigue. This could be any setting from Chariot Racers to Blood of Heros style deathsport.

I have had other ideas but they seem pretty mini-campaign oriented. Such as a party trying to climb the highest mountain. You could make it an exciting game but where do you go after they climb it without repeating yourself.

The reason for this is that I am planning a blood and guts hard sci fi space game with the players all being marines facing a deadly enemy. I expect a ton of combat from the campaign and wanted to have something to run that was less combat oriented to give the player a break.

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any others that might work?

Thanks

 

[Frums]

IN all seriousness - go read a sci-fi or fantasy book that doesn't have poeple killing everyting in sight (most of em). Go from there.

The key is tension - combat is a dirt-simple source of tension, but it does get old fast. Other sources of tension abound. I wrote an article a while back that talked about this (wasn't primary focus) that might prove helpful:

Tension and Pottery

-Frums

 

[bwgwl]

my last group ran a sci fi campaign that lasted about 2 years real-time and over 9 years game-time. we were averaging one combat every 8-10 sessions.

our characters were the crew of a starship. it was mainly a freighter that we had tricked out with some neat gadgets. to get the money for the ship, we made a deal with a shadowy corporation that would send us on "missions" every once in a while. most of these were smuggling, transporting people around, stuff like that. when we weren't running missions for them, we were independent traders or spending time meeting new life and new civilizations...

not everyone's cup of tea, but we had a blast with that campaign. lots of fun.

the key was lots of interaction between PCs and various NPCs, investigations and intrigues, and tense situations that aren't necessarily life-threatening. being in a society where violence causes more problems than it solves helps too.

 

[Silvaris]

True a Star Trek style campaign would work just as would the Crew of the Merchant ship plying its trade. I just blanked on those since the main game will have lots of starship stuff happening in addition to the firefight stuff.

So we could add two others.

3) To Boldly Go. A campaign where exploration is the main goal of the party. Star Trek being a good example. I could see it being applied to other settings as well such as sailing ships or Lewis and Clark.

4) Free Traders. The crew of a merchant trying to make a living and perhaps strike it rich. Could even be land based caravans. Joss Whedons Firefly coming out this fall sounds like this concept.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Crime! Do it or solve it. Lots of NPC combat can be rare, players use their skills and flavor can get interesting, murder, thieft, extrotion, smuggling, kidnapping, so-on, or a combination of any and all.

Lewis & Clark - adventures are given a task of discovery. In a way this is standard fare but if you give the players a list of things they are to do and not do could keep things combatless. This could be find the source of a river, mapping for future adventures, finding a pass threw some mountains.

Building - Players are given the task of building a road/bridge/something. Maybe there is combat maybe not but nature vs man is a good concept.

Love - Okay, adventure around love? Think about it, players have to help a young prince find a bride, dealing with lots of NPCs, agreements, legal issues. Then working both sides as go betweens, exchanging love lettters and gifts. You can have a lot of fun with this one.


All of the above take a lot of planing.

 

[Zenon]

1) The party belongs to an air/sea/rescue type organization. This setting gives opportunity for tons of action of all sorts and even potential combat from sharks, lions, pirates etc, occasionally. This is my #1 pick for a non-combat adventure campaign. I am intending to set it on a colony world a hundred years from now.

Pick up a game called "Blue Planet" by Biohazard (now printing in second edition from Fantasy Flight Games).

It pretty much exactly what you're describing here.

If all you are ripping is the background, you can try to pick up an old copy of the rules cheap on eBay.

I've read through it and it looks pretty cool (I can't speak for the system because I never played/ran it), but d20 Modern is coming out and it should be pretty simple to port the background over.

Some links -

http://www.biohazardgames.com/bp.html
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/bpindex.html