D&D General Playing D&D without combat

[Scruffy nerf herder]

Let's phrase this with two lines of questioning:

-In some recent sessions I didn't put the players in a real combat encounter more than once, over the course of three sessions. In fact in one of them we didn't even crack out the map and minis.

Were we in some way not playing D&D? Was it not "truly 5E"? Does that amount of RP focused content sound appealing or unappealing? And lastly, have you ever tried this kind of play yourself?

-Is it even possible, or ever desirable, to play through a fairly long combat free stint of a campaign?

 

[Lyxen]

Of course you can and of course, it’s still D&D. We have been doing that for 40 years through all editions.

Although some games focus on combat, D&D is a very varied game, and what you describe is not only not unusual, but has been the preferred play style at our tables for a long while.

And actually, 3e and 4e, which required combat to be fairly long and formal, were not as good for us, needing to pull out maps, grids and figurines every time there was some action was a bit of a constraint, as was the fact that any combat would take us half of an evening.

 

[Scruffy nerf herder]

Of course you can and of course, it’s still D&D. We have been doing that for 40 years through all editions.

Well, the reason I'd ask whether people consider it "fully D&D" or not is that so many of the rules center around attributes that are germaine to, actions that can be taken in, and things that occurs during combat.

 

[Lyxen]

Well, the reason I'd ask whether people consider it "fully D&D" or not is that so many of the rules center around attributes that are germaine to, actions that can be taken in, and things that occurs during combat.

Combat is inherently complex and needs many rules, but if you look at the rulebook, there are actually more rules about non combat than combat. Yes, a lot of class powers and quite a few spells are about combat, but nowhere does it say that it’s mandatory or even prevalent in the game.

And, in term of using the system, the stats from DDB show that a majority of players don’t get past level 5, so don’t be disappointed that you are not using the whole of 5e, it could be argued that, doing mostly role playing from level 1 to level 20, we use way more of the system.

 

[John R Davis]

Of course you were playing DND.
Long term if you wish a combat free game there may be better games to play with social conflict, mystery, etc

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Yes, yes, yes.

Especially if the PCs find other means to overcome obstacles, avoiding combat but still solving the challenge, they should be given all the praise, rewards and of course XP.

Of course it's also possible that the players/PCs just sit in the pub and roleplay insignificant stuff, delaying the whole campaign with meaningless roleplay. Then I'd put in a few trolls to go smash-smash.

 

[Shiroiken]

My second 2E campaign had very, very little combat throughout. There were only two players, and it was very focused on character development and personal growth.

 

[Lyxen]

Of course you were playing DND.
Long term if you wish a combat free game there may be better games to play with social conflict, mystery, etc

Not having combat does not mean not using D&D, and in particular we use many of its systems, powers and spells.

 

[Ondath]

Let's phrase this with two lines of questioning:

-In some recent sessions I didn't put the players in a real combat encounter more than once, over the course of three sessions. In fact in one of them we didn't even crack out the map and minis.

Were we in some way not playing D&D? Was it not "truly 5E"? Does that amount of RP focused content sound appealing or unappealing? And lastly, have you ever tried this kind of play yourself?

-Is it even possible, or ever desirable, to play through a fairly long combat free stint of a campaign?

What "counts" as D&D is a fairly vague question and I think the answer also has to be vague - but it doesn't mean there is no answer.

While a lot of the book's page space is dedicated to combat rules, you can have a session without combat and it'd still easily count as D&D. Did you use skill checks? Refer to your character's unique abilities as determined by their class or heritage? Was the world built with D&D assumptions (planar realms, magic understood in discrete slots, etc.)? Then this was clearly a D&D game.

There is a larger discussion to be had, though. Would it still count as D&D if you heavily homebrewed the game so there are only 3 abilities, skills use a percentile dice system and combat is resolved through dice pools? I think the line blurs a bit. Some games can still be clearly D&D despite being heavily homebrewed, while others would clearly start working with different system assumptions, thus no longer be D&D.

The more important question I think is whether everyone at the table played the game they wanted to play - if they did, then I think it matters little if what you played was D&D or Pathfinder or Exploding Kittens. We use the labels only to help us play better games, so the rest isn't important.

That said, it does irk me when people use D&D as a catch-all term for TTRPGs of any kind - there was a video by this D&D channel called Bob World Builder (super chill dude, usually great content) where he was talking about how D&D could be anything, and gave an example of how he played a "D&D" game ran by a kid in summer camp where the story was that the main character in a modern world would sneak into some facility, and he proudly tells how they made up the character abilities and resolution mechanics on the spot and how it was a fun game of D&D. That just... feels wrong to me. Sure, it sounds like a good TTRPG session (and I'm sure he and the kid had fun!), but if you're playing with completely different action resolution mechanics and a completely different setting, why call it D&D at that point?

 

[payn]

-Is it even possible, or ever desirable, to play through a fairly long combat free stint of a campaign?

It is, but when I choose D&D, its because it provides a robust combat system. It can surely be done, but I'd go elsewhere if that is the goal.