Savage Worlds with no combat?

Autumnal

Bruce Baugh, Writer of Fortune
Let me define my terms. :) By “no combat” I mean a campaign where we never use any combat-specific mechanics. There may well be chases and sneaking and races against the clock, and lots of social interactions, and all of that. We might import the battle of the bands mechanics from the Fate Core supplement Rockalypse. But characters will never be trying to injure or kill others, and they will not face opponents dishing out attacks intended to injure or kill them. (I used to think that this would be obvious. I also used to think people wouldn’t answer a question about no-gore horror movies with Alien and Hellraiser. Sometimes the world lets me down.)

With that constraint, what does Savage Worlds bring to our table? Are there enough skulls and edges to allow for differentiated characters and NPCs? How are the various companion books for genre-specific support? Any plot point campaigns that could work with this, or so they all call for some bloodshed?

Thanks in advance, all of you with experience!

(There also are low-but-not-zero combat options that interest me, but experience tells me if I don’t obviously focus on zero combat first, I never get useful answers about it. Gotta absolutely nail down my right flank before advancing.)
 
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I am not sure that Savage Worlds is the right choice -- not because it doesn't have system support for non combat action adventure stuff (it does) but because some of the key features of the game only some put when you engage in combat. Specifically, the crazy swinginess of SW is built into the combat, and without that things like Bennies and stuff kind of fall flat.

Maybe you could implement a solid success level system that makes the occasional Ace explosion matter more in non-combat situations?
 

That certainly sounds straightforward enough.

Out of curiosity, what’s the Quick Combat I see mentioned here and there?
 

That certainly sounds straightforward enough.

Out of curiosity, what’s the Quick Combat I see mentioned here and there?
In SWADE (the current edition) the same chapter that outlines chases etc talks about quick combat. More or less, it turns combat into a group skill check like a Dramatic Action so that you can include the fight against a horde of goblins without bogging down the game. It's well done and very useful. But it definitely exists and is defined by its differences to all out combat.

For better or worse, SWADE is designed around a tactical combat core and the farther you get from that the more work you have ahead of you.
 


Right. That actually sounds promising to me. What’s a Dramatic Action in general?
It's basically an extended test.

For example, the PCs have infiltrated the villains vault and have to disarm the traps, defeat the guards and unlock the thing before the REAL defensive measures engage.

As GM, you set a number of successes the PCs need to get in a certain number of turns. If they fail, the consequences happen. You as GM can decide what skills they have to use,or let them narrate and justify their own choices.

Quick combat is similar but generally relies on combat skills etc.
 

Gotcha. That’s a level of detail I like in general. I will give Savage Worlds a look, since the core book is on sale at the moment.

(Digest-sized books are a big plus for me.)
 


I pretty much came in here to say what Reynard has said, except they said it better and at more length. I'm not entirely certain I'd use it for a complete non-combat game, mostly because there is such a big percentage of the Edges are combat focused (not that that's uncommon in games, but it does a lot of the lifting for character distinction, and I'd have to see if there are enough left after you screen out the ones that are only combat relevant).
 


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