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<blockquote data-quote="pickin_grinnin" data-source="post: 6294971" data-attributes="member: 6697674">I once played a dirt farmer as a character in D&amp;D 3e.&nbsp; Not as a one-shot - I played him for the whole campaign.He had no fighting skills, no magic of any kind, no thievery skills, etc.&nbsp; His skills all revolved around farming.&nbsp; His stats were not particularly high, he had no weapons or armor, and he was a little eccentric.&nbsp; He had no interest in treasure or magic items.&nbsp; He mostly enjoyed digging things up and poking around in bushes and such.&nbsp; I played him as a challenge to myself, to see how well I could run a character who was pretty much a peasant with no skills that were applicable to the campaign.The DM understood what I was doing, though the other players didn't.&nbsp; They just sort of tolerated me.&nbsp; While they fought, I poked around in the bushes, or dug in the dirt.&nbsp; When we went into cities, I explored trash bins and sewers.&nbsp; Etc. etc.&nbsp; The DM did a lot of rolls at various times to see if I stumbled across something interesting, but I generally didn't.Until one day I did.&nbsp; My non-stop hunting and poking led me to discover something that nobody else did (or ever would have), which ended up having campaign-changing significance.&nbsp; In fact, the character ended up becoming one of the most important characters in the campaign because of it. When I run games, I encourage my players to do a lot of roleplaying, even if that takes them in directions I didn't anticipate.&nbsp; I reward them well for doing that, too, so even the combat-obsessed players eventually start to roleplay a lot more.&nbsp; There have been situations where an entire multi-hour game session consisted of nothing but talking to people in a town, or trying to figure out what some strange thing in the forest was.&nbsp; I don't drag things like that out - I let the players figure out their own pace.&nbsp; If they spend 6 hours on a Saturday quizzing shopkeepers about something, they can do that, as long as it makes them happy.&nbsp; In the long run, having a few games within a campaign be completely non-combat oriented can lead to a much richer, deeper campaign overall.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pickin_grinnin, post: 6294971, member: 6697674"] I once played a dirt farmer as a character in D&D 3e. Not as a one-shot - I played him for the whole campaign. He had no fighting skills, no magic of any kind, no thievery skills, etc. His skills all revolved around farming. His stats were not particularly high, he had no weapons or armor, and he was a little eccentric. He had no interest in treasure or magic items. He mostly enjoyed digging things up and poking around in bushes and such. I played him as a challenge to myself, to see how well I could run a character who was pretty much a peasant with no skills that were applicable to the campaign. The DM understood what I was doing, though the other players didn't. They just sort of tolerated me. While they fought, I poked around in the bushes, or dug in the dirt. When we went into cities, I explored trash bins and sewers. Etc. etc. The DM did a lot of rolls at various times to see if I stumbled across something interesting, but I generally didn't. Until one day I did. My non-stop hunting and poking led me to discover something that nobody else did (or ever would have), which ended up having campaign-changing significance. In fact, the character ended up becoming one of the most important characters in the campaign because of it. When I run games, I encourage my players to do a lot of roleplaying, even if that takes them in directions I didn't anticipate. I reward them well for doing that, too, so even the combat-obsessed players eventually start to roleplay a lot more. There have been situations where an entire multi-hour game session consisted of nothing but talking to people in a town, or trying to figure out what some strange thing in the forest was. I don't drag things like that out - I let the players figure out their own pace. If they spend 6 hours on a Saturday quizzing shopkeepers about something, they can do that, as long as it makes them happy. In the long run, having a few games within a campaign be completely non-combat oriented can lead to a much richer, deeper campaign overall. [/QUOTE]

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