DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Oct 1, 2021 20:42:55 GMT
I had an idea the other night and its been stuck in my head ever since. The basic jist is a campaign that incentivizes its players to solve problems through cunning, creativity, and conversation rather than through combat, mainly because all the characters are normal people, not Adventurers with 50 hp and a bunch or weapon skills. I think this concept is really interesting and plays back to fairytale tropes where the hero is clearly physically or magically outmatched by everyone but still manages to win through sheer kindness or perseverance or trickery.
Do you think it would be possible to run a game like this in 5e? My gf recommend using an alternate system but there's just something so DnD about Dnd that I don't want to part with, you know? So if I'm running this game in 5e, how to i make it so my players still feel capable and have fun and have some form of progression without giving them a class like rogue or wizard?
Also if this idea inspires you, I'd love to hear anything you have to say about it. I think it's such a fun concept and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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Post by randosaurus on Oct 2, 2021 4:22:16 GMT
It is possible! I'm doing it! Well, partially...
I started a campaign for my nephews, pretty standard. They were 5 and 8 at the time and weren't interested in a lot of rules. So I built some wilderness adventures, mostly random table generation for monsters, treasure-- low effort high fun. They would get into fights, but definitely weren't tactical. Most times they simply ran away, which, actually works well in wilderness encounters. They picked paladin and rogue, so actually had a lot of options for me to work with when they told me what they wanted to do (matching their intent to a good 'move'). At this point, they haven't actually defeated with violence anything for about a year; partly they run out of patience in long fights and partly they find a way around combat.
I've really adhered to D&D RaW of EXP for defeating monsters, so they haven't got a lot of EXP and have only progressed to 4th level in 2 years. However, this does not actually bother them; they haven't read the class tables, so don't have any particular drive to level up or gain power. So I've just been running low level adventures and modules for them, and getting way, way, way more mileage out of goblins, kobolds, orcs... low level challenges. And honestly it works! There has to be a space in any world, published or homebrew, for that massive tier of adventurer that never breaks into the 'savior of the realm' tier but just stays down in the 'local hero' strata.
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Oct 3, 2021 20:02:00 GMT
I started a campaign for my nephews, pretty standard. They were 5 and 8 at the time and weren't interested in a lot of rules.
That's adorable oh my god! I love that for them. 8 dont think that quite works for my purposes seeing as my players are all people who really like/understand the mechanics and would want to use them if they were available. I have no doubt I could make a story they would enjoy without combat, my hitch is that I want a way to incentivizes that kind of play mechanically. Like I dont want them to have a bunch of abilities they cant use, I dont think I even want most of them to have a weapon of any sort. Just not sure how to go about that since I'm terrible at math. Still, Im so glad your nephews are having fun. That sounds like a really special campaign ^^ |
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Post by dmslythytoves on Oct 4, 2021 17:50:32 GMT
When we had our session zero, I made it super clear to my players that they don't have to fight to solve a problem, and they could, in fact, navigate the entire campaign without combat. Also stated that they would receive XP either way. And this group has certainly leaned into diplomacy as a game type! ...most of them...okay, half of them are happy to throw a knife, firebolt, or whatever is to hand. But it's a lot less combat than previous groups!
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