Combat is a lot of the fun of D&D for me, especially because not all my players are big on the acting thing, but once in a while I'll run a more intrigue-y session. How about you? Just curious.
I think there has been at least one battle in every session I have run since March (the current campaign), but not always more than one. Some sessions have a lot; some have a little. It's mostly up to the players if they want to get into a fight or not. Sometimes they have no choice... sometimes fighting is the most expedient way to deal with something... but most of the time they decide to go attack something. I leave it primarily in their hands.
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If my group was more into the intrigue aspects of the game, I’d run as many non combat sessions as they like. As it is, though, they like to fight monsters and enjoy the challenges that provides.
My game crowd is primarily older players, 35-50, with time commitments and we usually only play for 2-3 hours at a time. That’s a good amount of time for adventure but not read or all the discussion that an intrigue session would need, in my opinion.
I think it’s been 4 sessions without combat at this point. Next session will likely be combat heavy, probably all session long like a giant meat grinder. Then who knows how many sessions before another combat? Maybe the next session, maybe another 4...? 🤷♂️
My groups interest is heavily in favor of combat, understandably, I like combat too and is the foundation of the game. I don’t think there has ever been a session without me saying “roll initiative” but occasionally there is a session with very very minimal combat and it ends up happening unintentionally and they are usually enjoyable sessions.
My current group has been going for 34 weeks so far. We play once a week for 4 hours at a time. Most the players were new and wanted combat, but now they prefer the RP. We normally go 2 or 3 sessions without any combat, and even when we do, it only lasts half the session.
The last few sessions have been a bit of a grinder. That being said, the group I run doesn't have to have combat. At least no one tells me that they don't mind not doing combat. I do think people like to act out some things, be story tellers, but combat is part of that story telling. I mean they are literally in the middle of a war.
I've implemented as much backstory as I can, and the reaction seems positive.
Another group I play in doesn't like to RP as much, they'd rather just do combat. Which is ok, but can get a bit boring. It's odd though, we did a one-shot in the 7th sea TTRPG system, all of a sudden we have bad accents, purple pants, one PC is banging the other PC's sister, I interrupted a dueling tournament to proclaim that the Abrogia dueling style was superior and issued a challenge to all comers, and the other players ate it up. /shrug
Pretty frequently. I run a sandbox campaign, so between each adventure we're usually hanging out in a town having social encounters to decide what's next.
My last session, we technically had two combat encounters. But one was just some kenku taking pot-shots at them in the dark and trying to miss. And the other was initiated purely by the players: one attacked another. Then I had the cultists jump in and break it up.
Usually during dungeon adventures, we have several combats, maybe even more than one per session if we have time. But then sometimes there are combat encounters planned, but the players successfully evade them all with clever social encounters.
The amount of combat depends almost entirely on the group and the circumstances under which I am running.
A one-shot will always include at least one combat or potential combat. (I am open to players finding other solutions.) Also, for younger players, I find they enjoy having at least one short skirmish per sessions or every couple of hours. This keeps them engaged and let's them work together in a very obvious way.
My regular group, by contrast, consists entirely of adults. most of whom have been playing together for years. For them, role play is more significant than combat, so we often go several sessions without a fight. Intermixed with the occasional classic dungeon crawl, this average out to more than half our sessions being non-combat.
Combat is a lot of the fun of D&D for me, especially because not all my players are big on the acting thing, but once in a while I'll run a more intrigue-y session. How about you? Just curious.
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I think there has been at least one battle in every session I have run since March (the current campaign), but not always more than one. Some sessions have a lot; some have a little. It's mostly up to the players if they want to get into a fight or not. Sometimes they have no choice... sometimes fighting is the most expedient way to deal with something... but most of the time they decide to go attack something. I leave it primarily in their hands.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
If my group was more into the intrigue aspects of the game, I’d run as many non combat sessions as they like. As it is, though, they like to fight monsters and enjoy the challenges that provides.
My game crowd is primarily older players, 35-50, with time commitments and we usually only play for 2-3 hours at a time. That’s a good amount of time for adventure but not read or all the discussion that an intrigue session would need, in my opinion.
i personally love non combat, but my players dont really, so not that often.
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I think it’s been 4 sessions without combat at this point. Next session will likely be combat heavy, probably all session long like a giant meat grinder. Then who knows how many sessions before another combat? Maybe the next session, maybe another 4...? 🤷♂️
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My groups interest is heavily in favor of combat, understandably, I like combat too and is the foundation of the game. I don’t think there has ever been a session without me saying “roll initiative” but occasionally there is a session with very very minimal combat and it ends up happening unintentionally and they are usually enjoyable sessions.
My current group has been going for 34 weeks so far. We play once a week for 4 hours at a time. Most the players were new and wanted combat, but now they prefer the RP. We normally go 2 or 3 sessions without any combat, and even when we do, it only lasts half the session.
The last few sessions have been a bit of a grinder. That being said, the group I run doesn't have to have combat. At least no one tells me that they don't mind not doing combat. I do think people like to act out some things, be story tellers, but combat is part of that story telling. I mean they are literally in the middle of a war.
I've implemented as much backstory as I can, and the reaction seems positive.
Another group I play in doesn't like to RP as much, they'd rather just do combat. Which is ok, but can get a bit boring. It's odd though, we did a one-shot in the 7th sea TTRPG system, all of a sudden we have bad accents, purple pants, one PC is banging the other PC's sister, I interrupted a dueling tournament to proclaim that the Abrogia dueling style was superior and issued a challenge to all comers, and the other players ate it up. /shrug
"More than half the time" is low-balling it, honestly. My best guess would be that maybe four out of every five sessions I run have no combat.
Pretty frequently. I run a sandbox campaign, so between each adventure we're usually hanging out in a town having social encounters to decide what's next.
My last session, we technically had two combat encounters. But one was just some kenku taking pot-shots at them in the dark and trying to miss. And the other was initiated purely by the players: one attacked another. Then I had the cultists jump in and break it up.
Usually during dungeon adventures, we have several combats, maybe even more than one per session if we have time. But then sometimes there are combat encounters planned, but the players successfully evade them all with clever social encounters.
The amount of combat depends almost entirely on the group and the circumstances under which I am running.
A one-shot will always include at least one combat or potential combat. (I am open to players finding other solutions.)
Also, for younger players, I find they enjoy having at least one short skirmish per sessions or every couple of hours. This keeps them engaged and let's them work together in a very obvious way.
My regular group, by contrast, consists entirely of adults. most of whom have been playing together for years. For them, role play is more significant than combat, so we often go several sessions without a fight. Intermixed with the occasional classic dungeon crawl, this average out to more than half our sessions being non-combat.