The OP's original post implies directly that this one particular friend is a pacifist in real life, and that their level of pacifism is such that they don't want to participate even in harming imaginary creatures, even if that has a "good" outcome in the game.
Now, I'm a pacifist. That means that I do not like violence, or want to see it used to solve anything. However, in a game, I am a fantasy roleplay character and I might play a homicidal warrior or a necromancer willing to kill anyone for immortality. Therefore being a pacifist for this friend seems to go beyond just believing in pacifism and all the way into not wanting to play a game that involves them having to imagine attacking things.
If this is the case, then D&D is absolutely not the game for them. You will not run a successful pacifist campaign where there are threatening creatures and NPCs that wish to harm people, because even in a culture entirely of pacifists, there is a need for some people to fight. In modern society they are our police and our army; they have a monopoly on violence so that most people don't have to. You can even be a pacifist and be a soldier, just as you can be opposed to setting fire to things but need to bring down a building and burning it to create a fire break to stop more fires spreading.
I think a good point to start with this friend is to ask what they think the type of goals a roleplay character they would be playing would pursue, and then see if there's a game system which is about that. 99% of all D&D rules are about combat.
That's a good point about the world of D&D being a much more lawless one than our modern society, and he did agree that there were probably better systems for him to play in if he did.
Update, he did say that killing non sentient entities would be acceptable for him.
If non sentient entities are acceptable to him, then that does give quite a lot of wriggle room. He could also eke out more by reflavoring and homebrewing sentient beings as non-sentient versions of themselves. For example, the party is sent to deal with a possible hobgoblin incursion, only to discover that the bulk of the legion has been turned into undead while the surviving members fight desperately for their lives. He could then use either stats for skeletons/zombies, keep the hobgoblin stats but change the creature type to undead, or homebrew additional changes such as giving them resistances and undead fortitude; in the last case, he could lean into the creep factor by having them retain the martial aspects they had in life while still emphasizing their new non-sentient undead nature.
It would also be good to point out that in a lot of instances, a player can declare their damage to be nonlethal; similarly, things like spells that are explicitly flavored as lethal, he could possibly homebrew non-lethal versions of them for players to use (though this might possibly require more care than the literal 5 seconds of thought I gave it just now). With that in mind, and using the example scenario from before, the goal could then be to not only put a stop to the undead horde and save the remaining hobgoblins, but to also find the BBEG responsible and capture rather than kill them, so that way they may be brought to proper justice instead.
Of course this all requires buy-in from the players as well, but if your friend is willing to make those sorts of adjustments and compromises to his game, then that could be the beginning of a really, really cool campaign.
If non sentient entities are acceptable to him, then that does give quite a lot of wriggle room. He could also eke out more by reflavoring and homebrewing sentient beings as non-sentient versions of themselves. For example, the party is sent to deal with a possible hobgoblin incursion, only to discover that the bulk of the legion has been turned into undead while the surviving members fight desperately for their lives. He could then use either stats for skeletons/zombies, keep the hobgoblin stats but change the creature type to undead, or homebrew additional changes such as giving them resistances and undead fortitude; in the last case, he could lean into the creep factor by having them retain the martial aspects they had in life while still emphasizing their new non-sentient undead nature.
It would also be good to point out that in a lot of instances, a player can declare their damage to be nonlethal; similarly, things like spells that are explicitly flavored as lethal, he could possibly homebrew non-lethal versions of them for players to use (though this might possibly require more care than the literal 5 seconds of thought I gave it just now). With that in mind, and using the example scenario from before, the goal could then be to not only put a stop to the undead horde and save the remaining hobgoblins, but to also find the BBEG responsible and capture rather than kill them, so that way they may be brought to proper justice instead.
Of course this all requires buy-in from the players as well, but if your friend is willing to make those sorts of adjustments and compromises to his game, then that could be the beginning of a really, really cool campaign.
Do you have any idea how much work this is for the DM?
If non sentient entities are acceptable to him, then that does give quite a lot of wriggle room. He could also eke out more by reflavoring and homebrewing sentient beings as non-sentient versions of themselves. For example, the party is sent to deal with a possible hobgoblin incursion, only to discover that the bulk of the legion has been turned into undead while the surviving members fight desperately for their lives. He could then use either stats for skeletons/zombies, keep the hobgoblin stats but change the creature type to undead, or homebrew additional changes such as giving them resistances and undead fortitude; in the last case, he could lean into the creep factor by having them retain the martial aspects they had in life while still emphasizing their new non-sentient undead nature.
It would also be good to point out that in a lot of instances, a player can declare their damage to be nonlethal; similarly, things like spells that are explicitly flavored as lethal, he could possibly homebrew non-lethal versions of them for players to use (though this might possibly require more care than the literal 5 seconds of thought I gave it just now). With that in mind, and using the example scenario from before, the goal could then be to not only put a stop to the undead horde and save the remaining hobgoblins, but to also find the BBEG responsible and capture rather than kill them, so that way they may be brought to proper justice instead.
Of course this all requires buy-in from the players as well, but if your friend is willing to make those sorts of adjustments and compromises to his game, then that could be the beginning of a really, really cool campaign.
Do you have any idea how much work this is for the DM?
Probably about the same amount of work as it takes a DM to prepare any encounters or story.
If non sentient entities are acceptable to him, then that does give quite a lot of wriggle room. He could also eke out more by reflavoring and homebrewing sentient beings as non-sentient versions of themselves. For example, the party is sent to deal with a possible hobgoblin incursion, only to discover that the bulk of the legion has been turned into undead while the surviving members fight desperately for their lives. He could then use either stats for skeletons/zombies, keep the hobgoblin stats but change the creature type to undead, or homebrew additional changes such as giving them resistances and undead fortitude; in the last case, he could lean into the creep factor by having them retain the martial aspects they had in life while still emphasizing their new non-sentient undead nature.
It would also be good to point out that in a lot of instances, a player can declare their damage to be nonlethal; similarly, things like spells that are explicitly flavored as lethal, he could possibly homebrew non-lethal versions of them for players to use (though this might possibly require more care than the literal 5 seconds of thought I gave it just now). With that in mind, and using the example scenario from before, the goal could then be to not only put a stop to the undead horde and save the remaining hobgoblins, but to also find the BBEG responsible and capture rather than kill them, so that way they may be brought to proper justice instead.
Of course this all requires buy-in from the players as well, but if your friend is willing to make those sorts of adjustments and compromises to his game, then that could be the beginning of a really, really cool campaign.
Do you have any idea how much work this is for the DM?
Probably about the same amount of work as it takes a DM to prepare any encounters or story.
Not even close. The DM is not taking "off the shelf" monsters and simply re-labeling them as "undead". That is not even remotely possible.
I'm pretty sure that is literally possible. But even if they don't want to do that, there's enough off the shelf Undead monsters to fill up a whole campaign.
If non sentient entities are acceptable to him, then that does give quite a lot of wriggle room. He could also eke out more by reflavoring and homebrewing sentient beings as non-sentient versions of themselves. For example, the party is sent to deal with a possible hobgoblin incursion, only to discover that the bulk of the legion has been turned into undead while the surviving members fight desperately for their lives. He could then use either stats for skeletons/zombies, keep the hobgoblin stats but change the creature type to undead, or homebrew additional changes such as giving them resistances and undead fortitude; in the last case, he could lean into the creep factor by having them retain the martial aspects they had in life while still emphasizing their new non-sentient undead nature.
It would also be good to point out that in a lot of instances, a player can declare their damage to be nonlethal; similarly, things like spells that are explicitly flavored as lethal, he could possibly homebrew non-lethal versions of them for players to use (though this might possibly require more care than the literal 5 seconds of thought I gave it just now). With that in mind, and using the example scenario from before, the goal could then be to not only put a stop to the undead horde and save the remaining hobgoblins, but to also find the BBEG responsible and capture rather than kill them, so that way they may be brought to proper justice instead.
Of course this all requires buy-in from the players as well, but if your friend is willing to make those sorts of adjustments and compromises to his game, then that could be the beginning of a really, really cool campaign.
Do you have any idea how much work this is for the DM?
Probably about the same amount of work as it takes a DM to prepare any encounters or story.
Not even close. The DM is not taking "off the shelf" monsters and simply re-labeling them as "undead". That is not even remotely possible.
You are aware that there's an evident willingness to go the extra mile by DM on account of the novel challenge and, moreso, effort to accommodate a friend. Everyone on this thread has articulated some iteration that a pacifist oriented game wouldn't pose challenges in design.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
2) The OP wanted to know if accommodating a pacifist in a campaign was possible, and the answer I gave was: yes, and from the details provided there's numerous different avenues they could take to do so.
3) I have you on my ignore list. I ask that you not respond to my posts any further.
Oh, and OP, apologies if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that your friend would be the one DMing. If this is a game that you are planning to DM, then any homebrew at the table falls under your prerogative, not the players, but that said the gist of my comment remains the same: if this is something you want to undertake, there are plenty of tools at your disposal.
The idea of a pacifist campaign is more of a hypothetical that came up in conversation about possible ways it could work or not work, rather than an active plan to run one.
I'm glad I asked here, there have been lots of good suggestions and brain storming. I kind of do think it could work but it would take a fair bit of extra work from both the DM and the players to work out the mechanics.
I think if everybody was onboard for it, a pacifist D&D campaign could be pretty neat, even using a pretty standard D&D world full of violence and magic and treachery, if what you're doing is putting violence as the easy but undesirable answer right at the center of the adventure. In a lot of ways the PCs will be fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, but that's kind of how a moral high road works. I personally love playing that tense line between what's effective and what the characters believe to be right; it's part of why I love Paladin so much. There's an array of social skills, information gathering, detective work, intelligence and counterintelligence stuff to play with even if you don't run combat (and frankly, you can still run chases, ambushes, escapes, and npc escort encounters through the combat system).
Be magical rogues and scryers working to avert a war by exposing the people who are promoting it for their own gain. Be clerics and paladins trying to get innocent refugees safely out of a war zone. Be bards and diplomats engaged in deadly intrigue for the greater good. Be delvers into ancient secrets locked away behind arcane and divine puzzles only open to those with no blood on their hands. As long as everyone is on the same page, there's a lot you can do with the game. Other systems are potentially better, for sure, but I don't think D&D's out of the running.
If you as a DM and all your players want to use a system designed with violence as its central element to explore themes of restraint, of force and coercion, of making difficult and possibly ruinous choices in service to a moral stance, and at the end of the day potentially come away with the feeling that you've beaten the game on hard mode and that being unwilling to knock someone's teeth in doesn't disqualify you from being a hero, man, that's kind of awesome.
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That's a good point about the world of D&D being a much more lawless one than our modern society, and he did agree that there were probably better systems for him to play in if he did.
Update, he did say that killing non sentient entities would be acceptable for him.
If non sentient entities are acceptable to him, then that does give quite a lot of wriggle room. He could also eke out more by reflavoring and homebrewing sentient beings as non-sentient versions of themselves. For example, the party is sent to deal with a possible hobgoblin incursion, only to discover that the bulk of the legion has been turned into undead while the surviving members fight desperately for their lives. He could then use either stats for skeletons/zombies, keep the hobgoblin stats but change the creature type to undead, or homebrew additional changes such as giving them resistances and undead fortitude; in the last case, he could lean into the creep factor by having them retain the martial aspects they had in life while still emphasizing their new non-sentient undead nature.
It would also be good to point out that in a lot of instances, a player can declare their damage to be nonlethal; similarly, things like spells that are explicitly flavored as lethal, he could possibly homebrew non-lethal versions of them for players to use (though this might possibly require more care than the literal 5 seconds of thought I gave it just now). With that in mind, and using the example scenario from before, the goal could then be to not only put a stop to the undead horde and save the remaining hobgoblins, but to also find the BBEG responsible and capture rather than kill them, so that way they may be brought to proper justice instead.
Of course this all requires buy-in from the players as well, but if your friend is willing to make those sorts of adjustments and compromises to his game, then that could be the beginning of a really, really cool campaign.
Do you have any idea how much work this is for the DM?
Probably about the same amount of work as it takes a DM to prepare any encounters or story.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Not even close. The DM is not taking "off the shelf" monsters and simply re-labeling them as "undead". That is not even remotely possible.
I'm pretty sure that is literally possible. But even if they don't want to do that, there's enough off the shelf Undead monsters to fill up a whole campaign.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
You are aware that there's an evident willingness to go the extra mile by DM on account of the novel challenge and, moreso, effort to accommodate a friend. Everyone on this thread has articulated some iteration that a pacifist oriented game wouldn't pose challenges in design.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Okay, I'm only going to do this once, Vince:
1) I am a DM, I know exactly how much work it is.
2) The OP wanted to know if accommodating a pacifist in a campaign was possible, and the answer I gave was: yes, and from the details provided there's numerous different avenues they could take to do so.
3) I have you on my ignore list. I ask that you not respond to my posts any further.
Oh, and OP, apologies if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that your friend would be the one DMing. If this is a game that you are planning to DM, then any homebrew at the table falls under your prerogative, not the players, but that said the gist of my comment remains the same: if this is something you want to undertake, there are plenty of tools at your disposal.
The idea of a pacifist campaign is more of a hypothetical that came up in conversation about possible ways it could work or not work, rather than an active plan to run one.
I'm glad I asked here, there have been lots of good suggestions and brain storming. I kind of do think it could work but it would take a fair bit of extra work from both the DM and the players to work out the mechanics.
I think if everybody was onboard for it, a pacifist D&D campaign could be pretty neat, even using a pretty standard D&D world full of violence and magic and treachery, if what you're doing is putting violence as the easy but undesirable answer right at the center of the adventure. In a lot of ways the PCs will be fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, but that's kind of how a moral high road works. I personally love playing that tense line between what's effective and what the characters believe to be right; it's part of why I love Paladin so much. There's an array of social skills, information gathering, detective work, intelligence and counterintelligence stuff to play with even if you don't run combat (and frankly, you can still run chases, ambushes, escapes, and npc escort encounters through the combat system).
Be magical rogues and scryers working to avert a war by exposing the people who are promoting it for their own gain. Be clerics and paladins trying to get innocent refugees safely out of a war zone. Be bards and diplomats engaged in deadly intrigue for the greater good. Be delvers into ancient secrets locked away behind arcane and divine puzzles only open to those with no blood on their hands. As long as everyone is on the same page, there's a lot you can do with the game. Other systems are potentially better, for sure, but I don't think D&D's out of the running.
If you as a DM and all your players want to use a system designed with violence as its central element to explore themes of restraint, of force and coercion, of making difficult and possibly ruinous choices in service to a moral stance, and at the end of the day potentially come away with the feeling that you've beaten the game on hard mode and that being unwilling to knock someone's teeth in doesn't disqualify you from being a hero, man, that's kind of awesome.