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Rolemaster Fiction
Spectre771:
--- Quote from: Vladimir on February 02, 2022, 11:40:43 AM ---
I would love to play a campaign with no combat at all but throughout my decades of playing, at least 90% of the other players ache for regular battles. Few could sit through a basic Call of Cthulhu scenario and actually do simple detective work, interview people and find crucial clues without arming up and wanting to fight something. Even the GM realizes that we have to toss them a combat bone on a regular basis to keep them interested.
--- End quote ---
I've never run an entire campaign without hack n' slash, but I've had several sessions that were non-combat. There is certainly plenty of fun to still be had. For one group, I set up a scenario for two level 1 PCs. One was lowest rank in the thieves guild (which may or may not exist) and one was hoping to get into the guild (that absolutely, totally, does not exist).
The initiate is contacted via a note from a higher ranking member because he's been observed picking pockets or petty thieving and is told that he may be a good fit. There's going to be a challenge for initiates and the winner gets taken aboard as a member. The initiate has no idea how many are competing nor who is also in the challenge. All initiates will have to take a specific item from a tavern at one end of town and bring it to a tavern at the other end of town without being caught and there can be no killing. One mustn't draw attention to the guild. The initiate to succeed is let in.
The existing probationary-level guild member is assigned an initiate and his job is to aid his initiate in succeeding. If the initiate finds out he is being helped, both are disqualified. If either is caught, both are disqualified. If the member's initiate succeeds, the member is moved from probationary member to lowest level member.
What the PCs don't realize is the the actual challenge is for the existing low-level member. The initiate is just a fall guy should something go wrong. If the initiate is caught, he has no ties at all to the Guild and nothing can be betrayed.
We had a 'falling out of our seats, tears in our eyes laughing session' that lasted a good 2 hours. At level 1, the necessary thieving skills are all low, if they even have the skills they need. I wanted the Thieve and Rogue PCs to get an idea of the skills they should be investing in if they wanted to play those professions. I ran through all of the non-combat skills RMC-II had. Stalk/Hide, Sense Ambush Assassin, Hide Item, Duping, Acting, Lie Perception, Sprinting, Disguise, Acrobatics, Tightrope Walking, Grappling Hook, Rope Mastery, Pick Pockets, Surveillance, Improvised Weapon, etc. Obviously they couldn't have all of those skills, so there were plenty of -25's and failed attempts and much hilarity ensued.
The initiate wanted to distract an NPC by throwing a mug. He fumbled the throwing skill spectacularly and creamed the tavern owner's wife in the face and knocked her out. He turned to run, fumbled his Sprinting skill and fell flat on his face. A couple of thugs were on him and he rolled very well for Acting and was able to convince the thugs it was another patron "It was him! Look! He's the only one here without a mug of ale! It was obviously him!!!"
Then the fight started...
Cory Magel:
Long, long ago there was a Dragon Magazine article called 'Death of an Arch-mage' which is essentially a murder mystery. You actually setup a timer and certain things happen certain times in certain places within a mansion. Was one of the more fun gaming sessions our groups have had and there was virtually no combat. At the end the group had to make their judgement on what happens (who is charged with what, etc). The GM also used the one false accusation that was made to create a running enemy of the group that lasted years (the one thing we got wrong and charged an innocent, but evil, mage with one of the crimes).
Vladimir:
I've pretty much played every form of RPG, some good, some an incredible waste of time.
Call of Cthulhu was great. As a long-time Lovecraft reader, I was looking for a great adventure along the lines of the Randolph Carter stories but they were mostly short, detective story vignettes and most GMs never even heard of Randolph Carter. The gameplay of CoC pretty much minimalizes combat, which was fine for me, unlike John Carter, Randolph Carter never turned into a muscular warrior when he traveled to an alien world, he remained the same, genteel, intellectual he had always been.
As I've said elsewhere, over 90% of RPGs are geared to be combat centric, and I've played many of them, from Empire of the Petal Throne to The Morrow Project to Metamorphosis Alpha. One GM ran a "come as you are" campaign for Twilight 2000 (a "come as you are" game in my club would be a scenario that allowed players to bring figures or vehicles they had on hand and play them) where one player had a M-1 Abrams tank, which he always had trouble refueling, I had both mounted and standing figures of a Cossack with modern weapons, a horse, a loaded packmule and a German Shepherd. This is all in 1/35th scale. One player was a foot soldier who carried a RPG launcher and a backpack brimming with reloads. He lost a fight with a light armored car when a 23mm round went through him and hit his ammo:
Mark: "Where's Gary?"
Me: "You're breathin' him."
Me: "The answer is, 'four days.'"
Mark: "What was the question?"
Me: "What is the half-life of one of Gary's characters?"
Good times.
Vladimir:
Last night we closed a chapter in our Shadow World campaign -The Vampire left the party as scheduled, he was only playing the character to learn the rules.
One player died when the party Lycanthrope (werebear) lost control and pulped him. A month ago, I had pointed out the the SW world has several moons and the player didn't have adequate time to determine which moon was tied to his condition. So...when the party was attacked by werewolves, our Lycanthrope was unable to maintain control, crushed one of the werewolves, killed an (annoying) NPC and crushed our Necromancer. I pointed out that Lycanthrope characters are rarely worth the hassle and that particular player assured me he had his condition under control.
I messed up -I trusted him. The party has no defined leader as I almost always wind up being the leader and this is what happens when the players are allowed to think for themselves in tactical combat situations.
I will do what I always do: Assume command and assign each player a number, because I won't remember character names.
Me: "Three zero four, move up."
304: "I'm not a number."
Me: "Yes, you are. Three zero four, you are fined five gold, move up."
304: "Yes, sir."
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