No Fighting!

Looking back at my post on Boundaries I had the idea of setting a 'no combat' boundary for a game. In a game that devotes a lot of pages to damage, attacking, healing and defense, I think it would be a major constraint, one that many players wouldn't want to try. The benefit would be the ability to focus on other aspects of the story, including other types of action and danger.

There could still be traps, stealth, natural hazards, rivals, enemies, success and failure, just no direct combat. If enemies are massive monsters or whole armies, then it wouldn't make much sense for a small group to want to fight them anyway. The threat of violence can still exist, but we just don't play through any fights.

So for example, a scene might find the heroes trying to sneak through the camp of the enemy army. The tension comes from the knowledge that, if discovered, they are surrounded by armed enemies. If they somehow fail to get through undiscovered, they'll have to surrender or be killed on the spot. If captured, maybe they are brought before the enemy leader, and the story goes on. If they fight, they die.

If this sounds unfair or somehow uninteresting then you won't play in this game, but I hope I'll find a group willing to try it out. It might be a case of 'see how many sessions you can manage to play' but it might also be the best campaign ever.