Combat being central to RPGs

From: Bruce Ferrie <bruce_at_...>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 23:11:10 -0000

On Monday, February 12, 2001 10:21 PM, A. K. Berner [SMTP:open_micro_at_...] wrote:
> patching people up feels too much like real work to be fun. A zillion people
> have jumped in saying that combat doesn't have to be, or shouldn't be a
> focus for RPGs. TOUGH, it is. And that goes for both men and woman players.
> Even in games that tend to appeal much more to woman than men (like Vampire
> and other WW titles) there is plenty of combat between the talking parts.

Not necessarily true. I've been running a Mage campaign on and off since '96 now. As of the current plot arc, we've had 8 sessions of play and there's been one incident of violence, which took up about 15 mins of play. And that ratio has been similar throughout the entire length of the game. You *can* run an interesting game without combat all over it.

Helps even more now that I've started using the HW rules to run the game. It's a much better system for encouraging non-violent resolutions to problems.

> As to you people who keep pushing this idea that combat is not central to
> RPGs, give it up. Never was true, isn't true now, never will be true.

It *is* central to RPGs if you're modelling an action-adventure setting. Not necessarily the case if you're trying to model something with a different flavour. Psychological horror, for example.

And, yes, I know that Hero Wars emphasises that action-adventure flavour. But there is always another way. Try running something similar to the Roman murder mysteries of Lindsey Davis - combat certainly isn't central to them, and that sort of plot would be great for a Lunar Empire game.

I think one of the reasons why combat is perceived is being so central to RP'ing is because it has always been the part of the rules set that is most detailed. In and of itself, it is the more exciting "game" with more dice-rolling and crunchy bits for the players and GM to get their teeth into. HW provides the same resolution systems for all situations, including combat. This means that, say, performing a cleansing ritual to eliminate disease spirits can be turned into a dramatic and fun (yes, fun) extended contest.

If you really try to provide another option to combat, you can do it. What stops my players resorting to it all the time is that, fine, they can do it but they have to deal with the consequences of their violence and how it makes other people perceive them. Makes them keener to find a more peaceful way around things.

Please don't take this as me saying that I hate combat in games. I do sometimes find it tedious to GM, but in the right place it's great. And I do sometimes enjoy a good action-adventure scenario or hack-'em-up. Just not *all* the time.

Regards,

Bruce