Games without combat

>>54891917

Of course.

Well.

Geneally you need a specific conflict to substitute the engine of the interest (in the game by the players). A dedicated system/game really helps.

You don't do this shit. You make them interested in persons.

>>54891917
the investment comes from caring about seeing their endeavours succeed or fail, let the players figure out what they care about or want to achieve and then let them make choices which directly influence those things, this is pretty basic stuff that also applies to combat-focused games

obviously, in terms of giving them clear choices playing a system with good mechanical support for non-combat stuff helps, I'd personally recommend MonsterHearts

>>54891917
No combat != no conflict.

I once ran a 1 on 1 40k pnp where a player was suddenly catapulted into the role of Planetary Governor, through the chicanery of parties unknown at the start of the campaign. There was a grand total of one "combat" in the game, which was settled without rolling, he shot the guy who had a knife with the poison needle in his ring and just killed the assailant.

Instead, the bulk of the campaign was an intrigue one, and rarely left the governorian palace. He almost never did anything directly, it was all centered around who he was trusting, who he was believing, and who he was tasking with a given mission at any one time, including making sure the other people doing their own missions properly.

We could have easily eliminated the "fight", and it would still have significant stakes and significant combat.

>>54891917
I did. It was very very lewd.

>>54891917
I ran an adventure where the situation was so lopsided that the party could not combat and had to rely on speed, stealth, and positioning to escape. Then I had them inherit an old keep and figure out how to rebuild it. They said they had fun.

>>54891917
Yeah, it was a horror campaign where combat meant you fucking died. It was fun for the three sessions we had but I couldn't imagine going on for long term.

Sure, many times
>cyberpunk setting
Adventure starts at a party, group is supposed to pick up a pair of shades loaded with some illicit software and get out. They loved the mood so they ended up staying, shooting the shit with the bartender, ordering weird drinks, befriending a russian wrestler, making up war stories, trying to impress models and making odd wagers. This filled the whole session and the ploot hook ended as they drunkedly gave away the shades to some european model.

>>54891917
by making sure violence isn't completely off the table.

You can intrigue, politic, and build all you want but when your plans come crumbling down and the one bastard responsible is in punching distance but the game says you can not hit him period can kill all future interest.

One idea I've been toying with is having the characters be colonists on Mars, trying to establish a base and maybe reveal hidden secrets of the planet. However, I don't know if the challenge would really be there because everything would be a straightforward dice roll without any strategic thinking or planning involved.