TOPIC: Pacifism Runs

Now that you get your full complement of treasure tokens, I wonder if anyone will be doing (or has already done) some pacifism runs?

It seems like with Cloak of Elvenkind / Cloak of Blending you could have the whole party just wait out a monster (taking push damage) unless it can smell you.

With Cloak of Blending you can even take non-offensive actions, like trying to convert the monster to the cause of good, or bribe it to join your party! (which obviously won't work but might make for some wacky RP fun).

Obviously everyone in the party would have to be on board with this.

The wording in the Cloak of Blending about how it doesn't work if the last living party member is wearing it got me thinking along these lines... so - if there are two or more living party members who are wearing it, it works... from there it was but a short leap to the entire party ; ).

I guess this approach may also cost you a "survivor" button if the last room is monster based?

Do you always die in the last room if you don't beat it in time? Or can you survive but just not beat it?

I think you would want to try that on a puzzle run. That way you can succeed/survive in room 7.

This is an over-simplification, but effectively the push damage from room 7 is death. No button.

But IMO, at that point you're not even playing the game anymore. More time efficient to skip coaching, training, and the entire dungeon and take your wristbands straight to the XP desk.

I wish you luck, but I agree with Brad this just doesn't seem fun to me.

I think it could be interesting but IMO Jeff would need to come up with a pacifist run solution for the dungeon ie the squid in 2011 that could be calmed by returning it's egg.

That said I'd almost prefer Jeff never did it as I'd feel like I have to run each version of the dungeon on pacifist and genocide (and I'm not sure I'd have time for that many runs with volunteering)

Dr Ian Malcolm: Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

I don't know... This sounds kind of fun to me.

My motto while playing rpg's has been to "find creative solutions to perplexing problems". I love it when my solution is so creative it breaks the scenario.

My local area's Pathfinders Society group has the, in my opinion, undeserved, reputation of "Nuke 'me all, and let their personal deities sort them out"... But to me it is funner to find non-combatant ways to defeat the encounters. I love it when people really try to role play.

I have been picking up unusual tokens for True Dungeon to see if I can do the same in True Grind... It may be fun to try a run the same way if we can get a team of like-minded players and if Jeff would get on board with this?

But as they say, dreams are free, but they also happen to be the reality of the psychopaths...

Just my 1 & 1/2 cents worth

Myron

Before I start, let me note that I pretty much run combat exclusively. The Room 7 Boss fight is what appeals to me. Having said that...

Let's think about the story arc we finished last year. What was objective?

To free the Dwarves.

If you could do that by stealth, avoiding all combat, and solving puzzles, you have achieved your objective.


One fly in the ointment. Area of effect spells such as fireball. If you launch a fireball into the proverbial 10 by 10 room, targeting is not an issue. Once in a D&D game I was running the party had cornered a group of Drow in a confined room. The Drow had their backs to the wall and were losing. So they launched fireballs into the room. "What the hell, we have magic resistance and they don't. It's a better percentage than slugging it out." The party still took them down, but the look on the players faces...

I personally think people should play to win the room as best they can, solve the puzzle or defeat the monster, but,...

You don't need fancy mechanics to avoid combat. Just take so long and be so disorganized that you only have time for 1 round of combat. Obviously you won't kill the monster or even have to hit it. Yes you'll take push damage and 1 round of combat damage potentially but no need to hide. Ask a lot of pointless questions of the DM and insist on listening to the entire bards song before taking your next round. LOL or something equally foolish.
While most DMs will urge you to hurry up and slide, I've not encountered any that actually just skipped the players turn because they were taking too long.


If you try and use tokens in obscure ways, be ready to be told "no". Grind is a far better choice for your obscure token use because they are better and have more free rules to play it fun on the fly.
In DnD the DM can mitigate the crazy stuff you might try with a skill check but in TD there really isn't such a thing so assume your character can't do it if you can't do it with the things at hand. You can't say "I pick the lock" you actually have to do it, so you can't say, I use my hammer to hammer out this steel and forge an I win object.
I know maybe this sounds obvious but there have been people in the past that were upset they couldn't do stuff like this and thought the DM was being unfair by not allowing them to knit their 50' of rope into a net to catch fish or whatever silliness they thought they could accomplish to circumvent the actual challenge of the room.

valetutto wrote: While most DMs will urge you to hurry up and slide, I've not encountered any that actually just skipped the players turn because they were taking too long.

If I were a DM, and I am not... yet, once I realized the party was deliberately not fighting, I would give them a warning that they will be forfeiting their turn and then advance the round if they chose not to act.

If you want to be a pacifist, that's fine, but don't expect the monsters to act that way too.

Druegar wrote:

valetutto wrote: While most DMs will urge you to hurry up and slide, I've not encountered any that actually just skipped the players turn because they were taking too long.

If I were a DM, and I am not... yet, once I realized the party was deliberately not fighting, I would give them a warning that they will be forfeiting their turn and then advance the round if they chose not to act.

If you want to be a pacifist, that's fine, but don't expect the monsters to act that way too.

Oh for sure. I think the real challenge of trying to do something weird like this would be to see how effective your group is at "The Con Game" or if they can just be super entertaining that the DM doesn't realize what's going on until its too late. That would take some skill.

And some monsters with low/no intelligence will attack no matter what (carrion crawler, mushroom man), or might be crazy (trapped genie), or evil, or mechanical, etc.