In short, don't make vanilla flavored combat -- make roleplaying flavored combat. If you still aren't having much fun, and this isn't helping players see things your way, then maybe it's time you moved on to a new group.


From: Gwaldrop

One way to discourage excessive combat is to tell the players ahead of time to not make combat oriented characters. Often times they'll comply with you if you just ask them to.

However, some players are just going to do whatever they want to do. In this case, if you want a game oriented towards story more than combat just make it that way. Characters who solve their troubles with weapons first should get themselves into more trouble because of it. Also, such characters often slight their social and mental abilities in favor of combat abilities, so gear scenes towards the social. While they sit there and yawn because their character doesn't have the necessary abilities, they get to watch while everyone else gets to develop their skills. Perhaps this will clue them in on what you mean by non-combat oriented games.

One bad side-effect of this is those players who comply all too well. I have had a few games where nobody had any real combat ability at all. I prefer a more story oriented game myself, but I like action as well - sometimes the only way out of a situation is a rock 'em sock 'em fight. Make sure to let your players know that some combat ability is fine if you expect some action in the game, just tell them not to center their character around combat.

From: Phoenyx

Your basic carrot and stick. For the GM that wants to cut down on the combat and encourage role-playing activity, you make the latter rewarding and the former detrimental.

Characters that dive in to the Thieves' lair and fight everything in sight find the McGuffin has been killed, and they can't get the vital information to stop the plot against the Duke. They later find out that had they talked their way in, they could have gotten the information, and up to the point they attacked, the thieves' guild did not know them as foes.

Just one example. In modern games, use the law as a deterrent to fighting. They get done trashing the local "Cobra" base and find that the "Front" has called the cops. They have a SWAT team waiting for them and a lot of questions to answer. Their "special clearance" might get them off the hook, but the time lost was critical. By talking to the local police, they could have isolated the base, rendered it useless, and gotten on with their plans, all with no additional effort to themselves. However shooting up a block will get them "Spanked".