Has anyone written any cool adventures or encounters that were not solved with die rolls or game mechanics or maybe just minimalized use of die rolls. It seems to me (my taste only) there are too many discussions on how a game mechanic overcomes an encounter. There is also great discussion on how to build a character so they have the correct game mechanic to overcome a given obstacle of some type.
So basically I want to start a discussion about encounters that have been solved by cleaver wit and roleplaying. Any takers.
I admit freely to not being the best at creating such encounters. The adventures I enjoyed the most like that were most 2nd edition Ravenloft adventures and a few planescape adventures. I have played with a good DM at the time and am not sure how much he added to the adventure (he was good).
I once ran my player's characters up against a Duke who accused them of forgery and had them dragged before the court for trial. I full well expected them to defend their innocence through an ordeal by combat (or by being hog-tied and thrown in a pond--their choice), but instead they talked circles around the Duke and his advisers, cunningly using wit and logic to end up walking out with a nice sack of gold.
There are a fair number of these things in the AP's. As I am running Legacy of Fire I will give examples from the first book and the second set piece as examples. Note some DM's could role play this more while others will set a DC for diplomacy, bluff, etc. It all depends on how the group chooses to set the tone at the table. But every one of these are an encounter that can be run for XP, Coin, or RP rewards that do not require any dice rolls.
Almah asks a character to tell her fortune early on in camp. If the group takes it seriously she awards them with coin and more possible future role play situations.
Part way through Dashki returns with the Three Jaw tribe gnolls and if the party makes an alliance they are awarded with XP for RP.
Undrella offers companionship and an alliance to take down Kardswann as well as keep most of the mercs and shop owners out of the fight.
The Salamander Lesaar will help the party and open a back door to the House of the Beast if they agree to help him get back home to the plane of fire. This can even be used as a base of operations to raid the house secretly.
My group pretty much forgets about diplomacy/bluff/intimidate so we run everything non-skill/combat without die rolls.
Although to be fair any situation you could think of should require die rolls. Diplomacy is there for a reason
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If it's a fine summers day I sometimes send our players outside to try and do physical tasks - balance, navigate, dodge wrenches etc.
Skill mods equate to less pain - i.e I don't shoulder barge them so hard/often off they're trying to walk across/they get too peek from behind the blind fold more often/they're assumed to have covered x distance in y time etc.
We've also used cards/played RL card games in.. card game encounters (poker tournaments in character for example), had drinking contests (where your Con modifier reduces the amount of booze you must down in a single attempt etc ec).
It's amazing how the injection of RL pain and suffering can really tighten a player's comprehension of what their character might try to do in a given scenario.
''I'll shimmy over the wall with my greatsword on my back and then jump down into the bushes.''
''Oh really.....?''
''Yes. There is nothing in the rules that will adversely effect my action beyond the obvious.''
''Right, lets go - bring the plank and ductape!''
''Actually, on second thoughts...''