Considering running Agents of Edgewatch

[Atalius]

Our GM is considering running Agents of Edgewatch. Just wanted to know what's the RP to combat ratio? Our group prefers combat more, is there much in this campaign or are we mostly just chasing clues and RPing with NPCs?

[Deadmanwalking]

There's probably more RP and skill use than average, but there is also plenty of combat.

For comparison, book 1 of Age of Ashes has about 35 combat encounters, give or take since some can be resolved diplomatically, while Agents of Edgewatch actually has 37, though a larger number of those (though not a majority) are susceptible to talking things out.

But really, this attitude sounds like an issue anyway. AoE is intended as an AP where the PCs strenuously try to avoid combat and talk many 'enemies' down as much as possible, at least in the beginning of the campaign, and if you don't want to actually do that, you probably just want to play a different AP.

[Atalius]

Helpful post Deadman as per usual. Are the other books also similar to the first in terms of encouraging players to talk down enemies?

[Ruzza]

It does seem like you can avoid combat quite often through careful skill use and putting together clues. That said, there's also some very combat heavy sections (but even these could be circumvented, especially if you have a GM who is on the same page as you for resolving things peacably). Book Two does feel like it has a huge combat section, but I feel like a clever group could avoid a lot of the fuss and potentially have minimal combat.

[Deadmanwalking]

Atalius wrote:

Helpful post Deadman as per usual. Are the other books also similar to the first in terms of encouraging players to talk down enemies?

Generally yes. Perhaps not quite as much, but it's a running theme.

Now, you certainly run into whole groups of enemies where that's not a viable plan, from fanatical cultists to wild animals to mindless undead, but you also run into people you can talk down and are strongly thematically encouraged to do so when possible.

[Bast L.]

I stopped running it after book 1. I'd say it was more combat heavy than most adventures, or maybe it just seemed that way because of the combat difficulty. I'm not sure if/when players are supposed to rest for the night, but I just let them do it whenever, because it would've been a lot of TPKs otherwise.

All of the players were like, "I thought we could try diplomacy, or other methods, and have less combat." Because the player's guide makes it seem that way. I tried to let them do things that weren't exactly by the book, like use mage hand on a melon to lure a creature into a cage, but there was a fight where, if they tried to talk, the book has the encounter difficulty become about 2*extreme (with level being 1, per the advancement track, it was still beyond extreme when I let them level to 2 before then).

Maybe book 2 has more investigation stuff, but book 1, aside from a club scene, is mostly just fighting. One of the players remarked that they were more like soldiers than investigators.

I think it could use some tuning. Also, the loot system throws everyone off.

They did avoid a few fights by talking, or being clever, but it was still pretty combat heavy.

[KyoYagami068]

In book 2 we have:
Chapter 1, a investigation and a little raid. Lots of talking and some fights.
Chapter 2, the group trying to stop a thing. Almost no talking and some fights.
Chapter 3, a visit to somewhere related to people from last chapter. Lots of fights and some talking.
Chapter 4, a dungeon crawl. LOTS of fights, a little talking.