Re: So Which Systems Are Best For Non-Violent Creativity? Lawyers? Surgeons?


David Alex Lamb wrote: 
In some of the generic systems like GURPS and FUDGE you can choose to make
nonviolent characters -- but the GM would have to create a setting to suit.

The GM also needs to have an attitude such that non-violent campaigns are fun. Otherwise, the players will quickly ask to retire their non-violent characters, and create new violence-capable ones.

I'm not familiar enough with the many and varied GURPS sourcebooks to say
whether one of them would work out-of-the-box.  Perhaps some of the historical
settings?

Certainly neither GURPS Vikings or GURPS Middle Ages 1 would be a natural for this. GURPS Arabian Nights might. Set the campaign in one of the heavily civilized cities, such as Bagdad (in the Golden Age of Islam, of course. Somewhen like 8th to 13th century, IIRC). GURPS Imperial Rome or GURPS Egypt or GURPs Greece are other options. One would imagine that Rome or Greece would be good places for a political campaign, but neither of those GURPS supplements have all that much on politics.


A very important question to ask is: what are the issues? What do people in the game world mostly conflict about? In my fantasy historical setting, Ärth, the key issue is religion. Not everybody cares about it, but religious officials do (both Christian ones, and pagan ones such as Druids and the priests of the Norse lands), and the lords of the various lands also do. This can (and will, at least some of the time) result in violent conflict (as in crusades, or civil wars), but there's also a lot of potential for doing things in another way.

As an example, Denmark was split in two after Harald Bluetooth's conversion to Christianity, with his son Sven Forkbeard taking rulership over the still pagan Eastern Denmark. Harald remained king of Christian Western Denmark for some time. Then he died, and Olav Tryggveson (who in our timeline because king of Norway) decided to go and fill the power vacuum.

Both sides have invasion plans, but it's a major undertaking to invade an extremely war-like nation, even if you're no less warlike yourself,

Therefore there's also a lot of covert and clandestine action going on, among them a plan by Sven Forkbeard to muck up the economy of Western Denmark by planting lots of false coins (coinage also being seen as somewhat of a Christian phenomenon). There's spying. Even recruitment (there are some extremely competent NPCs hopping around the setting, who have no particular loyalties. Either side convincing just one of these free agents to join up would gain a significant advantage).

Research is another possibility. Gunpowder is known, but nobody (not even the Chinese, who are rather restrained by having been under the same Lich Emperor for more than a thousand years) has made guns yet. So that's a possibility. Or better gunpowder (the formula can certanly be refined), or rockets.

There are also bunches of lost artifacts to find. One, the Raven Banner that used to belong to the Danish royal family, is a powerful magic item that can enhance an entire army (similar to the Ark of the Covenant, which of course also exists within the setting, just farther to the south). Eastern Denmark would want to get it. Not sure about Olav Tryggveson. It's a pagan item, but he can be quite pragmatic at times.

Artifact hunting is not guaranteed to be non-violent (think Raiders of the Lost Art, or even rather more traditional dungeon crawling), but there's no reason to assume things will go D&D (especially since the combat system is harsher, and magical healing is rarer, both of which serve to discourage frivolous combat[1]).

Magical research is also a possibility, as in inventing better spells (or, rather easier, variants of existing spells better suited for whatever it is you want to accomplish). Also, all the magical artifacts of the setting can be reproduced, by characters who have the right skills, but to Enchant items you must expend Essence, a personal and non-reneable ressource, which means that doing it for a cause will involve lots of roleplaying and angst ("Should I? I don't like this new Southern religion one bit, sure, but is it really worth it, making an army-boosting item? Isn't my precious Essence better spent on making a Focus, to enhance my own spellcasting prowess?").

Elsewhere, there are also plenty of issues to deal with, one example being the Iberian Caliphate's ban on wine imports, in spite of the fact that there are lots of thirsty Christians and Jews living within the Caliphate. The French nobility are unhappy about that, and so would be open-minded about funding a diplomatic expedition, sent to the Caliphate to resolve the problem.

And in Rome, the Pope and his Curia are debating a new concept, somewhat similar to the Moslem notion of Jihad. They don't like it much, but the idea that it is necessary (i.e. to free Jerusalam from the infidels) is gaining a foothold.


[1] I believe it was in a review of Riddle of Steel that I read it, although I had similar ideas before (just not verbalized). When the combat system is extremely lethal, characters will avoid fighting, except when the fight is about something they really *care* about.

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
.

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