Quote from: flyingmiceNot for me. Usually they are huge battles - like taking a town - or started too late. I don't play systems that get in the way.

I don't always get to choose the system, or the senario.

Each session generally has one minor combat for the PCs to try out their new abilities without the imminent danger of getting their asses handed to them if the abilities look a lot cooler on paper than they are in a combat situation, and one significant combat.

It depends on the game.
If I'm playtesting a new system, variant, or whatever... it's heavy combat and other mechanics... with only a thin layer of plot as an excuse to make use of every player ability and make sure it works right.

Otherwise, my combat is physically brutal. To the point where PCs will consider running away, slaughtering sleeping foes, and sneaking past guards just to avoid it (I'm not anti-combat... I'm just ultraviolent to the point where my PCs see fighting as not always viable). Even here, there's usually at least one fight per session. And NPCs will bring reinforcements if PCs don't shoot the messenger. They won't fight to the death, though. People rarely fight to the death.

So answer 1 is "all the time."
Answer two is "not when the players can avoid it."

Fucked if I know what the percentages are. It depends, anyway.

We spend most of our time avoiding combat because we have a player who systematically manages to convince NPCs that actually, allying with us would probably be a good idea.

I'd say we usually have one fight per session but it can go up to two or three, or indeed down to none depending on the type of game we're running.  But at the moment we're vikings so it's been 2 fights a session.

It depends heavily on the genre.

For Horror, I would say maybe one physical confrontation every few sessions. For D&D and it's ilk it'd be at least 2 combats per game. I'm currently playing in a WFRP campaign that occupies the middleground, with perhaps 1 combat per 1-2 sessions. The awesome lethality of the system means even this level of fighting will eventually result in character death. Fate Points are as candles in the wind.

I prefer a 50/50 mix.  I generally plan for one big action sequence per game.

But that certainly isn't a hard and fast rule.  There have been games where the missiles are flying and gun pods are rattling and things are just so interesting and tense that I don't want to have it stop.  So, there are certainly times I'd be happier with 100% combat and "no roleplaying."  By the same token, there are times I'm really into my character and just want to play them without having to go out and blast stuff to hell.

Action is important, though.  I'm more satisfied when the action percentage is kept up, rather than eliminating it in favor of "role playing."  I've found "role playing" to be something like candy.  If you have it it small doses, it's wonderful and keeps you wanting more.  But, if you gorge on it to the exclusion of all else, you just get sick.

As several other people have noted, it depends on the game.  

For example, in my Buffy campaign, there were probably 1.5-2 fights per session average.  Each session was a complete episode, and there was almost always a climactic battle, and sometimes (but not always) 1 or 2 fights along the way.  

Many of my campaigns have less.  My Water-Uphill World campaign didn't have any fights.  The Vinland campaign had a fight roughly every three sessions or so. (It was a fairly realistic alternate history vikings game, so fights were the climaxes of summer raids or feuds, but they were really violent.)  The Amber campaign I'm in now has an average of 1 or so.

My plots tend to be very action oriented there are  lots fights. There is also a good deal of running away and sneaking around.

wow, you guys are combat wombats!

We have one every two sessions in an "action" campaign like our current Transhuman Space one, and one every three sessions in a "thematic" (dunno what else to call it, it was a bit soap operaish at times) campaign like the Tiwesdæg Clíewen one.

Maybe one fight a session. Sometimes less. In some cases we've had "combat" that consisted of a single blow or other show of force. Of course once in a while we'll have giant battles ... or games that are simply more combat heavy than normal.

-Marco

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalWe spend most of our time avoiding combat because we have a player who systematically manages to convince NPCs that actually, allying with us would probably be a good idea.

I'd say we usually have one fight per session but it can go up to two or three, or indeed down to none depending on the type of game we're running.  But at the moment we're vikings so it's been 2 fights a session.

I was thinking around one to two.  

Depends on the game of course, some settings lend themselves more to combat than others.

Quote from: RPGPunditIn your games, how many combats are there in a session? Is your game just one whole long battle, is it mostly RP, what percentage is which?

It depends on the game and the session in the game.  We've had sessions with no combat and sessions that were all combat and most fall somewhere in between.  My regular group has a few people who are at least partly what Robin Laws calls the "butt-kicker" play style.  What that means is that the norm is for at least one combat per session, though bear in mind that we pay 10-12 hour sessions so that can be a very small part of a session.  In the more role-playing intense D&D game I was just playing in 3-4 hour sessions, we had several sessions with no combat and when we did have one or more combats, it could take up a substantial part of the session.

Quote from: RPGPunditAlso, do you prefer to have one significant combat per session or would you rather have several smaller combats?

Whatever makes sense for what's going on in the game.  If I had to pick a preferene, I think the "boss"  model from video games is pretty good.  Lots of small combat encounters that are relatively easy to win culminating in an encounter with the big bad guys who are as powerful as the PCs where one or more might die in the battle.

I tend to have a lot of combat for a couple of reasons. One being, my players like to kill things and take their stuff so I give 'em what they want. Two being I tend to use a fair amount of dungeoncrawling which is conducive to multiple small combats and less social interaction with NPCs.

Overall percentage wise I would guess at 60% combat, 40% social interaction..

I've run somewhere around 15 sessions in this campaign, with one combat.  I've finally figured out how to run combat in chat in a satisfactory manner (I'll describe how when I get a chance), so I won't be avoiding it as completely as I used to, but if I ran it very often, either the PC would be doing a superb job of only getting into fights she had a decided advantage in, or the campaign would turn highly lethal.