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Some background:

My wife and I have always played computer games (we actually met on one) but it's been a lot of years since I did any table-top. A few months ago, we ran through a Tolkien-based book, which was a lot of fun.

For my birthday, she got me the Dungeons & Dragons 4E Player's Handbook, and we started talking about making some characters. She has an 85 on World of Warcraft, so the basics of RPGs are not lost on her, but for the most part table-top has a… negative stigma with her. It's entirely psychological, mostly due to the "don't people kill each other playing this?" propaganda. I had a chat with her and we reached an agreement: she'll play if we can find a suitable campaign.

In her definition, suitable means she gets to be a princess. At a ball. My first thought was "is the ball being attacked by goblins or something?" and then it occurs to me that there is of course much much more to D&D than just killing goblins. But, as I search for campaigns, I am finding great difficulty finding any that are low level (or even high level) that are more politics-and-princesses based rather than "let's go take out a dungeon!" based.

tl;dr Where can I find a couple "wife-friendly" adventures? She's willing to do a couple "husband-friendly dungeon crawls" for experience (both character and just playing the game) if it has a higher level adventure. That's what they're for anyway, right? :-)

If I can avoid making one, I'd like to. Or, perhaps some of you have been in the same boat and have had success with particular campaigns too, I'd be more than happy to consider those.

Edit/update:

So, we've got ourselves a game plan:

Since we didn't finish the Tolkein book we were doing before, and she doesn't really remember it anyway, I'm going through it and converting the encounters and challenges from their systems to dnd's system. It's not a perfect correlation, but it doesn't have to be. After we run through that, we'll go though the one in the comments. Then I can write an encounter with input from her - once I'm back in the swing of things it shouldn't be all that hard to come up with some.

Thanks for all your input, even when I disagree!

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I'll just add this here as I don't think it's enough to validate an answer for your query, BUT if you don't mind going the 3rd party route, there is an excellent adventure that has some combat but not an overwhelming amount. It's main focus is on story, intrigue, abductions, and in the end a trial that the players run (think of it as a big skill challenge if that helps!) The adventure is called Brother Ptolemy and the Hidden Kingdom by Nevermet Press. nevermetpress.com/products/… – GPierce May 27 '11 at 15:01
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Oh yuck. Can we not indulge in gender stereotypes in the title? How about a title about what's being asked for: adventures that support costume-drama stories? – SevenSidedDie May 28 '11 at 0:35
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@Total An inaccurate title will keep people from looking at the question. Other people than women like costume drama in their gaming, and enough wives don't like things that are "pink coded" to make "wife-friendly" inaccurate for people other than your wife. (Mine much prefers to just bash things.) The substance of the Q isn't "games for girls", it's a particular sort of adventure appealing to certain preferences, which may or may not bear any relation to what the reader has in their pants. For the sake of the site, it should have a better title. – SevenSidedDie May 28 '11 at 17:08
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@Seven then we will simply have to agree to disagree on the accuracy of the title. I suspect even people who disagree with the title will know exactly what it means, and that it conveys exactly the idea I'm trying to get across. – corsiKa May 28 '11 at 17:46
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@Total I agree with Seven, when I saw the title I was expecting a question about how to run a game where your wife doesn't feel picked on and/or the other players don't feel as though the storyteller is showing favortism – briddums Jun 3 '11 at 23:40
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4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

We currently have the same situation on my table. And, let me tell you in advance: be prepared for a lot of Eladrins, Devas and "we are good and perfect" races.

Our player here rejoiced in Ravenloft. It may be quite a surprise as that's the darkest D&D scenario, but the main point was that she was always the good hero, saving desperate people from the hands of Count Strahd and fighting evil. In Ravenloft she always felt like the last beacon of light and hope for the world. The Ravenloft campaign's DM was also her husband.

I would point Eberron as a second option. I'm currently DMing a Eberron based campaign that focuses into the intrigue between organizations like the crown, the Lords of Dust (a Demoniac Cabal), the Church of Silver Flame and the Emerald Claw (who, despite the name, are the entry level evil group for the scenario). She made an Eladrin sorcerer and is investigating the Mourning (something like a magical nuke that destroyed one of the human kingdoms) to discover what happed with the Eladrin fortress that was located inside this kingdom.

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I'm accepting this as my answer mainly because my wife made an Eldarin Wizard, and switched to an Elf Sorcerer. Then my friend's wife made a Deva Wizard. So I laughed pretty heartily! On point, those mechanics you mentioned seem like I could glean some good concepts off them. Thanks! – corsiKa Jun 16 '11 at 4:53
If you wish I could tell you a little more about the campaigns or even work with you to adapt them for your group. They were wife-tested already, so it could be an easier for your group. Thanks for the acceptance. – rafgoncalves Jun 16 '11 at 13:11
up vote 13 down vote

Sadly, I suspect this isn't the answer you hoped for...

D&D 4E is highly combat focused. Not that it can't be used otherwise, but the rules and the product line both focus on the battle aspect far more than anything else. The Retail Play

You are unlikely to find extant modules for your desired style of play for D&D 4E below 10th level.

That said, there are a number of other games far more suited to that kind of play with starting characters; too many to make a reasonable list here. Also, there's the option of just starting at 10th level or so.

There are, however, a number of other games that are much better suited to that style of play, and have support for it. Most of them also have rules for Social Conflict as well as physical combat, an arena with which she might be more comfy. If you want a list, let me know.

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+1 for tactfully saying what I was trying to figure out how to say. – Brian Ballsun-Stanton♦ May 27 '11 at 6:10
+1 for the suggestion to branch out to more appropriate systems, but I'm not a fan of the term "Social Combat" - it seems inappropriate for much of the interaction in those systems. If your session is a glorified "I roll Diplomacy! <Your roll is higher than your oppononet> YES! I WIN TALKING!", what are you actually doing? Most of those systems support lots of non-combat options, but actually roleplaying the interaction out is usually preferable. – Ian Pugsley May 27 '11 at 12:50
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@Aramis - While I agree with pretty much everything you said in your answer, specifically about 4E being combat heavy (unless you make it otherwise,) I think starting out at 10th level for a first-time player would be a mistake. True, if you are using only Essentials it would be a lot easier than the rest of the Core, but it's going to be confusing enough learning that system and the character without all of the extra levels and powers. Just my .02 – GPierce May 27 '11 at 15:06
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To echo Aramis, this is the wrong system for that kind of play. There are many other RPG systems out there that are far better at dealing with social interaction, and rewarding goals not kills. As an absolute minimum, use a system where XP is not awarded for kills but only for goals completed. Having a system where the social interactions have a bigger depth then an opposed check will help. – Bobby May 31 '11 at 7:31
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@Ian and Seven, let's use term "Social conflict". It signifies a clash of interests but is much less aggressive than "Social combat". It is even adaptable to other forms like "Physical conflict" and "Mental conflict". Even rarer forms like "Academic conflict" don't sound out of place. – edgerunner Dec 19 '11 at 15:28
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up vote 3 down vote

My best recommendation is to begin penning your own modules. As Aramis states the product line is centered very heavily on dungeon crawls and combat. If you would like a happy medium of some pre-made content and original content, you could purchase Dungeon Delve and just let the players wander around in town for a while first, or you could write a little extra exposition to lead into the conflict.

The Dungeon Masters guide(s) provides many mechanisms for non-combat encounters, which allow you to play through sections that require skill and provide experience points. The system is very formulaic allowing you to set difficulty and make the encounter level specific. Perhaps the best approach would be to make modules that are 50/50, introducing some physical conflict but allowing the players to interact more to give the combat meaning.

This can result in a very satisfying game, since non-combat encounters tend to be more group inclusive and fast in contrast to combat. We recently had a game where a party member took a townsperson out on a date to build trust and garner information. This resulted in a montage/skill challenge that had everyone rolling on the floor laughing! The module ended with a bloody showdown but the experience was better for it due to the build up.

This particular non-combat encounter was improvised as well, not all encounters need to be planned. You'll find this come up more with new players that want to test the bounds, and players that have special skills for non-combat. Something ridiculous became real and satisfying by operating within the straightforward constraints in the DM guide. Hope this helps, happy gaming!

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Good answer. The caveat would be that the stats, DCs and way to set skill challenges have been corrected since the DMG. – Adriano Varoli Piazza May 31 '11 at 19:29
So far just following the instructions on pg72 Step 2 work in combination with the DC levels on the middle of the Wizards DM screen. They may not be balanced completely but they seem to function well enough. – Leilock May 31 '11 at 20:42
Do they mention advantages? Right now, skill challenges of complexity 3 imply 2 advantages, 4 for complexity 4, 6 for complexity 5. Advantages can be counting one success as two, counting an easy dc success as canceling one failure, and so on. – Adriano Varoli Piazza May 31 '11 at 20:53
Ah, no at this point there are no advantages. Just cut and dry, win or loose. I hadn't seen the Obsidian rules from your other comment (rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/4801/…), I'll have to check them out. – Leilock Jun 1 '11 at 2:57
up vote 2 down vote

I see your dilemma. The skill challenge framework, however, does allow for some nifty social roleplaying with dicerolls.

In a very recent issue of Dungeon, there is actually a description of how to run a masquerade ball. While it is subscriber content, a month's DDI subscription is not a nightmarish investment. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dun/201105masquerades

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