Greetings everyone.

I consider this my carryover from D&D/Pathfinder. Encounters pretty much always devolve into combat.

So, what I'm asking for is, what are some of your all's stories from encounters that could've been combat, but weren't because you talked your way out of it.

I am kinda looking for ideas to help in my group's future encounters.

Let the stories commence.

EDIT - I am not the GM. I am a player.

If you're the GM, you have to get the players to buy in first, which can take some doing. I started my current campaign (going on 3 years now!) with players I knew would default to "kill them all!" so I set up the first few encounters to be more social. The very first was finding a child stowaway on their ship, and after a bit of banter about tossing her out the airlock, with a bit of Charm they managed to get her story: running away from a terrible home life to someone she met "online" who promised to take care of her...basically an online predator looking to score. That led to a whole series of non-combat encounters where they had to track the guy down (streetwise, negotiation, and knowledge-outer rim), hack all his stuff and send it to his wife (computers), then return the girl to a non-hostile but ambivalent relative who would take care of her, negotiating an amount to keep the kid healthy (negotiation, coercion). Except for a small pirate attack in session 2, not a blaster was fired for three sessions, but everybody still seemed to enjoy it.

Our group arrived back at our hanger at The Wheel. The Yaya clan were outside tooled up, and our Droids (onboard) reported they were trying to break in.

They hadn't spotted us arrive, so we backtracked, arranged with Station Ops to rent a different hanger, got our Droids on comms and got them to move the ship to the new hanger, went to the new hanger and took off.

As my character is Verpine, he tends to try to get us to avoid combat if possible.

My players had to deal with 4 clone commandos that had just been removed from stasis and we're unstable mentally.

2 of the group got hit once, one knocked out and the other at their threshold.

The ex Imperial Admiral used his leadership skill to convince them they were not "Separatist Spies".

Now they have Commandos on their side, which they fully intend to introduce to the Rebellion.

Some good stories there. Coming from a Pathfinder background as well, I have run up against dogs and other hungry animals who were aggressively posturing but my character would throw them fresh meat to feed them without harming them. The DM would make a roll against handle animal skill and if I pass the critter goes for it and leaves us alone.

I would have to say pretty much all encounters dealing with law enforcement types or imperials has the potential to go south in a heartbeat so discretion is the better part of valor in those instances.

This game uses a strain and wounds mechanic. My EOE character shoots on stun setting or uses glop grenades to incapacitate opposition. Character who wish to do non lethal damage can attack strain instead.

Last night, my group in Out of Ashes managed to turn a "certain" combat encounter into... well, they managed to confuse the inexperienced Jedi into helpfulness and talk the Rakatan holocron into being helpful later. At the same time.

The location?

A Hutt's throne room.

It was an utter fiasco and I loved it. The only problem was that there were a whole bunch of NPCs I had to deal with. At least being on a MUSH gets rid of some of the problems with talking to myself.

Oh, and now they're trying to corrupt the poor barely-not-a-Padawan. Or Alecto is, at least. Jen'et appears to be trying to take a third option on the whole Jedi/Sith thing. (Does it still count as corruption when you're trying to poach them away from the Jedi without making them fall?)

I love those two. They always have creative solutions to problems—and, much of the time, those solutions seem to involve the Deception skill. And Jen'et continues to do a lot of the talking, despite being an Ataru Striker. Which makes me happy, because it means they're both getting a lot of screen time.

My players had to deal with 4 clone commandos that had just been removed from stasis and we're unstable mentally.

2 of the group got hit once, one knocked out and the other at their threshold.

The ex Imperial Admiral used his leadership skill to convince them they were not "Separatist Spies".

Now they have Commandos on their side, which they fully intend to introduce to the Rebellion.

How did you get an entire table of mentally unstable PC's?

As a player, I usually try to talk before fighting. I'll make a charm check to come off as friendly or non-threatening. I'll try to bribe someone if they seem bribable. And you can always attempt to sweet talk them, but that can get...interesting. Especially if the NPC buys it. Very effective, though, when you roll well.

In our group our GM has trouble getting us into a fight. Unless it's basically an ambush where the opposition fires first we will nearly always come up with a way to charm, deceive or bribe our way out of an actual fight. After all, we are at the Edge of the Empire. A few credits and a sharp mind can go a long way.

In the pre-written adventure, Mask of the Pirate Queen , my players ran into a group of former clone troopers turned mercenaries. As soon as the Jedi character lit his lightsaber, the clones became allies instead of another combat encounter. The clones admitted that they couldn't remember what happened during Order 66.

The adventures I write tend to be heavy on investigation and asking questions and less about combat encounters. The impetus is on the GM to provide encounters that use Knowledge and Social skills.

We've started to try and talk our way out only because I'm thinking of taking FSEm as my next spec...and I have stated in game and during time out that 'It's Murder' - the GM has also bought in 1 game permanent Dark Side points if we start going down that route in Edge

We tried a 'softly, softly' approach last session. The GM played it that he bolted - weapons set to stun, 3 Minions and the Rival still alive, but stunned, 4-5 rounds later - then, as my son REALLY wanted to re-stun the Rival ... I just decided to start telling the acquisition the truth - no Charm, Coercion, Deception, etc... the GM ruled I make a Negotition roll with a Boost...he buckled under and started telling us EVERYTHING after I mentioned something like '...we don't care even if you're pro-Rebel Alliance. We've been hired to find the stolen shipment'

Dammnn it, now we have to steal stolen goods back off the Rebel Alliance! Screw you Princess Leia, we've got a job to do. Awww KARABAST!

You just use the social checks as appropriate.

Use Deception to avoid a fight by creating a convincing lie about why you're actually allies. "I'm a bounty hunter, here at the request of sector command, now do you want to get out of my way or explain to the Moff why you're interfering with his business?"

Use Charm to convince opponents that you should be friends, not enemies. "Ha! Look at the stones on this one! I really like this criminal energy you have going there kid! It's a shame you're wasting it like this. Let's have a talk about the real score..."

Use Negotiate to propose a compromise to them that benefits everyone. "Well, we could shoot at each other until we've both lost good friends and half the spice in this hold is burned up, or we could split it and go home. Personally, I think that's the better deal."

Use Leadership to bring opponents to your side with an air of authority: "I'm Captain Caliburn of the Alderan's Revenge! Stand down and you may have a future on my crew!"

Use Coercion to scare them out of wanting to fight you. "This is a DR-45 Dragoon blaster, it's so powerful it will make your head burn out like a jack o' lantern. Real messy. Is that how you want to go?"

To speak generally: Unless there are a lot of hard targets or NPCs gunning for the party, I'd say it really comes down to the players and their characters.

I had a low-key spice dealing operation right in front of a mid-rise the party needed to get inside of. Think "the Pit" from The Wire - runners, patrons and an enforcer.

Pushing weight around would not have been difficult mechanically, but the party was thinking realistically and deliberately avoided the site, taking a long way around to the objective.

Hrm, encounters that could've gone to combat but didn't.

From my very last session:

PCs went to do a Spice deal for their Crime Boss. Showed up with the credits, but the supplier raised the price on them. Was pretty tense, but the supplier had enough hired goons with them to make the PCs think twice about it, so after a few so-so Negotiation rolls the PCs wound up simply accepting the higher price and taking less. Afterwards, they followed the supplier to find their base of operations, knocked one guard unconscious, and stole a few more crates of spice more than they were sent to get.

Next they were boarded by customs, so they purposely presented a problem with their weapons permits being out of date so they could pay the Imperial a "special extension fee" so that the Imperial would be happy with his found credits and leave them alone, which worked.

There was a big ol' fight at the spice exchange though. It ain't Star Talks.

My players had to deal with 4 clone commandos that had just been removed from stasis and we're unstable mentally.

2 of the group got hit once, one knocked out and the other at their threshold.

The ex Imperial Admiral used his leadership skill to convince them they were not "Separatist Spies".

Now they have Commandos on their side, which they fully intend to introduce to the Rebellion.

How did you get an entire table of mentally unstable PC's?

When two of them got super messed up from getting hit once each, they knew it wasn't time to fight. Smart group. I have other players in other groups that will likely just get themselves killed because they'd rather fight it out.

Every group and every player is different. In the most bloodthirsty group I have, a player and I worked out a really tough player choice, narrative session for their obligation. It involved forcing the group to choose to kill one of 2 NPC's they've known since the campaign I ran them through when we started a year ago. They opted to try and save both, the resulting failure meant that both NPC's, rigged to blow, were killed. When the group was like "aha! we have you now Mr. BBEG!" was when the BBEG revealed that he had kidnapped one of the player character's siblings and would let her live if the group let him go... the character who's sister was on the line was left with the choice to save her sister and potentially let thousands die or stop the BBEG right then and there... the player never made a decision. The obligation player then piped up and made a deal with the BBEG to save the sister and prevent the destruction of the nearby city by letting the BBEG take the sister with him as leverage against the Player characters. It was a bit awkward since the character didn't seem to care about the fate of her sister, though the player had created the backstory to show that her whole story was about protecting her family. Thankfully that other player thought quickly and moved the plot forwards with a decision.

That's the group that typically just wants to blast their way out of every problem, so it was probably a bit off-putting to them when there was not much to blast but just narrative choices to make.

My players have certain triggers that get under their skins and which they let get the better of them. One simply will not comply with lawfully issued commands, such as "Drop your weapon and put your hands behind your head!" He'll try weaseling out of compliance: "It wasn't us, it was them!", and when that doesn't work he goes for his guns. Ends up a lot like today's tragic headlines. I can never get to screenwipe, cut scene to an officer apologizing for the misunderstanding. He never shoots to stun, always to kill, so off come the gloves and the Storm Troopers let him have it. Then, when he awakes cuffed to a hospital bed...he's indignant. And the other players show solidarity, rather than try talking him down. It's happened twice, so now I know ecactly what scenario to present if I really just want to end their story ignominiously.

Some players never run, never back down, and as a GM I find this to be most difficult. "I'm not a fighter, I'm a pilot/businessman/programmer/performer. But I'll sure as **** fight when I damned well know I shouldn't." This is a complete lack of immersion, and it can be frustrating for a GM. This isn't about Session Zero discussions or out-of-game one-on-one chats, it's about goddamned common sense. Its about there having to be consequences for dunderheaded decisions.

So, you NEED to make sure your players are rewarded accordingly, scene by scene, either with bonus XP for good role playing, or with in-game story perks. Otherwise "What you walk past is what you accept."

repost. ignore.

In our group our GM has trouble getting us into a fight. Unless it's basically an ambush where the opposition fires first we will nearly always come up with a way to charm, deceive or bribe our way out of an actual fight. After all, we are at the Edge of the Empire. A few credits and a sharp mind can go a long way.

As a GM I have this "problem". Three sessions in to the campaign, and PCs have solved all combat encounters with talking and social skills. I'm not complaining (except maybe because of myself, because now I have to adjust myself to the fact PCs avoid combats very well). It's funny how in my experience, this game changes the style players play.

"I'm not a fighter, I'm a pilot/businessman/programmer/performer. But I'll sure as **** fight when I damned well know I shouldn't."

I've met this in real life, it doesn't end well.

Thanks everybody for your stories so far. They are great examples.

Please keep even more stories coming.