Non Combat: How To Make It Practical

Well, sorry for jumping down your throat. I think maybe the moral of the story is that you need just as many mechanics as are necessary to keep you and your players happy and engaged. That number might be zero, for combat or non combat.

I've had a spark of an idea for a Cold War/atomic age espionage game for a while now - I've never had the time or energy (or overwhelming interest) to think about how it might actually be implemented, but maybe this is a moment to try and figure it out as an example of how something like that might work.

I think that GUMSHOE may still be of interest to you as an example of how to radically re-imagine rules for a specific genre. There may not be anything that's specifically useful, but again, it's a mechanics system that treats combat as auxiliary to investigation, rather than vice versa (which, in my opinion, is more typical, even in other "investigation" systems).

But you clearly largely weren't curious what other ppl had to say. You've been, at least in part, negative toward just about every single person who has taken time from their life to share information with you. I don't think you've given a false impression, I think you've given derision and condescension that makes it hard for ppl to talk to you.

@Santouche, Thanks for your recommendation. I have a backlog of systems that I need to look into, but I only have so much room in my head for a person's complete and published work. That's why I tend to seek out individual concepts instead. I don't think you were "jumping down (my) throat" at all. While I have regrettably little experience with the cold war era, that sort of project is definitely something I'd be open to discussing.

@emsquared, If I wasn't curious, why would I start this thread? I put the hard work in to craft a discussion topic because I wanted to hear what people had to say, and get a conversation rolling for other people that also want an answer to the same question. My intention was not to be negative. In my view, my response to your earlier post was thorough, positive, and presented several opportunities to continue healthy discussion based on the material you provided. As for my responses to other people, they are free to speak their minds if I have offended them, but that is between me and those people.