A friend's nephew has asked for an RPG for Christmas and she is uncomfortable with level of spine-ripping, beheading and such that are hallmarks of this game genre. She asked me if I know of any RPGs that offer minimal bloodshed and more emphasis on exploring and/or helping other characters in the game. After I wiped away my tears of laughter, I told her I didn't know any. Then I thought maybe I should ask the Action/RPG group, since I mostly play non-violent adventure games. Are there some RPG's that feature less blood-and-guts stuff?

The first game that comes to mind is this one.

I haven't played it, but I have read about it. You can take a look at the customer reviews to learn more. As far as I know, though, the game is only available as a download. It's also not a long RPG, taking approximately 12-15 hours to complete based on what I have read. It seems quite highly regarded by most players.

I'm looking at all of my RPGs and they are all killing either monsters or bad guys.

Hmmm, Draclvr, I'll ask her if dispatching monsters is OK. I got the sense that it was the one-on-one human slaughter that put her off. And maybe I should rephrase my question after hearing back from her.

Marian, I will tell her about Drift Moon. Since it is a download, could she download it to her computer, copy it to a disk, and then give it to him for Christmas? Or how else could she gift it to him?

GOG games have no copy protection, so yes, she could do this.

And here's some information about gifting games.

I hope some other players will be able to come up with more suggestions.

I just sent her an email back, asking if her objection to RPGs was limited to human-on-human slaughter only. If killing dragons or robots were acceptable, for example, I'm guessing that would widen her options? So maybe some 'Boomers will suggest some that do not involve humans killing each other.

Thanks for the info about gifting a GOG game. That makes sense. She works in computers so, unlike me, she will find it all much easier to sort out.

How old is the nephew?

Mini Ninjas
Zanzarah, which might be difficult to get.

Maybe some of the games that emphasize stealth. There is violence, but you can choose to use stealth instead--at least in many cases. Deus Ex series?

I few years back, I played Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood without killing anyone. Just knocked them out and tied them up. Kind of a rpg-strategy mix.

Difficult to find a basic non-violent rpg.

Even in Zanzarah you are smiting other fairies! This could be tricky...

Thanks lanlynk. My husband played and loved Deus Ex because you could knock people out and did not have to kill them. Thanks for reminding me about that. I wonder if you can still get Thief? That one was stealth, too.

I don't know how old the nephew is. I forgot to ask her. I assumed he was a teenage boy, but will confirm.

GOG sells Thief as a download.

I will mention that to her. I enjoyed Thief.

You can get the Thief games and Deus Ex at GOG.com.

I always played these in a non-lethal way, as much as possible. But what's to stop a kid from opting for the non-sneaky route?

Dishonoured is also supposed to be possible to complete without killing anyone - doing so is one of the Achievements you can obtain. I guess this might be tweaking the definition of non-violent a bit.

It's set in a pretty ugly, post-collapse of civilisation type of world, so it's not pretty to look at.

How about the Prince of Persia (2008 version - wikipedia) - that's mostly about exploration, restoration, and some puzzle solving, and all the 'bad guys' are pretty inhuman. I know the PoP games aren't particularly RPG, they're more rpg/ACTION.

Aren't there some games where you can turn off blood and gore in Options? I can't remember any specific ones but it seems that I have seen this somewhere.

Skyrim springs to mind, as does HalfLife 2 ( both of which have plenty of violence but without being gore-fests).

I have seen several with this option, but I can't remember which ones.

I'm coming late to this party and this might not be what you're looking for but I thought I should mention A Tale in the Desert. It is a very unusual MMORPG that is all about crafting, trading and challenges. There is no fighting at all. I really like the idea and it seems to have a loyal following but I do like killing bad guys so it didn't work for me. It is a free download and you can play for 24 hours of in-game time. After that it is $11.95/mo.

Thanks everyone for the comments, even the late ones. A Tale in the Desert sounds like fun. I have not spoken to my friend for a few days, so don't know what she decided to do, or even if she chose an alternative gift. But I have learned a lot about what is out there.