DMs opinion wanted

[Meleck]

Dealing with law breaking PCs

Let the guard on its way to death. The PCs can always heal the dude with what they have and prevent him from dying. After all, there the ones who started the fight. Take in any which way you want, you get into a battle wth a "constable/guard on duty" that isn't crooked, it's your fault. I'm not saying it's always the case but I'd put my gold on the guards at the trial.

Let them "wake up" from a bad deal and let them learn.
Replay the scene if you didn't like what happened. Don't have to play the NPCs differently, just let the player figure out that the gmae world doesn't turn around them all the time. Let the player get away with that one and you have a case of we-can-do-anything-in-town-nothing-is-going-to-happen-to-us characters.

A nice twist is always one that I like in Conan the Barbarian. The king finds the thieves of the Tower of Tulsa Doom. Instead of putting them in prison, he hires them to find his daughter and pays them handsomely.

Have the Thieve's guild or Assassin Guild cover the characters, they'll owe the Guild a favor for covering for them. Have an very crooked city councelor give a small slap on the hand to the characters and let the characters know they owe him. But make sure that a lot of people know about whatever sweet deal the characters had. Let the world turn around the characters in an unpleasant way. Inns where the characters were welcome are suddenly very quiet when they get in; the armorer dealing with them is suddenly very busy with something else. Let any opposing member of the Guilds/Councelor target the players. If you like politic intrigue, you should have a field day with this one.

Another spin. The city doesn't punish killers directly, offenders are being "geased" or "quested" to rid the town of a particular problem. There are guards at night because we have a werewolf problem - the character are good with swords, let them deal with the werewolves (or whatever monster is to your liking).

But never let the players ride this one for free or your world is going to come tumbling down like a house of cards. You are going to lose all credibility and cohesion to your world outside of the dungeon. Unless you are running an evil campaign, that is.

 

[Balgus]

I can't see the town as having a healer close enough to make a difference. In my experience, combat lasts 10 rounds (max) and give 10 rounds for dying, that is a cool 2 minutes. Unless the cleric's or healer's shop is like two steps away, he won't be able to make it in time...

As for the game, i would run it as real life. The other guard asks people for help stabilize his friend. If no one can (or wants to) have him ask them to help him carry the guy to a healers (reasonably distanced). If he makes it through, then he wakes up and he alerts the authorities. If he doesn't make it, the guy still alive should alert the authorities.

This town is on the frontier, so it should come across this alot. And so, the guards and authorities cannot accept this kind of action without penalty. Or else, they will be overrun with bandits and such.

As for Mr Lippy- he got himelf into this, let him find a way out. Why should you bend your world to suit his foolish ways? I have no qualms with killing a PC who causes trouble. Even a chaotic evil char knows when not to kill-

 

[ced1106]

This is **exactly** why I hate running cities.

Step 1. DM creates a town.
Step 2. PCs trash town in ways their players would never ever do in real life.
Step 3. PCs get banished et al.
Step 4. DM takes aspirin.
Step 5. DM creates a new town.

Anyway, another vote for the adventure hook. Put the characters in irons, take away their best magical items (that always p*sses them off), then slap a Geas or Quest spell on them. This will probably cause the party to want to trash the town (or the city NPC who gets medieval on the party), which is fine, since you needed an archenemy anyway. If possible, make said NPC a paladin. I've always wanted a paladin to be an archenemy.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Dog Faced God]

I would go with a harsh, extended public humiliation:

http://www.rm-r.net/~getch/punishments/curious/

Followed by a public execution for both characters if the guard dies (I'd roll for stabilization to see if the guard dies, barring intervention by party members).

This decision (whatever it is) is going to have far reaching consequences. I see a few possible scenarios:

The rest of the party breaks their errant companions out of the pillory or local jail, or saves them from hanging at the last moment. All characters will be wanted by the law, and avoid coming back to this burg for the rest of their life.

The rest of the party lets the characters die, possibly breeding hate and discontent among the players (no one really wants that).

Some third party steps in on behalf of the rowdy party, and the players get the idea that they can flout the law and get away with it.

Have a 'do-overs' and replay the scene (see above).

What you end up doing is really going to depend on the style of game you want. A game where characters' actions have no consequences is quite different from a game where characters' actions have none.

 

[Dark Psion]

After a cleric heals the guard back to 100% and the PC to 2 hp, they are all brought before a magistrate. After listening to the guards, he passes sentence.

"You are all fearless adventures, Yes? Good I have a problem that you can help me solve."
"You see there is this Dragon that lairs to the East...."

"And you want us to slay it?" One of the PCs interupts.

"Oh NO! That dragon is all that stands between us and the goblin hordes. We want the dragon to stay and we want to keep him happy. And one thing that makes him happy are beutiful women to serve him."

"And you want us to find the dragon such a women?'

"Not exactly" Says the magistrate, as he removes several dresses and an obviously magical girdle from a closet.

 

[navriin]

ROFL about Dark Psion's reply

...anyways, I would vote that you punish them harshly.
I seriously doubt a healer could arrive that quickly to the scene, and if you don't smack the players down for this kind of behavior, it will spin out of control.

Punish them harshly, draw it out, and if they get mad and leave, they probably aren't the kind of disruptive influence you need at your game anyways.

(Course, I'm harsh )

 

[dr_nukem]

BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks very much for the replies. All of them have been quite helpful.

I decided that no one died in order to make it possible for the players to continue playing their PCs. By allowing for random chance on the stabalize check, one or both of them couldhave easilly died, thus complicating the matter. Furthermore, I didn't want to deal with the PC saying "I don't care" on whether or not his character lives/is playable.

WRT punishment, I'll play it by ear a bit. The other members of the party are keen to get their friends out of trouble and the two in question have helped the kingdom recently (not a lot mind you, just a bit).

Depending upon in character discussions, I am leaning towards a heavy fine, loss of valuable item(s), and/or forced military service (it is primarilly a military/war type campaign).

The party was coming to this town to enlist in Kingdom service...some of them just won't get paid anything.

I was a bit worried that I might have acted/DMed incorrectly, but after reading your opinions I thoroughly believe that the 2 in question simply f**ked up.

************
Slight update... A trial will occur with a very high chance of both characters being hung for treason/crimes against the kingdom. This isn't a definite result, but the odds are definitely against the PCs in this situation.

 

[Dog Faced God]

I was a bit worried that I might have acted/DMed incorrectly, but after reading your opinions I thoroughly believe that the 2 in question simply f**ked up.

It sounds more like a case of the player(s) wanting to bully their way past some NPC's they thought were window dressing. To me, this is the worst kind of meta-gaming there is.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

If something like that happens again...

I had players who used to act like that, then I applied the ancient maxim, "Don't get mad get even."

Next time the pcs do something a little 'iffy' let them walk on the dark side before you correct them. Have a demon or evil cleric pop up from the woodwork, make the situation ok, and then begin blackmailing them. Heck, if you really want the situation to go crazy let the evil one spin the incident to make the pcs heroes, build them up in the hearts and minds of the populace so that the hidden threat of retribution becomes ever more terrifying.

Let the pcs get a little paranoid about having their world wrecked. Let them feel the pain of unintended or unknowable consequences.

Let them know that the wages of sin can be far more sophisticated and terrifying than the simple certainty of death.

In my game the pcs illegally wiped out an evil political party. Their patron granted them political assylum and then went
a.) Kurtz/Torquemada style insane
and
b.) AWOL
Oh yes, they learned to forsake sin before sin forsook them that day.

 

[S'mon]

I'd think that the other guards would try to stabilise the dying guard (DC 15 heal or WIS check, assuming they have basic first aid skills seems reasonable). Unless the guards are NG or possibly LG they won't try to stabilise the dying PC. If they're not G (or maybe LN) at all, they'll probably slit his throat and save the expense of a trial & hanging. If the PC survives, he'll be put on trial for attempted murder and sentenced to death, unless the place is extreme-CG or NG and has no death penalty. Whether the other PC gets sentenced to death is less certain, if the city is good-aligned he might just forfeit his possessions and be sentenced to imprisonment (possibly w hard labour, eg the mines or salt pits), slavery or banishment.