Commoners - thorns in arrogant PC's sides

[Umbra]

PC's can become arrogant sods. Especially as they gain power and money. Especially if the players ignore the effects their characters have on the world.

I was reading bits of Terry Jones' Medieval Lives and (from poor memory) he talks about a village that didn't want the king to use the road through the village because it would become a kings highway and subject to higher taxes. So they all pretended to be mad which kept the king (and the problem) at bay.

What do you have the locals do when characters cross the line(s) of common decency, tradition or the law? How can the commoners 'strike back' when extreme power imbalances exist between them and the party?

One simple technique I've used is to have the locals use (or refuse to use) their local knowledge to misinform the PC's about ... well, just about anything.

I have had a party back pedal furiously, trying to repair those burnt out diplomatic bridges when the only sources of information available to them begin to dry up.

Other suggestions...

 

[demiurge1138]

There's nothing like a bar full of drunken miners armed with rockhammers and liquid courage to put a damper on a haughty low-level PC, I've found. And, of course, there was the party that had to deal extensively with having to buy property from the local government...

Demiurge out.

 

[Mark CMG]

With some groups that got a reputation for drinking, whoring, and destroying things, if it was reasonable that a small village knew the group was coming, they'd hide the alcohol and lock up the daughters and whatnot. After a time I had the locals kick their smellier industries (tanneries, dyers, etc.) into high gear, too. Generally trying to make themself appear as an uninteresting and undesirable town. When they later traveled a bit further afield and told other NPC adventurers of how stinky the southern end of the kingdom was, they were met with chuckles and grins by those in the know (though die rolls determined that the other NPC adventurers would not give away the stinky-towns' secret).

 

[Umbra]

And, of course, there was the party that had to deal extensively with having to buy property from the local government....

Ah, yes. The bureaucracy at work. Nothing like petty bureaucrats who wield their power like a great sword.

Did the party mend their ways?

 

[StupidSmurf]

I simply use logic...

OK, so you have this crappy little insignificant town, East Bumspank....just a collection of farmers, shepherds and miners. A bunch of 1st level commoners. Enter the swaggering pack of arrogant PCs, who look around and notice this, and think to themselves "Hah...we can walk all over these people."

Then the logic comes in. If East Bumspank is so helpless, then how the heck can it survive in a setting where WANDERING MONSTERS are part of the landscape, for Pete's sake? Well, if the town can't defend themselves, then maybe their salvation comes from without... Picture a wandering high-level Ranger who checks on the town every few days during her travels. Or how about a high-level Wizard recreating the ol' Gandalf/Shire relationship? Perhaps a wandering high-level Paladin has quietly decided to take it upon himself to protect the town. Hell, perhaps a huge old copper dragon has "adopted" the town without anyone being the wiser, and he enjoys observing their little lives and dramas, and keeps trouble at bay. Or maybe the town is the birthplace of a few souls who left to earn their fortune, became high-level powerful adventurers, and now keep one eye on their old home?

Just a few coffee-fuelled observations!

 

[DMH]

Dragon has had a few articles on the subject- Revenge of the Nobodies (112) and Defeating More with Less (174) are the best two. The Murphy's Law chapter from GURPS Y2K also show how useful this can be for GMs. And I believe that the Complete Guide to Villians has a small section devoted to public opinion as the villain.

After reading Defeating More with Less, I tried to keep the idea in mind whenever I came up with social interaction senarios. It makes the players a bit more humble.

 

[Whisper72]

Well.... life for PC's get pretty uncomfy very quickly... they gotta sleep somewhere, sometime... theft becomes a large problem, and if the haughty PC's also walked all over the local government, they are not about to make great effort to catch the thieves... PC's have tons of loot, yest, but not all of it is money... it can become difficult to convert at a decent rate if the locals are pissed off, offering low exchange rates... reliability of servants etc. become a problem... if the NPC's REALLY misbehave, poisoned food and drink can become a problem... basically, the locals will adopt guerilla tactics, no open, toe-to-toe conflict, but subterfuge and sabotage become their weapons...

 

[Eternal Knot Games]

Commoners can:

• Spread true / false rumours via merchants - See how the PCs react when they can't enter a city...
• Tell of a dark evil creature living in the nearby mountains/marsh/forest (not useful terrain to the village) - let them search and not find anything.
• Rely on the King, or the local noble, to protect them. The person in power will not like a group of people destroying their property otherwise others will follow suit (and commoners have a right to protection) - who knows the next vistor to their bonfire might be there to kill them all.

Oh, and don't do what an ol' GM did for me. He allowed me to buy a city, both the legal and non-legal side... What else was I to do with the money?

 

[painandgreed]

IMC, things tend to be very fuedal and every village has it's lord and cleric. They'd typically go to them just as they would for a wandering monster and the lord (usually a fighter) and cleric along with their allies and hirelings will go take care of things. After all, that's why they pay taxes and tythe. If they party kills the lord and cleric, then they have the king and church to worry about.

Other than that, the villagers might seek out some other adventurers to deal with the adventurers causing trouble, e.g. The Seven Samurai. Commoners survive by not getting into fights that will kill them and if there has to be a fight, getting others to get into conflict with adventurers. If they do attack adventurers directly, it would probably only be after getting them so drunk they've passed out.

If something really bad is about to happen, such as evil party of adventurers that will slaughter most the town or orcs, they'll pack up and leave, fleeing to either another town or to safe places in the surrounding wilderness.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Whisper72 mentioned that they have to sleep sometime - but maybe they can't. The locals could constantly do things to keep them from getting sleep: frantic knocking on the door looking for help - over and over again, loud parties, vermin in the beds etc. A party of constantly fatigued members will not be very effective.

And of course they could just ignore the party altogether. Nobody talks to them, serves the food, sells them goods etc. As long as the party doesn't go all evil and start killing and stealing, that can be very effective. You could even have townspeople lament the tragic death of the party. Do it well enough, you might even be able to make the party members doubt whether they are in fact alive and present.