Commoners - thorns in arrogant PC's sides

[demiurge1138]

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

Did the party mend their ways?

Sadly, everybody was either dead or captured by Hextorites not long thereafter. So technically they mended their ways...

Demiurge out.

 

[Cartigan Mrryl]

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!

I LOVE those ideas... they're great. I've had problems with these kinds of things with MY group... just wait until next time... ho ho ho!

 

[StupidSmurf]

I LOVE those ideas... they're great. I've had problems with these kinds of things with MY group... just wait until next time... ho ho ho!

Thanks! I'm pleased to be of service! I've had my share of swaggering bozos in past years, though my current group does not suffer from it!

 

[Jdvn1]

Commoners can be forces to be reckoned with. This is taken from http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue3[sblock]The rank stench of the tavern assailed the nostrils as Yarnn the Mighty, Jaccotan the Bastard and Merron the Wise entered; walking through the open doorway in search of some good food and a pitcher of ale (and in Jaccotan's case a quick screw with one of the scrubbers who worked the upstairs room).

Yarnn approached the landlord. "It ing stinks in here! What d'ya put on the floor - raw sewage?"

Before the landlord could answer, one of the drinkers at a nearby table got up and approached Yarnn. He wore a battered brown leather tunic, and stank. Really badly. "You got a problem mate?" he asked.

Yarnn, mid-level adventurer that he was, looked the workman up and down and smirked: "Who's asking?"

The man stood his ground. "Darmok the Sewerman, that's who!"

That explains the smell, thought Yarnn, sing. The man reached down beneath the table and pulled out a battered shovel.

"Do you know what I do every day?"

Yarnn was beginning to get annoyed. Why couldn't the little just sod off and take his stink with him.

"I kill rats," the man continued, holding up the shovel. "Dozens of them. Dozens of rats every day for the past 15 years. Do you know what that means?"

"Er... no."

"It means that I'm a 28th level sewerman. My mate Jennon is 25th level, and there's not a man at that table below 15th. What was it you were saying to my friend the landlord?"

Yarnn squeaked out a response. "Three pitchers of ale and a packet of smoky bacon crisps..?"

Okay, so we've got the wrong games master. [/sblock]

 

[Umbra]

I've also been in a party where a local guided us into the middle of nowhere and then scarpered.

That group was very good at getting lost.

 

[Andor]

Can a Druid supernaturally detect iif someone pissed in his beer?

 

[Umbra]

Most recently I've had the local children causing difficulties. Very hard to do anything discretely when there is always some urchin hanging around asking "Why are you doing that?" or "Ooo, wait till I tell me mam about you!". One of the characters who has, ahem, loose morals has had the children of certain irate mothers following her and heckling.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

When confronted with mad, power-wielding PCs, the NPCs in my world would do something quite different. They'd grovel, scrape, "yes m'lord", "no m'lord", tell them what they wanted to hear. They'd be as blandly polite as possible while not being friendly. They'd avoid being offensive, but the town would seem sterile. The PC's would get the feeling that, while they can stay as long as they want, the town would be happier to help them on their way.

 

[Zelligars Apprentice]

Turn About is Foul Play...

Commoners can:
<snip>

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?

No, I think that's the perfect solution to the problem. You see, when you gain control of a city, YOU are in charge. Which means YOU are the one that has to deal with the OTHER adventurers that come to mess things up!!!

 

[DMH]

I forgot to add something. The most vile thing a DM could have commoners do (other than summon demons by sacrificing children) is to contaminate material components for spells. Annoy the armorer and find out his brother is the alchemist who "mistakenly" mixed the guano with dirt.

I would not have the spells fail, but rather misfire or do a wand of wonder effect.