I'm toying with the idea of running an evil campaign, the players have been asking forever and it sounds like a nice change from rescuing the poor villiagers.
unfortunately i've hit a stumbling block, eventually they will go into a town or villiage and either sneakily steal the goods they want or kill/intimidate the merchant into giving them his stuff. I don't really want to stop them from doing this (it's one of the perks of being evil )
but i'm completely clueless as to what defences if any a merchant or town might have.
i can't imagine that in a poor little villiage the 1 general store has a hired guard or anything better than a lock on the door. I'm a little hindered by the fact i imagine high or even mid-level people are rare, so the king is probably a warrior/aristocrat and the merchant is probably an expert. I can't make every merchant an ex-adventurer. I also don't imagine that every high level fighter decides to spend his twilight years as a guard for some city or another.
so who defends the little towns or even the big cities, and how does a merchant make sure that the +4 vorpal blade he bought for 81,000gp doesn't get stolen by a thief or taken by a guy with a big sword and no morals?
unfortunately i've hit a stumbling block, eventually they will go into a town or villiage and either sneakily steal the goods they want or kill/intimidate the merchant into giving them his stuff. I don't really want to stop them from doing this (it's one of the perks of being evil )
but i'm completely clueless as to what defences if any a merchant or town might have.
i can't imagine that in a poor little villiage the 1 general store has a hired guard or anything better than a lock on the door. I'm a little hindered by the fact i imagine high or even mid-level people are rare, so the king is probably a warrior/aristocrat and the merchant is probably an expert. I can't make every merchant an ex-adventurer. I also don't imagine that every high level fighter decides to spend his twilight years as a guard for some city or another.
so who defends the little towns or even the big cities, and how does a merchant make sure that the +4 vorpal blade he bought for 81,000gp doesn't get stolen by a thief or taken by a guy with a big sword and no morals?