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No, 'little' experience is not 'doesn't play D&D'. As far as 'just how many people disagree', so what? That's what, maybe 10 people commenting on a commercial product...and I doubt very few of those actually play the game to avoid combat nor 'take sides' in conflict in a game at it's essence...

Spare me the shirt tearing. I didn't say they didn't play D&D but whoever inserted the Shieldbearer 'code' I doubted had much experience with it. Adventurers are not police, they are troubleshooters. And like it or not, D&D has always been a game about combat. There's plenty of other rpgs...

Yeah, corrupt bureaucrats can be nice foils for adventurers since they typically can't punch their way out of the problem.

When I purchase a product and I see adventures that could use a little more bulk and a wasted page count on a setting that severely limits the kinds of hooks I can use....well yeah that's a writing mistake that should not have been made. I wasn't looking for Sigil (because I already have Sigil)...

Thought so. Nice deflection but not my point. It's the stories I can't logically tell here if I run it 'as is'. And it doesn't provide anything like a unique hook I haven't seen dozens of times.

The council is essentially untouchable, any intrigue (like with the court of whispers) can't easily resort to the usual things intrigue plots do (rendering those agents to little more than listening posts or employers to hire someone for adventures outside the RC as the big stuff is off the...

It's a waiting room. A normal city is not a dystopia. They do have a swath of adventure seeds you can do in them. Like I said, as is, a waste of page count generally for something they could have just glossed over with a map & a page description and just added more to the anthology of...

Oh they're very charitable (at least some of them) and probably do more things pro bono and give away more in wealth than would ever be demanded in taxes by the RC. That's their choice...being told they have to do that...well that would rub them the wrong way straight off (and whoever wrote the...

Still missing the point. This is a commercial product. It's supposed to appeal to a wider audience and considering it's an Adventure Setting it is a product meant to assist the purchaser (the DM) facilitate adventures. Despite having tons of potential elements to make an interesting setting...

This is a trade hub City composed of well...I've gone at length at that but virtually nonexistent crime (or criminals let alone crime lords...), but if you can't see why that is a bit out of the norm (like way beyond) I can't explain it to you. Plus it makes for a pretty boring place since it's...

Those things are internally consistent to the setting where magic exists (just to add lazy argument btw). If the resident's of the RC were pod people, some cult, magically mind controlled....well that would be internally consistent. We don't get that, instead we get an alternative society in...

That's not what I meant (and you know it) but I'm glad you agree the set-up society the author of this section wrote up is pure fantasy :ROFLMAO: . I mean in the Real World (tm) attempting something similar to this would certainly end in ruin and tears.

(Voluntary) Heavy taxes based on wealth. That's what made this one stand out as an outlier (I'd have to dig out Ptolus but pretty sure a heavy wealth tax aren't a thing there either and in most of the other ones though there are a few income taxes scattered in there). The tax thing isn't even...

One of the best my players built in a campaign was a small mountain village. They solved all the local problems, had reasons to get attached to various colorful npcs, made the place a safe haven that they'd return to in between adventures. It was a haven by their efforts (and there were still...

Exactly! This is why that section is a waste of page count in a product good money was shelled out for :). It contributes nothing to a DM's campaign. Edit- Unless you go the route of using it to creep out your players.

I'm not insisting anything. In my games I run those fees & other nuisance things 'as written'. I also allow my players to 'support the city guard' or other forms of corruption as well. But I've never seen in a published product anything remotely like a essentially heavy tax, applied on entry...

As I pointed out more than a few times, the fun I've having with that section of the book is imagining how it'd play with the players if I ran it 'as written'. Definitely made me laugh out loud. And I'm definitely tempted to do so in the near future. But as a reminder, this is a commercial...

Not talking about what things were achtually like but what PCs expect or know from watching/reading likely a trove of Fantasy commonly available.

Except they don't do that :) . They'll scan visitors telepathically for intention but they don't require you to pay taxes. Just give you an unhappy face:ROFLMAO: Edit- What the city does need to exist is traders to visit (and it is hardly huge). If traders are taxed heavily (as described in...

Heh....does that even cost them anything to maintain? <Looks> Don't think so, besides the guards they need to watch it and ask for taxes (for a grand total of two bridges by the way and maintaining roads for an area @a square mile). The Citadel needs trade for food and other necessities, but...